what a day!!

Today  I wanted to explore Da Lat's countryside and it was a fantastic day! I rode a moped on my own and andy went on the back of the motorbike of our hostel owner who took us on a tour.

Our first stop was at a coffee plantation and we learnt about how coffee is produced. We also saw how weasel coffee is made and tasted a cup. Next stop was a cricket farm and we tried some roasted crickets which were rather tasty! We went to a silk worm factory which was absolutely fascinating.  After lunch with the locals we walked down a huge waterfall and checked out a buddist monastery.  Tin tin our guide was really good and he only told us during lunch that it was his birthday!  We were invited to his birthday party and had delicious cake and fresh spring rolls with his family.
Such a fantastic day!

 The beans on the right are the pooped out beans and those on the left are the cleaned ones.

The red ones are ready to be picked and will get fed to the weasels. The weasels pick the best ones and leave the not so good ones.

Crickets!!

Making silk

canyoning!!

It took a couple of hours for my room mates to persuade me to do it, but in the end I gave in and joined in the canyoning trip on tuesday. This consisted of trekking down the side of a waterfall, abseiling down two dry cliff faces, sliding down smaller falls, having a picnic lunch with beautiful scenery and abseiling down two waterfalls. I was mostly terrified but glad I did it! The instructor was very safe and explained everything very well.  The group I went with were really supportive and encouraged everyone when they were a little worried.
There was an Irish couple who were on their honeymoon and they were both very scared but they tried everything without having an argument!
The instructor was pretty crazy. He tried to make us call him Black Bear but it didn't catch on. His favourite catch phrase was 'don't be lazy, be crazy!' However in the minibus on the way back we were able to be lazy and not crazy.

This is a genuine look of 

I think we all totally underestimated the strength of the water.

Sliding down the falls!

What is not shown here is the 4m drop we had to do because the rope ran out!

day two in da lat

One thing I am really enjoying about travelling so far is meeting new people and having lovely conversations in the evenings. The amount of tips and advice you get from even a ten minute conversation is better than any book or website. The evenings in da lat are spent eating a delicious spread of Vietnamese food cooked in our hostel by the staff and chatting away exchanging stories and thoughts about things we have experienced and discovered.
Tonight the group consisted of an Aussie who had just had a new wardrobe tailored for him in hoi an, a 19 year old chef from Kent, a lovely girl who has a 6 month job lined up in bali and three german doctors who all quit their jobs to travel. It was great how  everyone had some great experience to share and sometimes battle wounds to prove them.
The day was spent looking around the city and visiting the 'crazy house', which was built by a Vietnamese architect. It was pretty weird!

Also found an amazing bakery 

dalat!

This morning I got the very early bus to dalat. The journey took 4 hours and was so bumpy I left my seat numerous times. A remarkable thing about dalat is that it is significantly colder than the rest of vietnam. I am wearing jeans and a hoodie as I write this! It is a welcome break though to be honest, not profusely sweating is a luxury.
I haven't written a lot about the hostels I have been staying in because I can't say there has been anything particularly significant to say, however, the hostel I am in at the moment is really great! We have all just eaten together and we are offered free tea and coffee every 5 minutes. The brother and sister who run it are so friendly and happy it is infectious. They are also the most helpful people I have ever met.
The town is rather quaint with a large lake in the middle and mountains surrounding it. On my explore this afternoon I discovered the people in dalat are also very friendly. I got lots of smiles and waves from grandmas in their gardens and from school kids on the street.
The weather is also a bit bazaar. Beautiful sunshine in the morning can switch to cloudy and rainy within seconds. Let's see what tomorrow brings!

Possibly the cutest dress shop I have ever seen...

last day in mui ne

We decided to go on the sand dune tour as a group and were really happy we did! The 5 hour tour consisted of walking up a shallow stream in the beautiful countryside,  walking up some huge dunes and taking hilarious pictures, visiting a fishing village and watching the sunset over the red dunes. At this point the boys had devised some kind of plan which us girls were not informed about before we saw what they were up to. So now every single picture taken on top of that dune will have 'andy, flo, fred 2014' in the background!

the boys being creative! 

Because it was our last night all together we decided to go to a seafood restaurant. This may sound expensive and it was in comparison with other nights, however, I spent a grand total of 3€ for grilled squid, vegetables and rice. Very tasty!

We had some new additions to the group and one of them was a semi professional windsurfer so of course I asked him about why I could surf in one direction really well but when I had to go in the other direction it didn't work. He said I had to practice and improve my arm strength. Easier said than done but I'll give it a go! Watch this windsurfing space!

 Attempting a jumping photo!

 Very dusty and windswept.

Lots and lots of fishing boats.

windsurfing and hot pot

Despite ending up being rather battered, bruised and jelly fish stung, I enjoyed the 2 hour windsurfing lesson I had with an instructor called Bay. His English was rather broken but I got the gist of most of it! It was rather tiring so I had a coconut as a reward. They are huge here, full of coconut juice, yummy fruit you can spoon out and only cost 70 cents. Potentially highly addictive.
I met again with the group from the previous evening and sophie suggested we find somewhere which serves the traditional vietnamese hot pot. I thought of asking the lady at our hostel and she was so enthusiastic to tell me about her favourite hotpot restaurant and was also so sad she couldn't come with us despite being invited.
It was a fantastic recommendation and the 12 of us happy munched our way through two huge hotpots. You get a huge gas cooker on the table with a large bowl placed on it full of soup and meat. You then get presented with a box of fresh veg and rice noodles which you had to the soup and cook. It was delicious!!! We were all enjoying it so much we were the quietest group for a good 20 mins as we brewed our dinner in a cauldron like witches! The beer went down smoothly too.
The group consisted of four different nationalities and we enjoyed talking about our travel plans and experiences. Frederick from denmark is in an interesting situation because he has to travel for 4 months as a stidy requirement. I wish that was the case in the UK! Sophie and flo from germany are about to start studying in the Philippines for a semester and decided to travel a little beforehand. There are so many interesting people to meet and talk to!

breakfast in mui ne

 What a way to start a day! A run on the beach, a swim in the pool and a vietnamese breakfast with a wonderful view and a good book. Might be doing a bit of stand up paddling later on too!

first night in mui ne

The 5 hour bus journey wasn't too bad and after I arrived in mui ne it wasn't to hard to find a hostel, it even has a pool! I got chatting to the guys in the dorm and I went with a danish guy, who had just been travelling with his girlfriend, for an explore along the beach. The water is so warm but the weather turned a little stormy so we didn't go for a swim. After we had asked some watersports schools about prices and lessons, we met a girl he had met before and ended up all going for dinner and drinks in the evening. We picked up two more germans along the way too. It was a lovely evening.

 On the sleeper bus

At the hostel!

ho chi minh

After a bit of drama during the night as one girl thought she had lost her bank card and money and proceeded to to wake everyone up and ask if we'd taken it, the day started a little later than usual. I started with booking a bus to the next destination mui ne and then walked to the indoor market. It was full of local delights, hot soup and souvenirs. After a few yummy vietnamese spring rolls I walked to the war remnants museum and read about the vietnam war. It was a fascinating and shocking museum.
It then decided to pour with rain so a short break was taken in the museum foyer befofe heading to the cathedral and then hostel. Off for some dinner now!

Indoor market

Parents picking their kids up from school...on mopeds of course!