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Day 27 - Nha Trang to Dalat
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Jesus CHRIST.
I am hardly functioning after arriving in Dalat after that bus ride. Instead of the "18 hrs" we were quoted (which was enough), it was actually a shade over 21 (TWENTY ONE !!!!) hours all told...
We had a few needless breaks in rank roadside cafes in order for the driver to no doubt collect a few kickbacks, and we had an hour to grab some brekkie in Nha Trang before changing buses and heading off to Dalat. Apart from those snatched chances to stretch our legs, it was a world of bus action.
It started off badly, they were 40 mins late, naturally didn't even consider apologising, and then assigned us seats directly above the wheels, with absolutely minimal space for our long legs. Hurricane Katie then blew through the bus wreaking havoc, and even the usually placid narrator of this sorry tale nearly lost it with the tw@ts in charge, who refused to move some short people so that we could swap seats...
The worst thing was that there were only about 10 people on the bus at that time, so all they had to do was give a Vietnamese couple a different seat number ?!?! Mmmmmm, very difficult...
There was absolutely NO WAY we could have sat in those seats with our legs totally squashed for 18 minutes, let alone 18 hours...
The staff were sooooo rude that we actually decided to get off the bus, take off all our luggage and re-book for the next day, or scream and shout until we got a refund, but at the very last minute they squeaked an "ok" and let us sit on the back row.
The only problem with the back row was that it was elevated, so the headlights of approaching cars shone directly into your face, but we just put on the eyemasks and tried to forget about it...
After what seemed like about 4 days we stopped at a road (it definitely wasn't a "motorway" !!) shack (it definitely wasn't a "service station" !!) for some crap (it definitely wasn't "food") and bumped into the 2 Dutch guys who were on our boat in Ha Long Bay. It was good to see them and to compare our travels since then, I'm sure we'll meet them further down the road...
The rest of the journey was painfully slow but uneventful, until we reached Nha Trang, a resorty town on the east coast. It rained pretty much the whole journey, so any thoughts we had of maybe breaking the journey and having a day by the beach were banished along with our shades...
For once there was a REALLY nice cafe/dive centre right next to where we changed buses in Nha Trang, run by an English guy & an Aussie. It looked like an AMAZING dive school, with awards and endorsements all over the place. I know that some of you would have loved it, they have 4 branches along the Vietnamese coast, so if you're ever over here be sure to check them out, they're called "Rainbow Divers".
The cafe had all sorts of home comforts, from toast with marmite to cheese toasties, English tea, bangers & mash, and it all looked great. We got a big plate of fruit and a couple of toasties, with some shakes, it was lovely.
Sadly we were soon back on the bus, and after 2 pointless and excessive stops at various holes in the ground (cafes, technically) we started climbing up into the Central Highlands of Viet Nam.
For once we stopped somewhere interesting, a glimpse of a hillside temple which we couldn't be bothered to walk up to, thank God for big zoom lenses !
Soon enough we were back on the bus and climbing up into the Dalat mountains.
It was amazing how far up we climbed on the bus, we just kept going round, and up, and round, and up, and round, and up....
The views over the valley were great until we disappeared into the cloud cover ! Our ears were popping like mad, so we knew we were pretty high up.
The next few hours involved driving up through various pretty horrible looking villages with dirt roads, wooden shacks, rusting metal roofs, it wasn't nice. It had me worried that Dalat itself was going to be a crushing disappointment...
By the time we arrived in Dalat I think I'd lost the desire to live, let alone deal with the crowd of shrieking hotel pimps waving brochures in my face. After the way I dealt with the first two guys I think the rest got the message and went to bother someone else.
We jumped in the taxi, headed across town to our preferred hotel, and were delighted to discover they had one spare double room.
It wasn't cheap ($15) but it was clean, with a nice shower, mini balcony and FOOTBALL CHANNELS - WOOOOOOOOOOH !! (ahem) That will do nicely. Also free internet in the lobby, which is good work.
The plan now is for Katie to catch up on missed sleep (I think I slept ok on the bus-from-hell but Katie struggled) while I catch up on email etc, and then we'll go out and book our "Easy Rider" tour for tomorrow.
A few people have recommended this group of friendly Dalat bikers (motorbikers) who give tours of the highlands on the back of their bikes, it's supposed to be really cool.
Apparently they all speak good English, everyone wears helmets, and it's supposed to be very safe. Not sure either of our Mothers will like us being on the back of bikes for a whole day, but we're told there's nothing to worry about.
Ok, Mums - we've just booked a day tour with two Easy Riders tomorrow and they promised us that they would drive very safely and have all the safety gear, so please don't worry x.
Hopefully we'll get some good weather tomorrow to enjoy the ride because most of Vietnam is currently under moody rainclouds, so fingers crossed...
The day after tomorrow we'll probably either head straight to Ho Chi Minh City (the old 'Saigon'), or visit a coastal town on the way there if the weather's good. When we get to HCMC we take a flight to Phu Quoc island to chill out on the beach - weather permitting of course - for a few days...
We walked around the town of Dalat before choosing a place for dinner, which was very nice.
I'll pick this up again tomorrow after we've finished the Easy Rider tour, take care !
lots of love,
Al & Katie xx
Latest Comments (1)
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Great Job (reply)
Sep 29, 2007 08:29 EST by ruiabreu
Sorry about the beating the other day, looks like you really having great fun, very interesting keep it up.
By the way England Rugby has a new sponsor it's no longer O2 but 36 - 0.
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| 28. | Day 27 - Nha Trang to Dalat - Dalat, Vietnam Sep 29, 2007 (  5 ) (  1 ) |
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