Vietsovpetro House Dalat

... officer for the Americans during the war - he really had some amazing stories!!! The drivers were hilarious, Carolyn's in particular, and spoke fluent English, french and german.<br><br>That night we had a fairly quiet one and went to a restaurant over the road from our hotel, the waiter (Tien -or as we liked to call him - Penfold as he looked like a mole!) was absolutely hilarious and had the time of his life practicing his English. Carolyn fell in love with the guy and ...

... br><br>Dalat has extremely nice weather and good fertile soil and that is why there are so many fruits, flowers and veggies planted here. Agriculture is their number 1 industry, tourism comes far behind.<br><br>Today the sun has come out and it's the perfect day (especially when it's 0 C in Montreal, sorry to hear that, friends and families!). Although it's about 20-22C, the locals are wearing sweaters and jackets, and some even have wool hats and mits on ...

... these Open Tour buses (which are designed for the tourists, and much more comfortable than the local buses) is that they drop you at a hotel, so everyone bundled in, and within 5 minutes I'd managed to get myself one of the best rooms in the hotel for $8. Felt a bit guilty cos they really wanted $10, but I said $8 was all I could afford (and was what I'd been told by the tout outside) and started to walk out the door, they called me back ...

... was cool about this, and all the other activities we seen, was that nothing was wasted and everything was done in a sustainable way. The used beans were given to feed the pigs and the fuel for the ovens and stove was used peanut and coffe shells. The tofu was then sold at the local market to bring in money for the family. Most of the family food was grown in the backyard so they were living pretty self-sufficent with some extra cash coming in from the tofu. Sweet ...

... great. So gonna go have some grub and have a nice early night before we don the shades and hit the open road. I shaved last night and im raging as I should have left some handlebars for the trip!! <br> <br> Peace and good times to all.<br> <br> Noel and Claire<br> <br> ps. gonna be signing Steppenwolf solid for the next two days!!<br> get your motor running...head out on the highway..looking for adventure...and whatever comes my way..........born to be wiiillldddd!!!!

... Unfortunately, the row of people in front of us (row of 4 people) all got quite car sick (not even an hour into the journey!). After a quick pit stop to have a wee and fix the mini bus engine with some packing tape, we all piled back in the bus for the final hour of travelling.<br><br>Arrived in Nha Trang around 2pm. Jumped on a motorbike which proceeded to drop us ...

... which is more commonly known as the "Crazy House." The mini hotel was designed by Hang Nga, the daughter of Vietnam's second president. The guest house is a giant form of surreal artwork, greatly resembling Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi's work. When visiting Spain (many moons ago), I was enthralled by Gaudi's architectural genius and wacky style. One of his most famous buildings, the Sagrada Familia, is an unfinished cathedral. Like the ...

... women etc).... the history of certain massacres carried out on civilian villages... there were deformed foetuses - deformed because of the effect that Agent Orange had on the land. There was lots of info about how Agent Orange still causes abnormalities in birth today as it's still in the land. There were amazing photos taken by photo-journalists who were allowed right in the action - over 100 of them died - the photos were amazing, especially so when there were ...

... of the world's largest exporters of flowers, just behind Holland I think they said. <br><br>I can't say that I would have ever have associated Vietnam with flowers before this trip, but it does appear to be a blooming industry (boom boom!), even if I can't recall ...

... shades... <br><br>Nha Trang looked very built-up, although the beach looked nice, but we weren't too devastated at having to move on immediately. <br><br>We were amazed to find a REALLY nice cafe/dive centre right next to where we changed buses in Nha Trang, run by a couple of English &amp; Aussie guys. It looked like a great dive school, with awards and endorsements all over the place. I know that some of you ...