last night in the evening I still went with one of my guides to a boxing tournament; apparently he used to be the champion of the province and he is now training others. He is only 24 years old... Anyway after the boxing we went for dinner: hotpot and warm ricewine. It was really nice! I decided that I would go mountainbiking today. They have a nice tour in the north of Dalat through the pine forrest over the mountains on single trails. Sounds pretty interesting and oh it was! I got a new guide, he does this tour 3 times a week... And yet I was in way better shape than him, on the first slope he already had to get off his bicycle and walk the rest up, ok I admit that it was steep but I wasn't having my trailer so it shouldn't be a problem! We passed some very nice scenery and it was challenging from time to time! Just imagine driving on a small path through the forrest in the middle of nowhere and then at once the view opens up and reveals a valley where some locals are growing vegetables! Simply amazing...
Anyway we had lunch on the way, the lunch was not as nice as yesterday because we were only the two of us and so the bread was already made; there were still some bananas for starter and dessert though... After lunch he asked me whether I wanted to take the normal way or a longer route; guess which one I picked. He said that it was a lot more tricky and tried to change my mind but I was having a great time and didn't want to go back this soon. He was getting a lot of problems to keep up with me so I slowed down and tried to stay in his wheel but when we got back to civilization I was tired of driving slowly and tried to get him to race. It wasn't really a race :(...
Anyway it was a great ride!
In the evening he took me to a metal workshop so that I could replace the attachment of my trailer which badly suffered from dragging the trailer up the mountains...
hello again, it's quite a long time since I posted something on my blog so I will try to catch up!
During my tour around the city I stopped at a couple of travel agencies to see what is worth visiting and doing around here. I found an adventureous travel agency that only worked with part-time students. They had a relatively cheap canyoning tour going on for today so I wanted to join them. Apparently it was the same place as where I laid down 2 days ago and took the 'sweat picture'. After a short walk through the jungle we arrived at the practise wall; a rock formation af about 6 meter high to learn the basics of abseiling (=rappel). I'd done it quite a few times before but it was nice to check it again. The two other people: an Englishman who lived in Vietnam and his son were pretty new at this. After trying it a couple of times we were all ready for the next one! This one was higher, about 20 meter, but it was still dry so a nice one to do some jumping... Now time for something different: swimming! The water was ice cold so just swimming would not have been fun, but we got to try out the strength of the water. A few minutes under a very strong hot shower later we could go down a natural slide. The first time felt so good that I wanted to go a second time; the guide laught and said that I could go a second time but I would have to take a different position so I went backwards. Quite frightening to see rocks passing by an inch :P Next was another rappel with in the end a jump into the water. Nothing too spectacular and time for lunch! First a big bag of breads came out of the backpack followed by a can of tuna, vegetables, sausages, cheese, jam, salt & pepper, apples, pineapple, longan, bananas, mangoes and I'm sure that I'm still forgetting something. It was very good!
So now we had our warm-up and the lunch so we could go to the real deal in the afternoon. First there was another natural slide and we went down in a train, backwards, sitting up, ... Quite some fun but I bruised my ass :P. Now it was time for the real canyoning: abseiling straight down a waterfall, the beginning was ok; very slippery but it was still good. Then it became steeper and the water was hitting me everywhere so I couldn't see anything anymore. A very nice experience and when I came down I could go back up and go for a second time! Ow yes, I had fun!
The last activity was a jump from a cliff... The first jump was from 10 meter and it felt great but one of the guides jumped from a bit higher so I wanted to do the same.
In the evening I walked into another cyclist, he was doing the same thing but the other way around: he started from china and is making his way down to cambodia! It was very nice to chat with him and we exchanged 'must-do roads' and 'try to avoid' roads!
Yesterday I took a break, my legs were really sore, this
climb was heavier than I expected it to be I slept well but wasnt ready to go
to Da Lat just yet. This town was not touristy at all, which caused some money
problems: no atm would accept foreign cards so I had to exchange at a jewellery
store After taking an easy walk through town before noon (nothing to see there
actually), I took my bicycle for a spin through the mountains. Without a
trailer it isnt that hard to drive up the mountains and I didnt have to brake
that much while going down! It felt great and it was a beautiful day but I
forgot my camera :p
Today I made the long ride through the mountains from Di
Linh to Da Lat: more than 80 km over countless mountains with dozens of: caution
slope of 10% signs. Its always 10% here in Vietnam, I havent seen a sign of
8 or 12 or whatever I think it just means that it is steep :P. I had to eat a
lot today and thats what I did, instead of 6 meals I had 7 and a kilo of
bananas! One of them was a really good one: somewhere on the road I had a rice
meal with kind of everything on it: pork chops, chicken, shrimp, vegetables,
soup, Whenever I almost finished the plate she kept scooping some extra on it!
This is the way I like to eat The problem is that I dont know how to ask for
it; when I stopped to eat she asked: lunch and I said yes. It was the only
English that she knew.
The last 20 km to Da Lat were uphill and I was already tired
so I almost died out there. Not literally, but my legs were really tired. About
3 km from the top I took a rest and I just laid down on the parking lot of some
tourist attraction. Afterwards I took a picture of the spot, its shown below.
When I arrived in town I just looked for the first hotel that I could find and
went to sleep. I could barely stand on my feet so I was happy that the owners
son came to help with the luggage!
This morning we had another really local breakfast. Its on
those days that you can see how cheap one can live out here. I had banh canh
for 20 eurocents :s, anyway after breakfast it was time to say goodbye to my
cousin and his mother. His uncle and mother were still going to lead me out of
town onto the right road. This was very useful to me and saved me a couple of kilometres.
Today the target is 100 km with a resulting elevation of 1200 m, a very tough
goal but I set of great! My legs were feeling fine and my first stop was 40 km
from Phan Thiet in a small village. I was getting hungry so I looked for a
restaurant; what I found was not really a restaurant but more like a all-in-one
small shop with some tables and utensils. Everything that the woman sold was
loaded on her motorbike and I had to point to the things that I wanted, I
picked some spring rolls and noodles. Then she yelled at her husband to bring
me the right bowls and tea while I took my seat. A pretty interesting
experience, while I was eating she kept coming to my table with some more food
that I might be interested in. Nobody spoke a word of English but it felt like
I was an attraction on my own: the entire school came to take a look at the
foreigner who was cycling through. After the meal I bought some extra food
supplies because I saw that the mountains were coming close and didnt know if there
would be any more houses. Then I started to climb, in the beginning it was
still ok: not too steep but steep enough to know that I was rising. After 20
minutes I passed an old man on a bicycle coming from the other direction; he
was furiously signing that I should turn around because it was going to be very
very steep. I smiled and kept going, half an hour later I knew what he meant I
felt like I was driving up a wall, this was at least 10% and not just for 1 km
The road was beautiful but it was very tough. I drove like this for 3 hours
(including the many breaks), I was getting really tired but kept going. More
than once the though of me being crazy rose into my mind but then I just looked
to my right and saw a beautiful valley. This made me feel good, I just had to
make sure not to look to much to my left because this mountain was high. Then
it became even steeper and I got into trouble, I was driving on my lowest gear
and still had to push hard, every kilometre I had to take a break. With 5 more
km to go to the top, I started hearing a truck driving up the hill. One kilometre
further he caught up with me and I was so tired that I asked if I could get a
ride, they were very friendly and with the little English and many gestures we
had a conversation. At the top we arrived in a village that resembled the
village in the last samurai, the biggest difference was that some of them use
plastic to make there houses more water proof. It was beautiful but no way that
I could get a good rest here so I asked them to take me to Di Linh: a town 20
km further (my original goal of the day). When I got off I gave them 2 euro and
went on my search for a decent bed. They caught up with me at a restaurant
where they would have dinner and asked me to join them. After a nice meal I
asked them whether they knew a nice and relatively cheap place to sleep, they
showed me a hotel nearby and bargained for me. My legs were really sore so I
just took a shower, went to a local shop to buy some more food for the evening
and just laid myself in bed.
This morning I woke up together with the rest of the family,
it was a Sunday today so my hosts where at home. After breakfast it was already
really hot and it was only 7.30 I explained them that I would like to see the
beach and when I wanted to leave by bicycle he said: no no, too far away. As
if 20 km is far when you have already done 500. He took his helmet and keys of
the motorbike, so I took a helmet too and off I went; with my own private guide
who doesnt speak a word of English! It was absolutely incredible, the beach
was so white and the sea so crystal clear; all that under a perfect blue sky
with a burning sun. I would have loved to go and take a dip but had no clue how
to explain him and apparently he had planned out where we would go. He just
kept going past Mui Ne town over a nice road with some of the most incredible
coastline views one can get. Out of nowhere we arrived at a tourist spot;
pretty clear with all the busses and English signs Some red sand-hills on top
of which you had a view over the entire coastline. We climbed up trying to
ignore all the kids that wanted to rent out a plastic sheet with which you
could slide down the hill. The sun was burning and so was the sand, for once I
wished I wasnt wearing sandals :o. We continued the road to a land tongue
which was full of purple flowers. Then we took the road back to their house
with a stop for fresh coconut on the way. When we arrived back there was a
surprise for me: my cousin and his mother had come from Vung Tau to Phan Thiet
for a holiday. They surprised me with some more bananas and a special kind of
soy-corn-rice, hmm. After playing with my cousin for a while and joining his
uncle for a drinking session (with 6 people we drank 48 bottles and 9 cans of
beer, quite a few of them were really drunk), I took a nap; everyone was taking
a nap so I joined. I normally never take a nap but for some reason I felt
really tired Maybe the long distance from yesterday were still weighting on
me. After the nap I felt better but still very weak. I ate some of the bananas
but it didnt help, anyway it was time to go to church. Children have to go to
church 3 times a week from 6 till 14 year old to study catechism. I became
totally unwell and almost fainted during the ceremony so I was very happy when
we were going to eat something right after church! Anyway it was a nice day of
discovering Phan Thiet, tomorrow Ill have to say bye again and I will be going
to the mountains
