Hi all,
I LOVE VIETNAM.
WIsh I was spending more than a month here now. We have booked an open bus tour
here from SIagon to Han Oi ( like going from Sydney to Brisbane ) for under
$70. We now wish we hadn't done this after the first stop off. The bus
basically follows the tourist back packer trail along a major highway with no
stop overs at smaller towns only the major tourist detination.
Here in Dalat ( a small tourist mountain town, pop 120,00), motor bike touring
is popular and we have leart the best way to see the WHOLE country is by motor
bike rather than sitting on a boring bus. We have only done a one day tour on
motor bike of Dalta and already I wish we could ditch our whole planned open
bus ticket and go the whole way by motor bike, Yes, me Holly, who is normally
scared of such things like motor bike tours, did one ytoday and am sitting at
this computer wiht one very sore backside but am totally overjoyed by the whole
experience.
Today we went to the Chiken village, just North of Dalat, In mountainous
region, which is a poor minority village. The locals make thier living out of
silk and coffee bean growing. We saw some beautiful slik weaving and were
tempted to buy some but are conscious of our bulging luggage.
If I had written this e-mail yesterday I would have sent a very depressing
image of Dalat of being persude by Hawkers and mass poverty. But today I have
been impressed by the friendliness of the people and beauty of the countryside.
All the locals, hawkers included, have been trying to teach us the Vietnamese
Language and today we got confident enough to try some bartering at the local
Market and have bought some exotic fruits, bread and snacks for our 8 hour bus
journey tommorrow. The locals ssem very impressed by our attempts at the
language and are understanding us, much to our amazement. Today after eating
out best meal yet I said to our waitress/chef, 'you cook a very good meal' in
Vietnmese and she was very delighted and said that I head a very good accent.
Anyway am too drunk on the local beer to write much more so farewell for now.
Tommorrow we head to the beach of Nha Trang and are very much looking forward
too relaxing on a beach!
Love Holly,
xxxx