22nd

The bike seems to be leaking from everywhere now, the strain of the last couple of weeks suddenly becoming apparent. The mechanic blamed everything on the Chinese manufacture of the bike, but still offered me $150 this morning, should I have taken it? I have enjoyed the ride too much and not ready yet. $150 is something I dont have to worry too much about right now and the thought of travelling with a bunch of unfriendly westerners full of their egos and posturing does not appeal. Left Saigon about 10.30 but took me about 2 hours to actually get out of the city, partly due to mixed directions I was being given by people. One of them who actually gave me the worst direction (I didnt actually take it) wanted $10 for it!

They also tend to overestimate distances by about 40%. I got to My Tho (mee-thaw) about lunch time and had something to eat by Mekong river. Then spotted the office for booking trips and had a chat, the girl knew nothing about the area other than the tour that she was selling and that did not sound terribly exciting either. I set off to visit Ben Tre but part way there I began to wonder the best use of my time would be to get the border as soon as I can to give me couple of days and attempts in case there are  problems taking the bike with me. i may have to try couple of border. I had some sugarcane juice with crushed ice which was really good, I had been having bottled high sugar stuff so far, specially green tea which is nice but very sweetened.
I got directions agian and backtracked to MyTho and turned North towards Chau Doc as my ultimate destination probably by tomorrow evening.

At one of my stops I had some fruit and couple of sweet potatoes, there is so much fruit and veg here that I could easily not have meat if I keep my eyes open for the right stalls. You can gett coconuts, variety of fruits, cooked sweet potatoes, corn on the cob. It also seems that I am seeing much more vegetarian signs around here CHAY.

The route has been fairly uninspiring. I have ridden without my jacket today and the difference is clear, I dont get so exhausted. My arms look totally bronzed between my wrist and elbow! In the evening the scenery was great, for some time I was riding towards a red full disc setting sun and every few kilometeres I was also crossing over a bridge with a branch of Mekong, supporting local boats and floating homes, nice. Unfortunately I could not stop at any of the bridges with all the traffic and width restriction.

Managed to get to My Thuan about 6.30, in the dark which was not ideal but I am getting a little more comfortable riding in the dark but not much. At one of the places I enquired about hotel they referred me across the road but it was really difficult to see the traffic specially with some driving without lights so I gave up and decided to ride on until I could find something else. While entering the city I crossed a huge bridge and there were people sitting on the railings with parked bikes, very tight. There were also traders serving this crowd and had to be careful not to hit somebody. There were also lots of insects coming my way, I guess it was due to being near the river and also being attracted by the light from the bike.

Best $1 I spent few days ago: plastic sun glasses to wear over my prescription specs, dont get so blinded anymore.
I did find something around 7 p.m. spent a little time exercising which is one thing I havent done enough of while travelling, but it was really stifling and couldnt do much. hopefully some more later tonight or in the morning. would love toget into the routine of getting up earlier and doing most of my travelling in the cool of the morning.