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What a great start - we headed north up a beautiful rugged coastline with turquoise sea for a couple hours and then travelled inland passing corn and rice fields and rice drying on the roads. The road wound up to the central highlands giving us fabulous views of the lush hills and countryside. The guides are fab and stop regularly to chat about the country, politics and of course, the war and places bombed or destroyed by Agent Orange. During the Vietnam War, the US sprayed nearly 20,000,000 US gallons of chemical herbicides and defoliants in Vietnam, eastern Laos and parts of Cambodia, aiming to defoliate forested and rural land, depriving guerrillas of cover and forcing peasants to flee to the U.S. dominated cities.
Lunch is basic - steamed rice and cabbage as we very politely refuse all meat options. During the afternoon stop we see some woodcarvers and stop at a sweet corn market where a load of very friendly Buddhist nuns roll up for a picnic. We also stop at a cocoa farm to try the beans straight from the tree. We arrive at Buon Ma Thuot with very sore backsides, which hadn't occurred as an issue when we booked the trip! It is a lovely town but local food is the only option so more rice and morning glory (just like cabbage) - yum!
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