Day Forty-Seven

Nha Tang to Dalat

We hauled our big bags downstairs to the reception to check out & have breakfast before the bus came to pick us up to take us to Dalat. I really don't understand why we get told a time to be up & ready but it is never true & the bus is always bloody late. We had breakfast & we had to sit & wait. Finally a mini bus came & whizzed us around to the main bus office where the bigger bus was waiting. With everything loaded on & us in our little bus beds off we set for Dalat.

For a change we decided to sleep on the bus beds which where nearer the floor & they seemed to be less bumpy than the high ones so it wasn't long before we were all napping. The bus came to stop at a little service station but they certainly aren't like our service stations back home. These places are more like cafe areas where you can sit & get some food, drink & stretch your legs from all the lying down on the bus because you can't really sit up straight on them.

We went for a little look around as the scenery was picturesque. There was a bit stream running right through the little village we had stopped at & all around was mountains. Andy had been to the toilet at the back of the eating shack & when he came back he told me that there was a monkey in a tree being kept outside so of course we went to have a proper look. The monkey was tiny & he had a metal collar round its neck & it was chained to the tree. It didn't look sad which was surprising. I started to get closer to it & it was sitting there eating toliet paper - i thought thats a bit strange so I tried to feed it some crisps. It wasn't having any of it & it was quite happy to be sitting there eating toilet paper. I had an idea! There was toilet paper in my bag so I will see what happens if I show it the tissue. It's little face lit up & it was at my feet snatching toilet paper out of my hand - everyone around was laughing.

The bus horn beeped which meant we all had to climb back on & take our beds once again. The bus twisted up the side of the mountains & it drove through some extremely tight spots along some open narrow roads. Through this part of Vietnam we could tell that the roads weren't very well & it was going to be a tricky drive onwards. After another three hours or so we had finally arrived in Dalat. From the bus window as we were driving in you could see that this looked like a wealthy place. There was proper houses as well as shacks & some of the buildings where like mansions & these didn't look like hotels or guesthouses.

We arrived at the hotel we were staying at & I wasn't feeling great at all. In fact I have felt quite ill on the bus coming but I wanted to keep it inside which probably wasn't the best of ideas. I lied on the bed for a while whilst Andy & Ana sorted out extra towels & things for our room. After a short rest me & Andy had decided that even though we have been travelling for the best part of 8 hours & we were tired we didn't want to waste the last couple of daylight hours we had left. We asked Ana did she want to come exploring Dalat with us & she said yes. We had to wait around for a while but we finally made a move from the hotel.

Andy had seen that there was a lake near by which he would like to go & see. I didn't have any objections so off we went armed with the local map to see if we could find the lake. Ana wanted to get some proper food first but she was adameant that she wanted to eat at a street cafe so we went looking around for one. We came out on to a big main road & there was lots of places to eat. We had said to Ana that she could eat & we would grab something later as we didn't fancy yet another bowl of noodles in water.

After she had finished eating we came out of the street cafe to be met by a man on a big motorbike, he was wearing all the motorbike gear too so he wasn't an ordinary Vietnamese craazy fool bombing round on a rust bucket. He was very interested in us & in our plans around Dalat. We stood & spoke for a few minutes before we continued to walk up the main road. We found a place that made sandwiches so me & Andy grabbed a sandwich & a cake each.

We had reached the centre of Dalat & we could see the big market down below & the main street which had all the shops. We continued to follow the map towards the lake. We had reached a big round about & we couldn't see the lake anywhere. There was a big area map on a massive board so we went to take a look & find our bearings. That's when Andy pointed out this big massive area which was sandwiched between two main roads. How stupid of us? The lake was actually right in front of our faces & we couldn't see it - The reason it didn't click straight away was because there was no water in it. December time is classed as dry season in Vietnam so most things including the lakes dry up. Andy was devastated!

As the fantastic lake was no more we decided to try & find the old cog railway. We had seen it when first arriving in Dalat on the bus. Not sure how to get to it or where it was we went in to a tour guide office to enquire. The girl could hardly speak English so she picked up the phone & called presumably her boss. Ana had got on the phone & was talking to this person but he was only trying to sell us tours to the railways station which we didn't want as we knew it was in walking distance somewhere. We left the office none the wiser. Opposite there was a little road which would have been lovely to see if the lake had water as it was right in the centre of the lake so we decided to head over it to the other side to see if the railway was over there.

Over the other side we began to ask people if they knew where the station was but nobody could speak English. The only way we could make them understand what we were looking for was by making choo choo noises of a train. We asked a few people who pointed us in the same direction so we thought it must be right & we continued to walk straight ahead. We walked past lots of beautiful buildings & we were really surprised to see these types of buildings but once again you could see the influence from the earlier French invasion.

We passed what looked like a shanty town but with a difference. These shacks didn't actually look to bad compared to what we have seen throughout Vietnam & they where all colourfully decorated on the outside instead of them just being plain wood. From our first look around Dalat we knew that we were going to love this place. We walked further & further up this steep road until we finally found the old cog railways which was stuffed away behind trees on the main road.

There was a big massive Colonial French looking building which was bright yellow in colour & it had a tower which had the typical station clock positioned right in the middle refelcting the time. We went to the station entrance & it was set out a bit like the old times. They had old fashioned ticket windows & big brown wooden benches but unlucky for us the train which you can ride had finished it for the day - we really wanted to travel on the old trains to the pagoda & back so we could have seen what it was like. Even though the trains weren't running we were still allowed to go to the platforms & have a look. We climbed in & out of the old fashioned trains & carriages & they were great.

The dark had started to set in pretty quickly so it was time to head back. We had actually walked quite a way from our hotel without realising. On the way back I still wasn't feeling very good & then next minute I started to vomit in the street. Oh the shame of it! After a couple of minutes I managed to get myself together & carried on walking. We needed to try & sort out about how to get to the waterfalls which we come to Dalat to see. We decided that it would be a good idea to go in to the bus office where we needed to book our onward travel to see if they could help us get to the waterfalls.

After the man behind the desk had began to tell too many lies I was getting really angry. Are these people that stupid that they don't think we know about the area. The one main waterfall we wanted to see was dry because of the season & he was trying to tell us that it had lots of water & that we weren't actually in the dry season. I had really had enough & I said that I didn't want to go on their tour or give them any money & that we should leave & choose a different option.

Next door to the bus office was a place called Easy Riders. I had researched & read about them but Andy & Ana had not heard of them before. As we came out of the bus office we were greeted by two Easy Riders, one of which we were talking to earlier that day on the side of the road who I recognised. The very professionally shook our hands & led us in the door of their office/cafe. We continued the conversation of from earlier that we had by the side of the road & we explained that we wanted to see the waterfalls & a few other sights around Dalat before we move on in a couple of days.

The Easy Rider man Hong explained that we can tailor make a tour of Dalat for ourselves & their professional drivers who speak great English would take us on thier motorbikes & explain anything we wanted to know about the area. Hong further explained that he had been a member of the Easy Riders group in Vietnam for over 20 years & that he regularly takes travellers of all ages right across the country for weeks on end. This sounded great & an opportunity not to be missed. Ana had told us that she didn't want to go to the waterfalls & that she actually wanted to stay in Dalat on her own & let us move on by ourselves. This was a bit of a bonus for us as we could then tailor make the trip just to suit us from now on.

With our plans agreed with the Easy Riders we confirmed the price of $20 each for the whole day of touring Dalat properly tomorrow, it was sorted & we were happy! It was time to head back to the hotel as I started to feel worse & worse. Back out on the street & I was off vomitting again, I couldn't understand what the hell was up with me. Back in the hotel the door couldn't open quick enough before the projectile vomitting in the bathroom commenced.

I had got straight in to bed & was trying to sleep it off but with no joy because I couldn't even keep water down. I had warned Andy that if I was still like this in the morning then we would have to cancel the motorbike tour!

Fingers crossed for feeling better soon..................