Author: Tim

Graduate of the accounting school at the University of Georgia and now a real estate investor and agent. I have loved to travel since I was a kid and have dreamed of traveling full-time since then.

The Slow Road to Vientiane

With no sign of the rain abating we decided it was time to push on to Vientiane, no matter what. We get a few kilometers from town, bike stalls out, starts right back up and a few kilometers more stalls again. Time to find another mechanic…. We go into town and are basically turned away from several different shops because we don’t speak Loation. You’d think they’d be happy to take some money from us westerners as they always charge us a bit more than the locals, but not in Vang Vieng. I finally find a guy willing to check it out. Again with the full disassembly and four hours later no more stalling but now the bike has half the power. By this time it’s six o’clock and I decide to call it a day and bring it back in the morning. He spends 20 minutes tweaking a few things and gets just a bit more power and just sends me on my way. He of course spoke no English.

We decide it’s time to make the trip to Vientiane anyways, it’s the capital and a much larger town so I figure we’ll have better luck there. So we limp to Vientiane for four hours in the pouring rain. Thank God that portion of road isn’t as mountainous as the rest of the country or I’m not sure we’d have made it. We were literally doing 10km an hour up some of the hills, lol.

So we finally make it to Vientiane and Victoria had previously found some people interested in the bike. One guy was particularly excited about it and he was there within the hour to look at it. We figure were going to have to discount the bike or just agree to get it fully fixed before we sell it. Luckily this guy knew more about motorbikes than us and was enthusiastic and honest. He declared that it was a minor issue and he should have no trouble getting it fixed cheaply. He then proceeded to pay us what we bought the bike for. He drove off delighted as he’d wanted a motorbike like this one for a while and we were delighted to sell the bike at no loss and within an hour of arriving 🙂 I then bought our tickets to fly into Siem Reap that night, it was cheaper to wait a day so we spent an extra night in Vientiane.

For a capital of an Asian country it’s tiny, 200k vs 10+million for Hanoi and Bangkok. Despite there not being a whole lot to do or see it was a nice atmospheric town and there was good western and street food easily located. There was also a night market each night which was huge and frequented by locals and tourists alike. We also enjoyed the break after all the rain(we later found out the road between Luang Prabang and Vientiane was closed due to landslides caused by the nonstop rain.)

Next up Siem Reap and the amazing temples of angkor, one of the wonders of the world.

From Cat Ba to Mai Chau

We rode for 8 straight hours through intermittent rain back through the traffic/construction hell that is Hai Phong to stay ahead of the storm. We finally made it to the town of Ninh Binh(famous for its karst formations that you can take a slow boat through) and got a room at Khach San Hoang Hai. That night at around 2am the storm hit with full furry, 70mph winds and heavy heavy rain. The power went out and our room had huge ten foot tall windows on three sides which luckily didn’t break(which was very worrying while trying to sleep) but they did leak like a sieve leaving our floor soaked. When we got up in the morning roughly a quarter of the trees in town had been blown down(including one right across from us that could have hit our hotel, and our windows) and the local Vietnamese were out with their hatchets(hatchets, lol, not even an axe much less chain saws) at 6am trying to clear a path through the roads. We decided to stay another night to give them time to get the roads clear for travel, especially since we were headed for more remote areas.

When we left the next day, the gas gage was reading empty but I just assumed it must have been broken because I knew I had about a half tank when we arrived. However a few hundred feet down the road we ran out of gas. I bought some gas from a repair shop next to where we broke down  and drove back to the hotel to inform them that someone had stolen our gas while stored at their hotel. The manager swore up and down this was impossible since they have cameras and refused to reimburse us. When I heard he had cameras I said “great let’s watch it from the time we arrived to the time we left and see what happened”, he of course refused. I called them thieves and stormed out and Victoria left a nice review on Google for them. All that for $2 worth of gas…. If they had half a brain they would have left a bit more so we were much further away rather than taking every last drop.

When we finally got back on the road it went from nice, to beautiful, to just absolutely stunning. The area near the border with Laos is mountainous with some tiered rice paddies, very cool. On the way to Mai Chau you climb and climb on a very well paved road and then when you reach the top you get a beautiful view of the small town below and then begin the long descent into Mai Chau itself, also on excellent road.

Once you get down into the valley it continues to amaze. You are surrounded on all sides by rice paddies which in turn is entirely surrounded by the tall green mountain peaks in every direction. Although there is a hotel and a guesthouse or two available the places to stay here are the homestays. This is where you basically stay at a family’s home which they’ve added a few rooms onto for travelers to stay. We got a room on stilts overlooking the rice paddies and mountains with a fan, an electric outlet, and bug netting for 200k dong ($9). Being at a higher elevation meant that the fan was enough to keep us cool at night for sleeping. In the town there are all kinds of hand made handicrafts for sale. This has been intentionally setup as a way to use tourism as a way to preserve traditional Vietnamese crafts in the area.

All and all the tropical storm added some unnecessary excitement to an already exciting trip and although Mai Chau was stunning we were excited to get to Laos so we just spent the one night.

Next up, our journey to Laos!

Cat Ba Island

After the stunning scenery of Phong Nha National Park we decided to go see the Phong Nha of the sea, Ha Long Bay, another Unesco World Heritage Site. We heard Ha Long City was over touristic so we decided to head to Cat Ba Island via the port city of Hai Phong. This involved a three-day drive. The first day we headed to a small town off the Ho Chi Minh Trail called Bach Dai Dung, this was a pretty nice drive along the scenic and little traveled road. The next day we drove to Thanh Hoa, this was a much less pleasant drive with much more traffic and development. Both days we spent the night in small guesthouses for under $10 a night. The third day we drove to the port city of Hai Phong, the third largest city in Vietnam. This drive was even less pleasant, a ton of traffic, trucks, and construction and then we had a bit of trouble finding a place to stay. We finally found a decent hotel for $15 with a garage to park our bike.

The next morning we got up early to make the dusty drive to the ferry terminal. It was 120k($4.5) Dong per person plus an extra 30k($1.5) Dong for the motorbike. The ferries run every hour from 8 to 5 with a lunch break between 11 and 1, luckily we made it just a few minutes before it left, so no waiting. The ride was fairly scenic but even more scenic was the motorbike ride through the island to the town of Cat Ba where the hotels were located. This was high season so despite being less touristy than Ha Long City there were still plenty of people around, mostly people shuttled in from Hanoi. Even being high season we got a bay front room on the main strip up on the 7th floor for $15 a night. The food however was at least 50% more expensive than the mainland, still cheap but not like before.

The first day we just kicked it at the hotel after three days of hard traveling and enjoyed the view. The next day we got up and changed the oil and had our bike rack rewelded and then went and to check out the two public beaches. We decided on the second beach and ended up renting chairs with no mats and an umbrella for 120k dong. That was pretty steep considering we paid 80k in Nha Trang and had access to a resort and pool. However from the first few hours we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The water was also ridiculously warm, I would guess 92 or 93 degrees, not too refreshing! The last day we rented a tandem kayak for 200k($9) for the day. This was probably the highlight of the trip as we paddled through the amazing formations and even through a cave to our own beach, just like the movie. We also paddled to Monkey Island, where we saw no monkeys. We tried to make the climb to the top but it was a difficult hike that required scrambling and the rocks were simply too hot to touch in the middle of the day.

The next day we had to get up early to make sure we caught the ferry. There was a tropical storm coming and it was likely that the ferries would be shut down later in the day. Luckily we made it off the island and then made a mad dash to get as far inland as possible.

 

Hue – We bought a motorbike!

We had heard about the amazing motorbike ride from Hoi An to Hue, originally from the Top Gear Vietnam Special (If your even mildly interested in travel or comedy you should check it out, episode 8, series 12, it’s hilarious). They rated it as the best coast road in the world, and those are the guys who would know! One way rentals from Hoi An to/from Hue are available from Motorvina ($400,000 VMD or $20 USD), they even send your bags ahead so you don’t have to carry them. The trip was truly amazing and little trafficked.

Once we arrived in Hue we decided we liked the ride so much we bought a bike of our own. After speaking with other backpackers and random Vietnamese guys outside our hotel we ended up buying the bike from Kim Thien, a pretty famous mechanic around these parts. He was recommended online as the best mechanic in Hue and some even claim all of Vietnam. Anyways, we end up with a 10 year old Yamaha Nouvo with only 20,000 km on it for $240, a locals bike rather than a backpackers bike (that gets run up and down the country repeatedly). He was also able to custom modify a rack for us to carry our bags on each side of the bike rather than piled on top like farangs usually do(foreigners, more a Thai expression but I like it). So far the bike has been just about flawless.

Once we got the bike we decided we should take it for a cruise around the area before leaving town just in case there were any problems. First we explored an abandoned water park a fellow traveler told us about that was cool and eerie at the same time. Then we cruised out to the beach that was nice and deserted in the middle of the day, although I’m sure the locals show up around 5pm as the trend has been thus so far. The only problem was the amount of jellyfish everywhere, so we headed back to get in the pool. On the way back we got some fresh coconut water with the meat in an ice-cold pitcher, just perfect.

From Hue we took our new-to-us motorbike to the Vinh Moc Tunnels in Dong Ha and then on to the stunning National Park Phong Nha. Awesome photos and videos to come 😉

Qui Nhon – A Local’s Beach Town

From Doc Let we wanted to travel to Qui Nhon as we had heard good things about it and it sounded nice to mix with some more locals again, however neither are particularly popular so you can’t just buy a straight bus ticket. First we needed to walk back to the bus station in Doc Let and catch the public  number three bus (the only one, runs every 20 minutes) back to the main highway (AH1) in Ninh Hoa(10,000 dong).  From here you can flag down any minibus headed north and get dropped off at Qui Nhon or pretty much anywhere further north. Ignore the people who want to “help” you catch the bus, they just want a 50% commission for something you can easily accomplish yourself. It was 100,000 dong in a absolutely packed minibus.

We got dropped off at the bus station in town and walked down to Chuong Duong Street where there were a number of cheap hotels to stay at. The vast majority of hem are not listed online as this is not an area popular with western tourists, we didn’t even seem to see many Vietnamese tourists. During the day the huge beautiful beach was completely empty, crazy in a town this size. However about 5pm the locals come out to swim and drink nuc mia. The beach also has a beautiful 3km long promenade to walk along or hang out on. It’s quite nice to not have beaches blocked by huge resorts.

The food choices catered only to the local Vietnamese as would be expected which isn’t a problem usually but if you don’t get up in time, there is no chao or pho, you have to eat com(rice with assorted toppings, a lunch item). Don’t expect much English.

One day we decided to rent a motorbike and go check out the sights around town. We went and saw some Cham temples, an ancient civilization eventually wiped out by the Vietnamese. We then went and drove the Phuong Mai Peninsula and checked out a traditional fishing village and also drove past a 7 star resort being built(I didn’t know there was such a thing but judging by the size alone I’d give it 7 stars). After grabbing some lunch we went for a ride to check out the beaches to the south, some very secluded beautiful beaches. We drove past Bai Xep which is a popular backpacker hangout with $30 beach bungalows available. We then stopped and swam at the amazing beach Bai Bang which was nothing more than a picture perfect fishing village. Then a little down the road we went to Bai Bau where we had to pay 10k dong to get in but the had showers and refreshments available along with tables and chairs. It seemed real popular with the locals. The drive itself was stunning and would be worthwhile on its own.

Next up the historic town of Hoi An, where we’d be spending a few extra days since I left my debit card in an ATM in Nha Trang apparently and had to have a new one mailed out.

Mui Ne and My First Bribe

From Vung Tau we had originally wanted to travel to the Con Dao islands, a chain of unspoiled islands with the best diving in Vietnam. There are two ways to get there, the ferry from Vung Tau for $10 or a flight from Ho Chi Minh City for $80, both one way. Of course we decided we’d take the ferry. Unfortunately after roaming around on a tandem bike for a few hours to find the office(GPS coordinates for the ferry office/terminal to save others the hassle 10.413820, 107.128352) to buy tickets we were informed that it was too rough to make the crossing. We called the English-speaking lady at the office the next two days with no luck either(To save you even having to go to the termianl call Ms. Hoa at 0982 890097). Oh well, maybe we’ll get there on the way back.

The infamous banana pancake!
The infamous banana pancake!

So we decided to continue onto Mui Ne. There was some debate online about where the bus station was and when or if busses ran to Mui Ne. They do at 5am and 1pm for 100,000 dong ($4.50) and the station was easy to find(10.3502991, 107.0873626). The ride was around four hours on a nice bus with AC, free WiFi, and a place to charge your phone at every seat.

Ban Mi at the bus stop
Ban Mi at the bus stop

When we arrived we were approached by a lady who offered her guesthouse(Nhat Phuc, I’ll leave the pronunciation up to you lol) to us for the night for $10. It was a nice clean room across the street from the beach but was dark as the only window was covered. We took it and then had dinner at her beach front restaurant, a fantastic meal of spring rolls, fresh salad, sautĂŠed spinach and vegetables, and a whole fire roasted fish smothered in chili and lemon grass, all for about $12 (and only that much because the retaurant was beach front).

The buses here have free wifi!
The buses here have free wifi!

The next morning we decided we wanted to move since it was gloomy and if we were going to be trapped indoors we wanted a room with a view. So we moved to Viet’s Hotel, a much nice place, in a better location in town and near the nicer part of the beach(I hear the sand shifts so that may not always be the case), and a killer view from the top of a hill, all for the same price.

Being at the top of a hill offers some advantages...
Being at the top of a hill offers some advantages…
The view from our new hotel
The view from our new hotel

We continued to eat good, more ban mi, more pho, more Chao, but also other random delicious dishes fried pork, sweet and sour pork, noodles and beef, all good, all different. (We also splurged on some American burgers, fries, and wings one night, our most expensive meal so far but at least it was done right.) All of this was available cheap on the same street(tiny alley) that our new hotel was on.

The "road" to our hotel
The “road” to our hotel

The next day we rented a motorbike for the day from our hotel, $3 and went to checkout the sights. Now technically your supposed to get a license to drive a motorbike in Vietnam (an onerous process and an international drivers license does NOT count) but in practice no one cares. We went to see the famous red and white dunes outside of Mui Ne (way overrated but the ride was awesome). We both loved riding the motorbike. In fact I liked it so much I kind of wish we had bought a bike, you can get them for $200 here.

The famous Red Dunes
The famous Red Dunes
The White Dunes, look at those clouds, time to go!
The White Dunes, look at those clouds, time to go!

Unfortunately between the white dunes and the red dunes there were police pulling people over, we had heard that usually they leave the tourists alone. However that wasn’t the case here they were pulling over literally everyone, locals and tourists alike and charging them with real and fictitious infractions alike. I was originally told they were going to impound the bike for a week and then I’d have to pay an 800,000 to 1,200,000 ($35 to $45) dong fine plus the cost of renting the bike during that time not to mention having to stay there for a week. An obvious shakedown. So I said how about I just pay now, he said 1,000,000 dong, I said ok, and he said your good to drive around here for a week.

Rebels without a cause
Rebels without a cause

Our little motorbike journey ended being pretty expensive after that…… Come to find out that it is very uncommon for tourists to be pulled over…. Except in Mui Ne. Apparently the local police are pretty corrupt and this is a common practice for them. In fact they had the same thing going on in the same place when we left. They even pulled over our sleeper bus! We still plan to do more motorbiking.

After that debacle we decided to ride into Mui Ne proper, a small fishing village just north of the tourist areas on the beach. We were foiled again by literal monsoon rains (the reason the boat to Con Dao wasn’t running was because of a tropical depression hanging out in the South China Sea). We waited at a little while for it to die down a bit and then we made the ride home in the rain, it was exciting if not very pleasant.

Victoria posing in the rain on the beach in Mui Ne
Victoria posing in the rain on the beach in Mui Ne

The next day Victoria woke up with a cold, she blames the cops, I think maybe the rain did it. Anyways we took it easy after that. The next stop of the journey, the tourist mecca of Nha Trang!

Selfie!
Selfie!

Southeast Asia

So Victoria has finished her assignment and it’s time to hit the road again. This time however that’s a little more figurative than literall. We’ve decided to put the RV in storage for a few months as we travel through southeast asia via backpack. We are planning on traveling through Vietnam, Loas, Thailand, and Cambodia loosly following what is called the “Banana Pankake Route” for two and a half months.

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Ever since we went on our honeymoon to Thailand we’ve wanted to return to southeast asia and visit Vietnam. It’s just such a beautiful, friendly, and cheap place to travel, not to mention the food is amazing, that it was irresitible. The flights are out there are a bit expensive but it’s so cheap once you get there that it’s worthwhile staying a while ;). For example you can eat out for every meal for a dollar or two a day, stay in a hotel on the beach for as cheap as $10, or ride a bus cross country for $20. Some people travel here on as little as $250 a month. I am expecting to spend about $1000 a month for the two of us but that might be a little higher because we like to do expensive things every now and then like scuba or take a flight rather than a long rough bus ride. We always get private rooms and get AC, private bath, and hot water anytime they’re avliable. A few nights in Grenada, Nicaragua without AC will convince you it’s worth a few extra bucks every night!

We are going to fly into Ho Chi Minh City and as far as any advance planning, all we have boooked is our hotel for the first night. This allows us the ultimate freedom to choose where we want to go and how long we want to stay there. Like a place, stay longer. Dislike a place, leave the next day. Feeling tired of traveling, take few days and chill on the beach. It also nice to be able to actually look at your hotel before you book it. Sometimes the pictures are very deseaving….. Part of this is traveling light, we are each traveling with a fairly small backpack with everything we need for three months in it.

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We are both excited and nervous, but that is part of what I love about traveling. It’s the fear and excitment of a new country, new food, new people. There really just isn’t anything like it. You also meet very interesting people traveling out of the country, both locals and travelers. We’re littlerly flying aroung the world (11 hours time difference from the east coast, 21 hours of traveling time). I hope ya’ll will continue to follow along. Apparently mobile data (and wifi) is both widely avliable and cheap so we plan to post twice a week or so, a post per place. We leave Friday!

Los Barriles – Kite Boarding Capital of the World

This is a great place to get a taste of America if you’ve been traveling the more Mexican stretches of Baja like we had been. There is a great deli that carries good bread and deli meat. Real deli meat, not that processed, chopped, reformed, cheap ham and turkey stuff they sell everywhere else in Baja. English is spoken by the majority of people and the town certainly has a more gringofied feel than anywhere else we’ve been. You could even order out for pizza!3

If you have a 4×4 or side by side this is also the place for you. Everyone rides them everywhere, through town, on the beach, through the campgrounds, hundreds of them, all day. Also if your into to windsurfing or kite boarding this has to be one of the capitals for it in all the world. The mountains are shaped into a natural funnel that provides very steady and consistent winds. At any one time there were at least fifty people out on the water. How they keep from hooking each others kites is beyond me, lol. It looks like fun but I hear it’s extremely difficult and expensive.

We stayed at Martin Verdugos a large RV park and hotel right on the beach. The best part was the beautiful pool and bar area right on the beach where you could watch the others kite board. We were able to get into there with our 35ft fifth wheel without any trouble although the drive through town is a bit tight. It cost 400 pesos or $25 a night with full hookups and they even had functional WiFi (read: can upload pictures but don’t expect to stream anything). They also have seemingly endless hot water and good pressure in their showers, a Baja first! Most of the RVers there seem like they were staying for a while if not the season. Besides us I only saw one or two people come or go.

There is another park on the beach with the RV spaces more spread out for the same price but out of town(and with no pool). I doubt their showers are as good either. There is also a Arroyo you can boondock in for free, there were quite a few people out there but beware of the soft sand. Also all the spots on the beach were taken up by people there for the season. Although camping a bit further back isn’t really that bad because then at least you get some protection from that steady wind.

A word of warning, if your continuing south do not follow Google’s advice and continue straight to get back to 1, make the right at the square and get back on the same way you came. First the road turns to dirt, then there are some low hanging trees, then it narrows, and finally there are some very sharp, severely banked turns. Ask me how I know! Luckily I somehow I made it through with a whole inch to spare as the trailer was sliding down the banked turn towards the edge of the road 🙁 If you think that sounds stressful, wait for our next article about Cabo Pulmo 😉

Carnival in La Paz

Part of the reason we have been traveling a fast as we have was so we could make Carnival in La Paz. There are two towns in Baja where Carnival is a big deal, La Paz and Ensenada, we couldn’t miss it. Since we were coming for Carnival we wanted to stay in town, preferably with in biking distance(no driving!). AquaMarina RV park sounded like the place to stay. However when I called she said they were full but that someone was supposed to leave but hadn’t yet. After two hours driving and I called again and she said to come on, she’d make room. Be careful on the way in because some of the roads Google directed me down were very narrow with cars parked on both sides. Somehow I made it through with a few inches to spare. Instead stay on the main road until the last minute. The park itself was fairly tight and we were the largest rig in there. It took a bit to get this bad boy parked but it was worth it once we were. The park was packed for the whole week.

The park is on the bay and you can go sun yourself on the adjoining property. The best feature is that it is only a 5 minute bike ride from the Malecon (the riverfront) and downtown, where Carnival takes place. The park was also extremely well maintained and had real American style full hookups. A nice bonus was how cool everyone staying there was, including the owner. We hung out and had dinner a few times. Speaking of the owner, she is an older lady with a interesting life story. She and her husband were one of the first people to do live-aboard diving excursions. Eventually they had a 100+ ft boat that she captained. She was the first woman in Mexico with that type of captains license! The diving was slow in the winter so then they built the RV park. We both highly recommend this park but I wouldn’t try it with anything larger than ours (35ft fifth wheel). In fact to get out I had to pull forward to the bathrooms and then backup so I could make the turn out the gate and down the steep hill.

Carnival was definitely worth the trouble. It was a true Mexican celebration, not something put on for tourists. The first part of the Malecon was like an actual carnival in the States, rides and ring toss games and what not. Then there were a bunch of stages(7) playing all night and a ton of food vendors. La Paz has a more mainland feel and we were able to get our first Tacos al Pastor finally. They weren’t as good as in the Yucatan but still fantastic. We also had a stuffed baked potato that had butter, onions, cream, carne asada, corn, peppers, and I’m sure it I’ve left something out. It was 100 pesos($5) and enough to feed us both. Delicious but not healthy 😉 Beers were 20 pesos($1) and 32oz mixed drinks 80 pesos($4). I love Mexico.

There is also a parade the last three nights and it was well worth watching. The floats are all super decked out, everyone is in amazing costumes, and the music is blaring with everyone dancing. The parade is the same all three nights but alternates where it starts.

La Paz is a real Mexican city and a great place to stock up on supplies being their largest city south of Ensenada. The diving and snorkeling is also supposed to be great but we didn’t go as we were still being chased by the incessant 20 mph north winds. Maybe on the way back…. I highly recommend checking out La Paz for Carnival if you have the chance and staying at AquaMarina and checking out the town even if you can’t.

A Mobile RV Repair – Tucson, AZ – The Worst Service of a Lifetime

I’m usually a real easy going person and don’t bother with bad reviews. I like to try to look at the positive but this service was so bad I’d like to make as many people aware of it a possible so hopefully I can save someone else the hassle.

It started about two weeks ago. I had a number of items built up over our previous two month trip that I wanted to repair/upgrade. I saw A Mobile RV Repair in the park and in fact he advertises in the park newspaper here at Far Horizons Tucson so I figured I’d give them a try. I give em a call in the morning, don’t get anyone, and leave a message but never hear back. Not a great sign but I call the next day anyways and get him and set up an appointment. I give him a list of items over the phone that I plan to have repaired/replaced including the water pump, a whole new roof vent, and new sink and some other minor items. Certainly a few hours work.

So when he shows up he immediately tells me he has to leave at noon, his assistant couldn’t make it, and he’ll only be able to do an item or two and he’ll have to come back for the rest. This is a real hassle for us as we live full-time on our RV and my wife works night shift so she usually sleeps during the day. Anyways he takes care of an item or two and we schedule for him to come back out, this time to hopefully complete the work, the following Wednesday. He surprises me by showing up early Monday morning, riling the dog up and waking my wife up. When I tell him he was scheduled for Wednesday he just says “Oh” and the asks if he can work anyways! I tell him no because my wife literally just got home from work and needs to sleep and that he’ll have to come back on Wednesday.

So Wednesday rolls around and he shows up with his assistant and begins to work. All seems to go fine they get the roof vent in and the new water pump in seemingly without too much trouble. However this is where it all went to hell. The water pump was running and running. I had to leave for an appointment but he said he was going to stay behind and test the pump. Later he tells me that the pump is bad, it needs to be sent back to the manufacturer. Mind you this is a brand new pump so I thought it was a bit odd but things do happen and he said he tested and confirmed it was bad. So he removed the new pump and re-installed the old pump again so we could still use our water. Mind you the pump is not the in the most accessible location and he’s charging me $100/hr for this.

Before sending it back I figured I’d take a look at the manual. Low and behold it says if the pump runs continuously to turn a nut right on the face of the pump a quarter turn and that should take care of it. Since the pump is no longer in the RV it’s not real easy for me to actually test that so I give him a call to see if he tried that, no answer and no return call. So I go to Home Depot to get some hoses, a bucket, and some wires so I can test this thing out of the RV. Amazingly with a quarter turn the “defective pump” is miraculously “fixed”. I expect that someone that charges $100/hr could have figured that out easier than me, someone who has only been RVing for 6 months and was never terribly handy in the first place. I figure it’s not too big of a deal though, he said he guarantees his work so I’m sure he’ll come put it back in for free and even refund me the money for removing the new pump and putting the old one back in. I mean clearly the pump was not defective right?

So I call him the next two days to see about him coming out and get the same response, nothing. Finally on the third day he gives me a call back, I ask him if he got my messages, he says sure, he guarantees his work, and when can he come back out? So we set up for that Wednesday morning. Wednesday morning rolls around and there is no RV tech? So I call, no answer, no return call. At this point I’m thinking maybe he’s in the hospital or something but I keep calling. Finally four days later, instead of calling me like a decent human, he sends me a text message, he’s sticking with the story the pump is defective and he’s not coming out. Apparently a quarter turn on a nut is too much to ask of a tech with 30 years experience? I should have sent the pump back to the manufacturer to have them turn the nut and then paid him to reinstall it?

I tried to convince him still to just come out and fix his mistake but he just flat out refused. At this point I tell him I plan to make sure everyone here’s all about his “service” both online and in the park. He then proceeds to threaten me that he’s going to trash my business online if I bother to post the truth about the way I was treated! Mind you he literally isn’t even certain of what my business actually is, lol. Judging by the way he treated me so far, I’ll be expecting him to try anyways. I posted the texts below which I received four days after his NO CALL NO SHOW for entertainment value.

Anyways this was by far the worst service I’ve ever had in my entire life, and having rehabbed a lot of homes, I have worked with a LOT of contractors. The scheduling trouble, the no call no show(is this a business owner or a minimum wage MCDonald’s employee?), the misdiagnosis on the pump, the failure to correct it, and then the (idle?)threats, all add up to some horrendous service. Hopefully at least one person will read this and not even bother to call him.

[11/21/2015 9:31 AM] A Mobile RV Repair (5202352220): A Mobile RV Repair

I guarantee all parts that I sell. You bought a discounted water pump on line that was not adjusted properly or is defective. I have installed over 50 water pumps and have never had a pump I have had to adjust.

[11/21/2015 9:33 AM] Me: All it needed was a quarter turn on the screw. It clearly says in the manual to turn that if the pump is running. At $100 an hour I expect better than that. Then you agree to do, set an appointment, and no call no show? That’s not very professional…

[11/21/2015 9:37 AM] A Mobile RV Repair (5202352220): You cannot adjust pump with it installed, there is not enough room because of where the manufacturer put your pump. Pump was not adjusted properly from supplier.

[11/21/2015 9:38 AM] Me: Now you just making stuff up, you could easily get a small Allen wrench there. It took literally 5 seconds to correct. Just admit you screwed up and take care of it. It’s not that big of a deal.

[11/21/2015 9:43 AM] A Mobile RV Repair (5202352220): I did not screw up. You bought a discounted part on line that was not adjusted properly. You get what you pay for!!!!

[11/21/2015 9:49 AM] Me: It was not a discounted part, it is brand new is functioning just fine. You just didn’t bother with any real troubleshooting. If you want to play it like that, fine. But I’m going to make sure everyone, both here and online, hears about it. Not to mention your terrible customer service. You schedule to do the work and don’t have sufficient time or your assistant the first day, come back on the wrong day the next time, then you make an appointment and no call no show, and then send me text three days later. Again very professional, I’ve gotten better service from $20/hr off Craigslist…

[11/21/2015 10:26 AM] Me: Alright, I guess you made your decision. Unbelievable. You’d rather damage your reputation and your business than admit that you made a little mistake and correct it.

[11/21/2015 11:27 AM] A Mobile RV Repair (5202352220): I’ve been in business since 1984. I have more regular customers than I can handle,so if you want to waste your time bashing me go for it, you are not going to hurt me or my business. I am not going to guarantee any part not supplied by A Mobile RV Repair. Your the one who made mistake by buying inferior part on line, and now you are wanting me to correct your problem at my expense. I see you are in the reality business so you might want to think twice before you start bashing mine. I am pretty computer savey if that’s the way you want to go. 

[11/21/2015 12:31 PM] Me: That’s pretty sad, you’ve been in the business as long as I’ve been alive and I was able to identify the problem within in five minutes. That should tell you something, considering I’ve been RVing for six months. There is nothing wrong with the part. It just hurts your pride to admit you messed, you should have been able to figure that out at least as fast as I did. It be comical if I hadn’t already paid you.

[11/21/2015 12:36 PM] Me: Telling the truth isn’t bashing someone by the way and considering you literally have had nothing to do with my business you’d just be fabricating stories. Judging by the way you’ve handled this I wouldn’t expect any less though …