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Published: January 8th 2006
Well now, this is strange I'm on my way back to London... It's been quite a few days so let me describe the last leg of my journey.
On the 2nd of January I made my way to Ga DaNang (the train station) and 'checked in' my bike at the freight office, had some breakfast in a local cafe and then got in my slow train around 10AM. Funny how all of these things now feel as normal as taking the tube in London :-) Because I had not made it as far down to HCMC as I had initially planned this train journey was going to be much longer than could be considered pleasant. Oh well... I shared a hard sleeper compartment with another Dutch couple and 3 Vietnamese woman. With so many hours to kill it was nice just chatting with the dutch couple while staring out the window. The weather was dreadfull (raining all day) so I was glad not to be on my bike. And I was surprised to see that the scenery was quite beautifull with lush green rice paddies and palm trees and bits of jungle on rowling hills. I guess I had been a bid too judgemental the last time I wrote because this was very nice... I did not eat much on the train because the 'rice pudding' they served did look a little bit too much like runny snot. When it got dark around 6 everybody went to bed. I had a very restless night in which I did not sleep much and got eaten by bed bugs who seemed to like me a lot!
The next morning the train pulled into Saigon trainstation around 9am. So that made my journey a total of 23 hours which did also feel endless. It was nice to find my bike safely in the freight office and getting on it to ride the streets of Saigon. This was a bid like riding in Hanoi.... so much traffic and such chaos! It is thrilling to ride in these huge flows of scooters. I found my destination without to much trouble and checked myself into a very nice hotel downtown. Yes, I had decided to treat myself to luxury for the remaining two nights (limitless hot water, nice bed without the bugs, buffet style breakfast.... everything you would consider normal but I had done without of 4 weeks!). They did look at bit worried at my appearance (old t-shirt and not too clean looking trousers) but gave me a room anyway (Visa always works). I took the longest shower ever (never thought I could enjoy it so much) and put on a little dress which had not been out of my bag yet because of the disappointing weather. Then I hit the town. It took me a little bit of time to get used Saigon with the heat (!), humidity and the massive flow of people and traffic. This realy is a metropole with thriving businesses and a very Western capitalist outlook on things. I enjoyed a lunch in the backpackers area, went shopping for some souveniers at the biggest market and visited the Fine Arts Museum (which only had 1 artist worth mentioning: Nguyen Gia Tri). In the evening it was time to enjoy some of the nightlife with a very interesting dinner where they BBQ at some prime beef at your table... At first I got a bid annoyed by the constant attention from the waiter... but after I while I decided to just enjoy it and let him do all the BBQing and basically wait on me for every detail of the meal. It was like having a personal slave ;-) I followed this meal with some beers in one of the many bars.
The 4th of January was the last day of my trip and the first day of blue skies, sunshine and heat! Lovely! I started the day by working up a sweat trying to dismantle my bike and packing it up for travel. The workmen and other hotel staff were all facinated by my attempts to do this quickly and efficiently (at which I failed). Taking it apart was easy, but the box that Steve had left for me in the hotel was smaller than the box I had used when I came over. As a result I needed to take both wheels, all panier racks and the saddle off (which had not been needed on my way over). After doing all that and getting several guys to help me get the peddles off (I hate being such a girl but just could not get them off!) I still had to get it in the box... It was the most complicated jigsaw puzzle but in the end it worked and I was able to more or less close the box without putting too much presure on. The box had already been around the world twice by the looks of it (London, Bangkok, Saigon, Hanoi, Saigon) so I did my best to patch the holes, tape up the rips and just hope for the best. This whole process took my 3 hours! The rest of the day I spend seeing the sights: Reunification Palace, War Remnants museum, Jade Emperor Pagoda. The war stuff was very depressing so it was nice to finish off the day at the quiet pagoda. Here I sat and mused about my trip. Strange but I felt ready to go home but also will miss Vietnam a lot.
Quick summary of things I'll miss:
- The badminton matches at sundown
- The constant HELLO's or Xin Cao (in Vietnamese)
- The burning legs while riding in the mountains
- Public announcements at sunup and sundown
- Rice paddies (they make great scenery)
- Peanut candy and chewy candy
- 'Riding into town' after a long hard day
And the things I will NOT miss:
- The sound of pigs being killed while having breakfast
- Mystery meat
- Rice (you can have too much of it!)
- The constant karaoke
- Seeing sleasy Western men with tiny Vietnamese girls
- Deafening honking of busses and trucks.
There is so much more in both categories but I won't bore you with that. While sitting on a bench at this pagoda I also made up my mind that I will be back some day, with my bike, to ride the highlands and the southern part of Vietnam and I realy want to go to Laos after hearing great cycling stories about it... never enough time is there?!
And now I'm in Paris, having just missed my connection to London. After stressing about my bike the whole way (the box got wet over night and wet cardboard realy is not suitable for transporting bikes!) I was glad to see it arrive in Paris in one piece. Now only the last leg to go; Paris - London. Strange to be here. Its snowing outside and I realy know that my trip has come to an end even throuh it feels like only yesterday when I left. It has been a lifechanging experience and I loved it! I would recommend this 'slow' traveling to anybody. All of a sudden the travelling is about the journey and not about the destination. I have been able to meet a lot of ordinary Vietnamese people, get glimpses of their normal lives and for few instants become part of it. This is so much better than the fast travel I was used to on the backpacking trail when you go from town to town and are 'shielded' from the everyday life. But it takes time... which most of us don't seem to have much to spare.
Sorry, I ramble on. Got a plane to catch! See you all then I get back and I'll bore you to death with my stories! Love, Fi
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Isabel
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Can't believe it's the end of your trip... feels like you only just arrived the other day. You are right there is nothing like travelling with time. I miss it a lot and never regret taking all those months off! AND you should definitely go to Laos, it was one of my most favourite trips! Good luck with settling back into 'normal' life :)