28th Feb, finally some nice quiet sleep. 4181km

the pool/snooker places in Vietnam likes to put photos of sexy gals playing or rather jus lying around on a pool table...

only arrived at this park/recreational area/big empty spot at night when it was dark and i jus randomly chose a patch of grass to sleep on. when i woke up, saw lots of broken glasses, thrash and random stuff all over the place where i had slept. didnt seemed to be that dirty at night w/o the light haha.

place i slept in...

halfway into lala-land, 2 gals came over and kept shouting for me. ah wells, since its gals & they are so insistent, decided to get out of my tent and see what they want. they asked for a lighter and i said No, sorry. i am from singapore and i dun have a lighter with me.

they ran away giggling and saying Singapore! to their friends sitted not far off. ok, guess i should have a quiet sleep now no? after some time, they came back again and this time invited me to join them. sians i tried to refuse cause i was feeling lazy and wanted to sleep but they said it was a fren's bday and i knew i wouldnt have a good sleep if i didnt go out to entertain them for a while. ah wells, got dressed and went out to join them in their little bday party. 

tried the Vietnamese version of B'day cakes and glad that i am not a Vietnamese cause the cake tastes like utter crap. it was basically jus sponge cake, with TONS of whipped cream all over, on top, at the sides, in btw, every tiny nook and cranny had whipped cream and there was no taste other than the taste of whipped cream. i swear i can make a better cake if i put my heart into it. had a slice of it and luckily they didnt offer me anymore or i might very well dunk his face into the cake to get rid of this junk food (literally junk).

cakes, watermelons, honeydews, drinks, nuts...

took a photo for them and after some time, found an excuse to go back to bed to sleep! hehe...

i kinda like the vegetarian meals in Vietnam cause there are so many dishes and they all taste fantastic. wouldnt mind eating them everyday =P

hadnt had much sleep the last few days cause i was always with some ppl doing some random stuff so today i decided to go somewhere really ulu to sleep! not that i dislike interacting with ppl, but too much deprives me of my beauty sleep hehe

some rubber plantation quite deep inside, away from the road and any possible passerbys =D

26th Feb, the Vietnamese hospitality carries on... 4082km

Left the buddhist temple in Buon Ma Thuot around 10am or so and continued along towards Pleiku, a Central Highland province that has lots of ethnic minorities.

typical rattan bag that they carry around for groceries/wood/farming stuff/food etc

set up "shop" in some random patch of wilderness and some villager spotted me and he came over to ask me to go to his home to sleep instead. dinner with his family, though i had already eaten haha. but its bad to refuse them rite =P

the guard dog at the front was damn ferocious nia. was so afraid that i get bitten and have to go see doctor again...

large bags of coffee beans and fertiliser at home. think most of his coffee eventually gets to Buon Ma Thuot for export...

Learnt from him that 1 coffee tree produces about 1 kg of beans, and 1 kg of beans get sold for in the market. pretty tough to earn money cause looking around his small farm, i think there were hardly 100 coffee trees and i have no idea how many harvests he can get in a year. and he still has to buy fertilizers, water, pesticides?, and who knows what else.

Day in the life of a coffee farmer - wake up and have tea. (yes, they dun drink coffee and sadly, i wasnt offered any of his coffee. guess he is so sick of coffee that he doesnt drink them) put about 1 bowl of fertiliser in every trench that houses a coffee plant. (the coffee plants are all in individual holes/trenches about knee length in height, but littered with debris, fallen leaves, eaten corn husks and random stuff). spray water on the plant leaves and flood the trench with water. repeat until all plants have been fertilized and watered. back home for lunch. and god knows what he does after lunch cause i had alr left by then and didnt get to see what he does. most prob an afternoon nap, typical of most Vietnamese.

him going about his farming duties and asking me to take a photo of his daughters.

but look, they are running away and dun wanna take a photo!

about 10mins or so later, they emerged again, this time changed into new clothes that obviously look like their best clothes which they reserve only for special occassions to wear... ah ha! so they were running away jus now to get changed to take a pretty little photo!

the next day, in a small vietnamese town, i stopped to get water from a oil station before planning to move out of the city to camp somewhere quiet. the owner seemed really nice so i asked him if could camp in his gas station for the night. later in the evening, he invited me inside for dinner (& lots of Bia Saigon again...) along with his WHOLE family. like literally, his extended family, children, galfrens of sons etc. there were a good 20 odd people sitting around on the floor for a gathering. no idea if its a special occassion today for them, or jus a regular family dinner.

this was not all, it was split up and i sat in another group jus behind this group.

this uncle kept coming over to toast me and making me drink beer till my face turned red. (which happens pretty easily haha)

after some beer, i tried to feed this kid beer but he refused!

25th Feb, Day 3. A promise that will be broken or fulfilled? only time will tell... 4015km

Before continuing to talk about my time at the temple, I think a little background info is needed. On 22nd Feb, when i first came to the temple in the late afternoon, i had dinner before hanging around the temple, jus looking at everybody else doing their stuff. Around evening/night, there were 3 ppl who arrived at the temple(later got to know that they came to the temple to seek medical treatment for different illnesses) and it was their first night as well... 

After spending 1 night at the buddhist temple, i woke up the next morning and was about to leave to visit the town and to find the next sojourn for me to rest until i take my 2nd(& last) rabies injection. As expected with Vietnamese hospitality, i was invited for breakfast in the temple before i left. Everybody else had already eaten (yea, i know i am lazy and i sleep very long hours...) but they had saved food for me so it wasnt a problem. 

one of the guy who jus arrived ystd (the 3 guys who came for medical treatment) happened to have worked in Taiwan for 5 yrs and so he could speak chinese considerably well, though with a vietnamese slang. he helped translate what the all the aunties said and said that they requested me to stay for a few more days in the temple to see them and what they do around the temple. To be honest, i was looking for a place to stay for the next few days in the city, cause i still have to wait until Day 3 for my injection, so this request was very hard not to accept. I told them no problem, and spent the next 3 days in the temple, as a guest, and to see the monks and everybody else go about their daily routine.

drinking coffee, in the coffee capital of Vietnam, in the company of learned monks.

pudding with iced coffee. btw its available elsewhere in vietnam as well and is a very refreshing(& cheap) dessert

helped to move the stacks of firewood into the kitchen for the aunties to cook delicious vegan meals for me!

the young monk on the right took very good care of me, the one 2nd from right was the guy who could speak chinese.

I heard (from the guy who could speak chinese) that the young monk was always looking for me when he came back from school and always asked if i had eaten and would always bring me to the kitchen to have food. when i wake up in the morning, i would see him nearby hanging around then when he see me walking closer, he would drag me to the kitchen for breakfast cause he knew that i havent eaten. after coming back from school, he would ask around the temple if anybody had seen me and wondered where i had gone.(i usually hang around in the town from late morning to late afternoon)

During the 3 days that i spent there, i was treated very well and if you understand Vietnamese culture, a guest is often the most important person. sometimes i would feel very bad for imposing on them but i could tell that to them, it was their pleasure to have me as a guest in their temple.



ps- on a sidenote, the guy (Deng Wen Huang) who could speak chinese had a very intriguing life story. Deng had been working in Taiwan for a total of 5 yrs, on board a fishing vessel, since he was 21 yrs old. The trips were long, (up to 1-2 yrs at each time) dangerous (friends had died aboard before) and arduous ( sometimes not having any sleep for days). the pay wasnt much(by Singapore standards), started with USD150/month and it was now USD400/month and he had gotten a back injury after years of working out at sea. he planned to go back to work again after treating his back at the temple and he was willing to do so because although tough, the pay was still better than back in his village. 

One of the elder monks casually asked if i could help Deng find a job in SG because it is very difficult for them to go to SG to work because going thru a job agency would take lots of money and finding one independently is almost impossible. I had known him for a very short time (only 3 days) but thru my conversations with him, i found him to be a very honest, humble and hardworking man. 


Able to speak Chinese and Vietnamese, willing to work long hours, likable personality, i dun see why it would be impossible for him to find a job in SG that pays better than 400USD. i promised him that i would help him look for a suitable job when i get back to SG and will contact him again in July/August to tell him the outcome. I know i cannot guarantee him a job, but all I can do is promise him that i will help him look for a job when i get back to SG.


Like what my mother would always say when i call home and say i am sleeping in a local's home, "Is he a bad guy or not? be careful ah..." I only know him for 3 days and honestly, I cannot guarantee that hes a good guy but whats the worse that can happen? what about work permits? work visa? other logistics issues?

Heck, i am travelling right now and i dun have the time to research on all the things required to apply for a work permit or look for menial job offerings. but i am determined to keep my promise and the least i can do is attempt to look for a job for him when i get back home. 

So if anybody is interested in helping me do a good deed, feel free to let me know. mayb you have a relative who owns a construction company. mayb you know somebody working with foreigner work permits. mayb you dunno any shit like me but you would like to help. i really dun care as long as it gets the job done.

I can alr anticipate all the qns ppl will ask me so let me pre-empt them and list them here and state upfront that i have no answer to your qns.
"you sure hes not cheating you?"
"is it worth the time and effort?"
"will he come to SG and commit crimes?"
"blah blah blah"


So pls rmb to contact me with any info or help you have to offer me! whoever you are, i believe you exist somewhere out there so i will be waiting for your reply!!!

22nd Feb, Day 0. Buon Ma Thuot, coffee capital of Vietnam. 3925km

After cycling for 2 days thru the deserted lands of Vietnam, i finally see paved roads and the 1st road sign that says i am 90km away from Buon Ma Thuot! hmmm... there were much more food options along the road and more villages as well so proper meals for now =P

90km from world-renowned coffee!

decided to stop halfway up this steep hill in the midday sun...

hmmm, wat do you do when its 12 noon, the sun is hot, the headwind is very strong, and you are climbing up an uphill? of course you stop for a rest and cut your leg hair la! hehe, no idea why but i decided to stop for a rest and with nth to do, decided to start trimming off my leg hair cause its easier to keep clean this way with less hair (or so thats wat i think haha). wanted to trim other hair also(armpit hair la! wat were u thinking?) but then the traffic kept appearing sporadically so it wasnt an option =D

the winds were freaking strong across this bridge and you actually need some skill to cycle cross this narrow path.

 

home behind a church, with lots of kids magically appearing out of nowhere right after i set this up.

As you might prob know, I had gotten "bitten" by a crazy rabid dog about 2-3 days ago while cycling thru the hills on the way to Buon Ma Thuot. It wasnt exactly a bite but being very humji, i decided to go for a rabies booster shot in Buon Ma Thuot. The provincial clinic there was damn chaotic and most of the signs were in vietnamese. i went to a reception counter(or mayb a dispensary counter?) and pointed to the word "doctor" on my Lonely Planet guidebook.

with some dog barking, and dog-biting-my-leg actions, they managed to understand what i was saying(or so i think) They then pointed to the word "headache" and i shaked my head. nope, havent got any headache yet... but thanks for asking though.

they repeated by pointing at "fever", "allergy", "nausea" etc. they seemed to be having a hell of a time cause they were laughing the whole way among themselves and some smart alex auntie pointed at "sanitary pads" and i gave a violent shake of the head and said NO NO! er ok... hope you guys are having lots of fun with a foreigner who got bitten by a dog and needs medical attention.

after having enough fun with me, they decided to get some real help and brought me to a nurse who could speak english. he then gave me the address and directions to another place where i should go to for my rabies booster shot. apparently the hospital services are not all centralised in one compound like in singapore. you have to walk to another street, to another building for the injections. the address he gave me was wrong as well though i managed to find the place after looking around for some time...

since i already had rabies vaccinations back in singapore, i now only require 2 additional post-exposure injections/booster shots to be taken on Day 0 and Day 3... hmmmm, they said i could take the 2nd shot in another province if i wanted to but i didnt want to risk it as i dunno how long i would take to cycle to the next province, the address of the hospital in the other province, and also it would be tough to explain to them again what i require. decided to stay in Buon Ma Thuot for the next few days until Day 3 to take my 2nd booster shot before leaving for the next province.

After getting the injection, i was cycling around the town and saw a buddhist temple at the end of the street so i went in to ask if i could sleep for the night. the head monk agreed and the ladies(volunteers at the temple i assume) were very friendly and invited me in to dinner with them.

the meal at vietnam's buddhist temple is significantly different from that in cambodia's temples because in Cambodia, the monks actually eat meat. In Vietnam, all the monks are vegetarian which is more similar to that in Singapore.

lots of ladies preparing vegetarian meals for the monks in the temple. all of them lived in the surrounding area

20th Feb, quite possibly the worst 2 days so far...

From Dalat city, there was a road down south for about 20+km to highway 27 that would lead directly to Buon Ma Thuot. but i looked at the map and saw that there was another path that led northwest which would join highway 27 as well so i checked out the path on google earth. the route was shown on google earth as well though parts of it were not very clear. hmmmm... decided to take the northwest route and not head south along the well-worn path & also because it was the same 20+km i had travelled on previously.

turns out the reason why the path was not clearly shown on google earth at certain parts was that the road eventually became so ulu that the only way to get supplies to the place was via motobike, cause the road was not even wide enough for cars/vans/buses. unpaved, dirt/rocks track the whole way with very little ppl.

turns out to be quite possibly the worst 2+ days so far. lousy food(only vacummed-packed cashew nuts, dried vegetable chips, cheese biscuits) for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 2 days+. steep uphills that i had to push up quite a few times. crazy downhills that i couldnt even cycle down cause my brakes were not good enough to stop the bike. muddy roads. dusty roads. rocky & uneven roads. river crossings. little water (to drink). bitten by a dog. fell and cut my leg. fenders on my bike started to get loose and give problems. bike started giving out weird sounds when i pedal. you name it, you got it.

the better part of the long ulu journey...

the stick on the front of my bike is meant for chasing dogs away cause i got bitten by a crazy wild dog 2 days ago while cycling. will dismount and hold on to the stick when i get closer to villages/places with dogs

large empty wilderness all around... yet to be developed road.

a tour bus that arrived to visit the minority villagers in the area. the only "town" in the area and even this part was relatively undeveloped and a lot of the villagers were working as labourers developing the roads around the place.

met these 2 minority villagers and they stopped me and insisted that i take photos with them haha!

sandy legs

and sandy-er (if theres such a word) bike.

stopped at a small water "fountain" along the way to shower.

scene here was beautiful & it was a very long down hill but what lay ahead sucks... really bad...

came to the end of the road. literally. bloody road wasnt complete and there were only rocks and forest here. shit man... cycled about 30+km here only to reach a dead end?!

now i have to freaking cycle all the way uphill cause i have been going downhill since a long long time (see the previous photo) sians... really damn demoralised at that moment man... wasnt even that demoralised when i got lost in Mt Biang (Brunei) haha. mayb its also because i havent had any nice food at all in the morning and afternoon and i had expected to reach a town around noon but it was alr 3pm and i still have to backtrack...

while on the way back, i stopped at the same water fountain(that i showered in earlier) to collect water cause i saw a local drinking from the water source jus now. was really desparate cause i havent had water for hours so decided to drink from this water source. jus to be safe, added some water puri-tabs as well haha.

a sign that i saw while on the way back, i think it could possibly read "Dead end ahead. Proceed ahead if you are silly or dumb enough."

haha this cute kid came rushing over to help me chase away a dog that was barking furiously at me. luckyily for him, if not i would have taken out my "da gou bang" to chase the dog away.

one of the many crazy downhills i was talking about, with my bike at the bottom.

my fenders came loose and kept hitting the tires so i improvised and got some wire/tape/rope/no idea wat its called to secure my fenders. lousy method but it worked for some time and i had to readjust it every few hundred metres or whenever i went over bumpy roads.

dun worry, i didnt steal the stuff from the villagers, i saw it on the floor =P

my battle scars after descending one of the crazy downhills and i couldnt stop the bike... sians 1st time falling from a bike after riding for so long haha

if mountain biking becomes a hot sport in Vietnam, i am pretty sure they will produce great mountain bikers in 15-20 yrs with the great terrain for mountain biking.

river crossing!

stumbled into a minority farming village while cycling thru this crazy place.

lose your concentration and drop into the hole in the road, and thats it! the bike will stop moving and you cant start pedaling (because of the rocky terrain) so you gotta get off and push the bike. ..

try cycling up this hill with a fully loaded bike and no suspension, no water for hours and peanuts for breakfast and lunch. any longer and i would be dehydrated alr...

my 1st real meal in 3 days! yummy =P

reached a shallow river where i had to do another river corssing... there were ppl wading in the middle of the river while guiding cows across the river.

with the aid of wooden boats this time though!

off they go!

and the boatman pulling the whole boat along the length of the rope and across the river.

interestingly, there was no payment of any sort needed. i had expected to pay and was wondering how much buy none of them paid when they got off. hmmm wonder how this system works...

I have 2 theories. 1) the village chief/head policeman/whoever respected in the village comes up with a duty roster and all able men will rotate and do this boatman duty when their turn comes. 2) every household in the village pays a certain amount of money every month and this money is used to hire some1 to do this job everyday to allow ppl to be able to cross the river to go to town when they need to.
Any other ideas?

pretty tiring to pull the water up from the well haha.

you gotta work if you want to enjoy the nice cool shower

the fruits of my labour! shiok!