For my final day in Da Lat, I decided to book an Easy Rider motorbike tour around the region. For the extremely reasonable price of $35, I had my guide, Linh, and his bike from 8.30am until 5pm.
Our first stop was a hill that I had to hike up to see the view from the top. Now, while it was certainly a very impressive view, the walk killed me, and when I met Linh at his bike, he couldn’t stop laughing at me, saying “That’s why I said it was a hike, not a walk!”
Next stop was a flower farm, followed by a coffee plantation to see how coffee is made and taste the famous weasel “poop” coffee. Next was a silk factory, where we got to see exactly how silk is made and every stage that the silk worms go through to produce silk. It was all fascinating, and Linh explained everything so clearly!
We then drove to a Hindu temple, complete with huge laughing Buddha, which confused me somewhat, and then onto Elephant waterfall. Unfortunately I couldn’t make it all the way down to the waterfall as the descent was very slippery and steep, and my trainers were in the wash! However, I did still get to see it from the top which was pretty cool.
After all of this, we were starving and so we stopped at a little cafe for lunch. I opted for pork belly, rice and tofu, while Linh let me try some of his pig’s tongue!
With our bellies stuffed, we drove the 30km to Pongour Waterfall, and if I’d been slightly disappointed about not seeing Elephant Falls, I wasn’t any longer: Pongour Falls are seriously impressive, and even though I had to opt for the more expensive tour in order to see them, I was extremely glad that I did.
We then made a brief stop at a mushroom farm, took a trip to Chicken Village to learn the old Viet legend behind the giant chicken statue, and ended the day at the Crazy House.
I thoroughly enjoyed my Easy Rider tour, and I know that people often turn their noses up at things like this because they want to do it themselves in an “authentic” way, but if being authentic means trying to find all of these places myself, navigate the potholed roads on the way to Pongour and be my own tour guide, then I’ll take an Easy Rider tour any day!
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