10.46.01 N 106.45.2 E
Hoi An was definitely a highlight of our time in Vietnam
and not only because Denise joined us there. The old city is charming. We also
had some of the best food there.
We hired a car and driver to take us to Kontum, in the
Central Highlands. The scenery was beautiful. We stayed in a nice hotel, but
there was not much to see. We visited an ethnic minority village, but the people
do not dress in national dress anymore like they did in Sapa.
The hotel booked a bus to take us to Buon Ma Thout, our
next stop. It turned out to be a local minibus with far too many people in it.
There was one seat left when we joined the bus (people were made to move up to
fit us in), but they still managed to pick up three more people on the way. So
not the most comfortable 200+ km we did. But we survived; took a taxi from the
bus station to the hotel. Buon Ma Thout was a bit more interesting. We managed
to hire a car with driver and guide to take us to some minority villages and on
to our next destination Dalat, with an overnight stop at Lake Lak. Denise and I
went on an elephant ride and we did a trip in a dug out canoe across the
lake. Dalat was a hill station in the French days. They grow lots of vegetables
and flowers there and the climate is lovely and mild. We stayed in a beautiful
old Colonial Hotel. Did yet another tour with a guide and driver and saw coffee
plantations, rice wine making, silk weaving, waterfall, a cricket farm (where
they grow crickets to eat)and more pagoda's.
From Dalat we took a comfortable coach for a seven hour
trip to Ho Chi Minh City, it was a beautiful drive until we got into the
outskirts of the city. What a mad house this place is! You take your life into
your hands every time you cross a road. It is a fascinating city. We walked
around all day yesterday and took a bus tour to the Cu Chi tunnels today. Being
in a group with 40+ tourists was not ideal, but it was an interesting day all
the same. We now know a lot more about the Vietnam war than we did before we
came here (the information is a bit one-sided though).
Tomorrow we'll move on again, we'll have one night in
the Mekong Delta and then a boat to Cambodia.
