As you can see had 76km to Dalat easy day out, found out from the Americans Zach and Elise there is a bit of an uphill climb at the end of the day, great. The sun was shining by the time I got up, had a bit of a sleep in after a few hundred kms over the last two days. Headed out on the open road and in no time at all was swinging my way through the rolling hills and the fields of Coffee and tea.
Quick break for breakfast and then back on the bike, all of a sudden I was at the last 10km which was all up hill, stopped before the climb and had a red bull, then started the Crank up hill, have to say it was one of the better climbs I had done, it probably helped that I had only done 60km before the climb, that’s right only 60. Headed into a pine forest and the road serpentine up the hill.
There was a bit of traffic and a few buses went past but really the road was fairly quiet, I had to have a bit of a stop about a 3rd of the way up because for some reason got a bit light headed, it passed fairly quickly and the view was worth the stop, I looked out on a tree covered valley, with the hills behind and the sound of the river below crashing down the rocks below, the wind was rushing through the trees, perfect.
After my little break I headed on up the hill and stopped at the Datanla waterfalls, it was a nice place, a lot of locals around, found out it is holiday time at the moment. Wandered down to the falls and it was nice enough, you see better in NZ but for a tourist spot it was pretty good. Very built up, and set up for the Asian market, or really the local market. Bit of information for you, it cost around $5000 US for a Vietnamese person to travel to the west, which for locals is well out of there price range. It does cost them less to travel in Asia and I am not sure what the authorities would do if they headed to Thailand and then from their overseas, but I don’t think it would be worth it for them. So in Vietnam a lot of the tourist spots are there for them which is pretty cool.
They have a roller coaster that runs down the hill which I did not go on which I really should have, it looked like it would be fun, so after the wonder down to the falls and the photo in front I headed back up the hill, I passed a lot of locals struggling back up the hill, it was only a 400m walk but a few groups were stopped on the way up puffing and panting.
Lunch was at the top and then about 5km more to Dalat, it was a good time to head up as the clouds were building and it looked like rain was on the way, had a bit of thunder and lightning but the rain did not catch up with me. Dalat is a beautiful, what kiwis would call a city but for Vietnam a Village up at 1475m, it is warm by day but cools off at night. Because of the holidays it is fairly busy but were I am staying it is not so bad.
I made it just after 1pm so had the whole afternoon to explore the town centre and market. I went and stopped down by the lake for afternoon tea. The big thing in Dalat is the motorbike club who offer rides around the area, and rides down to Nra Trang, so because I was down there sitting one of them decided it was a good time to throw the sales pitch my way.
He tried to sell me a three day bike ride to Nra Trang and even when I said I am riding a bicycle he still carried on with the sales pitch. I tried a couple of times to explain the bicycle situation to him but he was not listening so I gave up and let him carry on then once he had finished I said I would find him if I wanted a ride. NOT. If he does not listen now just imagine what he would be like on a 3 day ride, maybe I should have booked him and shown up with my bike and everything and said carry that.
The Americans should be arriving the next day so would catch up with them hopefully and see what their plans are and see if I can ride to the coast with them for a change.
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