I whizz down the busy coastal highway before travelling through serene valleys and jumping on a bus to take me up the windy mountain highway to the tourist hotspot of Da Lat.
The next phase of my cycle tour was an exciting one. I was heading from the coast back up into the hills and checking out an unknown back road which cut inland through some tempting rolling hill country between Nha Trang and Da Lat. After a few rest days in Da Lat I would be joining a guided one-day tour to travel down the mountain to Mui Ne.
Even more exciting was the impending arrival of my partner Rafal and I needed to get myself to Da Lat in order to meet him when he stepped off the plane.
To cut a long story short, the DT8 back road is ABSOLUTELY worth cycling, whether you are making your way to Da Lat or looking for an alternative route into (or around) Nha Trang. The road offers a smooth and peaceful ride through a bucolic mix of forest and farmland. A row of high green hills loomed in the distance on both sides, adding to the sense that this is the secret valley that time forgot.
For me, this cool, green landscape was the perfect contrast and addition to the jaw-dropping coastal views I’d experienced the previous day when I’d cycled over the Vung Ro pass, one of the highlights of the trip.
Disaster strikes: my phone is no more
But as was the theme for this trip it seemed the highest of highs had to be balanced out with the lowest of lows. My day had started in the small town of Van Gia where my phone simply died in my hand.
As much as losing a phone might not sound like a big deal, in fact something to be expected on holiday, it felt at the time like a disaster of soul-crushing proportions.
At a time where I was already mentally and physically fatigued and stressed about making the logistics work to meet and then travel with Raf, this was the last thing I needed right now. My phone was my travelling lifeline – and without navigation or maps I realised I was utterly helpless. It was my way to contact Raf who was on his way to Vietnam. It was also my camera, allowing me to document the trip for this blog, giving an extra drive and purpose to my travels.
To be fair I’d hammered it all day, using navigation, playing music then also, inspired by the scenery, taking heaps of video clips and pictures under a hot, hot sun and drizzling sweat. No wonder the battery fritzed out.
Luckily there was a phone shop not too far from my guesthouse. So after a frustrating failed repair attempt, then purchasing and setting up a cheap phone, it was already past midday when I set off for my next destination.
Back road to the Da Lat highway
Far from my usual relaxed style of travel I was now in a race against time to make it for my Da Lat rendezvous.
With the wind on my back and a pancake-flat road under my pedals I flew down Highway One in no time, turning off onto another dusty, uninspiring highway around the northern end of Ninh Hoa city. (With more time it would be entirely possible to travel some or all of this way on village back roads).
Finally, after 35 kilometres, I found the route I was looking for, and as so often is the case in Vietnam I suddenly plunged into a completely different world. I was also now riding in the late afternoon light which gave the mountains a blue-ish glow in the distance.
While I kept up a cracking pace all the stress melted away in the face of beautiful scenery and a great cycling road. I would really have liked to stay the night in this beautiful area but at present there is not a single guesthouse to be found.
It was well and truly past dark by the time I finally made it to the Vu Bao Guesthouse, located in a township around 30 km west of Nha Trang, a popular seaside city on the traditional Vietnam tourist trail.
Having covered 77km in an afternoon I went to bed happy that – providing my plan to hail a bus worked out – I would get to Da Lat a full day ahead of Raf with time for laundry and planning.
Climbing to Da Lat with my bike on a bus
At 6am I started awake with the sound of a text message. It was Rafal, my partner: “Hi, sweetie, just landed in Ho Chi Minh city – see you soon in Dalat!”
What!!?? With the shock of my life I realised that with all the phone dramas I had messed up the schedule. Raf was arriving TODAY not tomorrow. I now needed to get to Dalat as soon as possible to meet my partner who I had hardly seen in four months.
I cycled as quickly as possible to the main road where I waited jumpily at a cafe to flag down a bus. (Cycling up the mountain to Da Lat was not physically out of the question for me but safety-wise not something I felt comfortable with on a narrow winding road full of large vehicles).
The cafe lady assured me that one of the hourly buses travelling between Nha Trang and Da Lat would stop to pick up passengers if they had room, but I’d be unlikely to see one before 9am.
In the end it was fairly straightforward wave down a bus and as a solo cyclist with a smallish bike the driver was able to fit me on to one of the ‘limousine luxury buses’ which are common on this route. A ‘limousine bus’ is essentially a comfy minibus with reclining seats and chargers. And is always the way when you’re in a desperate hurry in South East Asia, the bus broke down leaving us stranded on the side of the road for another hour.
Anyway, the views were amazing and after what felt like an eternity I was giving Rafal a big hug in the ‘honeymoon’ city of Dalat.
Sightseeing Da Lat
Da Lat was a great place to spend a few days, and Rafal and I splurged on a nice Air BnB with sweeping views and cappucinos at breakfast. After the heat of the south central coast I enjoyed the cool, crisp climate and European trees.
We hiked through crisp pine forests to the Lang Biang peak (fantastic) and the Datanla tourist park (less so), saw the Zen Monastery and sat in cute, homely cafes along the Hem Khoi Nghia Bac Son (highly recommend Him Cafe with its adorable pet dogs).
A word of warning on Da Lat: it is a difficult city to get around, with some of the most traffic-clogged streets you’ll find outside the main capital cities in Vietnam. Da Lat is also a very popular getaway spot for local tourists, so can get very busy at weekends and public holidays.
Cycling down the mountain: Da Lat to Mui Ne
I was keen to cycle with Rafal and also keen to cycle one of the famously scenic route (QL28) between Da Lat and the coast. We’d also weighed up the option of cycling/motorbiking part of a Vietnam Coracle route inlands over back roads. It looks fantastic and I wish we’d had more time to do this.
Given Rafal didn’t have his own bicycle, the easiest and most practical way to cycle down from Da Lat was to join a tour, though having cycled nearly 2000 kilometres though Vietnam by myself I did feel faintly ridiculous.
At least three companies operate cycle tours from Da Lat to either Nha Trang or Mui Ne, including Da La Adventure Tours.
Instead of just taking a bus between Da Lat and the next destination they get you and your luggage there with a mixture of minibus and cycling (a two day version with more cycling and less bus is also available).
The best thing about the tour was our guide, Tim. We genuinely learnt a lot from him about the area we cycled through and it was clear he felt deeply connected to it.
It was good to be driven out of town to the most scenic road and to jump back in the bus at the end to skip the hot and boring roads closer to the coast. Taking a tour was a little bit pricy for South East Asia standards and there could have been a bit more cycling time, but generally speaking it was a great option and one I felt I deserved!
The weeping views were also incredible and once again I felt incredibly blessed to be experiencing yet another one of Vietnam’s great cycling roads.
