Da Lat

Hi.

Welcome to my new blog, its so much better!

Da Lat is in the mountains and is a lot cooler than the rest of Vietnam... its a really cool place, seems like its sort of stuck in a time warp. Its really seventies with lots of brown and orange furniture and low coffee tables with old school covers on them! Everyone is really friendly and welcoming. We arrived at 1am which wasn't the best idea but luckily we met a dutch guy on the bus who was meeting friends who were already in a hotel so we tagged along with him, and his friends managed to get us a room for when we arrived. That afternoon we went on a half day tour with the Easy Riders- an informal group of guides with vintage motorbikes! They originated in Da Lat but we saw some in Nha Trang too (next entry!)... they were so nice, Trung and Xuan were our drivers. They drove us around for the afternoon, to all the sites and round a bit of the countryside. We saw some amazing scenery, it is quite French. It was once the holiday place for the French back when they inhabited a lot of Vietnam so there are quite a few french colonial buildings. And with the mountains and the french baguettes, you could be in the French Alps! That night we went to a really cute Vietnamese restaurant, i had a glass of Da Lat red wine for under a dollar, it was good too! I ate grilled chicken with lemongrass and chilli with rice, it was soooo spicy! Yummers.

The next day we went Canyoning, you have probably seen the pictures on Facebook already! It was mainly abseiling and also a bit of trekking, climbing and jumping! Started off with a tame abseil down a small cliff into pretty shallow water, thought it was pretty simple but the side of the cliff was so slippy, i got half way before i was swinging, spinning round, and slipping all over the place! i couldnt stop! banged my knees pretty badly and the instructor guy was full on laughing at me! anyway, more trekking, abseiling into water. We stopped for lunch at the top of this massive waterfall- the one we were going to be abseiling down! There was a group in front of us and a couple of them slipped, this definitly put the fear into me! There was like a ledge in the middle of it and they told us if we slipped to just hang and slide down to the ledge where you will be able to stand up again, dear god!! Lucy went first and slipped after like a cm and i did exactly the same! The water was so strong! I made it to the ledge with water gushing over me, i thought that was it- im never going to be able to stand up! I looked down at Lucy shaking my head... i dont know what she shouted at me but it helped and i managed to get to my feet, phew!! Once down the next bit about 4 meters above the water we had to just let go and jump backwards (thats my profile picture!) that bit was fun! Then there was the jump, you could either do 7meters or 11. We both went for the 7 but the instructor dude was like' girls always do the 7, only men do the 11 meters'! Of course after that comment i had to do it! So i jumped the 11 meters which was awesome but got so much water in my ears, like the whole bloody lake! Lost my balance when i got out and couldnt hear a thing! Theyre still not right! What is it with me and my ears when im away! We were exhausted by the time we'd trekked back up to the van. Such a good day!! We left Da Lat the next morning- was sad to leave, could have stayed longer, it was so cute! Bit chilly though.