A little extra photos from Dalat

Hanging in Dalat

Entrance way to the Linh Son Pagoda

Checking our Dalat's coffe plantation

Group shot over looking the Lat Village

Reece, Kevin and Gail surprised us with a good bye cake(very nice of them)

Missie fighting the falls

Shaun loosing his footing!

1.2.3 JUMP and she did!

Mission accomplished! 

Shaun going down the 70 foot waterfall

In the middle of the waterfall, getting blasted with water (could not breath!)

Missie braving the 70 foot waterfall!

Missie fighting the force of the water. Look at her GO

What a great day in Dalat!

Monks at the Linh Son Pagoda

Chilling in Dalat

Well Reece, Gail, and Kevin all left this morning and it was sad to see them go.  We really enjoyed our time with them and hope that they enjoyed their time here aswell.  After we said our sad good byes, Missie and I quickly hoped into a cab and headed out to the jungle for a day full of action packed adventures (repelling down cliffs, waterfalls, hiking and jumping from the top of waterfalls)

Lets Go!

We arrive at the hiking trail full of  fresh cheese baguettes and full of nerves as we knew what we had got ourselves into.  I had heard about this trek from other travelers and what sold me was the idea of repelling straight down the middle of a 70 foot water.  At first Missie wasn't too keen, however after seeing a few pictures I could see in her eyes she wanted to do this just as much as I did!  So we got to our first cliff, which was where we undertook our 5 minute crash course and before we knew we were experts on repelling (or so they thought so!)  

Missie Jumping down

Going Down

Missie going down

Beautiful river we were hiking through

Me and one of our guides at the bottom of a fall

Only way down is to JUMP

Since we were experts now we made our way to the first cliff which was 18 meters of sharp rock straight down to the bottom.  It was a little tense at first but once you start making your way down it's not too bad. Both of us look like seasoned vets, repelling down the first couple of cliffs and started to walk with a bit a swagger as we thought that we were quite the naturals.  

We suddenly realized that we were not so hot, as both of us turned a little white as we approach the 70 foot fall.  As it gushed water at a rather insane PSI rate, one that might topple a house if firefighters used it, never mind two Canadians legs as they tried to repel down the thing.  But with a little courage we made it down with the biggest smiles and one of the best experiences we have done so far.

After the big water fall we ran into Dalat, Vietnam's version of west edmonton mall's water slides, which were nothing more then hard rock with a layer slippery film on them into a river.  Our guide pointed at a random rapid and said, " ok now you slide" we thought are you crazy, what about hidden rocks under the water.  "no worry he said" so we listened and slid down the rocks every which way possible, it was great!  After the slides we made our way down the river and came to point that we had to jump from 12 or 8 meters down a fall.  It was great! And I was so proud of Missie as she jumped as high and far into the bottom of the river.

Water slides, I mean water rocks

Missie is going backwards, head first!

All and all the river trek in Dalak was amazing and we enjoyed it so much and Missie is quite the adventure girl now! I was very proud of her accomplishments today.

Take care everyone, Shaun

Bit of a break down on the way to Da Lat! 

We definitely have had ourselves an action PACT day today! Like Shaun says the river trek was amazing and we are love love loving the scenery of Da Lat.  The trek went way beyond  comfort levels for me and at the end of the day Im so proud of our accomplishment!  I keep thinking wow, this is ONLY the begining?!  We are so lucky! I cant believe we have the chance  to be here and  do all of this.  And, I am incredibily happy to have someone like Shaun who is so positive and adventurous. He is always pushing boundaries, making us do the things that  I would think are impossible, and proving they are indeed definitely.. possible!  

They say in the Lonely Plant book that Da Lat looks a little bit like the french alps. ( I am not sure what the alps look like, but anything like Da Lat and they would be simply breath taking! And I imagine just as cold too haha ) Every time I open my eyes here, there is always something so beautiful and new to see.  The landscape and architecture alone are a must see here and I am going to be sad to leave.

             

 

Country tour

Along with the river trek, we also did an "Easy Rider" country tour. The 5 of us each were on a motorcycle with an easy rider, except Reece and Kevin, they hopped on their own bike and doubled up.  We spent the whole day on tour crusing the country side, we drove though the mountains, local villages and farms, a pagoda, and a waterfall.. all before having a delicious home cooked authentic vietnamese meal with our guides.  I love meeting the local vietnamese people,  just as inquisitive as we are,  so inviting, and always smiling and waving as they are shouting hello! 

Lunch time! 

This last week the five of us spent together has truly been a blast! Shaun and I were really sad to see our friends leave.  We had many laughs and there was NEVER a dull moment.

Last night we all went for a stroll downtown to the market and out for dinner for our final goodbye.  After dinner Gail, Shaun and I went to pick up some local Da Lat red wine for some midnight reminiscing and before we knew it Reece and Kevin were no where to be found. 

They suddenly turned up and surprised us  with a big box of cake to go with the wine!  So we had a great fun, and although there was not a cake fight, it was awesome none the less. 

Tomorrow we are headed to Na Trang, we are ready to get back to the beach and soak up some sun! We will be keeping you posted and we hope you are enjoying the blog :)

Be sure to leave a comment to say a hello, we would love to hear from ya. 

Thank you all for staying tuned. We love you very much. 

xo Melissa

MInd Blowing Mui Ne

Right now I am fighting for table space with a pig in our resort's lobby.  I need to use the plug in for out laptop and the only plug in spot is right by this 4 foot cooked pig (randomly sitting here).  This pig looks absolutely delicious, very strange that it's just sitting there but I think might take it with us.

From Ho Chi Minh City we took a bus 5 hours down Vietnam's national highway to a small town called Mui Ne.  Vietnam's national highway is nothing like our trans Canada highway I can tell you that.  Here the speed limit is 40 km, but every one goes 140 km, the lanes are one way each way filled with people, cows, crashed scooters, and anything else you can imagine that acts as a obsticle for the bus driving to dodge.  To say the least it was one heck of a ride here.  Oh yeah and when you drive in Vietnam if you want someone to get out of your way, simpy lay on the horn!

Ho Chi Minh's busy streets

We arrived in Mui Ne, safe and deafend by the horn,  which is a coastal town that extends along side the South China Sea and is simply one 10 km white sand beach.  It is quite a nice place to go and simply unwind, relax and try to catch a few waves, although the season we are in now the waves are smaller.  

Missie Checking the view from our $15 a night resort

The day after we arrived we spent the entire day cruising around Mui Ne on a couple slick bikes trying to find a new place to stay because Reece Riopel was on his way to meet us.  These bikes were top of the line 1960's style with the basket in the front with a curve shape frame, boy did we look cool.  By the end of the day we were sweaty, near 3rd degree sun burns, each nursing a bloody toe, about 20 km biked (5 of them with our packs on) but successful.  We found an absolutely fantastic place for only $15 (shared three ways) right in the main part of town on the beach and everything else one can dream of. 

 

Missie modeling our sweet rides.

It has been a wonderful treat to be able to see Reece and spent some time with him.  Our trip has jsut begun, however a familiar face from home is very much enjoyed, especially when its a good buddy like Reece.  We spent the next fews days just eating our faces off at this extremely cheap, but good place, eating piles of food for next to nothing and then, boogy boarding and cruising around on scooters.  We sadly did trade in our economicly efficient bikes, for a little faster and cooler scooters.  Funny thing is that when we rented the scooters the guy told us that if we see any police to keep driving.  He told us  " you si poolice men, you go fastr, no stop".  We said ok and did what he said a few times.

Me and Reece eating Pho soup at a local food stand. (3 AM!)

I tell you this traveling stuff is pretty good! This right outside our room.

Reece filling up with gas.  Filling up with gas in Vietnam is pretty clever.  You have your big drum of gas and pump it into a cyclinder which has makers all the way up it showing 1, 2, 3,4 so on liters, then a drain in the bottom.  Once they open the drain gravity does its job and gas goes down the hoes into the gas tank, just like a big bong!

Relaxing on bean bags in our beach bar.

surfs up!

Hello Everyone! Shaun and I wanted to go at this blog entry together, he tells a pretty good story so I will try to keep it just as interesting for you! 

As Shaun has said, Reece decided to hop on a plane and join us over here from Thailand! What a surprise! One day Reece called up Shaun to chat and let him know he was thinking of Vietnam and before you know it they had it all perfectly organized and he was here!  We were so happy to see him, we all stayed up most of the night catching, laughing and hearing thailand stories.   Within a few days of Reece's arrival his traveling buddies Gail and Kevin hopped on a plane and joined us too. Wow, talk about unexpected great company!  From then on we have all been having a great time here in Mui Ne. In fact, we have been having so much fun together they have decided to come with Shaun and I to our next stop Da Lat.

Our traffic jam! Whats yours? 

Let me catch you up on all the latest, and all the fun we had here in Mui Ne:

We have spent some good quality time down at the beach; Reece, Shaun, Neno (german friend) and I rented boogy boards and road the waves all one afternoon.   The waves were so good that day we even thought of renting surf boards and giving it a real go.  We also though about trying out the kite surfing ( which looks very neat, somewhat like wakeboarding but you are harnessed to a kite, which pulls you like the boat would I guess. We would sit and watch them surfing for a while and if they do a jump or a trick and if  it gets them air they literally float in the air like 10 feet above water for as long as they want.) But we were really enjoying our boogy boards so we stuck to just that. 

We had another beach day when Gail and Kev were here, we hung out in the pool and spent a loooong time playing soccer and sepak takraw, of course I loved that! Shaun and I are now on the search for our own takraw ball so we can keep playing  when our friends leave. 

A few days ago when we had our scooters we took a nice coastal drive, it felt like we were driving  California's coast it was such a beautiful drive.  We really had a great chance to see Vietnam's country side.  And, what a beautiful country  it really is.   On our drive, we headed to the sand dunes, checked out a little canyon, drove by the at the local fishing villiage and stopped to talk to a local lady who was working hard in her field ( as she filled big bags up with cow poop and tossed the bags into big baskets which she carried propped up on her shoulders.) 

Gail, Reece, Kevin

Vietnam Coast

Grave yard

Canyon Pictures

The sand dunes did not even feel like Vietnam, we felt like we were in Egypt. They went on forever! We all climbed to one of the dunes peaks just to admire the view  and then did summer salts and flips off the top.   

At one sand dune we were swarmed by young children begging us to slide down the dune on crazy carpets, and I mean they would not leave us alone. They surrounded  Reece, formed a circle around him and would not even let him walk a foot until he finally said he would go for a slide.  AND Even then, they still followed us fighting among each other and poking at us wanting to know which kid we would pay to use their slide. We were getting so overwhelmed and frustrated by these kids, we even had to start to snap at them to give us some space and we promised to slide but only if  they left us alone for a few moments to enjoy ourselves. It was so sad to see how different children live here. I felt awful getting upset with them harassing us and begging ( I even offered free money to one little boy who then refused it and got mad at me because it wasn't enough and he asked for more ) I know they do not know any different but it is a definite test of patience. 

However, all in all the people are fantastic. The thing about Asia that you do not see in Canada is how happy the people are. They are just simply happy, they take the time to say hello, to smile and to enjoy the day as it comes, which is one lesson/experience (among many others) I wish to take home with me and incorporate into my life.  

So far, this trip has been nothing short of perfect. We are having a great time, staying happy and healthy. Have great friends and great weather with us right now.  We are lovin life, livin the dream! Carpe Diem!  Love you all.  

xo Missie