Bus Marathon

Our 18 hour bus marathon just ended in the Hill Station of Da Lat, established by the French as an escape from the sweltering heat of the Vietnamese summer.

The first leg of the journey from Hoi An just south of Da Nang to Cam Rahn took 13 hours. Most roads in Vietnam are in pretty rough shape, resulting in an often rough ride . This one passed through a range of different countryside from flat farm land to coastal mountains. Traffic was fairly heavy for much of the night and as is customary here, vehicles beep a warning to each other constantly, so our restless sleep was accompanied by the blast of our air horn and the beep and honk of every scooter, truck and bus on the road. 

Fortunately when we arrived in Cam Rahn at dawn an excellent cafe across the road from our bus stop had just enough time to prepare a delicious breakfast for us before we dashed off to board the next bus to Da Lat. Like the night bus from Hoi An, this bus was also equipped with two tiers of recliner bunks three abreast, so we ended up spending a total of 18 hours sprawled in bus bunks, with the one hour breakfast stop to break the journey. To be honest I preferred it to the Trans Pacific flight in an airline seat!

From Cam Rahn we headed across lush green countryside for about an hour before winding up into the mountains for another 5 hours. The countryside alternated between tangles of jungle creepers and dry pine forest. Rough clap-board shacks, sheds and shops clustered beside the road at various spots at higher elevation, before giving way to acres and acres of plastic-sheet covered green houses. Absolutely acres of them!! We'd heard that this was an important flower growing region but we were all astonished by large tracts of the landscape taken over by green houses.

(Note that the times shown on the Google Maps accompanying this post are estimates for cars. Our bus crawled up the mountain road in low low gear for most of the journey). 

Our first afternoon in this historic 'hill station' has given us a welcome respite from the constant badgering we have been subjected to along the coast. There, travellers are considered fair game by droves of peddlers selling everything from greeting cards to snack foods, boat cruises to scooter rides, and hotel rooms to trinkets. Here in Da Lat we have been left entirely to our own devices. The people go about their business without chasing us down the street to sell us stuff. It's a welcome relief!