In Saigon we hit a psychological low point. After the dirt of Phnom Penh, the chaos of Saigon and the inability of a global icon like the Mekong Delta t impress we wondered if perhaps we'd had enough of South East Asia. But then we collected & posted our Boteros then caught the first bus out of town & up into the hills of Dalat (guidebook says it is popular with Vietnamese honeymooners). The scenery was once again inspiring and the heat a little less oppressive. We determines to speed up the pace of our travels and endeavour not to get bogged down in a dump like the aforementioned cities again. "Are you listening Hanoi, get ready for a whistle stop".
In addition to it's beautiful scenery, Dalat is also famous for it's "Easy Riders". This is a group of motorcyclists who hang around town trying to sell you a tour of the area by uttering their immortal catchphrase "I am Easy Rider". I (Claire) was not keen to spend the day on the back of a maniacs bike so we chartered our own private minibus. Our guide, Peter, accosted us at the ATM machine and we were almost blown away by his standard of English. It transpires he lived in Canada, for 5 years, with his Scottish girlfriend before caught by the authorities and given a free flight back to Vietnam. We passed a very pleasant day together visiting a minority village, waterfall, temple, rose garden, coffee plantation, silk worm factory and finally the Crazy House with it's Alice in Wonderland architecture.True to our word the next morning we left Dalat and caught the bus to Nha Trang.
A handful of silkworms
Silk Worm Cocoons
No comments:
Post a Comment