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Sunrise from our room
Woke up to go to the bathroom at 5am and saw this :) Tris woke up really early because thoughts of what we had to do during the day kept bouncing around in his brain. "Buy helmets, buy motorbikes, get tools, get bungee cords, take out money, do this, do that." I on the otherhand slept in a little longer.
We finally learned the name of the lady and man that run the hotel. Before we left for the day Ahn made sure to tell us to be safe. I pulled a hang nail yesterday on my finger. Tris told me a story about when he was little he pulled a hang nail and his finger went all puffy and green. His finger nail fell off and ever since he's been hesitant to pull another. I say he jinxed me because when I woke up my finger was puffy and a little wierd color. Ahn made sure to put alcohol on it, some iodine and bandaged it up for the day. She's such a sweet lady!
First trip was to the helmet store. We have looked at a few different helmet places and we liked the first one we went to, which of course was the farthest away. After we stopped at
a cafe for some breakfast.
Next was a walk through Ben Thanh market in hopes to find some tools or bungee cords, but we found nothing.
We phoned Mr.Toan and he met us so we could see the bikes again. I took mine for a test drive, and then Tris took his. We realized one of Tristan's brake lights was burnt out so Mr.Toan agreed to replace it. We went to go take money out of an ATM but like everywhere you can only take out $200 at a time. Frusterating when you want $500, and your bank charges you a $10 fee for every transaction! My bank card wouldn't work in any of the machines we tried so Tris ended up taking it out of his account. We went back and sat with Mr. Toan who said he'd take Tris back to his home to get the paperwork while I waited. Tris secretly handed me the money he took out just in case Mr. Toan tried to rob him. Ya never know! Everything was fine though. Mr.Toan introduced Tristan to his Mom, Dad, Wife and children. He lived in a very nice house, had a few other
motorcycles parked in his kitchen, and his wife offered Tris a nice cold glass of water. Mr.Toan asked for the money but Tris said that I had it. No problem, they came back to me, Mr. Toan wrote up the paperwork saying he sold the bikes to us (we didn't steal them), all the paperwork was given, we gave him the money, said Thanks and off we went with our two SYM automatic scooters!
We took the bikes back to our guesthouse where Ahn and her hubby shook their heads at us. We then caught the local bus to the Chinese Market. What a maze! We couldn't find anything we needed and it was boiling hot. We crossed the street to go back to the bus station and what did we see?... Bungee cords! So we bought some bungee's and headed back to our neck of the woods.
I had a little snooze while Tris went to a different market to get some tools.
Then Ahn wanted us to take the bikes to underground parking so they are safe overnight. For some reason she made me walk with her while Tris drove his bike. She held my
hand the whole way as if I have never crossed a HCMC street before. Tris parked his bike, but she thought he parked it to far away from the entrance so she made him bring it closer. Then we came back to the guesthouse and I was allowed to take my bike over.
We sat around downstairs talking with other travellers and trying to find a guesthouse in Vung Tao. EVERYTHING was booked though. I guess a lot of locals and expats go to Vung Tao on the weekend for a getaway. We changed our route and decided to go to Mui Ne instead. Ahn's hubby sat with Tris and mapped out a route to go. He's a different man. He's very quiet but seems to be more talkative one on one rather when a group of people are there. He doesn't show a lot of expression but when he does find something funny his whole face lights up. He repeats himself a lot, and likes to draw photos to explain things. He speaks very good english though. He seems to have taken a real liking to Tristan. We learned that they have 3 children. Two boys and a
girl. We've really enjoyed the hospitality of them.
Off to Mui Ne tomorrow. Hopefully we don't die!
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