The next stop after Mui Ne was the colonial French town of Dalat, located in the Central Highlands of the country. We headed out the first day to explore the city, but yet again got chased back to the hotel by a rain storm. We realized if we wanted to get anything accomplished it would have to be really early in the morning to early afternoon to beat the rain!
So the next morning we were up and at it bright and early! Leah owned a scooter while teaching in Korea and after much deliberation, we decided our best bet would be to rent a scooter for the day so we could go wherever we wanted. So I jumped on behind her and off we went to face the Vietnam traffic!
It has been a while since we were able to do any hiking, so our first stop was Lang Bien Mountain for a little dose of nature!
We had originally planned on making it to the Peak of the mountain range. Unfortunately, we stopped a man for directions on the way up and he informed us that he had been bitten by three leeches! The thought of pulling a leech off of my foot really freaked me out. Not to mention, where there are leeches there are probably snakes, which is my biggest fear in the world! After a short deliberation at the fork to the summit, I decided to put on a brave face, and my poncho, and keep going! I made it about 20 minutes tip toeing along drenched in sweat with my poncho plastered to my body. We then came to an area that was wildly grown over with way too much foliage for my comfort. I was just too terrified of seeing a snake...I tucked my tail between my legs and turned back, while Leah continued on to the peak. I was disappointed I wasn't able to overcome my fear, but it just wasnt worth it to me. So I waited for Leah for about an hour and a half at the fork in the road, eating crackers and attempting to do old dance tricks from high school to entertain myself.
The next day, we had a 12:30 bus to catch, but there was a huge waterfall we wanted to get to see. So, we got up really early and set back out on the scooter. After about an hour and half, 10 stops for directions, and 15km in the wrong direction, we made it to Elephant Falls!
We only had about 20 minutes to enjoy the falls before we had to jump back on the motorbike and rush back to the hotel. It was then onto another bus to continue our journey up the coast...next stop, Nha Trang!
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