Buon Ma Thuot, Ðắc Lắk, Vietnam
June 29, 2014
Once up and with some quick breakfast inside us we headed back down to the garage where the bloke had tried to repair our luggage rack the night before. The weather didn't seem bad at all. A bit overcast but not raining at all so I was hopeful that if we could get things sorted quickly we had a chance to make up the lost ground and hit Dalat by nightfall. I didn't want the guy to try repairing the same luggage rack as it seemed like a bit of a lost cause so I knocked up a quick design sketch of a new rack that would be much sturdier. Half an hour later and some nice new box frame metal had been bought and they set about cutting, grinding and welding up my design. It took a bit longer than I hoped for but by 12pm we had a nice new and much sturdier frame to lash our bags to.
Compared to when we first arrived at their place the night before when they literally just stared at us for 10 minutes the guys had really warmed to us and invited us into the house to share their lunch with them, Yet again the warmth and generosity of the people was very touching. Lunch was great as well and as we readied ourselves to leave I tried to offer them a wee bit more cash than the £5 they had asked for for around two hours of their time and also the metal they had been and bought but they smiled and declined the extra cash, beautiful people.
Unfortunately by the time we came to leave the heavens had opened again and the sky was horribly dark and ominous. We headed back through town and out the other end and back onto the same crazy mud bath of pot holes that we had ground our way through the day before. I couldn't believe it. Yet again we had to endure another full 8 hours of this. It's absolutely draining having to ride in these conditions. Rain beating down on you and full on concentration every second as you slowly pick a route through rough terrain. After a few hours it was already apparent that Dalat was not going to happen today and that we would need to find another place to stay for the night. At around 8pm in the pitch black we rolled into the Capitol of the central highlands in Vietnam, Buon Ma Thuot.
It was a good sized city so there were plenty of options for places to stay. Absolutely ruined we decided to spend a few extra pounds to stay somewhere a bit nicer with a nice comfy bed and a few home comforts. I figured we had earned it these past couple of days. Although Buon Ma Thuot is a big city places to eat shut up fairly early as they quite often do in Vietnam so we settled for a couple of sandwiches from some street vendors and headed back to get some well earned sleep. Hopefully tomorrow would see us eventually arrive in Dalat.
