Goodbye Vietnam

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I'm now in Saigon (now officially called Ho Chi Minh City - what a mouthful) and it is my last day in Vietnam before heading to Cambodia in the morning. I'm looking forward to it as I've heard lots of positive things about Cambodia and how friendly the people are there, and whilst Vietnam has been a real experience, I'm ready to leave.

The motorbike tour finished on Tuesday and the last day was probably the most gruelling - the road was really windy and full of potholes and gravel from where they didn't bother to finish it when it was built only a few years ago. So it was a very bumpy ride and just as we were finally getting closer to our destination, my bike broke down!

Not very good timing as it was on a deserted road and I was dressed for winter after spending the previous night in the mountains (where it was freezing) but it was now absolutely boiling and all my summer clothes were in my backpack, which was wrapped in plastic and tied to the bike. This was along with my suncream so for about the 100th time this holiday, I ended up getting a burnt nose - no wonder Claire keeps threatening to christen me Rudolph.

Luckily the guide, 'Cowboy', had brought his bike repair kit so it wasn't too long before we were up and running and soon made it to Mui Ne. It was great to get to the beach after 4 days and 400 odd miles on the back of a bike and we stayed at a resort that had its own beach plus sunbeds and hammocks, so perfect for chilling.

Yesterday we headed for Saigon and had another nightmarish journey. Most drivers here are pretty crazy but this particular bus driver was a real loon. He was driving really fast, overtaking on blind corners, overtaking and driving straight towards oncoming traffic even when he could see the road and trying to squeeze through the most ridiculously tiny gaps - giving way was evidently an alien concept.

As we approached Saigon, the traffic became more and more manic, and just as it was getting absolutely crazy, his phone rang. Naturally, driving a bus with 40 odd passengers right in the middle of crazy Vietnamese rush hour traffic was no reason not to answer his phone, so he did so and continued to drive the bus one-handed for about two minutes until yep - he crashed!

Fortunately no-one was hurt but the two buses were both a bit dented and scratched - he leapt out and started a heated discussion with the other bus driver, probably trying to imply that it was the other guy's fault! God knows what the outcome was, but after 10 minutes of ranting he came back over, took a piss against the side of the bus, got back in and without a word to us about the incident, carried on driving. Nice!

It wasn't to be our day as once we got to Saigon, every single guest house seemed to be full - we hadn't bothered to book as we'd assumed it would be easy to find one. Eventually we found one that wasn't ideal but in the circumstances (ie the alternative being the Vietnamese version of cardboard city) we took it and decided we'd make do. It wasn't too long before we discovered we had company - ants and cockroaches were crashing in the room too. Plus the toilet leaked, the lock was dodgy, the 'free internet' didn't work and the 'hot shower' was freezing cold.

As we only had a day in Saigon and were going to be out all day we didn't have time to move so tonight I will enjoy another night in this cesspit - I'm gonna put up my mossie net to try and prevent critters from crawling on me in the night. Urgh.

Nasty room aside, we had an interesting day in Saigon and visited the Cu Chi tunnels - used by the Viet Cong in the war to help them keep one step ahead of the Americans. We got to crawl through them - albeit ones that had been enlarged for the Western form - we also saw examples of tunnels with the real dimensions, which were tiny! And sooo unbearably hot.. it must have been hell to have actually used them.

Our guide was a bit of a character and taught us some Vietnamese songs (which I've forgotten already!) It was also quite funny when he suggested to one girl that perhaps she shouldn't go into the tunnel cos she had a big bum and might get stuck - the Vietnamese definitely aren't afraid to speak the truth!

We lost 2 weeks' worth of our Vietnamese photos last week as Claire's camera was stolen, but I have now put a few of the ones we do have onto Facebook - mainly from the motorbike tour.

Much as I'd love to stay and write some more, it's getting late and I've got a mosquito net to assemble..

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