Blogs from Central Highlands, Vietnam, Asia - page 7

I was in Da Lat twice, but not for long any of the times, and I didn't really get a good impression of the city either of the times. The first time, Bo and I arrived late in the afternoon after taking a sleeperbus from Ho Chi Minh, where I managed to get a cold from the aircon. At the busstation we met th Easy riders, who drove us to a hotel and explained about their trips, so we decided to go with them on motorbikes the next day. Er walked a bit around the town that evening, but it was late, when we arrived and almost dark when we alked around and also a bit cold, so it was hard to get a good impression of the city. We did however see the big lake, ... read more

We were heading for Dalat next, about 650km south of Hoi An in the mountains. We planned a three day trip mostly along the Ho Chi Minh Road first stopping in Kon Tum which was a 286km drive. We knew this was going to be a long day but it turned out to be extremely slow because we were riding through some pretty steep mountains and twisting roads – which was lovely scenery but ended up having to ride in the dark for two hours which is pretty scary in Vietnam. Half an hour into riding in the dark we had a break down – the electrics had been dodgy in the bike from the first day and this was the first time we had to use the lights. We managed to get going again but ... read more

Here I am in Hue, once known as the imperial capital of Vietnam. We tour around Hue on a motorcycle, scary but the best experience, holding on for dear life with the wind rustling through my hair!!!! My driver obviously was the ring leader and the loudest by far, shouting lets go in Vietnamese!!! We drove down narrow alley ways, through rice fields and ended up having a vegetarian lunch at the local nunnery. I would describe this as one of the best meals of my SE Asia trip, I did not realise that food could taste so good with no meat or fish, yummmmmmmmm Other activities were incense stick making, Imperial Citidel, Emperor's Tomb & rice making. You learn something new every day.... read more

The next morning in Buon Ma Thuot, while we waited for the bike we indulged in the unexpected middle-class atmosphere and went shopping. After having seen nothing for sale for days except bare necessities (and most of the time not even that), the novelty of fashion proved too overwhelming, and we left empty-handed. We had high ambitions to see Dray Sap and Dray Nur Falls, as well as drive to Dalat, but as usual things took longer than we hoped and after the seeing the waterfalls our shadows became too long to dare to drive any further. We stopped on the outskists of Buon Ma Thout, at a little guest house where we caused a huge commotion again. People were running around, fixing the room, spraying it with air freshener, they unpacked our bikes for us ... read more

Our journey south had a purpose, our aim was to get to a town large enough to process our visa extensions in a short amount of time, so we could continue driving around Vietnam. However, since the application can sometimes take a long time, we didn't want to be stuck for several days somwhere we didn't want to be. We were shooting for Mui Ne, but had DaLat as an option. From Prau, we intended to drive to Kham Duc (130 km), but when the road turned hairy again and Sadie's bike was smoking heavily, leaking oil and refused to start, we began wondering if we would have to change our plans. The first mechanic we found scared us into thinking we might have to stay for two days while we fixed the bike, and when ... read more