This morning it was hard to get up. The beds were probably the most comfortable ones we had since we started our trip. Nevertheless we left the hotel at half past seven. Since we lapsed 1000km again we had to do our third oil change. This time we asked them to grease our chains as well. Actually I wonder why we even had to ask to do so. For a mechanic the look of our bikes must be horrible. Everything is just dirty. Nevertheless they greased the chains and did the oil change quickly.
About ten minutes after leaving the Honda dealer’s garage it started raining. So we decided to stop for having breakfast. It didn’t stop for the rest of our trip but it’s dry since we arrived. Good timing. Our arrival had to be deserved today. About 50 km before Bac Kan we had to slow down drastically and drive very carefully for about 10 kilometers. There was an oil film covering the street in its whole width. Combined with the rain this section has been a slippery affair. Maybe it’s the way they get rid of the oil from our oil changes…?
Actually there’s not much more to say about the today’s trip so I’m going to write about something we’ve noticed the last weeks being here and got reminded eating breakfast today. It’s about the Vietnamese men…
Of course there are some hard working men and hard working means they do about half the work an average Vietnamese woman does. Let me give you some examples: During our stay in the simple Pho restaurant we had our breakfast was a group of men the next table. They’ve just been eating, smoking and drinking liquor. Of course they invited us to have some alcohol too, but we had to refuse since it was at about eight in the morning and we wanted to ride our bikes for about five more hours. This is one example of many similar experiences we’ve made. Often the man does the socializing part while the woman does the rest of the work. We noticed such behaviour in many different situations and places. Last but not least we’ve never seen a woman drinking alcohol.
What we’ve seen often instead was:
- Two men sitting on a scooter carrying only one fishing rod.
- Six men sitting around on a building site and one woman cleaning the site.
- Men observing a reception, a restaurant or a shop while sleeping.
- Men sitting in a coffee shop playing games.
- Men sitting in a game shop.
- Men just doing nothing…
Maybe our view is a little skewed, but it’s just what we’ve experienced.
To avoid eating Pho the fourth time in a row we decided to eat in a restaurant where you can point at different bowls and they combine the dishes with rice. Compared to the meals we’ve enjoyed yet it wasn’t spiced up well. We finished our day in a coffee shop called Music Box. The coffee was good but there was no music. But the restroom is worthy it to be mentioned. Like always it was the restroom for the guests but also the rest- and bathroom for the owner at the same time. No matter how clean the coffee shop or restaurant looks - you would like to wear a protective suit and a gas mask to enter the restroom. Impossible to imagine the owner is going to enter this room barefooted to have a shower in it. Cleanliness seems to be something unimportant to many Vietnamese people. They keep hotel rooms and bars clean for tourists, not for themselves.
