With the ride behind us we were ready to relax but still made the most of our time in Saigon. We did a lot of wandering around. The city is very different from the rest of the country. It has an eclectic mix of traditional and more modern architecture, but the ones that really stand out are the old, French colonial buildings.

We stopped by the War Remnants Museum. It included a large room of the horrible effects of Agent Orange on both the Vietnamese and Americans. The museum included the obligatory war machine display out front that we have come to expect from all such museums here.

We took a day trip out of the city to the Cu Chi tunnels. It was a bit touristy but worth it. The tunnel systems were extremely complex and impressive. We passed on the chance to fire an AK-47 but crawled through a 60 meter stretch of the tunnel.

We were told several times that the tunnels had been widened to accommodate Western tourists. Nonetheless, we still found them a bit claustrophobic.

Although vegetarian restaurants are all over the place here, the prices are closer to back home and it is still often difficult to explain vegan food. That being said, we certainly found some dishes to enjoy.

We also had the chance to dig into some new fruits. Rambutans may be the craziest looking fruit we tried.

Custard apples, possibly Jasmine’s new favorite.

Durian is a bit infamous for it’s strong foul smell and acquired taste. We had to give it a fair try and really wanted to prove the naysayers wrong, but it really does taste like a fart.

The view justified the overpriced drinks on the 23rd floor bar of the Sheraton.

Although we certainly enjoyed the drinks as well.

In order to combat the heat we took advantage of the pools at a fancy hotel.

We may have hung around too long.

A local bike shop had some boxes and they are all packed up.

We took the opportunity to enjoy our last bowl of Pho today.

And taste our last cups of Vietnamese coffee. Though we had to bring in our own soy milk to the coffee shop.

It’s nice to be away long enough to miss your home and we are ready to say goodbye to Vietnam.

The cool weather here in Dalat was perfect for a rest day. We started the morning off with a fruit buffet breakfast free courtesy of the Dreams Hotel. After that a walk around the lake.

Stocked up at the local fruit market including two trips to the sugarcane juice stand. We then headed back to the restaurant from last night for some take-away sandwiches and spring rolls. Again delicious. We found a coffee shop called Bicycle Up. Could have been dropped directly in Brooklyn or the East Bay. We are starting to get a taste for this Vietnamese coffee.

We made one more trip back to our usual restaurant for dinner, and grabbed sandwiches to go for tomorrows ride.

We met back up with the Italian cyclist and had a chance to exchange route plans over breakfast.
After that things got exciting. On our way to more Cham Towers, one of the phones was left behind in a taxi. Just missing him, we jumped in another taxi and went back to where he picked us up. There was no sign of him but we recognized someone the driver was talking with earlier, and with a translator app on the other phone, and a bit of luck, explained the situation. He made a call and a few minutes later the phone was back. We gave him some money for hassle. Also, in the confusion we accidentally paid the second taxi driver ten times the fare! Still it could have been a lot worse and the driver got a laugh when we asked him to bring us back to the towers, which he did free of charge.

These date around the 8th century making the towers we saw previously seem brand new. From there we checked out a Buddhist pagoda and another giant Buddha statue. As the monks are vegetarian, there was a veg restaurant right on the grounds of the pagoda so we had some lunch. After a visit to the beach and a local microbrewery we called it a night.

This morning we headed out to sea for some snorkeling. There are some reefs just off the coast of Nha Trang.

Saw some crazy sea creatures.

The area is quite beautiful and is one of the best spots for snorkeling and diving in the country.

From here, we cut inland and begin our two day climb to Dalat.

More hills, headwinds, and heat made for a pretty brutal ride yesterday. Got to the hotel at 4:30 ate some ramen in the room and went to bed. The scenery was pretty nice though, maybe the best we have seen so far.

We saw a couple of cyclists on a tandem heading North. Waves were exchanged but both parties continued on, too tired for a ‘stop and chat.’ We also met an Italian on a bike also heading to HCMC while searching for a hotel. He started his journey in Hue.

Also this happened.