Final day on tour: mixed emotions. Happy to have time to ourselves and do what we want when we want but will also miss having our guides show us around the towns.
Woke at 4:30am to the sound of god knows what??!!?? Later found out from Hai it is the radio pumped out through loud speakers for 2 hours each morning and then again for 2 hours of an evening. We felt like we were in a concentration camp (no disrespect). Impossible to get back to sleep.
Today we drove out to get our ferry (barge to cross the river) and headed to Cu Chi Tunnel. Amazing place and really emotional with the Vietnam war history. Explored the area and even got to crawl through one of the tunnels. Although the tunnels have been expanded to fit westerners, it was still tiny and claustrophobic. We even tasted food that they would have eaten during the war - sweet potato dipped in peanuts. It was delicious but very easy to get sick of eating repetitively. We also saw the different traps they used to kill or injure the Americans - pretty hectic stuff.
It was also interesting to know that all this was only 6kms from the American base and they would make night raids on the base then sneak back to their base in the tunnels which covered over 250kms.
We ate lunch in Cu Chi (town) - chicken and noodle for Tony and chicken and rice for me. Will definitely miss this food - and the dogs that sit at your feet waiting for scraps.
After that it was our final ride into Saigon. This was an experience and a half. Hai would speed up on the wrong side of the road to overtake about 100 bikes, then at the last minute would slip back into the traffic narrowly missing the cement road dividers. I kept squeezing my legs in close for fear of them being ripped off!! Tony's bike got hit from behind by a lady (bloody women drivers...) but it only hit his bag so no damage. At one point there was a truck fenced off on the other side of the road (it was doing road works or something) so ALL the traffic had to squeeze through on one side of the road. We are talking about at least 100 bikes plus cars all getting through a space of about 2 or 3 metres.
Finally arrived alive and gave each other high fives for surviving. Checked out our hotel that Hai and Son took us to and checked in. We will stay here for 2 nights as we want to check out the town.
I survived the whole trip without getting injured then arrived at the hotel and brushed past the motorbike exhaust pipe. Let me tell you THAT FRIGGING STINGS!!! I did the same thing in Bali a few years ago and it blew up into a massive blister. Hopefully paw paw ointment does the trick this time!!
We said good bye to Hai and Son (Hai gave us a hug - he is our favourite now as he took the time to explain a lot of things whereas Son seemed to just wanted to party and get out of the office). We went to our room and felt quite lost without them. We felt numb and sad. We had just spent 4 incredible days with them and then in a second they were gone and we will probably never see them again.
On to exploring Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). This place is 1000 times more busy than Hanoi however because the streets are wider it doesn't seem as hectic - or maybe we have just climatised to the 1000's of bikes wizzing past?
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