Post by: Tony
After Nha Trang we were off to Da Lat. Da Lat is a small town up in the mountains that the French used as a getaway during the "protectorate" days. As soon as we stepped off the bus it was very apparent as to why. It was at least 15-20 degrees (F) cooler in Da Lat than down by the coast. I was even able to wear jeans comfortably for the first time. It almost felt like fall in TX (all two weeks of it). A short cab ride after arriving and we were on our next hotel's doorstep. I must say, this place probably had the best value of all the places we stayed at in SE Asia (Dreams Hotel, Vietnam if you're curious). We were greeted by smiling faces and shown to our room which had ample space, a wardrobe to place our bags, a TV with cable, a super sweet shower with two shower heads and 6 shower jets, and a cheap mini-bar! To top it all off, a brand new sauna and hot tub on the roof level that we were able to take advantage of quite often during our stay. Oh, and a great breakfast with fresh fruit, baguettes, coffee, juice, eggs made to order...and peanut butter/jelly was also included. Dom was really excited about the peanut butter. It's not common in Asia, so having a PB&J sandwich was a real treat.

The next day we decided to see about renting some bicycles and poking around town. Our hotel actually offered them to us FREE of charge! They weren't the best or newest bikes that we had ridden but "never look a gift horse in the mouth", right? We were taken a little by surprise as to how difficult it was to navigate the hills around the area. They really don't look all that hard but, even with some gears functioning on our bikes, it was tough! Our first stop was a place called the Crazy House. It is best described as Alice in Wonderland meets Hunter S. Thomson... very surreal and strange. It started off as a small hotel, but is now just a tourist site. It has very few right angles, with unexpected twists & turns at every corner. You have to check the pictures out for yourself (link at the bottom of this post).

From there we headed over to a cathedral that was close by. We were hoping that it would be open so that we might be able to check out the inside of the place but it appeared to only be open for services and nothing else. It was still nice to look at... plus there were these two local guys there taking pictures of each other in front of the main door. It was fun making jokes about how it must be how they do Glomour Shots in SE Asia nowadays. Both guys had their hair spiked up with tight fitting collared shirts on that I think may have been bedazzled... not sure. After watching the photo shoot, we headed down to the lake and rode around it until we found the local flower park. It was a massive collection of flowers and Dom had a field day taking picture after picture of all of them. She was even able to get a sweet shot of a bee taking flight from a flower.

The following night we rented a motorbike to explore the outskirts of the city. We were hoping to find some waterfalls and a few other things that our guidebook said were not far away. We hopped on and headed out of town but were not successful in finding anything that was on our maps. It was still nice to just cruise around the mountainside though. It's so peacful out there and there's hardly any traffic so you pretty much have the whole road to yourself. On the way back we were able to spot a neat pagoda a little way off the main road. As we approached where we thought we might have to turn we were stopped to get a quick bearing and were quickly pointed in the correct direction by a local just hanging out on the corner. The pagoda itself is seven stories high and we were even able to climb all the way to the top of it! Next to the pagoda was a small temple that had some really neat dragons made out made of broken bottles, cups and other pottery-like things. It was also where I took notice of what looked like a swastika, only mirrored. It wasn't until a conversation with our friend Tai (who lives in Vietnam) that I found out that the symbol I noticed is actually a religious symbol and Hitler stole/perverted it for his use as the symbol for the Third Reich. Crazy!!!

After Da Lat, we headed to the beach town of Mui Ne. Our bus stopped for a bathroom break about halfway there. At first, we weren't sure why we were stopping because the buses usually stop at a place with a restaurant & bathrooms. But, we got out and all we could see is a long stretch of road and a bunch of trees. So, we figured maybe we were just stopping so people could stretch their legs. Dom & I got out of the bus, and minutes later we noticed that men were posting up in front of trees relieving themselves. Then, women and young girls started squatting everywhere in the grass. I guess this was the bathroom stop after all! Dom hesitated for a minute, but she really had to go... so, off she went behind a tree.

Mui Ne is less educational, but it makes up for it in relaxation. It has a very chill, surf vibe. It gets lots of wind, so kite boarding and wind surfing are very popular. We showed up around 11am which was about 2 hours sooner than we thought we would be there. Our friend Tai was coming from Saigon to meet us there, and his bus wasn't scheduled to come in until about 2pm so we dropped our bags at reception and had a bite to eat while we waited. Tai (many of you know him) is a good friend of ours from San Francisco that decided to move back to Vietnam a few months ago after having lived most of his life in the states. It was so good to see a another familiar face after so long. Our friends Eric and Myrthe (who we met in Nha Trang) were also in Mui Ne so we gave them a call and decided to meet up for dinner and drinks later that night.

In the meantime we settled in to the room and took some bicycles out to see what was around. We quickly realized that we had underestimated the scale of the long two lane road that made up the city. It was much longer than we anticipated. We biked for a good 5 miles and decided to head back. Dinner was fun, especially having someone that spoke the local language along to help decipher the menu. After dinner we headed to Jibes for some drinks. The place was not exactly hopping though... I think there were 11 people in the entire bar and our group made up 5 of them. After a few drinks we called it a night and went our separate ways because we were tired from the bike ride and Eric and Myrthe had to get up early for a bus to Saigon the next morning.

Being lazy and hanging out on the beach is what was on the agenda for the next morning. We just grabbed some chairs and watched the waves come rolling in one after another. At one point I decided to head out into them and attempt to body surf while Dom collected sea shells on shore and took pictures of the many kite boarders making the most of the windy day. Once the afternoon approached we rented some motorbikes and headed down to what was called Fairy Stream. I really had no idea what to expect. It ended up being a long stream that had some cool looking rock formations running along one side. What that had to do with fairies is a mystery to me. It was so shallow that you were able to walk in it and hardly get your ankles wet. The only downside to the journey was that we had to pass a field filled with vats of fish sauce (fish fermenting in huge pots in the hot sun). Talk about POTENT SMELLING! Mui Ne is known for their fish sauce, and there was lots of it. From there we headed to the sand dunes that were located just out of town. It was like being in a scene from Laurence of Arabia! There were people sliding down them on large flat pieces of plastic all over the place. Surprisingly, mostly locals were there... hardly any tourists. We just watched and enjoyed the scenery.


The next day we would be headed to Saigon. It would be our last stop in Vietnam and SE Asia, as well as home to our good friend Tai. He had graciously offered his extra room to us (as well as his living room to Eric and Myrthe!) and for that we were very grateful. Our adventure in Saigon will be posted soon, so check back!!! -t
DA LAT PICS
MUI NE PICS