Have just left delat (3pm) and travelling up by bus (280000d £8) to Han Oi which is right on the coast, about 15hrs away, it the most comfortable and scenic route I've ever been on, up and round mountains, though forests, rivers and waterfalls, loving every minute so far, we've even got our own berths on the bus, it's luxury, and all for only £8, can't go wrong!
Arrived in delat on the 17th early hours, 3am and straight into our room, which had a double and a single bed, too good, was paying $25 a night though so had to be special!
Read about the easy rider guided tour where by a local with a motor bike takes you on his bike and shows you around all the important sites of delat for the day ($35). Our tour guide was Hong who had an extensive knowledge of the area having been there since '65. We visited a Buddhist temple in town, rode up into the mountains to see some beautiful views of delat and the surrounding towns, saw how coffee beans were picked, stripped and dried, watched how a typical household brooms were made, all very interesting, but best of all we visited elephant falls, with a very steep slippery ascend, it's not for the faint hearted... or people who are not very good a climbing, unfortunaly Jeni found this out on the way back up trying to swing from one stone to the other only holding onto a twig that she fought would support her..... but it didn't and she head butted the tree, the thud it made was like something from a cartoon, and an instant bump, luckily she found it as hilarious I did! The waterfall was a spectacular sight, so powerful, could really feel the force of nature in front of me, the first major waterfall I'd ever seen,so impressive! We went out that night for so some more pho for dinner, and in search of a bar that was showing the arsenal vs spurs game, and as per usual I found one, result!!! and what a result it was, ended up winning 5-2, was having some serious de ja vu, haha, watched it in a bar call ''hideout bar'' with a few other backpackers, few beers, game of pool, perfect night, we left the bar and i went home a happy man!
Next day went to visit the crazy house which was very surreal experience, a guest house with an Alice In wonderland theme, apparently in the top 7 weirdest buildings in the world! (See photo of delat) didn't spend to much time in the crazy house, too strange, just kept asking the question ''why?'' but didn't really find any answers. Went for a peddle around the lake in a swan that we hired out for an hour (60,000d) and saw a dead fish that we chased around he lake in the current, oh the excitement, very funny. Got back to the guesthouse and booked up the bus to denang which we are currently travelling on now!
Before leaving we visited the famous cable cars around 15 mins away by taxi which we shared with another couple staying at the GH, we left after breakfast which was included in with the room price, the children of the family of the GH would actually cook us and anybody staying here breakfast every morning in there kitchen, it felt very homely and was such a nice way to start the day, eggs, bacon, fruit, toast and rolls and coffee and juice etc, perfect start. Then onto the cable cars which was a lot fun, but very scary at the same time, we was told that they were made by the Austrians which put us at ease and we got the perfect view over Delat so managed to get some great snaps of the whole town. The cable car took us across to visit a buddhist monastery where we saw how Buddhist's go about there every day lives, from where they pray to where they eat, some of the temples and architecture were so impressive, as are most we've visited over time. We decided to walk back to catch the bus at 3pm, just had time to grab some lunch and more pho (could honesty eat this stuff for breakfast, lunch and dinner) then jump on a taxi to the bus station. Overall for me Delat has made me love Vietnam even more for seeing the beautiful nature, landscape and mountains that Vietnam has to offer, if it gets any better then we're in for a very good time in the next week!