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Published: July 30th 2008
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Day 51
After a great sleep we set out on the bike after breaky at Smokey Cafe we headed straight to the beach for a final swim and relax. We dangerously had oysters and prawns for lunch before heading back to the motel to wait an hour for our bus to Dalat. A long six hours later we arrived following one tyre change and no toilet stops. Following the recommendations of our 'Dalat Easy Rider' we checked into "My Dream" hotel for 10 bucks a night. We then went to Peace Cafe (The original) for tea (also recommended by our driver) by candlelight as the towns power had been cut, apparently due to random energy saving technique to save power for summer. Nonetheless we enjoyed some chilli and lemon grass beef (close to Carly's favourite), mango chicken, Dalat red wine and maybe a couple cocktails to end the evening.
Day 52
After breaky at Peace Cafe (the original) why stop when your onto a good thing. We were picked up by our "Dalat Easy Riders" who we'd arranged with the night before following their excellent recommendations. The Dalat Easy Riders are a motorbike organisation or gang who provide local tours.
We set off on the back of the Easy Rider Vice President and his son, our first stop was the Crazy House, a cafe/Guesthouse designed by a Vietnamese woman who studied art in France and had a strange sexual theme. Next was the? chinese temple overlooking the beautiful lake. Back on the bikes again and we arrived at Datanla waterfall, packed with local tourists we took an insanely slow but picturesque rollarcoaster down to the bottom where we admired some of the Dalat cowboys, local Vietnamese dressed to impress and ready to pose for photos with their trusty steads, after an even slower journey back to the top we set off again with the chicken village in sight. The chicken village apply named according to the huge concrete chicken statue! Apparently the chicken was built by the local government in honour of a young girl who's family couldn't afford to put on a big wedding for her and as a result she committed suicide... the revelence no-one really knows. We stopped by a local road side restaurant for a basic but yummy lunch of pork or beef and rice. On our way back into town we stopped at a coffee
plantation for a lecture on the Vietnamese coffee industry claimed as the best in the world. Next stop was the chinese pagoda nice but not quiet comparable to the real thing. Finally our Dalat easy rider tour claim to a close after a brief stop at the original railway, our drivers kindly dropped us off at their recommended massage palour (given the success of the previous recommendations we didn' think twice), it turned out to the massage of all massages.
After an hour of bliss for Carly, I waited for Jez to leave his room. When he finally did arrive red faced and he could not get out of there quick enough, paying my massuer an extra $5 bucks much to my confusion as he raced up the stairs, only to find out once out of ear shot that Jez's massuer wished to provide a 'whole body massage' including a very vigourous upper thigh massage followed by a very insistant "massage the penis". However, much to her disappoint Jez declined.
Carly's relaxation was short lived and soon turned into a vicious bout of the flu with a raging temperature, Carly spent the rest of the afternoon in bed, whilst Jez
read and flicked through the 50 stations of vietnamese.
Day 53
Well rested and feeling considerably better we hired some bicycles and headed out to explore Dalat ourselves. Keeping to our previous luck we effortlessly managed to get lost in whilst in search of the NamLi Pagoda home of the "crazy monk" a local famous for his unique art, unfortunately when we did finally find it, it was closed! Adament not to waste the trip up the hundred of hills (maybe a slight exaggaration) we stopped in at Bao Dai's Summer Palace the former Kings summer residence.
We rode back into town stopping at the market for some fresh strawberries, blackberries, bread and salad for our first home made lunch in months! Refueled we set out for the Dalat Palace Golf Club rated number one course in Vietnam. We some ominous black clouds overhead our chances of playing appeared to be dimishing by the second, but fortunately our luck started to change in more ways then just the weather. We were fitted up with clubs and caddies ( significantly friendlier then those from Munei) and set off. Carly's game made a massive turn around and the compliments and applause
were flowing from our caddies. With three pars apice we finished off in glimpses of sunshine after comfortably completing 15 holes. Stoked with our form we celebrated with beers and nachos before jumping back on the bikes (in the dark). We detoured past the lake swarming in paddle boats in the form of giant white swans and made it back with out getting lost.
Day 54
After a noisy night in My Dreams (not sleeping long enough to dream) we had breaky at the Lotus Club and hired some local moto drivers(opposition to the Easy riders) to take us to the famous Valley of Love. We agreed to a short stop over at the "Big Buddha" an impressive 30 feet tall, we arrived at the Valley. Which closely resembled a town show, paddle boat swans on the lake, Dalat cowboys touring locals by horseback, a multitude of stalls selling the same souveniers, and street games. After a wander around the lake and some cheesy photo's, the cross bow caught Carly's eye with a bottle of wine up for grabs, unfortunately both our eyes were out and we left empty handed. We headed back into town, a spent the afternoon
attempting to organise jobs etc for our arrival in the UK.
That evening we planned to met up with Karl and Martha who had arrived in Dalat, whilst waiting on the steps of the cinema Carly was kicked at full force by a poorper begging for money ( not the best tactic!). Karl and Martha arrived soon after with Lisa, Liz, Amanda and Adam in tow. We had great meal, Carly testing out the Lotus Beef and Dalat red wine followed by a few drinks and game of darts and pool at the hangout and called it a night.
Next stop Nha Trang.
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