alila chiang mai neighbour flowers
At last, it's a reality, i have passed all the obstacles in my way and completed my trip. I'm in Saigon now, ready to go home !
I left, as i had said, on my little boat but it turns out i didn't keep it very long as it was incredibly boring. It's not that i didn't like to navigate on water, but at this point the Mekong river is very wide and big boats pass all the time in all directions and i felt as if i was on a huge highway and going at the speed of a hiker... I could see a little road very close to the river bank and i was very tempted, as it seemed much more enjoyable, so after completing just 1/4th of the distance to Can Tho, i couldn't resist anymore so i stopped in a village and sold my boat to a very nice school teacher. The whole village was interested in seeing this strange foreigner selling a boat and just before i got back on my way we made a big group photo at the end (Vietnamese love to be photographed).
On some future trip, i would really like to travel on a small boat.
The road was indeed enjoyable and i cycled as far as i could until night time, feeling the proximity of the end of my trip. It would be my last night on the road before i reached Saigon and for that reason i wanted to camp somewhere, but the Mekong delta area is overpopulated and ressembles a neverending village, there's never more than a few meters between 2 houses so i couldn't find a single place and had to stay at a hotel...
On the next day, i was determined to reach Saigon in the evening and cycled at least 180km, stopping only in the morning to buy some bread (the only meal of the day) and a few other times throughout the day for some water.
Saigon is a crazy city in terms of traffic. It is filled with motorbikes that go as an unchained river through the streets, flowing around any obstacle that comes in it's way. Being on a bicycle in the middle of that is not the funnest thing in the world and i had a few very close calls last night, when i spent 2 hours searching for a hotel at a reasonable price...
Vietnam is a nice country, but quite touristic and the people are more money oriented than in other places i've been to (sometimes, some stranger, not even a bum, just comes to me and shows me his empty hand, expecting that i'll put some money in it, for no reason) and i heard it's worse in the north.
I did not see so much of Vietnam, but it didn't arouse my interest like Cambodia had. I realise that i'm always expecting to discover places like they must have been not so long ago, before mass tourism kicked in, and of course i'm often disappointed. Many times, i found myself trying to pass as fast as possible through an area or country (especially in Laos) as i would find no interest in it.
I think that on future trips, i'll try to stay away from such places and i'll visit more remote ones with sometimes other means than my bicycle. I'd like to venture where there is no road, for a change.
I'm happy to be coming home (arriving in Paris on the 22nd of March) because i can get back to my parkour training and projects, but a part of me wants to keep on travelling. If it wasn't for Parkour, i'm quite sure i would have made the trip back home on the bike.
I wish to thank will all my heart the many people who have supported me on this trip, i owe a lot to you all...
I'll post some photos of the trip when i'll be in France, along with a few comments.
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