A true story from a group of foreign tourists making their trip through the Central Highland of Vietnam.

This is a must do in Vietnam. We had heard through the grapevine about doing motorbike tours through the central highlands of Vietnam and how cool it was. Well it was one of our overall highlights of our travels so far - after four and half months now!

We did loads in two days, which you can see from the photos. Will not go into too much details, but just to say, that by far the big highlight was just having the freedom to be on the bikes and take in the scenery at leisure. Two very experienced bikers Tin and Thung which is essential on these roads, and Vietnamese road rules! Having names like that as well kind of gave it a harmonius feel to it, being in a land that adheres to taoist principles! And we did not even get wet. No rain at all - quite amazing and very lucky!

We were off pretty quickly on first morning from Da Lat, and soon felt like something out of one of those famous motorcyle road movies as we cruise

d through the higher regions of Vietnam - you name it, it went through our heads with a big smile on our faces - Easyrider, Born to be Wild, Ewan McGregor's Long Way Round and of course Che Guevara's Motorcyle Diaries. Shame we only had two days. Nancy certainly looked more the part on her newish, but sixties looking bike! The bikes were only 125 and 150cc but in Vietnam, even this size bike raises eyebrows where ever you go, because most people have 50 or 90cc max! And we certainly needed the extra horsepower with all our luggage on as well! It also meant we got to cruise past most other traffic on the road.

Two other major things, our guid

es were fantastic. Excellent english and really good company for the two days, including our night out by the lake watching the football. I lost my bet to Tin that Costa Rica would at least draw against Ecuador. As I have said before, they know their football! And as well as great scenery, this is the first place in Vietnam where we actually felt like we had got away from it all. At times, there was no one around at all, apart from the odd vehicle taking people to and from the fields.

So what did we get to visit; here is the list. The trip was very very educational for learning about Vietnamese rural life.

- Coffee farm

- mulbery farm, and silk worm growing (they were very fat!)

- mushroom farm

bamboo crafts for silk farms. We met whole families who work in this one village where the average income is $50 US per month, and the kids stay home from school to help as well. Puts things into perspective for us westerners!

Silk factory, where theprocessing tak

es place

Brick making factory near draysap falls.

Lak Lake, where the M'Nong people live. One of the Vietnamese highland minority groups. This is where we had a fantastic sunset, and got to watch the football on one of the few TVs in the village (see photos). Next morning, we took a ride across lake to another M'Nong village which is less exposed to tourism, and these people were incredibly poor. It was difficult to see people living in these conditions, and we were not sure if Tin was d

oing the right thing giving balloons and stickers to the kids, but they were very well received, and it did give us a unique chance to interact with them.

We also passed by many places affected by the American war, mostly the affects of agent orange. It is very disturbing to see places where the forest is still yet to grow back on the mountains, and only coarse grass grows in its place. And people are so poor that they have to try to make use of it, and the consequences can be severe as we saw in the Museum in Saigon. Our guides informed us of some of the affects on children born even today, from their parents being exposed to agent orange.

Last, but not least, we visited two waterfalls. The first was Elephant falls and the pagoda alongside. Second was Draysap, which was very impressive indeed. It was actually several waterfalls when we visited, running in a 100m wide horseshoe shape. But when the heaviest rains hit, all the falls start to connect.

The guys dropped us in the major town of the Highlands, called Buon Ma Thuot after another fine Vietnamese meal, and after some sad farewells, we were off on the bus over the Phoenix mountain pass to Nha Trang, and they were on the bikes back to Da Lat. Very fond memories.