Dalat

We decided on a night bus to take us from Siem Reap Cambodia to Dalat, nestled in the lower central highlands of Vietnam. And after about 25 hours, 4 bus changes, one of which had broken seats, and 3 of which were supposed to have sleeper beds but had only seats, we arrived at our destination. Ha! One of the many Asian travel experiences we had heard about but never until now had the pleasure of experiencing. The last 3 hours consisted of our bus driver cruising up this narrow winding mountain road, surrounded by steep ravines and dense jungle, passing vehicles on blind corners etc. etc. It was awesome!
Dalat is a charming little mountain town with some nice colonial architecture and beautiful curving mountain roads to motorbike along. We only stayed for two nights since we are feeling like we need to get heading north before we run out of time. So much to see still, it would be nice to have another 3 months. While in Dalat we visited a coffee orchard equipped with a shop selling a mountain tribe's hand made goods. We tried the coffee that is first eaten and then pooped out by a weasel before being collected. It was smooth and tasty! We then enjoyed a stunning waterfall. Though, during the wet season it would have been much more spectacular, it was still wonderful.
Some parts of the mountains are also filled with pine trees, however they are quite different then ours. Dalat has a "Crazy house" designed by a Russian architect ( if my memory serves me correctly) which is built almost entirely out of concrete, colour dyes, rebar and chicken wire. It was really something else. Like something out of lord of the rings.
Off next to Nha Trang on the ocean. Cheers!