Dalat in the south central highlands of Vietnam is a place where newlyweds from Saigon honeymoon, others seek shelter from the sticky heat of the city to bask in the mountain air and a place where runners (by which I mean me) come to run.

There’s three good reasons to run in Dalat: it’s got a lake which is about 7km in circumstance; it’s at 1,500m which totally counts as an altitude training camp; and it has a pretty damn good bakery.

I may not have come across a supplier of energy gels or Cliff Bars in Vietnam but I have found something better: weasel poo coffee. Yes, this afternoon I drank an espresso made from coffee beans that have been eaten by a weasel and pooed out again. So when I went for my run in the evening I was full of weasel poo beans, quite literally, and much to my surprise, sped round the lake. Though I hope this isn’t connected to the coffee because at £20 for a 100g bag that could be a pricy addition to the old kit bag.

While running in South East Asia I’ve been keeping count of other runners I pass. At four, Da Lat is by far the highest so far – possibly because of the cooler climate. They’ve also, to the contrary of what I’d been told about Vietnam, been the friendliest runners I’ve encountered in a long time. The first four all gave me the runners triple crown (a wave, a smile and a wink) and the last asked me ‘Are you just finishing?’ which translates as ‘Hey you’ve barely broken a sweat and look awesome‘. That never happens in London.

I had indeed finished and found myself outside that bakery. What better recovery food is there than a freshly cooked vegetarian steamed bun washed down with a glass of something white that definitely wasn’t milk but tasted good?