Forget Bungee Jumping

There is nothing like weaving your way through the traffic in Saigon to really get the adrenaline rushing through your body. Crikey, it is scary stuff. And that was when I was in a car. There are a huge amount of motorbikes on the streets here, my driver told me that there are 2 million bikes for the 7 million people. He also said that 'no bike, no girlfriend' which seemed a good enough point. In fact my driver had quite a lot to say about all kinds of things. Starting with Tony Blair.

When I said that I was from England he leaned over and opened the glovebox to show me a picture cut from a newspaper of Tony, Cherie and their baby. Then he flicked open his wallet to reveal another clipping of young Anthony. He told me that his house has many pictures of the Blairs, that Tony Blair is a great man and he was happy to see him re-elected recently. Moving onto other current affairs, he watched the Liverpool victory over AC Milan the other week and was very pleased to see the scousers take the cup home. He is also most impressed with the ball skills of Michael Owen. Unfortunately we ran out of time as we had arrived at the hotel before he could show me any more photos.

I went up to my room, turned on the air con and threw myself on the bed for a thoroughly deserved nap. I slept for a while and then thought that I should go out and explore for a bit. I hadn't reckoned on being too scared to even cross the road. So I did the only sensible thing and retired to a bar to watch the bikes shoot past. One beer gave me enough courage to get back out on the street and not only cross it but walk down it too. Then I got a little foolhardy and engaged the services of a cyclo (bicycle rickshaw) to drive me around the city for an hour.

The cyclo was slow compared to the bikes streaming down every side of us. While there are two sides to the road here in Ho Chi Minh, it would appear that either are pretty good to drive down, depending on your mood and where you are going. My car driver had earlier told me that I could rent a bike and then cheerfully announced that there were many crashes each day. Moments later he was able to point one out to me. I hoped that, sitting duck though I was on the front of the cyclo, I would not be providing the scenery for his next passenger.

In fact, once I got over the initial dread of sitting out there in the middle of the traffic, where it seemed that every other driver had a murderous glint in their eye, it was kinda fun. Thank goodness for the pre-cyclo beer. We rode around and around and I took some photos once I was able to unclench my hands enough to hold a camera. Halfway through the trip, however, the beer began to make itself known in a more unpleasant way and when we got back to the hostel I ran upstairs to my bathroom.

Refusing to be scared once more I ventured out as far as the day trip desk at the front of the hotel and booked a trip for tomorrow. He told me lots of things about the trip along the Mekong Delta but I didn't understand most of what he said. There seemed to be a lot of thing prefixed with the word 'free'. Could be good. Then I asked him to look into a plane ticket to Korea for me and it would seem that it would cost about 700 dollars to get to Korea and back from here. I am still thinking about it.

Meanwhile, I have tomorrow's trip to look forward to- whatever it involves. Plus a big double bed in an air-conditioned room- all for me! I will head out later for some food and some serious scenery watching. While I am fine on my own right now, I can't help feeling that it would be a bit more fun if there was someone else with me. But if I wasn't alone I would be chatting to people rather than telling you guys this- so my loss is your gain.

The photos will come in a couple of days, I am sure, once I have taken enough to do something with them. Until then, you will have to use your imaginations.