Since leaving the Mekong our travels have taken us many a bus ride from phu quoc islands in the south, and slowly heading up to the north along the costal road and into the central highlands.
The island was beautiful, very different to the places in Thailand where tourists fill the beach. My first motorbike ride through a quiet village filled with cows wandering the road was very much a highlight! Language barriers proved very difficult as we were trying to find a waterfall and the only directions given were pointing fingers.. Hours later with no sign of water we gave up, left only with the rather unpleasant smell of the nearby fish sauce factory!
Dalat - wow. Every day has been beautiful but this mountainous town was definately worth the long, windy bus journey up. This town was made up of a delectable recipe inspired from Sweden, holland, Paris and beautiful Australia! Paddle boats in the shape of swans graced the gorgeous river, wattle trees and Swedish style buildings were only afew things that made this town such a special stay. The man working at the pink villa style guesthouse invited the guests to watch him sing Vietnamese karaoke the night we arrived! The next day we booked a tour with his sister, Sun, to the poverty stricken village that they grew up in. I can see this being one of the most memorable days of our trip, my life.
With a motorbike as our way of winding through the beautiful mountains, our day started with a visit to a cricket farm, a booming business due to their popular delicacy. After feeling the refreshing spray standing right underneath a waterfall we made our way to a silk factory. My strength in defeating peer pressure when continuously forced to eat a ridiculously fried and crispy looking cricket had considerably depleted when it came time for trying silkworms. Grants encouragement of its likeness to a broad bean was sourly scolded at after bitting down and experiencing its pop followed by a warm liquid.. (ooo a shriveled nose while I write this!!).
On the subject of peer pressure, Grants niceness led him to purchase a jacket at one of the night markets which he later wore around that night with quite a bitter feeling about looking so 'white', 'fresh' and seedy, old, gum-chewing man, with its puffy thickness and very light color! Trivial matters really.. but I laughed alot when, after he was hassled about how 'handsome' he looked by not one but three sales ladies, in addition to being locked into the forceful bartering, he was walking out the door with it, soon realizing he would never wear it for our cold journeys ahead but also that he had been ridiculously ripped off! A refund would have been impossible but, inspired by my story of being able to return an unwanted and force-fed handbag in Thailand due to a 'latex allergy' followed by a 'rash' (dodgey sunburn mark).. (fionas handiwork by the way!) he marched down the next day for a successful, but sweaty hard-work, exchange! Sorry about the detail buuuut in my current tired state I have found myself in delirious fits of laughter over it.. (so sorry if you, by contrast, boringly scanned the above!).
Back to the tour and the particular experience that has made a permanent etching on my mind. We made our way through the village and to a house of a family of hill tribe people. The house was a simple one room shack resembling a very run down shed, after introducing ourselves to the mother who was weaving a gorgeous rug as a means for food, we all proceeded inside. A room, more so a piece of earth with a tin roof dotted with holes that sometimes flood their house in the heavy rain. This house, this room where all 6 family members eat and sleep. I was awe stricken as I looked around their simple and extremely poor way of life, and stared perhaps too intensely with wonder and inspiration as this woman in her early thirties spoke. As this woman could speak no english, Sun would speak to her in her hill tribe dialect and then translate back, and answering our questions about life and customs. She told us about their customs of having to buy husbands by offering Buffalos and chickens (one rich and single woman in the village was 50 years old and offered a ridiculously good deal to a 20 year old man who could not refuse! Not so much a case of love and marriage..), ways of life and having no time what so ever to relax after asking her what she likes to do in her free time/for fun. There was lots of laughter when Sun treated us like puppets, during conversations about ages, professions etc she would tell us to say a particular sentence which would translate into things like 'you have no cock' and in turn asking the woman to unbeknowingly repeat phrases such as 'darling' and 'I love you'! This visit was an experience that will always remind me to be grateful and how little we need, just as these people, to be truly happy.
Sun told us how some women in Vietnam would undergo surgery to cut skin from their underneath their eyes to have the big 'frog eyes' we westerners have, in addition to putting a steel rod up their nose to be 'beautiful'. She talked of how lazy Vietnamese men are and how embarrassing and looked down upon it would be if they were to be caught by a visitor if, on the rare occasion, they were helping with the washing or cooking. Married women cannot drink or smoke.. Sun asked, jokingly but with a definite hint of seriousness, if we knew of any Australian boys she could marry instead.
Our last experience of the beautiful people of Dalat was with the 22 year old boy who worked at the hotel. With 5 minutes until our bus was departing he was sprinting like mad around town with us trying to find an ATM that would accept our cards so we could pay for our bus. I felt a little emotional hugging a rushed goodbye to this wonderful person who I wish I could have spent more time with.

As a write I am on the bus heading north to hoi an. 2 hours down and another 12 to go! I was somewhat not the most enthused about the long journey in the seats positioned to make for not much leg room! But with thoughts of the woman who I had spent time with yesterday I felt so grateful about my opportunities (newly defined as limitless.. Tash, refer to that book I gave you for Xmas that I know is collecting dust, just started reading - see 'life without limits' anyone else who may be interested!). Anyway actually having a real good time! (never make assumptions!). Apart from the jolty stops to avoid running over freely and slowly roaming cows and boars I have also taken great joy in gazing in awe at the gorgeous green mountains.

I hope you are all well, can't wait to hear from you

Love xxxx