Hi there,

Well just to let you know what we've been up to lately. After a couple of days trying our best to get a sun tan desparetly through the clouds we decided to head up to a villiage in the mountains called Dalat, it was a 6 hour bus journey and when we got there the weather was a bit poop to our utter disapointment, it was bloody freezing up here. It was the strangest moment when we got off the bus and wondered around, we were expecting a little village but it was more like a full blown city right at the top of a mountain. Although the weather wasn't great we still had a wonder around by foot, we found a couple of bargains (North Face Jackets 8 quid) so at least we were dry! Went went to a Crazy House which is still in the process of being built by a local (nut) architect, It was used as a hotel and was full of fun themed rooms and corridors (great for hide and seek!) well we thought it was ace since then we've met people who thought it should be knocked down!

Although we had an open bus ticket we decided to take on an 'EasyRider' who is a guy who takes you to a destination, for a fee and shows you a load of sights on the way which you would miss out on by taking a bus. Our guys (Peter and Lan) were brilliant, had us strapped onto the bike in no time (including aarons new Guitar) and were off ready to show us some fun.

First off we went to a minority village and a waterfall, there was a bit of a hike to it which had some really good drops for aaron to fall off, I spent most of my time worrying about whether he was climbing or swimming!Was well worth it though when we got there, the waterfall was amazing especially in wet season as it was really powerful! After somehow managing to get back up the most death defying slippery trek ever we went over to see this massive laughing white giant buddha and eat some sticky rice after giving a small dontaion to the pagoda. We also visited a sileworm farm, more to discover what Aaron had really eaten back in Bangkok (I'm putting his dodgy tummy antics dow to this!), it was an interesing process, they get the worm and leave it to cacoon, te white cacoon it produces is silk!They then pop it ito hot water and strok the strings of silk off and attach it to a machine! All very hi-tech! If you rattle the cacoon you can even hear the worm banging around inside, don't think Aaron was to impressed seeing the worm before it was deepfried! Speaking of worms? it was time for lunch, this being the best food we've had so far on the trip, with us being with 'locals' they knew exactly what to order, we had a feast of rice, veg, chicken, beef and spring rolls topped off with fruit!All at locals prices (no whipping out the special menu full of hiked up prices for the tourists here!)After lunch it was back onto the bikes, we had to go through the mountains to make our way to Lak Lake which was a bit painful on the backsides all this sitting on them is such hardwork. This was probably one of the highlights though as it was here that we went through all these little villages and up even further into the hills getting some really good photos (trust us they're good when we finall get them up on the site, just some tempramental computers around here lately.) It was dark by the time we got to Lak Lake we just pulled up outside this little caf?n the middle of this tribal village to be pointed out we had this really nice accomadation for the night and then after all for them to take it back off us and stick us in a bamboo shack with another family and only a curtain between us and them. The rest of the night was toasting the sucsess of the day with our two easy riders with a few beers shock horror. Then after a few beers the inevitible happened and the guitar came out not even twenty four hours old and it wasn't even me playing it, Lan was a groovy little guitar player on the sly. Anyway after having a lovley lager induced sleep we were rudley awaken by the c*** at 5.20 in the bloody morning (and I do mean chicken types) and it actually turns out they all get up that time everyone in the village. The god dam crazy fools. We were like sod that were getting another 2 hours at least. After a few more hours sleeping on our lovley comfy mats we finally arose for breakfast, bageutte and some lovley laughing cow and we were set for the day.

So day two on this amazing trip began with a visit to the last kings summer villa which has now been turned into a hotel. To our horror we found two english girls staying there with their easy riders and all we got was a bloody bamboo shack. Anyway on we went to elephant mountain with was this big volcanic rock right out of place in the middle of a field which we climbed to get some cracking views and some good pics then onto another province and a town called BMT which I can't even attempt to spell the full name. This took about two and a half bum numbinghours before breaking for lunch (DIY spring rolls are ACE!) The actual city was where the Americans were based during the war. It was here we went on to another waterfall yet again some else claiming that this was the biggest one in south east asia, don't know who is telling the truth here. But yes it was pretty impressive (again you will have to wait for the photos) after this it was back into town to get the bus to Nha Trang. This careful decision was made after 19 hours on the back of a motorbike our arses were pleading for some comfy seats. So we said our emotional goodbyes to the guys and headed off for some much needed beach action.