Okay, enough with the Robin Williams quotes... So I've made it to Vietnam after a looong 12 hour bus ride from Sihanoukville to Ho Chi Minh. I met a nice Malaysian couple on the bus who teach at a University in China. We had lunch, and they invited me to visit them in China, if I make it there, and offered me a job at their University teaching English, Graphic Design, and business to students there... Guess if all else fails??!
It was dark by the time I arrived in Ho Chi Minh, and within 2 minutes I was overwhelmed by the amount of traffic zooming down the streets and allys. Crossing the street here is like playing a real life game of frogger! I met up with a dutch couple and we found a hotel to drop our stuff off at and hit the street market for some authentic vietnamese food... (honestly, I've had better in Victoria!) Then we went to a travel agent to figure out where to go next... They decided to book some flights to Phu Quoc, which is a small island on the south western side of vietnam, very close to Sihanoukville... I decided to book a flight there too- which in hindsight made me wonder why I had just sat in a bus for 12 hours, only to basically go right back where I started from... HAHAH such is life.
The next morning I caught a taxi to the airport and boarded my plane. Within one hour, I was in paradise. I found a bungalow on the beach and met two identical twin girls from London who I would spend the next few days with. We didn't like the bungalows we were in the first night because the power turned off at 11pm which means NO FAN... which means that in 40 degree weather, you also get NO SLEEP! I got up at 6:30am to find somewhere better to stay. I ended up at a resort called Tropicanna which had a gorgeous 4 star resort next door that I would enjoy an amazing buffet breakfast at every morning for $5. I took the liberty of inviting myself to enjoy their pool all day everyday also. :-)
The next two days went quickly, and I burned through the book A Thousand Splended Suns, which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone wanting to read a good book and bust out a few tears in the process. All of a sudden I woke up and it was my last day on the Island. I booked a ferry back to the mainland with the twins, and decided I had better check out Sao Beach, known for its turquoise water, and white sand beach. I booked a mototaxi and head out...
Little did I know, this is when the day of EPIC failures would begin....
From the back of the motorbike, I decided I would snap a couple shots of the scenery. The first picture worked out alright, but when I took out my camera to take another, it made a funny noise and wouldnt start. bad news. broken camera. Despite smashing it on my fist many times, the problem did not fix itself. BUMMER! Next thing I knew, the driver was stopping the bike and hopped off. He started laughing and pointing at the front tire. I got off and realized he was laughing because the dirt roads we were driving on had punctured his front tire!! BOOURNS! He said, "Ok Ok no problem" and motioned for me to get back on the bike. We spent the next 2km driving (more like bouncing) down the dirt road on the rims until he found a shop that could fix his tire. 15-20 minutes later, we were back on the road to Sao beach. By the time I got there, it was basically time for me to turn around and get going back to the resort so I could catch a taxi to the ferry, so I walked to the beach, collected a bit of sand, and literally spent 37 seconds taking in the view before I had to leave.
The way back was full of more adventure... About 10 minutes into the 40 minute ride home, it began to monsoon all over us! I got SOAKED!!! Not to mention the fact I thought we both might die cause the roads were flooded and nobody else dared drive on them. The driver asked me if I wanted to stop, but I said I couldn't cause I would have missed my ferry if we did... So through the rain we went! He pulled over to put on a poncho after his shirt was completely soaked and as I got off the bike I slipped and burned my left shin on the exhaust pipe! Eventually, we made it back to Tropicana with 5 minutes for me to pack, check out, and hop in the cab- but I made it!
We then caught a ferry, which took almost half an hour longer than it was supposed to, back to the mainland of the Mekong Delta. I was going to head to Can Tho to hit up the floating markets, but since my camera was broken, at the last minute I decided to hop on a minibus with two americans to Ho Chi Minh city so I could repair my camera. (The twins carried on to Cambodia with some french and american travellers they met). There was no time to grab anything to eat or drink, before running to catch the last minibus of the day. We all crawled into the very back of the 17 seater van and were the only 3 caucasian, english speaking people in the vehicle. 4 hours later, we were all so starving we thought we might be sick... The crazy driving and bumpy half paved roads weren't helping matters. Eventually we stopped at a Vietnamese market where we had some Pho soup and bread before getting back on the bus for the rest of the journey. We arrived in HCMC at about 11pm. I had already booked a hotel, and shared a taxi with the americans from the shanty bus stop to District 1 where our hotel was located. When I checked in the air conditioning didn't work, and the room was at least 35 degrees... I asked them to fix it, and after about an hour of the maintenence man fiddling around with it he asked me if I wanted to change rooms. I said I did, and went to the room next door. After moving all of my luggage, and arguing with the front desk clerk to give me the room for $5 cheaper, I realized that the A/C didn't work in that room either. The perfect end to the perfect day. I spent the next 5 hours sweating and going in and out of sleep before I finally got up and moved to another hotel the twins had recommended.
My new hotel is a small guesthouse run by a nice couple. I told the woman that the twins referred me and she gave me a discount, a hug and a kiss! She also offered her husband's services as a motorcycle taxi... He drove me to a place that fixed my camera for only $25 and then took me to the Cu Chi Tunnels. It was a looong drive there and back, about an hour each way, and I'm pretty sure my butt is still vibrating, but it was TOTALLY WORTH IT! The tunnel system was really cool and the guide we had was amazing. I met a really nice couple from New Zealand, and numerous South Korean tourists. It's unbelievable how tiny the tunnels are! Please note the picture I snagged online of someone's photo of the same hole I cralwed into compared to the size of their foot. Good thing I've lost over 10lbs of sweat since I arrived in SE Asia!!
They have made some tunnels bigger to componsate for western tourists, but I crawled into one this one which only juuuust fit the widest part of my ass (these hips don't lie!). The good news was, that after I had lowered myself into the tunnel and taken a few candid shots on my disposible underwater camera left over from Vang Vieng (the koreans took a bunch of photos of me too) I was able to lift myself out of the smaaaall opening without getting stuck. This is more than I can say for the 6'5" Kiwi guy Mark who decided to go in right after me!! He ended up having to crawl underground through the tiny bat and spider infested tunnels until he could find a larger hole to climb out of!!! HHAHAHAHA better him than me- he actualy enjoyed it. I would have sharted myself and then choaked to death on my own toxic fumes, only to be rescued by our Ex Viet Kong guide.Now I am sitting in a nice cafe called Sozo that employs street people who have disadvantages like hearing impairments, amputations etc. The internet here is free! bonus!!
I think that's all for now, I'm going to try and navigate through the crazy allyways to get back to my hotel and sort out my laundry situation. Then I need to go talk to a travel agent about getting the heck outta herrrr tomorrow afternoon to head north. Since it is about to get dark, I think I should get moving... Chao!!!
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