Easy Riders from Da Lat to Nha Trang - Day #3 - and the night bus to Hoi An

Last day of our road-trip. We left at 8 AM so we had enough time since we had a night bus to catch at the other end in Nha Trang. First stop this morning was a rubber tree plantation, followed by a place where they processed coco pods, and jack fruit. Then some more driving and after lunch a place where they did bricks. A bit like being back in the middle ages with so many people doing hard manual work and brick ovens being burning hot.

We continued with only a few scenic stops - one of the more odd ones was the option to walk a bit on the high way. To stretch the legs as our drivers said. You stop being surprised in Vietnam after a while.

There was a bit of confusion about the location of the bus office but eventually and after a bit of extra sightseeing in Nha Trang we made it to the right office, took care of the payment to our nice drivers and wishes them a safe drive home. Some 500 kilometres of excellent driving in three days. What an experience. We had plenty of time to spare before the bus departed at 7 PM, so we headed for the beach where there were supposed to be some public showers.

A woman was taking care of the only public shower in a small shed on the beach. 10.000 Dong and you got a hose and all the water you could wish for. We both had showers, clean clothes and did a short walk around Nha Trang only to be confirmed that this town was full of tourists - primarily Russians - and everything else that relates to that type of tourism.

We bought Ba Mihn for dinner, lots of bottled water for the bus drive, got our tickets stamped and boarded the bus just before 7 PM, it left on time and we tried to squeeze into the small bunk beds that are installed in the night buses in Vietnam. Different experience, lets see how it feels tomorrow morning when we arrive in Hoi An.

Beautiful morning

Mikkel and driver

Motor cycle selfie

Why not

Rubber plantation

Jack fruit

Seafood for lunch

Our two wonderful Easy Riders

Construction of new kiln

Brick factory

Riding on the highway

Talking a walk on the highway

Shrimp farms

Nha Trang tourist trap

Night bus

Late stop with the bus

Easy Riders from Da Lat to Nha Trang - Day #2

We slept well last night. The combination of a full day of driving and at least 10 stops to visit places and factories took all our energy. But a good nights sleep and we were back on the road at 9 AM this morning.

First stop was a minority village just a few minutes away from our hotel. Our driver spent a lot of time explaining the family structure and how they live together in the same house, more than just one generation in the same room. Maybe we could learn a bit about that in the western world. Then we continued the trip.

The stops today included rice fields, cashew nut plantations, pepper farms and coco plantations. We had a nice lunch and then a rest in a café that had a lot of hammocks. We needed the rest just as much as our two drivers and coming down from the hills in the afternoon meant that the heat was really intense. So nothing better to do than hide from the sun for an hour.

Then it was back on the bikes heading to a national park and a waterfall. We thought the place would be crowded but once down at the river we realised we had it all to ourselves. Like in being the only two persons at the river at all. Nothing like a nice refreshing swim in the afternoon and after drying for a while we were back on the road doing one final stop to see how they process cashew nuts - by hand. We now know why they are so expensive with all the manual labour that has to be involved in transforming a small greasy nut into a roasted cashew nut.

Our final stop was in the provincial capital of Buon ma thuot, first we had the option to walk around town for an hour while our drivers waited for us, and then we headed for our hotel, got our room and later went out for dinner at a local restaurant with lots of "fresh beer" - the Vietnamese expression for draught beer. Another long, interesting and truly great day.

Ready to go

Minority village

Rice field

Cashew nut plantation

Drying pepper corns

Coco pod

Pepper vine

After lunch break

Just getting ready for a swim

Cashew nut processing

In Buon ma thuot

Market

Market with power cut

At the hotel

Dinner - one of everything, please

And ice coffee for dessert