We recently arrived in Da Lat. Having spent a steaming week or so along the coast of Vietnam, we thought it would be nice to chill off a little in the central highlands, and our 'trusty' guidebook assured us that Da Lat is the place to do it. In fact, it's a common myth that if Vietnamese people are married and do not honeymoon in Da Lat, they aren't really married at all. So, it must be good we thought...
Arriving during the tail end of a typhoon heading for Taiwan, the weather was much like that at home, and the city didn't appear to be all that. Feeling cold and a little deflated by it all (no idea why it's the honeymoon capital of Vietnam) we headed for the Peace cafe. Legend has it that the original Easyriders hang out here and we had heard it was worth a meeting with them. An hour later we (we have been travelling with a Scottish couple for a week or so) had arranged a day tour with four Vietnamese war veterans, and we stumbled from the smokey cafe wondering if our guides would have time to sleep off their beers before picking us up the next day.
This day turned out to be one of our most interesting yet. Each with our own guide, the four of us set off on our easyriders to cruise the local countryside and see what Da Lat is all about. Apart from the obvious tube tunnels that mark the booming flower trade and the coffee plantations, it turns out that the little houses that seem nothing more than shacks at the side of the roads house noodle factories, silk factories, black smiths, basket weavers, rice wineries and a myriad of other businesses. All very welcoming, our guides made sure that we met the locals and experienced a little bit of their lives. It soon became obvious that the war is still very present here - the veterans regailed us with stories of their encarceration having fought for the southern army, and the harsh realities of 15 years of strict communism. Their light hearted approach was great, but they were still weary of saying too much when other people were around us, and the impression that they are always being watched still plays on their minds and is, in reality, still an every day occurence.
We cruised the countryside for the day and ate some fantastic local grub, all the time learning more from our wise guides. By the end of our trip, we were firm friends and more than convinced that the best way to see Vietnam is from the back of a bike!
