just another coffee plantation, and it tastes so fresh and lovely from the small stalls besides the road.
rolling down from the mountains
Coffee and tea plantations
Our hotel in Dalat
The feather duster lady
George buying rubbish again!
Dalat sky line
The dried fruit and tea section of dalat market
The city of Dalat
Vegetarians look away,every part of the pig or cow was available to buy
mmmmmmm where shall we stay?
Shrimps anyone? the red piles that look like lentils are tiny shrimps!
Ladies and limes
Fish at dalat market
1,2,3 Drink!! (again)
The dried fruit and tea section of dalat market
The city of Dalat
Vegetarians look away,every part of the pig or cow was available to buy
mmmmmmm where shall we stay?
Shrimps anyone? the red piles that look like lentils are tiny shrimps!
Ladies and limes
Fish at dalat market
1,2,3 Drink!! (again)
Hello again to the wild Vietnam Adventure!
Finally we left Nha Thrang and cycled south again always towards Ho Chi Minh City. This time we decided to aim for some mountains for a change. Once we turned of towards Dalat the road was winding its way up from sea level to 1600m on the newly built road which had already some decent pot holes in it. We went through many hill villages who never seem to have seen westerners before let alone two dreadlocked cyclists. After turning off hwy 1 we stopped at a pretty small place for the night which was a rundown government "spa resort" which included the only guesthouse in town. After a hard day of cycling we decided to take advantage of this hot water and payed one dollar each to relax in some hot mineral water in a concrete bowl (the water was actually more piss warm), anyway, this relaxation did not last long as a bigger vietnamese family with a few crates of beer and food arrived at the pool next door. Soon we found ourselves completely invited and included in the pretty rapid drinking action. As we still can't manage a conversation in vietnamese and they could not speak a word english the only thing left was cheering and laughing...after a while everybody was drunk and the vietnamese people decided that we can't stay in this place and we have to come with them to their village at the same night. So we packed all our stuff in a hurry and very drunk, payed half the night, loaded the bikes on the lorry and in the car they came with and off we went. After half an hour drive (luckily in the direction we wanted to cycle the next day!) we stopped in a restaurant and we were invited to really yummy food and, of course, more beer. This time there were some other people on the table next to us which made us drink some homedestilled schnaps as well...so thats how vietnamese man celebrate anything at all! Even more drunk we left in hope of a bed, but not quite yet! Our very excited hosts had to show us around in their village and of went to awake the grandparents, have a tea, smile and nod. Eventually we just had to drive another half an hour in the car with the son to fetch his girlfriend and go for a coffee...by the time we got home we were really ready for a good sleep! 6 in the morning we woke for breakfast..as the vietnamese do...never sleep longer than 5 or 6 in the morning. After breakfast we had to look at all the family photos to find out how many relatives they had and then we went all dressed up to meet all of them for lunch in the house of the brother. This turned out to be a real treat, we all sat on the floor and ate, drank (of course beer and schnaps) and by the end of it we were all invited to come back after dalat and stay another night...this was a really intense adventure because we were in the middle of the attention all the time, everything we ate, we drank, the direction of our looks...strongly observed. However it was a great time and we now have a home in vietnam. Still we managed to leave again half drunk in the afternoon to tackle the hill up to Dalat where we arrived completely soaked from the rain which should last the next 2 days without a break.
Dalat itself is flooded with hostels, quite a large town in the middle of the mountains and sure it looks prettier in the sun, however it has its own feeling to it which makes it attractive. It is the prefered honeymoon spot for many vietnamese couples so its the Paris of vietnam, ha ha.
A huge market made the rainy days bearable for us as we discovered everything living and dead you are able to buy there, very interesting! We had a big laundry action going on which took 2,5 days to dry due to the rainy weather and the cold temperatures.
Finally we left and had some sun while rolling the same hill down we were entering the coffee and tea plantation area and the scenery was just stunning until a huge cloud came and flooded us and the road again...nevermind. We are only 177km away from Ho Chi Minh..wahoo! Did anybody read this far?
