Blogs from Da Lat, Lam Dong, Central Highlands, Vietnam, Asia - page 5

After an excellent nights sleep in a comfortable bed, we were up early to investigate the city. We arranged a motorbike rental through the front desk at Da Lat Hotel du Parc and within 10 minutes our ride for the next few days was delivered. We agreed on D80,000 (around NZ$5) per day and set off into the market area to find some breakfast. A street cafe was serving up bowls of Pho so we had a couple of chicken ones with a coffee – D70,000 for the lot. We only had the Lonely Planet and a map from the hotel to work off and as I was concentrating on trying not to get us killed, Jo was the tour guide and navigator. Hang Nga Crazy House was the first stop – it is well named. ... read more

Dalat – A relaxing bike ride of two different varieties. After the chaos of Saigon I was really looking forward to heading to Dalat to explore the mountains and surrounding areas. There are a group of motor bike tour operators throughout the majority of Vietnam called the Easy Riders and like most things in Vietnam there are also many people pretending to be the Easy Riders. Once I located the original Easy Riders, well actually they located me within about 5 seconds of me stepping from my bus I arranged a tour for the following day. The tour was exceptional, one of the best tours I have done so far on my trip. My guide Lam was so knowledgeable, friendly and spoke fantastic English and the 7 hours on a bike flew by. I also don’t ... read more

For our final night in Saigon our tour leader, Bau, took us to the crappiest restaurant in the ritziest part of town. Afterwards we headed down to the riverside to see the giant piranha looking dinner cruise boat bedazelled with glittery lights and tacky flowers. We could have gone on that boat for dinner, but Bau tells us that one recently sank and killed a few passengers. Our dinner might have been a little disappointing, but hey, we're still alive. Crossing any road in Saigon is like playing Russian Roulette. It's impossible to wait for a break in the traffic, so you simply step into the street and pray. Walk slowly, steadily and don't make any sudden movements. Keep calm and the traffic will somehow flow around you. Easier said than done with a gazillion motorbikes, ... read more

Here it is, be it only maybe 1% of the dream but it felt good. Seeing that we are all on a bit of a schedule we could only manage 2 days of motorbike touring and Lak Lake was a must see and plus they have elephants there and I wanted to ride one, this destination was possible in 2 days and with taking in a few sites along the way. Originally we all wanted to have a crack at it solo but it seemed where we made up for it in enthusiasm we lacked in experience , so for a few extra bucks we had a guide and a plan. We finally got our act together and set for the 155km journey to the Lake, we stop offs at the obligatory temple and a laughing ... read more

2,250 Images to choose from. Hundreds of stories. Amazing. Tremendous. Exceptional. Choked up. Insane. Impossible... to write less than seventy-five pages... Thus, we've created this Photo Essay to visually explain our first day on our Easy Rider Adventure. Start Time: 8:00 am, Da Lat Duration: 7.5-hours Arrival: 3:35 pm, Dak Lak Lake Resort If you want to know details about a photograph. Please inquire and we will write an answer including image in its own short entry. All Images are Copyrighted to Aaron J JacksonCrabb 2011. Any use of images is strictly prohibited without proper licensing. ... read more