Firstly this computer changes everything I type.

Arrived in Da Lat after a very sceanic bus ride from Saigon. Stayed at a little hostel tooked down a side street called Enjoy Da Lat. Amazing owners took everyone in the hoostel (english, ozzy, american, canadian) to a restaurant in a little gararage where all the locals ate. Noodle soup wass on the menu along with a lot of rice wine, and bad jokes about monkeys! The next day we all rolled out òf bed to go canyoning in a river. This involved absailing down waterfalls, waterslides and cliff jumping all through the surronding jungle! Had such a good laugh with some amazing people. The night ended with more good food and a few card games.

The next morning my 3 day, 600km, roadtrip with 'messi' through central Vietnam from Da Lat to Nha Trang began. We strapped my very large bag to the back and off we set through the hills, flower, coffee and rubber plantations. Every 20 mín we would stop and he would tell me about the hills and point out huge bomb crators from the war. We sat and drank some very strong coffee in the plantation and visited a silk factory using the cacoons from silk worms. We then snaked dơn the mountain to a waterfall and a cave which had a refreshing breeze. That night we rolled into Lak where we ate under torch light as therere was a power cut. Messi then got an early night so me a dutch couple and two swedish lads sat, drank beer and told funny travelling stories.

An early start the next day involved riding to Lake Lak where I went on a n elephant ride through the lake and through the rice fields. we then went to a minority village by the lake. It was good to see how they lived but I felt they had been exposed tô much to vietnamese culture and tourism and felt a bit uncomfortable although messi insisted to look around. then it wass back on the bike along a very bumpy road to a huge waterfall and some swimming which wass a welcome break. I soon dried out on the back ò the bike with the wind in my face and headed to Buon Ma Thout, apparently before rush hour. I can't imagine it being busier with thousand ò bikes and tractors on the road with ú wieving in and out off. When we arrived we sat at the centre opposite a ửa memorial. Messi explained some ò the truths about the warr and how his father and uncle had fought against the americans for the Viet Cong in the Demilitarized Zone, and how his uncle had died. He was grateful that I had already read about the war and showed an interest. he showed me on the map hơ the hoi chi minh trail spread for nearly 20000km throught the jungle to avoid the B-52 bombers.

The final day was a long ride past mỏe rubber plantations and coco trees. It was much flatter until we got closer to the coast and began to climb up one the most spectacular roads i have seen. I huge storm wass building and we tried to out run it but failed and the heavens opened. So we slowed right down to a snails pace and got very very wet. It soon passed and the mountains opened up to a straight road with not a car or bike in sight apart from the Dutch couple Hanna and Klaas who we now followed. The day ended with eating some amazing food, tuna-mango-chilli, squid-corriander, and huge prawns. all for $3.50 each as it was far off the tourist track.

I have now arrived in Nha Trang and going snorkelling tomorrow. I have some beautiful pictures but the internet í never good enough to upload them so they will have to wait.

Much love Tom x