The Road to Da Lat

The ride to Da Lat after leaving Hoi An was an interesting one. I was finally with Matthias and was able to ride with a partner once again. It's a lot better way to travel as you can rely on each other if something unpredictable happens. The trip was broken up into two days of travel. Day one everything went smoothly, there were no stops except for gas, food and water. We stopped in a city called Qui Nhon that night and stayed at a hostel right off of the beach. It was a nice place to stop for the night and we enjoyed swimming in the ocean and walking only a few feet to our dorm. Unfortunately we could not stay long in this beach side hostel as we had to continue our way into Dalat. Day two was not so easy as day one. Guess we couldn't be lucky two days in a row.

We got off to an early morning start hoping to reach our destination with plenty of light to spare and enjoy a first night out in the new city. That was not the case. The drive was nicer and easy all morning and after our breakfast break we ran into four Brits that were heading in the same direction as us. We joined with them for some time and drove in a pack of 6. It was quite fun riding in a big group having different people take the lead from time to time and pass each other by. They drove like mad men though and we ended up losing them because they would not slow down while driving through cities. We would speed but they put it to a whole other level.  It's no wonder they had as many bike issues as they told us about.

Picture taken when we noticed the broken brake

We made it close to our final destination and stopped for a coke and gas to get a little break and a little bit of caffeine. After our rest we were on our way again. Da Lat is a mountain town and we began our climb up the mountain. The roads were fun and the sights were great. We stopped multiple times for pictures. One time that we stopped is when the troubles began. It is very lucky that I stopped where I did because it was then that we discovered Matthias' rear brake was no longer working. We did not know what to do and were just sitting on the side of the road trying to figure things out. Fortunately after only a few minutes of waiting a couple passed by on their motorbike and saw we were stuck. They did a U-turn and pulled over to see i they could help. Luckily they had a tool kit and were able to put a new nut on the end of the brake which fixed the problem. They were even so kind as to take an unneeded nut off of their own bike to give to him. It was such a great thing and goes back to things happen for a reason and I stopped there for a picture when I did. If not then we would've figured out this issue later when it could've been costly going down a steep mountain hill.

After this we were so happy and ready to get driving again. There was only a mere 100 km to go to the city and it was all on fun roads to drive on. This quickly changed. About 76 km from the city a downpour began. We became drenched very quickly despite our rain jackets. There were few places to stop and even when we passed them we knew we couldn't stop as it was getting darker every moment. Those 76 km took three hours of freezing cold and wet driving. The roads were so slick and wet that we had to drive at such a slow pace for our safety. Visibility was low because of the rain and at times we even were driving through clouds and could not see a thing! It was the scariest driving I've ever done in my life.

Eventually we finally made it to our destination. It took quite some time after getting into the city and google maps can sometimes be horrible at direction. I've never done so many left turns in my life! Once we arrived we were able to hang up our clothes, shower and just enjoy being out of the rain. Unfortunately since we were hindered by the rain we did not make it in time to get the free family dinner so we did have to go back out in the rain for a little bit of time. After we ate though we did not budge out of the hostel until morning. I'll never forget that drive for as long as I live.