Day 19

May 9 2013

Ho Chi Min City(Saigon) to Vinh Long

A hot shower and a steam bath

I wanted to give the bike a decent test run before setting of on the journey north. I learned a few things today. How far is say 140 km? That's nothing right. Yes, but not here. It is like travelling on a 50 cc moped from Brisbane to Melbourne or Amsterdam to Spain, not via the main road but via bike tracks.

I was glad that I had brought my new GPS and had purchased a Vietnam map. The way out of the city was easy and saved me perhaps more than an hour trying to find my way as there are virtually no road signs, however later that morning that same GPS cost me an hour as it follows the main road system.

On my ride through the city I rode with tens of thousands other riders which slowly thinned out once I had left Saigon behind me. But there are always scooters in front and behind me. Later in the morning it suddenly became very quiet around me. Strange, not a scooter in sight .

I continued about 5 km and came to a control/toll port. I was stopped and told to turn back as scooters etc were not allowed on the "freeway". Of course you can go other ways but the damn GPS kept on referring back to the same road. Lucky it also has a compass bearing so I pushed on in a southwesterly direction. 45 minutes later the GPS lead me to a new road and I was back with the scooters again.

The destination for today was Vinh Long – the “nh” is pronounced like “ng “in English. The name is therefore sounds like Ving Long. A town famous for its floating markets.

Tourist visit on daytrips from Saigon which meant that it would be hard to find an hotel, but I found one on the waterfront. Nothing elseto do than to go for a walk and buy an ice cream and look at The Mekong River running past. The bike ride was enjoyable but slow. I was pushing it hard but the 140 km still took me over 4 hours to complete.

Around midday a sudden shower got me off handed. By the time I got all my gear out I was very wet. I didn’t mind all that much because the rain was warm but as I wanted to continue riding I used the poncho which came with the bike. A poncho is standard issue with all Vietnamese riders. They know the difference between a few drops of rain and a downpour because all of a sudden you see everyone pull over put on the poncho’s and continue. With a shooter this may work fine, however with a motorcycle it is different.(the difference is that a motorcycle has a petrol tank in front , whilst the scooters don’t.)

I was still getting wet so decided to stop and put on my own waterproof gear and then the poncho over the top. 30 minutes later the sun came out but most of the other riders did not remove their ponchos as more rain was likely. I kept my gear on for another 30minutes until came to a village where I could stop in some shade. I have been hot before but this took the cake.

After removing my waterproofs I saw vapour rising from my body and legs. So I had my hot shower and steam bath for today