Pictures of scooters with lots of junk on them

The Checklist

When I got to Dalat, I felt kind of bored but that soon changed as I met a girl from Winnipeg and we were off on a motorbike adventure with a rather odd checklist...

Silk factory
Elephant waterfall
coffee farm where they have the "weasel shit coffee"
Rice wine distillery
Buddhist pagoda
Ride the epic Gondola to the most massive Buddhist complex of temples and epic garden

We found all of these things, check out how awesome it was!

The silk factory: turning caterpillar shit into clothing of all colours and patterns

Then we ate the silkworms

Elephant Fall

Vietnam you make me feel Aliiii iii iii iiive!

The Pagoda where we took a calm moment aside to meditate

Then back to drinking and mayhem, this time not waiting for it to be bottled but getting it straight from the vat. Mo, Hai, Bot, YO!

MY INSIDES ARE ON FIRE!

The biggest buzz came from the Civet-processed coffee, otherwise colloquially known as the "weasel shit coffee".

It is the most expensive coffee to make. It packs quite a punch and has a premium taste, qualities which they attribute to the beans having passed through this animal, the civet, prior to being roasted:

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

11 Secret Herbs and Insects

I ended up in Battambang, a normal Cambodian city as opposed to one with so many tourists and any need or desire to murder over-eager tuktuk drivers. In fact its so quiet its kind of hard to get a tuktuk. One thing they do have is a @#$%load of bats, like in this video:

Each evening millions of bats leave the cave to forage through the night. But not all of them return...

Some end up in a back alley restaurant which is where our awesome tuktuk driver Ridh took us to dine on this deep fried delicacy with dipping sauce, fresh herbs and lots of beer to wash it down. 

Side note: During the trip I also added these to my taste list...

Bamboo Rat
Buffalo skin
Porcupine
Dog
Scorpion
Cricket
Water beetle
Carpenter Bee pupae
Silkworm pupae
Crocodile
Eels
Coffee from beans that have passed through civets

...but never to my shame could I find a snake

Cambodia

Lots of things happened in Cambodia, like eating bats but also shooting guns.

Gettin our party on, 

riding an insanely fast "train",

A blind snake...

visiting epic ruins,

hanging out with charming babes,

getting yelled at for climbing the ruins,

backflips,

,Theatre,

children wielding large cleavers/knives/dangerous objects

and a very suspicious monkey.

The forbidden pool

During our field work for the nature reserve, we stayed in a pretty nice cabin with this view:

Our craft were not quite made of mallorn wood, but they did the job

With our kayaks, we were only supposed to stick to certain areas within the nearby vicinity, but gazing unto those mountains, I couldn't help but be drawn into them. One day Erik, Nick and I wandered beyond our boundaries in kayaks to behold this amazing forbidden pool where we frolicked in crisp mountain water. 

The forbidden pool

Erik beholds the hidden wonders of the mountain. 

Lost in a cave

The most lonely moment I experienced while traveling solo was entering this cave in Cuc Phuong National Park. I just couldn't help going further and further down its passages using my phone torch. When I could go no further I turned back, wriggling my body through small crevices with fascination. A dead end. Never had I felt this alone as I sat here under ground wondering how to get myself out. I remembered the Survivorman survival manual, so I stayed calm and collected my wits. I turned into a different passage.

"The air doesn't smell so far down here" I thought to myself, and I squeezed through the small space. I made it to a cave opening and felt exalted as I breathed the fresh jungle air. The only problem was that this was not the entrance I had gone in through. I wandered the side of the cliff hoping to not get lost in the jungle, and luckily I found the main entrance to the cave. Pleased with myself, I remembered that I had stashed my backpack at one corner in the cave, and would have to go back in there to get it...

The Big Blue Penis

"The big blue penis" was an important landmark I used to find the Phong Na farm stay. When I called them back for more directions, the girl said "where are you?" "I just passed the blue penis" I said. Unfortunately this was a different girl than I talked to before and she was not familiar with this blue penis and was therefore confused. 

Queer Lodgings

One night I was tired of shitty guest houses so I slept on this beach. Getting Winifred over the dunes was a bit of a challenge but once there it was an amazing peaceful beach to myself. 

Then after the sun went down the horizon was dotted with lights of squid-fishing boats, a beautiful experience.

The next day's ride was spectacular.

A couple days later, I ended up somewhere and I needed to find a place to stay. I figured "just stand in the centre of the town and look confused until the english-speaking person comes over and helps me". It took maybe five minutes for this strategy to work, and a guy and his wife came over to talk to me. They informed me there is no hotel anywhere. So I asked if they knew anybody who would put me up if I gave them some money. Well, of course they invited me over to their place and they obviously refused money but I insisted I'd at least buy them breakfast.

Of course the local children were very curious about this tall white guy in the neighborhood, and their shyness was soon overcome by curiosity and we played an epic game of tag until I was soaked in sweat. Then I remembered I had this huge bag of sweets and that's when the kids just went berserk.

Here are my gracious hosts!

The Citadel

The imperial citadel of Hue, site of one of the fiercest battles of the Vietnam/American war. The Danish and Germans and the Canadian set off on our motorbikes to explore the grounds. 

But first the Germans needed to be roused from their beauty sleep. 

En route, David crashed into a girl by mistake. Her bike had alot of cracked plastic, but the Russian Minsk needed simply to be put back upright and continued as if it hadn't seen a scratch. Some generous compensation was given to the quite upset girl to avoid any problems, and we were on our way. 

But we couldn't find the bike parking area so Caspar decided to cut across the park. The Misks roared like wild mustangs as we tore across the grass of the imprial grounds and bistanders looked on in amazement and security guards kindly showed us back to the road. 

While today the citadel is full of gardens and peacefulness, the scars of war can be easily seen on some of the walls as the Americans tried to evict the Communists from this fortress, having to "destroy the city in order to save it."