Saigon

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Saigon was about 300kms from Dalat – another long day. We left early and actually made pretty good time – we were half way around 1.00pm and stopped for lunch at this very fancy expensive restaurant with amazing views over the countryside and moutains. Just turned onto Highway 1 and a Policeman stood out in front of us and waved us over – we followed the most important role of biking abroad – ignore the local laws. We pretended we didn’t see him and drove on but Julia and Martin stopped for their third speeding ticket …it would be a 300,000 Dong fine this time (since there were three cops). Heading into Saigon the traffic started building up about 50km outside the city and the rain started. Mighty May doesn’t like getting wet so once again we broke down in the worst possible place in the middle of a five lane carriageway. We found a mechanic eventually who said he could fix it and left to get parts – four hours later he returned empty handed saying “no fix no fix” – at this point we were pretty pi55ed off, wet, tired and hungry and we were ready for just getting a taxi to Saigon and leaving the bloody bike – we didn’t want to see it again. The Phil and the mechanic managed to get it started again and we once again loved Mighty May all over again – we weren’t really going to leave you behind May!

Top of our agenda was to get the bike sold so we by chance met a boy scout who helped us get the bike fixed and washed for a reasonable price and took a picture of us and the bike – probably to bring back to his scout leader and get a badge for helping tourists in need. Selling the bike turned out to be pretty easy – it was sold by lunchtime on our first day for $50 less then what we paid for it in Hanoi. RResssullltttt!

Saigon at night was a bit like Magaluf – loads of drunk people everywhere – tut tut! We took a trip to the Museum of Ho Chi Minh that had American planes, tanks and helicopters left over from the American Vietnam War. Our visa was running out so we only had a short time in Saigon but we felt that we had seen enough anyway.

The night we were leaving we had a farewell meal with Alice, Martin and Julia as we were all going our separate ways. Awwkkkk. We found out the next day that Julia had her bag robbed on the way home by dudes on a scooter who actually cut the bag from her shoulders – poor thing. She also lost the registration card for the scooter shed bought and she couldn’t sell it – no luck at all.

This is us leaving Vietnam – weve bought a two day tour of the Mekong Delta which will bring us to Camodia. We absolutely loved Vietnam – we enjoyed the North a lot better then the South – Hanoi and Sapa were probably our two favourite places. Travelling in Vietnam on a motorbike was such an amazing experience – highly recommend! Just wish we had longer to visit Vietnam. Well miss you!

Lots of love to everyone back home,

-Phil and Alana xx

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