A mere 24 hours in DaLat

Thankfully we had booked our hostel in advance (to all you people who said *just wing it* HA TAKE THAT) so we weren't meandering around DaLat at 5 am. We were able to check into our hostel (Mr. Peace Hostel...top 5 hostels I've stayed at plus Mr. Peace is fabulous see picture below) and were given a room by ourselves to snooze in. I have never been so happy to sleep in a hostel bed as I was at that moment.

It doesn't look like much but after not sleeping for about two days it was heaven.

After being forced to arise from my slumber with the lure of Vietnamese coffee, we managed to get up and have our third banh mi in a little over 24 hours. Less is not more. More is more. 

Thanks for documenting one of the best banh mi sandwiches we sampled while in Vietnam, Chels! Your thumb ring looks great. 

We then took a tour of the DaLat countryside which was beautiful!

^Elephant Falls

^"I'm so fun"

^"I'm not even scared of this waterfall" *internal crying*

^our tour guide took us behind the waterfall and IT WAS SO COOL. Poor Chelsea couldn't come because her camera isn't waterproof like my GoPro suckaaaaa

^you can't look at this buddha and not smile

^silk worms

^silk factory!

^taking shots of rice wine

^not in college anymore

Our last stop of the tour was to see how weasel coffee was made. I thought I was hearing wrong, but it is confirmed that a weasel eats the coffee beans, poops them out, someone washes them??!?!?!, and then coffee is made from those beans. Beans that have passed through a weasel. I drank coffee that came out of a weasel's ass. 

^Can you tell which ones are cleaned and which ones aren't? Me neither.

It turned out to be delicious and the view that came with it was beautiful!

We really worked up an appetite drinking weasel poop coffee, so our tour guide took us to eat some of the best spring rolls I have ever had. 

SO GOOD I am salivating looking at this picture right now

Then we headed back to our hostel where we helped make our second dinner of the night. #portioncontrol

^Mr. Peace feeling himself

^Mr. Peace's daughter whose happens to have the best name in the world. Her name is Laura.

^lol hi

After politely declining the invitation to go out with these fun people with thoughts of flying home from Ireland the day after Saint Patty's Day ringing in my head, we went to bed because we had a flight to catch in the morning! EYYOOOO HOI AN!

Back in Nam

GOOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAM! After safely landing in Ho Chi Minh City where we have to remind ourselves to stop waiing to people and speaking Thai, our first thing on our list was to get an overnight bus ticket to Dalat for that night. What better way to save money on hostels than to take overnight transportation can I get an Amen?

I distinctly remember thinking it was going to be SO fun, like a sleepover when you were a little kid, except with lots of people you don’t know, who don't speak English, on a moving bus, and no parents to make you delicious snacks or make sure you have enough pillows and blankets. After attempting to bargain the price of the bus ticket and getting shut down (we're no longer in Thailand, Toto) we were READY AND EXCITED. Vietnam is our oyster!!! Considering Vietnam is known for having delicious coffee, and I wasn't ready to put my "travel" coffee pot to use just yet, we figured we would ask some locals what the best place to get coffee was. After talking to a few people, a man and his friend told us they would moto us to a really amazing place down the road. Sure!! (My mom is cringing inside.)

It's hard to look this good on a moto but you can try.

He took us to Trugnyen coffee, which I think would the be the equivalent to someone asking you what is a really good local place to get coffee in Seattle and them taking you to a Starbucks. However, it was delicious. I also can't believe I didn't document my FIRST EVER COFFEE in VIETNAM. Honestly.

After our caffeine fix (it was maybe a sip and a half of coffee…where are the American portions?!?!) the only thing on our mind was bread. Our new moto friends (okay we paid them to drive us but I think their was something there) told us they would take us to the War Remnants Museum which was on our list and on the way stop and let us get sammies. Deal.

Holding the prized possessions. 

We found a stand selling banh mi for less than a dollar and it was DAMN GOOD. After eating rice three times a day (sometimes four, hellooooo mango sticky rice you sweet sweet thang), I forgot what other food groups tasted like. They tasted like heaven.

^please notice the pure ecstasy all over our faces

We then headed to the War Remnants Museum which was an amazing but also horrifying. If you are ever in Ho Chi Minh make it a point to go to this museum!

After a quick pit stop to get another banh mi-I'm on an all carb diet GOD KAREN YOU'RE SO STUPID- we took a quick walk to meet Peter in the park. My mom is probably like, "Who is Peter!?!?!"  While we were in the park a group of 5 or 6 people came up to us to practice their English! It was great and so ballsy of them to just come over and start talking to us considering 2/3 of us have major resting bitch face. Apparently I did rest my eyes for a moment when they were gone and they came back and took a picture with me while I was sleeping. The amount of pictures people in Southeast Asia have of me....

After an awesome dinner of bread- my third loaf of the day- and pho (it’s pronounced like “pho”ck you…I've been to Vietnam so I would know *hair flip*)

we were ready for the sleeper bus!!! I’m going to get such a good night’s sleep! And think of all the money we're saving on a hostel!




This was the worst ride of my life. It was NOT like a sleepover. There was NOT a bathroom on the bus ride that took 7 hours, and I felt the need to chug a liter of water right before to "hydrate".

^you can already tell I'm starting to have second thoughts about this "sleepover on a bus" thing.

After three hours of me saying "okay maybe by 11 p.m. we will have a bathroom break.....okay maybe by 11:15.....11:45....12:30....would anyone notice if I just peed in my seat?.....1:15.....1:30" I got up to ask the bus driver if we were ever going to stop a restroom. I guess there is a literal line you can not cross when going to talk to the driver because I got YELLED at. In half Vietnamese half English. I just kept repeating BATHROOM?!?!?!?! Eventually he told me we would be stopping in "an hour". I go back to my lounge seat and just close my eyes, praying that somehow an hour means an hour in Vietnam, because it most certainly does not in Thailand. Sure enough though, an hour later we finally stop at a restroom. Have you ever peed so long that you actually cannot believe that your body stores that much liquid and kind of wish you timed it? I was astounded.

After another 3 hours we finally reached our destination at a convenient time of 5am!!! Helloooooo DaLat we are here!!!!!!!