Those three countries sounds pretty whirlwind given that it’s only a touch over a fortnight ago when I was still in China. The truth though is that my time in South East Asia has been pretty quiet with a lot of lazing around.

Shannon made it to Phnom Penh after a bit of trouble with Vietnam Airlines – his boarding pass said to board at 7.10pm, but the plane left at 6.30pm?? Who ever heard of a plane leaving early? Having already looked at the sites in Phnom Penh on a previous trip I spent most of the time around the hotel, market and the great Foreign Correspondent’s Club. The bus trip to Saigon was pretty slow and tough, and after a slow procession through the Cambodian side of things another hold-up at the Vietnamese immigration made me hot, sweaty, irritable, and very concerned that I was going to show on the thermal monitor as a bright red feverish swine flu candidate – luckily I didn’t. Nobody wants to spend their holiday in quarantine at a hospital.

I’m still in Saigon and after eating a great breakfast, followed by a papaya salad with a good coffee I’m ready to start packing again. I’ve been living with Shannon for the last week in his house in Binh Tanh district, which is a refreshing change to the chaos of District 1. A house resplendent with soft mattress, ensuite and a maid is always good, but after 9 weeks in China it is a god send.

I called into Sinh Cafe in Pham Ngu Lao last week and asked for a bus ticket to Dalat, which I was assured was a 5 hour journey away. 9 hours later I arrive in Dalat, which I guess at least filled a day in! I had read about the Easy Rider’s in Dalat, essentially a group of guys that ride motorbikes and take tourists to some out of the way sites. Not that different to the literally thousands of xe om riders that are across Saigon, but these guys are a big organised group. Lonely Planet jokes that you can find them hanging at the Peace Cafe, but they’ll find you first. Too right, no sooner had I emerged from my hotel after a shower and Thien sidles up to me and tells me he is an easy rider. I negotiated that if he took me to a bar, showed me a good restaurant then he could take me out for the day and then drop me off at the airport – Done.

I had a couple of Tiger longnecks at the Peace Cafe, and at 18,000 dong a pop it was a pretty good deal. A quiet dinner followed and then I hit the hay as I had given little thought to the elevated altitude in Dalat, 1700m, made it a pretty chilly spot in shorts and a t-shirt. I awoke to the very, very loud chatter of a restaurant full of Chinese tourists at around 7am so I got up, ate some papaya and a baguette and hit the road with my man.

Perhaps spoilt silly for scenery in China, but the acclaim that Dalat has received in guidebooks and on reviews online seems a bit over the top. Yes, it’s lovely, it’s green, it has French architecture, but it’s just another town really. The sites outside of the town were impressive with waterfalls, coffee plantations, rice wine ‘factory’, flower farm etc, but for me the absolute enjoyment was just sitting on the back of a guys motorbike and having the rush of wind in your face as you take in the countryside.

I kid you not, the flight back to Saigon took 25 minutes, 8 hours and 35 minutes quicker than the bus. The weekend was more or less quiet – a few beers and the compulsory visit to Apocolypse Now bar. A quick couple of trips into Ben Tanh market for some much needed clean new clothes, fresh DVDs and a couple of books and my trip to Saigon is complete.

I fly out tomorrow to KL, and overnight it there before jumping on an Air Asia X jet to Stansted, fingers crossed that no one is sitting next to me because they are the smallest seats I’ve ever seen on a jet…on the plus side it’s also the cheapest flight to London I’ve seen in my life. I should edit some pics from China and Dalat and get them up on here this afternoon.

Cheers

Jamie