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Published: September 13th 2008
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adam & i went from mui ne to dalat and back to mui ne on the back of a motorbike!!!
here's how it started:
adam & i caught a 5 hour bus from HCMC to Mui Ne (a beach area north of HCMC) early monday morning. once we arrived in mui ne it was raining - and when it rains in vietnam; it RAINS! with no umbrella, we couldn't get our lazy asses to walk the strip to find a cheap place to spend the night so we just stayed at the resort that the tour company owns. it's the same as the company that we rode with (SINH CAFE). i swear $40 bucks a night with free breakfast is expensive when you're travelling on a budget. i knew we were getting ripped off because when we booked our bus tickets, i over-heard a man telling another traveller that it was only $20 USD a night. whatever...if it wasn't raining; we probably would have found a place for less than $5 a night.
we were hoping that the rain would stop; but with our luck it didn't. Needless to say, we spent the entire day in our room
a nice day travel
not looking so nice! watching tv! thank god they had satillite and amercian channels - we watched a lot of programs on the discovery channel (fight quest: france, flight united 175) & animal planet. we did get a chance to walk the strip, but briefly because god knew that we were out and he had to make it rain! i didn't care, i went swimming at the pool in the resort while adam drank! lol...
our plans of climbing takou mountain to see the largest reclining buddha and sliding down the sand dunes were out of the question so the next day we purchased our tickets to Nha Trang from Mui Ne.
**the free breakfast buffet was delicious - see pics **
adam met this man named RIVER that "owned" a tour company called Easy Rider who offered to show us the Central Highlands of Vietnam on the back of a Motorbike. the tour would last 3 days 2 nights and consisted of a stop in Dalat and the Central Highlands via a mountain trail. we booked with him and in less than an hour we were off.....
adam got to ride his own motorbike while i had to ride
with RIVER on the back of his motorbike. as we rode, we got to see the sand dunes of Mui Ne, but couldn't slide down them because RIVER was rushing us. the first couple of hour of riding was nice - cloudy, but no rain. after we stopped in a minority village for some instant noodles that they passed off as PHO (bitch didn't think i knew?) it started to rain. we rode up a mountain in the pouring rain that hurt as hell as it hit your face; we went through thick FOG and to make matters worse, the path was extremely curvy (a lot of sharp turns) that was shared with cars & trucks and other motorbikes coming down the opposite direction. all that didn't matter to us because the ride through the mountain was nice - the scenary; unheard of. beautifu!! it's something that a picture can never show.
so here's the fun part of the journey to dalat. almost an hour & a half to our destination, adam's motorbike runs out of gas! wet and freezing, adam & i had to push his motorbike about 200 meters to the nearest gas station! and through all
of this - the tour guide managed to show us how mushrooms are grown!! please see pics of the "cat ear" mushroom. i was not pleased with RIVER, i just wanted to get to our hotel & dry off to change into some dry clothes.
in dalat, we stayed at the PEACE HOTEL (very popular with backpackers). the restaurant menu has comments left by many backpackers (from all over) that stayed there & dined at the restaurant. i have admit - the place was packed several times throughout the day. we met one girl from mississauga and two girls from holland.
after spending the night in dalat - the next day we were off to see all of dalat (it's a small town on a mountain) and make our way to the Central Highlands. let me sum up dalat for you without going into too much detail. Coffee plantation, coffee plantation, coffee plantation & more coffee plantation. you see one coffee plantation - YOU'VE SEEN THEM ALL! then it's off to the Central Highlands. now let me sum up the Central Highlands without going into too much detail. Minority tribes, Minority tribes, & more Minority tribes...oh yea...throw in
a few more coffee plantations. with a break from the minority tribes & coffee plantations, we also managed to see how silk is made at a traditional silk factory and a waterfall.
keep in mind - even though we've seen enough coffee plantations & minority tribes to last us a life time; the ride around & through the mountains is the best part.
after the Central Highlands we made our way to some town called DI LINH to spend the night. I have no idea where DI LINH is and what purpose this town serves vietnam or why we even stayed the night there. Adam & I think that it's because our tour guide was tired of riding in the rain; so he made us stay there for the night. Adam was quiet the celebrity in this town; we would walk and everyone would stop & stare - we both got a bit scared. lol...
the next day we headed back to Mui Ne through the mountain trail again. as we were making our way back (probably about 2 hours to our destination) Adam's motorbike gets a flat tire. this time; hot and exhusted, adam & i
had to push the motorbike about 100 meters to a random house/shop to have the flat repaired.
this "tour" we stumbled upon it by accident, but in all honesty - had we taken a bus we probably would never had been able to see all the little things along the way. you can't just tell the bus to stop so that you can take a picture next to that wonderful scenary or that magnificant waterfall!
there is no better way to see the real vietnam then on the back of a motorbike - even in the rain!
if you read to the end of this blog - NO we did NOT EAT the BAT from the previous BLOG.....lol....
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Pauline
non-member comment
ummm how come you don't have a helmet at the sand dunes?