Vietnam part one- Ho Chi Minh City


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Asia » Vietnam » Southeast » Ho Chi Minh City
May 10th 2015
Published: May 18th 2015
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Six hours after arriving in Ho Chi Minh City, we had spontaneously purchased our own Honda motorbike from a fellow traveller. He had driven the epic 1766km distance from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh which we intend to replicate in reverse over our month in Vietnam.
A friend we met in Cambodia invited us to stay with him whilst we were in Ho Chi Minh City. Having stayed in numerous grotty budget rooms, Flavio's apartment felt like luxury. I had food poisoning, so Will and Flavio took the bike to the mechanics to get it checked over. Luckily labour and parts in Vietnam are cheap for motorbikes and garages are located on almost every street. When they returned we went for a late night swim in the top floor pool overlooking the city sky scrapers. The residential area, East of the river is predominantly inhabited by expats, like Flavio, who is here working as a pilot for Vietnam airlines. (Hence Will trying on his captain's hat!)

Flavio took us to a cool bar where he hangs out with a mix of Vietnamese and expats. His Vietnamese friend joined us, and was very helpful translating for us at the mechanics when we collected our bike. Bike given the go ahead, we headed into the city centre near the designated back packer area. The roads are more chaotic than anywhere else I've seen in Asia, including Bangkok and India! Our bike broke down at some traffic lights and in all the commotion we managed to lose Flavio, so our only option was to park the bike up. Things went from bad to worse as some locals tried helping on the street corner and ended up loosing a vital screw to hold the clutch cable in place amongst the roadside rubble! By this time it was 11.00pm so we had to try and move the bike off the streets before it got stolen, which is apparently a common problem in Ho Chi Minh, exemplified by the abundance of security guards standing outside each and every restaurant, shop or market charging a fee to oversee your motorbike for fixed durations. Having managed to contact Flavio, he was able to push our bike, from behind, whilst Will steered from the front back to the mechanic we'd only just visited round the corner from Flavio's flat!

Waiting for the bike to be fixed at the garage we spent the rest of our time planning our next 3 weeks in Vietnam, following a route heading the entire length of the country, stopping at various destinations on the way and finishing in Hanoi. We spent the evening with Flavio, eating popcorn and watching the top gear Vietnam special, giving us an insight into what we had got ourselves in for!

Having collected the bike again from the garage we put it through the ultimate test- another drive through the city centre. We stopped for Raspberry and mango shakes at Thi Fi cafe followed by a Banh Mi on the street. This is a traditional Vietnamese Baguette, filled with an assortment of unidentifiable spam and other ingredients. The bike survived so it was time to pack up our bags ready to start the road trip adventure up to Hanoi.



Watch "Riding through Ho Chi Minh City on two wheels" on YouTube - Riding through Ho Chi Minh City on two wheels:




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