The hills are alive...

Breakfast to a decidedly poor rendition of "My Way" and other crooning classics is surely the only way to start the day in a resort as cheesy as the one we were in, though I am not sure this view was shared by the whole group.  This is a big lesson learned from South East Asia:

Hotel music is RUBBISH.....sorry to shout there, poor writing style etc etc, but honestly....if it isn't over-emotional and from the 70s or 80s then they're just not interested.  I can't remember how often we felt we like were in a particularly emotional scene from an horrifically depressing romantic film.

There we go; off my chest and I promise not to mention it again.....much.  Moving on.

We saddled up outside the hotel and Chi told us that we had another day of 20/20/20km legs.  This time there would be some proper undulating scenery, more on that later.  We kicked off with a fun cycle down the steep hill that led out of the hotel to the seaside of Mui Ne and stopped just outside town for a couple of photos.  As we entered town, Vietnam's love affair with Russia (or should that be vice versa) became apparent.  The Cyrillic alphabet was everywhere; fat men with mullets and moustaches stood A-frame stance as we cycled passed and as we pushed further in, Chi told us they'd just opened up a local airport to Russian holiday companies.  This must have been what it felt like in Malaga in the late 60s!

Leaving the town centre we came to the more "local" end of town and the little bay where fishing boats docked to drop off the catch.  Another short pit stop for photos then Julia and I pushed on to tackle the last 14 or so km of hills.  Another learn about South East Asia is as follows:

No 1 km is always the same distance as another km.

We'd learned this on the first trip, where Nee had told us "4km to go" and someone with a GPS put that lie to bed....so we had adopted the concept of flexible distances, asking instead if the prospective 4km was 4 minus or 4 plus or even 4 plus plus.

These were proper hills now.  We had taken a road that essentially doubled back to our start point (though I didn't realise until later!) and went round the back of the town up in the dunes.  It was hot....and though this might be getting boring to read about as it is a trifle repetitive, if you replace your boredom with the feeling of pain then you can imagine our world!  As we cycled past the world's most incongruous castle (imagine legoland with a vineyard in a remote part of Vietnam) the realisation of our circular route dawned on me and I felt momentary anger.  No matter it had been a lovely ride, all that energy wasted on a circle!  ARGH!


Along the way we had lost two of the group and so we spent a long while waiting for them before we moved on.  Luckily the next 10km were not so hilly and we moved on at pace.  As we approached a town there was a long downhill and that was great fun.  The ride through the town was quite hairy at times, Vietnamese traffic being more loosely controlled than a flock of bats and so we certainly had to keep our wits about us.  The final 10km of the second leg being almost flat; what luxury!

We pulled into the pit-stop and already people were flagging.  The lemon juice and mangos were devoured as everyone's bodies cried out for energy/sugar/water....anything to keep them going.  There was to be a 6 hour transfer to Da Lat, so you can imagine, our final 20km was to be ridden in the searing midday heat.  It must have been 35/36 at least and very humid.  Strong headwinds, but also a thankfully straight and flat road.  I rode up front and Julia and I pushed on hard, leaving the group and moving as fast as we could to get her out of the sun.  Yes, she could have jumped on the bus, but that's not the point here is it?  It was a great feeling, just the two of us, pushing on and helping each other to get through this cycle.  There was lots to see as well as we rode along, with a few of the local schools spilling their students into our path as we cycled.  Always makes for a more engaging ride when you're overtaking 3 vietnamese kids riding abreast with traffic going round you in both directions!

The bus ride (6 hours as I mentioned) wasn't actually that long a distance, we just had to deal with 2 ridiculously steep journeys through mountain passes to get to Da Lat, which is at 1500m elevation.  The French had pretty much re-modelled this small town into an Alpine resort and we had been told to expect lots of villas and moneyed Vietnamese.  The vistas out of the window as we travelled were incredible.  Stopping off at two plantations along the way, one tea one coffee, we also got an introduction into the various ethnic populations of rural Vietnam.


As we arrived in Da Lat the group made a quick visit to the local market, chock a block full of "Made in China" tat, though with a large section for flowers, avocados and other specialist farm produce from the region.  The hotel we stayed in was certainly one of the older/more run-down of our trip, though the  bed-bugs did their utmost to introduce themselves to Julia's feet that night!

Dinner was a very fun affair - with Chi having arranged a group dinner at a vegetarian restaurant.  The food was delicious and there was (as usual) almost too much of it!  As we ordered the drinks we noticed you could buy Small Men Vodka, Big Men Vodka, Small Hanoi Vodka and Big Hanoi Vodka.  Given the Big Hanoi Vodka was the most expensive at £3, we thought "I suppose this must be the better local vodka in a double shot....let's give it a try."

Our first supposition was correct.  It was indeed the better local vodka.  Double shot?  Not so much.  They were talking big or small bottles when they were mentioned size.  So out comes a 70cl bottle of vodka.  Fair play to our companions, the beaming smiles, laughs and claps this produced made us feel slightly less embarrassed ......after all, who orders a bottle of vodka with their vegetarian meal???  The guides also seemed to enjoy themselves and we certainly got to know them better....with one of our drivers (Can) calling me Mr. Vodka for the rest of the trip!

We had a night-cap in the hotel lobby with a few of our group and got to know each other even more.  Tomorrow was to be a day of true hill climbs and a very unfortunate accident.  Ouch.