Got up very early in the morning to find that no breakfast was available so we headed out for a walk by the lake and around the village in daylight. As we had arrived in darkness yesterday we could not see very much which may have been a blessing. This village seems a depressing blend of poverty and tourism. We could have done elephant riding for an exorbitant cost but declined. The elephants looked very sad and I found it heartbreaking that they were being exploited for the tourist dollar. The villagers were not friendly and I have to say I was happy to leave.

First visit today was to the Bao Dai summer villa. You might recall we visited his summer palace in Dalat well this was his summer villa where apparently he bought his concubines and spent his free time hunting. Could be one of the reasons so many animals are now extinct in this area!!!

We then headed for a long drive through more countryside to reach Buon Ma Thuot. Buôn Ma Thuột is the capital of Dak Lak Province with a population of about 300,000 and is known as the coffee capital of Vietnam. The province is home to 44 ethnic groups, including some who have migrated here from the north. Among indigenous hill tribes, the dominant groups are the Ede, Jarai, M'nong and Lao.

Before WWII, this was a centre for big-game hunting, attracting Emperor Bao Dai, but the animals have all but disappeared. Towards the end of the American War, Buon Ma Thuot was a strategic but poorly defended South Vietnamese base. It fell to the North in a one-day surprise attack in March 1975, pushing the South into a retreat from which it never recovered.

We arrived in the early afternoon and taken to our hotel....first nasty surprise....a grotty 2 star hotel and no breakfast is included!!!! We were meant to rest before further sightseeing but decided to go for a walk only to find that we were not centrally located in the town and it was quite a hike to anywhere.

Our guide then picked us up to go and see the Draynur and Draysap waterfalls. The legend is that 2 people fell in love but were from different minority groups and their parents did not approve. The couple decided to commit suicide and the "god" Yen was not happy so he divided the countryside in 2 thereby making the waterfalls. Nur stands for female and sap stands for male. They were very scenic as is most of the natural side of the central highlands.

On the way back to town we quizzed our guide on where we could celebrate Christmas given that it was Christmas Eve and for Tanya this was the most important celebration for the year. He advised us that we could go to mass (at the Catholic Church and she is not catholic!!) and could dine at the 4 star hotel in town. Sounds OK but wait till you hear what really happened.....we took the long walk into town to be greeted by I’m guessing the whole population around the Independence monument which happened to be adjacent to the church. We fought our way through the crowds to enter the Catholic Church for Christmas mass. Even though it was in Vietnamese I could follow what was happening but Tanya was like a ship out of water. After mass we were surrounded by locals who wanted their photo taken with us “the foreigners”. We then headed to the recommended hotel only to be forbidden entrance like Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. Can you believe it........turning away good tourist dollars...of which we were prepared to spend many to get a decent Christmas dinner. Total disbelief would be an understatement and to make matters worse he didn’t even wish us a Merry Christmas. We gave up and headed towards our hotel to find a small restaurant serving pizza. Not exactly what we thought of as Christmas food but it was the best on offer...only problem was it was a “snack” size pizza which hardly gave us any sustenance!!

Giving up on the hope of food we headed to the nearest hotel which offered a massage hoping for some relaxation before heading to bed. OH little did we know what we were in for........more hitting and slapping than actual massage and then the girl added insult to injury by asking for a tip...that set me off big time and I asked for the manager......after much negotiation we got a 50,000 dong discount and a massive apology. We headed back to our hotel feeling totally dejected and hoping that our Christmas day would be better.