Vietnam (Da Lat) - Easy Rider

Dalat seems really nice and its so refreshing to have a climate more akin to England albeit when it rains it rains cats and dogs! Our hotel is pimping, we booked 'Dreams Hotel' via email from reading reviews saying it was the best backpacker place in town and it most certainly feels like it. We have shower and hot tub to ourselves, two double beds, massive room and a lush breakfast where they had a jar of Marmite, I was in heaven. Our first sighting of the the delicious black salty treacle like substance made for a good start to the day! We have only one full day here so decided to do an easy rider tour, basically you travel around on a easy rider style motor bike and vist the sights, the idea is that the bike goes places which aren't as touristy and should see more of the real Vietnam and the culture. We booked on the suggestion from someone we meet at the hotel and hoped for the best. First night we ate at a local restaurant and a fight broke out opposite the road, drunken local men hitting each other with snooker ques, looked nasty and we soon scarpered.

The next morning we were picked up by our riders, and headed out for the day. Visiting the Dragon pagoda, named because outside the pagoda a ginormous dragon snakes around its gardens. Next a stop to walk up high peak for views of the surrounding land, we thought that actually this was just a distraction as they both wanted breakfast. We headed further into the countryside stopping next at a flower farm. Dalat produces a huge amount of flowers which are exported all around Asia, the climate and fertil soil  creates a perfect environment for fruits, vegetables and flowers. As far as the eye can see you see row after row of green houses and fields cut into the hilly sides like giant steps. The next stop was most interesting, stopping at a silk worm farm and factory. You see the worms at all stages including at various stages of them creating their silk cocoons, we had both never seen anything like it. The factory where they process the silk cocoons reminded me of Victorian cotton mill. Women steamed then manually attached the cocoons to a machine which then unravelled the silk on the large spindles. Further down the spindles where dyed and weaved into various patterns and cloths. The whole process seemed dangours and old fashioned, especially the large weaving machines. Next we headed for Elephant Falls which was impressive but busy making the steep slippery walk down tedious. Lunch was a typical Vietnamese style selection with spring rolls, various meats, rice and veg. Afte dinner we visited a rice wine factory and a weasel coffee producer. I had read about weasel coffee so was always going to try it. Weasel coffee consists of coffee which had been eaten and digested by a weasel, an expensive delicacy in Vietnam. Upon arrival we found that it in fact looked quite cruel and unpleasant for the animal. About 20+ weseals in cages with grid floors to catch the poop. The idea is that the coffee is improved by not only the digestion process but by the fact the weasel only selects the best beans to eat. It tasted very strong, slightly sweet and quite viscous in texture. I'm positive that the experience and taste didn't justify the animals being caged up but it was an interesting experience none the less. Our next stop was a cricket farm where they breed crickets for consumption by humans. After having a look around we had the opportunity to try some which had been stir fried. I obviously tried them but Izzi chickened out. The taste can only be described as crickety! The final stop was at the Crazy House, literally a crazy house that has been under construction for years by a crazy architect, it was quite underwhelming to be honest. One of the best parts of the day was just travelling around on the bikes, bombing around the countryside and seeing breath taking views of the surrounding jungles and hillsides.