I saddled up Oscar and off we went for Chùa Bà ở Tây Ninh, Black Lady Mountain in the Tay Ninh Province, about 100 km north of Ho Chi Minh.  I left early on Saturday to beat the heat and traffic.  It took about 2 hrs and 15 mins and I had a refreshment stop.  Signage is almost non-existence so thank god for mobile reception and google maps.

I got directed into the motorbike parking area by a guy on a loud speaker.  On the Black Virgin Mountain are Pagodas (temples) and there are two ways to get there.    Walk or take a gondola up.  I decided to take the gondola up so I could admire the view and also it was already about 35 C.  Yes I know, I have done Ironmans but I am a tourist here:).

The mountain is named after a woman who married a soldier who died so she remained a virgin. I wandered around for about 2 hours, looking at the Pagodas, watching people, drinking and eating.  People asked to take my photo with them and I had my normal amount of people staring at me.  I was the only foreigner there, so it is understandable, oh and I am very beautiful!  The Pagodas are part of the rock  and one was called the Hanging Rock Pagoda.

I love the use of colour here and the detail in the Statues.

To prove I was here I used my selfie stick.  True Asian.

This was my favourite thing of the day, watching this little girl worship and follow her parents.

Now it wouldn’t be a typical day in Vietnam if there wasn’t one there that made you look twice and go… Obviously there are not many emergencies here or you will be protected if one happened as it would be hard to access this emergency exit.

Now there are three ways to get down the mountain, gondola, walking and Luge.  Well, it was pretty obvious which one I was going to take.  Yes the Luge!.  I found the entrance and then thought, this wouldn’t cut it at home as half the population wouldn’t fit between the rails.

I was a little scared at the start but got into it.  They had men posted all the way down telling you to slow down and they blew their whistles.  As expected I heard the whistle a lot!  I have found out that Vietnamese don’t like corners, on the road, if there are corners they slow right down and I end up passing them on my push bike.  So on the luge this was exaggerated.  I would have to stop and let the guy in front of me go.

I decided to take a different way home and went to the lake that feeds the Saigon River.  It was great, saw the local sights and did some off roading.

It must have been harvest time as there were lots of tractors caring cassava.

I made it safely back to Ho Chi Minh, but because it is the rainy season I was caught in the middle of a down pour.  I actually quite enjoyed it.  I drove through massive puddles and if a car or truck passed you got soaked.  I had my full face helmet on so I could keep seeing.  This is one thing I am going to miss when I get home, riding my motorbike because you aren’t going that fast, 50 km/hr so can look around and there are very few road rules, but somehow I feel safe.  Go figure.