Monday 25th May 2009

After a very long bus journey from Nah Trang which took 8 hours instead of 6 hours we eventually arrived in Dalat at 4pm. Checked into our hotel and the easy riders tour group had followed us to our hotel from the bus stop after some friendly pressure from them we booked a motorbike tour for tomorrow. We left the hotel at about 5ish and headed to the market, after a couple of hot drinks, as it's actually cold in Dalat. The market was so busy with both people and motorbikes and we decided at the market you could do your weekly shop, buy your clothes for a night out and decorate your house all in one go! It was a bit over whelming so we didn't end up buying anything. After getting a bit lost trying to find the road that led us back to the hotel, we eventually found it and picked a resturant where we had a nice meal (Noodle soup and spring rolls), from here we headed back to the hotel and made a skype call to Dad and Mel. Poor Suzie also tried to update the blog, after an hour and a half of typing she then went to save it and it didn't save (bloody hell she nearly cried).

Tuesday 26th May 2009

Today we were picked up by the easy riders at 9am first stop of the day was to a pagoda (Linh Son Paagoda) surprise surprise, it was actually quite impressive with most anmorous dragon snaking around the court yard, so we had a quick look around there took some photo's and then carried on, on are way. We then drove into the central highlands where we were shown various vegetable and flower farms and coffee plantations, which is big business in Dalat. We then stopped and were told to walk up the hill to get a better view of the highlands, the view was ok but I wouldn't walk up that big hill again to see it (They seem to like getting the tourist walking up big hills in Vietnam for some reason!!) Next stop was too a silk factory which was alot more impressive than the one in China we visited, we got to see the whole process from cacoon to silk clothing being made in action which was really quite amazing.

From the silk farm we visited Elephant waterfall named Elephant waterfall due to some people thinking the rocks around the waterfall look like Elephants (Couldn't quite see it myself, but they must have a better imagination than me). We walked done to the waterfall were we had to do a bit of rock climbing as it was very wet and slippery. It was again an impressive sight when we reached the bottom but also a very wet one. We then went for a tradtional vietnease lunch which the guides ordered, it was very nice and lots of it for just over a pound per head

After lunch we visited a rice wine farm and were shown the process of making the wine, the locals call it "happy water" we tried a little bit which was the 40% which was very strong then they produced the 65% stuff for us to try which smelt like white spirit and tasted the same I can imagine (The 65% is only used for medicine purposes and sold to local doctors). We then started to make our way back to Dalat stopping off at the Hang Nga Crazy House that earned it name from locals. It's notable for it's alice and wonderland architecture, where you can perch inside a giraffe or get lost in giant spider web all inside a treehouse (It's hard to describe, you'd have to see it to belive it). You can stay the night inside one of the crazy rooms but we didn't much fancy that.

All in all it was a fab day trip, with very good, funny and professional guides. There was great pressure for us to book a longer motorbike trip with them taking us from Dalat to Saigon including the Mekong Delta we were very tempted but decided in the end it was too much money to justify spending when we've got so much more to see.

So were just about to go for dinner then get a early night as are bus for Mui Ne leaves at 7am tomorrow morningxxx