Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
July 06, 2014
I wasn’t sad to leave Mui Nei at all but I was sad to head off that day as I knew we were heading towards Saigon and the end of this amazing riding adventure in this beautiful country. Saigon would be good and fun but it’s the bike adventure and riding in the middle of nowhere that has made this trip amazing not the cities. We were unsure if we would make it to Saigon that day but we knew we would be close. We had thrown a few ideas around of maybe where to aim for that day. Straight to Saigon, maybe to the Cu Chi tunnels or maybe to the mangrove that sits about 80km out of Saigon on the coast. We would see where the day took us. As we rode out of Mui Nei it was another beautiful day of glorious sun.
I had checked the map and it looked as if we could keep hugging the coast and avoid the major roads provided that we did a little bit of bouncing off road between the fields and manage to find the odd bridge here and there that maybe wasn’t shown on the maps. Not long after leaving we were cruising down beautiful coast roads in the middle of nowhere. The occasional exclusive resort nestling in the countryside but other than that it was back to rural Vietnam. The usual surprised locals grinning and waving at us and children excited to see you as we trundled through their villages. The gamble paid off as the roads were beautifully quiet and sure enough we managed to weave our way through rice fields and found rickety wooden bridges to cross the occasional river we came across. We stopped off for a cuppa along the way and to put the wet weather gear away yet again and we checked our progress so far.
It was good. It looked as though we would have plenty of time to reach any of our possibilities so we cracked on again until the point where we approached the mangrove to our South. At this point the roads had been gradually building up in both size and traffic and you could sense you were nearing Saigon despite it still being 50km away. As we sat down for another drink and to decide what to do we realised that there were no roads into the mangrove from where we were and that we would need to pretty much hit Saigon then back track if we wanted to go there. We had about 2 hours daylight left and it would most likely take another 4 hours to get round to the tip of the mangrove where the only places to stay are located. We bit the bullet and decided that getting into Saigon was most likely the best option and we could decide if we wanted to head back out from there the next day.
We reached a big junction on the road where I expected to hang a left straight into Saigon with only about 25km to go until we realised that motorcycles were not allowed on it and it was a toll road for cars and trucks only. Great, the map hadn’t shown this so we needed to find an alternative route into the city. I checked the options and we needed to head North then loop back West and then South and into Saigon that way. It put a good two more hours onto the ride by the look of it which would mean we would ride into the city in the dark of night. Not what I wanted for my first experience of riding in busy Saigon. But needs must and off we went.
With the lights of the city close enough to glow over the horizon the heavens opened and we pulled into a petrol station to don the wet weather gear again. The skies darkened and the last of the daylight was disappearing as we made it all of 30 yards further down the road when the all to familiar feel of sloppy rear end occurred. It was a flat back tyre. We felt so close to Saigon and the little bike had served us so well and then this happened. Thankfully we only had a short way to push the bike before we came across a road side hut where a guy could sort us out. We must have hit something on the way out of the petrol station because the inner tube was ripped and there was also a massive tear in the tyre. We only had a new back tyre put on near Hue not that long back and it was sad to have to shell out again so close to our final destination, but what were we to do, it needed sorting. The guy and his family were nice and friendly but I guess the tourist tax in Saigon is a lot more substantial than up North or in the rural areas. It cost us at least twice the price we have been paying previously to get us back on the road and moving again. As we headed off the rain was beating down heavily and it was now pitch black. Another 30 minutes and we eventually found the next turn to head in towards the city itself. Only 23km left to go now.
It was a horrible ride in. Torrential rain now and much more traffic than we had been used to. Trucks and buses all around you and a sea of motorbikes to keep you on your toes. I couldn’t keep the visor down on my helmet as the lights dazzled in the raindrops making visibility impossible so I had to face the lashing rain with no visor if I was to have any chance of seeing anything at all. We crept slowly and gingerly towards the city centre. The final 16km or so took around an hour of splashing through puddles and avoiding being crushed by trucks. But then at last somehow the traffic seemed to ease. We turned off the busier wider road and onto the normal streets surrounding the city centre. A few more checks of the map later and we rolled into the bustling back packer area of Saigon. We had made it. After more than 2,500km of utter adventure and fun we had reached our destination. Hanoi to Saigon was complete. I felt jubilant, excited and a great sense of achievement welled over me. To me this was quite some accomplishment. We had rode pretty much the length of Vietnam. Non of this ‘Easy Rider’ rubbish on the back of some other guys bike. Non of the Top Gear kop out of hoping on a train and having a production crew around you all the way. No, all by ourselves. Just us, Dora the Yamaha and a map. A celebratory drink later and we found some digs for the night in the same street we had rolled into. Tired and weary from a 10 hour ride that day we opted for a bottle of Jim Beam again and drifted off a few glasses later.
