We arrived in Da Lat after a 6 hour bus journey and our first impressions weren't too good. There's not much to do here and there isn't much going on. But we only have one night and then we go with the Easy Riders for a couple of days. We've been looking forward to doing the Easy Riders for along time. It took a bit of tracking down to find the original Easy Riders, but we found them. They've been going since 1991 and do bike tours all over Vietnam. As there is no copyright law in Vietnam, as soon as someone gets a good business going they copy them. So everywhere you go there's an "easy rider" company, but the one in Da Lat is the original. It must be very frustrating for them as everyone just jumps on the band wagon and rides off their good reputation and fantastic reviews.

Anyway, after one night in our hotel, the easy riders arrived to pick us up at 8.30am. We were both excited and slightly nervous. We didn't know what the bikes were going to be like and if we'd actually fit on. Especially with our big back packs. We'd already emailed them before warning them about our back packs, but they said it would be no problem, as they take people with giant suitcases and they manage to get them on the bikes!

We knew we had a bike and driver and each. When they arrived we knew fitting on them wouldn't be a problem as they were big "proper" bikes...not the mopeds or peddle and pop bikes I thought were going to turn up! Straight away we knew we were in for a good time as the drivers both seemed really nice. Hilary teamed up with Quan, who is the manager of Easy Riders. I teamed up with Sang, who was a bigger lad than me. He was already taking the piss when he was trying to lift my bag onto the bike. So I knew no doubt we'd be taking the piss for the next couple of days.

Quan and Sang wrapped our bags up in big plastic bags and then strapped them down to the back of the bikes. They went on no problem and the added bonus was that we could use them as a back rest. Before we set off Quan handed us our very own matching easy rider T-shirts, we were both very excited by this, although they are a little snugg...it's just a shame we didn't get matching baseball caps either! We were handed our helmets, I have to admit I needed to learn a knack of tucking my ears into it so it fit comfortably. I was worried that the helmets would be too small for us both, seeing as neither of us has particularly small heads, but we were fine!

We climbed on the bikes and were surprised to find I had quite a lot of room and was rather comfy. After about 2mins of being on the bike I already wanted to buy one. I think Hilary was the same. We absolutely loved it from the moment we set off. The weather was sunny and warm, and we just sat back leaning on our bags snapping away at the scenery. It was amazing. The first stop was just down the road to the old Da Lat train station. We had a quick look around and it's more like a museum now. They only use it to take tourist about half a mile down the road and back again in an old steam train.

We jumped back on the bikes and drove through some more of Da Lat. Da Lat is a former French colony town and it does feel very European driving through the town and on the out skirts. All the French villa's still remain today and are now used as hotels or by the government who rent them out to the rich. We stopped next at a pagoda temple. We'd seen enough Pagoda's to last us a life time on our trip so far, but this was really nice and peaceful and had a garden full of colourful statues of gods and buddha's..some of it did remind me a bit of a pub garden but it was pretty cool and different.

Before we got back on the bikes as I was tucking my ears in to my helmet, Hilary decided to point out my amazingly large ear lobes out to Quan saying that I was mistaken for a Buddha inside the temple. Quan was all over them, man handling them telling us that they mean good luck and long life. I think he'd been dying to have a feel of them to be honest. Quan is a really nice guy. He's older, with kids and grandkids and really looked after Hilary. He always put her helmet on for her and fastened it making sure she was ok. My driver Sang, more or less just threw my helmet at me. He didn't even check to see if I was on the bike most of the time!

One of the first stops was as silk factory and Quan showed us around, explaining the process from silk worms into full silk sheets. I was offered some local tobacco through a big metal peace pipe when we were having a cup of tea with some of the staff from the silk factory. I didn't want to be rude and had some. It was very strong like smoking a cigar.

We then went to the Elephant water fall. It was beautiful here and very wet! It was a bit of climb down to it and of course when we eventually came back up we were soaking wet through like everyone else and Hilary seemed to be the only person who managed to be covered in mud by the end of it! We had some lunch at local restaurant and let Sang and Quan order for us. The food was amazing and it was good having a local guide as we probably wouldn't have known to order half the stuff that was there.

We stopped off at all sorts of different places and felt like we really got to see the real Vietnam. Each time we stopped Quan and Sang took it in turns to give us a bit of a guide. Most of the time, Sang was our guide. He seemed to have done everything in his life time. We stopped off at a flower farm in the mountains, which of course Sang used to be a flower farmer. We stopped at a coffee farm, again Sang used to be a coffee farmer. He told us here that they keep the coffee tree's low in height because everyone is very short in Vietnam so they can't reach the tops of them. We stopped off at a mushroom farm. Again Sang used to be a mushroom farmer. It was quite strange how they grew the mushrooms really. They had them in carrier bags filled with saw dust and bark, and then cut holes in the side of the bag and the mushrooms grew. This is where Sang started to teach me some useful Vietnamese. It started raining while we were there and the locals started to shout mur rai, which is it's raining, and one woman was shouting board oux which is where's my cow. So as long as it's raining and someone is looking for their cow in Vietnam I'll get on fine!

It was great just sat on the back of the bike, leaning against our bags taking pictures. The scenery in the country side was amazing. It really does make you want to buy a bike for yourself and just go off driving all of Vietnam. Our guides really looked after us as well. It started to rain quite heavy, so we pulled over and they gave us full waterproof clothes to put on so we wouldn't get wet. We stopped and it seemed the rain had stopped too, Sang assured me I wouldn't need to put my poncho on as the rain had finished, he told me here he was also a weatherman. Quan and Hilary kept theirs on though. So more or less as soon as we set off, the rain started again but it was raining that heavy it was almost like hail stones. Me and Sang got drenched! So he put his foot down and we raced down the road to the hotel, past Hilary who was laughing at us both as we looked ridiculous. Luckily it wasn't far, but I did enjoy it as Sang went very fast swerving between the traffic.

The hotel was ok and after a shower and a rest we met back up with our guides for some tea. We went to a little local restaurant and let them choose what we were eating again. Sang liked to drink happy water, which is rice wine. Quan doesn't drink and told Hilary that Sang and I will probably have half a bottle between us, but Sang just kept filling up my glass and in a matter of no time we'd finished the bottle. It's pretty potent stuff but it's not as bad as you think it would be.

The next day after breakfast, we set off again and the weather was perfect. We didn't stop much on the second as we were driving through winding roads up and over mountains all morning which were amazing. We stopped at a local village and all the kids came running out to meet us. Sang had brought some sweets with him for the kids and made them all line up in line while they waited patiently for their sweets. They were very cute and cheeky. We had a little stroll around the village and everyone was waving and smiling at us and trying to chat even though we didn't speak Vietnamese. Well I do, but it wasn't raining and no one had seemed to have lost a cow. After a stroll we go back on the bikes and drove through some more amazing mountains and scenery before we stopped for lunch not far from where we'd arranged to be dropped off at our next destination, Mui Ne.

We jumped back on the bikes, and they dropped us off at our hotel. When we said goodbye Quan pulled us both in for a hug and Sang gave me a hug and wouldn't let go of me. We had a fantastic time on the bikes and Quan and Sang made it all the better. We got on like a house of fire with them and would definitely recommend the Easy Riders to anyone who ever goes to Vietnam. We would come back to Vietnam just to do the Easy Riders again, but go on a different route.

Things we learnt:

• Dalat is a former French Colony and feels like you're in France rather than Vietnam

• Easy Rider Company has been going since 1991 and since then everyone has tried to copy them.

• If you believe him, Sang has done everything, Flower farmer, Mushroom farmer, tea farmer, fruit farmer, coffee farmer, weatherman, truck driver, brick maker, rubber string maker, male model for calendars', womaniser and all-round gigolo.

• We both want to buy a bike

• Vietnamese bricks are made from the old mud of rice paddies fields, so are fully recycled

• One silk worm makes 1000 metres of thread