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Published: November 9th 2012
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Day 40 We arrived in Nha Trang in the early morning and, after checking into the hostel, headed to the beach. Unfortunately, it was pretty overcast and there was a couple of short but torrential downpours, but that didn't stop us spending a couple of hours on the beach and dipping in and out of the sea.
We spent the rest of the day having a relaxing wander and some great seafood. In the evening we organised some trips for the next few days, then went to bed on a few rum and cokes.
Day 41 We had an early start today for a snorkeling trip to the neighbouring islands. This started with a visit to Mieu Island. We had an interesting tour through the small fishing village, with a brief visit to the local school (which seemed quite disruptive to the classes that were underway at the time!). We then re-boarded the boat and headed to Mot Island, where we had our first snorkle. Despite being warned that at this time of year visibility can be bad, the water was very clear and we saw plenty of interesting coral and fish. After lunch on board the
boat we headed to the next snorkling site at Mun Island. The water was less clear here but we saw some interesting fish nonetheless.
In the evening we had a change from Vietnamese food and went to a Thai restaurant. Unfortunately, Suz took a bit of a bad turn and dashed off back to the hotel room, leaving Mark to finish both meals!
Day 42 Fortunately, Suz was feeling much better again by this morning, as we were leaving for a two day "Easy Rider" motorbike tour from Nha Trang to Dalat. We met our motorbike riders in the morning and were on the roads by 9am. We seemed to be very lucky with the weather and had clear blue skies as we covered 240 km of beautiful and quiet mountain roads stopping along the way for photos and to try local street food. This included some banana fritter-type things and an interesting sweet and sour fruit with white flesh, that we are not sure of the name of. It was great to be in the quiet and visit some places off the beaten track. Some of the villages we stopped at were clearly not used to
seeing tourists as kids crowded around us giggling while we stopped to stretch our legs!
With rosey cheeks and sore behinds we were glad to arrive at Lak Lake at around 4:30pm and after having a look around the small local village we showered and had dinner, including some self-made fresh spring rolls with one of our drivers. After dinner we had a few beers with a group of tour guides and the lads that worked at the resort.
Day 43 Not feeling too bright, we woke up early for a ride on an elephant! The two of us boarded the beast which walked through the streets of a small village for a while before entering the river and wading downstream for half an hour, which was surprisingly tranquil. After that, around 10am we boarded our bikes and hit the road. We were blessed with more delightful weather, and were treated to more amazing views of bright green mountains and clear blue skies. We made a few stops on the way at coffee plantations, a silk farm and a waterfall before we finally arrived in our destination of Dalat, in mid afternoon. We waved goodbye to our
drivers, found a hotel to check into, and met up with Dee and Conner (from the China trip) for a coffee. After some down-time, we had a little explore of Dalat, which was quite chilled out, compared to the other cities in Vietnam, before a Vietnamese dinner and a few beers before bed.
Day 44 Today we parted company for the first time on the trip. Suzanne wasn't keen on the idea of canyoning so spent the day exploring Dalat, visiting some temples and flower gardens, whilst Mark was taking on the waterfalls with Dee and Conner. The canyoning started with a "practice run", abseiling down a 3m long steep hill. Next, was a 15m high, vertical rock face, quite a big step up, I thought, and pretty scary. We all survived this, and then, trekking through the woods, swimming down the river at parts, we headed to a 25m waterfall. Abseiling down the slippery rock whilst getting pummelled by water was exhausting and very scary! After a little more trekking and a 7m jump into a pool below, we abseiled down "the washing machine" and headed back. The guy told us Bear Grylls had done the same
canyoning route with him for an episode in 2009-we'll have to try find it sometime to compare our skills! In the afternoon we met Suzanne and visited the Crazy House. A very crazy Gaudi/Dali inspired guest house with interesting themed rooms and no end of odd passage ways and walkways. We had some good food in the Art Cafe and a few beers at, what seemed like a quiet cafe. However after we ordered some beers the owner put on some loud dance music and a light ball and attempted to turn it into a nightclub. Tomorrow is a six hour bus ride to Saigon. Although Dalat was only intended as an endpoint to the Easy Rider trip we were really glad that we got to spend some time here and especially that we got to catch up with Conner and Dee and try a few new things!
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