Daily Archives: Thu August 20, 2009

Moto Vietnam: Day 5 – A Day in Da Lat

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Xuan Huong Lake

Xuan Huong Lake

Today was a lazy day – well deserved after the arse-numbing ride the day before. We opted to make use of our legs for a change and took a wander around the lake. The guide books reckon it’s 7km, but it didn’t seem anywhere near that far as we ambled around in just over an hour.

The Peace Cafe was so nice the night before that we just had to pop back in for a passion fruit juice. Simply DO NOT miss out on this beverage. Best ever.

Hundred Roofs Cafe

Hundred Roofs Cafe

A short walk away found us at the 100 Rooftops Cafe where we had ice cream. The commemorates a building torn down by the government for its failure to meet planning regulations. Or for being ugly. Or something. Either way, the cafe itself if a work of complete, utter, mad raving genius/lunacy. It’s as if someone’s given a schizophrenic full license with the world’s supply of plaster and paint – more like a funhouse then a restaurant.

After a quick email check we tenderly popped our bums back onto the bike and headed through the rain to the seamstress art village a couple of kilometres away.

Seamstress Art Village

Seamstress Art Village

This is a very strange yet serene place. There are many examples of local art, both traditional and contemporary. Check out the prices on some of the paintings, though. They’re pricey even by western standards.

Fortunately the restaurant has a cheap 10,000D option where you can sample a variety of foods and guzzle green tea. It’s just round from an artificial stream and forest and several installations.

There are some lovely photo ops here, but do watch for the weather as a fair amount of the village is outdoors. One downside is that a lot of the information is in Vietnamese with no translation available for Johnny Foreigner.

Hundred Roofs Cafe at night

Hundred Roofs Cafe at night

Back in the city, we picked out HNL for dinner. I had a lotus root salad and chicken which was very nice indeed. I also pinched some of Thao‘s chicken hotpot and indulged in another passion fruit juice. In fairness, just as good as the Peace Cafe’s offering.

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A week by motorcycle around South Vietnam: Overview

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another street in Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh
At one with the locals

I’m very late in typing this up and getting it posted but I’ve been really busy since getting back from Vietnam. This post is a brief overview of the trip I took with Thao. I’ll be adding more detailed posts for each day shortly and they’ll be linked from here.

The idea of this one is to let someone interested in following out route know road details, distances, times and the like. Note that we did this trip in August 2009 with good (hot) weather. The roads are changing a lot in Vietnam so don’t rely completely on Lonely Planet for your directions. Ask locals and get a new map.

A lot more hints and recommendations relating to motorcycle travel in Vietnam can be found in this accompanying post.

Sun 16th Aug

Set off from Ho Chi Minh City at around 11:30am. We had one stop for a flat tyre just outside the city limits and passed through Phan Thiet where we stopped for an hour or so. Just outside Mui Ne we went to take photos of the orange sand dune and got to accommodation around 5:30pm.

Mon 17th Aug

Left Mui Ne around 9:00am. Got to Phan Rang at 1:00pm then left again at 2:30pm after viewing the Cham structures. Arrived in Nha Trang at roughly 6:00pm including one internet stop of about an hour on the way.

Tue 18th Aug

Full day in Nha Trang

Wed 19th Aug

Left Nha Trang at 8:00am. 20km south of the city is a “new” road which is signposted for Da Lat. We followed this in a straight line for maybe 10-15km to a very small roundabout in a small-ish town where we turned left. This is the first sign for Da Lat after the one on the main road.

The first proper petrol station we passed, many kilometres later, wasn’t open yet though looked near completion. The next one we hit was around 70km from Nha Trang. We filled up there and had lunch just along the road before passing another station a kilometre or so further along.

The next fuel station is a long way off and the journey to it includes a lot of uphill driving. There are some little home-brew petrol pumps on the way as well, but I believe these are pretty pricey. On a small bike you must fill up at one of the main ones or you’ll realy run the risk of being stranded.

We arrived in Da Lat around 2:00pm

Thu 20th Aug

Full day in Da Lat

Fri 21st Aug

We left Da Lat at 7:45am and took the “20” direct to Ho Chi Minh City as it was the fastest route. It’s mainly downhill and gets very busy. There are plenty of waterfalls to see off the route, but the signposting for them varies from “can’t miss it” to “virtually non-existant”.

Including one lunch and one internet stop, we made it to HCM City around 6:00pm.

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