Wɔatintim: 11.03.2020
Hi everyone
Actually, today was pretty uneventful and yet a lot happened!
So: as expected, we managed to wake up easily at 8am and leave at 9am :).
We had to stop a few times to secure our luggage, to refuel, or to put on the rain ponchos, which we didn't need at all :).
Originally, we wanted to drive further to "Quy Nhon" today (a 4-hour drive), but the plans changed when we had only completed 1.5 hours of driving at noon. We had a really delicious soup at a local restaurant for CHF 1.20 (for both of us!) and decided to look for a cozy spot on the beach instead. We found a dreamy place (aside from the trash, but you somehow get used to it...)! A great, long sandy beach, connected to a mountain range and: completely deserted!!! It was so amazing there! We sat in the shade and realized that we got a slight sunburn on the motorcycle today. It was better that we stopped here, because you don't notice it on the bike at all...
We enjoyed our private beach for about three hours and headed to the hotel we had picked out.
On the way, we made another stop because we were already hungry again.... We ordered noodles with chicken and got bread with fried eggs instead... But well, you also get used to getting something different than what you ordered - and it filled us up.
Then, when we arrived at the hotel, the whole scene started... The employee said that there were no available rooms and wanted to get rid of us as soon as possible. Ok, it could be that they are fully booked (off-season and the room was still available online). We picked out a new hotel and wanted to shop on the way "no, no, closed here", we were told - even though the lights were on and the staff was behind the counter. "Strange", we thought, "they must not want to sell anything." Even at the next hotel, we were assured that there were no available rooms... We were on the hotel parking lot and were already looking for another place - not easy here! Then two Germans came running out of the hotel and approached us directly. They explained to us that everyone here is behaving strangely because of the Coronavirus and refusing to serve us! They didn't even get anything to eat! Suddenly, the hotel employee came up to us and magically had a room available - as long as the four of us didn't continue chatting on the street. Peter and Jenny (the two Germans) told us that they were even asked not to leave the room anymore! The four of us sat together in a room and chatted until almost midnight :).
Without the two of them, we probably wouldn't have gotten a room...
We had a really nice evening and made great acquaintances!
But the Coronavirus is really annoying... Somehow everyone seems to be going crazy...
The two of them said that it's not a problem in bigger cities and that you don't notice any of this there... Unbelievable, they are actually afraid of us here because we look western...!
Hopefully that's true and the problem only exists in the small villages.... Otherwise, our journey will slowly become a bit difficult....
So, today we only moved 1 hour and 50 minutes (94 kilometers).
Presumably, we will move on to "Quy Nhon" tomorrow, mainly because of the hotel, and hope that the virus phobia stops at the borders of the big city...
We will keep you posted ;)
The pictures will follow tomorrow - it's already late ;)
Until then!