I thought that taking the Vietnamese public busses would be a lot less touristy and just as comfortable as all the Tourist Busses I had been on. Both these things we’re true. It was less touristy and as comfortable as the tourist busses, but that’s not saying much…

This was the bus, a Transit... but look at those seats!

I'm 6 foot 3 inches! How am I supposed to get into that chicken coup?

I managed to ram myself into a seat by the window, which I opened and sort of hung out of the whole way. We took off and the guy at the wheel was mental! 120kph in the city at some points. Mostly his driving style was using the horn instead of the break (as is the norm here).

To be fair, after 2 hours of this (including 1 pull over by the police), it was not his undoing. This was…

A pothole did this

Quite a hole in the possibly illegal tyres there

We had stopped near a fuel station and a small hamlet of houses. Not a bad place

Well we could rest here if we had to

Strangly nice

These are people's homes

Our defeated van

After the tire was changed and my legs were properly stretched, we headed off. Our driver was clearly a bit rattled by the experience… for about 10 minutes. Then he was back to smoking at the wheel and later hurling us round mountain roads.

I managed to snap a few more photos on the way upto Dalat.

All taken from a moving van!

I’m now in Dalat, felt rubbish last night and didn’t stray far from the Hotel, which is $8 a night now.

I’m writing this as I’m hiding out from the rain, which makes me glad I didn’t do Easy Riders today.

Anyway, better get some lunch.