Nha Trang and Dalat

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5th november
Arrived tired and dirty in nha trang at about 6am. Luckily we had arranged to be picked up by our hotel for free and could check into our room. After a catch up on some sleep we headed out to see nha trang...not much to see really! It was very humid and hot so we went to the beach. In the evening we found a bar showing football. It was full of ex pats and young vietnamese girls serving drinks. Lots of the old eat sweaty men were hugging and touching the girls...grim! Unfortunately we didn.t get to see much of the game because an english woman and her scottish husband living in nha trang decided to tell us all the things they had done in south east asia and what we should do. Now obviously their intentions were good and they were very nice but as michael after they finally left "I don.t think we'll be following any of their advice after that." I think we both reached this conclusion at the point when the woman told us how great sihanoukville in cambodia was because it has lots of bars and clubs and so we would be able to drink and party with lots of young brits. She went on to tell us that it was like paradise on the beach there but that amputees come up to you and ask for money, I have no time for them to be honest so just ignore them, don't let them ruin your paradise" They also showed us lots of pictures of them with tigers who looked drugged up to the eyeballs. They told us they could hug them because the tigers had just eaten so were a bit tired... Right!

6th/7th november
Next 2 days spent in nha trang, probably two days too long really but we were a bit tired and we had a tv in our room! We went in the sea for a bit (in the rain) and wandered about the humid streets. We visited another big buddha and pagoda both very impressive (where do they get all the money!) On the 6th michael started having trouble with his hearing in his left ear. Bear in mind that he is already completely deaf in his right ear since he was young, so this meant he couldn't really hear anything. He was very calm about it but we were both a little worried even if we weren't saying it. We hoped it would get better by itself but by the evening of 7th it was worse. He also couldn't tell how loud he was speaking and was worried he was shouting so was overcompensating by whispering. This meant I couldn't hear him so we spent most of the time saying "what?" "huh?"

8th november
An early bus journey to a town called Dalat which is more centrally located in a mountainous area. On the way Michael was now more or less completely deaf and so couldn't listen to music. He was getting by with lip reading and me shouting what other people had said. By the time we arrived at our hotel, after getting a lift from some "easy riders" men on motorbikes who offer tours of the countryside by motorbike. We decided that we needed to see a doctor. Luckily the staff at our hotel spoke very good english and knew a doctor who spoke good english and was just round the corner. We waited in the waiting room-just like a waiting room back home. When it was michael-s turn we were usherered in by a kindly looking enactms with white coat! The doctor took one look in michael's ear with his instrument raised his eyebrows andexclaimed "Oh, wow!" he then said "you need to go to an ear specialist, I will take you to one" Slightly worried by his initial reaction but pleased he knew a specialist, we followed him as he darted out of his room out of the surgery and up the road. He left us at another "surgery" with pictures of the ear all over the wall and another smiley man in a white coat. We were being looked after well! He repeated the previous doctor's procedure of looking into michael's ear, raising his eyebrows and exclaiming "oh, wow!" He then asked Michael if he had been in the sea "you do diving?" Michael nodded remembering the crashing waves in Hoi An. Ear specialist doctor then proceeded to put a tube in Michael's ear and suck out a lot of water and wax! Pop went his ear and he could hear again, relief! A bit more poking around from ear man, which actually seemed to make Michael's hearing worse again. Afterwards he looked in Michael's right ear and insisted on carrying out the whole sequence including "Oh...wow!" Despite us explaining that he was deaf in that ear. No harm in giving it a good clean though. Finally armed with a prescription we trotted back to doctor #1. "Oh yes you have inner ear infection, you need antibiotics, you can get here." We asked how much, "hmmm...where are you from?" us "England (why?)" him "ok, 200,000 dong (us$10)" Not a bad price to get Michael's hearing back, even if the price had been made up on the spot! We did wonder what the price would have been if we had said we were American or French!

After this as we walked up to our hotel we were greeted by the two easy riders who had goven us a lift earlier. They askled us if we would like a tour of the countryside the next day and showed us their books of glowing reviews. We told them we would tell them later as we needed time to think about it. They were r rather insitent on arranging a time for us to tell them our decision, so we agreed to meet them outside our hotel at 6pm! Once this had been done we were felling a lot happier and relaxed and with Michael able to hear my jabbering (except the bits he chose to ignore) we headed off to explore Dalat. Dalat was pretty hilly but luckily less humid than other parts of Vietnam so wasn't too tiring walking around. We decided to visit the "crazy house" which is a huge house that is currently being built. It looks like a fairy tale castle, it has enormous "animals" like a giraffe and a spider, no window is rectangular or round, and it can be visited like a museum. We loved it, it was like being in a Tim Burton film! Different sections of the house are joined by bridges-spiral staircases are everywhere. You have to squeeze through small gapsand clamber down steeep cliff like steps carved into the outside of the building. Each room has a different name of an animal and there is a statue of the animal in the room to match. Big fake spiders webs covered in fairy lights hang everywhere. Our pictures can't really capture it!

At 6pm we met the easy riders and I explained that we had decided not to do their tour (as we were booked onto the "secret countryside tour" which our hotel offered and was famous for). They loooked heartbroken when I told them, I felt awful!! That evening we had a meal and some slightly expensive beers (1 pound!!) before finding a "pub" near our hotel. The pub consisted of a garage/room with two open walls and a pool table and fridge full of beer inside. we sat outside on plastic chairs and sipped our beers (30 pence each!)- Perfect! We also got the chance to talk to some locals, although as the man trying to talk to us only knew a little English and we knew even fewer words of Vietnamese it was abit of a slow conversation! After we had decided we couldn't drag out syaing hello, thank you and goodbye any longer we left and headed to bed!



9th November

Wow the Asians sure know how to ruin some beautiful landscape and scenery with tacky cheesy crap!!! But still youhave to love them for it. Before arriving in Dalat we had been told by Vietnamese people that it was the "romance capital" and one girl told us that she wanted to get maaried and have her honeymoon there (after finding a husband that is!) We were told about the "Valley of Love" which we "must visit." Before heading off one of the men working at our hotel told Michael that if you take your girlfriend there then you ewill be with her forever. Seeing Michael's panicked expression he quickly joked "don't worry I took my girlfriend there, now she is my ex girlfriend!!" Michael then grudgingly agreed that we could still go!

It was hilarious - a beautiful lake and valley stretched out in front of us along with: tacky statues of lovers and gods and goddesses of love, statues of variuous animals, hideous love swings, tacky benches with lovers faces carved into them, they even had statues of Pokemon characters (not lying, see the pictures for proof!) There was also an island in the middle of the lake which was blasting out some horrific lkoud music. Love it! Oh and of course there were plenty of shops selling some tacky merchandise! However, all that said the scenery was beautiful and parts of the valley were a bit quieter and we could just enjoy the view in the sunshine!

In the afternoon we took a long walk to the Palace, which was a bit unimpresive, looking a bit like a house with polished floors!! The best thing about it was that people were takiung rides on a horse whilst dressed as cowboys, which was pretty funny to watch especially as they couldn't really ride and were falling all over the place!!



10th November

10th november,
"secret countryside tour" with Mr. Rot (pronounced Rote!) Up early to grab breakfast before grabbing a helmet and being assigned a motorbike driver each. All we knew was that we were heading into the countryside on the back of motorbikes along with a few other hotel guests and that the charasmatic Mr. Rot ("adopted" son of our hotel owners) was going to be our tour guide. Once we were kitted up and had a brief introduction we jumped on the back of the bikes and were whizzed off into the hectic Dalat morning traffic. We soon reached the beautiful green mountainous countryside. After about an hour of breathtaking scenery we pulled over at a dirt road with a strange looking sign with a picture of a cockroach on it?! "Right" said Mr. Rot "I have brought you to a cricket farm!" He explained that they are considered to be a delicacy and that the owner was now a "rich man!" He led us through the farm which was full of deep trays packed with crickets. The first thing that hit us was the stench of rotting bananas which are apparently crickets favourite food! Next was our chance to munch on some ones that had been fried earlier. They were served with chilli sauce (of course!) I enjoyed them, Michael was less enthusiastic! After scoffing down the crickets it was off on the bikes again to a market in a small village. here Mr. Rot taught us some more about Vietnamese life and we were greeted very warmly by people in the market. We were able to try lots of different foods including fried banana which is yummy! We saw some dogs being sold to people to take home and eat. We weren't subjected to any more murders like the market in china. Mr. Rot took us to a stall where they sell hundreds of things made from paper, including outfits, mobile phones, toys, footballs. People buy these to bury with their loved ones, choosing items which fit the deceased's personality/interests. We also found out why we kept seeing burnt fake money everywhere. This is because when someone dies their body is returned to their home town, on the journey people follow and burn money as an offering. After some more smiley greetings from locals and further insights from Mr. Rot we jumped on the bikes and headed for a silk factory and then onto some coffee plantations. Mr. Rot explained the long process of growing, picking and drying out the coffee beans so they are ready to sell. He warned us about snakes informing us that many farmers rd i by the snakes hiding in the trees. He then sneakily threw a fake snake at Michael who of course was very brave and didn.t flinch a bit! Next we were taken through more spectacular countryside to go to a HUGE waterfall! We looked over the top me the waterfall and then Mr. Rot left us with his sister to lead us down to a good viewing point. He told us is was "a little bit slippy so be careful!" This turned out to be a massive understatement! His sister headed off in flip flops (yep she had been riding motorbike in these, everyone does in asia!) She skipped off easily down a slippery cliff face and then jumped across huge slippery rocks. We gingerly followed on either our bottoms or all fours pretty much the whole way! We got a chance to stop and get a great view of the waterfall which was very very impressive! We were then led through a small gap in some rocks into an area where there were lots of bats flying around. When we got past them we were made it to the side of the waterfall. It was incredibly powerful. We tried to walk right up to it but were pushed back by the force of the water pounding down on us. Soaked through but happy we clambered back to the top again passing another guide in flip flops happily running along smoking a cigarette whilst his tour group skipped and skidded behind him looking terrified! We have decided that all asians are ninjas!
Next to Mr. Rot's home village where he grew up. First we went to his mother's house and I was roped into helping his niece with her English homework, which was ridiculously hard! This was mainly due to the fact that the sheets she was working from were grammatically incorrect (honest!) We then had the chance to visit a family in the village, so we headed past more coffee trees, pigs, dogs, chickens etc. When we arrived we were warmly greeted by an elderly woman, her daughter and some shy grandchildren. WE were able to ask them lots of questions with Mr Rot translating and we learned about their village life. Most interestingly we learned that in their village women buy their husbands and the husband comes to live with their family (it is usually the other way around in traditional Vietnamese culture). Mr Rot told us about an old rich lady who had "bought" one of his friends. He said it was a shame because his friend was very clever and could have gone to University but that his family had agreed because they wanted the money/buffalo/pigs etc. He said this woman was "crazy!" and when he translated for the family we were visiting they all nodded vigorously and all did the universal sign for "crazy" of circling their hands next to their head! Following this the grnadmother sang us a funeral song and demonstrated how she weaves scarfetc to make some extra money for the family.

After this Mr Rot took us back to his mother's house and we ate a delicious noodle meal cooked by his sister who is a monk. His other sister then told us a bit more about traditional Vietnamese life and we tried some of the fruits growing in their garden. This included the infamous Durian fruit. We have smelt this everywhere we have gone in Vietnam and it stinks. It smells like gone off cheese mixed with bad body odour and rotting meat! We all said we didn't want to try it but she forced us to, literally by stuffing a massive spoonful of the stuff into our mouths. It tastes just like it smells and to make matters worse the texture is pretty much like slime! Trying not to be sick we watched as she happily devoured the rest of the fruit!

After this it was time to head back via a mushroom farm and through some more beautiful countryside!

We were shattered when we got back but had had a brilliant day. Early to bed as we were heading off to Ho Chi Minh city the next morning!

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Photos

street vendor
This lovely lady was selling rice and stewed aubergine. Yum yum!

Miller Time
The High Life, The Champagne of Beers...enough said!!

Temple Nha Trang
Another Temple....but thery are very impressive!