Destinations

Ride day 29: Nam Cát Tiên to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

958

August 2, 2016

11 July 2016

We woke up on our second morning in Nam Cát Tiên to the sound of gibbon calls from the park. A beautiful sound to wake up to, and reminded us of the day before when we’d seen the small family of wild gibbons at dawn.

It had been raining on and off throughout the night, and was still quite wet outside. We enjoyed a breakfast on the deck overlooking the river, with both of the dogs and the cat taking turns to come up and see us for food. After then spending 10 minutes or so playing with the owners two playful kids and throwing them in the air to loud screams of happiness, it was time to pack up and head off.

As we were loading our bikes, one of the owners rode up on a very cool customised motorbike and spent some time chatting whilst helping us load up. He suggested we put on our ponchos as rain was coming. Sure enough, no sooner had he finished warning us and the rain began… Hard!

Custom motorbike

Ponchos on, we set off in the pouring rain. The first few hundred metres along the dirt track back to the road were a touch slippery. Then turning away from the river and the national park and back through Nam Cát Tiên and turning right on to the small back roads south heading towards the junction with the QL20.

The rain continued heavily for the first hour or so of the ride, meaning the back roads were waterlogged and in one place a tree was down covering most of the road. As we rounded one corner I spotted a snake in the road. By the time I’d slowed down and turned to go back with Tracey to check it out, it had unfortunately been killed. We don’t know whether it was Tracey or the truck that followed that inflicted the wound on what turned out to be a cobra crossing the road in the rain.
At the junction with the QL20 the weather is so wet that the phones’ touch screen won’t work for a map check, so we take a right hand turn and hope for the best. A few kilometres along the road and we see a distance marker for HO Chi Minh City (HCMC) so know we are still on the right track.

In an attempt to get out of the rain for a bit we take a stop at a road side coffee shop, and shelter inside for a hot Vietnamese coffee and condensed milk. Thankfully whilst sat there sipping coffee the rain starts to ease and we were able to continue on without ponchos for the first time in the day.

As the QL20 winds south and crosses the Dong Nai river, there are some wonderful scenes of Vietnamese floating villages and small fishing boats and barges working away. Heading south from the bridge over the river the road begins to get noticeably busier as you head towards the junction with the AH1. Despite this still being some distance outside of HCMC itself, it’s obvious that we are approaching a major city.

Winding in towards HCMC on the busier AH1, we start to realise that it’s been a long time since our last petrol fill up. We are probably approaching 300km covered and at the range limit of the bikes. The Honda Win’s don’t have a petrol gauge, so you need to remember how far you’ve come to avoid cooking out. Albeit there is a 1 litre reserve tank, but it is full of all the gunk and horridness of Vietnamese petrol. Rather than take the more direct QL1A, we opt to continue on the busier looking AH1 road in hope of finding a petrol station. After five or so kilometres we thankfully find a place to fill the tanks, and after a few wrong turns finding our way out, we continue on in the heavy traffic towards the centre of HCMC. The roads for the whole day have been good quality Tarmac, and the only variation has really been the weather and the intensity of the traffic. Even in the busy streets heading in to HCMC over bridge after bridge, the traffic flows well.

Arriving in to the centre of D1 left us a little bit disorientated, and with my phone battery dead and Traceys running low, it was time to find our hotel quickly. We follow the maps.me directions round the huge central roundabout then up the backstreets of the backpacker area to our little hotel. The narrow streets are very busy and there is no obvious parking at the hotel. We unload our bikes, at which point one of the hotel staff move a few scooters to make way for our bikes.

After getting to the room and having a quick shower, we are both keen to get some food. A quick scan of TripAdvisor and we have a recommendation for a place in the next alleyway. On the 100 metre walk from hotel to restaurant we are approached no less than 10 times by people touting business. Everything from food, to hammocks, to drugs. This is something that we have barely encountered in Vietnam, and is not a feature we enjoy.

The food at the “Asian Kitchen” restaurant turned out to be excellent. We sat out the front watching the world go by and flicking off touts over a few beers. As the restaurant got more quiet, two of the younger staff joined us for a chat. Phuc (pronounced foof) was keen to show off his motorbike and then later his excellent guitar skills. We had a fun few hours chatting and drinking beer, joined towards the end by a Nigerian (Raymond) who was out in HCMC for football trials. He had a shirt on with my mate Wazza’s (Waseem) name on the back, so had to stop him for a picture, and then he just joined us. It ended up being quite a late finish, then back to hotel, where bikes had been wheeled inside, and off to bed.