Sunday - Leaving HCMC

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Sunday it was time to pick up the Stray bus again and meet the new tour guides Josh and Tuan. I had met Josh before when I picked up the bus in Laos between Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng.



The new group consists of 3 guys and all the rest are girls totalling 15. There are people from UK, Australia, Germany, Ireland, USA and Switzerland. As usual I'm the old biddy of the group lol.



We were heading for Dalat and the bus took about 9 hours in total, but we did stop off for lunch and comfort breaks along the way and a visit to the waterfalls.



The Ve Mang Trout waterfalls are not too far from the Dalat city and are a big local tourist attraction. At the top is a restaurant which also had a BBQ where you can have crocodile and snake kebabs, I didn't have one as they were reheated and I didn't fancy becoming ill.



We paid for our entrance ticket and also to ride on the tibiggan track which takes you down to the waterfalls and back up again if you pay for the return journey. A couple of people walked up and down and one just back up, but the majority of us got lazy and paid to be transported up and down. The track was good fun and it took a couple of minutes to get to the bottom and I made sure indidnt come off going round the corners by going toon fast lol.



We had a good wander around and took photos. We took a group photo which was also captured by some of the Vietnamese visitors for some reason lol.



After refreshments we headed back to the bus and to our hotel which was very clean and comfortable, with AC and a mini fridge and balcony over looking the street below, and was located in the centre of the town.



Dalat is in the mountains and the weather is much cooler there and a little more rainy. We had we had to don trousers and Jeans, jumpers, fleeces and waterproofs!



We opted to eat at a very nice local restaurant and I even splashed out on a glass of white wine which was surprisingly very nice, and not unlike wines we have in the UK. After the meal we went to a local bar with an outside terrace and inside bar area. It was really cool with lights in the trees, pictures and paintings of various musical icons including Mick Jagger and Amy Winehouse. They also had Christmas decorations up and lots of low key lighting and they were playing lots of chilled relaxing music.



We all sat around chatting getting to know each other. Peter bought a bottle of rice whiskey and was offering shots all round lol. I only had one beer as I wanted to take it easy on the first night and needed an early night after an early start.



Xxx





Xxx

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