Ready for the raid on Vietnam...
Milan had arranged to get our Vietnamese visas sorted while we were visiting the sites of Phnom Penh, and as promised returned them to us complete with shiny visas on the evening before we were due to depart for Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon as it was formerly known…
Our bus was jammed onto the ferry that crossed the Mekong at Neak Loeung...
He had also booked our bus tickets for 6.30 am the following morning, and arranged a taxi to collect us from the hotel and take us to the bus station…
Good man, Milan…!!
Morgan had managed to ride his bike into Vietnam, but it had taken over $5000 to make the necessary “arrangements” and Trevor and I were not willing to spend that amount of money to get our bikes onto Vietnamese soil…
We were however willing to spend the $12 bus fare and $30 visa fee to pop across the border and see what all the fuss was about…!!
Our ride did not start smoothly… The bus broke down barely 100 metres from the depot, and we were forced to change buses… Not an auspicious start to our Vietnamese caper…!!
It took about four hours to reach the border at Bavet, which included a ferry crossing to get from one side of the Mekong to the other, inside Cambodia…
Just short of the Bavet Border Post and 80 km from Saigon, we stopped for a light meal at a roadside diner...
We were warned not to take any photos at the border crossing, and once over the Cambodian side which was much friendlier, we arrived at the Vietnamese checkpoint where all the luggage had to be taken off the bus and put through the scanner before being loaded again…
There were not too many smiles from the officials on duty…
Two hours later we were dropped off right outside a string of hotels, and within a few minutes had chosen one to base ourselves at…
No 75 up in lights...
Is this a sign for a massage with happy ending, I wondered...??
Chenty went local on us...
We spent the remainder of the afternoon walking through the busy streets of Saigon, which we discovered was the name most used by the locals… Ho Chi Minh City was too much of a mouthful, even for them…!!
Weird effects...!! Smog over Saigon at sunset...
Baby chairs for motorcycles - Only in Vietnam...!!
The Vietnamese are an industrious lot...!!
Street vendor in HCMC...
Parking for the Big Fella would have been a problem...
I am pretty sure most folk use the English version...
Posing with Uncle Ho Chi...
The Saigon Opera House... The bikes would have looked good parked out front...!!
How many crates of beer can you get on your bike...
KTM roadbike...?? Nah.... One of those Chinese knock-offs...!!
This steakhouse was always crowded...
Not the most popular store we encountered...!!
"Where...?? Where...??" shouted the street ladies...
Willi had advised us to visit the seaside resort of Vung Tau while we were in Vietnam…
He mentioned that it was a favourite haunt of Australian travelers and could be reached using one of the Russian hydrofoils which took about two hours to cover the distance between Saigon and the southern coast of Vietnam…
We duly booked tickets on the boat leaving at 10.30 am the following morning, and planned to spend at least one night in Vung Tao, before returning to Saigon to take the bus back into Cambodia…
We enjoyed a well priced meal at a local steakhouse, and then continued walking around the area close to our hotel… In the park across the road, hundreds of people were doing aerobics, or jogging along the perimeter track which must have stretched for at least a few kilometres…
This one put even Willi to shame...!!
The following morning we went to collect our tickets and discovered that the boat had been fully-booked and the next boat was due to leave sometime after lunch…!! We hurried down to the riverside to see if we could get onto the boat we had originally asked to be booked onto, but despite our best efforts to convince both captain and crew, the boat left without us…
The hydrofoil leaves without us, forcing a change of plan...
We exchanged our boat tickets for bus tickets, and an hour later, were on our way back to Phnom Penh…!!
Trevor and I prepare to hijack a bus back to Cambodia... We figured with our new disguises we would blend in well...!!
We slept for most of the ride back into Cambodia, except of course when border formalities demanded we be in an “upright and smiling” position…
I was battling nicotine withdrawal symptoms at this point, and decided not to join Trev, Chenty and Morgan for dinner, but rather to hole up in my room, and try to sleep… I was not in the best of moods, but knew exactly what was taking place in my brain, and rather than be a disagreeable dinner companion, I chose to “battle the demons” on my own…
That evening, Morgan had his wallet stolen at the pub they were eating at, and was now in a spot of bother… He had just drawn $500 from an ATM and this together with ALL his credit cards was now the property of some thieving Cambodian…!!
We decided that we had now had enough of Phnom Penh, and made plans to head for Siem Reap in Central Cambodia, to see what for me was my main reason for being in South East Asia…. Angkor Wat…!!
©GBWT 2011
Nice ! You seem to be enjoying the company. Look forward to more news.
Can’t wait for more from Cambodia and Vietnam. Happy to see you having fun for a change with great friends. Mom say’s please watch what you eat, we don’t want to hear that you are also sick with some kind of stomach bug.
Love and miss you madly,
Dad, Mom and me
The Big Fella might take umbrage to you driving with one arm – so I sincerely hope your meal arrived in time…
Having a bit of R&R, it’s about time. Have a bevvie for me and say “hi” from SA, to Morgan, Trevor and Chenty.
BIG kisses
K
hey,
The Chinese knock off looks very much like the Korean bike my buddy has over here! A Daelim Daystar…only a little 125 you can see the American influence…Harley wannabe!