Date: 10th June 2011

Place: Da Lat

Weather: cloudy, sunny, rainy

Got up with enough time to make ourselves some breakfast and then dinner from breakfast as well. The Easy Rider guys were ready and waiting for us outside when we came down and we set of on the back of their bikes heading into the countryside. Around Da Lat is 1500m above sea level and very hilly so it has lots of valleys. We stopped off first at a flower farm and a coffee farm.

The easy rider guy bought us both roses from the flower farm but mine flopped over and died on the bike because it couldn't all fit in my bag. The coffee farm was good because we got to drink coffee J and they showed us how rice wine is made…that was pretty interesting but it's discussing stuff! It's basically fermented for a while and then but into a huge oven where it is evaporated through a tube and cooled so it goes into a pot at the end.

The next stop was a silk farm. They make silk by using cocoons with moths in them. They wash off all the rubbish around the outside and then reel off all the silk. They make loads of different patterns and then colour it by making a dye and leaving it in there for a few hours. We met the guys there from Siem Reap again! I swear theyre following us.

They went to the same next stop as us as well; Elephant Waterfalls. Now this was impressive! It was a huge waterfall and a proper one not like those ones like streams. We climbed down the rocks which was so much fun in itself! Then when we got all the way to the bottom you stand in an opening to the side of the waterfall and get absolutely drenched and blown away! The force it creates at the bottom is ridiculous I was scared at one point.

When we got back up to the top we went into a shop where they were selling silk. They had really nice scarves but wanted 300,000dong for them!! About £15! That's even expensive in western terms. They really wanted us to buy them and when we said we couldn't they instantly took our green tea off us which you get given in most shops around here.

After finally freeing ourselves from them we head up to a temple at the top of the hill where a big happy Buddha sits. He was great and we spent a lot of time taking pictures around him with the guys. When we left there we went to a Minority village which is basically the really poor people in Vietnam. They live in little shacks and one of them had a monkey outside which we gave a packet of crisps too. He loved them J

It was a long drive back to the city now so that we could go on the cable cars. They were shut for lunch though so we went to a pagoda instead where we were the only westerners which obviously drew a lot of attention! It was a really pretty place and overlooks paradise lake. We wondered around there for a bit and I even had a lady touching my skin and looking almost baffled.

The cable car ride was good. It went really high and you could see loads of Da Lat. It was a shame that it just started raining though so we couldn't get very good pictures. We crossed by the two Danish guys that we met the day before, they were going in the opposite direction but we waved.

When we got off at the other end it was chucking it down so the easy rider guys sorted us out with waterproofs and then we had to go out in the rain on the bikes which was pretty cold! It was only around 2pm at this point but it felt like we had been up for ages!!! We went back to the room and watched a film and had a nap. Then of course we used the spa facilities again for the last time before going for dinner with the Danish guys, going to the bar for a bit and then getting an early night ready for an early bus journey.