Still in Dalat - but not for much longer

We had such a wonderful time on our motorcycle trip today that we have decided to take a 3 day trip with the Easy Riders. We leave tomorrow at 8:30 and will most likely be out communication until we get to Hoi An, which should be on Sunday. So don't worry about us.

Our day started with a fantastic breakfast at the hotel (it's included with our room). All sorts of fresh fruit were available: papaya, watermelon, mango, pineapple, dragonfruit, and passionfruit, plus scrambled eggs. There was fresh French bread and peanut butter (the only time I've seen it so far), jam, and marmite. Or was it vegemite? I guess they get a bunch of guests from the southern hemisphere here.

Our Easy Riders showed up at 8:45 or so, and, once outfitted with the proper safety gear (helmets that mostly fit) we were off. Let me assure everyone (you too Mom!) that our drivers ride very small motorcycles - 120 cc. That's barely bigger than a vespa. It's shocking to me the things that I've seen on these motorcycles: chickens, televisions, computers, loads of bricks.....all on bikes that we would barely consider taking a second person on. The top speed we've gone has been 50km. It's very safe, or I wouldn't do it. So, don't worry. The traffic here is NOTHING like Saigon!

The roads were beautiful - very twisty and turny in lush green countryside. We saw everything from flower farms to coffee plantations, silk worm grubs to the full on factory where we saw silk being made. Stopped at someone's house where they made rice wine and fed the rice mash to the piggies in the back yard. Ate the absolute best Pho Bo (noodle soup with beef) at a hole in the wall - cost: less than $1.00. Of course, that included tea as well. And did I mention the roads were beautiful? I can only imagine what they would be like on a full size motorcycle!

The Elephant Waterfalls were pretty darn fun. Our guide walked with us down to the base of the falls, and showed us the cave where you can stand and get blasted by spray. I was soaked in seconds! Luckily, it has been fantastic weather, so I dried off quickly.

After our very very fun day, we had a difficult decision to make. As you can see from the beginning of the post, we decided to go with the 3 day tour to Nha Trang, and then we'll hop on a night bus to Hoi An. We'll hang there for a few days, get some clothes made, and, of course update you all on our adventure. This was a hard decision because taking 3 days to do what we planned on taking one day at most will compress the end of our trip. But, as one of the past customers of our Easy Rider said (all Easy Riders carry a book with comments from happy customers to help sell you on their services) "STOP STOP STOP everything you're doing and take this trip. Unless you were planning on going to the moon tomorrow, nothing will be better." We'll let you know.