The employees at the hostel were kind enough to serve us up some dinner even though it was pretty late, so we had some beers with people at our hostel and enjoyed our massive and tasty meal.
The next morning we rented a motorbike and set off to conquer Lang Biang mountain.
We heard that instead of biking up the mountain, there is an area you can hike so we definitely preferred this route. Trying to find this entrance wasn't quite as easy as we had thought; we took a trail away from the front entrance on this bumpy, pot-hole and boulder filled road.
It didn't lead to the entrance we discovered,
but it was so beautiful with plenty of mountains, red sand, and farmland surrounding it.
Adding to the difficulty, once we actually entered the park, we could not seem to find/stay on the marked trail. So, we made our own.
This was a very steep and slippery climb up, with plenty of dead pine needles on the ground making it hard to catch a grip.
With some determination, we broke a sweat and made it to the top, and honestly the view was worth it!!
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| Lang Biang sign from the top |
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| Sweat baby sweat |
After catching our breath and checking out the eagles hanging out at the top of the mountain,
we found a comfy seat and munched. We played the harmonica to set the ambiance too ;).
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| Ostrich and Crocodile skewers |
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| Harmonica Harry |
After spending an hour or so at the top, we climbed down. It wasn't AS exhausting, but it was just as slippery and we ended up on our ass many times!
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| Friends we made along the way |
That night we had dinner with all of our hostel mates and enjoyed some delicious Dalat rum. A local tour guide of the hostel (lovingly known as Mr. Happy) encouraged a group of us to go to karaoke with him, and after a few wobbly pops we were easily convinced.
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| Mr. Happy leading us through a dark cave to the unknown... |
We went to a typical KTV, where we had our own private room to ourselves.
Mr. Happy was the MAN and started the whole thing off by jumping onto the table, dancing and belting out Uptown Girls. We died laughing hysterically, and this was the perfect ice breaker.
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| Ice officially broken |
We had A BLAST, so much so that everyone was singing and the owners of the bar had to kick us out at the end of the night, after we got one more song in of course.
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| Late night Banh Mi's after a long night of singing |
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| NOM |
We had a lazy morning the next day, laid in bed, enjoyed some breakfast and eventually got ourselves ready to explore. We rented a motorbike again and wanted to check out some waterfalls.
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| Monkeyin' around |
There was a popular canyoning tour in Dalat, but because of an awful accident that occurred days earlier, it was closed down for the week. We went to check out the waterfall anyway and just relaxed and listened to the sounds of nature.
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| Rebel (obviously) |
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| Tiny Dancer |
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| Wandering Dalat and came across this pretty picture |
After this, we head out to find the Elephant waterfall, which seemed to be easy to find on google. After driving for a while, we didn't have much luck or time to find it so we just explored the streets of Dalat and headed back to our hostel for dinner.
But of course, it wouldn't be an adventure without a slight bump in our plans. On our way back, it took us a while to realize that we were no longer headed in the right direction (because of a stupid slight curve in the road), nothing looked familiar, and we were not in the mountains anymore, but deep in the valley. It was freezing cold at this point and our hands were numb, it was dark out now and only getting colder, AND the motorbike was running on empty. Our 'gps' (aka iphone) was also almost dead. There was a moment of panic that we weren't going to make it back, but we quickly asked some locals for some gasoline. Of course they didn't have any...but no worries because there was a gas station 100 meters down the road. We checked out the gps, got ourselves back on track and quickly rode back to the hostel. We were numb from head to toe and SO grateful for a warm meal!!
We ate, warmed up, and made plans to meet up with some of our friends at 100 Roofs Cafe. This bar was not what we expected at all! It was a winding maze of caves and jungle themed amazingness.
There were tons of little cubby holes to drink in, staircases that criss-crossed each other, and tons of spots to hang out. It is basically a drunken maze. Emergency fire exits aren't of concern here, if there were a fire...good luck ;).
After having all kinds of fun the night before, one of us woke up with food poisoning. We spent the WHOLE day in bed; it was not fun. These are the joys of travelling, you just have to take the good with the bad, the yin with the yang.
Luckily the next day was a bit of a different story and we actually got up and went on a half day tour. Our buddy Mr. Happy was our tour guide for the day while we ripped motorbikes around Dalat.
Our first stop was lunch, and then we went to check out a cool pagoda (Linh Phuoc) that was completely decked out in recycled glass.
People who visit the pagoda write their loved ones names onto a piece of paper, seal it onto the bell and bang it three times. It's supposed to symbolize good luck, health, and happiness for your family, so of course we did this :).
In the same spot, there was some museum of wax figure monks, which was supposed to symbolize 'Heaven'.
In the basement of the same museum was a simulation of what they imagine Hell to be like. It was super weird and we weren't sure why they even had it, but nevertheless it was interesting.
We then went to check out a coffee and tea plantation. The coffee industry has become a major economic force for the country so it was cool to hear about the whole process.
There was also a 'Weasel Coffee Plantation' as a popular tour spot, which we didn't get to see. Apparently, the weasels eat only the best coffee beans, which they then poop out. The pooped out beans are collected (and sterilized) and sold for top dollar as premium coffee.
We got to explore the plantation for a little bit, and as we were leaving poor Mr. Happy's bike died on him.
We tried helping him get it started with little success, but we were lucky enough to find a shop across the street to fix up his bike; this took maybe an hour and a half or so, so it put a bit of a delay on the tour.
We also briefly visited a strawberry farm, which was unfortunately closed (we still snuck a strawberry or two),
Paradise Lake,
a restaurant with traditional Vietnamese coffee (the tastiest coffee you will have), and we stopped somewhere to try another version of Vietnamese pizza (which is deep fried rice noodle 'crust', with egg cooked into it, chives, and chili sauce.
It might sound weird, but it's actually pretty tasty.
Minh (AKA Mr. Happy) was kind enough to take us to his home, which is a hostel for locals. He pays a very cheap monthly rate, and his room is very small and simple. He gave us some snacks while we were there and we chatted a bit. It was really interesting for us to see where and how he lives.
At the end of the day, we were still feeling pretty rough from something that we ate (we suspect) so we got an early night. The next morning, we were embarking on a long journey to Hoi An, the tailoring capitol.
