I was woken up at about 6AM by somebody knocking on my door. It was Nguyen’s father asking me to come for a coffee with him. Although by the morning my health further deteriorated and my head was spinning I could not refuse the invitation. One of the other friends from yesterday was there to take us both to the coffee shop on his motorbike. So now I can say that I’ve experienced riding on one of the little bikes they use here together with two other people. In my case one of them even had a wooden leg. ;-)

At the coffee shop I was served a tea on my request in an effort to beat the coming cold or whatever it was. Then we went to another street-side open restaurant for breakfast, all of which was still paid for me by the father, as I still didn’t have any local money. Then they took me back and Nguyen arrived about an hour later.

He was planning to take me up the Black Lady Mountain today, which I thanked him for and apologized for not being able to do it today. First of all I was clearly sick by then and all my leg joints hurt. I wouldn’t be able to climb the steep mountain in this condition. Secondly the previous night I decided that I had to go back to Saigon to extend my visa as I could see having my motorbike permit but still not being allowed in due to the fact that by that time I would have (if I get it on Monday which is still a huge IF) only 3 days left on my current Vietnamese visa.

So at least we went to the bank to exchange my traveler’s cheques. I can’t say that I was too surprised anymore when they examined the cheques and told me they couldn’t process them.  At least this time there was another reason for me to go to Ho Chi Minh City.  I needed local some money.

With my very few remaining one-dollar notes I paid for the one night in the guesthouse and in return received the exact amount in Dong that I needed for the bus to Saigon. I packed the few things I carry with me on this struggle in Vietnam and Nguyen took me to a place from where the cheapest bus to Saigon apparently leaves about 4 or 5 times a day. The bus arrived just 10 minutes later and I spent next over two hours on a seat not much more comfortable than the horrible little motorbikes have.

The bus didn’t take me where I hoped it would be going – the centre of the city. Instead, it stopped still on the outskirts of Saigon. I immediately received offers for a motorbike ride of course but I first had to negotiate the price. I had only 3 dollars left and they wanted 5. I insisted on two dollars so at the end we agreed that I would pay 40000 Dong, which is about USD2.50. This ride was also too long for my by illness stressed skeleton to bear without pain.
 
Once in the city centre I finally managed to pick up some local money from an ATM machine as well as change some of my checks for dollars, which I needed for my visa extension, which was to cost USD40. Normally it is only USD25 but it takes seven working days too. That was too long for me. So I tried several different agencies trying to get some more suitable number. There seems to be no express visa extension processing and I think that the “maybe four days for USD40” reply that I mostly got means that the additional 15 bucks goes to some policeman that will push the request personally forward in the queue. When I got back to the agency that seemed sure the most that they could do it in four days (which still meant that I had to spend the weekend here) the girl behind the counter told me that she could actually maybe do 3 days so I could have my passport back on Friday. That sounded great and I happily paid additional USD5 on the top of 40 for that. If I can get back to Tay Ninh during the weekend I would have a chance to do some more sightseeing with Nguyen, he would save me money on food as with him they can’t charge me more than the price for the locals is and I also will be able to be at the police station early in the morning on Monday, leaving me the whole day to sort out the rest (maybe..;-| ). I was assured that if the passport was not ready for me by Friday 6PM then I would get my money for the express surcharge back. That sounds pretty good.

I was planning to go to an Internet coffee shop in the evening but my body temperature raised close to 40C I’d guess and I was shaking in fever. I’m afraid that for the next few days there will be nothing to report as I will be trying to recover from this.