more vietnam

Hi,

In the last 2 weeks we have been to Da lat, Nha Trang and Hoi An. Da Lat is a hillstation which was similar to the cameron highland in Malaysia in terms of scenery and weather, although i found Da lat more attractive and another bonus is they produce their own wine. There were plenty of tours to do with the "easy riders" a group of bikers that take you around the surrounding countryside, we decided they were too expensive and also too cool for us so we spent our days walking around the town. There is a pretty impressive lake to walk around, a crazy house designed by some mental Russian and the kings summer palace which was cool. Most nights we ate in this restaurant/cafe owned by a little vietnamese lady who was actually bonkers but really nice and the food was good, we also met a nice couple from manchester - Rob and Rich, we caught up again with them in Hoi An.
Nha Trang was the next stop, extremely touristic beach resort BUT the best beach in Vietnam so happy to spend 3 days there, we then caught the night bus from there to Hoi An which was an odd experience. The bus slept around 30 odd people, adam and i both got a top bunk with some old timers snoring under us and some american girl behind us moaning the whole way, it was really bumpy and we almost collided head on with lorries numerous times but we made it 12 hours later to Hoi An. We immediately loved Hoi An, little winding cobbled streets with old french colonial era houses and lovely little cafes. We have visited lots of little museums and old houses, the japenese peace bridge at night is beautifully lit up with coloured lanterns and push bikes peacefully going past. Today we took a rowing boat up the river with a lady named Chun, she was in her 70's but rowed impressively along. We are planning on leaving tomorrow along with rich and rob, to the "marble mountains" and onto danang trainstation where we head to Hue, the train journey is supposedly the best in vietnam and will make a change to bus rides! looking forward to it.

xxxxx