Dalat, honeymoon capital of Vietnam.

On the way to Dalat, the English passengers tried to stage a protest against the driver, but it didn't work too well.  We weren't happy that in blatant trying to get commission style, we stopped for 1 hour at 10am which wasn't greatly needed so that only 30mins later he could stop again for 'lunch'  we all just wanted to get to Dalat and knew that if the driver didn't keep continuing this stop, start game we could have got there by lunchtime.  Knowing that that is the way things are often done here in order to get more money out of the tourists doesn't help much, needless to say none of us ate at the stopping places and he got the hint that we just wanted to get a move on, but he wasn't going to do what we asked, only laugh at us.  First impressions of Dalat apart from finding a fantastic hotel weren't great.  Its market though was better than most for its wide array of fresh fruit and veg, even strawberries.  The vendors were happy for us to try the local sweets and tea and Later we drank in 'cafe 100 roofs' which is fun to explore, designed by a friend of the 'crazy house', many staircases wind round making labyrinths to nooks and crannies where tables jut out of the walls!

The 'Easy Riders' have something of a cult following and it was with Thiet and Wing we toured the area around Dalat, on motorbikes, the next day.  Many of the sites within Dalat are quite kitsch due to its being the area that many Vietnamese come to on holiday.  We saw a couple of these sites such as the Dragon Pagoda and Crazy House.  The architecture of each are made from a wire structure usually on a boulder base, around which plastic sheeting may be placed so that the concrete can be smeared on top and then painted to finish.  Having mentioned Crazy House twice, I think I better explain it better.  Its a work in progress by the architect, made up of themed cave style rooms, gardens, passageways, cobwebs, statues etc.  The authorities weren't too keen on the house, but the architect had little trouble with them as her father was Vietnam's second president after Ho Chi Minh.  Our easy riders, were extremely knowledgeable, they took us to places we couldn't have visited on our own and gave us far more information about the people, history, politics, infrastructure etc of Vietnam than we could ever have got from a museum.  It would take too long to list all the places we went to and the local people we met.  I will mention just one place we found on Thiet's recommendation a fresh rice paper roll shop a few doors down from our hotel.  These delicacies were delicious, and couldn't have been any fresher as we saw even the rice paper being made before our eyes, they were some of the best food we ate for only 25p a plate!

Then Nick got a big stick to fight off other dogs

We also signed up for a trek and decided on the 'Tiger Chill Out Trail', so called because we finished at an old Tigers' lair at the top of Tiger Falls.  Up and down fairly steep hills mainly full of coffee plantations and pine forests, before the war this would have all been jungle.  However, the Viet Cong used to launch attacks on the nearby cities and then retreat back to hiding in the jungle.  To try and find their hiding places, the Americans dropped naplam bombs to burn up the jungle, causing it to be destroyed.  Since 1975 the area was replanted with the pine trees there today.  A few things to say about the trek, 1st, we lost one of our guides!  We had just emerged into a coffee plantation when we were approached by barking dogs, which Lizzi really doesn't like, 3 of us moved onwards whilst the other slowed down to calm the dogs.  After a while we realised that that guide was no longer with us and the other one went back to call for him.  After a while we got a little anxious and Lizzi thought that he had been attacked by dogs and was lying unconscious, so we had better go back and give 1st aid.  However, we spotted another dog in the bushes, and had to hide until he went away, then Nick got a big stick to fight off other dogs and we went to find the guides. - Enroute, Nick became distracted as ever and felt it was more important to make himself a leaf hat, which was rather jaunty and Peter Pan esque! - .  Meanwhile, the other guide has picked up a local girl and was jabbering away in Vietnamese, but still he hadn't found the first guide.  (All the stuff about the dogs turned out to be Lizzi's imagination running wild again)  The girl led us on and eventually we found the lone ranger, he had gone the right way whilst the other 3 of us had gone in the wrong direction!  2nd were the 2 suspension bridges, which were rather scary if you thought about what you were doing, one small slip and you were a pile of flubber in the fast river or bushes below.  The 2 wires to hold onto at times became too wide to hold with both hands and the planks of wood had such big gaps between them that they could be a challenge for those with little legs, but well worth it!