Dalat...We're going biking!!!

(We are catching up on posts before we head home so check to see which ones you have read in case we have uploaded them faster than you can read them. We have had a wonderful time exploring and writing about our adventures, although we will be sad to leave, we are looking forward to seeing our families again and eating food our bellies are used to.)

For our second full day in Dalat, Chel and I did a biking excursion. We decided to use the same tour company for this excursion, Groovy Gecko Tours. The plan for the day was to be driven a couple hours outside the city with mountain style bikes and be taken up a mountain and then ride about 70km down the mountain towards Mui Ne, a city by the South China Sea. I was really excited as the biking we had done so far was with single speed 30year old bikes and they picked us up with much Newer Giant bikes with multiple gear selections. Our tour guide, named Wat had a Norco bike which is a Canadian bike and even though he had no idea it was, he thought it was cool once I told him.

Norco 

We were picked up at 7:30am and like we were told, it was about a two and a half hour drive outside the city towards Mui Ne. About one and three quarters into the drive, we turned down a side road and began heading up the mountain switch backs. The road going up was pretty narrow but it was also fairly free of traffic which is why they drove us so far away. when we reached the highest point of the road, our driver pulled over and hm and Wat assembled the bikes such that we could begin. Chel and I than hopped on and spent about 15 to 20 minutes riding around making small adjustments on the fitting and then we were off.

Both of us ready to go

As Chel and I ride at different paces, Wat told us he would set the pace and filled in Chelsea with the hand sign for slowing down and told us to be very careful with your speed coming up to the turns on each switch back. He also told us that there were areas under construction and it would be quite tore up in these areas, hence the mountain bikes. After giving us a brief itinerary of the day, we were off down the hill.

The bike was definitely of lower quality as the shifters were not tuned, but it was nice to finally get on something a little more familiar to what I ride at home and with some gearing options. Wat held a good pace for both of us and Chel kept up very well, falling behind only in the more technical parts of the ride, but not very far behind. The ride was perfect, the temperature in the mountains was much cooler than we had been used too and humidity free. the day was sunny and clear and we road down the switchbacks taking in all the beautiful views of the surrounding land. Wat told us 50 km of mostly downhill and then we would stop for lunch. although it was mostly down hill, we would always get up to a fairly decent speed and then have to brake hard for a sharp turn and that pace continued. It was awesome though and we stopped a few times to take in the view.

Chel behind me

Break

We stopped to look at the water falls

A view of one of the switchbacks

Us riding on the same section as the last picture above

Lunch was similar to our last tour, a family style lunch with a ton of dishes. I mentioned to Wat that I like a couple beers when I ride and the thing I knew, he had a bag of ice cold beers for the rest of our journey. He told me next time to tell the company as he would have loved to have a beer before lunch.

After devouring lunch, we had about 15 minutes of rest and the remainder of the 70km was flat or at some points a little uphill. As we rode further from the mountain, we went through many small towns where the locals love shouting "hello", sometimes you have no clue where it is coming from but you just yell hello back, we also passed many farms with weird looking plants, kind of like aloe. we asked wat and he said they were dragon fruit plants and finally we saw some of the farms with fruit growing.

Dragon fruit

Dragon fruit

Chel happy she is done

The day was amazing and I really loved going for a bicycle ride. There was a little hiccup at the end With the tour company, specifically the guide and driver, but it isn't worth getting into details to ruin the post. An amazing biking day!!!!

That night, as Chel mentioned we went back to our favourite restaurant. The next morning we woke up and waited in the lobby to catch our bus to Ho Chi Minh city.  While waiting, we talked with the hotel owner and her grandson. It was really cute, she asked him (the two year old): "who are these people?" And he responded "hotel guests". Then she said "what happens when you are not quiet in the morning" to which he replied "mama don't get no money". IT WAS SO FUNNY as he spoke with a lot of attitude and his English was better than most locals. Dalat was an amazing city in Vietnam and a great way to get away from the heat.

Off to Ho Chi Minh!!! A 9 hour bus ride.