Siem Reap, Cambodia

Time to head back to the planned route. Shanghai has two airports, I somehow managed to book a ticket from the one I had not used yet. Getting there was quite easy with the metro, except that the line I had to take, split just before the airport and so I had to get off and change train. I tried to ask a Chinese couple on the platform, they looked at me and just walked away.
In Shanghai airport I spent 30 minutes checking in, there seemed to be a big problem since I did not have a return ticket. But they were very willing to sell me one, oh yeah, I was not going to buy any ticket. At the end, they gave me a piece of paper which I had to sign, that all expenses, in case I was denied access to Cambodia, would fall onto me. Why would Cambodia not want me to visit them, me? I signed and got my boarding pass.
First stop was Guangzho, China's Southern airport hub. I had somehow managed to get some Economy extra seats, which meant more legspace. Yup, in fact so much that I had to sit on the tip of the seat to reach my food and drinks on the table in front of me. Who designed this? haha. But I still wonder how I ended up with a ticket here, when most of the plane was empty. I probably paid extra for this, thanks Expedia
The final stop is Siem Reap, Cambodia. Maybe Siem Reap does not sound familiar at all, but what about Angkor Wat then? Not that either, but you might have seen pictures of it in one or another context?
Angkor is the remains of a kingdom as old as the Danish Vikings, but while the Vikings were busy drinking mjöd and perfecting the brew, the Khmer people were building impressive temples and other buildings a thousand years ago.
The girls were two days ahead of me and had already seen quite a lot of the temples. However they had saved the best for last as they put it. Ended up getting a pretty good hotel, normally rated at $90 per night to half price, $45. It was a really good hotel, pool, gym, breakfast buffer and very clean and people treated me like a king there - and why shouldn't they, right? Nah, it was a little too much, I was served fresh pressed orange juice from a waiter kneeling down in front of me. I asked if they were kidding me, and asked the guy to get up.

When I checked in they read my passport and said Danny, all three guys said Danny. Then the guy at the checkin counter said, "Danny is a popular name here in Cambodia - for women!" Ok, the guys had humor, haha. The bellboy showed me to my room, and as soon as the elevator closed, he asked if I wanted some girl company tonight. He looked very disappointing when I said no thanks, but a few seconds later his face lit up and he laughed and said, "Ahh, you want two girls", haha
Our transport around Siem Reap was a tuk-tuk driver, called Vanny. There are thousands of tuk-tuk drivers in and around Siem Reap, and they are all really eager to work. Walking down the street every 7 seconds a guys comes up and asked if we need a tuk-tuk or a motomoped. Restaurant and bars owners are trying to kidnap people from the street into their place which has happy hour all day long.

The currency used here in Cambodia is called Riel, but most people use US dollars. At least it is easy for us to tell if something is cheap or expensive. The price in the end does not matter so much, everything is up for negotiation. In the beginning it is quite funny, but gets a little tiring in the end as everyone is trying to squeeze more dollars out of you. But the smallest bill is a $1 bill, which makes things quite expensive, but instead of giving money back, they sell two or three for $1. In most cases people thank no to having 3 water bottles to carry around, and so they end up making some extra money, clever

Food in Cambodia I thought was going to be a mixture of Vietnamese and Thai kitchen, getting a little spicier on the way. But I was in for a surprise, it didn't really taste anything, I guess the French colonization of Cambodia had ruined that. But at least they could then make some proper tropical cocktails, right? Yes, if they were not supposed to be served with alcohol. Most drinks are super light, if they even had any alcohol in them, which I at times doubted.
The food was not bad at all, neither the drinks made of freshly squeezed fruit juice, just not what I had been expecting. In fact I found some dishes that were really good, and the drinks probably were better with only a bit of alcohol in them as the temperature was well above 30 degrees during the day, hitting 40 at noon. It's all good
Most people visiting Siem Reap are there to see the Angkor temples. A 3 day pass to the Angkor costs $40, which is kind of expensive when looking at the average salary of an average Cambodian, which is between $1-$2 per day. It doesn't look like anyone pays income tax for the stuff we saw being sold here and there, so the big temples entrance fee must contribute a lot to the economy of the entire country.
The government has removed all beggars from the tourist area, which means they have to sell post cards or other stuff to make some money. Some of the kids are only 5-6 years old, but speak a few sentences in multiple languages. We met a little girl and boy when we were sitting having a few beers, they were so charming and funny.
Two weeks earlier the entire Siem Reap had been flooded, around half a meter in the city. Angkor was flooded too, broken roads are there to remind people was just happened. A lot of places the government is now installing sewers and overflow channels. Should have been done earlier, could probably have prevented most of the flood damages.
The Angkor temples is just something that has to be seen, it is so difficult to take pictures of to really justiy the incredible buildings. The amount of stone decorations and carvings is just simply amazing. Thinking that most of the temples were destroyed by wars, "we may lose the war, but were not gonna let you have the Angkor temples", it is sad. They are truly remarkable building.
There are quite many temples, the two most famous ones must be the main temple Angkor Wat and the tree overgrown Ta Phrom, seen in the Tomb Raider movie featuring Angelina Jolie.
Angkor Wat is huge and if we can trust the National Geographic Channel, the entire structure is floating upon a swamp. Almost unbelievable, but check it yourself, don't trust me, I wouldn't.
I wouldn't say I am religious at all, I more admire the temples for what it is: super impressive structures. So detailed it is hard to believe and all over the place, not only a small plate on the big front door. Even more unbelievable when standing in front of it seeing thousands of rock carvings and sculptures, which such detail it is hard to grasp.
One day we took the tuk-tuk out to a waterfall that had been off limit to normal people, only accessible to the royal family back then. They had done rock carvings in the riverbed that meant to increase fertility, making the water very potent. The ride there was long and we had to get air and gas on the way so stopped at a very sophisticated gas-station close to nowhere. Interesting fuel canisters they are using, haha
The hike up to the water fall was not long, took around an hour, but was beautiful, through the Cambodian jungle. It wasn't until I remembered that this country is full of unexploded bombs from the war, that I got seconds thoughts. Well, I was not the first one to walk these steps and this was not exactly a secret path anymore, so I guess I should be safe? The water fall was loud, but the disappointment was to be seen in our faces when we reached the fall, of 3-4 meters...

Every afternoon it seems like the entire atmosphere has been squeezed too long and suddenly the entire thing just bursts. The blue sky with a few clouds suddenly turns black and the rain starts too pour heavily. The entire thing takes only 5-10 minutes, but the streets are flooding for a few minutes before the sun takes over again, the temperature a few degrees lower and the smell of new rain. Kind of nice natural emergency brake.

The last night of the Siem Reap, we went to a concert with a Swiss guy playing a cello, calling themselves Beatocello. I will admit I am not a big cello fan, but there was a story behind this guy. Beat Richner is a Swiss pediatrician in Red Cross working in Cambodia in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge regime tore apart the entire country. Out of 950 doctors, there were only around 50 who survived the war. After the war and when the country had settled somewhat, he returned to Cambodia. Dengue fever, Malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid, burns, personal mine injuries from were issues children would almost certainly die from in Cambodia. He was a man on a mission: he opened a hospital where he would treat children for free of charge.
The children he is admitting to the hospital this day today are still coming with the same symptoms, but now most children survive. Today his non-profit organization operates 5 hospitals with almost 2900 employed people, taking care of around 80% of Cambodia's children. They are paid with competitive salaries to prevent corruption which is one of the most severe problems in Cambodia on all levels. All this is done with out too much help from the Cambodia government itself, but through donations from private people and foreign organizations. There is a problem however to get donations from all countries since he does not charge his patients, which most countries can not support, weird as it seems. Interesting man to say the least and very noble of him to dedicate most of his life to this, still working every day in 2 different cities as a doctor.

Yellow Mountain

I was actually not too keen on traveling around China's remote area on my own due to the language barrier. That might be exciting you would think, but China is so big with so many people themselves, that they don't really need to learn any other languages to make money from tourists. It doesn't really matter if I speak Danish or English to them
Having missed the Terracotta warriors in Xian, that was on the list of places I would like to go. Yellow mountain also popped up as one of the most popular tourist attractions in China and the pictures I could find were quite stunning. Yellow Mountain was also pretty close judging from the map (Lesson learned there!) The girl Lijun we had been in Hongkong with earlier planned the thing, I just had to fly to Shanghai, then train or bus to Huangshan, spent a night or two there and then move on.

After she finished work Friday afternoon, we got on a long distance bus to Guangshan, where there was a hotel booked in a small village Xidi close to the mountains... Again according to the map! When we arrived late at night, the bus dropped us off very close to the middle of nowhere.
Got hold of a taxi driver, who said it was an hour away and was not too happy of driving that far, as he could not make that much money before he came back to his own city. The first time ever the taxi driver is bargaining to drive, not the other way around. Eventually we agreed on a price and off we went. An hour later we were dropped off at a hotel, the sky full of stars, no light available for miles and miles. Also no places to get something to eat, which was more of a problem. At least we had a hotel, checked in and agreed that we could live without any food, as there were no other options.
Woke up in the hotel of a small village Xidi. This truly was a really authentic village, thousand years old, even serving authentic Chinese mountain breakfast. It consisted of rice soup, a few spicy preserved vegetables and some really sour tofu, almost like an old cheese. Not the most ideal breakfast after having had no dinner the evening before.
I was expecting the village to be in the mountains or at least close to them, but couldn't really see anything else but hills around, and the GPS said we were not up high at all. A little confusing, to say the least.

We walked around the village, turned out to be mostly a tourist trap too, selling quite a lot of junk, packed in the clear sealed crispy plastic bags, directly from the factory. Found out afterwards that the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was partly recorded in this city, it is that real!
I was still really hungry, the authentic breakfast had not filled much of the void in my stomach. Didn't really find too many places that served food, which was kind of strange.
At some point though a little girl was playing and Lijun asked her where we could find some food. The girl told us to follow her, and suddenly we were standing in her mothers kitchen. Haha, children logic. Well, turned out the woman actually rented out 2 rooms and cooked food as well, I guess the girl had been right after-all. We ordered some dishes and went out to get some fresh air while the food was being repaired. Outside there was a vegetable garden, which had most of the things we had just ordered. The girl and Lijun then ended up picking up and cleaning vegetables for the woman to cook, kind of nice to be a little engaged in what is going on. My part was supervision. The food was quite good, really fresh and tasty. With a full stomach, the situation looked much more promising and positive.
Lijun had contacted a driver some Finnish guys had been using some months earlier, so instead of taking a taxi around, we got our own limousine. Not familiar with the area, we asked the driver where to go and how to get the most of the weekend. It was a little disappointing to hear that we should probably have been up a little earlier to go to the mountain. Oh well, that could be done the next morning, unfortunately I had already booked a flight so I had to be back in Shanghai Sunday evening at latest. By now I had figured out that the Yellow Mountain was not one mountain, but a group of summits covering a pretty big area. That also meant that all the pictures I had seen on the internet already, probably could not be seen for real in this limited time.
He took drove us up to a place called Nine Dragons Fall, a very cool water fall which is part of the Yellow mountain peak park. It is a funny thing with Chinese people, when in line, they push like crazy. Not that it makes the entire thing go faster, but I guess you just have to push to feel good? When walking up and down this path to the fall, there was room for people going up and down. However, most people walked 2 or 3 persons next to each other blocking the entire way and making noise behind them even so much they could see me, did not make them move an inch. Had to walk through them pushing them aside myself. Don't mind that people might fall down and drown or break their neck, just don't move.
Afterward it was time to find another hotel for the night, one a little closer than the previous one. Could have booked one on top of the mountain, but was too late for that. Instead we found a small hotel close by that offered a ride to the bus stop in the morning, so that we could be among the first ones to get up the peak. We went out for dinner at a place where the food turned out to be horrible. They had fish tanks with food waiting to be cooked, below that a tank with huge frogs, one of which was tied down so he wouldn't jump away. There was also a turtle, that's just mean, that thing never had a chance to get away. Evil. Instead we ended up buying a lot of fruit which was delicious, lots of different ones I had never tasted or seen before.
The next morning it was up early and off to the mountain - together with thousands of other people, and I am not kidding. We got on the bus and for free we were driven up to the entrance to the Mountain Park. For free, must be a good sign of the rest to come.
At the entrance though they demanded a steep RMB230 a person, equally to $40, plus the cable car ticket which was RMB80, of course one way only. Anyway, we were here now, too late to regret and too far away to cancel. Boarded the 2nd longest cable car in the world, 2.8km long, which took us up to one of the summits.
Wow, this view was even better than the pictures I had seen on the internet already. We spent a couple of hours walking around up there and and down different peaks, offering a superb view. I know Grand Canyon deserves a wow when seeing it the first time, but I think actually this was more stunning, double-wow.
The mountain is a little too touristic. It is made easy for everyone to get around, lots of up and downs though, but there are steps all over with paths plastered on the side of the mountain with iron and concrete. Actually it looks pretty good, but then after half an hour or so another thousand tourists were on the path as well. The bus that took us to the lift, was one of maybe 40-50 buses going up and down the mountain non-stop.
It got so crowded at points that I started feeling a little bad. Chinese people shouting, spitting and smoking where they wanted, loudspeakers trying to be loud enough for the entire party to hear what the tour guide is saying. In my opinion, that simply doesn't belong on a mountain like this. It is kind of difficult to enjoy the views when there is a line of 50 people behind one waiting to take a picture in that situation and there is a speaker shouting loud.
It was time to return to Shanghai and we called the hotel who had said they would get some tickets for us. Apparently they had been a little too eager, because they could not give us the tickets we needed and the chances of making it back to Shanghai on Sunday was getting really small. All the buses to Shanghai were sold out, so we decided to try the luck with a bus half way and then the bullet train the other half, even though that would be sold out as well.
We made it to the Hangzhou from where the bullet train left, but the only tickets we could get were from next morning at around 6. Lijun bought them anyway and when the train was boarding she went up to talk to one of the ticket check points and came up with some bad excuse that I had to catch my plane in the morning at 7am and I would not be able to make it. The guy looked at me and I put up my most sad face - it worked. He let us through and we got on the train, but could not get a seat and had to spent the entire 1 hour in the restaurant car drinking beer. Oh my, what a punishment.
Made it back to Shanghai and was just in time to meet for Klaus and CJ for dinner in Shanghai. There were in town anyway for some business meeting. Went to a restaurant that did not seem too familiar with having guests in the restaurant. The food was cold, the beers were warm and they took forever, they seemed more interested in cleaning the restaurant than serving the food we had ordered a long time ago.
Yellow Mountain, a very beautiful place to go. But I would definitely propose to spend a few days there including staying in a hotel in the mountains, catching sunset and sunrise and get a few hours alone before the tourist rush starts

Saigon

After going to Da Lat on the motorcycle I decided to join the girls for a bus ride to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh city to some), it was maybe 3 times longer than the motorcycle trip, scheduled for 6 hours. We were picked up at the hotel and I feared this would be the bus for the next 6 hours, because my kneecaps were being squashed by the seat in front of me, not possible for more than a few minutes for sure. Transferred to a bigger bus and were on our way. What a horrible road between Da Lat and Saigon, it reminded me about the streets of San Diego. Not kidding, the roads were full of pot holes and again mountain roads, so the entire tarmac was in used from both directions - very interesting drive!
On top of that, the bus driver had a lead foot, meaning that either the accelerator or brake was being floored. We made a few pit stops here and there, officially to use the restroom or get some food, but they were cooling down the brakes of the bus again and again with a water hose. Not so comforting to know hitting the curvy mountain road again a few minutes later.
We arrived to the suburbs of Saigon, almost there. It was an impressive inferno of smoke, shops, mopeds and cows mangled together. These small shops just continued forever, bicycle, speakers, hairdresser, nuts and fruit, scooter repair shop, flower, bakery, iron rods and pipes, wedding dress store, speaker store, restaurant, shoes store, old tube TV dealer, brick store, wooden poles, antics, compressors, cafe, welding shop, car repair shop, karaoke bar, fire extinguishers, juice store, travel agency, fertilizer, solar panels, cellphones and it just kept going. After 10 hours on the road we finally made it into the city and found our little hotel Halo, Japanese owned and really clean and nice.
$29 a night per room will go far in this part of the world, those motels in California, Arizona and Nevada should be ashamed of themselves. We walked around the neighborhood and found a sushi place for dinner, after all, it was Tuesday. A few beers and sakes later we continued to an outdoor BBQ place for some late night drinks and some BBQ'ed rabbit as a snack.
The next morning we got a glimpse of what Saigon traffic really is - wow. Thousands of mopeds swarming the streets, much like ants around spilled sugar, absolutely crazy. Cars mixed into the picture here and there, and even though they seem to treat a red-light a little better here, they actually do stop, the picture was even more impressive when seeing a few drivers having to make left turns against a horde of mopeds - it really is a collective interest in keeping the flow going that keeps people unharmed. Don't know if I am right, but don't hesitate and don't stop, seem to be the vital keys in this flow. Impressive.
The Southern part was the one the United States was supporting during the Vietnam war with Saigon as their home base. There are many reminders about the war here, to remind people that the North won, like for example changing the city's name from Saigon to Ho Chi Minh city.
We were going to visit the famous VC, VietCong, tunnels. If you've ever seen any movie from the Vietnam war, it probably shows the Americans fighting the Northern Vietnam people in the jungle and the Vietnamese made use of a pretty advances tunnel system to hide, move around and surprise attack the enemy.
Not quite sure if this area was the only place they had tunnels, but at least there should be something like 300km underground tunnels big enough that Vietnamese soldiers could move around with weapons etc. At the beginning of the tour the guide had one of the onsite "soldiers" to demonstrate how they would get up and down the really good camouflaged tunnel entry.
Swoop and he went in without any problems. Now the guide asked around if any of us would like to try and he turned his head towards me and asked the group if this little guy should try it. Of course I wanted to try and jumped in, only the legs made it in. The ass was challenge number one, but it got pretty difficult when the chest and shoulders were going in afterward. I probably could have gone all in and put the lid on the door way, but I am pretty sure it would have been rather difficult to get out of there again. One of the smaller girls tried afterwards and didn't have any problems getting in or out, but then again, she was 45kg and 160cm
There was a chance to get down and dirty in the tunnel to try out how much space they actually had, and I can say it is not a lot.
After some Vietnamese propaganda movie made by the government, we were set free again. Of course being a Westerner I have seen most views from the American solders through-out the war through Hollywood movies, whereas the Vietnamese version is very different. No mentioning about the torture performed by VC, no bad things said about the awful traps that were all over the jungle. On the other hand, the American's version is probably biased a tiny bit too. But nevertheless it was quite interesting to see.
Back in Saigon, we set out to visit a few places that according to guide books are a must do. The sky suddenly got super black and it started to get windy. That usually means a thunderstorm is around the corner and I barely had finished that thought before we saw the sky light up with multiple lightnings and thunders following just a split second later. We were 100 meters away from one of the bars when it started dripping a little, we ran and made it inside not getting too wet. Took the elevator up to the rooftop bar we were got a table close to the edge. Suddenly the clouds just opened up and I am pretty sure you can't get this much water through a shower head, it was insane. One lightning after the other and immediate thunders, quite exciting to sit there with my Mai Tai in a tropical thunder.
Dinner that night was going to be at one of the more fancy restaurants in Saigon, Lemongrass. We originally went to the street side restaurant, but they required reservations, so this lady took us around the corner to their twin restaurant which was on 31st floor of a highrise building, same same. I ordered a 7 meal course, and was quite impressed to say the least. Nice place, nice view and really good food. Price: half a million.
The almost 5000km long river, Mekong, runs out into the South China Sea just after passing Saigon. It splits into 9 smaller rivers before hitting the ocean, this is called the Mekong Delta. The river delta is very important to the area, it provides a living to many people in and around Saigon. Many people live on the river everyday, selling and buying from each other, providing fish for the fancy restaurants in the Saigon.
Saigon is full of markets where you can buy anything the heart desires. Almost I am tempted to say, because I have a hard time finding exactly what I need. It is not food though, because here you will find anything you can eat. And if you are lucky, the meat is still warm, not because it has been in the heat for too long, more likely it is a fresh kill.
Vietnam offers a lot of things for the tongue that you would have a hard time finding anywhere else. Everyone has had chicken wings and legs for dinner at the local bar on Wednesdays, why are they not serving the chicken feet as well? Must be a lot cheaper and it is all just in the head of people what is right and wrong to eat. 25cents chicken feet, that would work.
One thing I am going to miss for sure in Vietnam, are their fruit juices. There are so many tropical fruits growing here and they have the skills to mix them into really good cocktails, just outright delicious. They even have juice bars where people stop on their mopeds, gives an order and minutes later they are on their way again, with a drink in their hand.
I had a really good time, but like anywhere else in the world, 2 weeks are far from enough to get anything else but just a taste of what it is really like here. However I do tend to favor the Southern part of Vietnam a little more, but that's just me. Barely scratched the surface, but that's how it is being a tourist I guess. Yes, of course it is possible to get deeper here and there, but at the end of the day it is a visit and I continue somewhere else next day. I can't really conclude anything about my visit to Vietnam, other than I would like to go back, maybe with some of my Vietnamese friends if possible

Da Lat

Transportation from Nha Trang to Da Lat was on the table and the options were bus or motorcycle. There is a company called Da Lat Easy riders, which will basically let people design their own tours through anywhere in Vietnam. They also have pre-arranged tours, that will take people through the less developed tribe areas. Because of the limited free visa I got, I only have 15 days in Vietnam and have to save a long tour until some other day.
I sent the girls off in a bus early in the morning, and since they were a little bit late, I said I would pay the hotel and check out for all of us. I helped them carry the luggage to the bus as well as mine. Within a minute or two, hotel security was there to hold on to me, they thought I was going to take off without paying.
I had signed up for a ride from Nha Trang to Da Lat, with an little Vietnamese guy, called Hue? He was maybe 50 years old and had a small moped, 125cc. When I showed up I was maybe two heads taller than him and a little wider too. Looking at his puny bike I started smiling. Very proud he said he had bought a helmet just for me and gotten a new oil change just the day before. He showed a book that he had all his riders write in, in their native language. There were surprisingly many Danish entries in the book, and only very few English/American.
The ride itself was nice, soft seat and I had no problems whatsoever looking over the little guys helmet. The little 125cc had to work really hard when the roads was ascending, which it would do for quite a while during the trip.
Since it was just the two of us, he had plenty of time to take me here and there to see things I would not had I been on a bus.
Part of Nha Trang is called rice paper village, production of rice paper for spring rolls. A very thin rice paste is used to produce a paper-thin film that is then put to dry. The entire village was full of these big boards with 10-12 of rice paper on each. A lot of work goes into each and every piece of rice paper, think about that next time you get a fresh spring roll
We headed for Da Lat a and had to go over a mountain ridge at around 1500m. The little motorcycle was working hard, probably the smallest motorcycle I have ever been on. We had to stop a few times on the way over the pass as the little machine got very hot in the thinner air. There were some pretty good photo opportunities when passing then mountain, but a slight cloud cover at the top made it a little difficult to catch on camera.
The roads in Vietnam are not exactly the best, so the entire road is used in both directions, which at times becomes a little interesting when making a blind left turn only to find a bus coming towards us in our lane. We did get a little rain going through the clouds, but I could not count more than 20 drops on my sun glasses, that's within the acceptable limit I would say.
We passed through different kind of farming areas, coffee and all sorts of fruits were grown here. Learned that Vietnam is the 2nd biggest exporter of coffee in the world after Brazil, didn't know that. Also the city Da Lat we were going to, was famous for growing a lot of flowers sold all over the country and exported as well. It seems a little strange to me that a developing country as I think Vietnam is, actually makes money on flowers. To me it does not seem substantial enough, maybe it is just me, but you can't really eat flowers, right?
After a few hours we hit the city limit of Da Lat, and Hue started driving me around to different spots in the city that I might want to see. Many of them I was not really interested in so I told him just to drive around so that I could see different parts of the city. It was quite a big city and according to the guide books it should have some European flavor to it, but I had a hard time finding that...
Hue then took me to the hotel we made a booking on already, Pink House hotel. It was kind of nice on the outside, but so noisy inside. Everything was tile and more or less felt like one big bathroom, sound-wise. Again I had a room facing a bar down below where I could hear the bass hammering with 90's pop and billiard balls hitting again and again. Tried to book a bus ticket for the next morning towards Saigon, but the hotel manager said I should stay another night, why would I leave already. He then pulled out a map of all the things I should go and check out, which really didn't interest me at all. Asking him again to call and make a booking, he finally called, but after a few seconds he said, no response, and then hung up and kept talking about places to see. No bus tomorrow, one more night? What was his problem.
The city itself was not anything special in my mind, more like a pit-stop on the way from the coast to Saigon. A lot of nice pictures were depicted on several posters in the travel agencies, but the truth is that the beautiful things to see is not in Da Lat, but on the way from or to Da Lat between Saigon and Nha Trang. At least I think so
Next morning I went down to breakfast which was included in the price of the hotel. I was given a menu and could pick something to drink and eat. I took the Banana Bread and some fresh milk. I got a small baguette, two bananas and a small cup of warm really creamy milk. I was hungry and stuffed one banana into my french banana hotdog and topped it off with the lukewarm milk, yum yum. Could not wait to get out of this hotel, luckily the hotel managers felt so too. They had been oh so helpful yesterday, but now that we were leaving we could not get out fast enough. Suited me well, adios Da Lat