Day 17 - Dam Rong to Dalat

We set our alarm for 6am but we didn't need it. We woke at 5.30 after staying in one of the worst guest houses of the tour. It was filthy, stunk of smoke and it's the first time I have ever stayed in a room were you get to hear the termites actually eating the bedroom furniture as your trying to go asleep. The furniture had wood dust on it at all the joints were the termites were devouring it! Before we slept, Alex covered himself in insect replellant and I slept fully clothed. The bed was rock hard with a blanket that had never been washed in a year but we did manage to grab a few hours sleep despite dogs barking all night long, and the community village speaker system blurring out weird music and talking from like 5AM. We have found this a lot in towns in Vietnam, at road junctions or in towns tanoys play music or sometime talking.

On waking I had a shower and immediately put my sleeping clothes in a plastic bag ready for the laundry. We checked out 200,000vnd ( £ 6.00 ) and got the hell out of there and started cycling at 06.28. Dam Rong was quite busy at that time and we made our way out of the village through all the puddles and pot holes and we were on edge a bit as there were dogs everywhere. We stopped for water and then continued out of town were we stopped again at a roadside house and bought some bananas to fuel us for the first climb. The first climb of around 12ks started about 3ks South of the village and the road was actually decent tarmac with ramps up to 7-8%. The sun was partially hidden and we were in shade for most of the climb and we really enjoyed it. The views were stunning and we looked out over rolling hillsides covered in coffee plantations and Dam Rong behind us, a place we won't forget in an hurry or rush to go back too. After the 13ks of climbing the road flattened off but the surface was absolutely shocking and went back to huge pot holes filled with filthy water and loose stones & gravel. The road passed through remote towns and again we were on edge as this is were the dogs seam to take there chance, in really remote areas were there's houses and loose dogs. We have learned that most of them, and up until now are actually scared and when they get close squirting water from our bottles stops them in there tracks, but it's still nerve racking because you never know if we encounter a dog that isn't scared of our water bottles then we could be in trouble.

After around 8ks of rolling pot holed roads through villages we started the second climb, this was around 11ks but with ramps of 11% with absolute shocking broken road, it was very remote now with hardly any houses so the dog danger is far less. We stopped to take some pictures of the mountain sides which were full of coffee plantations as we could see for absolute miles as we were at 1400 meters above sea level at this point. At the top we stopped for coffee and Alex chilled out in an hammock. The decent down was far better as the road although not perfect we still managed to gain some decent speed. The road cut through village after village and as the tour is in November we are right in the middle of the coffee cherry harvest and every house, shop & business were drying coffee cherries at the front of there premises. Hundreds of workers were raking the cherries which were on large tarpaulins for a better drying position in the midday sunshine. Trucks were stopped every so often and guys would be loading sacks of coffee cherries into the trucks. Since we left Plei Kan on day 13 which is 403ks away coffee harvesting is the lifeline and provides major economic income for the people of the Central Higlands.

We stopped off in the town of Lam Ha for lunch, were again the roadside sandwich saved the day. A lovely lady made myself and Alex two egg and herb rolls each and we certainly needed them as we had crossed two mountain ranges by this stage. A long stretch of around 20ks of gradual climbing took us to Lien Khung were there is an small airport serving mainly people / tourists going to Dalat which is our destination for today but still 30ks away. We stopped for a quick coffee and then set off for the remainder of today's ride which was around 20ks of gradual climbing followed by 10ks of 7 / 8% slog up to Dalat.

Dalat wasn't on our original itinerary stop off point but as we pushed and combined two days in to one the other day it has freed up another rest day before our expected arrival into HCMC on Saturday 1st December. Dalat as actually took us 30ks in the opposite direction to HCMC and we have gone back on ourselves, but it's a major tourist destination with some quality hotels and after last nights accommodation experience we weren't taking any chances tonight and for our rest day tomorow. We have  booked into the Du Parc Hotel which is really lovely were we know we will get some sleep without having to listen to termites eating the room around us.