Just a quick note to let you know that we’ve just been having a couple of rest days in Saigon. The roads have been getting busier and busier, and it’s good to have a rest, and do tourist-type things.
We’ve been doing museums, visiting tunnels, eating and drinking, and dodging traffic. Typical Saigon stuff really. Tomorrow we turn back to the West, but since we’re short on time, the bikes will be stuffed in the hold of a bus, across to Phom Penh.
For cyclists coming into Saigon, it turns out to be very easy to cycle into if you’re coming from the south on Highway 1. HW1 itself is not much fun to ride on, but at least there’s usually a shoulder. Follow it until the major clover-leaf intersection, and turn right onto Vo Van Kiet. This is a major road that runs alongside a stinking canal. There is a separated lane for motorbikes and bicycles, but most motorbikes stay in the main part of the road. This means only a handful of scooters in your lane, and almost no-one going the wrong way (this is almost unheard-of in Vietnam). Follow this along for a fair way, until you can turn off to the left on Nguyen Thai Hoc. A couple of blocks along there, and the backpacker ghetto is on your left.
One other tip for cyclists – get a boat from Vinh Long to Cai Be, rather than trying to ride that section. Very pleasant, and very easy to put the bikes on a boat. There’s people at the dock who are used to doing it, and they’ll sort you out.