Dalat

Caught an open tour bus up to Dalat, this one was a Hahn Cafe bus, was nice trip, stopped over in Phan Rang at the Cham tower there to swap buses. The drive up to Dalat was slow but scenic, the road winds up the mountains with good views of what you have just driven past. met an Israeli dude on the bus and decided to share a room with him. Got a room in mini-hotel in Dalat for $7 US between the 3 of us. Then went out and booked ourselves on a canyoning trip for the next day, set me back $28 US but was well worth it.

Have never abseiled (repelled) before and am afraid of heights so this trip was a bit of a challenge for me. It was raining in the morning but we decided to go anyway as we would be swimming in the river anyway. Val and Tzion had not abseiled before either so we had a practice run on a small slope, was good. Then came the first abseil, straight drop of about 20 metres with the potential for some jumps. Val went first and I went last. going over the edge was the hard part, once I'd achieved that the rest was easy, let gravity and my legs do the work, nailed some good jumps over obstacles as well. Nice photo of waterfall, then walking/scrambling to our next decent, which was another drop. To easy, nailed that one as well with a couple of big jumps (for a beginner). more walking and wading down the river onto our next drop this time over a waterfall. Prime, Val went first again and had a bit of trouble with her footing as the rock face under the waterfall was very slippery. I managed to get down with out slipping, at the bottom I lept backwards trowing my hands back and starfish ed into the water, was great, had a second go at that one as there was a track back to the top of the falls. We had two guides between the three of us, one would be at the top keeping an eye on us and the other would take photos of us on the way down. The last drop of the day was called the washing machine. It dropped over a ledge, to a few fall that dropped you into a waterfall, was a blast, did that one twice as well, tried the hard way down on my second go and slipped and pivoted into the rock face, some nice bruises and soreness for the next day. After the washing machine it was a steep trek up to the road. Was a wicked day, one of my highlights of the trip so far.

Next day we hired some motorbikes and checked out the sites in town. Tzion and Vals bike snapped an accelerator cable so we got split up for the rest of the day. Went for a ride out of town to some very big waterfalls, especially with all the rain that's been falling in the area. Was out on the main highway so was a bit dicey at times but made it home in one piece. Saw a couple of accidents on the way, as you do everyday in Vietnam, usually a traffic stoppage and a mangelled moto and some flip flops on the road. Met some hard case high school aged kids at one of the falls, they practiced there English on me. Where are you from? How old are you? etc. Was a bit cold up in the hills as due to Dalats high altitude. Met up with Tzion and Val for dinner, they had done a similar tour about as me. Just managed to miss each other on the road. Oh and there are some good bakery's in Dalat, thank you the French.


Next day caught a bus down the mountains to Nga Trang a beach side tourist town