Beginning of something great., part 6 (I'm finally there dear readers aka "58 days of Da Lat")

And finally to the epic part:

If I’m being totally honest I was getting a little bit weary of being a tourist everyday after being on the road for 7 months. 7 months of dorms, new places, busses to catch, roads to drive, schedules to check and decisions to be made and there fore I was mentally ready to stay in one place for a longer time. I just didn’t know where but things usually resolve somehow. 

After about one week in Wolfpack I asked Kha what was the longest stay in that hostel so far. He told me that a Canadian guy was holding the record and it was 15 nights. “Hmmm… I could break that record”- I thought. I really liked Da Lat, the Wolfpack and the the staff there. The climate was good enough after the rainy northern Vietnam. Days were about 25-28 degrees celsius, the nights a bit chilly but basically no rain at all. The family dinner was also really good. I guess I ate that dinner everyday during my stay at Wolfpack. 

So came the day when I broke the record. I was stunned by the act form the hostel owners. They bought me a huge cake as seen on the pictures. It was a big deal for them me to break the record. It was also an honour to me. I even put on my bling bling shirt for the occasion.

Now that is a cake!

Me, B.Nana, Kha on my right, Kha's wife on left side and two
staff members.  

Me giving a speech on the record breaking
evening and a Israeli guy feeling second-
hand embarrassment ;)

Kha was leaving Da Lat for a three day trip and asked me if I could help a little bit at the hostel since his wife’s English ain’t that good. Well I already knew most of the places in Da Lat and how to get there and so on so I was like “of course”. During those three days I received a nick name “Hostel Daddy”. I gave all the new comers an introduction speech about the hostel and Da Lat. People seemed to enjoy it since they even wanted some slides to go with the show. After those three days Kha’s family considered me being a part of the family and I enjoyed also sharing my info. “Sharing is caring”- an ancient backpacker saying ;) I also helped when ever/where ever I could for example setting the plates and the dishes for dinner. I told where to get cheap Vietnamese rum or where’s the nearest ATM etc.

Being considered as a part of the family also meant that I could eat lunch with them for free and my laundry was also done for free. I also could use Kha’s motorbike for when ever I wanter to. Nice little perks wouldn’t you say? And that is not all. After breaking the record I was also staying for free! Yep, Kha told me before I broke the record of the longest stay that after I break the record I can stay for free as long as I want to, dinner included. WTF?!?? Backpackers dream basically just came true. Accommodation and food for free. As long As I wanted to. 

So when people usually consider how long they will be staying in one place they think in days, I was thinking in weeks. “Maybe one or two more weeks. Ended up staying in Da Lat for 58 days. Has to be some kind of record I think. Enjoyed every single of the. It was also nice to have a stroll in the city since people started to remember me there. “oh, you're still here? Is it now 45 days?” 

Waterfall, definitely.

Happy Buddha, Sad Man

Most backpackers don't understand why one would stay in one place such a long time and the most common question to me was: “What have you been doing all those days here? There not that much to do here?”

I mostly just enjoyed my life doing nothing. Played some guitar with other guests and had nice runs around the lake in the city centre. Went to movies, had naps, sometimes even right after breakfast. 

I had always just enough to do. I could take my bike for a ride and see the sunset around paradise lake or what ever. I just totally enjoyed my life there and more importantly, I have the luxury of time. No need to rush anywhere. Money is my only limitation and since I wasn't spending that much in Da Lat...   To be honest most of the doubters said to me after a few days in Da Lat that they would also stay if they only had the opportunity. Muahhhahaah

There was a girls with only 2 or 3 days in Da Lat and if you don’t drive  a motorbike it’s a bit hard to do all the sights around Da Lat so I promised to take her around and show the places with Kha’s bike. We went to see couple of waterfalls, silk factory, coffee plantation and such things. Whilst we were having a cup coffee at the coffee plantation I started thinking that I could even get some money out of this. Then when it happened to me the second time that I did this favour to a lady it really struck me. Holy shit, I could became an Easy Rider here  (as I told you earlier Easy Riders are motorbike tourist guides).

With this view I got my idea of being an Easy Rider.

and here is my all time favourite dog in Vietnam
"Rocky". He was kidnapped by the
neighbours and freed against 4 million Dongs.
True story.

Three or four days later I had my first paying customer! I only ended up doing this for two or three weeks but I managed to make enough money to buy me new shoes. I also ended up getting freebies from the places I took my customers but the most fun was to get to know the people running those businesses and/or places and see their smiles when I got to a place. For example this coffee shop keeper had so much fun with my , mostly lady, customers. “You lucky, this man really good guide. You lucky, this woman really beautiful”. To be honest I wasn’t complaining about my customers :D 

With this conveniently coloured bike I gave tours with and on
the background the "first" lady.

I would have continued giving those tours even longer time but it was about to be TET, aka Chinese new year. It’s the biggest holiday in Vietnam and the only time a year that the country mostly closes down. That meant that Wolfpack was also gonna close for the holiday. My good luck continued. Kha told me that I can stay at the wolf pack over the holiday. Holy shit?!?! The whole hostel for my self!!!11 I guess I have done something right in my life at some point even though I don’t believe in karma. ;)

That is not all. Slater was coming back to Vietnam and a German girl whom I met in Istanbul was also coming to Vietnam during the TET. Yep, you guessed it right. I ended up spending 5 days in Wolfpack with Slater and Paulina on our own. After staying all those months travelling in dorms it was luxury to have the place all to ourselves. Kha just left the hostel key to me and that was it. Talking about Vietnamese hospitality! 

My favourite place around Da Lat, Paradise Lake.

The saddest elephant ever.

Every thing comes to an end and so did my stay in Da Lat. I had two good reasons though. My Vietnam visa was expiring and one of my dearest friends from Finland was gonna fly to Saigon to meet me there. So two good reasons to get back on the road again. I have to say  that it was really weird to pack my things after 58 days and really feeling like Wolfpack was my home. But you never know, I just might go back... Stay tuned!

post scriptum: 

Funny incident in Da Lat.

Me and this one Belgian girl were thinking about going to a massage and were coming back from the city centre when I returned to the subject. We had heard that the is a blind masseur in Da Lat and decided to head there. Well of course first we needed to find out where that place is. We saw a nice hotel and decided to ask from there. The conceglier seemed to understand and made some calls. Finally he got some kind of address and showed the place on a map. 

We approached this one building and there was even a sign saying massage but the problem was that it was under renovation. There were people hammering and painting. A Vietnamese guy saw as and seemed to nod when asked if there's massage. 

Somehow we got a deal made and agreed to take one hours massage for both. 

They opened a door and showed us in. There were three massage beds in that room so we were supposed to be in the same room. “We looked at our selves and decided that we knew each other already good enough to be almost naked in same room. So we took our clothes of and waited for the massagers. In came a guy and a girl and they started massaging us in a room smelling of fresh paint. I don’t know why they were laughing but we were laughing because there we were being massaged by people with no problems whatsoever with the eyesight and I guess we were expecting separate rooms or at least some kind of curtains. “I guess this was not the bling massage after all?” 

After a while the guy stopped massaging and typed something on his mobile. The he showed the text to the Belgian girl and she just thanked. I had my thoughts about the message but I didn’t ask anything during the massage.

So after one hour we put on our clothes and paid the hefty 70k Dongs (3€) fee for the massage. 

When we had left the place the Belgian said to me: ”I didn’t enjoy a single second of that massage. Do you know what the guy wrote to me??” 

“Well I don’t know exactly but I have my guess” - I replied. 

“You are so beautiful, I can’t stop staring your eyes” - she said.

What a professional thing to do in the middle of massage. Muahhahaa

But the “funniest” thing was that the lady massaging the Belgian saw the text and became jealous, or that is what we think because after that she was really rough to the Belgian. She was more suffering than enjoying the massage.

Mine was ok! :P