Weather report: 36˚C, sunny
We started our morning at around 6 with a coffee (which turned out not to be on par with the rest of the food). We wanted to hit the road as early as possible and actually managed to leave the premises before 7. Our newly installed smart phone holder enabled us to find our way out of Bao Loc without any stops at all. I still have no idea how we managed without this addition for so long…
After some discussions yesterday we decided to make a stop over in Gia Nghia which was only a 110km ride from Bao Loc. The ride itself was similar to yesterday’s: absolutely stunning views, curvy roads and tons of friendly people around.
Learning #1: Arriving at your destination at noon is a bad idea in Vietnam. We arrived to a dead city, were hungry and couldn’t find anywhere decent to eat. There were some school children walking around and a few workers sitting in the shadow of their truck, but otherwise it was empty streets all the way. We walked around for about 20 minutes before giving up and going back to our hotel to prevent a heat stroke.
We decided to eat something in the restaurant at the hotel. The food and service were both okay, but definitely not something to phone home about. All in all, we were off to a bad start in this town and already started discussing that we should have skipped the town entirely.
We went back into our AC controlled room and started working on the blog. Of course the notebook started crashing again after just a few minutes. After about 10 crashes we finally had enough. We looked up some electronic stores in the vicinity and hit the road again.
Learning #2: Never judge a city on first sight. It was like being in a different dimension. The streets were sprawling with people. There were street vendors selling all kinds of different foods which looked delicious as well as some interesting ones like entire chicks or chicken feet on the grill.
Our mission was to get a replacement for our netbook though. We arrived at the largest electronics store and started browsing the notebook section. A helpful employee introduced himself as Quang and started asking us questions and trying to explain that they had used and new notebooks. After we picked a somewhat manageable (speed and size wise) acer notebook, another employee installed an absolutely genuine version of Windows and Office… Right.
We left the store where Quang chatted us up again, showing us his Minsk motorcycle featuring a black paint job with a golden star on the side. He even invited us to a coffee nearby and told us that he learned English using just an app. This is also where we met this handsome fellow here.
In the evening we went back into our room where I set up the new notebook, which is now working perfectly. Flo even updated the Bao Loc post with some more details, so make sure to check it out again if you have already read it.
