The next day I went out on a bike trip round the countryside. It is stunningly beautiful, and so different from the rest of Vietnam which is also beautiful but mostly flat. And it's cooler too being much higher and hillier....
I went with my guide to meet some of the local hill people...
We visited a cricket farm..... And ate a plateful! Lovely with chilli sauce! A real delicacy....!
We visited a coffee plantation, where their speciality is weasel poo coffee..... Yes, the weasels eat the coffee beans, and when they excrete them, the beans are still whole..... So they are washed, and the result is a coffee with a different flavour! Very nice!
The coffee trees bear buds, flowers and beans all at the same time....
We went to the local waterfalls which were fabulous, and have water in them all year round
We walked down past huge strangler fig roots
To get to the bottom of the falls, where I got very wet with the spray....!
We then went to another river where they go canyoning and abseiling down the falls. We treked by the river, waded through the water where there were no bridges, and walked across fallen tree trunk bridges... Yes I did walk across this...
And I swam.... I love wild swimming in Britain, so here was no hardship at all...
But my big road trip was the next day, 140kms from Dalat all the way to the coast, to Nha Trang. This is the road that features on Top Gear, and although I don't like that programme, I did watch the Vietnam episode. There's not as much space on the back today with all my luggage.....
The road twists and turns for mile after mile downhill. Of course the mist set in.....
They are creating new national parks near Dalat to preserve the countryside and the wildlife. Much of the traditional natural landscape in Vietnam was obliterated by the Americans in the war, when they cleared vast areas of jungle in an attempt to flush out the Viet Cong from their hiding places. So now much of the forest areas are pine and they cut the bark and the trunk to collect the pine sap. It's a beautiful smell, but I can't help thinking of Scotland not Vietnam.....
My Easy Rider bike guide took me to find a hotel near the seafront in Nha Trang. What a fabulous bike journey on a road with beautiful views....
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