What started out as a 12 kilometer bike ride ballooned into 52 kilometers. Our group (8 adults and 2 kids) decided to head out early (read: 5:30 AM on a Saturday morning — troi oi!) to catch the ferry to Can Gio province. We (at least the girls in our group) thought we’d just cross to Can Gio, bike a little, turn around and head on back to Phu My Hung.

But no. The boys in our group had something else in mind.

So we crossed Nha Be River from the Pha Binh Khanh (port) at Huynh Tan Phat St. This was just a quick 5-minute ferry ride together with all the other motorbikes and cars.

Can you believe it just costs 1,000 VND for each bike?

We got off at Ben Pha port in Can Gio at around 7 am. The port have some vendors and small eateries when you can get a quick breakfast. But since it was still early, we decided to continue our ride.

We biked right into the tip of the Can Gio reservation along Rung Sac road.
It’s hard to believe that Can Gio was once was a victim of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War from 1961-1971 by the British and US Military.

The mangrove forest is immense and like no other I have seen in the Philippines and they’re thriving right beside the road!

I was quite surprised that a bus travels here from Cho Lon. And if you’re in Can Gio already, it would be nice to visit Monkey Island that opens up to the South China Sea but that’s another trip for another day. Thank God!

Rung Sac is a long road of around 36 kilometers that cuts across the Can Gio reservation. We just biked for 12 kilometers until we reached An Thoi Dong road and biked to the port (5 kilometers) that will get us across Nha Be River. Mark had a flat tire but luckily this area of Can Gio has lots of residents already. He found someone who helped fixed his tire.

The ferry costs 3,000 VND for the bike and 3,000 VND for the rider. From there, we covered around 5 kilometers of Liep Ap 2 which was a real rough road.

Can’t imagine biking here during the rainy season — for sure, it’ll be some muddy ride. Our bikes were in it for a ride. Bearings got loose, hubby had to carry his fender and I passed two angry Dobermans chasing down a motorbike. I thank my lucky stars it wasn’t me. With just 5 kilometers, we passed several steep uneven bridges.

We hit Nguyen Van Tao in Nha Be and biked for 16 kilometers to Phu My Hung! Whew!!! By then it was almost 11 am with the sun’s heat beating against our backs and have passed our nth bridge!

Learnings:

Eat breakfast. Leaving at the crack of dawn and at the outskirts of the city, that leaves no place where you can really eat a good meal.

Bring water. Of course you should. My 750 ml lasted me till 24 kilometers. Good thing there was some lady at the corner of Rung Sac and An Thoi Dong roads selling drinks and a place to rest. We all of course refilled our water bottles.

Pee when you can. Boy was I glad that I stopped at the gas station before getting on the ferry. Our group had to pee at some areas of the reserve amidst jumping frogs. Sshhh!!!

Bring energy bars. I wasn’t really anticipating that it was going to be a long trip. Well, lesson learned, whether short or long, bring energy bars anyway.

Wear a face mask. Even if we biked through a non-polluted place, the face mask helps a whole lot from getting too hot.