On the 27th we drove from Pleiku to Buon Ma Thuot. It was a long 6 hour day. We discovered another Vietnamese dish that we enjoyed called pho kho. On the 28th we went to the cutest cafe with a secret garden feel. Then we packed up and drove to Da Lat. It wasn't the most pleasant drive. The traffic was busy and the roads had loads of potholes. We stopped at a cafe just in time to miss a huge downpour. We went through some construction and it was a sloppy mess of red clay. I dumped my bike twice and looked like I had rolled around in a mud pile with my bike. We had a good laugh at the situation. I was struggling to pick my bike up because of the weight of the bags strapped to it and the slippery mud. I looked over at the two men in the truck next to me and they weren't jumping to my rescue. I don't think they wanted to get their feet dirty. Once we got to Da Lat we checked into our hotel. We went out for some yummy burgers and chili cheese fries for dinner. We are super happy with the cool mountain weather. On the 29th we went to a weasel coffee farm. The coffee tasted normal, but we really enjoyed petting one of the weasels. It's a bit sad to see them caged up just so they can be force fed coffee beans during the harvest and their poo can be collected. Then we went for lunch and had some wonton pho. We went to a place called the Crazy House and walked around. After going to the store we played some pool at the hotel, relaxed, and then went out for sushi.
On the 25th we drove from Hoi An to Kon Tum. After breakfast we went back to Style Motorbikes to get Bart a different phone holder since his new(old) one they gave him the day prior didn't work. We spoke with one of the employees and he showed us a better route to get to Kon Tum. Instead of the Ho Chi Minh Trail we took a less used route that had some great mountain passes and very little traffic. It was one of the best days since the north part of Vietnam. We got about half way there and I had another flat tire. After getting that fixed we got back on the road. It was an extremely long 6 hour day. The weather was cool for once at least. When we arrived in Kon Tum we checked into our hotel and then headed out to find some food. We happened upon a pop up food truck. We ordered two bowls of pho and boy were we happy with the results. It was the best bowl of pho we have had in our entire lives. On the 26th we took our time leaving town. We took a long walk to a really interesting cafe. It had the sweetest dog and had a secret garden vibe. Then we packed up the bikes and went to a restaurant restaurant for lunch. It only took us an hour to get to Pleiku. We checked into our hotel, went to the movie Annabelle, and then went out for dinner. We happened to be in the same theatre with about 100 shrieking schoolgirls. Th movie had everyone jumping out of their seats. It also made everyone clap when the "cute" boy made a funny joke. It was worth the $5.00 we paid for our tickets.
On the 21st we drove from Phong Nha to Khe Sanh. We stopped at an abandoned water park for a bit then had dinner at Sake Beer. It was nice to have something Vietnamese that wasn't rice noodle soup. We had some super smiley drunk guys behind us. On the 22nd we went to the Khe Sanh Combat Base. It was very surreal to see planes from America. We drove to Hue on this day. It was disgustingly hot on this drive. When we got to Hue we checked in and relaxed for a bit. We went to a recommended Vietnamese restaurant and it was terrible. Once it cooled down we went to the Imperial City, which is the former imperial capital of Vietnam. We at at Jalapeno Restaurant for dinner. On the 23rd we drove from Hue to Hoi an. It was a fun day of driving. We finally got to drive along the coast and see the South China Sea. We drove the famous Hai Van Pass, which was super fun. We spent the day bar hopping in Hoi an. We went to multiple different breweries and ended at a sports pub for pizza and burgers. On the 24th we had breakfast at the hotel, relaxed, and then went to the beach. We spent most of the day there. I had another flat tire so we took our motorbikes to Style Motorbikes to have everything checked over. I got a new back tire and Bart got a new phone holder. We ate at Hola Taco for dinner, which was super yummy.
