The road to get there

All good things in life are like treasures waiting to be discovered and there is a road to get you there. What the treasure holds for you is unknown to you until you reach the end. The road may be full of twists and turns, steep hills, in fact dangerous, and you could easily get lost. But haven't we all come across those good things in life?...

Road to: Da Lat (a city in the mountains in Central Vietnam)
Means of travel: motorbike

People were really helpful when I told them I like to go from Nha Trang to Da Lat on a motorbike. I guess it reminded the older people of their younger days and youngsters a road they like to one day travel.

The road was dusty, weather was hot and navigation was difficult. Initially I had constant tears in my eyes from the dusty road. I had to not just dodge the traffic and pedestrians, but also the numerous holes in the road. For a good hour or so I was on the way to "Dac Lac" instead of Da Lat (I only suspected when I had to cross a river with my bike). It also rained for a little bit, and the mountain road was cold even with three layers of cloths on.

I guess it is far easier to note all the good things when things are so tough, and good things are of plenty when the complaining and contemplating stopped. I mean sooner or later I had to accept the fact that the going gets tougher (and tough gets going).

The road had it's own flow that I had to tune myself into. Not so much road rules here, but people are in tune with the road. It was interesting how somebody gave me directions using an internet Viet-English translator website. As much as I stared at the passing villages and their people, I got stared back at; probably being dark brown guy with a beard on a motorbike with a large backpack tied to the back. I can't forget trying to converse with the locals when I had look for food or when I ran out of petrol in a middle of a village. They spoke no English and I couldn't say more than Hello and Thank You in Vietnamese. Nevertheless, I did find good food to eat and petrol to get me back on the road.

The road carried me through some paddy fields, tropical bush, across rivers to the high lands. Air was thinner, cooler and comfortable. The scenery that was unraveling in front of me was breath taking: blue mountains, water falls here and there, bush flowers in various colors and the butterflies that butterflying around. There was clouds, and there was rain, but above the clouds there was the Sun shine.

Good times along the way was wound up with the tough and the uncomfortable. Those were the treasures to be discovered. At the end of the road there was no treasure stashed in a chest. The treasure was in fact spread out along the road for us to pick up..



~Winding road~


~Waterfall on the way~


~Means of transport~


~City of Da Lat~