Da Lat - Hue

Right, next we took a local bus to the Mountain town of DeLat. The bus was ramma-jamma with people and the driver flew round the swerving mountain roads strewn with pot holes and boulders that had fallen from the cliffs above. YIKES! We arrived in DeLat alive though so that was nice and the first thing that strikes you is how cool the climate is being so high (1300ft) in the mountains. We took a walk round the lake and supped mountain coffee. Coffee is one of the best things about Vietnam for me, it is gorgeous and they serve it with condensed milk so its thick and sweet, definitely a tip we are going to bring back to the UK with us.

The next day we took an "Easy Rider" tour which is a motorbike tour around the mountains with 2 guides who take you to various places of interest. We saw farmers growing various fruits and vegetables on steep tiered moutain fields and a coffee plantation where we learnt that coffee only grows well in red soil and red beans are the best. We visited a rice wine brewer where we had a shot (or 2) of this Vietnamese moonshine. It was 80% proof (!) and almost stripped my throat, I was coughing for 20 minutes after. We also visited a silk factory where all of the machines looked like they were made in th 1800's and we learnt that one silk worm

cocoon the size of a small quails egg will provide between 800 and 1000 metres of silk - amazing! We had lunch in a very local place with the drivers who offered us snake wine. This is basically a two foot sweet jar filled with dead snakes pickled in rice wine. Obviously we were not too keen but didnt want to be rude so tried a little. Kate had one cup but my driver kept topping up my glass and by the end of lunch I'd had about 9 shots and was feeling a bit snaked up! That night we ate in a restaurant where the owner was a bit of a nutter and we met a couple from Holland called Vincent and Marleen who we have made good friends with throughout Vietnam, but more about that later!Next we travelled to a place called Nha Trang which, frankly,was rubbish and then took the train for an 8 hour journey to Hoi An.

I loved the train (this is Kate now) cos you could just relax and soak up the scenery, hundreds of white herons in the paddy fields, mountains to our left and the sea to our right. Plenty more opportunity for scrabble too - by this point Tom had a strong lead so there was a lot of work for me to do. Hoi An was very pretty with a big chinese community and you could see the influence in a lot of the architecture and the design of the place. There was ambient music playing through speakers around the streets and dozens of brightly coloured paper lanterns hanging
from many of the buildings, and we couldn't help but relax and slow down for a bit. One other major feature of Hoi An is the tailoring so I had to try it out of course and got myself a pair of troosers, very nice too. We also ate a massive fish each on our last night at a charity place that helps street kids, 'The Blue Dragon', and that was delicious enough to mention too.

So next stop Hue, just as the sun was going down and it was pouring it down too, making it much harder to get our bearings but we eventually found our hotel and turned up sodden and tired. We took bicycles out the next day, 2 lovely orange ones and ventured out of Hue to visit a pagoda and a couple of the old mausoleums we'd heard about in the countryside. A few rich folk back in the 19th century, inc. the king, spent years designing, plannning and constructing these sites purely dedicated to their own deaths and they feature hugely extravagant temples, sculptures and layouts. Although they were lovely grounds to walk around, I couldn't help think how self-indulgent it all was. But it was interesting nonetheless. A lady who wanted
to "practice her English" befriended us on the way and rode alongside us. We didn't want to be scynical and expect to have to pay her for it, so we went along with it as she seemed so nice. But alas after sharing some green tea with her and visiting her house
we were told in great detail how expensive her son's dictionary was that he needed for school.
We didn't have to but we offered some money as a nice gesture, and she had the bloody
cheek to turn around and say "is that all?!" I almost took it back out of her hand! But then afterwards we just felt a bit sad that such a nice experience had resulted in money changing hands. Luckily we'd bought a couple of mars bars with us which soon cheered us up.

(Shifter again) We met up with our new friends Marleen and Vincent for dinner that night and found a place called Ushi's. Marleen and Vincent were loving it as Ushi is a celebrity in Holland a bit like Ali G. She is a character who's a japanese reporter and the restaurant was named after her as the owner looks like her. After our meal the 'real Ushi' as she called herself came to say hello. She was mad as a box of badgers but very funny to talk to and she was the owner of the BEST collection we had ever layed eyes on. She had taken an interest in Vincents hair, who like me is folically challenged, and then told us she collected...bald spots!
This woman had a hundred or so laminated photos she had taken on the sly of men monk cuts.
She would stand behind them and pretend to send a text then get the shot. Her plan was to collect 1000 and wallpaper her bedroom with them. WTF! She had a husband too, poor man! I haven't laughed so hard in ages, check the photos!