Fifth Stop: Buon Ma Thuot

April 23. NHA Trang to Buon Ma Thuot. 188km.

The next town was somewhat out of the way. The original plan was to head north to Quy Nhon, but instead we headed inland to Buon Ma Thuot to see what it had to offer. This meant a rather large detour inland and then back down to the coast.

Whether or not stopping in Buon Ma Thuot was worth it in the grand scheme of things, I cant really say, but I did like it there.

===

We got in at about 4pm and had to look for a place to stay. There was nothing on hostelworld and not much on booking.com so we asked a few locals for nha nghi - hotel in Vietnamese.

We managed to find a place that had three double beds - enough for the six of us - for a mere 400,000 dong per night ($4aud each).

We booked a tour to go out on the day after arrival. A local guide drove us out to a small coffee plantation and shop, to the Dray Nur waterfalls and then the Lok Lake and its surrounding tribal village. 

The first stop, the coffee plantation, was simply a high end coffee shop with a small museum attached, not exactly the countryside coffee farm we were expecting.

From here we were taken to an up-and-coming coffee shop, Azzan, to try some of their coffee. The shop owner explained to us how their coffee is made more purely than traditional Vietnamese coffee, which contains a lot of additives to alter the flavour, and that as a result their coffee is not at all popular inside Vietnam! Their coffee beans are well produced and almost the entirety of their sales are to exporters in Italy and Singapore.

The coffee really cant be compared to the rest of the Vietnamese coffee I have had to date - which I really like. It is a lot more aromatic and bitter - which I did actually appreciate, but that is also more what I am used to from back home.

One special type of coffee I did get to taste however was weasel coffee. This is essentially coffee beans that have been eaten by a weasel, their shit collected and cleaned up to produce coffee, as seen below in its raw form...

These coffee beans are sold for up to US$3,000/kg. It tasted okay, a little more bitter and flavoursome than the regular coffee.

From here we went to the Dray Nur Waterfalls - my favourite destination of the day.

We were able to go behind the waterfall below and take a dip in its pouring water. The power of these waterfalls is incredible - and this is the dry season!

The last stop was Lok Lake. Unfortunately during the dry season this massive lake is largely dried up, but I can imagine how expansive it would be during the wet season.

We walked around the town, around peoples house's to see how traditional Vietnamese lived. The single room wooden huts were the staple housing establishment in this village! We had explained to us that the length of the house is dependant on how many daughters the family had; it was tradition that upon marrying the men would move in with the women and live together in their family. 

From here our guide drove us home. He seemed to be in a kind of hurry because he was a demon behind the wheel - overtaking on the wrong side of the road constantly forcing motorcyclists to drop off the shoulder onto the gravel. Glad I haven't come across many drivers like this to date! Nevertheless, we made it back, alive.

Fourth Stop: Nha Trang

April 20. Da Lat to Nha Trang. 136km.

As you can see from the above route diagram, the roads out of Dalat were rather twisty, which was both great fun and scary as hell at the same time. Mainly scary once it started pouring with rain...

By this stage, Xavi had decided to continue on ahead, alone, as his money was running out and he was looking for work further up north. Aaron had two friends from back home meet us in Dalat, starting off later than us, who joined the crew. Down one, up two bought the group to five.

I managed to leave my glasses behind at the hotel in Mui Ne - luckily Aaron's mate, Sonny, picked them up for me as he came to catch us!

One of the more notable things that happened was Aaron snapping his throttle cable while ascending one of the hills. He managed to undo the grip and jerry-rig a steel cable onto the grip - a good effort to get to the nearest mechanic! His rear brake pedal also lost all feeling due to an over-worn return spring, more bush mechanic work to fix that too.

The potholes we had to dodge...

===

Not a whole lot happened in the town of Nha Trang. Nha Trang is a very touristy area with a tonne of Russian tourists, so much so to the extent that a lot of the signage is actually in Russian - more than English!

We met up with one more of Aaron's mates, Charlie, here before continuing on to our next stop together, the group growing to six!

Most nights were spent having a few beers at a bar down the street because they had a free pool table and cheap drinks - just under $1aud for a beer and a rum and coke together. 

The six riders plus Rosie, whom I met in Battambang, Cambodia a month or so earlier and a couple of her new travel friends joined us for a ride north to try to find a nice swimming beach. We came back empty handed but the views along the way were rather incredible.

Nha Trang is notorious for theft and scams - two girls from my hostel both had their bags stolen while I was there - and those are just the ones I know about! This plus the fact that the place is just swarmed with tourists meant that I wasnt sad to leave...

Third Stop: Da Lat

April 16. Mui Ne to Da Lat. 155km.

From Mui Ne we had to ride along the coast a little then head straight up north, up hill to Da Lat. Da Lat is located 1,500m above sea level, so the climb from Mui Ne was significant! 

The roads were really nice for the most part. From what I understand there was once a strong demand for resorts to be built along the Vietnamese coast and the roads were improved as a result, but the tourists never really came so the roads and resorts are largely untouched. 

There were however some patches that weren't so nice. Potholes covering half of the road some six inches deep; definitely makes you well aware of where you are riding. The bumpy roads took their toll on my luggage rack - a few of the bungee straps snapping making my bag bounce around on the back of the bike!

My poor little 97cc engine took a bit of a hammering climbing the hills, having to regularly drop back to second or third to keep ascending at any speed. 90kg plus a 15kg bag, it's really not surprising it struggled!

===

I spent a total of four nights in Dalat. It is a very nice city with a good backpacker atmosphere. A good mix of tourists and locals with bustling night markets and plenty of options for food.

The hostel did either home-cooked food for dinner or took people out to a local restaurant each night. 

On my third night I had the delicious home-cooked meal which included spring rolls, crispy fried pork, rice and a couple different vegetable dishes - great stuff. 

My last night we were taken to a local barbecue restaurant and had food ordered for us by the hostel owner. He ordered beers, vegetables, ostrich and crocodile meat to cook. The crocodile tasted like a slightly fishy chicken while the ostrich tasted a lot like beef. Both very tasty!

Most nights we're spent hanging out with other backpackers in the hostel basement, which had a pool table and a hifi system.

===

I was also somewhat productive during my time in Dalat. I spent a solid day prepping and painting my bike!

I'm really glad that I did this. It gave it my own personal touch and I hope it might help the resale value. I was going for the utilitarian look and I think I pulled it off nicely.

Following this Aaron, Ellie and I cruised over to the Crazy House. From wikipedia; Described as a “fairy tale house”, the building’s overall design resembles a giant tree, incorporating sculptured design elements representing natural forms such as animals, mushrooms, spider webs and caves. Its architecture, comprising complex, organic, non-rectilinear shapes, has been described as expressionist. 

The place itself is actually a fully-functioning guesthouse that you are able to stay at, but is a very popular tourist destination to check out, so I cant really imagine wanting to stay with the number of people walking through!

===

The highlight of my time in Dalat was the canyoning tour. 

Canyoning is essentially traversing a water-filled canyon by whatever means necessary - abseiling, rock sliding, river crossings and trekking. 

After suiting up in a lifejacket we set off down the mountain and had a quick run down of how abseiling works - and I mean quick.

From here we descended further and had our first rock slide. This involved laying flat on your back and letting the current take you along over a bunch of rocks downstream. 

Next up was the dry wall abseil. This involved walking down a couple meters to descend, followed by a few jumping descents to make the bottom. The guides said that two jumps is what men for aim for, and three for girls. I managed to do one giant leap and end up at the bottom.

From here, we made our way to the big waterfall - the main attraction. We were instructed to take our shoes off because socks provide more grip - I would have hated to have seen what grip was like in shoes because socks were slippery as hell!

You should be able to tell from the photo above ... it's pretty big.

You start your descent through the relatively gentle slope before coming to the half way point, posing for a photo, and continuing an almost vertical descent. I saw a few people slip up and almost face-plant the rock-face so was rather intimidated to begin with. Luckily I managed to keep my footing and slowly descend.

The final point at the bottom you are told to simply push off the rock and let your hands free, and fall flat on your back the four metres to the water below. 

More trekking followed by a cliff jump into the water below, a tiny 7m. After doing the ~15m in Thailand a couple months earlier this was nothing to me!

From here we made our way to the final abseil - the washing machine. Aptly named because you traverse down the cliff only a few metres, before hanging in mid air for a couple metres and then ending up inside a violent waterfall that throws you head over heels down the river.

The day was ended with lunch - do it yourself banh mi rolls - and the final trek up the mountain. What an incredible yet exhausting day!

Second Stop: Mui Ne

April 14. Vung Tau to Mui Ne. 179km.

The second stop was a little ways further than the initial ride, but by this stage we were all more confident on our bikes.

The four of us met up for breakfast around 10am and eventually got to set off by 11:30 ... something we need to work on!

The ride was great - cruising along the coast with views of mountains and beach-fronts. The bikes we're largely reliable for the trip; only one stop was required to fix Aaron's rear brake which lost all pedal feeling.

The only slightly scary thing is when riding along and coming into a clearing and getting blasted by the wind. At some points we were riding on a pretty significant angle just to keep the bike in a straight line - we were easily getting blown to the other side of the road!

On as straight road you can hold the throttle half open in top gear (fourth) and sit on about 65kph - not fast by any means but it gets the job done!

===

Mui Ne is a tourist beach town. I don't quite get what it is with Vietnam but there are areas that are just filled with Russian tourists - Mui Ne is one of them.

The area is simply just one big stretch of road with a higher end resort side and across a small bridge more guest house style accommodation - we stayed in a guesthouse for around $3 each a night. 

The main drawcards to Mui Ne are the sand dunes and the Fairy Stream. We gave the sand dunes a miss but checked out the Fairy Stream.

It is simply a tiny little freshwater stream that people walk along - it's actually quite a relaxing thing to do. If you make it all the way to the end you can get to the small waterfall where the stream originates from.

We later rode around a little through the fishing town past the tourist area. The bay area is covered with tiny little fishing boats and big buckets, of which I assume are used to haul the fish ashore. Unsurprisingly the area had a distinct smell of fish.

We all got an oil change done at a mechanic in Mui Ne before setting off, which runs for around $6aud. I was told it's a good idea to change the oil every 500km or so - these bikes are old and we are pushing them pretty hard, so it seemed like a good idea!

I also noticed that my rear wheel was making a squeaking noise with each revolution. Turns out the rear wheel bearing needed replacement. They had the part on hand and changed it for a mere $3. To date this is all I'd spent on my bike, the least of the whole group. Touch wood nothing more major goes wrong!