Da Lat

---

Hugo, my dive buddy from Brazil, happened to be on our bus to Da Lat, a Mountain town where the air is much cooler. We chatted to him on the bus the whole way there and ended up staying at the same cheap hotel. It was a bit of a hike from where the bus dropped us off, maybe a k or so, the first real walking we've done with all our gear. you have to fight your way through the touts when you get off the bus. its a circus - 20 of them all trying to get you to go to their hotel. no matter how many times you say no they just keep on asking. Anyway we cruised around a few tour office places because theres some good guided walks and bikes etc in Da Lat, finally settled on one called groovy gecko tours (reccomended - very good). We booked in Canyoning and an 80km descent mountain bike ride to Mui Ne.

Canyoning was extreme as! Our two guides, Lum and Pien, were crack up. so for canyoning you pretty much just follow the path of a river down through a canyon, walking, floating, abseiling, jumping and rock sliding as you go. Abseiling was great fun. they mixed it up a bit too, a normal abseil down a cliff, one where you stop in the river, one where you abseil down a full blown waterfall and the rope isnt long enough to reach the bottom so you have to jump the last few metres! wicked stuff. i did it twice, the first time i slipped over 2 times, its pretty hair raising stuff trying to find your feet and push yourself back up to a standing position once youve smashed into the rocks and theres water pounding your head from above. i wasnt really in the 'main flow' of the waterfall that first time so i did it again, right in the middle. didnt fall over but far out the weight of the water was incredible. ive taken some heavy heavy waves on the head surfing, this waterfall was relentless and didnt even look like much! i survived.

The last abseil was the most extreme. I went first. couldnt really see it from the top so i leaned back and started rappeling down. I looked down, there was nothing there! He expected us to abseil down into a canyon, with water gushing into the bottom of it. down down down over the edge so your feet are on nothing, just hanging, into a thin crack below full of rushing, foaming water! did it, and once you get in the water you just get swept away with the current to the safety rock. cool.

The next days bike ride was cool. a 5km gruelling uphill slog to start. We were ready to give up before we'd even began. but no it was great, once we hit that 30km downhill, fantastic. stopped for lunch in a mountain villiage who made corn. they picked all the kernals off and laid them in the sun to dry and then burned all the cobs. not sure what they did with the kernals but hey, made for some good photos. The scenery was awesome.
looked a lot like nz actually. the forrested mountain ranges. We blasted down the descent, passing scooters who had their engines off and one guy who was busy catching a poisonous green snake. at the bottom of the hill we had to cycle for another 25 or so km on the flat, in the heat of the valley. it was absolute torture. but we did it.

Now We're in Mui Ne, a beautiful beachside town where everyone is russian. theres a few locals, but the majority is russian tourists. can hardly find a menu in english anymore.

---