Hello Moto

Last month we learned that there are 5,000,000 motorbikes in Ho Chi Minh City.  As of Tuesday, there are 5,000,001.  We decided to join the masses and to get a scooter to cruise around this city.  So far, Adam has been doing all the driving and Heidi has been doing all the sign reading, merge okaying, and hand signal giving.  It has been a quick learning curve, but so far we really enjoy the freedom that having access to a moped allows us.

This week we also joined a gang -- a bike gang, that is.  Our friends also have bikes and so yesterday we decided to ride in-mass to some waterfalls that are located outside of the city.  According to GoogleMaps, the falls were only 45 km away and should take one hour to get to.  GoogleMaps obviously needs to recheck their Vietnam routes because the falls ended up being about 65 km and 1.5 hours away.  Our bike gang had to cruise down a major highway, on the shoulder with the other bikes,  while being pummeled by the semi exhaust and fumes.  Man were we happy when we finally saw the signs for our destination.

The waterfalls are in a huge park in the Vietnamese countryside.  On the website for these falls, we were promised access to a lazy river, sports courts, kayaking, canoeing, sail boats, picnic areas, ostrich riding, train rides, tandem bicycles, and a funny farm (still trying to figure out what that is!!).  Upon arrival, we realized that the description of the place was about as accurate as GoogleMaps had been.  The grounds were lovely and there was sure a river and a nice pond.  However, the calm, crystal blue water that was depicted in the photos turned out to be a raging, dirt brown river and falls. 

A picture honoring the natives of .... um .....

Our bike gang standing by the "crystal blue river" and the sign which tells us the current is too strong for swimming.

The "peaceful and tranquil falls" which people can sit under and enjoy a "warm spray."

Relaxing in our swimming hole.

Our ride.  We have named her Flowanda.

We did not let that deter us from enjoying our time in the calm, quiet, country.  Rather, like the good folk we are, we quickly got down to business drinking cheap beer while cooling off in the "soaking" section of the river.  We had a wonderful day just relaxing in the water, enjoying a good meal, and planning our next trip back to camp for the weekend (oh yes, we forgot to mention the three camping options -- #1 was a traditional tent with cots on a raised platform, #2 was an A-frame tarp with a tarp on the dirt ground, and #3 were hammocks hanging between the trees).

Today, our bodies are paying for spending 5+ hours on a moped (the ride home took nearly 3 hours with traffic).  We have decided that from now on, any trip outside of the city will be spent in luxury (aka, the bus)!