Mountains? since when was Da Lat in the highlands?

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until our South to North of Nam trip is over 😞

26th November 2007:

So, with my little research that I have done on Vietnam, I had no idea that Da Lat was actually in the highlands...I was wondering why Mark was wanting to buy a Northface ski jacket! It is soooooooo cold here!!!!!

We started our day off in a van, where we were driven for an hour and then transferred onto a squishy, brown vinyl seat, smelly, old, slow bus. It was a horrible trip. It should've taken us 4 hours in total...but instead it took 8!!! Da Lat is way, way, way, way WAY up the mountains, so it was a massive hike for the bus. Too close to the edge for my liking and I literally could've walked faster up the hill - no really, I literally could walk faster!!! We found a dodgy $6 guesthouse which ended up being the coldest place ever. Taking the blanket from the other bed, and using our two jetstar blankets I was finally comfortable enough to sleep.

I decided to pay $2 to get my hair washed and dried, and my face cleansed and massaged. It was great, but I needed 2 people to dry my hair!?!

After a quick meal we went to the markets to buy some warm gear. Unfortunately the markets were closed, but they had a tonne of jackets and jumpers being sold by stalls with clothes set up on tarps on the ground. I think the funniest sight was when police were driving up, someone yelled out police in vietnamese, and EVERY single store owner picked up their goods and started running. As Mark said...as if the police are not going to think it is weird when they see a big crowd of people running with all these jackets...it was very obvious. We had to stand where we were (in the middle of trying the clothes on) while they ran around us. It only lasted a few seconds til the police ended up driving past anyhow. I picked up a dodgy jacket for just 70,000 dong ($5!). It will do!

27th November 2007:

We booked in with a local motorbike tour company to see the country scene around Da Lat. Absolutely beautiful day for it, though a little cool at times. The views were amazing, and the bikes make such a difference. We were taken to some flower farms. They have massive greenhouse type of things set up where they grow the most amazing range and quality of flowers. Apparently at home we get a lot of Da Lat's flowers, which I was not surprised by, they are top quality. I taught them the english word for one flower, which ended up being lisianthius, very funny to hear them say it! They also had some amazing David Austin roses that I wanted to put in my bag.

We saw lots of veges that were being grown and got taken to a coffee plantation. Coffee is making the poor rich in Da Lat. It brings in a lot of money for them each year. We even got to go in and help them pick some. I can see it getting boring after a while. Good to see the different trees. We then got to taste some, and it is really really good. We also saw how rice wine was made, and tasted how potent it is too!

Elephant Falls is this amazing waterfall we got driven to. Mark and I walked down to the bottom. Not the safest walk, and bianca didn't have the shoes for it, so she stayed up the top. I almost fell forward after a bit of a slip on the rocks, thankfully my driver was there in front of me. Not good. Bit scary! There was sooo much water pouring out of that thing! We could've walked behind the waterfall, where the wall of water is, but our driver didn't feel safe...

Second last stop was at the Meditation Centre on top of a mountain. It is beautiful there. Looks over a gorgeous lake and I can understand why they have built this place for the buddhist to go and meditate.

Across from there is a cable car which takes you across the valley, and we decided to go up in it. Really nice views of Da Lat, I think it took 12 mins or something to do it. Goes over the rice fields and shows how pretty the city of Da Lat is. Our drivers picked us up at the other side, taking us to our last destination - Da Lat's famous 'Crazy House'. A vietnamese lady studied archetecture in France and came back and built this house. It is strange. Themed rooms, spider webs everywhere and looks like a scene from a kids book. It is great! We also got to meet her, she's weird! My driver told me to say something to her in vietnamese. I did...no response...it was apparently something that is of great respect to say it. He then told me I said it wrong...I had actually told her I was sleepy. Pretty funny to all of us, but he eventually told me he was kidding.

28th November 2007:

After a great day yesterday, we decided to book the bikes again and spend a bit extra to get them to take us around Da Lat city for a bit and then onwards to Nha Trang, a 4 hour motorbike ride away. We got taken to the Valley of Love. This place is sooooo nice!!! There are large stone figures of couples smooching and other abstracty type of things. It looks over this beautiful lake. Set in a beautiful location, where apparently a lot of couples go there to get some privacy...hmmm....

A detour to a silk embroidery centre, where we saw some amazing artwork all done by hand, but way too expensive for us - this was before setting off to Nha Trang.

The road we were taking was the new highway. But he didn't tell us that they were still building it nor that we were going to be riding through (not just past) a lot of roadwork. And through clay (which Bianca's foot fell into), and through fallen trees (now chopped apart) and through landslides (not just dirt, but boulders!) and through slippery sand, and through parts of road where half of it had literally fallen away!! dude! it's a new highway, how can it fall away this early? It was a relief though that we had the road to ourselves pretty much. No buses or trucks to overtake on blind bends, which was great, although the whole trip was riding on the edge of these massive cliffs with massive vertical drops...got my adrenalin pumping.

It was soooo cold and I had every layer I could find on, including bianca's cardigan. We noticed it getting really cold at one point and as we made the steep climb we realised why - we were riding straight into the clouds....it was FREEZING!!! Bianca and Mark finally put their jackets on. Mark the true westerner in shorts still!

We finally got to the base of all the mountains and drove through a minority village. It was pretty cool. Every single kid just stared, or waved, or said hello. It was strange. We were as taken by them as they were by us. Funniest thing was seeing a huge group of school kids who had just finished school and were obviously eager to run home. They were all running until they got past a truck saw us and stopped dead still and sloooowly walked past us and just stared. After passing us they would giggle. They were awesome. Most minority people were happy to see us and would say hello and wave.

Our lunch was included so we stopped at a restaurant who charged four times the amount for food than anywhere else we have seen. Lucky for mark and myself it was all seafood (not!) unfortunately there was only one chicken dish that we ate...bianca was loving it though. Yappy dogs which we didn't like and some awesome mountains to look at. Was great to get off the bike - our butts were so soooore!

We can't believe how much water is in this country! there were waterfalls the whole way through our ride, with a tonne of water flowing through...kinda a good explanation as to why there are so many landslides with so much water in the area!

My driver kept dropping off from the rest of the group, which was fine...until he told me he had never driven to Nha Trang before and then stopped to ask a local for directions...not once...but twice! FINALLY we found the others...phew! a busy last leg of the trip and we rode and rode and rode until we finally booked a guesthouse. ooooooh our butts were soooooo damn thankful when we got up!!!! I decided that I would get my hair washed again while mark got a massage...I could not believe it when she obviously decided that she could not be bothered to completely dry my hair and let me walk out with half wet hair! I paid $4 for that!!!!!!!!! but it was easier than doing it myself...so can't complain too much.

We had a pretty simple arvo, with a late lunch and beverage and a small walk around town. for dinner we had some ordinary food where we sat next to a man who spoke to us later and said he was here with his daughter - YEEEEEEAH RIIIIIIIIIGHT!!! he's a 50 something american and she's a 20 something vietnamese girl....in clothes you would not let your daughter walk out of the house in......but if he says so!!!

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