I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday afternoon, and didn’t fly out again until Thursday, it seemed like an extravagant amount of time in which to get ready. But, getting a bike box was a priority, and with the ongoing Tet celebrations, the predominance of closed shops was a concern. I considered cycling around the city checking out the various bike shops, but I decided I was ‘aff’ bikes for the time being. Besides, after 3 weeks cycling, it was now a struggle to walk up stairs, I should probably go on foot. After checking for bike shops on Google Maps, the first I tried was 2 km to the north, no luck, I couldn’t locate the shop, if the map was right, it was closed.

Then I spotted two close together 2 km to the south of the hotel, so back I went. The first one was closed, but the second, Saigon Bikes was open. Not only that, but the owner addressed me in English and I could see some bike boxes hiding behind a well-stocked cabinet of shimano bike parts. With a huge sense of relief, I tucked the folded up box under my arm and wandered back to the hotel.

I packed up the bike, outside the hotel, on the Wednesday morning, and was baffled by a lady who grabbed the box, chucked my empty water bottles in it and started to walk off with it. ‘Hey I need that!’

In the afternoon, I made a belated attempt at conventional tourism by heading to the ‘War Remnants Museum’ an utterly harrowing experience in which the Vietnamese have showcased the horrors to which they were subjected by the American military. The accounts of entire villages being completely ransacked were appalling, with the elderly, women, children and animals all slaughtered, buildings – such as they were – torched, and chemicals poured over the landscape to destroy crops and vegetation.

One thing that stood out above all else were the words of North Vietnamese President, Ho Chi Minh, whose name adorned the road I had been travelling for the past 3 weeks.

I was glad I went to the Museum, but also glad I went at the end of the trip. For a country which has undergone such trauma in the not too distant past, the scars seem to have healed remarkably well, and the country I travelled through is a testament to the unbreakable nature of the Vietnamese people. The welcome I received, up and down the country, was wonderful.

On my last evening in Vietnam, I decided to have a special meal to commemorate my successful adventure. Opting for the local delicacy of Australian Black Angus Fillet Steak, maybe there is a limit to the number of bowls of Pho I can endure in one month…

All was set, all I needed to do now was make it to the airport for my 13:55 flight to Hanoi. From there I would fly out to Doha at 18:20 and onwards to Edinburgh. ‘Sorry sir, your flight has been delayed to 6:20 PM’ were the unwelcome words from the Jetstar Pacific check-in desk. When I protested that I had another onward flight from Hanoi at exactly that time, I was told to go to their information desk, and from then on it was all systems go. I had to retrieve my bike from baggage control, before returning it to them again – as it was also outsized baggage. By that time, the staff had transferred me onto an earlier, Vietnam Airlines, flight, and running to the gate, I made final boarding.

Back in Hanoi there was a brief interlude between flights while I talked to a Frenchman, Auguste, as I waited for the interterminal bus. He was backpacking around the world and had been to Capo Verde, Martinique, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia and South Korea amongst other places and was heading on to New Delhi, India. He’d been travelling for 13 months already.

My second check-in process ground to a halt as the girl at the desk checked the Baggage Allowance information for British Airways, whom I’d booked my Qatar Airways flight through. The BA allowance was 23 kg, the bike box was 25 kg, if it was a BA flight I knew they’d let me through. As it was, I was sure I’d read that the baggage allowance for the flight should be the Qatar Airways allowance of 30 kg – as they were operating the flight. Having been moved out of the queue, I wasn’t flying anywhere until I found the link on the BA app that stated that for Qatar Airways flights, their conditions applied, my bike was under the limit.

On the flight to Doha I chatted to the passenger next to me, a London-based Luxembourger named Adrien, who was delighting in the freedom afforded to him by solo travel. During his 2 and a half week trip to Vietnam, he’d received an invite to celebrate the Lunar New Year with a friend in Taiwan, and had absolutely loved it, ending up there for a week. I considered how much freedom I’d had on my trip, as I slavishly ticked off places I’d preordained whilst still at home. But, pushing hard to achieve my targets early on had allowed me the opportunity to take things easier during the middle of the journey, enjoying spending time with some of the people I’d met along the away, and ultimately, it was the people that made a trip like this worth doing. The stunning landscapes and fascinating culture were just a bonus.

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