2010-2011 travels: 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?