Da Lat

After a few more days in Ho Chi Minh with Jouke and Julie, I went to Da Lat for 3 days and would meet them again for the weekend to do a hike together.

I booked the bus to Da Lat for midnight so I would arrive at 6 a.m. and have some sort of sleep. The pick-up locations were extremely random. So I thought my safest option would be a bus station. But once there, there were no other passengers and no buses. Luckily there were security guards who helped me. They phoned the bus to make sure it would come and I had to wait outside. At 12:15, still no bus, and the guard was like no you have to wait ag the road. So I was really scared I missed the bus because I was at the wrong location. Stress level to the max, but at half past 12, the bus did arrive. Already delayed there was no time to put my backpack in the booth so I had to share my sleeper bed with my backpack. Still, I was 10000x comfortable than I was on the bus to Stockholm. So I fell asleep.

We arrived perfectly on time and with little sleep, it took me a minute to gather my thoughts. Once I stepped off the bus, I was bombarded with: ‘taxi, taxi taxi’.

Damn

Did not improve my mood. Plus I would take a Grab scooter anyway. The scooter brought me to a coffee shop for some breakfast and some quietness to wake up. Then it was off to my hostel and at 9 Mr Ban’s brother in law (Mr. Vliet) would take me on a tour.

The tour was beautiful, but I was very tired. Also, I could feel that my left ear felt a bit infected. But the most cringing thing was that the guide would make an after-movie. So at every stop, he made me do walks, poses, and all that Instagram stuff. I haven’t looked at the full video. I cannot do it. Too cringy.

At night my ear started to hurt very badly and so the next morning I had to go to the doctor. The diagnosis was indeed an infection of the ear canal. With 5 different kinds of pills and ear drops I was sent back to the hostel. The pain was too much to do anything else.

Now an ear canal infection happened to me before and I recovered fairly quickly. So I assumed I would feel good enough for the hike. I booked my bus ticket and hostel and so Friday I dragged myself to the remote area of the hike. Unfortunately, I did not feel better. Even worse because my other ear was flaring up as well.

Very unfortunate but I had to cancel the hike. Juul and Jouke were doubting to go, but hiking in Vietnam is very expensive. A 100€ for a weekend. So I encouraged them to go. I was very sad I had to miss it. But it got worse

On Sunday I was supposed to drive back with the walking group to Ho Chi Minh. So I waited all day and looked forward to chatting to Juul. In the afternoon Julie texted me and her location. that was nowhere near me. Turns out they returned from a different spot, but the organisation knew I was supposed to be picked up. So why they didn’t tell me this? So I waited two days all for nothing. Still in pain, I had to take a late bus and would return at 3 a.m. I was done. Weeping in self-pity I called my mom and several friends to complain about all the things that were going wrong. They did cheer me up and the host of where I was staying was so incredibly lovely (Thich Home). Ylva (my Coast 2 Coast buddy) suggested going to Bali instead of continuing in Vietnam.

So in the late bus, I thought about it. Because my sister was in Indonesia. Why not visit them? Nothing cheers me up as much as being Auntie. It turns out my sister’s family will be in Bali next week!!
Something to look forward to but first the upcoming week.