Hmmm, I hope this doesn't turn out too negative! It seems like most of my memories are a bit tainted by the bad rather than the good points of VN. Here's the start of the tale in good old bullet point fashion. Perhaps I should leave it there and you can ask me the rest in person! This feels like being 5 years old and sitting politely through yet another set of holiday snaps courtesy of some distant relative.... except it's minus the actual pictures! Ho hum!
Day 1 - Phnom Penh to Chau Doc
- Ghastly smell as a dead dog floats past the boat as we leave the quay in Phnom Penh. In retrospect, this was an appropriately Homeric omen. If only I was the superstitious type I'd have stayed at home.
- Cool racing down the Mekong to the border. Hanging out of the boat window to get the full effect. Fun!
- Border crossing, very obvious transition into Nam. Dingy checkpoint with local kids throwing stones at government buildings, watched by apathetic men with guns. I love the smell of communism in the morning.
- Arrival in Chau Doc. Followed for a while by a tout on a bike trying to get us to stay at his recommended hotel. Ignored him... but learned the lesson. Touts in Nam are like limpets clutching a rock in a storm.
- Ended up staying on the river front. Cheap, mildly nasty. Watched life go by for a while. Wandered around the town square taking in the atmosphere. Had my first bowl of Pho. Mmmm, Pho. This stuff is really really good. 1st positive impression of the country.
Here's a 'pho'to if you wanna see some... Thanks to the random flickr dude.
Day 2 - Chau Doc to Saigon
- Had previously purchased bus tickets to the big city, we waited eagerly for the "air conditioned minibus" to pick us up at the hotel. Along came a beat up old car which we shared with 5 other VNmese. Ah. Then it took us to the bus station where we transfered to a beat up transit with um, air conditioned windows. Hey ho. Still you play the cards you're dealt and we settled down for the 5 hour ride.
- As soon as we hit the main road, all notions of settling down for the ride dissapeared - or rather leapt a foot in the air with every bump we hit. We hit a bump every 5 seconds or so.
- 20 mins into this, a Vietnamese lady is sick. This starts a chain reaction among the rest of the locals. Dave and I look at each other with horror and he turns a pale shade of american.
- 24 mins in. I jam the ipod in my ears... put some tiger balm on my neck to keep the smell away, and stare fixedly out the window. Nice scenery. VN roadside looks similar to cambodian, but is subtly different. Different vegetation etc. I start to enjoy the ride - years spent on boats in the North Sea has somewhat hardened my stomach to this sort of treatment!
- Break for lunch. Pho. Mmmmm. I notice the duck one lady has in a bag is trying to escape. And it's made a terrible mess of the bus floor. If transporting a duck, make sure your bag is watertight. Or your duck is toilet trained.
- Arrival in Saigon. Moto's to the backpacker district. Realistation that the city traffic is about a million times more crazy than in Phnom Penh.
- Find a hotel, eat more Pho. Head out to walk around and see the night life. Saigon deserves its reputation as a melting pot of craziness. Lost count of the number of times we were offered drugs, 'massage'.. etc. I don't think anyone was too bothered about our apparently rigid morality... they had enough business to make walmart look quiet. Not exactly a place to take aunty gladys for an evening stroll but worth experiencing. It's not all bad, we met some friendly travellers, had some banter, and head back to our air-'conned' hotel.
- 1am, the power goes off. Bummer.
Day 3 - Saigon to Dalat
- 7am, power back on. Suspicious.
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