It is a short ride from Nha Trang to Da Lat and a beautiful one. I spent a few hours driving through the mountains and had a welcome respite from the heat. Da Lat is a slowly crumbling French mountain town that just happens to be in Vietnam. I am told much of it resembles Paris. But since I have not been to Paris, I could not say. I stayed in Da Lat for two nights, which was pretty chill. I took a walk around the lake and went to the Flower Gardens. De Lat is famous for its flowers, which it exports worldwide. It has a climate similar to Napa, so they grow grapes and make wine. Sadly I did not try the wine.

After I got out of the mountains and was headed for Saigon, the towns started to meld together, and soon the road turned into one long town with no green space. I started early, as it was a long riding day, and arrived in Saigon at my hostel in the middle of the afternoon. Thanks to the help of my trusty GPS app, I did not get lost once! I’d been to Saigon for a few days in 2009, but I was a tourist and only saw a small part of the city.

On the drive-in, I started losing my cool with the other folks on the road. My “irritation with other drivers” meter was in the red! I had considered selling my bike in Saigon and taking the bus through Cambodia. Getting highly irritated was the like seeing a neon light saying, “sell!” I can not drive safely once I start getting too irritated. I start taking chances, going too fast, and I become a road hazard, which is challenging in Vietnam.

The next day I wrote my for-sale ad and posted it on various online classified sites including Craigslist. And I waited. And waited some more. Five days later, the only responses I received were from people who could not read my clearly written ad and thought I was in Hanoi. I started getting nervous. Should I lower the price? Should I try to find a charity to give away my expensive toy to? Should I stop thinking about how much money I’ll lose if I don’t sell the bike and have ice cream? Yes! And what an ice cream it was. There’s a french ice cream shop in Saigon that turns ice cream into art.

On the 6th day, I got a bite, and another, and a third! An American Expat was going to come by after work, and then a French guy wanted to come by earlier. I let the American guy know he’d have to get here sooner if we wanted a shot. The American called first, after all. The French guy showed up, gave the bike a once over, took it for a ride, and said he wanted to buy it, but that he had to go get the money. I said yes. Then the American showed up with cash. I took his cash and called the French guy and gave him the bad news. Since I did not ride as long as I had planned, I ended up paying about what I would have for a rental after I took a loss selling the bike. Maybe I could have got more, but a week in Saigon was enough.

I did have some good times in Saigon. I made a Vietnamese friend in Hanoi, and she lives in Saigon. We spent a Saturday afternoon together, eating, riding around on her scooter, and had a nice walk. When we met, she was interviewing with the Italian embassy for a visa, which they granted her. After we hung out, she had to go out of town on business and then flew to Italy. Yen, I hope you had a great time in Italy, if you are still reading my blog, drop me an email, I only have your mobile number.

The night I sold my bike, I went out and celebrated. An Argentine steak house serves steak from Australia and the US. So I dropped about 1.5 million dong ($70) on dinner and drinks. I sat at the bar and hit it off with the bartenders. After I ordered my first drink, they started making me custom drinks, and after dinner, they poured me shots of homemade caramel vodka on the house. It was the first time I had steak in months. I decided to do one touristy thing, and on my last day, I went to the former US embassy. It was a neat building. It’s easy to forget that Vietnam is a communist country, then sometimes you remember.

Seven weeks is the longest I’ve spent in one country outside the US, with the exception of Italy, when I was teaching and taking classes there in the late ’90s. It was great to see a country from top to bottom and go places most westerners will never see. I love traveling off the beaten trail, and on this trip, there were times when I was off the trail altogether. Vietnam, specifically Saigon, is a place I could live.