Our Highland Fling

---

Our first stop was Dalat, right up in the highlands, and the first very noticeable change was the temperature - for the first time in a while we were chilly!

I can't think of a better way to describe Dalat than 'charming', although that sounds slightly patronising. It's a little town in the middle of the highlands and so set out that you can look out over it at night and just see a flurry of lights. It feels like a bizarre combination of east meets west - the locals still have stalls lined up along the streets, although they are interspersed with games arcades and restaurants. There is even a radio mast built to look like a mini Eiffel Tower.

We enjoyed the local claypot dishes and very much enjoyed the local Dalat wine which was about 50p per glass.

We paid a visit to the aptly named 'Crazy House' which was a bit like a trip into Alice in Wonderland with its Gaudi-esque architecture. You can pay just to visit the house which is what we did and had a great time exploring the maze of corridors and stairs, or you can stay in one of the rooms (if you can find it) overnight...the rooms had frightening giant kangaroos and bears with red eyes and we noticed every one of them had mirrored ceilings (ooh-err!)

After a couple of days we decided to press on so booked tickets to Buon Ma Thout (pronounced boon me tote) - VIP tickets which in fact turned out to be a local bus. They could barely fit our bags on so my rucksack ended up as a seat/footrest for other passengers and was delightfully caked in mud by the time we reached our destination. We broke down about 4 times on the way and got stuck in the mud twice so was fairly eventful. The only other English-speaking people on the journey were a Dutch couple sat in front of us, they had no idea where to stay in Buon Ma Thout and we had our Lonely Planet guide so we buddied-up on arrival to find a hotel.

The locals regarded us with pure fascination and I can't blame them. Unlike Dalat, BMT didn't seem to get many tourists and we were the only westerners around. The old lady in the hotel liked my hair so much she stroked it whenever I was in her presence, and when we wandered out to get some food kids came running out of shops and houses to shout "HELLO!!" as we passed.

We'd planned to make our way to some of the waterfalls the next day with the Dutch couple but when we woke up it was raining heavily so we decided to move on to our next destination, Pleiku. We headed to the local bus station and got the only bus available which was so tiny Hans couldn't get his legs in behind the seat in front. This, paired with the many vomitting locals (I don't think their stomaches were accustomed to travelling by bus on the winding mountain roads), equalled one of the most uncomfortable journeys so far but luckily, at just 3 hours, it was also one of the shortest journeys.

It turned out there wasn't much to see in Pleiku and the people there were less fascinated by us than just stunned that we were there. We walked around for hours trying to find somewhere to eat (so long that I hallucinated a KFC sign...turned out it was a red communist poster with a white imprint of Ho Chi Minh's face...whoops). When we finally found a place we used our Lonely Planet dictionary to order which was quite entertaining for everyone involved. Unsure what we had ordered Hans and I were pleased to end up with delicious beef noodles. The Dutch couple weren't quite as happy with theirs...she was a vegitarian and was angry no one spoke English, she didn't stop whining the whole time so we ditched them.

Our next stop took us to the coast but the less travelled Quy Nhon. It was beautiful but sadly it rained heavily while we were there. We went to a place called Kiwi Barbara's (yes, it was run by a Kiwi called Barbara, very nice lady) and met a rather scary American veteran soldier who told us stories about his time fighting over there. We didn't ask him to, he just sat down and started talking.

The locals were so friendly and our trip around the supermarket was hilarious with people running over to look at us. One woman physically turned her baby's head to look at Hans as he walked past.

After Quy Nhon we got a train to Danang which made a great change from the bus. They even served us a lunch of rice and chicken and I very much enjoyed the wordless communication between me and the toothless old lady across the way who leant over her other old lady friend to give me a gummy smile every time Hans went to the toilet and she could get a proper view of me. I liked her a lot. We only stayed in Danang for one night as a stop off on the way to Hoi An but were there long enough to have a walk along the river and through the local markets.

Hoi An was definitely a highlight of our time in Vietnam. We had some gorgeous clothes made by a lovely lady called Long at Nhat Lan shop, drank a lot of G&Ts and went on a trip to My Son (pronounced me son) Hindu temples. Had a crazy ex-army tour guide who told us soon everyone in the world would be talking Vietnamese and they'd do away with English, and also met a lovely English couple on the boat back.

There was a very loud old Australian woman on the boat next to me with a long-suffering Uncle Albert look-a-like husband who told us and the other English couple off for talking (her actual words were "SHUT UP!") It seemed her whole tour group, who we'd been paired up with for the boat ride, were fed up of her and she'd been barking orders at people all day. Nutter. On an unscheduled stop to a local village we were amused to see Uncle Albert keep at least a 100 meter gap behind her at all times. Bless.

We got a tip-off that local beer in Hoi An was only 25p a pint so that night we headed to the riverside for many, many pints of beer. While having a merry old time we heard the familiar shrill bark of the old lady from the boat who went marching past berating Uncle Albert as he gazed sadly into the river (I'm assuming he was debating between jumping in or just pushing her in...I was holding out for the latter).

Our next stop was Hue where we stayed at a ridiculously friendly hotel. All the staff were friendly but no one as much as a girl on reception with an exceptionally high-pitched voice and a beautiful smiley face. We had a wander around the Citadel and booked a day tour the following day to the Demilitarised Zone and Khe Sanh.

The tour was split between a mini-bus and big bus. Typically we were assigned the little bus but luckily for us this worked in our favour as we were given our own separate tour guide and because there were less of us we were always ahead of the other group and had all of the sights to ourselves. He showed us an area which was previously part of the Ho Chi Minh trail, a (rather biased and hugely anti-USA) museum at Khe Sanh and we also visited the Vinh Moc tunnels located on the border of north and south Vietnam, where the residents of Quang Tri used to shelter from the bombing during the war. Around 60 families lived in the tunnels and around 17 babies were born down there. They were a little cramped to wander about in but not as much as the Cu Chi tunnels.

We decided on a sleeper bus to our next destination, Ninh Binh, however the journey was a little quicker than anticipated and we arrived in the middle of nowhere at 4:30am. We were the only ones dropped off as everyone else was headed for Hanoi. Our stay in Ninh Binh was brief - we had some delicious Pho at a cafe and wandered around the local area and market then jumped onto a bus to Hanoi which was unbelievably bumpy but quick nonetheless.

On arrival the cab driver to the city told Hans I was very beautiful to which Hans replied "What? Her!?"...the silver-tongued devil. He had a point though, I did have the look of someone who'd been living out of a rucksack for 3 and a half months. We realised why the cabbie had said it when he tried to refuse our change and keep it as a (rather huge) tip, smiling and nodding at me to remind me of the compliment and my obligation to pay for it. Nice try!

Our first hostel was truly horrifying, dark and smelly. We stayed for one night then moved around the corner to the Cosy Hotel, as the owner cut us a deal on the room...it was cosy indeed! Hanoi is extremely built up now compared to when we had last visited - we went for a walk around the river and stopped at Fanny ice cream to giggle at the name...and have an ice cream.

We visited a French prison and also went to see Ho Chi Minh in the mausoleum. Quite frankly I was all 'historied' out by this point and was more excited by our trip to the cinema to see Harry Potter - don't judge me.

We had planned to visit Laos but with the news that some of Hans' friend's would be heading to Thailand we decided to go there instead. I'd never been so was very excited - we booked our flight into Bangkok and out of Chiang Mai and started planning our final 2 weeks in Asia.

---