I was still sick on Friday although my cough got a little better. I picked up my visa in the evening, which means that they kept their promise to get it for me in 3 days in Sinh Cafe travel office. 

I did see a couple of sights in Saigon - the Nottredam Cathedral designed by Mr. Eifel and the central post office that is just accross the street, which was actually the reason I was there for.

I was planning to go back Tay Ninh on Saturday morning so that I was able to spend some more time with Nguyen. I didn’t feel fit enough to travel anywhere though and so I stayed one more day.

Today I got up early in the morning to actually find out what time might some of the travel agencies around be going to Tay Ninh today. I first asked in Sinh Cafe again, not only because I already did business with them but also because they are just across the street. The price was USD4, which I already knew, but I was hoping to get to half of that or at least USD3 as I was only going one way. The USD4 is for a full day tour to Tai Ninh and the Cu Chi tunnels in Cu Chi province. As they didn’t offer any discount for me I tried a few more agencies – all with the same result. So I went back to Sinh Café Office and bought the tour. In 40 minutes I was waiting in front of the office for the bus departing at 8AM.

I have to say that to me the Sinh Café Office (or Sinh Office) seems to offer the best services of all the travel agencies around. Admittedly my comparison portfolio is not huge but I’ve traveled with one other office back to the border and I have eyes that I’ve been using during the more than a week that I’ve stayed on this street in total. The other office’s bus was small and uncomfortable, you get a hand written ticket and there are no people that would keep things organized in the morning when the bus arrives (well, with such a small amount of customers there is no need to I guess…). On the other hand, you get a computer printed ticket on a letterhead paper, the busses are big and air-conditioned and they have sings with their destination in front and on the side. There are also people that keep things organized and who make sure that you know what to do and where you go. Also the tour guide was much better and actually quite funny. And the fact that I was going one way for full price? Well, I can catch a ride back any time for free if I’ll need or want to. I’m not sure if the others would offer the same deal. Also the fact that they were the only ones that were confident on 4 day visa extension and in fact at the end of the day offered 3 days and kept their promise tells you something. I can only recommend these guys.

When I got to Tay Ninh I called Nguyen and he was there within 20 minutes. He took me to a new guesthouse and after having lunch together (which was on me this time as I finally had some money) we set off to the foot of Black Lady Mountain in the middle of which was supposed to be a very interesting temple. In fact one of the brochures I used when preparing this trip said, I cite: “You have to see it to believe it”. It was mainly for this comment that I decided to go there even though it was only yesterday when I still had problems to climb mere 3 flights of stairs to my guesthouse room. I am still recognizably sick today but that comment made me try to get there.

The Black Lady Mountain might not seem like it, but it is apparently 1km high from its foot. I mean it is big, rising steeply from otherwise totally flat landscape, but I wouldn’t have guessed it is 1000 meters. Fortunately the temple is supposed to be somewhere in the middle, which means “only” about 500 vertical meters. Although this number is still not too encouraging for someone as sick as me, this damned comment in a travel brochure made me do it.

After going constantly up stairs and rocks for about 20 or 30 minutes my body, namely my heart, have had enough. Normally the first part of my body that gets sore and tired while ascending a major hill or mountain is my thighs. They need lots of oxygen so by the time this happens I might be breathing heavily too. Well this time I couldn’t even feel any pain in my thighs yet and my breathing was basically normal (if I count in the cough too), but my heart was racing. It was beating so fast that I could actually feel the blood being pumped in most parts of my body and it felt like every second the hard was going to break free through my chest and just run away. When we…. No, when I was resting for about 10 minutes already I asked Nguyen, who was patiently waiting for me, how much higher it was. He said that we were actually almost there. That was some great news of the day. However, still, those only about 100 last steps almost killed me. I was crawling along the handrail and almost hanging over it like an 80 year old seriously ill heavy smoker.

When I finally brought myself up by some miracle there it was – the temple that you have to see with your own eyes to believe it… Well, at least that is some sick travel brochure writer’s opinion. Don’t take me wrong, the temple is very nice, well, you might easily say beautiful, but to describe it by the above words sets your expectations too high and you end up more or less disappointed instead of really enjoying it. I mean it would be enough for the brochure to say that the temple is very pretty, or they could even use the word “beautiful”. Then you would get there and confirm: “Yes, this temple is beautiful and I saw it and am happy about it.” With what the sicko writer prepared me for you say: “Is that it? The exceptional temple I won’t see any similar of anywhere else in the world? The wonder of the world?!”  And if you get there with such an extreme effort for which you expect similarly extreme reward you really start to wonder if it was worth it and whether you should have done it in the first place. I wouldn’t in my current condition if I wasn’t so majorly misled by the unfortunate description of the temple.
Please don’t let me lead in in the wrong direction here. I do agree that the temple IS very nice and worth seeing if you are healthy and willing to sweat about 2 liters of water in the process or if you don’t mind spending 40 000 Dong for a cable car that will take you there. My budget, especially with all those unexpected expenses in the past two weeks, doesn’t allow me to do that. I’m sure however that most budgets will. You can even take a sled down if you are game. I think that if you want to do something for your body and then have bit of fun the “walk up – slide down” combination offers most rewards. I think that the slide was about 25 000 Dong.

While we were up there we actually climbed a few (actually quite a few) other steps to get to another part of this temple and further even to quite newly opened caves and grottoes that served as a base for Vietcong during the Vietnam War. This part of the mountain was apparently closed for a long time after the war ended.

At the end of the day I was happy I had it behind me, but also happy that I saw the temple and climbed half of the mountain that starts the mountain range that goes along the whole Vietnam to its north. Rest and some Internet time followed.
Tomorrow I should receive some result on whether or not my bike will be allowed to enter Vietnam with me. Could tomorrow be a lucky day?