Apologies for the radio silence since Saigon, but the last few days have been quite intense cruising around the Central Highlands. Leaving Saigon by motorbike revealed itself a real nerve wrecking experience that took us two hours to accomplish. Only after 8 hours we managed to reach our first destination, Bao Loc, on the central highlands. We rested for two days out of the exhaustion from the first leg of the trip. We are, in fact, not used to sitting on a saddle for so long and our bodies suffered badly. Bao Loc was a pretty enough city to entertain us for the 2 days, with all its coffee plantations as well as green tea and mulberry trees. Also the temperatures changed dramatically from the humid hot of Saigon, reaching the 800 meters of altitude in Bao Loc revealed itself quite refreshing. We then continued on towards Dalat which is situated at more than 1500 meters of height, it definitely felt like being in an Austrian alpine destination with its pine forests, colorful flowers and beautiful strawberry fields. We spent new year's eve in Dalat being almost the only western tourists in town, which was invaded by Vietnamese holiday makers visiting the flowers festival. After Dalat, we descended of a few hundred meters and rode along the wild beauty of the central highlands reaching out the Ho Chi Minh road that represents the central artery of Vietnam towards Hanoi. The landscape was glorious, the people warm and friendly and the weather very pleasant. Leaving busy Saigon, we found back people's warmth we were missing from Cambodia. The Vietnamese still remain less friendly, or let's say more opportunistic, but in the end their curiosity towards two random motorbike travelers was immense and the pleasure of seeing us passing by was obvious.

The first half of our trip towards Hanoi was definitely marked by the absence of Western tourists. The only "white people" we met were the passengers of the Easy Riders, a group of motorbike guides that cruise around the central highlands; the rest was just Vietnamese, which confirmed the choice of travelling inland along the mountains the best way to experience Vietnamese real culture and stay away from the touristy coast line.

Our favorite destination so far was a small city called Kon Tum. There was something special about the place that made us fall in love with it. This area is home of many of the 56 ethnic minorities of Vietnam which seem to be neglected by the central government trying to make them embrace the socialist dream of a homogenous Vietnam. These people fight to keep their tradition and are still paying the price for having sided the Americans during the war, hence are being neglected by Hanoi and represent the underclass of Vietnam. The orphanage that we visited which is portrayed in the pictures is solely populated by minority kids, because nobody seems to care about them from an institutional point of view.

We love riding our motorcycle a lot and this part of the trip is our favorite so far. It doesn't come pain free as the bike broke down twice and we had a flat tire within a week. It is still fun and the best way to travel also considered that we are getting to see places and meet people we wouldn't be able to do by bus. Biking also lowered our hygiene standards and we get to wear the same clothes two or three consecutive days, which we would never have done before. Doing laundry is quite difficult when you are on the move every day, but we don't seem to mind and don't have a problem with travelling with one back for two people. The other backpack was sent to Hanoi by train from Saigon, hoping it will get there or we will find it in a few weeks or so.

Next destinations will be Hoi Ann, Danang, Hue along the coast and then back on the Ho Chi Minh Road up to Hanoi. Will keep you posted!