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