Dalat

A few more hours in a mini bus later and we arrived in Dalat, the supposedly romantic capital in the central highlands of Vietnam. Its all very kitsch and pink and very cheesy. We stayed at another wonderful hotel with breakfast included and the only place so far where Ben could satisfy his Marmite craving. Dalat is famous for being the home of the 'Easy Riders', a biker tour guides who started as a group of about 20 war veterans with vintage European motorbikes who take tourists & travellers out to the more remote corners of Vietnam. There are now about 70 'Easy Riders' in total. To qualify they have to have a good motorbike, speak at least one other language fluently, have a wide knowledge of Vietnamese life and perhaps most importantly have to have been recommended by an existing rider. Some people have adopted their riders and travelled all the way from Dalat to Saigon or Hanoi for weeks on end. One step at a time we thought, a day trip into the surrounding coutryside was enough especially as previously you'd be hard pushed to find me on the back of any kind of vehicle with 2 wheels for more than a few hundred metres.
The riders take this all into account and our driver took everything very safely and slowly until you're ready for a bit more speed. It was a wonderful day we started at 8.30am and were driven through the central highlands, around mountain roads stopping quite often to be shown a part of real vietnamese life. We saw a local pagoda on the outskirts of Dalat, (again very kitsch with brighly painted dragons and a model story of Budha), we saw how coffee is grown, the coffee flowers smell like honeysuckle and passing coffee farms is wonferful. We saw silk worms and their cocoons, how rice wine is made and met some wonderful people on the way. Lunch was the best food we had eaten so far in Vietnam. Our drivers ordered a selection of the dishes of the day, meat, fish, vegetables, tofu etc about 6 dishes in total all cooked with enough sticky rice to feed an army, all for 20,000 Dong each. That's about 75p. (Incidentally, Westeners unfortunately cannot order this sort of food without a local with them it would seem). As the day went on and my confidence grew the feeling of being on the back of a bike on the open road became addictive. We finished the day at the 'Cazy House' which really was crazy. It's a huge 'Charly & the Chocolate Factory' style guesthouse which is constantly being added to. It's seriously nuts. Each room has a theme like, 'Tiger Room' or 'Gourd Room' and the whole thing is full of corridors that twist and turn in the shape of a massive, malformed tree made of concrete.
The 'Easy Riders' aren't that cheap and considering is costs about $5 by bus to the next town we had to carefully consider our options. We decided that the price of $260 each for a five day trip to Hoi An, (our next destination), was too much, but that we would adopt our guys for a three day journey to Nha Trang where we could catch a train onwards and besides, I wanted to see more of Ben on the back of his bike, who being a clear foot taller then his driver looked like Wallace and Gromit. Its one of the best decisions we have made.
We had one day free in Dalat before leaving with them. We bought and sent home some Vietnamese drip filters & some 'Chon' coffee which is coffee beans that have been eaten by weasels and then collected up after they've been pooed out. A delicacy that even the locals find amusing. Anyone want to pop over for coffee?
We walked around the lake and had some drinks at the beautiful and exclusive golf club where we raised a glass to Ben's Dad who was becoming Captain of his Golf club back in Blighty.