…and the battle has been lost. Yes, unfortunately I have to go back to Cambodia as I didn’t get the permission for my bike to enter Vietnam.

The meeting today was just a formality and I never had a chance to get my permission. The whole day started ill-fated. I was supposed meet the guy who would interpret for me today in his tourist office. I was there on time, however he was not. After his female colleague tried contacting him continually for 20 minutes he called he would be there in another about 5 minutes. Another 25 minutes later and he never showed up. At that point I was already very late for the meeting. I mean it wasn’t a meeting as such where one would have to be exactly on time. It was more like they told me that the best time to come would be at 8 AM, but still, I like to be on time. Anyway, I was off, looking for somebody else who could help me on short notice. I found a guy half an hour later and we were arriving at the police headquarters at 9AM. There it was a wait for somebody to come. When a young officer arrived and told me that I can’t take my bike in I replied that I knew that but that I was supposed to meet the chief today to talk about it. It took some insisting before he arranged for the chief and the person with my folder that I met yesterday to come down.

What these two told me was however only a repeat of what everybody else before them told me already, only this time it was coming from the highest authority I could meet in this city. They also showed me some books of regulations issued by the minister. The regulation about the ban of any bikes over 175cc has been actually issued already back in 1993! I’m writing this few days later and so now I know (from Phillippe – a Belgian guy who has been traveling on his motorbike for 7 years already) that it was only thanks to the ignorance of officers at the Laos – Vietnam border that many people on motorbikes got through to Vietnam before 2002. In 2002 apparently there was a couple of German riders who were not permitted to enter in Moc Bai (that is where I tried and where they reportedly never let anybody through) after which they flew to Hanoi and complained as to how it was possible that the Vietnamese were letting people on motorbikes through one border but not the other. That is how the minister learned that there is a border that was letting people through and made a firm end to that practice. Phillippe visited Vietnam on his bike a few times through the Laos-Vietnam border before 2002 and had a great time. Shame that the two Germans did what they did… L

So this was why I spent additional one day in Saigon!? Well, I can’t say I didn’t expect it. At least the interpreter I found in the morning wanted only USD 5 for his services in the morning. He wasn’t too good either. In this case I would gladly paid twice as much for the guy I was waiting for in the morning, as his English was really very good. And he was a very likable guy as well. He actually caught me on the street that day afternoon and apologized for not showing up. He apparently needed to get across the river and the ferry broke down.

I spent the rest of the day in an internet café trying to update all the pictures I uploaded so far (almost 500!) with dates so that the new album feature offers you the correct groups of date related pictures when you click on a picture within an article.