Motorbike tour from Nha Trang to Da Lat, Vietnam

The girls, just as we set off.
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As soon as I heard about the 'Easy Rider' motorcycle tours into the mountains I knew we had to do one. You can decide where you want to go from and to and how long you want to take over it. With Maxi and Veronica, Stephen and I decided on a 2 day trip from Nha Trang on the coast of Vietnam to Da Lat in land through the mountainous roads.

The first day we were picked up at 8:30am and after loading up the bikes with our backpacks and meeting our drivers we set off. In about the first 5 minutes Maxi's bike and mine nearly collided which didn't instill much confidence! First stop was the wonderfully colourful fishing village of Luong San, just outside of Nha Trang. My driver, Binh, was the boss and maintained the lead at all times and was also the one who took us round the places we stopped at telling us all about them which was an added bonus and of course really interesting. We'd heard horror stories about some companies that organise these bike tours and just ditch you, stealing your belongings. So, shortly after stopping at the village at the top of a hill when the drivers told us to get off the bikes and to meet them at the bottom in cafe and promptly driving off, we were a little sceptical. However, true to their word, by the time we got down the hill there they were, supping on their breakfast of spicy beef noddles laughing and joking as they waited. We all breathed a sigh of relief. The trip was actually very well structured. We stopped around every 40 minutes for us to get off walk for a bit to get the feeling back in our bottoms and for all the drivers to have a quick ciggie. Also every couple of hours we'd stop for a visit somewhere.

Getting wet whilst visiting the 'Big Bellied Bhudda'
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On the first day we stopped at a brick factory where only women work and we got to talk to them and have a wander round, and also we got to look in a rose wood carving centre which had lovely chairs, tables and huge ornaments. We could stop whenever we wanted or when a nice photo oppotunity presented itself. We watched some water buffalo splashing around in the paddy fields and then some children came out to meet us and eventually we were greeting the whole family. Since we were on some of the roads 'less travelled' many of the children don't get to see westerners very often and would come out of their homes waving at us. It was such a great experience and the fact that we didn't see any westerners either made us feel like we were seeing the real Vietnam. Unfortunately after about an hour after setting off I saw a small lorry coming towards us on a busy road, I don't know why but the 2 wheels on the kerb side moved off the road and onto the mud, the driver then over-compensated for this by turning the wheel too hard and right before my eyes, the whole lorry just went on it's side spinning and careering along the road spilling it's cargo of empty beer bottles. I was at the front of the group of 4 and myself, Steve and Veronica made it through but Maxi and her driver had to dodge the beer bottles to get past the carnage. It was a crazy sight, people were running out of their houses to go and help the driver and his passangers and for a while it had all of us a bit worried and left me in a state of shock really since i could see it was going to happen before it did.

On the road...
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We stopped at a lovely place for lunch where a group of young guys were taking pictures on their mobile phones of us girls and then continued on. As we got to the top of some of the mountains, I could feel the air getting cooler and then warm up as we descended down the winding roads. The scenery was just breathtaking and I had a permanent grin on my face for the whole 2 days. Binh would point things out along the way, like areas which had been sprayed with Agent Orange, many years previous, temples and the coffee plantations. We went through a few rain showers, one of which produced the brightest rainbow I've ever seen. The first night we stayed at Dak Lak resort. To our suprise there was a huge lake, surrounded by lovely wooden cabins, so the 4 of us sat on the veranda watching the sun set with a warm beer (there were no fridges) whilst waiting to meet the drivers for dinner. They suggested local dishes which we tried and liked, especially the pork braised in salt, pepper and chilli. We spent the evening chatting and finding out what Vietnam life was like and Binh told us about the hardship of finding enough cash to get his children through school, whilst he polished off the best part of a litre of very strong rice wine.

The next morning sitting behind Binh, all I could smell was the alcohol fumes coming from him, which again didn't instill much confidence but to be honest I always felt safe on the back of the bike and noticed that he didn't take any risks. After all, as he said to me, if he crashed his bike he cannot work and provide for his family. We stopped first at Dak Lak village and got to wander round and experience village life first hand and see a dead snake. Lunch was in a dirty, crowded restaurant, but with about 15 lovely dishes for the 4 of us with the most amazing views over a huge ravine. It was beautiful. The second day was much cooler and wetter unfortunately but it didn't stop us enjoying it whatsoever. We drove through a small village with huge brightly coloured houses, which Binh informed me their owners were rich from growing the coffee in the huge plantations we drove past. We stopped at one of the largest pagodas in the region and saw the 'big bellied laughing bhudda' in the pouring rain. We walked down to a waterfall whilst Veronica sat on a large stone elephant and then moved on to the silk factory. This was a very interesting visit as you got to see the actual silk worms and then watch the girls extract the thin threads from the cocoon onto the looms and then to see it being turned into silk garments. Again we saw the aftermath of another crash, this time it was motorbikes though. We could just see the chalk outlines of the bodies on the floor as we sped past, which incidentally I thought only occured in the movies these days.

Sadly we then arrived into Da Lat and our expedition was over. However when we got to our hotel we had a lovely hot Vietnamese coffee to warm the cockles. We had all had a great time and it was one of the best experinces of my trip. We spent the evening in Da Lat and visited the food market but pretty much headed for the nearest bar to chat about the amazing time we'd had and laugh about the crazy antics of the drivers over a few beers.