day 121 – my room had wifi, so i did some stuff online, including chatting with friends. i had breakfast and wandered down to have another crack at finding a bike. i spoke to a motorbike taxi guy and he spoke really good english. when i told him what i wanted, he pointed straight at the tourist office behind me. “they’ve got one” he said.
what??? a minsk? now? available?
sure enough, the owner had a minsk for sale. the going price was $230. i told him i’d take it if i could see the bike. he brought it round from storage and started it up. the minsk was a big, blue, noisy, smoke blowing machine.
i bought it …
i paid a deposit and while i was talking to him, coincidentally, eva and annika walked by. i told the tour guy that i’d pick up the bike later. i went with eva and annika, we booked a tunnel tour and did a walking tour (by ourselves) of greater saigon.
during the walk, we went past a few embassies, including the american embassy (eva tried to go inside and, obviously, was told no). we also went to a hindu temple. outside the girls got ripped off by some vendors who’d given them incense to burn in the temple. they ended up giving the street hawkers $15, even though i kept taking the money off the hawkers and yelling at them. we eventually got away and kept walking.
we then walked past saigon’s notre dame church. which was nice, and to the palace which was invaded when saigon fell during the vietnam war. when saigon was captured by the north vietnamese, tanks drove down the street and through the palace gate. in the yard there are tanks as part of the memorial. the palace is now a symbol of friendship and the grounds are quite nice.
as we headed towards the riverfront it started raining quite heavily. we ducked into a cafe after dodging our way across the streets and through zooming motorbikes. we drank coffee and waited for the storm to pass … then walked through saigon’s ritzy part of town, including the opera house and city hall. it was quite a nice area
it was getting late, and we made our way back to the backpacker street. we agreed to meet for a massage, so i went back to my hotel to shower and change. we wanted to go to a special massage center recommended by lonely planet. the center is for the blind and massage is a good way for them to earn an income. however, we arrived too late and weren’t able to get massages. we walked back through town and got a massage near our hotel. it was ok, but they tried to make the massage longer and overcharge us for it. then pretended not to realise their “mistake” … another scam!!
we had dinner and some beers, then called it a night … it had been a very long day!
day 122 – today we had a full day tour. i’d booked a tunnel tour with the girls the day before. in the morning we visited a handicapped workshop. the workshop was great and the people were very friendly … however i started to feel like it was going to be a full day of souvenir shop touring, just like china. but fortunately it wasn’t like that.
after the workshop, we went to a huge temple called cao dai great temple. this place is beautiful but truly bizarre. it’s a fusion of confucianism, buddhism, taoism and a few other beliefs. the ‘new’ religion is really a cult, and has earned the scorn of almost every other religion on the planet … including numerous religious experts.
while we were there the temple conducted one of their daily prayers, in which a band played music and the members all bowed, chanted and clapped at the appropriate moment. despite being a strange community, it was an interesting (and colourful) spectacle.
we had lunch further down the road and finally got to the highlight of the tour – the cu chi tunnels. these tunnels were used by north vietnamese (viet cong) troops during the war. seeing the tunnels was pretty cool. we watched a viet cong propaganda video, then walked around the facility.
it’s very impressive what they achieved – surrounded by american troops, the vc managed to build over 200kms of underground tunnels, from the center of saigon to the border with cambodia. they had living quarters, kitchens, and even had ways to hide cooking smoke. i crawled through some of the tunnels, which had been expanded for foreign tourists, and even then it was really cramped and hot. i walked through about 50 meters of tunnel, before crawling to the surface for sweet fresh air.
afterwards i had a chance to shoot one of the rifles. of course, there’s a fee (about $2 per bullet) and i declined. the shooting range was very close though and the sound of the rifles was incredibly loud.
we finally boarded the bus, hot and sweaty, for the run back to town. i finished booking further travels and had dinner with the german girls.
day 123 - a false start …
today was the day i planned to start my epic motorcycle trip through vietnam. in the morning i had a good breakfast and walked down to the tourist office where my bike was stored. we took the bike out and i got a helmet. since i hadn’t ridden a bike in a few years, so we went to a nearby bus parking lot which had plenty of space and no other traffic. it gave me an opportunity to get used to the bike’s handling (especially gear changes). i was pleased with how fast it all came back to me and i was riding around the lot easily. i took the bike back to the main street and went to my hotel to pack.
while packing it started to rain, heavily. lighting and thunder streaked the sky and i realised that i wasn’t going anywhere. i had planned to start my ride to mui ne at 1pm. it was now 11am and pouring rain … i walked back to the tourist office and told them to hold the bike for me until tomorrow. i told my hotel reception that i was staying another night.
i grabbed an umbrella and headed into town for lunch. i went to the cafe where i’d agreed to meet annika and eva. i had a drink and they showed up for lunch. we talked for a while and then said our goodbyes. they were flying to danang and i wouldn’t see them again (most likely) for the rest of the trip.
after lunch i decided to stay in my room for the remainder of the evening. i didn’t want to spend any more money and the weather was foul. i updated my blog, checked email, chatted and messed around online.