Weather report: 39˚C, mostly sunny
Today we started our day early with a chilled coffee and some pho (a Vietnamese noodle soup). We wanted to reach Bao Loc in time to see something from the city and to visit the silk and tee productions around. Quoc, our host from the Spirit Garden Lodge, suggested to take a back road. So we did. After a few minutes we had to pass a narrow bridge and from this moment on, we met a completely different Vietnam. Almost no traffic but many farms, cattle, corn fields and tee plantations.
Many people waved to us - especially the children. Now our trip started to be a real motorbike trip. We drove over mountains and had to manage uncountable turns. But to expect that we were able to raise our travel speed is too optimistic. We had to beware of holes in and stones on the road at any moment. If I had to describe the street with a song title, I would choose “The long and winding road” from The Beatles. However this circumstances brought us more time to enjoy the beautiful landscape of Vietnam.
Somewhere in nowhere we decided to have a break and enjoyed fresh coconut milk and water - almost for free.
After a challenging search for our next accommodation we found the house of our hosts Nhu and Hien. Hien welcomed us with local green tea. The conversation happened via “google translate”, which is a nice tool to talk to someone who can’t speak any language you know by the way. Something that caught my eye already in the “Spirit Garden Lodge” was very obvious in Hien’s house: Each room seems to have its own sandals / flipflops. Vietnamese people change their shoes by going from one room to the other.
Hien was preparing dinner while we visited Bao Loc. Bao Loc seems to be a quite rich city. People ride modern mopeds and dress western style. We’ve seen American style coffee shops and a huge gym. But our attempt to visit a silk factory failed. The silk production seems to be a well hidden secret. Finally we bought a mobile phone mount. From now on, we are able to use the mobile phone as a navigation system. This will reduce our stops to check the map significantly. In the heat of Vietnam’s south a very welcome reduction.
Back in the house of our hosts, the house already smelled of food. His wife Nhu allowed me to help her roll the spring rolls. In the early evening a couple from France and Hien’s sister as well as his niece arrived. Before we were allowed to change from couch to the dinner table, we had to empty his bottle of home made rice wine. It was delicious, but we were pretty much drunk afterwards. In the end we were eight people enjoying an excellent dinner. I’ve never seen such great hospitality. Thank you very much Nhu and Hien!
