The joys of travelling! :)

Hi it's Jas again on blogging duties, I hope you enjoy my blog!! ;)

After our time in Ho Chi Min we caught a bus to a place on the coast called Mui Ne. We had a nice place to stay right on the beach and a nice pool. We had some nice dinners out.

The view from our hotel in Mui Ne

Me in our cool pool in Mui Ne

One of the days we had to get up a quarter past 4 in the morning!! We got up to go see sunrise over the sand dunes, fishing market and walking thru a pine forest canyon. The sand dunes were cool and watching the sunrise was amazing!!

We went to try sliding down the dunes but it didn't really work out because it was a piece of plastic. But we still had lots of fun. The fishing market was a lot of boats really. Walking thru the canyon was incredible, there was a little stream which you walked in, it was really nice.

After a lovely morning we got on a bus to a place called Dalat, which everyone said was lovely. On the bus ride it was very windy, hot and we were going up a mountain. Then at one stage the bus stops and everyone's thinking what is happening, we realise that the bus has broken down!! I met a really nice girl named Laura who met someone called Peter and was travelling with him for a while. Ben and I played cards with Laura. We had to wait two hours till another bus came!! It took another hour and a half till we got to Dalat. We were all very tired when we got to Dalat. We had a nice dinner and fell asleep.

Dad and our broken down bus on our way to Dalat

Sunset on the bus to Dalat once we got going again!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAUDIA for the 1st March!! :) We all hope Claudia had a great day. We spent the day exploring the cute little city. We found some nice little restaurants and went to place called Crazy house. Crazy house is a place a Vietnamese lady made. Every thing is crazy there it was cool. We really enjoyed the day and had a nice dinner at a restaurant called Peace cafe. The cafe turned out to be where Laura & Peter were staying. So we planned to go canyoning with them.

The crazy house

What a crazy house

The next day we had a nice breakfast and got in the van with Laura and Peter to go canyoning. Everyone was very excited. When we got out of the van we looked around the scenery was beautiful. So everyone put on the safety equipment. We all looked quite funny. Our guides names were Roy, Yung and Thung. They were all very friendly. We walked down to a practise spot just to get a feeling. We did that a couple of times. Then we stared hiking to our first abseil, 15 metres high. I was a bit wobbly and hit the wall when I climbed down! But everyone thought it was great fun, even Benny did it!!

Me the abseiler

Ben abseiling down the cliff

Ben getting a ride from Roy, one of our guides!

After that we started making our way to water slides down these tiny waterfalls. The first one you went feet first. The second one we went backwards head first! At first we thought our guide was joking!! I hit my foot on the one backwards and sprained my ankle. Although it only really hurt after the day of canyoning.

Me going down the "waterslide"! 

Ben's turn down the "waterslide"

We went to the biggest abseil (25 meters). Dad went first down the big waterfall and at the end you jumped into the water off the rock. Mum was really scared as she is not good with heights but she did it and loved it. Ben and I didn't do it as it was to big, slippery and it was our first time.

Dad going down the 25m waterfall

Mummy abseiling down the waterfall - go Mummy!

Mummy going down backwards head first - even me & Ben did this!

When everyone was at the bottom of the waterfall we had a really good lunch. With baguettes and you could put stuff in the baguette. They had a delicious fruit and banana bread. Next to a waterfall it was awesome!! :) The group after us went down the waterfall and we were really glad that we went with our tour because the other group was not as safe. One of guides ended up helping the other group and when he said jump they looked at him funny, it was very enjoyable to watch.  Then they would jump into the water and come out smiling.

Dad, Mum, Ben, me, Laura & Peter at the waterfall they abseiled down

After lunch we started walking to our next stop. Ben and I probably enjoyed it the most. Where you jumped into the water from a high rock. Daddy went first, then I went. Every time I went I screamed but didn't mean to because you would jump and look down and realise how high you were. (it was 7 metres but there was a higher place where you could jump) It was great fun, mum and Ben also did it. Ben, Dad and I did it 3 times.

Daddy jumping off the cliff

Ben happy but tired at the end of the day!

When we finished we started hiking towards our last thing. Along the way we went walking through little streams and one time we got to float down a stream it was really cool. We then went went up the ginormous hill to get to the top. Very tiring! Then the van took us back to our hotel and we had a nice warm shower. Every one had a good sleep that night.

My family after a great day canyoning

The next day we did a motorbike tour. It was loads of fun. We saw different things, a pagoda, silk factory, a house that got bombed in the war, a big flower centre, waterfall, happy Buddha, broom making place, coffee farm, rice wine making place. It was lots of fun riding around looking at all the cool sights. We had a big lunch and a chat to our drivers. We all really enjoyed it!

Dad & Ben with their motorbike driver - Ben loved sitting at the front

The happy Buddha 

Pretty flowers

On our last day we wandered around the big markets and saw lots of animals in a not very nice way and all this meat. We had a nice lunch at our favourite restaurant at Da Lat Chocolate! We had some delicious espreskis and a really nice meal then we got on a bus to go to Nha Trang which is on the coast.

Me, Dad & Ben enjoying our Espreskis  

The joy of travelling!!! ;)

Amazing view of the country near Dalat on our motorbike trip