Da Lat

We decided to take a bus out of Ho Chi Minh for 300km straight to Da Lat to spare ourselves the traffic. Originally we had planned to cycle some of it, but in the end we stayed longer than planned in Saigon and life is too short. So we got to Da Lat in our airconditioned tourist bus and could not quite believe what we were seeing through the window, people dressed in skiing jackets and hats! Da Lat is 1400m high and it is pretty cool compared to the lowlands, though jackets and woolly hats may be over doing it slighly. It was the first place where we did not regret carrying around a jumper.

We stayed 3 nights in this cosy town somewhat resembling an alpine skiing village and went out on our bikes to explore the mountains, waterfalls, buddha's and the Crazy House as well as having our patience tried with the bureaucratic vietnamese postal service, who inspected every item and insisted that we can't send messages (birthday cards) together with items (birthday presents) in one packet. just keep on smiling...

The 'Easy Riders', local motorbike guides/drivers that take tourists around the highlands were a great source of information to us, telling us about shortcuts and where we would find hotels. Opinion on hotels where foreigners are allowed to stay are devided though so we are still not sure if we will have to resort to the bus for some stretches.

cycling to the Elephant Falls

and here they are

coffee beans drying in front of temple

'Crazy House'

Ho Chi Minh City

After our arrival we were quite tired for a couple of days and enjoyed being normal (yet very lazy) tourists. We did some bike maintenance in our quiet lane, a small child helping us by happily brushing away at the dirty chain with our pink brush. We filled up the fridge in our hotel room with dairy products and wandered around marveling at the fake snow on the shoppingmalls in the 30 degree heat. Our friends Tim and Anna arrived in town and we went to explore the Reunification Palace containing some wonderful 60's furniture as well as numerous rooms with telephones and radio equipment in them. We discovered excellent food at the nightmarket and cocktails of appalling quality in Bar Eden.

getting into the christmas spirit

reunification palace

fast food

cocktails

Mekong Delta, Rach Gia to Ho Chi Minh

Day 1: 75 km, Rach Gia - Long Xuyen
Day 2: 63 km, Long Xuyen - Can Tho
Day 3: 107km, Can Tho - My Tho
Day 4: 77 km, My Tho - Ho Chi Minh City

We arrived back in Rach Gia and ended up staying for two nights instead of one due to mild stomach poisoning (suspected culprit Valentine's spring rolls). In the end we needed the extra day anyway to catch up on the blog (and sample all the bakery delights that Rach Gia has to offer). Finally on the road we stopped at a riverside restaurant for lunch on the first day and had some friendly yet slightly creepy drunk men hugging and photographing us with their mobiles. We chucked our rice down and got out of there as quick as we could.
Having arrived in Long Xuyen, a fairly large city, we encountered some other cyclists as the Mekong Delta is pretty popular for bikes. But still, the city does not see many tourists and so we felt like animals in a zoo when we sat down in the shopping centre to eat a yoghurt with families gathering at safe distance to look at us. (Or is it just the way we eat yoghurt?).
Cycling to Can Tho we experienced the nicest scenery as the area is quite rural with duckherds, fishermen and people drying tea, fruit and fish by the side of the road. Over the next days the traffic got worse and worse as it became more built up the closer we got to Ho Chi Minh City.
We heard many horror stories about tourists getting ripped off in Vietnam but did not encounter it until one lunch stop where, instead of subtly adding 20 cent (which no doubt happens to us all the time) they tried to charge us ten times the usual price. We got out of the situation with just paying double the price, but it was a disappointing experience as the people seemed nice and were friendly with us.
On the last day we got up extra early so that we would be able to get good accommodation in Ho Chi Minh City but our plan ws ruined because we forgot the mobile at the My Tho Hotel and Kiki cycled back to get it and broke a record (not sure what record) by sprinting the 20km (there and back) to get it in 40mins. The traffic was pretty mental that day but we still made it into the city by lunch time.

eating a crepe with chopsticks

enjoying fabulous christmas decoration

revving the engines with the mopeds

never alone

yellow watermelon tastes exactly the same