From Saigon we took a train up the coast arriving at Phan Rang in the evening. The next morning we hired four motorbike drivers to take us the 3 hours to Dalat. It was a lovely ride winding up the curvy roads from the coastal plains into the highlands. As we reached the peaks we stopped at a roadside stand for a breather and to give our butts a rest, for we still had another hour of shake, rattle and roll to Dalat. The only vendor who spoke English, Tahn, introduced herself to us and within 4 minutes we had an invitation to spend the night at her family’s house in the village just around the corner. We graciously accepted. We had a few hours to kill so the four of us hiked through the countryside to a waterfall and chilled out for a few hours before our “homestay” experience began.

On our arrival at Tahn’s house, Steve and I were greeted by her father with a shot of good old country-made rice wine that was fresh from the still. The night spiraled into a hysterical cultural exchange topped off with huge quantities of local beer, much more wine, an endless supply of food, and a cavalcade of family, extended family and neighborly introductions. But the most bizarre event of the evening was in the darkness of night as throngs of village boys dressed as traditional styled Asian dragons (one as the head and front legs and one as the bum and back legs) were ferociously stopping cars and trucks only to bounce on their bumpers and dance on their hoods until the drivers and passengers forked over enough cash to satisfy the beast’s hunger. "A once a year holiday that marks a very special Chinese Children’s Day" was all we could get from Tahn. Amazingly, upon awakening the next morning we felt only slightly modified.

We took a local bus to Dalat, which is known as the honeymoon capital of Vietnam (complete with the crony requisite swan-shaped paddle boats), and within an hour we were on the road again. The Easy Riders are an group of locals who have banded together to form a travel company that specializes in taking tourists on back road motorcycle trips from one day to one month. To become an Easy Rider they must take several exams including English, Vietnamese history and general knowledge, and, thank goodness, a driving test. They organize everything from nuts to bolts and all you do is sit on the back of their bikes and oooh and ahhh as you traverse over the roads and take in non-touristy places in south central Vietnam. In a nutshell, the first day we backroaded to: a flower farm, a pig farm that doubles as a rice wine distillery, the Elephant Waterfall and Bong Our Temple, a silk factory, the K’Ho tribal village, and Tambo Cemetary (where one of the original Easy Riders is buried) spending the night in Di Linh. The next day we visited a tea plantation, met Jabac (a kung-fu master who also owns a rock quarry), the Chau Ma tribal village, and rode through the cotton fields and rice paddies of Malim to Nha Trang where we caught an afternoon train back to Saigon. My favorite sight was the colossal Buddha that was the happiest deity I've ever seen. Just looking at him made me laugh.