Doug's Travel Blog

 I got up early as usual. Made my coffee and tea, ate a couple slices of toasted sweet bread and half a papaya. I am good to go. Today I will be probably hire a Grab moto or three to see some of what Dalat has to offer.

 What can I say? Another travel day.  I booked a Grab taxi to go to the bus station. A long drive almost 30 minutes. I left my place without eating breakfast. When I got to the bus station, lucky for me there was a place to order pha. It wasn't bad.  Spent the rest of my time, less than 45 minutes waiting in the bus lounge for boarding. As you can see the bus station was very clean and modern. I caught a sleeper bus at 11 am and arrived in Dalat before 3 pm. The sleeper bus was a different configuration. The others had berths on both sides and single aisle down the middle. This bus had much narrower berths on both sides, a single row of berths down the middle and 2 very narrow aisles. This drive was from sea level to about 4800 ft above sea level, lots of curves. I heard at least one person on the bus heaving from motion sickness.  I booked another Grab taxi to take me to my new home for the next week. Dalat is much larger than I expected. It is a typical mountain to...

 Good Morning! It was nice again to make tea and coffee in my room. What tea and coffee? Yes, this is my typical start of day routine. 2 cups of rooibos tea while starting to read news, play some brain wake up games on my tablet. Then follow by brewing coffee and enjoying a cup or two of that.  I am enjoying being able to make hot water in my room. That hasn't happened until my stay in Quy Nhon and now in Nha Trang. I finally got a screen to be able to make tea in Quy Nhon. I'm carrying a Thai, single cup coffee express style brewer with me, but having a french press here in Nha Trang to make coffee is more to my taste. I rented a Vinfast electric scooter yesterday and kept it overnight.  My plan for today is go to Dam Market to buy a couple more t-shirts and a couple more underwear to reduce the frequency of going to the laundry. I headed out about 9 to go to Dam Market. For you people in Oaxaca, think Abastos market. Lots of vendors selling everything including clothing...

Good Morning Nha Trang! Same routine this morning with one exception. I not only have a electric hot water kettle in my room, there is also a french press. I had a lot of coffee and tea at home in Oaxaca, so rather than them going stale over 4 months, I brought a large baggie of each with me. I've been carrying them around mostly unused until now. At least for a few days here in Nha Trang, I can make coffee in my room without running out in the morning to find a coffee shop. I recently picked up a small strainer so I can use that for making my morning tea also. (The rooms dog themed cup in front of the dog themed tissue holder.) I wasn't in any rush to leave my room, when I did leave, I actually had a plan. Go for breakfast, find a laundry and rent a VFast electric scooter. As it happens there are no laundries near me, but there are a cluster of them where I had to go to pick up the motor scooter.  After my breakfast pha (Vietnamese rice noodle soup), I booked a Grab bike to go...

 Travel day today via train to Nha Trang.  My train is not until 12:40 so I have plenty of time to relax, find a place to eat, shower and pack My bags are a mess, I am trying to sort things better. My small bag, computer and other gadgets, my medium bag mostly cloths and the larger bag, stuff I don't need at every stop. If I can stick to this plan it will help me stay organized and not lose stuff. I walked a bit in the morning and had pho for breakfast.  Before long it was time to catch a Grab taxi to the train station.  Each of the trains I have taken, I have booked a 2nd class soft seat. There are also soft and hard bed sleepers and 3rd class hard seat tickets available.  All the trains I have taked have had a very basic dining car with hard seats. Other than the one meal per trip that they cook on the train and serve about 1 1/2 hours before arriving, there are mostly only snack type things available and of course beer. I arrived in Nha Trang before 6 pm and ...

Good Morning! The owner of the home stay gave me an electric water pot yesterday. So now I can make tea in the morning before heading out. I bought a Thai brewing cup for coffee, but I haven't found a strainer for tea. Hence, I end up picking tea out of my teeth when I brew tea in my room. After tea I went out for coffee and breakfast. I didn't have to go far, just across the small street were vendors. One selling coffee and the other selling pho, vietnamese noodle soup. My street is pretty pleasant in the mornings. There are several people that have birds that provide music in the early mornings. I was taking a picture of one, but it caused the bird to flutter around in the cage. The owner came and motioned me to move away from the cage. His face suggested he was not pleased. I can understand the bird could be hurt flying in the cage. I didn't bring a tea ball or strainer with me for making my tea. Most of my stays have included breakfast, but now some of them don't an...

 Chào buổi sáng! That means Good Morning in Vietnamese. Even though I review a little Vietnamese every day on Duolingo, the only things I can say with confidence on the street are: Cảm ơn (Thankyou) and Xin chào (Hello).  I woke up this morning sleeping in a private room with a double bed. What a luxury. My smart watch also tells me I had a good sleep. I went out early to find a place to get coffee and get something to eat. No breakfast included in my stay here. My first impression going out was that I am in a very local neighborhood. Most places at first glance you might mistake as businesses, but in fact that are private houses. The typical house here as well as in Da Nang. The first floor is the sitting area, behind a stairs going to the second floor bedrooms and maybe a small kitchen and bath beyond the stairs. What you see from the street is an the sitting area with  buddist altar with flashing lights, like christmas lights. It may or may not have seatin...

Good Morning, It's another travel day for me. I will be taking a train from Da Nang to Quy Nhon. Quy Nhon is another coastal city south of here. My place here in Da Nang was only 1 1/2 blocks from the beach. That has advantages and disadvantages. The very evident advantage is that it is close to the beach. The disadvantage is that it is close to the beach..LOL . By that I mean most of the businesses here are focused on tourist. There aren't the diversity of food choices. Mostly seafood and mostly over my budget. An attraction that I didn't go to. Is the Golden Bridge. The Golden Bridge is inside the Ba Na Hills Sunworld Amusement Park. To see or take a walk on the bridge you need to buy a ticket to the park. Ticket range from 750,000 to 950,000 dong ($29 to $36 usd) plus transportation there and back. I opted out. So what you are seeing here is the same that I saw, a picture. I spent a fair amount of time yesterday trying to bring my past few posts up to date. I will try to...