Well these were a few days we had been really looking forward to since back home. We had read so much about the Easy Riders before we come out on our trip, it was something we said to ourselves we would make sure we did while in Vietnam. The day started fairly well, the guys were on time picking us up from our hotel, reassuring us that it wasn't going to rain today, not where we were going. The first stop was to a nearby fishing village. Here we would be able to see some boats arriving and setting out for days/weeks on end. Once we were back on the road we saw one off the most disturbing sites we had seen on our trip, actually our whole lives. We had joined a traffic jam and there was a crowd forming up the road from us. From where we were we could tell there had been a traffic accident because there was a lorry stopped on the wrong side of the road. What we saw next I'll unfortunately never forget. The lorry had had a head on collision with a lady on a moped and the ladies body was underneath the front wheel closes to us as we passed the lorry, mostly all we could was a leg with a wellington boot hanging between the wheel and wheel arch. We were both shaken by this. The next stop was a brick factory, time to get back to the day's activities and take our minds off it. Now when I say factory, this is nothing like it would be back home. The factory consisted of around 6-8 people, ladies selecting which bricks were good or deformed and then men doing all the manual labour. We were able to get quite close to the furnace, just what we needed in the 30 degree Celsius heat! The rest of day we would visit a shrimp farm, sugar cane and coffee bean plantations. In between which it would start to rain heavily, thankfully the Easy Riders had decent water proofs for us, even if they did seem they would fit a young 11 year old boy better! Every now and again Zo and my rider would tell us to get off and walk for a bit, apparently good for our muscles although in truth it was probably a good excuse for them to have a cigarette break. One time we happened to be riding through a town they told us tourists and westerners very rarely visited. We found ourselves being stared at by anyone over the age of 14 and anyone under that age would happily approach us and ask us basic questions they had been taught in school. Questions like "how are you?" and "what is your name?" they also knew how to answer these questions. In the evening we stayed at a nice hotel and went to dinner with the Easy Riders and another couple who were taking the same trip as us, Maria and Jacob from Denmark. Since we were eating with locals we would eat local food and pay local prices. We had peanuts, rice paper, BBQ beef and shrimp (still live on their skewers) and spring rolls. I also sank around 5 bottles of beer…all this totalling around 120,000 dong (about £4).This restaurant was one of those that had snakes in tanks on the far wall, slithering around unknown that there next visit would be the oven! The four us headed back to the hotel and left the Easy Riders to do whatever they do for an evening's entertainment, usually karaoke.

After nursing a slight hangover the following morning, we strapped the bags to the bike again and set off for what we were told the biggest waterfall in Vietnam. We did this via the Ho Chi Minh Trail, for any of you out there with some knowledge of the Vietnam war. When we arrived at the water fall we first had a complimentary coffee since it was a coffee company who owned the waterfall. The coffee was delicious, so good in fact we brought some and sent it home, but we still couldn't help but be intrigued by the noise of masses of water in the slight distance. Eventually we made our way to the waterfall. The Easy Riders were not lying, it was huge! Not really all too high but the width and volume of a water that passed over it was massive! After having a little swim, well I swam Zo just a token paddle of the feet, in a nearby river and some lunch we were on our way again. The rest of the day involved quite a lot of riding with the odd stop at a crazy snake lady's house and a picturesque lake. On arrival at the house without hesitation a lady was approaching us with a snake just over a meter long. She first pounced on Zo and before Zo could say 'don't you bloody dare' it was around her neck. I still chuckle to myself as I write about it now. Next was my turn, although apprehensive I did my best not to show too much fear. When the lady then began to remove a snake, its girth the same as my thigh, Zo was nowhere to be seen. And when the scorpions came out, well, I went looking for Zo! We did manage to get some pictures of both and a nice one of the lady lowering the scorpion into her mouth. Our accommodation for the evening was at a home stay in a M'nong village. The M'nong people are very friendly and welcoming people. This village mainly consisted of wooden houses on stilts with many live stuck roaming around, like pigs, chickens, cows and even a few elephants. I think the roosters' clocks are wrong though as they set off at about 2:30am, sunrise wasn't for another 4 hours! That accompanied with a young baby the family had made for a very restless night's sleep.

The first part of the final day was mainly all about stopping at many different vantage points where we could get some good photos of the scenery around us. Later in the day we visited a temple that had a big white happy Buddha at the rear, a tea plantation and silk factory. At the factory it was quite amusing when Zo asked my rider "what happens to worms in the silk cocoons?"

To which the reply came "well they carefully remove the worm and place it in this basket".

Zo then followed up with "then what happens to them?"

To which the rider quite bluntly said "well…they die!"

After this the final thing to do was ride to Dalat. Unfortunately we would not be able to spend too much time here as we wanted to spend 2 nights in Ho Chi Minh City and we had a flight to catch in 3 days. We did take a short walk into Dalat to see the local market and grab some food, but I would ever tell anybody I 'saw' Dalat.