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