Week 4 (Dalat to Saigon)

Week 4

Dalat
01/11/07 - 02/01/07

We caught an overnight bus from Hoi An to Dalat, which was surprisingly a pretty comfortable journey. We arrived in Dalat only to be bombarded by hotel staff pleading us to stay at their hotel. We finally found one that was right in the centre of town and went for some dinner and a drink at a very local bar. We were approached by some men called the "Easy Riders" and after their very persuasive sales pitch agreed to go on a two day tour with them on the back of their very old school motorbikes all the way down to Saigon (300km)!

Early the next day we met our tour guides "Dave" and "Jean" who strapped our massive bags on the back of their bikes and we started our biking adventure.







As Jean and Dave were locals we were able to see "real" Vietnam. We saw loads of things that we wouldn't have if we were on a tourist bus. One of the things we saw were coffee plantations (left picture).







Over the next two days we also saw: tea plantations, the monks making incense sticks, a "crazy" house, flower markets, silk worms and a silk factory, mushroom farms, wood carving shops, rice paper making, local people making bamboo baskets, rubber trees, a tabacco farm and the "elephant waterfall" (left picture).





We also saw a very strange crocodile farm and so much countryside with so much greenery it was unbelievable.









On the bikes we also saw some very unusual sites including: countless pigs, ducks, hens, chickens and even a cow caged up on the back of motorbikes. We also saw cows running down the high way, people riding with their whole families on one motorbike, people carrying 1m blocks of ice (in the boiling heat), glass, tables and chairs and so many other random objects all on the back of a motorbike!!



Saigon
03/11/07 - 07/11/07

We arrived into Saigon on 03/11/07 and we were amazed at how different the city was compared to the other places we have visited in Vietnam. It is so busy, so polluted and so high tech. It is called the mini Tokyo and we definitely know why!!

This is the view from our bedroom window-obviously all the wires are very safe???!!!









We did a lot of the touristy things in Saigon, we visited the Notre Dame Cathedral, a huge shopping center, where we went into their food section and dribbled over all the English imported foods!







The thing that is so apparent here in Saigon as opposed to the other places we have visited in Vietnam is the money and lots of it. It is really strange, one minute you are down a street with people begging for money where they are living in really run down houses and then you turn down another street and it is like we are in Paris, with their 5 star hotels, all the designer shops and so many very expensive cars.




The rain here is unbelievable, we were having an ice-cream in the sun shine when the heavens opened up. We ran in for shelter and waited for about twenty minutes, we bought some very fetching ponchos and started walking home. Although it had only been raining for about twenty minutes the roads had turned into rivers and the water already came up to our shins!!





We took some time out and visited the war museum, which was so interesting but so so sad. Some of the pictures were so graphic that people were crying. We learnt a lot about the war, the people involved, how it affected the country and the people at the time and also how people how been affected now.






We also went to visit the Cu Chi tunnels which were built by hand by the Cu Chi people of South Vietnam during the war as a way to hide, to live, to prepare for battles and hold meetings. The tunnels were tiny, we had an opportunity to enter one of the tunnels and experience how the Cu Chi people lived for 10 years, a very scary prospect!




Next stop.... Cambodia!