Day 32, Ho Chi Minh City - Dalat

Bye-bye HCMC

Our destination is Dalat. As we said before, we have chosen to travel by bus. This is for two main reasons:  we don't want to avoid places just because we don't feel able to cycle there; and traffic conditions are generally too bad on roads between big cities. At the moment when writing this post, we have just finished an exhausting three days of cycling. So I don't really feel guilty writing this. And there is anyway no point feeling guilty...

We left HCMC at 9:15am on cosy seats, reading the "Viet Nam News" and eating the pastries you can find on every street corner. Among the varieties of tastes the common factor is an overload of sugar or fat, perfect for starting the journey.

Dalat: mirage of the Effel tower

We arrived at Dalat at around 4pm and directly found our bikes at the bus station. Rot, the representative of the hotel we had booked, was waiting for us and took a taxi to carry us to the Pink Hotel. The staff were really kind and lively. When we assembled our bicycles from the boxes we had the support of everybody, especially Katie who had 5 assistants at one point.

An extract from WikiTravel:

Dalat was originally the playground of the French who built villas in the clear mountain air to escape the heat and humidity of the coast and of Saigon. Dalat looks like a cross between Vietnam and the French Alps.

I agree with this description.

We had dinner with Rot and two nice English backpackers in a popular Chinese restaurant. Taken by the Saturday night fever, Rot brought us to a cabaret to join his folk band playing some Vietnamese, English and French covers. My favorite one was "Aline - Christophe". I warn you that good singers are not necessarily those who perfectly speak French or English, just a fact. It was a really funny experience!

P.S. I purposely skip the episode when Rot lifted me up and span me around over his shoulders.