Day 19! We start today’s post off with another early morning for a beautiful… but very bumpy motorbike ride!

After a restless sleep I woke up to my alarm at 5:30am and quickly got ready for the day!

I packed my bag onto my bike and set off to check out of my hostel.

After checking out I was met with a beautiful sunrise which made waking up so early worth it!

I decided to wear jeans today… one for safety, I think it’s much wiser to cover up my skin in case of a fall, but also because it was pretty chilly on the ride this morning!

The first hour of my ride flew by as I went from scenic beach back into jam packed towns.

I pulled off to check my fuel level and was around the halfway mark for the tank so I decided to fill up… and thank goodness I did.

The jam packed towns quickly turned into rural landscapes… with VERY bumpy roads.

There were pot holes everywhere and overfilled pot holes too avoid too.

I was able to avoid most of the potholes but I couldn’t avoid them all and just hoped I wouldn’t pop a flat tire or that my bag would fly off the back.

After another hour I pulled off for a break and to enjoy the view!

This is what has made driving myself so worth it this far! And there were even more incredible views to come!

Now… it wouldn’t be a bike ride without some hiccups, right?

Well, my first hiccup of today was that the bumpiness of the road would knock my bungee cords loose.

Luckily the bag never fell off and the one time I noticed both were loose I was able to pull over immediately and fix it.

But at this rest point I avoided a catastrophe.

Somehow, my bungee cord had wrapped around the engine block… narrowly avoiding the wheel!

The bungee cord is a bit melted but other than that everything is okay, but it could’ve been a lot worse. I’m now checking my bungees a lot more and hopefully that won’t happen again, especially after I get new ones.

After resting I got back on the road which had now turned into a winding road up a mountain side.

It was VERY fun to ride up and down but there were times I’d be stuck behind a truck or a bus and it’d make it a lot harder to get up the road.

It was at this point I realized I was insanely lucky for filling up gas when I did… because there were no stations in sight.

I didn’t see a gas station for 2 hours!! And luckily didn’t run out of gas before that.

But before I got to the gas station I of course had to stop again to admire the view!

I wasn’t able to take a picture of the best view of the ride because there wasn’t a place to stop, but his picture is still so cool, at least I think it is!

Now after I got down the mountain, this is where another hiccup came.

I was desperately looking for gas and semi-panicking that I wouldn’t find it in time…

This was that longest I had gone without checking my tank let alone filling up the tank.

And in my panic I finally saw the gas sign but missed the turn!!

I saw a cut through road and without thinking I quickly took a sharp turn to try and get on the path but I was in too high of a gear and there were large bricks in the road and my bike tipped into a ditch and I fell into the water within it!

The water was freaking disgusting and black and coated my shoes, hands, and pants. But luckily that was all that happened!

A Vietnamese local was quickly on the spot helping me lift my bike and then pointed out a hose for me to use… which makes me believe I wasn’t the first to fall there before.

I’m very thankful I wasn’t hurt. But I’m also thankful I was able to have this experience in a calmer setting without anything serious happening.

I’m learning as I go and this was a big learning moment to remind myself that even in times of “panic” I need to stay calm and collected and make smart, rational decisions!

The local and I then struggled to communicate as I was still trying to make sure I was on the right path to the gas station.

It took me a bit but I eventually found it after asking around a bit more and went on my way!

I did stop a few times after this incident to take breaks, adjust the giant wedgie I’ve been fighting every time I drive, and to stretch. But I was more keen to just get to my destination.

When I got into Dalat my phone died. So I pulled off at a corner store and waited for it to charge.

While I was waiting there an older Vietnamese man, Sam, came up to me on his bike and started chatting with me.

Within the first minute of the conversation he asked me to come stay with him and his family because he wants to work on his English.

I was very interested and we struggled to exchange phone numbers since he didn’t have a smart phone to use WhatsApp… so I’m not sure it’s going to work out.

If I do plan on trying to make it work I’ll definitely be asking the hostel staff what their thoughts are on the situation to gauge if I want to go or not!

He seemed very friendly but without a way to contact him I think Sam will just have to be a very kind man I met briefly on my journey!

Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to do something like that though!

After one heck of a wild ride I finally made it to my hostel!

I got out of my dirty clothes, tried checking in (I couldn’t check in till around 1pm), and then ordered some food from them!

I got fried rice with eggs and it was actually very good!

I was very happy having this as my first real meal of the day!

They also gave me a free tea and I drank some of it to be respectful, but I’m no caffeine drinker so I let it sit.

While waiting to check in I had a nice chat with a new friend, Ben who’s from the UK! I also chatted with a guy who’s been traveling for 18 months so I’ll definitely be picking his brain more later!

I went and chilled by myself for a bit at a balcony on the top of my hostel which had a superb overlook of the city!

The city has a very western feel to it and looking out over this doesn’t really feel like Asia, but it is still pretty nonetheless!

I then met back up with Ben and I drove us to a Buddhist Monastery.

The ride there was actually really steep and Ben had to hop on and off the bike just like when I was riding on the back of a scooter in Thailand!

The monastery was worth the drive though! It was a gorgeous garden of bonsai trees, flowers, and decorative buildings!

It was also overlooking a lake that you could go walk around too!

After enjoying all there was to see at the monastery, we drove to a nearby mall that one of my friends from Mui Ne was at!

This mall was very decorative and was very interesting architecturally.

We sat in the park for a bit and chatted. We also had a new friend Marty who shared some of his snacks with us while we were out there!

Ben and I were pretty hungry though so we made our way into the mall to find some food.

I had a kimchi fried rice with seafood (and I ate it too 🤪).

After joining back up with the other two in the park, we said our goodbyes and made our way back to the hostel. This time was on a different route and it was much better than the ride there!

An hour after we arrived at the hostel it was time for family dinner! For 80,000 it was basically all you can eat family style Vietnamese food!

The price wasn’t great for the food but I did end up chatting with a lot of new people who I’d hang out with the rest of the night!

After dinner our new crew drank at the hostel and then a bunch of us piled into a van to head to the Maze Bar.

I didn’t actually get any pictures… but I truly got lost at one point in it. Eventually I found my crew but the maze element in the bar was well crafted (multiple floors and depths), however we were unsure if we’d be able to find out what out 😅

We ended up going to another bar after till late in the morning where we sung our hearts out to early 2000 pop songs!

It was a rollercoaster of a day but I’m very glad with how it turned out!

Even with the biking mishaps I’m still insanely optimistic and excited about the future rides and have met more bikers going the opposite direction that have given me plenty of advice!

As always, I’m looking forward to seeing what tomorrow has in store!

– Elie