February 22
We woke up at 6:00 am and got on a shitty van bus. There were 15 seats and 20 people on it. A guy we met from Nepal had to sit on a cushion next to the driver and a monk had to sit on top of suitcases next to the half open door. It was a long cramped 5-hour ride. We talked with the guy from Nepal and he gave us some advice on our trip there in a couple of months. We got to the city and the van dropped us off at a hotel that kept trying to get us to stay there. We kept saying we already booked a place but they kept trying anyway. We eventually walked away after they wouldn’t help give us directions to our hostel. We walked and eventually found it. We then walked around the town. There wasn’t much to see and there were practically no restaurants. We couldn’t find a restaurant for a while. We ended up settling on a Korean fast food joint. We walked around the lake in the middle of town and really felt like we were in a European city. There was so much French influence in this city, it really changed the whole look. We took a taxi to a cable car that took us up a mountain to a monetary. It was neat to go to. We walked to a lake from there and then met up with the guy from Nepal again. We took the cable car down and hung out with the guy for the rest of the day. We went to this place called the Crazy House. It was so cool. It looked like a Dr. Seuss building with a ton of staircases that twisted and turned all around the misshaped building. It was so neat to walk around on them. We stayed for like an hour and loved it. Afterwards, we walked towards the middle of town and got these sandwiches that ladies are always selling on the side of the road for like 50 cents. We then went to the main market to walk around. I bought these really good dried sweet potatoes, I think. They tasted like candy and were so addicting. After walking around all of the stands, we went to eat at a backpacker restaurant. It was so hard to find a restaurant in this city. It made no sense. While eating, a little Vietnamese boy came over to us and started talking to us to improve his English. Apparently his mom brings him a couple of times a week because a lot of English speakers come through the restaurant. We talked for about an hour about a bunch of stuff. He was a cute little nerd who talked about how other kids give him atomic wedgies and hang him on doors from his underware. He actually had the best English that we have heard yet from any Vietnamese person. We then left to walk around for a little bit longer before parting ways with our new Nepalese friend.
February 23
We woke up as a man came into our room screaming for people to go on a tour that the hostel organized. We were like wtf no. It was so annoying. We chilled in our beds for an hour or so longer and then got up and rented moped. We got gas and then road around into the countryside towards a waterfall. After about 20 minutes, we realized that it was too difficult to ride by motorbike and we turned around. We ate at a restaurant in the main town that we found while riding and then road around the town a little bit more. We decided to drop off the bike at our hostel and then take a taxi to two waterfalls. The first one was a let down and a tourist trap. It was an ordinary small waterfall that you would find anywhere. The second one was pretty cool and had an awesome roller coaster ride down to the falls from the top of a steep hill. The waterfall itself was nice too because it was fairly tall and had a bunch of rocks that you could walk on. We took the taxi back into town and ate dinner by our hostel. As it got dark, we walked around the area once more and then went to bed to wake up early to catch a bus to Nha Trang. We didn’t like this city. It had the crazy house and a couple of things that were ok but I wouldn’t go back here.
