Easy riding

The Big Thing in Vietnam is to jump on the back of a motorbike driven by a self-styled Easy Rider and take to the hills for days on end to see the countryside and people. Unfortunately, a slight altercation with a condescending and charmless old biker put me off this idea completely. Need and opportunity collided, however, and Dan and I found that we could mountain bike from Dalat to Nha Trang in a day, fully supported with a van behind us to offer us cold water and bananas, and scrape us off the side of the road should a wayward truck decide to use both lanes. Our hotel receptionist nonchalently booked this for us, giving nothing away of what lay ahead of us.

What lay ahead of us, as it turns out, was officially one of the top two rides in Vietnam, as determined by Jamie, a long-distance cyclist from Frisco we met on the way. See http://jamieinasia0809.blogspot.com/ for his blog. After a few key hauling ass up through pine forests we were rewarded with a 30km (Jamie will correct me) brake-burning descent, dropping over 1000m on a brand new, but inexplicably empty road through Vietnam's stunning Southern Highlands. The pictures we took cannot do justice to the majesty of the road, and we whooped and screamed like little girls as we tucked our heads into our handlebars to increase our speed (or at least I did). Even the 15km up and down in 35 degree heat after lunch, and subsequent killer chafing, couldn't dent our enthusiasm for this unbelievable ride. If you're within 200 miles of Dalat, you HAVE to do it!