Wow what a day! We each hired out an easy rider who drove us all day around Da Lat. We saw such cool places off the beaten track that you wouldn't find in the guide book! Wind in our hair, sun shining, being driven around by a hilarious Vietanamese man, what more can you ask for on a Tuesday!
We went to see how silk is made, saw the silk worms, butterflies and then the ladies actually making the silk in the factory. We went to a coffee plantation and had to guess what we were looking at, as i didnt think coffee beans green on trees in green buds! The coffee plants have to be hand picked, then the pods are squeezed and beans pop out. They are dried out, then their husks taken off and roasted for beans which we drink! Vietnam is a massive coffee producer all over the world, which i didnt know. I'm, even a coffee drinker myself now. Only iced coffee with plenty of sugar and milk, but still it's an improvement on milky tea bya anyone's standards! We also went to a flower farm, where we saw hundreds of pretty flowers in massive greenhouses - lillies, roses etc. We also went to see the crazy house, which is like something out of Alice in Wonderland - bizzare but fab at the same time! We then went to the elephant waterfalls that we had to climb down to see! It was all wet and slippery from the spray, but when we reached it it was lovely. Wasn't fresh water, but can't complain! We also fid a mini trek, where the drivers left us at the bottom of a step hill/forest and collected us from a different spot. We hiked up and down the hill taking lots of pretty pictures of the scenery along the way. Was ashamed to say I was a little tired when I finished! We also went to see how the local rice wine is made by the fermentation process and they made us try some of it! 65% alcohol it was disgusting! We then went to see a big pagoda which had a oriental feel to it, behind the pagoda we found a huge happy Buddha which was so funny! It was like he was laughing down at us! We laughed as the detail was brill, even his nipples were realistic! Ha ha

I'm, sure we did more than this, but I can't remember now! It was such a brill day out! Got to see so many places that we wouldn't even have known existed before today!
We are leaving Da Lat tomorrow and heading to the Vietnam Magaluf AKA Nha Trang. 5 hour bus journey, so that means at least 6. Hope it's a better jouney that getting here, as it was horrible! The bus was tiny, no AC and the bloody people infront of us had their seats so far back I could hardly put my legs straight, and I'm not exactly leggy! Felt so sorry for ther taller girls I'm with if I struggled even! Then the bus kept breaking down, adding 1-2 hours onto the original 'short' journey! It's funny now, just at the time its annoying. The bus tickets are really good though. We bought an open bus ticket at HCMC which is for about 7 stops from HCMC to Hanoi for about $40. We just have to ring and book our ticket the day before and jobs a gooden!