Whiskey drinking in Dalat!

---

We left Nha Trang after a great few days and boarded a bus to Dalat, a town in the Central Highlands which has been described as "little paris" due in part because of the radio mast in the town shaped like an eiffel tower but mainly due the french influence. It is a place high in the mountains that became popular with the French, to escape the heat of Ho Chi Minh city. We have had some scary bus journeys throughout Vietnam, with mountaineous roads, high cliffs and sheer drops. However, none of them compared to the journey to Dalat. As the town is 1500m above sea level, we were literally ascending the entire 3 1/2 hour bus journey!! I was petrified for most of it. We were in a small minibus and to be fair, the driver went slowly and carefully up the mountain road. The scenery was spectacular but there were moments where we were on the edge of a precipice so high up that you couldnt even see the bottom!! We made it to Dalat safely though and I was so glad to get off the bus!

We checked into a hotel in Dalat and went to explore the town a little, which on first impressions seemed like a really nice, picturesque place. Our hotel was just up the street from a big lake, so we walked around it and enjoyed a nice dinner on a balcony overlooking the lake. We were wrecked from the nights out in Nha Trang so we had an early night. The plan was to get up early to trek to a temple in the countryside but it changed slightly however, when the next day we stopped into a small shack for pork rolls (which we have been eating everywhere in Vietnam!). An old guy (the guy in the white shirt in pic) poured something out a water bottle into a shot glass and handed it to Vinny. Not been rude he drank it. Of course it was Vietnamese Whiskey, a clear coloured whiskey! It turns out it was one of the lads birthdays, so they were celebrating! We ended up sitting with them for a few hours drinking and sharing stories (they had very poor english but the woman in the picture translated) Vinny had about 7 shots of their whiskey, I had about 4. You drink out of the shot glass but you drink a 1/3 or 1/2 of the glass each time. And each drink everybody clicks glasses and says cheers (in Vietnamese). They shook hands with us every few minutes saying "my friend". Then they decided to move the party to one of the lads houses! We went to the home of the guy in the white shirt, around the corner and sat around drinking a few beers. The funny thing was that he played 80's love songs, like Lionel Richie and Elton John, while we all drank beer and struggled to communicate. We mostly used pen and paper to get across what we were saying. It was one of the strangest afternoons ever but showed us just how friendly and welcoming the Vietnamese really are.

That night after dinner, we wandered around the night market looking at all the weird food they were selling. We bought some supplies for the next day, as we were boarding a bus to Ho Chi Minh city the following morning for an 8 hour journey. We went to Dalat only to break up the journey from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh, but it completely surpassed our expectations!

---