Day 49 of The Big Adventure, mostly according to Parker.

An earlyish start again today as we were heading for Dalat. We had to get to the travel agent for 8.20 so we got up, packed, had a quick banana pancake and checked out.  

We were walked to the bus station by the travel agent. Our bus was supposed to leave at 9. We were still at the station by 10.15 when finally out bus turned up!! These Asians are not good time keepers.

  
We all had to cram into a little bus that would take us to the bigger bus. Definitely Asian size.

  

The buses were such fun!! Instead of seats everyone basically got a bed (although arguably not ideal given seemingly designed for those less than 5 foot tall). You also couldn’t wear shoes on the bus!

  
  
  
  

The journey took a full 7 hours so many breaks were had. At the first stop Freya got the most delightful pork roll. We were all highly jealous. 

  
When we finally arrived after driving past much picturesque scenery, we were pleasantly surprised by Dalat. It was clean, relatively modern and was shockingly reminiscent of the French Alps (some of the houses even looked like chalets!). 

  We checked into our hostel which was pretttty swish. Just look at that chandelier…

  
  
  

 
We were all starrvin marvin when we arrived, so headed straight out for a Viatnamese dinner. We had noted that it was considerably colder here (we assumed due to the altitude) so put on warm clothes. 

Dinner was absolutely divine. We ordered a starter of spring rolls – which arrived in a bicycle!  

 And a round of fresh strawberry juices which was just like drinking a cup of strawberry. So. Fresh. 

  
Then Freya had seafood noodles and the rest of us got a coconut vegetable curry. YUM.

 

 
We booked ourselves onto a canyoning excursion for the next day – even though we were all mildly terrified by the description/itinerary. And with that, we headed home for an early night.