Hello everybody and welcome back to our mystical adventures! Apologies for the neglect of my blog - we are well and truly off the tourist trail now and internet can be hard to come by/frustratingly slow...hope nobody was worried that we had died in a horrific motorbike accident whilst riding no hands and taking happy snaps of ourselves... In fact, we haven't been back on the bike since I last wrote. On our last afternoon in Dalat, we did a few rounds of the town talking to Easy Rider drivers and trying to suss out the best (and safest/most enjoyable)deal for our journey to Buon Ma Thuot. We had our hearts set on one older driver who seemed legit and knowledgeable. However his price was a little steep at $110/day (and by that stage we were in official Southeast Asian cheap jerk mode). We met him outside our hotel and Jack had his haggling pants on. We were shocked when Jack opened the conversation with "we've asked around and nobody has given us a price as high as $110" and he responded with "You go with them then", shook our hands and drove off! We figured he must do fairly well for himself as most Vietnamese tour operators seem hungry for any amount they can get and expect at least some bargaining to take place. After this rejection/dejection/smack we sat down for a Bia Saigon to ponder our options, and came to the conclusion that this was an omen that the motorbike trip was not meant to be after all. Our last meal in Dalat was somewhat of a let down - we went to a restaurant we had not yet tried (in the spirit of sharing the love around) and ordered a delicious-sounding meat and seafood hotpot, and 2 glasses of Dalat's finest white wine. Unfortunately, as it turned out the restaurant's policy seemed to be "You like water with that?". The wine was diluated to an approximate 1:4 ratio, and the hotpot was a flavourless swamp with chunks of pale mince and 2 prawns floating in it. Peace Restaurant Dalat gets the T & J thumbs down! The next morning we were up bright and early (after a stern warning from the tour operator who booked our 7.20 am bus trip: "Don't be lazy!") ready and raring for the central highlands. As previously mentioned, we decided to avoid the well trodden coastal tourist trail of Mui Ne, Nha Trang and Quy Nhon (a combination of being spoilt by more beautiful beaches at home and the desire to experience 'real' rural Vietnam). The Highlands are hilly and green, with bad roads and few whities. It is an area which suffered immensely in the Vietnam War, with the VC bombing and torching some of the towns and the Americans retaliating in suit (including dumping lots of Agent Orange).
We arrived in Buon Ma Thuot, a city of 312,000 and famous for the best coffee in Vietnam, feeling slightly disenchanted. The bus ride had been long and bumpy, the unpleasantness of which was added to by being in the back seat crammed next to two boisterous Vietnamese boys who were obviously extremely excited about their trip and were chattering loudly and incessantly the entire time (they shut up when one of them got motion sickness). Our spirits were lifted after we checked into our hotel and went in search of food - we found an awesome restaurant serving roll your own crispy pork rice paper wraps (a big feast for approx. $1.50 between us) - the waitresses spoke little English but were sweet and fussed around us, asking "I hope this is okay for you?" Afterwards we stumbled across an enormous bakery with aisles crammed with unusual pastries and other snacks (including coconut candy, oreos and beer!)We returned to our hotel on a high and enjoyed an afternoon of freshly brewed coffee and baked goods.
Things went a little downhill from here - all in all Buon Ma Thuot was not the highlight of our Vietnamese Voyage! It was Malaria Monday, so we both went to bed feeling extremely wakeful from the larium. In addition to this, two enormous windows directly opposite our bed opened into a central stairwell lit by an all-night light. Needless to say, there were no curtains. Just when we thought our night could not get any better, we got to meet our new room mate - a rat! I was petrified and made Jack get up thrice to chase it away and hide things it might like to eat. We had planned to visit the Yok Don National Park in the morning but both woke up feeling extremely grizzly. Jack was also running a temperature and feeling really unwell so we cancelled our plans and spent a day huddled in the hotel room watching cable TV (we have now seen The Craft twice and watched 2 different movies starring Cher). By nightfall J's temp was up over 38 and I had begun to panic - although the incubation period for malaria is one week we thought perhaps Jack was an extra comfy place for malaria parasites. We agreed not to take any chances and get him to a hospital if it had not dropped in the morning.
When we woke, the temperature had dropped to 37 and despite still feeling a little under the weather, we were both keen to get out of BMT ASAP. This feeling was cemented by the fact that during the night, Rattus has returned...IN JACK'S HAIR! He woke with a start and when I asked what was wrong he told me he had dreamed there was a rat in his hair - in the morning he confessed this had been a lie so that I could go back to sleep. We checked out of Villa de Rat and hopped on a bus further north to Kon Tum...but that is a story for next time! Much love from your happy travellers, T & J xoxo
