I took my time getting into Saigon, 3 days to cover 180 km, as if I didnt want to be there. unsure whether this was about not wanting to sell the bike, end of my road trip or vietnam trip.

Arrived late afternoon and got a hotel, as well as talking to a few people about selling the bike. I also ran into the scottish boys riding with the Minsks, lots of break downs as well as an accident where one of them had hit and hospitalised a pedestrian, as well as hurting his shoulder. They had sold their bikes back to Felix.

20th - day trip to a temple and the Cuchi tunnels used by the VC in the war. The temple was not that interesting, the tunnels were pretty amazing thoguh. There were

60x40 cm hatches under leaves that you could disappear into and tunnel networks of hundreds of kilometers. I did go through part of a tunnel, very cramped (but still managable without having to crawl), sometimes pitch black and warm of course. I was told by some people that they had also had fire crackers thrown at them from hidden hatches in the tunnels. There was  a firing range for trying out AK47 and American weapons too, the sound of every bullet made me jump.

Printed off photo of bike and sale info and put them out at some places. Havent managed to find youth hostels as such, there are mostly guesthouses and hotels here which has made it more difficult to find the right potential buyers. I have come across other people trying to sell bikes too (Minsks) but having problems, it seems that people prefer to ride from Hanoi rather than ride up there.

21st - last evening and most of today rode around city and spoke to lots of bike shops or anyone else I came across about the bike. I even walked around holding my sale advert with the picture of the bike in front of me. I was let down by a few people who had offered to help, part of the problem being lots of people being away from city due to Tet, visiting family. There has been lots of comments about the bike being Chinese which now I know is undesirable, I can do nothing about that,  even though I have had no serious probles with it. This morning though there was a oil leak under the bike that I had to get fixed.

I had the saddle thickened, practically doubled to increase comfort in case I end up keeping it. I missed my best offer on the first day of 5 Million VTD, and since then offers have been 2-3 Mil which I have been reluctant to accept. My backup plan is to go to Cambodia with the bike, adventure continues, assuming they will let me through.

Had a drink with the scottish boys last night and we witnessed a fight between some locals, quick, aggressive, not terribly noisy or macho posturing, just aggressive and effective. They seem very docile and calm on the outside but when something happens it really happens. There was risk of bottles being thrown in our direction, sticks, tables were used and threat of scissors! But luckily it ended comparatively without injuries, there were arrests too.

I have preferred Saigon but of course it is probably very quiet due to Tet.

Spent a few hours in a park this afternoon after buying a pair of Jeans and discarding my old ones which were filthy and threadbare. The park was great, people were exercising on machines or walking/jogging as families. There were driftwood and natural stone sculptures as well as mini rock sceneries decorated with bonzi trees making them look like real things.

Walked around barefoot a while which was nice. Everyone wears sandals here but I havent dared do that on the bike which makes my feet very warm and restricted most of the time so it was nice to give then some airing!

I was standing outside the hotel as I have done a few times trying to get some interest in the bike (parked in front with Sale sign, it is brought indoors at night and taken outside in the morning by the staff), I see this sizable rat come out of the sewers opening onto the street in front of the hotel. Its body was easily more than 20cm, it eventually got scared off and ran back into the sewers. There was no major panic or screaming from the people though.