Minority Village to ??? - 2nd July 2009

I hadn't slept very well the previous night; mainly because of the spider I think, as the temperature was quite pleasant. At around 7am we got up, packed and had breakfast at the nearby cafe where we'd had dinner. I had been a bit distracted by a gorgeous wee kitten who was playing nearby as we ate. This morning, Desperate Housewives was on! Yay! It was in English, which had been covered in possibly some other language first before being yet again covered over in Vietnamese. I could still guess/remember what was going on etc!
Someone riding an elephant passed down the road.
After breakfast, I got taken by a teenage local boy across in my very own motor boat to an island which had its own village on. The ride was really smooth, and there were wonderful views of the villages, rice paddies and mountains in the distance. They had made me nervous at first, as they were using a cup to get rid of some of the water that had somehow leaked in! But we managed to not sink, and made it to the island where we then walked around for about an hour. Unfortunatly he didn't speak English, but occasionally he would sign or hum something to break the silence. There were quite a few cows which made me nervous incase they were going to charge but thankfully they didn't. There was also an enormous flock of ducks, all having a good time splashing about in the sun. we had a short ride on a canoe type of boat. An older man was doing the work this time, with a large stick, pushing us along. It was such a lovely ride, although yet again they were using a saucer to get rid of the excess water in the boat! At times I thought we were too heavy and that water was going to flow over the sides of the boat. we passed some really beautiful flowers on the way too, as well as several buffalo cooling off in the water.
There were locals working the rice fields, fairly young children collecting wood and other children were just playing, some on bikes and some just make believe.
For lunch we stopped at a local cafe, where I had rice, tofu, green beans and a banana. It didn't live up to the tofu I'd had yesterday! To drink, I had iced green tea which was quite nice and refreshing. I'd imagined it to taste like the supermarket stuff I get in the UK, which is unpleasant at best, but this was actually enjoyable! I'd tried some the previous day too when we were at the silk farm. It was surprisingly sweet, apparently they add another flower to the mixture too, although I cannot remember it's name.
My arms got quite burnt today; mainly from when I was riding the bike, although they seemed to calm down a bit over time. My nose is a bit pink too; I look a bit like Rudolph, not too attractive! (No offence to Rudolph!)
we visited a couple of waterfalls. I was a bit confused as the area we were in, it wasn't wet season yet! although in Da Lat, it was. The waterfalls were spectacular, I can imagine them in wet season being as good as Niagra Falls, well, maybe! we crossed a couple of really scary wobbly bridges, although having done the bamboo bridge yesterday, these were nothing!
we arrived at the hotel in good time; it was really posh! Although you can get a lot for your money here. I had a shower, which was lovely and refreshing, before going in search of the internet.
I had a go at using the hotel internet, except it was deadly slow, and after about 10 minutes of waiting for a page to load, I gave up and headed to the nearest internet cafe!
I spent just over an hour blogging, before Hue came to get me to head for dinner. He seemed to enjoy walking in the middle of the road for some strange reason! I stuck to the paths. I'd rather step in some litter than being run down by a speeding motorist!
Dinner was tasty; noodles with cabbage and something that resembled celery but tasted less disgusting! Yet again we had the green tea, which is supplied with most orders.
I needed to catch up on the internet for a bit longer, well, two hours longer, so Hue headed back to the hotel and I stayed at another internet cafe. I had a nice time listening to music from youtube and blogging. At 10pm I headed back to the hotel.
I came up to a crossroads and got slightly freaked out as I wasn't completely sure which direction to head in. It didn't help that I hadn't remembered the name of the hotel either! On my way there were several alleyways that were pitch black; perfect for a mugging or other offence. I steered clear and walked nearer to the road. There were quite a few groups of men sat down outside cafes and shops, who randomly said hello. They didn't seem like weirdos, but I don't really understand the big deal about a foreigner to adults! It's cute when little kids run after you screaming hello, hello... but old men?! what is with that?!