Feb 05

Dalat is beautiful! We were up at 5am this morning to walk around the lake which the town is built around, it took us a little over an hour and still the locals are doing their peculiar stretching, playing badmittion without nets and this time there were quite a few groups in circles playing a game where they kicked a small bean bag in the air. We seem to still attract lots of attention around the streets, yesterday when we were out exploring school was out and the school kids found us quite amusing, lots of giggling, lots of 'hellos' and even one 'welcome to Vietnam'. We took our 'Easy Riders' tour (which we've later discovered were imposters!), anyway, after much haggling and negotiating we took our tour on the back of old Yamahas winding up and down hills, quite a hair raising experience but they were careful drivers. Saw some great things but Dalat the town is beautiful, its located in the hills, (a little like Maleny), and built around a lake, and the whole town if full of flower gardens. It is surrounded by farms which produce vegetables and flowers and sold to most of Vietnam. It is also alot cooler, quite the opposite of HCMC. Unfortunately the beer here which is called 333, or Ba-Ba-Ba in Vietnamese is the same price as water, so its a little hard to make a decision when in a cafe, so.....we are on holidays so Ba-Ba-Ba!!!!!!!

The buildings here are gorgeous, they are all beautifully rendered in colour, we've seen in all bright green, pink, yellow, and have that french villa look about them, and being on hillsides give them so much character. The tourist attractions are a little spoilt by what must be thought to enhance the attraction but..locals dressed in cowboy outfits offering photos to be taken on their horse is a little tacky, there was even a man dressed in a bear outfit at the waterfall we visited here today, what are they thinking??

As I sit here Hotel California is being played its pretty funny hearing Vietnamese singing along to the Eagles - I wonder if they are getting their royalties all the way from Dalat!

We had drinks last night at Larrys Bar (Larry was the L in DHL Worldwide Logistics) apparently. Buy one get one free at $1.50 a beer isn't too bad. We met a Yank who claims to manage a restaurant in Las Vegas, so that kept us entertained for a while.

Well tomorrow we are being driven to Nha Trang the beachside resort, but just before we were talking to a couple of locals and they told us that Nha Trang is a bit dangerous, not to go out at night and not to carry a handbag. Bit of a worry, considering how blasay we are getting about security now, I've ditched my money belt and neck pouch, so will have to get back into the swing of being alot more cautious.

Delivery vehicle Dalat - take it steady!

Fruit & vege stall, Dalat

"Motorbike Sir?".. we think nearly every family within the 3 million population here in Ho Chi Minh City owns a motorbike, will carry anything on it, and there are no road rules other than beeping the horn just to say you are on the road. The most we've seen is 5 people and even saw a family of 4 with the woman breast feeding on the back! This is an amazing place and can't quite get the smell out of my nose, but the people are the best. We have met so many locals, they all want to know how many babies you have and seem to love Australians. As one cyclo drive said 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi'! We got accosted by a cyclo drive (a three wheeled bicycle) the first 10 minutes of leaving our hotel and quickly negotiated a half day tour with 'Sang' and his friend. This was an awesome way of experiencing Saigon being in amongst it. We've learnt a few Vietnamese words which always gets a big grin, so many smiles. 'Sing Chao' (formal hello), 'Gamon' (thanks), 'Chao Tum Bit (goodbye), and a few more. We are also getting better at crossing the road, if you look straight ahead and don't freak out the motorbikes just go around you, its amazing. We have also got to love their coffee which is served with a filter on the top and drips through, its strong but not bitter, and the Beef Noodle Soup "Pho" is great. We set off a little far on our second day there and walked up every alley way and streets around, the fresh (I use the word fresh cautiously) food markets are displayed so neatly but the meat displays are a worry, the locals seem to prefer to check the meat displayed on boards with their hands, I'm sure the germs are all killed when the meat is cooked (I hope!). We did all the touristy things on the first day such as War Museum, Reunification Palace, Pagodas, parks etc, it makes you want to wear a shirt that reads 'I am not an American'. The second day we got up at 5am to go to the park where it was peak hour with exercising, badmitton, tai chi, shadow boxing, lots of strange stretching, and organised exercise classes with bamboo lead by a guy on a microphone, we just followed everyone else doing laps of the park walking. It was a great experience. The shopping is pretty good but kind of not in the mood for it at this stage, although we did get a massage for $7 US for 70 minutes, sounded pretty good and was pretty good until the masseurs asked for $7 US tip.

Anyway at the moment we are in Dalat, we flew here this morning with a plane full of American Diplomats, you don't think that plane trip was noisy!! So far so good, have booked an 'Easy Rider' - motorbike guide, for tomorrow so both of us will be on the backs of little Hondas with tour guide 'Hung' to show us around, so will update later.

Our first cyclo ride