The final stretch of our journey was from Da Lat to Ho Chi Minh. The drive wasn't too exciting, but it also wasn't nearly as challenging as the ride into Da Lat. We bought full rain suits to prepare for the 8 hour journey, and benefited from them many times throughout the ride. We took a couple of wrong turns to try and avoid highway 1 - the most crowded highway in the country, and the journey was a bit longer than we had hoped for, but eventually we made it into Ho Chi Minh City.
I was very nervous for this part of the drive, because HCM is 8.9M people dense and most individuals rely on motorbikes for transportation. The traffic was no joke, but after a few weeks of riding across the country I was ready for the challenge. The only bad thing happened at the VERY end of our journey - our AirBnb in the city had a small ramp up to the garage, and when I was trying to ride my bike up it I ended up falling off of it. Luckily there was no damage to my body or the property.
We had a good time in the city. We went to the Co Chi Tunnels, the war memorial museum (also known as the museum of American Aggression), and a circus performance that was like Cirque Du Soleil. We also shopped at the markets for work out clothing, enjoyed some BBQ, Pho and coffee, and got a few more things tailored before we turned in our bikes for good.
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| The Co Chi Tunnels |
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| Walking through the rainy jungle to see the tunnels - it truly was a hellish place |
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| The making of Ho Chi Min sandals out of tires - these made it look like someone was walking the other direction when they left footprints in the mud |
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| At the AO Show |
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| The very talented cast of the AO Show |
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| The final speedometer read of my bike |
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| Getting our bikes washed before turning them in |
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| Neil at a suit fitting in HCM |
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| Picking up the goods |
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| A delicious bowl of Pho |
The bad part about our time in HCM was being sick - turns out I got Dengue fever, and it was ROUGH. Lots of uncomfortable days and extremely feverish nights. Neil was a trouper with me, and we did our best to still have a good time exploring the city.
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| Starting to feel sick from Dengue during our trip to the tunnels |
A full month in Vietnam was a really long time. We had a great adventure, but by the end I was excited to continue our adventure in Egypt
