2017 – Seite 2 – A travelling small human

Day 23

Today we rented our motorbikes, we took two for us three, because it was cheaper and in the end it was pretty good that I could sometimes just sit on ones back without worrying about my driving skills and also to take some pictures. Although riding a scooter is pretty damn easy, after like 5 mins I could perfectly control the gas and could drive without any problems. It was a really awesome experience, you can get pretty fast with them, at least it felt like was pretty fast^^
And driving over the county roads where is almost nobody and you can really drive as fast as you want is awesome as hell!

The place we actually wanted to visit was impossible to reach with our motorbikes because we had to cross a small river but there were no boats strong enough to get them to the other side, there were tours you could book to see the stuff on the other side but we didn’t wanted to spend so much money for that^^
There would have been a bridge somewhere else but that would have took two additional hours and that would have been problematic with the ride back home because we wanted to reach our hotel before it gets dark. The place we actually wanted to go was called Buon Don.
But well we decided then to go to a lake which was nearer. It was just next to a city called Ea Sup. When we arrived at the lake we ate something and then decided to take a small road from there and drive back to Buon Ma Thuot.

It was a good and very bad decision at the same time^^ it was pretty awesome because we could see many small villages and had a great overview of the forests and plantations around! …But the so called “street” was horrible xD there were even big rocks coming out of the ground, I really wonder how a street can get so bad 🙈 it was pretty difficult to drive through and I’m very happy that I could sit at the back of one the whole time 😅

It started also to rain really hard and at one time we stopped to stand under and to refuel one of the motorbikes. The people who were also there were very friendly! The gave us some water and one even invited us to come to his house to eat with them, it was really nice of them and we would have really liked to do that, but unfortunately we really had to go on so we would have to drive in the dark, which could be very dangerous for foreigners who don’t really know how the street here work like us^^
It was really sad but we were really flattered. One of us gave them a keyring with a small Eifel tower to thank them and they we’re really excited about it 🙂

Cat and dog seeking shelter from the rain :3

The rain fortunately stopped 5 mins later and we went on. Also the street was getting better and better which we really appreciated. It started to rain a second time and this time even more than at first! 🙈
We got all wet even though we had some rain ponchos^^
After some more time we finally made it home. It was the best feeling ever to finally change clothes 😍😅
We met our other guys and went to eat something, accidentally we had the same dinner as yesterday but at a different street restaurant, in this one the soup you get with the rice and everything tasted way better than on the other place, it also had some more vegetables in it, which probably gave the soup more taste 😋

After that we searched for a bar but the nightlife in Buon Ma Thuot is pretty much non-existend 🙈
After a break so I could get a Banh Mi we returned home and chilled a but before going to bed, we were all pretty exhausted from our trip.

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An electrictian at work

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Day 22

For breakfast we ate spring rolls which we had to roll by ourselves. It was pretty fun and tasted really good.

After that we went to the coffee village here in Buon Ma Thuot, it was like 20 min. away from our hotel. I can really recommend to go there, it’s not like you see a whole lot of awesome stuff, but there are some nice cafés were you can drink a iced coffee like we did and walk around just looking at the old houses that are just made of wood which looks very cool.

We talked with a villager who could speak pretty good French. She told us that sadly this old tradition of building houses of wood is getting forgotten because all the rich and young people come to this area and build new houses or of bricks instead. It’s kinda reasonable I think, because the wood houses have to get renewed every 50 years and the stone houses if they’re build good never. But it’s still sad that a old tradition like this dies.
We didn’t made very much after spending some hours around the coffee village. There isn’t really much to do in Buon Ma Thuot itself. We ate at a streetrestaurant some real nice beef with rice and salad, it tasted really great. After that we went pretty early to bed to get up early tomorrow.

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Day 21

Today we ate at the hotel our free breakfast which was included in the price. It was okay but it really was a package of instant noodles with an egg and some pieces of broccoli inside^^

After that we went to clean out room and pack everything for the tour. But as it turned out there were some issues with renting the motorbikes. Because of our big tour through other provinces, the renting fee would have gone way up, from 2$ a day to about 15$ 🙈. That would be too much so we decided that we would drive the long part with a bus and rent the motorbikes then at our next destination because it would be cheaper again. Two of us decided to buy a motorbike, which is pretty common to do in Vietnam, you buy a motorbike at the beginning of your journey and going to sell it at the end of it. Me and two others went then with the bus to Buon Ma Thuot which took about 6h. The bus ride was pretty good, it was a normal sitting bus, the view a really awesome because you could really see that you were driving into the jungle, but sadly I couldn’t make so good pictures 🙈 When we arrived here we went to the hotel to leave our bags there and then straight out again because we were starving like hell. We ate two different Banh Mi and I ate additionally a Bun Bo (I think it’s called), which is a big piece of steamed dough filled with ground meat and quail eggs. The dough tastes a little bit sweet but all together it tastes really good, just watch out for a piece of paper which sticks on the bottom of it^^ it’s also pretty filling, you should definitely try it out if you’re in Vietnam because it’s also a local food.

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Day 20

Today we just relaxed, we slept in, two of the French guys went with me in the city while the others were still sleeping. First we went to a small café to drink an iced coffee with milk which is like the typical Vietnamese coffee and it’s really sweet and very strong.We walked then around and searched very long for a cheap restaurant, because we somehow got to a place were all the high-class hotels were and therefore the prices of the restaurants were all a bit higher. But we finally found one and had a pretty good lunch there. I just forgot to take a picture of it, it was like the bad food from yesterday in waay better, rice with a bbq chicken and it was warm and very tasty 😍
After that we walked some more around the lake we went back to our hotel to meet the other two. We bought a bubble tea on the way home which was really yummy.

We met the others and decided to eat dinner at the hotel because they had a special offer with a great variety of food and free beer for 70k. The food was very delicious and we got some fresh Mango too. The thing with the eggs you can see on the picture is a omelette rolled with seaweed, it sounds strange but was really tasty! And the curry with the eggs had some great beef in it, you can see see the transparent fat pieces on the meat, they were really delicious and the meat was really tender and the sauce was kinda sweet, it tasted great!

After the meal we just went to our room, chilled and talked. I can really recommend the hotel we’re staying in, it’s called the “Vietnam Home Hostel”. It’s a bit hidden but the guys at the reception are really nice and help you with everything and the rooms are clean and nice too.

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Day 19

After a Short stay in another City, where I had enough time to visit the beach real fast and take one/two pics, a bus change and a wheel change I finally arrived in Da Lat at about 11/12 am. I met there then with the French guys who took a different bus to Da Lat. We ate some rice with chicken which was okay but not that great, the chicken was even cold and it costed 50k…

We then went to our hotel, checked in and chilled a little bit because we were all tired of the bus ride. We the got a little snack in form of a Banh Mi, which is like a sandwich with different fillings depending on the the cooks of each stand. It was very tasty and just costed 15k. We then restet some more, went later to eat something for dinner near the restaurant. We ate those rice papers with egg and stuff on it, which were also very good 😋

We walked a bit around and visited the city a bit and then went back to the hotel to chill and just talk a bit and then went then to sleep pretty fast. It’s great to finally have some company for some days 🙂

Here are some scenes from bus ride:

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Day 18

Today Bon picked me up and invited me to a great feast with a part of his family, not his wife and kids, but his brother and his brothers and sisters in law and more. It was very nice to see how they all eat together and the food was really really great. Before the big meal they burned some papersuits as well as paper money, Thao, the girl I rented the room from tolde that they burn all this stuff as symbolism to gift it to the dead ones so they have new suits and money and stuff in the Heaven. They also print iPhone and really everything on paper so you can burn it 😀
As far as I noticed eat the woman and kids separate from the men, but they still came over some times and talked with them. They also all drank beer, so there’s no separation there^^
After the great meal we sat there some while and then went to Bons home. I talked with one of his daughters, her english name is Alice, and she could talk very good English, especially for a 13 year old!
She had to translate everything for the others and had to ask me everything the others wanted to know 😅🙈
But is was very nice to talk with her/them and to spend just some time with a normal Vietnamese family 🙂
After that Bon drove me back to my hotel where I booked a ticket for the night bus to Da Lat and went to a nearby shop to get a new belt because mine broke apart.I had an hour until the belt should be ready and before I had to be back at my hotel, so I went to the city to buy some last souvenirs.
After that I got my belt and went to the Hotel where a small bus picked me up and brought me to the place where the sleeping bus would pick me up.

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Day 17

First I ate a chickennoodlesoup at a restaurant near my Hotel, somehow the pictures I took from it are not there anymore… It was very nice and I actually made it for the first time to eat everything up with ease 😅
After that, Bon picked me up and drove me to the Tailor. The shirts fitted perfectly, just the Suit had a little short arms, but that was no problem, a few hours later I could come back and they changed it.
I later ate a Duck rice soup at a small stand at the street. In the soup were all the parts of a Duck, like the lungs, the Airways and other stuff. And I really have to say that ducklungs are really tasty 😅 They are those dark spongy parts you can see in the picture^^

After that I went again to the ancient part of the town and to a café because it rained, I drank there a ginger tea which was strong as hell, it literally burned my throat Everytime I took a sip^^

It turned evening and that meant it was food festival time! 😋
I got some food of Russia, Sri Lanka and Greece. Everything was very tasty although the Russian dish was a little bit basic with just some battered and fried fish (red snapper) and a bechamel sauce with it.

Today was also the day of the “Earth Hour”, an international festival where all the lights are shut down for one hour to raise attention for the climate change that needs to be stopped. It was very nice to see that all the young people also took part in it and build some nice things like a big 60+ (which is the symbol of the Earth Hour) out of candles or other nice things.

In that hour all of them were partying and there was music and karaoke and dancing everywhere, it was really cool to stand there and see all the cheerful atmosphere. I even got to see some real nice streetdance performance, but sadly the police came and said that they had to leave because they formed too many people around them and because of the food festival they did not want any big crowds.
I got to talk to the dancers and they wrote me their name and Facebook page and even a YouTube video I can watch, if I have time I really have to watch it! The crew name is “Nosher Crew”

A trailer video of the crew I found on YouTube!

When the Earth Hour was over I intentionally wanted to go home, but a French girl spoke to me and told me about a bar where she works, that I could meet there some nice peoples and that I could get unlimited drinks for the whole night (until 11:30pm) with just 100k VND which are like 4-5$. So I gave it a shot because I really had nothing to do and meeting some people is always nice^^
I met there four French guys who are in about my age. They told me that Hue, the town I intentionally wanted to go next, isn’t that big of a deal and that I really don’t miss something if I don’t go there. They also told me that they were heading to Da Lat and that they wanted to do a motorcycle tour from there to Ho Chi Minh City. They offered me to come with them and so I cancelled my bus ride to Hue and going to Da Lat tomorrow ^-^