The Not so Fast but the Furious

With only Christa and I left in HCM on the fourth day, we still didn’t waste time in looking for opportunities of ‘immersing’ with the locals. Tired of eating the same breakfast from the hotel, we went out to eat in a street stall selling French baguette, omelet and coffee.

Recall we paid 9,000 Dong for the omelet sandwich. I said immersion remember? So without inhibitions (or utmost regard for safety or hygiene) we voraciously ate our sandwiches wrapped in a local newspaper. Don’t worry friends, Christa and I have survived in the process.

After breakfast we walked around in the backpacker’s area to look for a motorbike that I could rent. I saw a big automatic scooter which the shop owner agreed that I will rent for 3 hours at a haggled price of 5USD. Normally the whole day rent (8 hours maximum) will cost about 10USD. This includes the use of helmet which is already required by law anywhere in Vietnam.

After signing the contract, settling my bill and leaving just my passport, Christa has decided to join me for a spin. Initially she thought of asking me to drop her off in the hotel so she could relax and have enough rest. But luckily she changed her mind so she joined me instead.

Usually the owners leave enough gasoline in the tank so the drivers can go around the neighborhood to find the nearest gasoline shop to refill. With barely an experience in driving a motorbike (first in our neighborhood for a 10-minute drive and second in Krabi, Thailand) I braved the traffic of Ho Chi Minh and toured the city in the locals’ style.

While driving, Christa and I have agreed on two objectives, first is to eat in a Jollibee fastfood chain and second is to come back to our hotel in one piece.

After a long search for a gasoline shop, I spent 2USD to refill my tank. The gasoline boy said it’s enough to last us a day while biking around HCM. Unfortunately to my dismay, Christa and I were not able to locate any Jollibee restaurant anymore. I drove around and lost my direction for about an hour and just concentrated in driving around the busy highways and small side streets of HCM. It’s amazing to experience that in HCM, it’s the people who are adjusting to the passing motorbikes and not the other way around. There were even lots of times when I cut on buses and big cars just to stay on my track. And I also remember that we circled the rotund (round-about) along with the much experienced local drivers. Ha, ha! I’m the Queen of the Road!

Finally after deciding to consult the map [how proud (and stupid) of me, I know!], and asking for directions (we’re women and we’re proud we can do it…!), we managed to find our way back to District 1 and returned the motorbike to the shop owner.

At around 1130AM, Christa and I checked out from our hotel and called a cab to bring us to the airport. The 35-minute drive cost us about 8USD including the airport parking entrance fee for the nice and talkative driver.

Christa and I boarded our flight back to Singapore at 210PM via Tiger Airways.

This is how our HCM adventure ends… Gear up for the next one!