Blogs from Central Highlands, Vietnam, Asia

Dienstag, den 26. Februar, musste ich mich um 16h von meinen Freunden in Da Lat verabschieden denn ich musste den Nachtbus nach Hoi An nehmen. Lustigerweise nahmen Pamela und André die mit mir die Canyoning Tour gemacht hatten auch diesen Bus und so sind wir zusammen gereist. :-) Es war eine lange, 15-stündige Fahrt, aber der Schlafbus war ganz bequem und ich habe überraschend gut geschlafen. So war ich frisch und ausgeruht als ich dann endlich in Hoi An ankam. :-) Ich hatte für diesen ersten Tag eine Fahrrad-Tour gebucht, aber als ich an der Rezeption nachfragte sagte man mir die Tour würde erst am nächsten Tag stattfinden und die Sonnenuntergang-Bootsfahrt würde höchstwahrscheinlich überhaupt nicht stattfinden. Also habe ich einen Kochkurst für 13h gebucht die eine Fahrt in einem Bambus-Boot einschloss. Meine Tour startete also um ... read more

Our hopes that the rain would hold off were in tatters. From getting on the bus to getting off it didn't really stop. To make matters worse we were joined on the bus by piles of stinking Durian fruit. So with our eyes watering under the onion B.O stench we made our way on the 5 and a half hour journey (we thought it was 2) all the way to Da Lat. We had heard great things about Da Lat. It's a very pretty French influenced place with parks and adventurous activities such as canyoning. We would normally have spent a lot longer in a place like this but after trekking through the rain to our hostel (which was very friendly) and getting freezing cold I don't think we'd got a great impression. We dumped our ... read more

Kathie had to make a family-trip back to Arizona - so I had the chance to do a motorbike ride with my friends who had to do a "visa-run" to the Laos border. We started from Cam Thanh (the district of Hoi An that we are living in) and headed north toward Danang. Danang was not a stop (as it's close to us) but the start of the road that goes over the Hai Van Pass (made famous by the 3 guys on Top Gear). Great views from here looking back toward Danang. After a coffee/potty stop - we continued north to the area of Lang Co - where we visited Elephant Falls. The road to the falls had been washed away in the "wet" and was being rebuilt - and presented us with some rough ... read more

Riding a motorcycle through a round about is like being in a ballet choreographed by a choreographer on acid. His sole instructions to his ensemble are: Do not touch each other but apart from that you can move in any direction you want, no rules do as you please and don’t look the other guys in the eyes, and have fun. Traffic in Vietnam is madness people do as they please without a thought for who’s behind , in front, below nor above them. But It works, no accidents so far and the traffic moves slowly bar the odd extra mad Vietnamese. Anyway it’s nice to be here and move at a snail’s pace, I might be doing 50 km/h or so on a good stretch of road and maybe 25 in the city. Dalat was ... read more

I'm up high in Da Lat, a city in the central highlands. A place of towering pines, cream French architecture with a dash of the fairytale; a city dot to dot of Banh mi and pho stalls, fresh mountain air; exquisite coffee dripping teasingly into your cup from its throne, and hilly roads jumbled by moped journeys. After team 'nam departed, I'd been finding it a little strange. I had been chilling, which was rewarding, but a little lacking in my own motivation.. my day high points of energy so far being my 5pm 5ks about the beautiful city lake (the book said it was 7k around, but I refused to believe that given the Casio readings!). In another blog I'll tell the other tales of crazy house, the karate kids, the finally found paradise lake ... read more