She's an easy rider!

This weekend was awesome! We went on an easy rider trip to the central highlands. There were 8 of us altogether, all excited to spend 3 days sitting on the back of the bikes of Spencer and his crew!

On Friday after school, they picked us up at CP and introduced us all to our drivers. It was a close call for Nicola and Romano, as Romano wasn't so well, but at last minute they decided to come! So there was me, Sarah, Robbie, Richard, Nicola, Romano, Jon and Zaya...all mad enough to spend the weekend developing sore bottoms and getting soaked through!

We made our way from Saigon to Ba Ria, in the Vung Tau province. We had a short trip on a boat and then hit the roads again towards Ba Ria.

We made a few stop offs on the way...mainly because the heavens had opened and we wanted to make ourselves look even more attractive in our beautiful ponchos and plastic trousers!

The hotel was lovely, and after quick warm up showers, we headed out for some food. Spencer took us to a lovely restaurant which sold great sea food- it was my favourite meal so far, made even better by the fact that the others insisted on paying for me as a thanks for organising the trip.

On Saturday, we woke up nice and early, grabbed some breakfast down the road, and headed off on our journey from Ba Ria to Bao Loc.

We stopped off at loads of amazing places on the way, had plenty of giggles, and saw some great things;

 

The views as we got higher into the mountains were beautiful! It was so strange to feel a bit chilly for the first time since moving here too!

By the time we reached our hotel on the Saturday, we were all exhausted and in need of hot showers and nice food...we soon added drink to our list of requests too! We had a great evening at a local place, where bottles of vodka were 90p! We ate and drank for hours and hours and spent less than a fiver each!

After another early rise on Sunday, we had breakfast together at the hotel (much needed with the hangovers!) and set off on our journey back to HCMC.

Again, we visited loads of fascinating places (and some slightly less fascinating- see pics below!). The day also included one of the bikes breaking down, one hitting a chicken and me having an allergic reaction at the rubber plantation!

The last few hours were a bit of a slog, with us all exhausted, sore backs/bums and lots of rain! The feeling of reaching home as we approached HCMC was very strange...only 8 weeks here and we're all so settled. Although shattered, we all arrived back with huge smiles, having had a wonderful weekend, not only getting to know each other better (the drinking games helped with this!) but also getting to know the fascinating country we've moved to that bit more. I'm already booked on to my next easy rider trip (HCMC-Long Hai-Mui Ne-HCMC) and I can't wait!