Easy Rider in Dalat

Why take a tour bus when you can take an Easy Rider?!

Peter and I had a massive breakfast at the "Dream Hotel" and then met our Easy Riders at 8:30am outside our hotel to begin our "non-touristy tour." Our first stop was at a Buddhist Temple that had a lot of significant history about communisum and the army bombing it because some communists pretended to be monks to escape death.

We carried on through the hillside to a small farm growing strawberries. lettus, mint and beets. We were really excited to see an avacado tree in the yard of the farmers house. There were no other tourists in sight and it made the experience feel very authentic and special.

The view

it was quite the climb to get to the top and Peter and I almost wanted to 'fake' going to the top. We got half way up the hill (our guides taking a break down below) and debating not continuing:)

It was worth the extra fire it took to get to the top! glad we did.

Roses are Red

Coffee

I had never really considered how coffee was made, let alone how it grows. Peter and I were pleasently surprised when we saw that the coffee beans grow on trees and our guide told us that Vietnam is the second largest exporter of coffee ( i don't know if it's true, but according to my taste buds, it's definately the most delicious!)

Schools out!

A Small Silk Factory

We stopped at a small Silk factory in a large run down building that resembaled a farm house. Inside we were shown how the process of making silk garmets occurs. Again, we were the only tourists and the place felt family run. It was so interesting to see how they make the patterns for apparel with these wooden designs. They used simple machines that looked like it requires a lot of effort. It really makes one question how we only pay less than $5 for a scarf!

Elephant Waterfall

Elephant Waterfall was really beautiful. There were no elephants, except for three statutes of small grey elephants at the enterance of the climb. Some tourists with hard-core hiking gear were coming up while Peter, our fantastic young guide and myself started to make our way down through the giant rocks to reach the waterfall. One of the girls looked astonished that I was wearing flip flops and told me "i don't think you'll make it! it's so slippery!" so I took off my shoes and told the guide that if I fell I would make sure I crashed on him so I would be okay:)

I made it down safe and sound!

Temple next to Elephant Waterfall

we made a stop at a Buddihst monestary to see the giant smiling Buddha. He was very beautiful but reminded us a lot of the kind of idol you would see at a mini putting golf course:)

We did see one young "in training" monk who couldn't have been older than 6, his whole head shaved except for a portion in the front. He looked so badass, a little fashionista. However, it was most likely all in the name of being humble.

Monk-in-training

Happy Buddha

Lunch the Vietnamese way...

Lunch was amazing! It was in a little hole in the wall place and there were so many dishes placed down in front of us. We had amazing conversations with the older easy rider man. He told us all about the war, Vietnamese culture now and how Korean tv shows are helping with family planning in Vietnam. Apparently, Korean tv shows are being viewed by the ladies as they stay up late watching their romantic tv programs for 4 nights in a row. These shows apparently don't appeal to the husbands and so, they go to bed early. The next four nights of tv are American action movies that the husbands stay up late to watch while the disinterested wives go to bed early.

Apparently this is how the government plans for families to have less children. Not too bad and highly entertaining!

How much do you weigh?

I can't remember whose idea this was but I really didn't want to engage!

Crazy House

The "crazy house" was our last stop. Again, it looked like something from a mini putting course. It was created by a Vietnamese female architect that studied in Russia for 15 years. I've never seen anything like it. It is a kind of hotel and people do stay in the very strange rooms with tiger and bear statutes. I think David Bowie would like to stay there to shoot a music video and besides that I'm not sure who else would care to oblige.

Overall, the easy riders tour was amazing. Completely worth spending $25 per person and we did arrive back at our hotel by 3pm minutes before the daily rain fell.

I feel like I've really seen this portion of the Vietnamese countryside and enjoyed taking a less touristy approach to exploring Dalat. The Easy riders were informative, kind and funny. We felt so comfortable and everything went to our pace and choice. It was really great considering the other tours cost ($17) for the day but you're on a bus with many other tourists.