Day 241 - A slow trip back to Saigon

We got up with the intention of going to the bus station and finding a bus back to Saigon, but after a French couple eating breakfast at the same place as us found out a tourist bus was leaving at lunch time right outside the hotel to the place they wanted to go to, so we decided to try our luck and see if it was going back to Saigon. After some bargaining by Adam we had 2 seats on the bus that would drop us almost directly outside our hotel in Saigon where our packs were waiting for us for only a couple of dollars more than it would have cost us on a local bus. Even though we usually prefer taking local buses, the Saigon bus station is so far away from where we're staying at would have taken us 2 bus changes to get close - so we took the easy way out!!

The bus trip was everything you'd expect from a bus trip in Asia. We spent an hour waiting for our bus to break through all the traffic and make the ferry journey across the Mekong, and after hours in the Tet holiday traffic we stopped to pick up more passengers to make the bus packed to capacity, and then after a number of hours on the road only 30km from Saigon our bus lost its gear box so we stood on the side of the road while our driver / mechanic fixed the bus enough to get us back on the road - minus a few gears! This meant we had to take a round-a-bout route into town so he could avoid having to change gears, and running more than a few red lights on the way so we didn't stop!

Back in Saigon we went for Indian with some other travellers we met on the bus who provided us with great company. After dinner Adam joined a group of travelling drinkers sitting outside the hotel. The hotel owner had generously given them a very stong bottle of rice-vodka, which once empty prompted the group to journey down the road to find more wine and beer to drink the night away. One of the cyclo drivers that had taken Aussie Adam and Abbey round town that day stopped to say hello and let us try his banana whisky and in the wee small hours Adam finally retired to bed to get at least some sleep before our 8am bus in the morning to Dalat.

Eventually adlibing it back to Saigon.