Blogs from Da Lat, Lam Dong, Central Highlands, Vietnam, Asia - page 31

Where to start? Maybe with the fact that I can barely sit down right now thanks to a sore butt from 7 hours on a bike....! Anyway, I'm writing from Mui Ne, a lovely beach town on the South-eastern coast of Vietnam. It is a 19km stretch of beach with just one road all the way along it - and hundreds of various bungalows and resorts right on the beach. Somehow we managed to score a room for 4 for $10US on our first night - a cheap 2.50 each! Having spent one night in Delat - the strawberry capital of Vietnam (or so it seemed!) we awoke on Thursday morning to board a bus for a short trip to Dihn Linh where our bike ride started. With awesome mountain bikes we began our 80km journey, ... read more

so i got into dalat at 2pm. 2.05pm i decided to leave. during this brief interim, i jumped into a taxi, met an easy rider and agreed for him to drive me 700 km round vietnam til we got to saigon. i checked into the peace hotel, same people as in hoi an, and as with all vietnam, it was same-same. i wandered down stairs after not being scammed by anyone within 2 mins of stepping of a bus, and met peter, (vietnamese) who told me all about the easy riders and what they do. uh, that would be riding easy. i'd read all about them in the LP and had met one (albeit an imposter) in Nha Trang. unfortunately i'd blown this poor sod off because i found rowan, lan and judith sitting at the ... read more

Well we now know why the waves were so big and why it was stormy for our last day in Mui Ne Beach. There was a typhoon coming. We were sleeping in these little bamboo bungalows on the beach and were woken up by huge winds and coconuts and trees flying everywhere. The power then went out. During the night we had no idea it was a typhoon, we just thought it was a normal storm. When we woke up the next day the streets and houses and buildings looked pretty destroyed. The roads were very hard to drive on because they were covered in sand from the beach that the wind had blown up. Pretty scary stuff! About 9000 homes were destroyed and 50 people died in the towns around us. We then carried on ... read more

En route to Dalat, we stopped for 15 minutes to look at a Cham tower and also had a lunch stop at about 11am!! We finally arrived in Dalat at 2pm. The minute we got off the bus, the heavens opened. The bus had stopped at their affiliated hotel, which was too expensive for us, so we dashed across the road and into a rundown looking hotel charging $5 a night - much more our style! We asked to look at a room and found that it was even more rundown than we were willing to put up with. However it was still heaving down outside. There were a group of men in the foyer, who started chatting to us. They were called 'Easyriders' and were mentioned in our guide book for running decent motorbike tours. ... read more

Paasipa kulumaan pitka aika edellisesta paivityksesta. Ollaan oltu viime aikoina niin heikkojen nettiyhteyksien aarella, etta ei ole riittanyt energiaa kirjoittamiseen. On meinaan mahdottoman arsyttavaa, kun olet kirjoittanut pitemman puoleisen tekstin ja sitten tallennusvaiheessa kaikki katoaakin kuin tuhka tuuleen. Nyt ollaan Dalat nimisessa kaupungissa Vietnamin ylankoalueella. Tultiin tanne odottaen ihanan viileaa ilmaa ja yltioromanttista ilmapiiria. Dalat on paikallisten keskuudessa suosittu haamatkakohde. Taalta loytyy rakkauden laaksoa ja jarvella voi tehda romanttisen kierroksen joutsenen muotoisella polkuveneella. Ilma on toki hieman viileampaa, kuin muualla Vietnamissa ollaan koettu, mutta kylla meilla vielakin hikea pukkaa. Olisko sellaiset +27 tai jotain. Palataan kuitenkin viela hieman taakse pain ajassa, silla osa Hoi Anin kuulumisista on viela kirjoittamatta ja Nha... read more