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Thurs 28th,Checked out of the hotel and walked round to the garage to pick up Ian's bike,all seemed ok they were happy because they had found some rich Westerner's we were happy we were back on the road(hopefully!!!),left about 9.30am and heading towards Di Linh,then through Phan Thiet,roughly about 150kms altogether,exactly what we needed today was good weather,no bike problems and a bonus would be some great roads,would you belive it! SUPRISE SUPRISE thats just how it was,fantastic,arrived in Mui Ne about 3ish,nice place and a long road full of hotel's,bar's and restaurants aparently it goes on for about 10kms,anyway found a small hotel and after a bit of shuffling around and putting another mattress in we were settled.Went out for a walk and found a nice restaurant,all these places by the coast are great for fresh fish so myself and Richard had Barracuda while Jamie had Snapper,Ian does'nt like fish so had some meat.
Fri 29th,Woke up to a lovely sunny day so headed down to the beach,when we got there found out there was a big 3 day international wind kite and wind surfing championship going on,so laid on the beach watching all the fantastic tricks they could do,it's quite a famous place for these people because obviously the waves are good and it's windy,left the beach about 6pm,showered and out again for some more fish,ended up in a bar on the beach with a lad from Sheffield who was in the competion,after a few more beers did'nt think he had much chance of doing very well later but it was all about distance so he said he had a chance even after a shandy or 2,left there about 2am and headed home.
Sat 30th,Our plan was to stay here for 1 more day to watch the final day of the comp and go to the beach party but we took it for granted that the room was our's till we wanted to leave, wrong!!so instead of packing up and going to another hotel we decided to leave Mui Ne and head to our final destination Ho Chi Min(Saigon),left about midday,we had a route sorted out to avoid Highway 1 but got lost so as time was a bit tight decided to stay on Highway 1 as it would be well signposted all the way,all was going well for a while when suddenly my bike just cut out,on the busiest road in Vietnam with nothing around but a small shop,no problem,a few hand gestures and a thumbs up, he made a phone call and within 2 mins a man on a bike turned up,we had to push the bike across the busy road and down to his garage a few 100yds down the road,Jamie put 1 foot on my bike and pushed me down using his bike,the mechanic would not have been out of place at a moto gp he was so quick,within 1/2 hour he had stripped the engine apart and found and fixed the problem,the last bodgers had'nt fixed it right,thats the problem here they know you will be long gone by the time something go's wrong,anyway speedy had done his job and we were back on the road,after the great roads we have been on the Highway 1 is so boring,just about arrived on the outskirts of Saigon without further problems but all about to change,1st Ian's bike playing up then my clutch went,you can't imagine a worse place for this to happen,the roads here are manic,worse than Han Oi,pulled to big weellies(accidently)which nearly hit other riders,they must have thought bloody idiot but I was spooked.there are so many traffic lights and places that you have to stop that it was pointless riding anymore,we parked by the side of the road,in a village miles from anywhere a mechanic is no problem here in a massive city like Saigon not 1,we locked my bike up and a friendly bloke came out and said I could leave it in his office,nice 1,I got into a taxi and the boy's followed behind,we traveled for miles then reached the backpacker area,got 2 cheap rooms,I stayed with Richard in the Phoenix 74 Ian and Jamie in thier sister hotel across the road,met the Sleazy boy's drinking cans outside an off licence because the bar across the road was too expensive,at one time there was about 15 of us outside the off licence,more than in the bar,myself Evo and Erran had a bit of a session till midday.
Sun 31st,As you can imagine not the full ticket today but we had to get my bike fixed so we could sell them,I was hoping that someone would have got the address of where the bike was but nobody did I could just remember a big tall building(Opus)so Myself Ian and Jamie walked aimlessly for about 4 hours up and down then up and down the same roads till we were knackered and got a taxi back to base,had a couple of hours kip then out for dinner and a couple of pints and a fairly early night.Put some posters up around the town advertising our bikes.
Mon 1st,After speaking with the man in my hotel think we know where the mystery bike is(fingers crossed)Bingo!!!after driving about in the taxi I spotted the building,the friendly bloke was there and started laughing when he saw me and Jamie,the pointing was'nt helping much when we were trying to explain that the bike had had it and needed to take it to a garage near by that we wre recommended,they got this young lad out of bed who could speak a bit of English so with his help we finally got our message over,now the hard part,Jamie got on the back of 1 of thier bikes I sat on mine and this old bloke pushed me through the busy roads using his bike, but this bloke was an expert he made it look so easy when it really is'nt,we got to the garage and gave our 2 new friends a dollar each and they left,about an hour later they had fixed the bike,Jamie bought a cheap helmet to get us back and I went pillion,got lost and the bike kept stalling(was ready to dump the bike)eventually I got a taxi and Jamie followed it back to safety,parked up never to be riden again,met up with Hazel and Bridget for dinner.
Tues 2nd,Tour to the Cu Chi Tunnels today,really interesting place it was build as a military command centre in the war,built on 3 levels with the deepest going down 20m,a lot of the tunnels have collapsed now but there are a couple you can go down,they have enlarged them so Westerner's can get down them,they are still really tight and dark in places,myself and Jamie only did the first bit we then we went to the firing range to fire 5 bullets each from the legendary AK 57(bloody noisy)but good,left there and met up later with the girls,some Danish lad's that had showed an interest in the bikes the night before came back and decided to buy them from us,we agreed on $700 for all 3 a loss of $200 for us but we were happy with that.The trip we had on the bikes will be one of the highlights of our tour for sure,although things went wrong with them the things we saw and the friendly people we met or even just waved to on our way through the villages will never be forgotten,a bit apprehensive at first when we were thinking of buying them but what a great decision it was,have got the e mail of the boy's who bought our bikes so will keep in touch with them and hope they have as much fun as we did
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