Easy Riders

We’ve just finished a three day motorbike tour of the Mekong Delta and it was great! I’m now officially an ace rider (you can see this for yourself in the video below) and look very cool in Day-Glo.

We met our tour guide “Nam the Man” in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). We we’re expecting some kind of biker dude with a plaited beard and leathers instead we got a small man who looked more like a Buddha with a manbag. Still he was very impressive with photos from previous trips and contracts (not seen one of these on our tours before). The plan was for Natalie to ride with Nam and Mel to ride with me. Having not ridden for a while and seeing the scooter chaos on the streets I was a little concerned. Fortunately Nam had foreseen this trepidation and we actually started our ride on the outskirts of the city after a short Taxi ride.

We had a bit of a late start as the bike (scooter) that Nam had put on the train for me had not made it all the way to Saigon so he had to hire a replacement. We started with about a 70k cruise to the Cu-Chi tunnels. After perusing the gruesome traps, being tempted to shoot an M16 and crawling down a claustrophobic tunnel we hopped back on the bikes for another 100k to My Tho. We kept mainly to back roads to get a good look at the countryside and enjoyed plentiful breaks for cool drinks and to a rest. We left our bikes on the banks of the river at My Tho and hopped on a boat to a small river island that had a hotel and where we would be fed by a local family. It was great to be on the island which had a good breeze although somewhat intermittent electricity. After a wash from a bucket of river water we went to have our dinner which turned out to be one of the best of our trip so far. The nosh here is boss.

Spirits were high as we got up for day two. We started with a little boat trip among the canals of the Mekong Delta stopping for brekkie, a few retail experiences (mainly coconut based) and a chance to fondle a python . Then we hit the road for Can Tho. This ride was going to be interesting as we would be crossing lots of parts the delta and so would be riding and taking boats across the rivers. It seemed that lots of bridges had been built since Nam had last taken the route as we only actually took one ferry. After a while it became apparent that we were a little bit lost. The highlight being following Nam the wrong way down a slip road onto a motorway, fortunately he stopped before we hit the traffic. I think he got a bit stressed with the getting lost and Natalie and he had a bit of a falling out which was quite amusing for Mel and I to observe. Finally after about 6 hours in the saddle we arrived at our hotel in Can Tho. This eased tensions and after a few showers Nam treated us to a massage. We went to a massage parlour where the masseuses are blind. This lead to an embarrassing situation when the masseuse went to top his massage oil after my Mexican back pelt had absorbed the first bottle. The masseuse came back into the room and started feeling his way around to find me. I thought I’d help him out so whistled to help him find me. In hindsight this probably wasn’t the most respectful way to get his attention however he whistled back so I think I got away with it. That’s probably the last time I’ll whistle for the attention of a blind masseuse. Suitably loosened we went back to town to hunt down a tasty dinner. I couldn’t resist the snake curry. Snake is chewy.

The next morning we got up early (5:30) for go to the famous floating market. This is still a very traditional market where people from the cities come to buy their supplies for restaurant etc. It’s mainly a fruit and veg market. They have long poles on the top of their ships with a few samples of their produce on display. We moored up to a pineapple boat for a breakfast of a pineapple each, a potato doughnut and a bowl of noodles. A formidable feast! After this bounty was consumed we hopped on the bikes to blast back to Saigon on the motorway. This is where the best of the overladen scooter are to be found. By this stage our bums were starting to feel the strain of the uninterrupted riding and frequent breaks were needed to massage some life back into them. Back in Saigon to my consternation I realised I was heavily burned on the legs and arms. I was pretty confused by this because I’d put the same cream on each of the days and the other two days had been fine. Mel solved the riddle by pointing out that I hadn’t had a shower after the massage and just a rinse in the morning. The oil from the massage had stopped the suncream being absorbed by my skin and I’d fried on the road. Basically I was basted by a blind masseuse.

Another first.