?? to ?? (lol! I'll look at a map later!) - 3rd June 2009

I woke up at 6am this morning, and couldn't be bothered trying to get back to sleep again, so I got up and faffed about a bit before Hue and I went down for breakfast. I had some french bread with jam, and also tried some rice noodles, and sticky rice, both of which were quite nice. I also had an iced coffee, which yet again, was amazing! They unfortunatly have very small glasses of it which is a shame. I could quite easily drink 10 of those cups in a sitting just to make it into a UK size! I think it is stronger though, and contains more sugar too. Another thing I've noticed is that sugar packets are much fuller over here than in Britain, maybe to fatten the locals up a bit!
we drove for quite a while this morning; as today was our longest day. we stopped a few times; at a war memorial, for coffee and at a viewpoint which had a lovely view over mountains and a rich blue lake that looked serine. whilst drinking our coffee I noticed the same thing I'd noticed somewhere else, something that looked like a backstreet déntist's surgery, in full view of the street. In fact, it was a dentists style chair but for a hairdresser! It was rather novel! Apparently a hair cut here plus a wash costs just $1! Bargain!! Yesterday we had discussed prices of houses, renting accomodation etc. Apparently you can buy a simple house in the outskirts for around $20,000, and for the inner city, it's a bit more expensive at around $400,000. For renting property, it's around $50 a month, for a small family appartment!
The girls I'd met in Saigon had told me that for a years university education they had to pay fees of $100 a year!
The government also tend to be generous with giving out help to minority villages. I'm not completely sure why. They fund healthcare visitors and people to go out to teach them ways to make a living.
I rode the motorbike quite a bit today. My rear end doesn't get quite as numb when I'm driving which is good! I managed to exceed the speed limit by going just over 60km/hour! whoo! I seemed to be overtaking quite a number of locals (probably over 50 of them!) and I only got overtaken about 4 times! It was really exciting and I'm definetly improving!! My hands and arms got burnt when I was driving, but I was having so much fun I really didn't want to stop!
we passed some rubber trees which had many scars on them. They cut 1cm deeper each day, and then collect the rubber that flows out of them, into a little pot; the collected rubber then goes off to be processed.
It was fried rice for lunch which was tasty, and cheap! I think that in the areas I've gone in the past, it's been more expensive (although still dirt cheap) because of it being a tourist area.
we arrived at our hotel in good time. Not as posh as last nights, but at least the internet works! After chilling out for a bit, we went out on the motorbike through the town, past an old catholic church and a nearby orphanage to a minority village. It's amazing how close they are to the 'normal' towns. The village was very like those in Nicaragua, apart from how the houses were made. There were the occassional very traditional looking house, which is what Da Lat's Crazy House design was based on. It was now in use as a town hall for various meetings. The steps up to the platform of the house are made out of a single trunk with gashes in it! It was quite high up and quite slippy due to the rain which we'd managed to avoid. On passing various houses, groups of children waved at me and shouted 'hello!' it was so adorable!! They sounded so excited!! I'm not quite sure what all the excitement is about!!
I walked over a bridge to see the view of the river with hills in the background, and then we headed off to a cafe for some much desired coffee! The cafe was really pretty. It had lots of interesting things in it, collected from minority villages. There were gongs, chairs, wood with faces carved into them, and a sweet pond with a small fountain. There was nice music playing and in sunnier weather it would make a good place to chill out.
On the motorbike on the way back to the hotel, we got a bit confused as to which street we were supposed to be on, so ended up going up and down the same street a few times. we passed a small group of young boys. As I passed for the first time, they shouted, in really adorable, sweet voices, 'hello!' (echoed by each other!), then for the second time they shouted 'goodbye!', and then on passing them again, they shouted 'what's your name?' (to which I shouted back replies!!) The children here are so cute! I'm so going to come here and adopt one! (or 6!)
The hotel was nice. I spent quite a lot of time on the internet in the reception area, catching up on my blog, and then doing a bit of reading, before going to bed.