When we arrived in the hilltop village we were attacked by the locals this time armed with business cards and pointing fingers. We were let loose on a road rimmed with hotels, the choices were endless, so the touts held back on absolutely nothing. We made our pick and got 2 very decent rooms, iaki and I having three beds to choose from. After scouring the streets for some food we ventured to the lake. The place is amazing, a place that rightly pulls in the visitors. A romantic venue without a doubt, the lake has paddle boats, even dolphin shaped ones, there is an abundance of tandem bikes (which i never saw in use) and endless eating spots. The place is great.

Da Lat is also the place where things changed somewhat... the group dynamics took a bit of a turn. I kinda got sidetracked a bit. Let me explain... (Just to clarify I am a bit like a dog clenching a bone when i get an idea in my head...)

On the bus ride to Da Lat I got talking to the adventure seeking Bavarian architect, Markus. He was travelling with a crazy american journalist called Laura. Little did I know, but meeting these two turned the trip on its head for me... In a really good way though.

The first day in dalat, we arrived in the afternoon and took a walk down to the lake. The abundance of buckets and lack of sleep from the last night in Nha Trang was taking its toll on me and in turn barred me from being able to read a map. This caused a long walk around the lake... in the unintended direction. But we did get to see the sun set over the lake and the whole town. Awesome. Daniel and I decided that we would start the next day, after having recharged, with a run around the lake. We were adament, it was gonna happen, at sun rise.

We did, it was excellent. I was set on renting out a bicycle and riding a fair distance to the surrounding waterfalls. Laura had the same idea, and markus was up for anything. However Nora, Iaki and Daniel preffered the motorised idea. So we spent the day on our seperate ways...

This is where the blog takes a turn, as from here on in I was away from the the other three. Even though Iaki, Nora and Daniel did the same things, they were on different days. So here is my story, watch tis space for the other side too.

So I joined Laura and markus in the search for some decent mountain bikes... they had to be around, somewhere among the tandems and abundance of scooters. We found some, but if I had to rate them I would rate them at 4/10, nothing I would want to ride 80km on! So the search continued...

Eventually after another 2 tries and almost caving in for scooters we found one more shop. We got them, three dual suspension bikes... rating 6/10. We paid our USD 2 for the days rent and took off. The plan was to ride South, go to the close waterfall, which is 8km from town and then find the pangora waterfall 44km out of town. The ride down the hill was excellent, breakneck speed, fresh air, dicing scooters, dodging trucks and having blood pumping. Awesome!

We made it to the first waterfall, possibly the most touristic waterfall in the world, although I later learned from Iaki, that they can get worse. Anyway, this one was accessible by roller coaster, yes roller coaster,

rollercoaster

We remounted our bikes, carried on down the steep and adrenaline pumping mountain taking us to the main road. The waterfall we wanted was 40 km away, the road looked flat. We thought about it for a little while, a few seconds to be exact, and went for the horizon. The sun was out, soft breeze, and beautiful clouds all around. This was the life! However, since this all seemed to good to be true, something was bound to happen. And yes... it did.

Laura, who was rigourously peddling away lost her left peddle. Clean off. Lucky for us, we were in vietnam, and there is a bike repair shop every 300 meters. We backtracled and had a really chilled out meachanic look at the problem and fix it. While we had one of the best Pho (Soups) we have had to date, accompanied by a curious family making offerings of green tea and rice wine. An excellent turn of events and filling a craving that we had all been having. Adventure, the unknown and getting to grips with locals.

Peddle fixer

The ride

The hitch hike back... skills from eastern europe

Instead a killer taxi picked us up. We were in a local rocket, the average speed on a vietnamese road is 40. This thing was redlining at 93, dicing through every gap he could get. It was getting dark, so all we saw were headlights and silhouettes of light less scooters. The horn permanently on, which in vietnam simply means, Im coming. Don't move or change anything about the way you are doing what you're doing, I will work around you. That is a valuable piece of knowledge, as when you hear a hooter and you respond by looking up, you will with 95% certainty be hit. We drove at breakneck speed, overtaking everything that appeared on the horizon, and spending most of the ride on the center of the road. Even locals were shaking theior heads and covering their eyes, which justified Laura's shrieking every time we had another near death experience. It was kinda cool though, the driver with a look that was cold as ice, never flinching.

We got back to dalat, handed in the bikes and made for a well deserved beer. The day had been glorious, we never found the waterfal, but instead had an unforgettable adventure.

The other three spent the day with an easy rider exploring the North, which is what I was gonna be doing the following day.

The second day in Da lat, I once again spent with the crazy american and the bavarian architect. We had hired ourselves a scooter, which markus manned and a free lance easy rider (guide), Yang. The day was to be spent checking out coffee farms, flower farms, silk making, waterfall viewing, taking in the country side and seeing Dalat from the Austrian cable cars strung up on the surrounding mountains. This is what we did, it was yet another excellent day, not as random and adventurous as the preceding day, but excellent noen the less. yang was an excellent guide, having something to add in about everything we saw in great english. We had a glorious day, the weather was once again perfect and Da Lat, well da lat is beautiful.

The day trip out

During lunch, Laura and markus asked Yang what the best way to get to Hoi An would be. He calmly suggested a 5 day motor bike ride through the central vietnamese highlands! Come on! A what, how can you resist that. It would be off the beaten track, non touristy, adventurous spontaneous and glorious. At that point I had absolutely no intention of joining them, but as the day went on, and the wheels in my head started to process this new option I got more and more intrigued. It was a hard decision, no doubt. The Israelis who I had gotten so accustomed and close to couldn't join me due to their 6 feb departure from bangkok, and iaki would be faced with a hard decision. I milled it over and over, and eventually once back in da lat had a long, deep and hard talk with the team. i wanted to go, they didnt. The outcome... They carried on along the original plan and I went on a 5 day highlands trip with my two new travel compadres and will meet up with iaki again once I get to Thailand.

So I am now alone in Saigon, and am gonna make my way accross cambodia and meet the Iaki again in Thailand. In my opinion a bold move, but one for the better. All on good terms. I love you iaki. I hope that your all good, and I will see you again in Thailand for the grande finale of this epic trip.

Noa and Daniel, (Ill actually use your real name for this Nora) :) travelling with you guys has been excellent, it was a blast. Excellent memories, and great times! Nora Im gonna miss your lies about you not being a morning person and about you being 23, your big green eyes and your socked strops! Daniel, its been real, thanks for teaching me the skills in picking out your people, making me enjoy fruit shakes more and filling in on some of my basic general knowledge and the many great dalat "Wine Shots" you endured with me. Sorry the running thing never took off. Im gonna come visit you guys in Israel some time. Fo sho! Enjoy new Zealand, well stay in touch!

written by  ourindochina on January 19, 2008 from Da Lat, Vietnam
from the travel blog: The Indo China Adventure (incl Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia)
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Pete for a cyclist you're damn near terrible at it

written by  Matthew on January 31, 2008

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