Easy, Rider (Day One)

---

So I thought it about time to bring you up to date on our adventures with the Easyriders.
After much haggling we (Cal, Jonny, Sabine and I) decided to take a two day tour with the guys up in the Central Highlands with an option of extending for a third day if the weather held out and the other girls liked being on the bikes.
Laden with our rucksacks we donned the sexy helmets and boarded our transport for the next 48 hours... three mins later our first stop! So I'm the only one who's ever been on a bike before, let alone ridden one, but I am also the first to fall off! I was trying to get off the bike (gracefully) but failed, kinda slipped and ended up on my bum! Just half a mile down the road and I'm already covered in mud.. little did I know things were going to get a lot muckier before the trip was done.
So we're at Dalat's most prized Pagoda. It was a little like walking into a disney style Buddhist ride. The ornate and colourful dragons, turtles, flowers and statues were looking at you every way you turned. My rider Philip was great at explaining all about the different parts of the faith and told us that if you are a bad human you will be reincarnated as an animal in your next life as punishment! But it's OK 'cos if you're a good animal you can redeem yourself. Mental note not to come back as a scabby dog!

Then it's up the mountain road to see the symbol of Dalat - Lady Mountain - so-called because she has two lady mountains! Stop for cheesy group photo and away again. Wind in our hair. Sun on our shoulders. Total freedom from the tourist trail. We saw the ladies with the conical hats harvesting everything from potatoes and carrots to rice and coffee. We stopped at a flower farm growing the most beautiful roses, and they tried to convince Jonny to buy us some. Then off to a mulberry farm (they grow the leaves to feed the silk worms), a coffee plantation, a silk factory (to see the worms eating the mulberry leaves). The factory was great as we could wander right between the machines, take photos and ask questions (best fact: when something breaks they just go and raid an old car and use the parts from that to fix it) no need for yellow jackets, health and safety forms or hard hats. Oh what will become of this country in ten years or more when it catches up with Europe?!

Next stop: Elephant Falls. Apparently it got its name because the rocks look like elephants, but we were too busy rock-climbing and trying not to slip to our deaths to notice the shapes. Once at the bottom though it was amazing. The spray and the noise of the water rushing past us was worth the breakneck climb down. It wasn't til we got back up that we realised another group had managed to go behind the waterfall, but there was no way we were going to climb all the way back down again! When we came out the riders nicknamed us Monkey Bums as our backsides were covered in wet mud (nice). This became a bit of a theme for the next few days as they kept telling us to get off the bikes and walk so we wouldn't suffer monkey bum!

Then it was up in to the first of our minority villages. The K'Ho people we met were so friendly and invited us into their homes. I had some pencils in my bag for their children, but they were far more interested in the sweets we were handing out instead. Inside their one room house the mother was basket weaving while the hubbie sliced bamboo shoots. When I asked how many children they had there was a long pause and a bit of counting before finally settling on 11! Not surprised he wasn't sure. They all live in this one room house, but they did have a big telly and a DVD player, which looked a bit out of place, but the Government's been giving them out so they have something else to do with their evenings!

The children were stunning, and many had run out from the other houses to come and meet the white people. The children were all naive looking, with big eyes and they were fascinated by our digital cameras. The girls here are married off at the age of 15/16 and the groom has to pay a dowry before moving into the girl's family home (as if it's not crowded enough already). If they get divorced he has to pay back all the water-buffalo and cows his family was given. Also HE takes HER family name.

Lunchtime: We pulled up on the top of a mountain at what looked liked the crapiest tin shed I've ever seen calling itself a cafe, but the riders assured us it was good food. They ordered for us, and we asked no questions! Out comes a banquet of food with BBQ pork, chilli'd tuna, stir fried vegetables, piles of rice and noodles, salad, chicken in onions .. it was all there. But the best bit was definately the view. You couldn't put a price on it. We could see for miles across the valley and it was so peaceful. There was only us and the staff (not surprising given our first summations). But we feasted and the food was absolutely delicious. The bill came and it was a whole 1pound each, including drinks! I think we're going to enjoy this tour.

So now our bellies are full, we head off to the rice wine distillery. Which is more a shed at the back of someone's house with a kind of bad science experiment going on. We got to taste their wares (like neat vodka, only with more of a kick!) and the guys bought a litre for our evening's entertainment. Only they put the drink in a bag. No really, no bottle, just in a bag! (So, so far I've been drinking on the streets on Saigon and now I'm going to drink alcohol that tastes like Vodka straight out of a plastic bag.. my mum'll be so proud!)

The afternoon saw us stop at another silk farm - this time they were feeding the worms to make them big enough to spin the cocoons (Sabine's rider, Tai - who was not as friendly or as good at English as the rest of the riders - told us the same three sentences over and over again, until we eventually understood, only Sabine still didn't, so me and Cal had to explain, but totally got the giggles.. and off Tai was again with his same three sentences) The people at this village are Vietnamese Immigrants who've been pushed out of another part of the country and given new land to make a living from.

The next minority village belonged to the M'Mong Lam people. They live in 'short houses' with thatched roofs, but by the time we arrived the skies had opened and we were dressed in brightly coloured ponchos.. looking quite like the teletubbies on a bad day. The children had lit a fire in the house and were trying to keep warm. Another sugar rush from the bag of sweets we'd brought (if I gave them the pencils they'd surely only burn them!). This family did at least have beds to sleep on. The women here don't smoke cigarettes but instead they puff away on banana leaves.. we didn't ask what was inside them, but the mother looked very smiley.

Then it was off to Lak Lake for our last stop of the day. The lighting was crashing all around us and we couldn't decide whether it was breathtakingly exciting .. or just a little scary. Somewhere inbetween I think. Lak Lake resort reminded us of the hotel in Dirty Dancing. We got a little bungalow overlooking the lake, for 3pounds each. The place was teaming with mozzies though so after we'd peeled ourselves out of our soaking wet clothes and shoes and showered, we met up with the riders for dinner, covered head to foot in Deet. This was a slightly more debauched affair than we'd anticipated, due to the aforementioned rice wine (which had now made its way into water bottles). Apparently the proper way to drink it is as a shooter, neat. So we did. As the guys were driving in the morning it was left to us to have most of it. I think I might be falling off the bike again tomorrow, and I might not be alone!

The rain continued all evening, and poor Jonny slipped on a frog on the way back to the rooms. Urgh!
Off to bed, a little later than intended, but ready for whatever tomorrow's adventures may bring.
This has been the best day ever.

---

Photos

Oh look, there's some rain clouds
And they're heading our way!

A short house
(with a sat dish)