::: ACE MTSG - Another weekend to Dalat...

[VietHorse]

Close to X'mas, ACE MTSG (a big bike rider group in Hochiminh City) set up a short trip during weekend. We tried to avoid riding there during X'mas day as there would be very crowded and the services may not be good as expected.

We divided in two group, first one departed from Friday PM, the second one, just me and a friend departed Saturday early AM as we still had to work on Friday.

This thread reports from my departure.

Trip destination is Dalat (Đà Lạt) - a beautiful highland City in southern part of Vietnam.

And here is the tracklog for the trip:

[VietHorse]

Departed from home about 4 o'clock plus, the City seemed still asleep, yeah, no wonder, that 's Saturday AM.

Heading to Dalat with thinking of all the twisty passes ahead, Bao loc and Prenn passes.

Weather is too nice for a morning ride. It's quite cool, abt 18 degree C.

Stopped beside a artificial lake - it was a valley, then a dam has been built and the valley become a lake, utilized for a hydro-power plant.

The Sun was rising, but still yet to appear on the sky:

My bike:

My friend's:

Took a last shot before getting back on my ride - The Sun still yet to come:

This time, we did not see any fog along the way, different from the last time, even though it's colder.

Stopped by beside La Ngà bridge:

So peaceful river:

People make the cages and tents on the water to raise fish

Rode on for about 60km more, we stopped for breakfast.

My friend's Hornet 919 - I had own two of Hornet 919 previously. That bike damn strong with high torque and stable performance.

Crazy heavy VFR made me do a reversed parking to avoid rolling the bike after a full breakfast:

(... to be continued...)

[Baileyrock]

Looks fun, thanks for sharing!

[VietHorse]

Reached Bao Loc pass, the pass I have captured a video and shared with you guys.

Photos again:

Then keep riding toward the cool highland:

Here's how I can have the riding photos:

Green along the road:

Do you know what 's on the ground?

The things in brown on the canvas - anyone knows?

(to be continued...)

[VietHorse]

Stopped for fuel:

Just a little chicken strips as I have passed the Bao Loc pass with about 10km twisty road.

Took a clearer photos for the thing I asked:

Most of the houses beside the road having such thing spreaded for drying:

That's coffee, guys. Vietnam is famous with Coffee, just Vietnamese coffee style - stronger than any coffee from Starbuck, Highland, etc...

(Coffee with hot water in filter)

Here 's how we make a cup of Vietnam coffee everymorning:

Kept riding:

Kept shotting:

My friend might say chees:

Clear road:

Unclear road:

Gotta stop for a while as they are prioritized:

(to be con tinued...)

[VietHorse]

Almost 10:30AM, we reached Dalat, called our friends who have been there for the meeting place.

They all were ready and awaiting for us before going to a friend's house.

Met and waited infornt of a Tourist place, called Golden Valley:

This place is very nice, peace full and very cheap for any kind of services, from accommodation, food, etc...

Here is where the Forestry station:

What 's hell this guy doing?

And here, this guy must be taking care of trees:

We took aout 15mins at this place to get all of our lunch to be arranged. We would be heading to my friend's house, it 's about 15km deep inside the forest with very limited of service if not saying no services.

Got on bike, we took abt 10km twisty roads, then about 5km offroad - damn really offroad. Will have a video for this later on. After this, found that VFR can do offroad also! Dude!

All team stopped beside the stream. This season, there is not much water. But during raining season, this gonna be a flooding source. There were at least 02 offroad cars has been drifted with the stream.

Our bikes were not advised to pass the wooden bridge:

My bike with the stream:

I passed the bridge, then looked back:

(to be continued...)

[VietHorse]

Okay, now we done all the difficult parking, moving into my friend's house area - need to pass 02 streams thru wooden bridges:

Where we take a rest:

This area very peaceful, silent, cool and so beautiful. To have this, the owner has spent a lot of money, time, his head and mind. To get here, he did build a temporary road/trail abt 4.5km long. The main road is @ Elev:+1500m and the house area is @ Elev: +1350m. It takes him almost 7 years to get the thing like now:

A building in progress:

Our stuff:

Chit chat:

This is firs house of the owner here. Now he is modifying the basement to make an entertainment room:

We visit the hydropower machine:

It's s hydropower generator - take water from the hill, this could provide almost of the living power users here:

Passed the noon time, looked at this, feel hungry and wanted a bite of BBQ:

Waited to long for the food to come, we gotta satisfy with the instant noodle... hic hic...:

A handy job:

Yamy...

(to be continued...)

[V4 Rosso]

Looks like a great trip You didn't pass that three log bridge on the bike, did you? If you did I'd like to see a video of the Rune making it to the other side.

[VietHorse]

Haha... you must be kidding Rosso. :D

It's too risky to pass those bridges by bikes. It's not too far from where we parked to our chitchat place, so we can leave the bikes there for walking in.

You rite on the issue of Rune. It was so difficult when we made the return. Damn heavy bike.

Some more nice spots at the place:

Endless chatting:

Construction is still going on....

What a smell... :

(to be continued...)

[VietHorse]

Lastly, the food came.

We have "cơm lam" - the traditional rice with the cooking style of the remote area people:

For the normal rice, they cook by boiling in a cooker. But for "cơm lam" (~ green rice), they use a segment of bamboo tree instead of the cooker. Rice, with special leaf (to add the flavor) with water put inside the bamboo segment, cover it by another leaf, then provide heat from burning wood. When eating, just pull the leaf then the cooked rice will come out:

Really great:

Some mountain chicken as well:

We have sang so many songs...

This friend came back from Westminster, CA, really enjoy with us there:

The guy was great with romantic guitare:

In the jungle with love :clap:

(to be continued...)

[VietHorse]

We took some time for rest after lunch.

Almost dawn time, we started to gather for heading the city.

Took some nice photos at the peaceful place before saying goodbye:

Heading to the way back, thanks to the place owner for the very good time:

There was the difficult part ahead, even turning the bike:

I am ready:

This is a valley, so the sun came down very fast. Saw it almost down:

Almost of bikes are ready:

This damn heavy, waiting for the owner to come and we turn it toghether:

There were still some more works:

(to be continued..)

[VietHorse]

We heading back while the sun coming down the hill.

The dark came so fast, really different from our imagination. On the way out, we stuck there for abt 20mins as there was a malfunction truck at the middle of the road.

Safely back to the hotel. Took the water hose to have light cleaning to our bikes.

Bikes were right at our windows:

Used taxi to go for dinner. Here 's dinner place:

Some add-on, very suitable with the cold here:

Small black chicken inside:

Impressive:

Afterward, we went to Dalat night market:

Almost people there are tourist. Lots of foods on the street.

Some clothes for winter:

Chitchat again:

Get some more breads at the coffee shop:

Slept very well that night.

(to be continued...)

[VietHorse]

I got up early the next morning. Started my bike for a while for warming up at wake up others.

Breakfast at hotel:

Oh, here 's the welcoming flowers from hotel to us - thanks to the hotel's kindness:

We gathered in front of the hotel for a group photo:

All feel happy:

(to be continued...)

[VietHorse]

Done the group photo, we took a ride around Xuan Huong Lake - the lung and the heart of Dalat City - to say goodbye to the beautiful place:

On the way back Ho Chi Minh City, we met our friend from HCMC to join us. It was so pitty to him that he was hanging around with other business so could not be able to join with us from trip beginning:

A place to rest ourselves and our bike:

Belows are some snapshots on the way back to Ho Chi Minh City, just to show you guys how Vietnamese roads look like:

Dalat is very famous with flowers, vegetables and also strawberry. This fellow bought some kilos of fresh strawberry for his wife. Gud man:

This is end of my trip report.

Hope you all enjoy with the beautiful and peaceful Vietnamese scenes.

It's our pleasure to have you visiting Vietnam.

Ride safe, guys.

[northernrider]

just wondering .... is the spinning in the field part of the brewing prossess ???lol

[VietHorse]

:tour:

[Suitcase]

..Thanx VHorse ... the trip report is very nice.... makes me want to ship my self and bike over there to soak up the scenery and culture. Do you have some months of the year that are no good for riding, or have you got 12 months of good weather?

What are fuel prices per gallon. or per liter.

Liked your photos and what a great collection of other bikes you are riding with, Ducs, Yammies n BIMS

[VietHorse]

..Thanx VHorse ... the trip report is very nice.... makes me want to ship my self and bike over there to soak up the scenery and culture. Do you have some months of the year that are no good for riding, or have you got 12 months of good weather?

What are fuel prices per gallon. or per liter.

Liked your photos and what a great collection of other bikes you are riding with, Ducs, Yammies n BIMS

Thanks Suitcase for your nice words. A lot of foreign riders have come an had great time riding here.

- Fuel price here is now at abt $1.1 per liter (A95).

- For riding seasons, pls see my below quote:

In general, Vietnam divides into two parts regarding weather.

- Northern part, we have four seasons very separately - Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. Riding could be good within end of Spring, whole summer and Autumn. We so called having no snow in the country, except some very small highland part at very north, and the snowing just appears for some days in the year only. The normal winter in northern of Vietnam is lowest not lower than 6-8 degree Celsius. Hottest in summer may be around 45-46 degree Celsius on the road.

- Southern part, we have two seasons - raining season and dry season. We could ride of course through out dry season, and we still have quite numbers of weather windows for riding during raining season.

Monsoon season is used for our offshore area only. Monsoon season in Vietnam prolongs from October until March of the following year.

Not so many people in Vietnam aware of the "monsoon" season. Lucky me that I was working offshore for couple of years and experienced that damn high wave and swell season.

[goose]

What a cool write up! Interesting to see how some things aren't very different in other parts of the world. Then some things are VERY different! Beautiful pictures. Thanks so much for sharing.

[VietHorse]

Thanks.

Be here and get your real and unforgetable experiences.

Hey, btw, I am not PR for VN travel. hehe

[goose]

:-) Made a lot of stops overseas in the 80's... Always have the desire to go back as a civilian and see what I missed! Beautiful country! Someday soon I hope!

[onokiyo]

That was a wonderful report you got there, VH. How long did it take you to complete the trip? Back in the days, my mom took me to Dalat and it was about half a day trip on the bus (xe do).

The brown stuff laying out for drying, are they tobacco, the one for chewing?