inconsistent news from southeast asia

Travel time: September 2005 - March 2006  |  by Matthew Audley

Dalat

6 p.m. night bus to dalat. This 20 hour overnight journey was exactly as painful as I'd expected the last night bus to be. Perhaps the seats didn't recline to some critical angle I require in order to sleep, but i didn't get more than ten minutes all night. Even the opportunity to occupy two seats didn't help. By the time we stopped in Nha Trang (where we'd previously intended to stay but decided to skip due to time constraints and weather) we were both in pretty rough shape.

Day 72 (Nov. 24)

I think I caught ten minutes sleep on the restaurant table before we were on our way on a different bus. Somehow, I didn't manage to sleep on this bus either, instead finishing yet another book (the number of books we've both gone through is ridiculous - some 16, I think.)

After many hours on slow mountain roads we arrived in Dalat around 13h00 or so. In no mood to kill ourselves trying to find the absolute cheapest place, we settled on the one they pushed on us for $7, breakfast included.

The room we got for this price was hilarious. Well worth it if you ask me. On the third floor of clean, cheery hotel with a proper receiption and everything, our room has THREE huge beds spread out over a room some 30 feet across with big windows all around. A fridge, bathroom, TV, desk. It's the low season for tourists.

Unsurprisingly, it's chilly up in the mountains. The town is small, but the people are friendly and they've got a miniature Eiffel tower. Dalat started it's life as a resort town set up by the French but why it's in the cold mountains instead of down by the sea on one of the innumerable white sand beaches I do not know.

Day 73 (Nov. 25)

Rain all day. We spent lots of time enjoying our spacious hotel room and so waited until the afternoon to head out, in hopes of avoiding the rain. After giving up on the rain ever stopping, we headed out in it to look around, promptly getting lost trying to find the things we wanted to. I'm pretty sure that art gallery just didn't exist. Instead we say the market and much of the city, as we got lost on the way home, too.

The most communist movie theatre in the world, Dalat.

The most communist movie theatre in the world, Dalat.

© Matthew Audley, 2005
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The trip
 
Description:
Leaving for bangkok on Sept. 12. Where we go from there is anyone's guess. Hoping to see Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos. Be back in six months or so if everything goes well. There really isn't much of a route planned - we'll see what happens.
Details:
Start of journey: Sep 12, 2005
Duration: 6 months
End of journey: Mar 19, 2006
Travelled countries: Thailand
Canada
Laos
Vietnam
Cambodia
Southeastern Asia
Malaysia
The Author
 
Matthew Audley is an active author on break-fresh-ground. since 19 years.
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