Easy Rider Day 1

We started our 'Easy Rider' three-day tour just after 8.30am, leaving Dalat Backpackers which had been my home for five days. The tour was with just one other person, a British guy called Ben. Our Vietnamese tour guide would be leading the way and taking us to various minority villages and sights from Da Lat to Lak Lake to Buon Me Thuot and finishing in Nha Trang. It was my first time on a fully manual motorbike, so it took a little while to get used to the clutch and gear changes.

For the first couple of hours we were joined by two guys doing a single-day trip. One of our stops was at a minority village where the people speak a different language to Vietnamese. We met a lady who had 11 children and our guide told us that the women are in charge and buy their husbands with buffalo. He said I would cost around 10 buffalo because I'm "handsome and have white skin". Apparently my personality doesn't add any value.

We went to the weasel coffee farm and the silk factory which I visited a few days ago but having the guide made them more interesting. I even ate one of the silkworm pupae. It wasn't pleasant. Next stop was Elephant Waterfall which was the most impressive I've seen in a while. I was glad I didn't have to abseil down this one.

After a very tasty lunch we went to a place which makes 'Happy Water' (rice wine) to buy a bottle to go with dinner. Then we stopped for a road-side snack of Bánh rán, a deep-fried rice ball filled with green bean paste. It was like a cross-between Japanese mochi and a greasy donut (in a good way). They cost 2000 dong each and they sell 1500 every day just to passing traffic. That works out to nearly £100 per day. Not bad for street food in the middle of nowhere!

Just as the sun was setting, we arrived at our hotel on top of a hill in a small town called Liên Sơn (above Lăk Lake). Ben and I checked in to our room and were surprised just how shattered we both were due to the early start followed by hours of concentrating on the road.

After a much-needed shower we were taken to another road-side food place for dinner. We had bánh xèo, the pancakes which I've had a few times but these were a local version which are much smaller and you wrap the whole pancake in rice paper along with salad and then dip it in a peanut and chilli sauce. It was so delicious, I had 5 or 6 (for less than £1).


One of the many brief stops along the way was this floating village where most of the inhabitants had moved from the Mekong Delta.