Though run down,this town has a very European feel to it. The wifi tower is modelled off the Eiffel Tower! There is a huge lake in the middle of the town with paddle boats for hire, the houses aren’t really Vietnamese at all (though they still take the tall, skinny design which is common here). It’s a little surreal. It’s much, much cooler here than anywhere I’ve been as we are up in the mountains and so I am SO thankful for hippie pants and my rain jacket, but being sick with these drastic temperature changes is not helping and i haven’t really packed accordingly. Honestly we have spent most of out time, sleeping, reading and eating soup, trying to get better and help our budgets. The main reason I came to Da Lat was to canyon (again) and hike but I’m not liking my chances of this right now. I’m staying in my first hotel of the trip and for $6 each a night with our own room, bathroom and double beds as well as breakfast I have never been more appreciative of a budget hotel and travel buddies! Our room resembles a drug store/ hospital with two sick girls (poor Olivia is doing a fantastic job of nursing us both!) but I’m hoping tomorrow to brave the city for a countryside tour.

Today we found these hidden street markets and bought 3 mangos, 6 tomatoes a cucumber and grapes for less than 2 dollars. You beauty!

An incredibly adorable, nifty and very un-Vietnamese style cafe we found on our morning city explorations, but I was well and truly in love.

Today may look beautiful, but myself and Barbara were feeling anything but beautiful. After a sleepless night, all the drugs i could possible does up on and a very late bus pick up, finally we were on the road to Da Lat inside a mini van which was carting an illegal number of passengers. Luckily though the views driving up the mountain to Da Lat of all the areas fresh produce were spectacular .

Today is one of those days where you long for your own bed. I’ve had a cold developing for the last day and this head cold has just doubled over night and is making me feel awful. I leant my codrals out and never got them back so i’m not sure whether this vietnamese medicine is making things better or just making me nauseous. The mattresses have been taken away from the wonderful outdoor beds cause patches of rain come, but the air-con (although I swear it’s making things worse) isn’t turned on for another 2 hours in our rooms so it’s too hot to sleep inside. Fortunately our hostel is this close to the beach and ocean swims are about the only good thing today. Being sick on the other side of the world is not a good time.

Being an odd number of people and not wanting to lash out for the rather pricey quad bikes, Barbara, Olivia (two German girls that have joined the wolf pack) and I decided to walk the sand dunes instead and we watched the boys and Emily all quad bike around us, and some get themselves a little stuck. We attempted to slide down on matts on the sand dunes, although I well and truly copped the sand to almost all exposed parts or my body as the mat sunk in and I rolled down the rest of the hill (evidently eating too much delicious vietnamese these days). The girls have the better photos of us on the sand dunes, but here is a preview of the infamous spot in Mui Ne

The boys decided to pay 10,000 dong and ride an ostrich (or about 50 cents). I was really not okay with it, but admittedly it was a little funny to watch them be paraded around the ring holding on for dear life.

Our tour guide was non-existent so Im unsure of any information about how this place was formed other than from erosion. It was a nice walk trough the stream, with some pretty impressive land formations in an array of coloured sands.

Today the nine of us set off on a tour which was meant to take us until sunset around to the sights of Mui Ne. Which was all well and good until the storm came at our last stop and our jeep decided to breakdown mid storm. So no sunset and I lucked out getting stuck in the back seat of the jeep getting saturated the entire way home. Hot showers were definitely appreciated this afternoon!