We arrived here by bus from Mui Ne on the 27th and the first thing we noticed on the journey and on arrival that the temperature was a fair bit lower than we had got used to as we had climbed to an altitude of around 1500 metres. We can't say that we were exactly unhappy about this as we've had 2 1/2 months of sweltering conditions so this was somewhat of a blessed relief. On our first day we organised a trek up the Lang Biang mountain which we though would bring us some much needed excercise. It turned out to be a pretty tough and steep climb to the top and the descent proved even tougher. This was particularly the case for Stuart who has no sense of balance and always finds steep descents tricky at the best of times. This was compunded by a pair of boots that are a little too small so this turned out to be the most painful couple of hours he has had on the entire trip! The day wasn't helped by our guide who had got himself plastered the previous night and was still the worse for wear. He positively stank of alcohol and even worse, spoke incessantly all day, apologising constantly for his condition or speaking just plain gibberish. After our climb we visited a village and met the guides brother who also spoke gibberish but let us try his rice wine which was just about drinkable through a tube. This trek and the stiffness we felt the next day made us realise that all this lazing around in Asia has made us pretty unfit. The days of walking up Dead Womans Pass on the Inca trail without much bother seem like a dim and distant memory. The next day we took our aches and pains for a trip through the mountain countryside visiting the Elephant waterfalls the biggest in the area plus some villages, tea and coffee plantations and a silk factory. We also visted a park called the 'valley of love' which the Vietnamese consider very romantic apparantly but we found it a tad cheesy. A pretty nice day all told in a very pleasant region even if we were a bit tired after the previous days excersions. We left on the 30th for Nha Trang.