The bikes took us into the hills and luckily for us, there was only a splattering of fine rain. Water buffalo, cows, chickens, roosters, pigs, goats and sleeping dogs all share the road with us.

After some driving and a walk, Owen asked if I wanted to go to the snake farm. I love snakes so that was a definite yes. The bikes pulled into a compound where we saw two snakes: a small cobra and a very large heavy cobra.  The woman who runs the place took out the small snake and placed it around my neck, I was quite happy until she started manipulating the snake around my neck twisting it to look like scarf, then putting it on my head as a hat – they kept fiddling with it and it started making hissing sounds.

That was it for me and I returned it quickly. The large one was massive – I’d never been near one quite so big. Both Ian and I held it (unfortunately those photos didn’t turn out) and that’s when I noticed the poor snake’s teeth had been removed. Its mouth looked an awful mess and I couldn’t help but feel bad. The woman also owned scorpions and out they came, one onto Ian’s hand. They still had their stingers so I took a pass.

It turned out this was all there was at the ‘snake farm’ so we loaded onto the bikes and continued with our journey.

Lunch was at a nice clean restaurant where we had bitter melon soup (Ian described the taste as something close to cleaner fluid), rice and chicken. It was okay. After lunch we drove down a narrow bumpy road through some relatively flat land. Along the road ran power lines held up by an assortment of old trees, sticks nailed to tree stumps, or boards. Sometimes the wire was wrapped around live trees. It all looked unstable and dangerous.

We pulled into the lot of Dray Nur Waterfalls and followed Tien down a path having no idea what to expect. This is what waited for us.

In rainy season, water flows over the entire wall of rock. We clambered over some rocks and found this lovely little waterfall off to the side.

Over a suspension bridge (where we stopped to watch logs being collected and carried to shore) and down a path through the forest, we came across yet more waterfalls. The site was huge. Ian and Tien went for a climb to above the falls and snapped off a few more photos.

I had a nice sit in the shade watching the water. Tien found a small crab in a pool of water off to the side and we watched it try to catch a tiny shrimp. Following that, Tien pointed out a large tree that was totally hollow inside – it tried to eat Ian.

Don't worry, we managed to save him.....whew!

Tien was great pointing out things to us, particularly the small stuff like an army of ants carrying their eggs to a new site. Our next stop would be Dansam Hotel in Buon Ma Thuot so off we went.

Traffic picked up somewhat in the streets going out but overall, it wasn’t too bad. I was relieved when we pulled up to the hotel as my butt was quite sore. I am happy to say that the hotel was nice and beds relatively comfy.  Tien and Owen were down the street and Owen met us for dinner. We walked a short way to an outdoor restaurant where we sat in tiny plastic chairs and low metal tables. Ian couldn’t help but ask what was with the children-sized chairs and Owen said it was because the Vietnamese were so used to squatting this was close to that same level.

The food was fantastic (finally!):  squid that was delicious – cooked perfectly and not at all rubbery, scrumptious fried rice, chicken wings and I can’t remember what else, but it was all yummy, and cheap. As we ate, a scooter stopped with a speaker attached and Owen said, uh oh, wonder what they’re selling. A girl started singing and it carried through the speakers (like a karaoke machine) and she wandered around the restaurant with candy to sell. It was very odd.

Back in the room I discovered that Owen’s camera wouldn’t load properly – the photos came out with grey blocks across them so that was a bit disappointing. At least it didn’t happen to all of them. We had a good night and were ready for the next leg of our journey.  As we approached the red light, we noticed this man with live chickens loaded on his bike and Ian snapped off a photo.

Later, I caught this photo – 

It is truly amazing what they carry on their bikes – Owen told us he once saw a cow trussed up lying upside down on the back of a guy’s bike. Unbelievable.

Our first stop was a rubber tree farm. Rubber is collected much like our maple sugar – a slit is put into the trunk and white rubber drips slowly into a can and is collected at the end after a day. The trees must like this because they all looked a little dead.

Another crop grown here is black pepper. Pepper vines grow upwards onto poles.

As we drove through the countryside, we passed an assortment of homes. They are quite different than Cambodia – which all seemed to be built on stilts. Here, homes were one story and built on the ground. Most were wood or woven bamboo while others were brick and concrete and were quite small. The incredible thing was that no matter how small or humble the house seemed to be, everyone had a satellite TV. They might not have had glass windows or toilets that flushed or their own bedrooms, but everyone had a satellite TV (note the dish on roof).

Lunch was at a Pho restaurant and my chicken pho was yummy.  I loved being on the bike seeing all the stunning scenery – well, when the roads were smooth that is.

We pulled over at one point and Owen walked over to this amazing vista. This is the location of a major battle - Mel Gibson’s movie We Were Soldiers is based on it.

At this point, Owen was having a lot of troubles with his bike – something was rubbing on the rear tire making an awful racket and he figured his tire was too big so he wanted to buy a new one in the next town we were approaching. The traffic got a bit hairy at this point with construction and whatnot so I just avoiding looking ahead as much as possible. We found a garage and they assured Owen that they had a tire and could change it in an hour so we left the bikes and headed out for a coffee. Turns out they didn’t have the tire after all so we headed out of the city towards our next overnight destination in Pleiku.

We made a quick pit stop at a beautiful lake (can’t remember the name) where apparently a lot of couples visit for some romance….

We made it to Pleiku as the sun was setting and discovered that our hotel – Hoang Anh Gia Lai - had a fantastic view. The room was okay – beds were firm but it was fairly clean. We got cleaned up and met the guys for dinner. We walked to a tiny little restaurant that specialized in bun xeo, a dish that Owen was particularly fond of. The restaurant also served vermicelli noodles which I love so I ordered that and split it with Ian. The bun xeo was delicious. It’s made with ground bean sprout and vegetables. Owen likes his wrapped in rice paper and man was it yummy. Definitely a dish I’d love to have again.

Following dinner, Ian and I called it a night and headed back to the hotel on our own.