Dalat

Took the bus north to Dalat which is in the Vietnamese mountains and climate so much cooler than HCM!

Arrived early evening - nine hours on the coach despite being told six to seven hours, typical Asian timing!  Eventually found a room after trying a few places, at a nice hotel where they couldn't have been more helpful.

Alpine 'Nam

Dalat is a funny sort of place.  A bit like an alpine ski resort in the summer but Vietnam style- kind of like Les Deux Alpes on acid! Almost no western influence - even finding coffee was hard!  Quite pretty though on the side of a large lake and lots of winding streets to walk round.

Had a nice dinner in a local restaurant trying some typical Vietnamese fayre. We are finding Vietnamese food quite bland at the side of Thailand's more fiery cuisine but the sliver of French influence, such as baguettes, is very welcome- now if only they'd start using fresh milk in coffee rather than half a can of Carnation....

The next day we had a walk around including visiting Bo Dai's (the last Emperor) summer house and the cathedral and soaking up the atmosphere.  We found a great back-packers cafe, Peace Cafe, in the afternoon and sat playing games, drinking Vietnamese coffee and listening to the hard sell from the Easy Riders (a charming but very persistent group of moto riders who take passengers on tours around the area).

On our last day in Dalat we walked the 7km round the lake past some of the local highlights and returned to our cafe for some more people watching in the afternoon.

Unfortunately looks as though we'll have trouble continuing north overland due to severe flooding half way up the coast and so have arranged to fly to Hanoi later in the week from Nha Trang which is a seaside resort slightly further north.  We are thinking that as we are covering ground faster than we thought we will overland from Hanoi to Hong Kong through China instead of flying as previously planned. Keep reading the updates though as our thinking changes pretty regularly!