The last leg (2/3/14)

Today was my final long journey on the bike from Cat Tien to Ho Chi Ming (Saigon). I woke up quite early, without the alarm, to the sound of the buzzing forest and chirping wildlife. It made a really nice change to waking up in a hostel or hotel room in a town to the sound of people shouting down the corridor or traffic outside. I lay there enjoying the peace and quiet for a while before getting up for a shower. Although electricity is a luxury in the bamboo hut, hot water was not guaranteed. With nothing but cold water coming out the shower, today was obviously not a hot water day, I decided against a shower. Plus I'd only get disgustingly hot and sweaty on the bike as it was another beautifully hot day. I sat down to breakfast next to Frenchy, Scot and Herman the German (I've forgotten their real names) and ate my standard fried eggs with bread before enjoying my coffee. We discussed our plans for the day and they were due to visit the monkey sanctuary as they were staying for another night before heading north. We swapped details just in case they had any questions about the north that I might be able to help with and they pointed out a road I should take that had some nice scenery and got me off the main road. After breakfast I settled my bill for my stay at the lodge and asked the owner if he had any screws I could buy off him to secure the front of my bike and he said he had a couple I could have. He said he'd sort them out later and I thanked him and went back to the room to pack. While I was there frenchy popped in to say goodbye as they were heading off to the sanctuary and we wished each other a safe journey. I was ready to leave by half 8 and took my stuff to the entrance gate to load it onto the bike. The owner showed me the bike and he'd already attached the screws for me and insisted on not taking any money for it. Again, another really nice gesture from a local. The family had some dogs and they'd obviously just had a couple of puppies because the smallest, cutest balls of fur came out to say hello while I was there and so I played around with them for a bit. If only they stayed that size. Once loaded I got my gear on and started the bike for my journey. The whole family came out to say goodbye and I thanked them and set off waving, running over the puppies as I left. Nah just kidding lol. I followed the route Google maps had set for me which led me back along the brand new tarmac road I'd been on yesterday and then onto a cement road which was in a perfectly acceptable condition. Along this road the route took a slightly smaller road off it which looked fine for the first few kilometres but slowly got worse and worse and worse......and worse in condition. Over an hour of it. I ended up on a dry mud footpath, at best description, with rocks everywhere in the road and no sign of life anywhere. No houses, no people, no animals. And the "suspension" on my bike had had enough and I'm pretty sure there was no oil left in the forks because every boulder I went over the forks just bottomed out with a loud clunk. I checked my phone. There were no other routes at all for a long time to come. This was taking me absolutely ages already because I could't do any decent speed. Just as I was getting to the point of insanity I decided that no matter what it took I had to head towards the highway I'd been on yesterday. Even if it was the wrong way I would follow any route that looked better than this one. I finally after far too long approached a junction. Going perpendicular to my current route was a lovely stretch of tarmac road. That was it I didn't care if Google maps said to go straight on I was taking this road. So many times Google had got me out of trouble but on the odd occasion it really screwed me up. This was one of them so it was getting ignored!! The road thankfully led to more tarmac options and I was soon heading in the right direction at a reasonable speed and not pushing my suspension to destruction. I finally got back onto the main highway but this was also the route for all the big trucks and was similar to the condition of yesterdays road so I was soon fed up with the tarmac lumps that they called repairs. As I approached the junction that the others had told me to take I weighed up the pros and cons for taking it. On one hand I was well behind schedule and wanted to get to HCM in time to find the hostel I'd booked via email last night, and this other route did go back on myself slightly, but on the other this current road wasn't very nice and the other road might be better all round. I reached the junction and decided to take it. I got my break. It was much better. The scenery wasn't amazing but certainly greener and the road was smoother than the main highway. I made good ground and eventually reached the outskirts of HCM. That said I was still about an hour from reaching my hostel as HCM is a massive city. I stopped frequently to check my route as I was now back on the route Google maps had chosen and frustratingly this just confirmed I did keep missing my junctions for direction changes. I didn't want to keep my phone in my hand as I'd heard theft in HCM was pretty bad and bag swiping in pairs by people on mopeds was very common. So grabbing my phone would certainly have been an option if I left it out. I would have to make do with stopping and checking my phone frequently. I finally got onto one of the main highways going to the centre and knew I'd be on it for some time so started taking in my surroundings. I realised I was slowly approaching a rucksack strapped to an extended luggage rack just like mine on the back of a motorbike. In front of this, sat astride the bike, was what looked like a westerner with the same expression on his face as I think I had. It was a mix of wide eyed wonder at what had been seen on a long journey south to HCM, and the thought of "my god my arse hurts from all this, where is the end?". I drove past, looked back, smiled, and waved shouting "hey, where are you heading?". He grinned back knowing we were in the same boat. "I'm heading to the backpacker quarters of town, we've found a local and he's taking us there. At least I hope he is" he replied, shrugging, laughing and pointing ahead of him. I looked ahead and realised there were two of them and the local was in front leading them both into town. "That's good, mind if I follow?" I replied. "Go for your life" he said. We stayed on this highway for a while before veering off and negotiating a complicated spaghetti junction of roads and headed off on another highway. We finally took a few left and rights and ended up at a massive roundabout and were told the main backpacker area was just round the corner. It would have taken me ages to get here so was grateful I'd bumped into the backpacker convoy. Surprisingly the local didn't want money and he soon disappeared. The area we'd stopped was very modern, with bright flowers decorating the roundabout and advert billboards everywhere. Pavements were level and people seemed to be obeying the traffic signals a lot more. This was odd. It could almost be London. I said a proper hello to the other two and told them I'd got some accommodation booked at a hostel nearby so if they wanted to follow they could see if there was any more room, but it was up to them. They said they would as they had nothing yet and as it was now about 3pm it would save them searching . We stopped a couple of times to check positions and soon found the hostel, Saigon Backpackers was the name. It was tucked down a side street with ample parking for our three bikes. We pulled up, went in, got told off for wearing shoes inside and promptly exited. This was new, shoes off at the door. I checked and my mum wasn't there so figured it was a rule for everyone not just us. I told them I had a booking but asked if there was there room for two more. Luckily there was and we all got booked into the same room. We went up to the room to check it out and found that the bathroom light didn't work and half the lockers in the room didn't lock. Not a great start but there were spare lockers in the lobby and a shower on the next floor so we made do. I was well in need of a shower by now so went straight up and jumped in to de-pong myself. I breathed a sigh of relief that I'd made it all this way in one piece and hadn't had an accident doing so. Once showered I went back down to the room and put on some clean clothes before organising all my bits to put all my valuables in the locker. The other two guys were still there and so I finally had a chance to hear their story and tell them mine and find out their names. They were both Danish and their names were Mikkel and Stefan. Their English was spot on so we had no problems chatting. They'd bought their bikes in Sapa and had ridden the whole way south but hadn't gone much further into the north. They had the same intention to sell their bikes as me with a similar time frame and so we all went to the sister company of Hanoi Motorcycles, the cleverly named HCM Motorcycles, to see what they'd offer us as a ballpark figure to work from. I was offered $100 so overall would have lost $200 on the bike. I'd hoped for at least $150 as a quick sale if I needed it but would accept that price if I'd had no luck in 2 days time. The others were offered similar prices, but at least we all had a sale should we need it. I enquired about the cost of getting the forks serviced and was told it would be better to get them serviced at a place round the corner. The mechanic there was pretty good and spoke a reasonable amount of English. We were advised to get the bikes washed though as this would increase the chance of a sale and were directed to a professional place just a little further away. We rode there, navigating the tricky Saigon traffic lunacy with skill and agility. Some of that might not be true....Ok fine, at least we got there, that's what matters! So the three of us pulled up and I think it's safe to say we entertained the wash people. Not really sure why but they gave us the once over and this spurred on a lot of chat. I think part of the reason was because Stefan was a 6' bloke on a pretty small bike and partly because they knew somewhere under the mud on mine was a bike and hadn't been washed since I had it. They hesitated slightly but after a discussion soon waved us in. I think they were discussing whether to triple or quadruple the price for the funny looking white people. We were told to sit and then the best bike wash service I've seen started. After the bike is positioned on it's centre stand on a wooden block it gets pressure washed first all over then it's sprayed with foam and the bloke gets to work by hand cleaning everywhere on the bike including all the wheel spokes and under the mud guard. And then a button gets pressed and the wooden block lifts up by about a foot and the bike does a stationary wheelie. Then the bike gets washed thoroughly underneath as well. It's then lowered, wiped over with a cloth to dry it, and then wheeled outside, It's then given another wipe and water is blown out of crevices with an air gun and it's checked to make sure it starts. If it doesn't they spend time sorting that. And then it's finished. And all this for an extortionate amount of money!...........60p. My god. I need to move to Vietnam. It's unbelievably cheap at times. With the bikes clean we returned to the hostel and I stopped at the mechanics on the way back to ask about the forks. He quoted me about a fiver to service them and to fix the front dash surround as it was only held on again with just a few screws because of the days journey. I thought this wasn't a bad price and would rather sell the bike knowing it had no problems so agreed to bring it back at 8am the next day to get it sorted. Back at the hostel I joined Mikkel and Stefan in the room and we decided to write out some 'for sale' signs to put on the bikes while they sat outside the hostel and to advertise them on a website called Craig's list that I hadn't heard of but was apparently the site everyone goes to to buy bikes in Vietnam. That done it was time for dinner. The three of us went out to find somewhere and decided on a modern looking restaurant that had a reasonably varied menu. I decided on the Vietnamese curry which I hadn't tried yet in Vietnam and the other two chose different dishes but when ordering showed the waitress a phrase on their phone and she nodded and smiled. I asked them what it said. They said they weren't sure but it told the waitress not to add a particular ingredient to their meal that they weren't keen on. After a discussion we worked out that it was coriander that they didn't like. It was a similar word in Danish. The Vietnamese love their coriander and pretty much every meal has a good helping of it. My sisters worst nightmare. I was ok with the flavour although it was quite overpowering and I had got used to expecting it in my food. But for those that don't like it it's hard to escape it. We shared a starter of spring rolls which were very tasty and my curry was delicious too. After the meal Mikkel and Stefan were keen to get back to the hostel to watch a football match between their opposing football teams online and so we asked for the bill. Mikkel went to the loo and Stefan told me, whilst sniggering that he wasn't really into football but pretended he was to wind Mikkel up and he actually didn't give a crap about who won. Not wanting to waste a wind up opportunity I joined in on the banter when Mikkel returned. He was clearly a serious supporter and totally missed the fact we were stirring. Back at the hostel we went upstairs to the chillout room which had a tv and a DVD player and outside which were the computers. The other two settled down to watch the match and I vegged on the bean bag in the chillout room and watched a real Hollywood action blockbuster. Monsters vs Aliens on the Disney channel! I did try to watch a DVD but gave up because it was so scratched. Every now and then Mikkel would shout at the screen and Stefan joined in to continue the wind up. It turned into a lazy evening and after a few beers bought from the hostel I was ready to hit the sack. Back in the room I chatted a bit to the other guests who had returned from their day out but was soon in bed and drifting off to asleep. Another long day.