Scotts Blog

Well after being told I was crazy to ride to Dalat I thought it can’t be that hard, so I set off about 11am. I had my backpack on, and my other bag tied to the bike in between my legs, it wasn’t to bad, i thought it might not be very comfortable. I knew I had to go down the coast for about 40km then to turn right and I guess follow the signs. By the look of my map (will go into that later) there was one main road all the way to Dalat. the turn off was pretty well marked, and then i kept coming to unmarked cross roads. Dalat was not to hard to say so it was easy to get some help along the way. Although one thing shat me to tears a few times when you say which way to Dalat they would sweep there hands about 180 degrees, all I wanted was a pointed finger left or right it is pretty easy. When i said so that way, they would sweep there hand pointing at every option again. I made one wrong turn down a county lane for about 15kms but then turned back.

Along the way it was getting hot and I was getting thirsty and hungry so stopping on the side of the road at this little house for some drink and food seemed like a great idea. They didn’t do food but I had some drinks and showed them my purchase of the century which was a great little portable speaker for my phone to play music. The guy I was talking to the most was an amazing carpenter, he had some great carvings that were all one piece of wood. The main things he was carving were fat Buddhas or eagles fighting snakes.

I had to keep going because i didn’t want to get trapped in the dark. Soon i came up upon the most amazing mountain that I had to climb over. the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. It was strange looking at it all because there was this pristine mountain side and tropical forest, then there were ugly red gashes breaking up the beauty showing some short sighted man made roads. Saying that they were awesome to ride on, great corners and slopes. I was slowly getting much more proficient at riding, better at taking corners going the right speed, the right amount of lean etc. It is funny they must have started building the road close to Nha Trang, up the mountains was top shelf (much like good roads at home) then it started to deteriorate, and some places really rough dirt where they were still constructing. It was hard going through mud on a scooter, you could feel it sliding out from under you all the time.

About 5pm i arrived at Dalat dirty and tired but it was a great day. After finding a hotel I went to sample some of the famous street food. This was a real highlight of Dalat and for me one of the things that i love about travelling, tasting all the weird stuff that the locals eat. There were lots of people cooking over coals on the stairs leading down to the market. I had some great Kebab things wrapped in banana leaves (some kind of mince stuff inside), some warm bean curd, baked potatoes, some bean coffee, and lots of other little things. For a kebab thingy it was about 2000 Dong or 10 cents so for $1 you were more than full. After this i decided to go to sleep and have a rest. I could tell already that i love Dalat, and still remains one of my favourite places in Vietnam so far.

 b