The final leg of our long trip – trekking in Chiang Mai. Sarah and I had booked this trek (2 days, 1 night) a few days before we went and boy was that lucky. When we got there, the hostel we had booked through was FULL! That was the first full hostel we had encountered in Asia (the one in Hanoi was close to it, but not quite). We were staying at Julie Guest House and booked our trek through them and their travel agency on location. We left the next morning (Monday morning) at 9:30. They gave us a list of things we should bring and even lent Sarah a small backpack for the trek. We headed out in search of an internet café because Sarah and I thought we were suppose to do our quiz that afternoon but that turned out to not be the case. Our teacher had decided we should take the quiz after everyone else, not before. I don’t know if we were confused on the dates or what but we weren’t suppose to take the quiz that night. But, since that would be our last internet access until we got back to Little Rock, we checked in with our family and friends and then headed for the Sunday market. Well we had just gotten to buy a pair of really neat handmade wooden earrings when it started pouring. Sadly we didn’t get to see the rest of the market. Good thing too because sometime around now I realize that I don’t have my credit card. I brought two to Asia, one with most of my money and then the other one. The one with most of my money was gone. MIA. No clue where it was. I checked everywhere but I didn’t have it. Many things had gone missing in Ko Chang, we added it to the list of casualties. I ran back to the internet café and caught it as it was closing. I got a hold of my mother, via my sister and a complicated phone/internet combo and managed to get her to cancel the card for me and there hadn’t been any fraudulent charges and so they ordered me a new one right away. Phew, disaster averted. Only problem was I had basically no money left because the card I had with me had about 100 bucks left on it. I quickly transferred money to that account but of course that takes 3 days. I had mom see if they could rush it and they said they would try (turned out it only took about 2 days so that was nice). All I had to pay for was the trek, the hostel, and the airport taxes and fees, oh and one or two meals, but still, I was a little worried.
Monday morning arrives and we hurry downstairs, check out, leave our luggage with the hostel and bring a small backpack with us for this adventure. A pickup truck arrives to carry the 13 of us, our guide, and our driver up to the mountains. 3 of us (me and two of the 3 Irish sisters along on the trip) squeeze in the front of the truck and the rest sit in the back of the pickup which has been turned into two long covered benches. We stopped along the way at a market so we could buy water and snacks. I got some of the most glorious food Asia has to offer that Nicky introduced me to: Coconut covered peanuts. I eat them by the bags. They are awesome. Dude, miss them already. Our guide bought fried bugs. Well, back in the front of the truck, one of the Irish girls turns to me and says “would you try a bug with me?”. Now, we aren’t sure whether theses are roaches, crickets or some nondescript Asia bug, but our guide it popping them in his mouth like we would eat popcorn at a movie. So, I agree to it. She and I each eat a bug. Yes, I have pictures. We both chomped it about 2 times and then swallowed it and chugged water from our Nalgenes. The bug was about the size of my pinky finger. It was crunchy and weird texture but not the worst thing I have ever eaten. It is probably better than ham and I know it is better than snake wine!
Finally we stop the truck and we have arrived at the elephant riding part of the trek. Hell of a way to start, right? Well, being an odd number of 13, one elephant must have 4 girls which means that one must ride directly on the elephant while the other 12 ride on the basket type thing on top of the elephant. Now one would think that I would jump to volunteer to be that one girl, and I would have had I been paying attention, but the oldest Irish sister beat me to it. Luckily though, she was on my elephant with me. Now we rode these beautiful elephants all through the jungle while they chomped off tree branches, showered us with snot and water and swatted away millions of bugs. About half way through the Irish sister got tired of being on the elephant and asked someone to switch with her. I was wide awake this time and jumped at the opportunity. I got to ride DIRECTLY on the elephants back. Now I haven’t ever ridden a horse bareback but now I can officially say I have ridden an elephant bareback. Again, yes I promise there are pictures. Beautiful scenery, awesome elephant adventure.
After the elephants we did lunch, which was some homemade Thai rice dish, we drove another 30-45 minutes into the jungle and then we got out and were told to start walking. And walk we did, for 2.5 hours, straight up a mountain. So much sweat, so many bugs, so so awesome. We walked past waterfalls (small ones we were told compared to tomorrows) and we walked with elephants at one point. We learned about some random plants that grow including one that blows bubbles and one that fakes it’s dead if you touch it. The jungle rocks! This whole time we are carrying all 2 liters of water we were told to buy and everything else we brought (thank God I packed light!). Anyway, we did make it to the tribal villages on the top of the mountain eventually and it was well worth it. The last bit of the hike was kind of trippy – it was through a corn field, yes a corn field (I checked what grew under the stalks) and that made for many a “children of the corn” references. But, what a view from the top!
Now, just a word of caution, these tribal village stays aren’t really what they sound like. I pictured some homestay with a traditional tribal family that spoke no English. That isn’t quite the case. That isn’t to say that the experience isn’t completely lovely, because it is very cool, but it isn’t quite the authentic view of tribal life they paint for you. What actually happens is your hike up through the village to the outskirts where a number of bamboo huts that are very thin and long have been built. Inside these long huts are a center room which has a fire and can serve as a camp fire location, dining room, and optional opium den – yes, keep in mind you are in the golden triangle. Attached to this center room is a kitchen, which you never enter, a cooler which houses the beer, water, and sodas they charge you for (NO drinks are included in your trekking price but all food is). To the other side is a giant sleeping area with about 14 beds and each pair is under a large, old, mosquito net. These beds are really mats with sheets and woolish blankets. But hey, it’s all part of the experience. Notice that I haven’t mentioned a bathroom? That is because it is downstairs and in an outhouse style. There are two pit toilets and two bucket showers / faucets for the group. Nothing warm about any of this water but hey, you just hike 5 miles up a mountain so you don’t mind the cooler water. Oh, also, when they tell you to bring long sleeved stuff for the night, they aren’t lying. It gets cool outside on top of that mountain at night. Also, flashlights are essential. Headlights are even better. They ONLY have candles up here, electricity hasn’t quite made it. The lack of electricity means that you can see for MILES and that it is really dark and silent at night. It is truly a superb view. Lovely, just lovely. Oh, last thing to mention. DEET is a blessing. Both Sarah and I, being public health nerds, were constantly covered in DEET. Immediately after my shower I smothered myself with more DEET cream. The smell of sweat, sunscreen, and DEET and the fact that when it all combines it forms a greasy coat on your skin – that grows on you eventually. But hey, I didn’t get one mosquito bite that evening and most everyone else did!
In the morning we woke up much earlier than we thought, basically soon after sunrise. The top of the mountain where we were sleeping was covered in fog. It was cool and beautiful and muggy and awesome. We ate American breakfast of white bread, hard boiled egg and pineapple jelly. One piece of toast and an attempt at eating a hard boiled egg later I was eating those beautiful coconut peanuts and chugging the tea I had brought. The green tea up in that area is also different. It is very bitter. This is true of most all of the green tea I had in SE Asia. Also, it is loose tea and not strained. But, I really liked it, many did not though. The coffee was all instant though so tea was a better call in my opinion.
After breakfast we were given 30 minutes to pack, get ready, and meet to walk down the 5 miles we walked up before. Now, we took a different way down, a steeper (which we didn’t think was possible) was down. Honestly a number of us fell and all of us had loose feet at some point. We were forging rivers and using trees as a source of balance and all that great natural stuff. Finally, we got to the giant waterfall for most all of us stripped down to our bathing suits and got in – we were hot, greasy from the DEET-sunscreen-sweat combo and ready to feel clean. The waterfall was much stronger than you thought it was by looking at it and basically it tried to steal your clothes off you. Naughty waterfall.
After the 30 minute break at the falls, we walked along the river bed for about an hour until we reached a road and the river fed into a giant river. Now it was time for lunch and then rafting. At lunch, we were surrounded by chickens, roosters, and baby chicks – we fed them our pad thai (which has eggs!) – bad job us! I was careful to pick out the egg and only feed them the tofu and noodles. The big ones would steal food from the babies so we all tried to make sure to feed them when they were alone. During lunch it started to rain, not that we cared since we were about to get wet white water rafting. We all got on our neon orange life vest and matching helmets and got into our rafts. We couldn’t wear long pants (shorts or just your bathing suit) and NO shoes allowed during this rafting adventure. Our guide began to loving call the boat of 6 females he got “lady boys” aka whimps in his vocabulary. Sarah and I were in front basically power steering the thing. It started off rather slow but it got really fun once we got stuck a few times and had to throw ourselves from one side of the boat to the other and then we hit some GIANT rapids and that was pretty great as well. At one point, the guide tells us to strip off the life jackets and helmets and leave them in the boat, get out of the boat, and walk/swim over to these giant bamboo rafts. Now these bamboo rafts are nothing more than long pieces of bamboo held together by shredded tires (what is it with shredded tires and me this trip?). Somehow these things stay semi-afloat with 5 people sitting on them balancing in the middle. One person, and I went first at this, stands up and with another piece of bamboo tries to guide the boat. Many of us took turns doing this. At one point the bamboo raft was sinking so far, and it was pouring out so much that a number of us abandoned ship and just started swimming next to it.
After these two rafting adventures Sarah and I notice the time and realize we have about 2 hours to get back to the hostel and get to the airport to make our plane. The rest of the group is still taking their time looking at pictures and changing clothes and whatnot. Sarah and I grab our stuff and wait impatiently until the rest of the people join us. We have a smaller truck bed and only one person sits in front this time (not me) and we drive straight back to the hostel (one stop to drop two French girls at their hostel) and Sarah and I run, seriously RUN, to our hostel and grab our stuff (much to the dismay of the people who own the hostel who try to yell at us to slow down) and run back to the main road (the hostel is down an alley) and try desperately to grab a ride to the airport. We snag a tuk-tuk (moto bike with some seats attached) who crams our luggage onto the back, we jump on top of it and yell airport as fast as you can. He understands, breaks many a traffic laws and gets us there in about 7 minutes. We over tip him generously and check out watches to see we have about 25 minutes til our flight leaves. Thank God Chiang Mai is a tiny airport, that is all I can say. We did make the flight, barely, but we made it. And thank God because we had to be at the Bangkok airport at 6am the next morning and we would never have made it back from Chiang Mai if we had missed that flight (the last of the evening). Now, Sarah and I haven’t showered or changed since rafting. I want you to keep that in mind when you picture this airport seen. Sarah is in boxers and a sleeveless shirt. I am in the pants I wore trekking for two days and a black tank top that has giant white streaks from the DEET and sunscreen and has also been worn for 2 days now. We look HOT!
We met Nicky at the skytrain stop nearest her apartment, which was Nana just like the Ambassador hotel had been. We got showered, changed, found food and passed out. 4 hours later we got up and headed to the Bangkok airport to head home. We got to the airport really early. We found food and ate a huge breakfast – trying to spend all our left over baht in the process. We got on the plane to Tokyo (6-7 hour flight) where we get bulkhead seats but it is still really uncomfortable. I pass out for about 4.5-5 hours of the flight and we land in Tokyo where we have a short layover that is complicated by our having to get our tickets reissued for some reason. I pay 6 dollars for a smoothie (which I didn’t know at the time) and I eat a green tea kit kat – which was strange. Sarah and I make our flight back to Dallas and I am awake the entire 13 hour flight. I watched 5 movies. In Dallas we once again RUN to catch our plane to Little Rock but this time, we make it. We are home at last!! I was already missing those coconut peanuts and that beautiful scenery…..
Friday, July 18, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Koh Chang
I don't know whether this is spelled Koh Chang or Ko Chang - I see it both ways. So, whichever you prefer, I am talking about the same "elephant island" off the coast of Thailand near Trat, which is in the south near to Cambodian border.
We arrive at Koh Chang the cheap way and the hard way. Sarah, Nicky, and I took a bus from Bangkok's Eastern bus terminal to Trat. That was yet another 6 hour bus ride. Apparently everything in SE Asia ia about a 6 hour bus ride apart. Just keep that in mind. Oh, and this bus to Trat thought it would be really cute if it NEVER stopped long enough for anyone to get out and go to the bathroom. Now prior to getting on the bus we had stopped for waters and beers (it was forth of July that day and we figured we could celebrate). Nicky had also purchased and drank a coffee before getting on the bus. Well about 4 hours in we all seriously had to pee but Nicky, having drank that coffee, was especially miserable. When we got to a bigger city along the way to stop at that bus terminal Nicky had to run out and I made sure the bus man didn't leave her. Now, this bus was soooooo crowded that some people were standing in the aisles. That's right, standing in the aisles on a 6 hour bus ride. Anyway, somehow we arrived at Trat, bought some candy - since it's about 7pm and we haven't had dinner or lunch due to the crunched travel times. We got in the glorified back of a pick up truck - which is what taxis are in this part of Thailand and were driven, along with a cute little German family and some other wayward travelers, to the Trat - Koh Chang ferry pier. Then, we got on a 45 minute ferry ride to the island and drank those celebratory beers. Then, when we got off the ferry this pick up truck style taxi drove us an hour to another side of the island - there is ONE road on Koh Chang - and we finally arrived circa 8:30-9pm.
Well, we immediately got taken to our bungalow, which was not exactly what they had described and was 100 baht more expensive, put out stuff down, and went in search of food and celebrations (it's still forth of July afterall). We end up eating dinner and drinking some seriously interesting Mai Tais from the place we are renting the bungalows. Then, we met some other travelers who convinced us to go basically bar hopping down the 4 bar strip near us. Well somehow during that process we met another group of travelers - that included two Aussie brothers (Charlie and ummmm, cannot remember), a girl from Holland, and some other random Europeans. They took us to this awesome bar that was on a deck over the ocean and had these crazy giant colored lights and whatnot. There, we got a table on the edge of the deck so that we were leaning far over the ocean, we drank lots of good juices, vodkas, and beers and hung out with our new friends for hours. We found our way home, not an easy task in the pitch black dark of a new island, and slept from about 3am to 7am.
The next day Nicky and I woke up early, found the nearest beach access while still in our pjs - if you saw the bungalow set up you would know why - and then came back to get dressed and go find breakfast. On the way out of the bungalow area one of the owners pet monkey's tried to steal the glasses off my face. Mean monkey! But he was so cute and fuzzy! Sarah opted out of the Asian breakfast that morning and Nicky and I found an open Thai restaurant - now by restaurant I really mean a persons home that has plastic furniture outside and she feeds us out of her kitchen. So, Nicky and I had frozen, that's right like actually blended in a blender frozen, coconut and pineapple fruit smoothies, green curry Thai, and Thai soup (Tom Ka Gai or something like that spelling). It was awesome and really hit that breakfast spot. Then, on the way back to the bungalows we shopped a bit in the shops around that area and found some cool jewelry an whatnot. Nicky and I met back up with Sarah, we to an internet cafe to write our families and then decided we could eat more food and went to get some lunch and then go to the beach. Well, somewhere in there we ended up heading back to the bar area from the night before. We knew they had a restaurant and were near sandy beach access. When we got there, we learned that there bungalows cost 3 dollars a night - much less that the 15 we were currently paying - and they were on the beach which our current ones were not. The pay off was that they didn't have bathrooms and we had to use communal ones. Small price to pay for being near the nightly party, beach, and food. So, we moved to the new bungalow. Sarah and I scheduled our 5am taxi for the next morning to get to the 6am ferry and we got lunch and headed to the beach.
The water was the perfect temperature, there was really not many other people on the beach, the clouds went away for a perfect day. The whole experience was great. We swam around a bit, layed out, and then Sarah read a book while Nicky and I went in search of more fruit juice, this time perhaps with some vodka added. We ended up drinking a vodka pineapple bucket at a beach front bar while making friends with a Norwegian man.
After a few hours of beach we headed back to shower for the bbq that the bungalows was throwing that night. Oh, and my shower, I mean bucket showers. That's right, a tub of water with a bucket and that is what you use. Hey, it can work. Good practice for the Peace Corps I suppose.
For this dinner, Nicky and I got barracuda - I wanted to say I had tried that. Oh, we almost got bamboo tattoos - bamboo is the the way to make the tattoo NOT the picture we almost got drawn on ourselves - but we decided we had no way to know we weren't going to place that would leave us with Hep C. Dinner consisted of fish, Thai food, and lots of lots of fruit smoothies of all fruit combinations - mango, pineapple, banana, coconut - mixed in as many ways as possible and all fabulous. Oh, mango orange juice with vodka - which was awesome. Smoothies (which are really just blended ice and juice in Koh Chang) with vodka. Then we moved on to the vodka buckets. Sometime during the night of partying, Charlies passport ended up in the ocean and he and his brother dove in after it. The norwegian man we had met earlier and his friend found it for them. We also played ring of fire - got to love universal drinking games - and just hung out til the wee hours of the morning when Sarah and I headed in to get 2 hours of sleep before our taxi to the ferry.
Sarah and I got in that taxi ride, which was much rougher with a stomach full of vodka soda buckets and juice, and made it to the ferry. Then we made it to the bus stop in Trat, but the pick up truck that brought us there turned around to go back for more people at some point and made us miss the first bus to Bangkok. We made the 8am bus to Bangkok where Sarah and I proceeded to pass out and sleep as much as we could for the next 6 hours on the bumpy local bus we were on. This bus did stop for 20 minutes about half way through for people to get out and get food/drink and pee. Thank God. Sarah and I made it to Bangkok, immediately got in a taxi to the old Bangkok airport, and flew to Chiang Mai (in Northern Thailand near the Burma border) for our finally Thailand adventure - trekking in the mountains.
Total of things lost/stolen in Koh Chang (also the only things that I had go missing on the trip - Sarah got money stolen at the hotel in Hanoi): my USAA credit card, Nicky's rainbow flip flops (which were old and worn in), and my bath stuff that I had on the porch to dry (my shampoo/conditioner bar that I bought at Lush and it's case, my body wash and luffa). Morale of that story - people take weird things!
We arrive at Koh Chang the cheap way and the hard way. Sarah, Nicky, and I took a bus from Bangkok's Eastern bus terminal to Trat. That was yet another 6 hour bus ride. Apparently everything in SE Asia ia about a 6 hour bus ride apart. Just keep that in mind. Oh, and this bus to Trat thought it would be really cute if it NEVER stopped long enough for anyone to get out and go to the bathroom. Now prior to getting on the bus we had stopped for waters and beers (it was forth of July that day and we figured we could celebrate). Nicky had also purchased and drank a coffee before getting on the bus. Well about 4 hours in we all seriously had to pee but Nicky, having drank that coffee, was especially miserable. When we got to a bigger city along the way to stop at that bus terminal Nicky had to run out and I made sure the bus man didn't leave her. Now, this bus was soooooo crowded that some people were standing in the aisles. That's right, standing in the aisles on a 6 hour bus ride. Anyway, somehow we arrived at Trat, bought some candy - since it's about 7pm and we haven't had dinner or lunch due to the crunched travel times. We got in the glorified back of a pick up truck - which is what taxis are in this part of Thailand and were driven, along with a cute little German family and some other wayward travelers, to the Trat - Koh Chang ferry pier. Then, we got on a 45 minute ferry ride to the island and drank those celebratory beers. Then, when we got off the ferry this pick up truck style taxi drove us an hour to another side of the island - there is ONE road on Koh Chang - and we finally arrived circa 8:30-9pm.
Well, we immediately got taken to our bungalow, which was not exactly what they had described and was 100 baht more expensive, put out stuff down, and went in search of food and celebrations (it's still forth of July afterall). We end up eating dinner and drinking some seriously interesting Mai Tais from the place we are renting the bungalows. Then, we met some other travelers who convinced us to go basically bar hopping down the 4 bar strip near us. Well somehow during that process we met another group of travelers - that included two Aussie brothers (Charlie and ummmm, cannot remember), a girl from Holland, and some other random Europeans. They took us to this awesome bar that was on a deck over the ocean and had these crazy giant colored lights and whatnot. There, we got a table on the edge of the deck so that we were leaning far over the ocean, we drank lots of good juices, vodkas, and beers and hung out with our new friends for hours. We found our way home, not an easy task in the pitch black dark of a new island, and slept from about 3am to 7am.
The next day Nicky and I woke up early, found the nearest beach access while still in our pjs - if you saw the bungalow set up you would know why - and then came back to get dressed and go find breakfast. On the way out of the bungalow area one of the owners pet monkey's tried to steal the glasses off my face. Mean monkey! But he was so cute and fuzzy! Sarah opted out of the Asian breakfast that morning and Nicky and I found an open Thai restaurant - now by restaurant I really mean a persons home that has plastic furniture outside and she feeds us out of her kitchen. So, Nicky and I had frozen, that's right like actually blended in a blender frozen, coconut and pineapple fruit smoothies, green curry Thai, and Thai soup (Tom Ka Gai or something like that spelling). It was awesome and really hit that breakfast spot. Then, on the way back to the bungalows we shopped a bit in the shops around that area and found some cool jewelry an whatnot. Nicky and I met back up with Sarah, we to an internet cafe to write our families and then decided we could eat more food and went to get some lunch and then go to the beach. Well, somewhere in there we ended up heading back to the bar area from the night before. We knew they had a restaurant and were near sandy beach access. When we got there, we learned that there bungalows cost 3 dollars a night - much less that the 15 we were currently paying - and they were on the beach which our current ones were not. The pay off was that they didn't have bathrooms and we had to use communal ones. Small price to pay for being near the nightly party, beach, and food. So, we moved to the new bungalow. Sarah and I scheduled our 5am taxi for the next morning to get to the 6am ferry and we got lunch and headed to the beach.
The water was the perfect temperature, there was really not many other people on the beach, the clouds went away for a perfect day. The whole experience was great. We swam around a bit, layed out, and then Sarah read a book while Nicky and I went in search of more fruit juice, this time perhaps with some vodka added. We ended up drinking a vodka pineapple bucket at a beach front bar while making friends with a Norwegian man.
After a few hours of beach we headed back to shower for the bbq that the bungalows was throwing that night. Oh, and my shower, I mean bucket showers. That's right, a tub of water with a bucket and that is what you use. Hey, it can work. Good practice for the Peace Corps I suppose.
For this dinner, Nicky and I got barracuda - I wanted to say I had tried that. Oh, we almost got bamboo tattoos - bamboo is the the way to make the tattoo NOT the picture we almost got drawn on ourselves - but we decided we had no way to know we weren't going to place that would leave us with Hep C. Dinner consisted of fish, Thai food, and lots of lots of fruit smoothies of all fruit combinations - mango, pineapple, banana, coconut - mixed in as many ways as possible and all fabulous. Oh, mango orange juice with vodka - which was awesome. Smoothies (which are really just blended ice and juice in Koh Chang) with vodka. Then we moved on to the vodka buckets. Sometime during the night of partying, Charlies passport ended up in the ocean and he and his brother dove in after it. The norwegian man we had met earlier and his friend found it for them. We also played ring of fire - got to love universal drinking games - and just hung out til the wee hours of the morning when Sarah and I headed in to get 2 hours of sleep before our taxi to the ferry.
Sarah and I got in that taxi ride, which was much rougher with a stomach full of vodka soda buckets and juice, and made it to the ferry. Then we made it to the bus stop in Trat, but the pick up truck that brought us there turned around to go back for more people at some point and made us miss the first bus to Bangkok. We made the 8am bus to Bangkok where Sarah and I proceeded to pass out and sleep as much as we could for the next 6 hours on the bumpy local bus we were on. This bus did stop for 20 minutes about half way through for people to get out and get food/drink and pee. Thank God. Sarah and I made it to Bangkok, immediately got in a taxi to the old Bangkok airport, and flew to Chiang Mai (in Northern Thailand near the Burma border) for our finally Thailand adventure - trekking in the mountains.
Total of things lost/stolen in Koh Chang (also the only things that I had go missing on the trip - Sarah got money stolen at the hotel in Hanoi): my USAA credit card, Nicky's rainbow flip flops (which were old and worn in), and my bath stuff that I had on the porch to dry (my shampoo/conditioner bar that I bought at Lush and it's case, my body wash and luffa). Morale of that story - people take weird things!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Cambodia
Well thanks to the lack of rain - which is funny to write as it's was pouring a few hours ago - we had to take a bus to Phnom Pehn rather than the boat through the Mekong as planned. Sad, but that is life I suppose.
After we got to the Vietnam/Cambodia border it took a while to get out of Vietnam as they INSPECTED the American passports for way too long. Then, getting into Cambodia, which was held in a separate building, was very easy. They just wanted the money for their visas. Oh, Cambodia uses the US dollar as there currency, except they don't use our change, instead they use their currency, the riel, instead of coins. Each 1000 riel is about a quarter.
As soon as you cross the border into Cambodia we were bombarded by casinos. Honestly it was like crossing the California/Nevada border. It was a crack up and something I had absolutely not expected. Anyway, we arrived in Phnom Pehn after the 6 hour bus ride that left early in the morning.
Once we got to Phnom Pehn we hired a tuk-tuk for the day and had them bring us to the hostel we had picked out. They were brutally honest tuk-tuk drivers who informed the 4 of us that we were too fat to fit in one tuk-tuk. They tried to change our option and bring us to stay somewhere else but we held strong. They kept saying that area of the city doesn't have AC, and we said we know but we are staying at that hostel because it is 5 dollars for a room for the night and we are here for less than 24 hours! We finally got to the lakeside hostel and it was beautiful out on their porch which went over the lake. The lake was like no lake I had ever seen in that it was covered with plants and people were rowing tiny thin boats through the breaks in the greens. It was really cool. The rooms were nothing to brag about but for $5 we hadn't expected them to be.
The only thing we got to do in Phnom Pehn was go to the killing fields. I really really wanted to go see the horror the Khmer Rouge caused and it was well worth it. It was disturbing on the same level as Auschwitz is. The main monument is a tower of 8000 skulls of the victims shot at these killing fields, along with piles of their clothing and the holes left in the ground by their mass graves. There were signs telling the story of Pol Pot and the whole Khmer Rouge and explaining what happened at that site. Well worth going to if you ever get out to Phnom Pehn.
After this, we heading to meet our TA from the class, Beth, who is working in Phnom Pehn for 6 months. We went to get tapas and drink at happy hour. I had the most fabulous concoction called a Mojito Special which was a mojito with champagne instead of club soda. Pure beauty. I also got hummus. Basically, I was in love.
The next morning we got an early bus to Siam Reap - the base for heading to Ankgor Wat. Another 6 hour bus ride later we were there and when we got off the bus we were BOMBARDED with tuk-tuk drivers all trying to get our attention. We found a set of them we liked and hired them for the day (a popular option) and had them bring us to the hostel we picked out. Then, after 12 of the last 36 hours had been spent on a bus we went to get massages. I opted for the dead sea mud wrap and massage option. Lovely and worth every pretty penny. It was also the cleanest I had been in days! We topped it off with a pitcher of the fabulous Angkor Beer - it is seriously tasty and listed as SE Asias number one drink to try for a reason! Well ranked Lonely Planet!
Then, we headed to the old market to buy many things we didn't really need. We almost went to the silk farm but chose to just buy the silk at the market from the silk farm! Saved a trip and allowed us time for those massages. Then, our tuk-tuk drivers hooked us up with tickets to a traditional Cambodian dinner and dance which we went to and it was a very cool experience. I got to try to Anok fish which is the regional specialty and it was very good!
Then next day we had the tuk-tuk drivers pick us up at 5am to head to sunrise at Anggkor Wat. We figured sun rise would be cooler and less crowded than sunset and we were right! Sunrise over Angkor Wat was awesome. It was cloudy but still beautiful and turned out to be a crystal clear, very very hot, day. Then we toured temples - Angkor Wat, Bayon, terrace of the elephants, etc. Then, we rode elephants around Angkor Wat and went to get Mexican food for lunch. Then we headed back to Angkor and toured the temple Angelina Jolie filmed the Laura Croft movies at and two others - including one that required a 15 minute hike to get to and then climbing 5 flights of the steepest stairs the world has ever seen. However, the view of the Angkor Wat temples was soooo worth it. The photos are priceless and I cannot wait to load them! After 12 hours, and 20 dollars of admission, to temples we were done! We went to Pub Street for pizza and beer and I finally found two Cambodian thimbles - I don't love them but they work.
Friday morning, the 4th!, Sarah and I flew out of the Siam Reap airport back to Bangkok. The Siam Reap airport is new and very snazzy and had a Dairy Queen in it! They charged us $25 to fly out of it, not $6 like we thought, but we finally got on our flight to Bangkok that lasted all of 40 minutes and then got a taxi to the Eastern Bus Station where we met Nicky to head to the beach on the island of Koh Chang (which translates to Elephant Island). We had to celebrate the 4th of July somehow right!
After we got to the Vietnam/Cambodia border it took a while to get out of Vietnam as they INSPECTED the American passports for way too long. Then, getting into Cambodia, which was held in a separate building, was very easy. They just wanted the money for their visas. Oh, Cambodia uses the US dollar as there currency, except they don't use our change, instead they use their currency, the riel, instead of coins. Each 1000 riel is about a quarter.
As soon as you cross the border into Cambodia we were bombarded by casinos. Honestly it was like crossing the California/Nevada border. It was a crack up and something I had absolutely not expected. Anyway, we arrived in Phnom Pehn after the 6 hour bus ride that left early in the morning.
Once we got to Phnom Pehn we hired a tuk-tuk for the day and had them bring us to the hostel we had picked out. They were brutally honest tuk-tuk drivers who informed the 4 of us that we were too fat to fit in one tuk-tuk. They tried to change our option and bring us to stay somewhere else but we held strong. They kept saying that area of the city doesn't have AC, and we said we know but we are staying at that hostel because it is 5 dollars for a room for the night and we are here for less than 24 hours! We finally got to the lakeside hostel and it was beautiful out on their porch which went over the lake. The lake was like no lake I had ever seen in that it was covered with plants and people were rowing tiny thin boats through the breaks in the greens. It was really cool. The rooms were nothing to brag about but for $5 we hadn't expected them to be.
The only thing we got to do in Phnom Pehn was go to the killing fields. I really really wanted to go see the horror the Khmer Rouge caused and it was well worth it. It was disturbing on the same level as Auschwitz is. The main monument is a tower of 8000 skulls of the victims shot at these killing fields, along with piles of their clothing and the holes left in the ground by their mass graves. There were signs telling the story of Pol Pot and the whole Khmer Rouge and explaining what happened at that site. Well worth going to if you ever get out to Phnom Pehn.
After this, we heading to meet our TA from the class, Beth, who is working in Phnom Pehn for 6 months. We went to get tapas and drink at happy hour. I had the most fabulous concoction called a Mojito Special which was a mojito with champagne instead of club soda. Pure beauty. I also got hummus. Basically, I was in love.
The next morning we got an early bus to Siam Reap - the base for heading to Ankgor Wat. Another 6 hour bus ride later we were there and when we got off the bus we were BOMBARDED with tuk-tuk drivers all trying to get our attention. We found a set of them we liked and hired them for the day (a popular option) and had them bring us to the hostel we picked out. Then, after 12 of the last 36 hours had been spent on a bus we went to get massages. I opted for the dead sea mud wrap and massage option. Lovely and worth every pretty penny. It was also the cleanest I had been in days! We topped it off with a pitcher of the fabulous Angkor Beer - it is seriously tasty and listed as SE Asias number one drink to try for a reason! Well ranked Lonely Planet!
Then, we headed to the old market to buy many things we didn't really need. We almost went to the silk farm but chose to just buy the silk at the market from the silk farm! Saved a trip and allowed us time for those massages. Then, our tuk-tuk drivers hooked us up with tickets to a traditional Cambodian dinner and dance which we went to and it was a very cool experience. I got to try to Anok fish which is the regional specialty and it was very good!
Then next day we had the tuk-tuk drivers pick us up at 5am to head to sunrise at Anggkor Wat. We figured sun rise would be cooler and less crowded than sunset and we were right! Sunrise over Angkor Wat was awesome. It was cloudy but still beautiful and turned out to be a crystal clear, very very hot, day. Then we toured temples - Angkor Wat, Bayon, terrace of the elephants, etc. Then, we rode elephants around Angkor Wat and went to get Mexican food for lunch. Then we headed back to Angkor and toured the temple Angelina Jolie filmed the Laura Croft movies at and two others - including one that required a 15 minute hike to get to and then climbing 5 flights of the steepest stairs the world has ever seen. However, the view of the Angkor Wat temples was soooo worth it. The photos are priceless and I cannot wait to load them! After 12 hours, and 20 dollars of admission, to temples we were done! We went to Pub Street for pizza and beer and I finally found two Cambodian thimbles - I don't love them but they work.
Friday morning, the 4th!, Sarah and I flew out of the Siam Reap airport back to Bangkok. The Siam Reap airport is new and very snazzy and had a Dairy Queen in it! They charged us $25 to fly out of it, not $6 like we thought, but we finally got on our flight to Bangkok that lasted all of 40 minutes and then got a taxi to the Eastern Bus Station where we met Nicky to head to the beach on the island of Koh Chang (which translates to Elephant Island). We had to celebrate the 4th of July somehow right!
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Saigon Day 2
SAIGON Day TWO
Today we caught an 8am bus that we had booked the day before to the Cu Chi tunnels. Now these tunnels are only about 30km outside Saigon but it took about 2 hours to get there. They are out off tiny roads And, we had to stop at the infamous pit stop/place that sells you homemade crafts at outrageous prices (for Vietnam, moderate prices by our standards). We finally arrived at the tunnels though. The first thing I want to tell you is that our guide referred to us as “my group of 48” since that is how many people were on our tour bus. Upon arrival at the Cu Chi tunnels you watch the world's greatest video. Literally, it is the best piece of propaganda I have seen – and I loved looking at the Nazi stuff. This video was Ho Chi Minh style anti-American propaganda. Some key phrases included “like a little batch of devils they fired... into schools and at Buddhas” and the proudly bragged in the video that “bamboo traps which use to be used to catch animals were now used to catch the American enemies” and they claimed that “America wanted to turn Cu Chi into a dead ground – but Cu Chi refused to die”. There were countless of quotes that were equally priceless but I didn't get a chance to write them all down. You get the gist. I tried desperately to buy a copy of that beautiful masterpiece of propaganda but they don't sell it – go figure! Anyway, then we got to walk around and see how they hid from the US Gis, all the traps they set for them, and then we got to crawl around in the tunnels. At best they are 1.2 meters high (about 4 .5 feet) and Sarah and I crawled through the most we could, including points where we literally crawled on hands and knees pushing our purses in front of us and I was carrying my camera in my teeth. Yes, I do have some pictures. Anyway, I had thought Bangkok was hot until we got to Hanoi and Vietnam which was a whole new breed of heat. Well, these tunnels took it to a new level. The heat was ridiculous. We were covered in dirt and sweating bullets but loved the whole experience, truly priceless. As we were leaving the Cu Chi tunnels, they gave us the option of going to the on site firing range and paying money to fire the whole American weapons they had collected like AK 47s. An 8 year old Asian book in our group got to fire one. I was very disturbed and lets just say I did NOT take the opportunity to fire the US abandoned Vietnam war relic AK47s.
Now, let me take a moment to tell you all about some of the beautiful things I saw carried on motor bikes in Saigon – refrigerator, tvs (in the box), computer monitors, computers motherboards, etc. This is all on something smaller than a Harley. Oh, also with all the driving around I notice that there are a plethora of Ho Chi Minh posters all over Saigon, whereas I saw very few in Hanoi. I found that interesting, but not that surprising.
The Clintons and there visit to Vietnam in 1995 is very popular in Vietnam. You know if the shop you go in our the place you eat is someplace they visited. They also sell lots of books about the Clintons, go figure.
Just an FYI, so far from my experience in cities in Vietnam, men's hair is much more done up and eccentric than womens. Women tend to have straight hair whereas the men often feather theres and whatnot. While I am on the subject of beauty in Vietnam, they sell skin bleaching solution and whitening powder here. The women especially are desperate to have pale skin. They want it so much they buy and where these gloves that go up to where a t-shirt would end while they are walking or driving a motorbike to prevent there skin from tanning. Now in that heat, that is a really dedication to the quest to be pale.
Finally, I think it is funny that while the war museums and other war relics yell messages of Communism and anti-Americanism they are milking it financially for all it's worth – seems pretty Capitalist to me. Just a thought though....
After the Cu Chi tunnels we went the Reunification Palace, the same palace that the Viet Cong broke down the gates of on April 30, 1975. Now, let me first say they have preserved it much as it was on that day (including tanks in the yard) and all I can say is HELLO 1970s. The entire place is in yellows and greens of the 1970s with the arictecture straight out of the Brady Bunch. I loved it. Brady Bunch with a Communist twist and plenty of Ho Chi Minh posters. Downstairs in the basement is the war command center of the South Vietnamese President, complete with all his maps - my favorite part, Also, they have the spots where the bombs were dropped on the palace marked with red circles, which is pretty entertaining. Apparently the Viet Cong who first bombed it now runs Vietnam Airlines domestic flights. I flew them to Saigon. Lovely.
Post the Palace we ventured back to the hostel. We went for a drink at the Rex Hotel rooftop bar and tried very unsuccessfully, as in 4 massage parlors later, to get massages - a new goal for us in Siam Reap, Cambodia. The Rex Hotel bar was highly overpriced but gave a great view of the city and took credit cards we we smiled and payed. The, we went to dinner at a place called Milwaukee that had Harley Davidsons everywhere and I ate some Mekong fish with a cheese. It was good. We also got Saigon beer on draft which is pretty damn tasty and cold. Then, Sarah and I decided we must try snake wine our last night in Vietnam and we headed back to Saigon bar near our hostel to try some. Literally, the man poured us two glasses out of a vat of snakes in juice. He even pulled the cobras head out of the jar to give us the full view of the snake. We cheers and drank and boy is it gross - tastes like rotten black liquorice. But, try everything once. And yes, we do have pictures.
We left the next morning at 8am for a long bus ride to Phnom Pehn, the capital of Cambodia!
Oh, on a personal note.I have news!!! First, my little cousin Jensen's soccer team won FIRST PLACE at Badger State (aka Wisconsin) soccer games!! WOOO HOOO! Also, Emily accepted a Peace Corp placement in Rwanda that leaves in January.That means I shall be in Cameroon, Sarah in Mozambique, and Emily in Rwanda! Keep those posts coming guys! Also, sad note, Germany lost the EuroCup final game 1-0. They lost to Spain. I was crushed. Next time guys! Next time! However, on the bright side, that should make Jensen's and her soccer team's upcoming (as in the next few days) trip to Spain all the more exciting. Too bad they are too young to enjoy the marvelous bar action that goes with winning the EuroCup - I suppose I shall have to rise to the occasion and head out for a beer right now in their place. Hard life I have right??
Today we caught an 8am bus that we had booked the day before to the Cu Chi tunnels. Now these tunnels are only about 30km outside Saigon but it took about 2 hours to get there. They are out off tiny roads And, we had to stop at the infamous pit stop/place that sells you homemade crafts at outrageous prices (for Vietnam, moderate prices by our standards). We finally arrived at the tunnels though. The first thing I want to tell you is that our guide referred to us as “my group of 48” since that is how many people were on our tour bus. Upon arrival at the Cu Chi tunnels you watch the world's greatest video. Literally, it is the best piece of propaganda I have seen – and I loved looking at the Nazi stuff. This video was Ho Chi Minh style anti-American propaganda. Some key phrases included “like a little batch of devils they fired... into schools and at Buddhas” and the proudly bragged in the video that “bamboo traps which use to be used to catch animals were now used to catch the American enemies” and they claimed that “America wanted to turn Cu Chi into a dead ground – but Cu Chi refused to die”. There were countless of quotes that were equally priceless but I didn't get a chance to write them all down. You get the gist. I tried desperately to buy a copy of that beautiful masterpiece of propaganda but they don't sell it – go figure! Anyway, then we got to walk around and see how they hid from the US Gis, all the traps they set for them, and then we got to crawl around in the tunnels. At best they are 1.2 meters high (about 4 .5 feet) and Sarah and I crawled through the most we could, including points where we literally crawled on hands and knees pushing our purses in front of us and I was carrying my camera in my teeth. Yes, I do have some pictures. Anyway, I had thought Bangkok was hot until we got to Hanoi and Vietnam which was a whole new breed of heat. Well, these tunnels took it to a new level. The heat was ridiculous. We were covered in dirt and sweating bullets but loved the whole experience, truly priceless. As we were leaving the Cu Chi tunnels, they gave us the option of going to the on site firing range and paying money to fire the whole American weapons they had collected like AK 47s. An 8 year old Asian book in our group got to fire one. I was very disturbed and lets just say I did NOT take the opportunity to fire the US abandoned Vietnam war relic AK47s.
Now, let me take a moment to tell you all about some of the beautiful things I saw carried on motor bikes in Saigon – refrigerator, tvs (in the box), computer monitors, computers motherboards, etc. This is all on something smaller than a Harley. Oh, also with all the driving around I notice that there are a plethora of Ho Chi Minh posters all over Saigon, whereas I saw very few in Hanoi. I found that interesting, but not that surprising.
The Clintons and there visit to Vietnam in 1995 is very popular in Vietnam. You know if the shop you go in our the place you eat is someplace they visited. They also sell lots of books about the Clintons, go figure.
Just an FYI, so far from my experience in cities in Vietnam, men's hair is much more done up and eccentric than womens. Women tend to have straight hair whereas the men often feather theres and whatnot. While I am on the subject of beauty in Vietnam, they sell skin bleaching solution and whitening powder here. The women especially are desperate to have pale skin. They want it so much they buy and where these gloves that go up to where a t-shirt would end while they are walking or driving a motorbike to prevent there skin from tanning. Now in that heat, that is a really dedication to the quest to be pale.
Finally, I think it is funny that while the war museums and other war relics yell messages of Communism and anti-Americanism they are milking it financially for all it's worth – seems pretty Capitalist to me. Just a thought though....
After the Cu Chi tunnels we went the Reunification Palace, the same palace that the Viet Cong broke down the gates of on April 30, 1975. Now, let me first say they have preserved it much as it was on that day (including tanks in the yard) and all I can say is HELLO 1970s. The entire place is in yellows and greens of the 1970s with the arictecture straight out of the Brady Bunch. I loved it. Brady Bunch with a Communist twist and plenty of Ho Chi Minh posters. Downstairs in the basement is the war command center of the South Vietnamese President, complete with all his maps - my favorite part, Also, they have the spots where the bombs were dropped on the palace marked with red circles, which is pretty entertaining. Apparently the Viet Cong who first bombed it now runs Vietnam Airlines domestic flights. I flew them to Saigon. Lovely.
Post the Palace we ventured back to the hostel. We went for a drink at the Rex Hotel rooftop bar and tried very unsuccessfully, as in 4 massage parlors later, to get massages - a new goal for us in Siam Reap, Cambodia. The Rex Hotel bar was highly overpriced but gave a great view of the city and took credit cards we we smiled and payed. The, we went to dinner at a place called Milwaukee that had Harley Davidsons everywhere and I ate some Mekong fish with a cheese. It was good. We also got Saigon beer on draft which is pretty damn tasty and cold. Then, Sarah and I decided we must try snake wine our last night in Vietnam and we headed back to Saigon bar near our hostel to try some. Literally, the man poured us two glasses out of a vat of snakes in juice. He even pulled the cobras head out of the jar to give us the full view of the snake. We cheers and drank and boy is it gross - tastes like rotten black liquorice. But, try everything once. And yes, we do have pictures.
We left the next morning at 8am for a long bus ride to Phnom Pehn, the capital of Cambodia!
Oh, on a personal note.I have news!!! First, my little cousin Jensen's soccer team won FIRST PLACE at Badger State (aka Wisconsin) soccer games!! WOOO HOOO! Also, Emily accepted a Peace Corp placement in Rwanda that leaves in January.That means I shall be in Cameroon, Sarah in Mozambique, and Emily in Rwanda! Keep those posts coming guys! Also, sad note, Germany lost the EuroCup final game 1-0. They lost to Spain. I was crushed. Next time guys! Next time! However, on the bright side, that should make Jensen's and her soccer team's upcoming (as in the next few days) trip to Spain all the more exciting. Too bad they are too young to enjoy the marvelous bar action that goes with winning the EuroCup - I suppose I shall have to rise to the occasion and head out for a beer right now in their place. Hard life I have right??
Saigon Day 1
Welcome to Saigon/HCMC. First, let me tell you about the complicated name of this city -is it Saigon or is it HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City). Well until April 30, 1975 the cities name was Saigon. April 30, 1975 is the day that North Vietnam stormed the Independence Palace (now the Reunification Palace) and basically won control over Vietnam. They promptly changed the name from Saigon to Ho Chi Minh City to honor the fearless leader of Communism/Socialism in Vietnam. Remind anyone else of St. Petersburg becoming Leningrad??
Well upon arrival we got more Dong (Vietnamese money) and took a taxi to the backpackers area (Pham Ngju Lao) and walked into Sinh Cafe to book a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels for the next morning. Then, we walked across the street to Delta Adventures and booked a bus for Tuesday morning to Phnom Pehn, Cambodia (the capital city). We decided to a bus not a boat to save time. We will do a boat from Phnom Penh to Siam Reap (the launch city for Ankgor Wat). Then, we dropped our stuff (which we had been carrying/dragging along in the 90 degree weather with circa 90% humidity for about an hour) at the Yellow House Hostel and immediately headed out to the War Remnants Museum. This museum showed the Vietnam side of what they refer to as the American War. All I can say is, if you go to Saigon you must go, but you will feel awkward being an American there. While yes, the US committed a number of unthinkable atrocities, the other side was far from innocent. There are lots of Ho Chi Minh posters up and the museum opened September 4, 1975 – count it 4 months and 4 days after North Vietnam got control of the city. It had fetuses in jars who had died prematurely due to their parents exposure to some of the chemicals the US sprayed. It had lots of information about Mai Lai and another similar situations. Also, it had an interesting section about all the journalists and photographers who were killed during the war and showed the photos they died taking. The whole thing made me fairly pissed about Iraq – as the section about the build up to the war had many parallels. Now don't get me wrong, I support our troops 120%, and that is why I want/believe they need to be sent home now. Those stories and pictures showed what war does to people – it isn't pretty, it isn't glorious.
Well upon arrival we got more Dong (Vietnamese money) and took a taxi to the backpackers area (Pham Ngju Lao) and walked into Sinh Cafe to book a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels for the next morning. Then, we walked across the street to Delta Adventures and booked a bus for Tuesday morning to Phnom Pehn, Cambodia (the capital city). We decided to a bus not a boat to save time. We will do a boat from Phnom Penh to Siam Reap (the launch city for Ankgor Wat). Then, we dropped our stuff (which we had been carrying/dragging along in the 90 degree weather with circa 90% humidity for about an hour) at the Yellow House Hostel and immediately headed out to the War Remnants Museum. This museum showed the Vietnam side of what they refer to as the American War. All I can say is, if you go to Saigon you must go, but you will feel awkward being an American there. While yes, the US committed a number of unthinkable atrocities, the other side was far from innocent. There are lots of Ho Chi Minh posters up and the museum opened September 4, 1975 – count it 4 months and 4 days after North Vietnam got control of the city. It had fetuses in jars who had died prematurely due to their parents exposure to some of the chemicals the US sprayed. It had lots of information about Mai Lai and another similar situations. Also, it had an interesting section about all the journalists and photographers who were killed during the war and showed the photos they died taking. The whole thing made me fairly pissed about Iraq – as the section about the build up to the war had many parallels. Now don't get me wrong, I support our troops 120%, and that is why I want/believe they need to be sent home now. Those stories and pictures showed what war does to people – it isn't pretty, it isn't glorious.
The museum gave us these numbers: 3 million Vietnamese died during the war, 2 million of whom were civilians. Another large number were injured or missing. Bottom line: War sucks.
Moving quickly along, after the museum, we were feeling the whole history thing so we headed to the Binh Soup Shop. This was the soup shop in Saigon that was near to a US army post where the entire wait staff was Viet Cong. It was from this soup shop they spied on US troops and overheard their conversations. It was hear that the Viet Cong planned the infamous Tet Offensive (for those of you who don't know what that is, open a history book or Wikipedia it – you should know the reference). Anyway, the man who owned it and allowed the Viet Cong to use it and received many a medals from the Viet Cong in return still works/lives there. He is older now, but he still sits there. Sarah, Nicole, and I got a picture with him. We ate their famous Pho (spicy- well you can make it spicy and I do- noodle soup with green onions, vermicilli noodles, and pork/beef/chicken – famous Vietnamese food that they eat mainly for breakfast) soup which I did proudly eat with chopsticks – Courtney I have gotten much better since PF Changs!!! We signed the guest book. Oh, and I got up the nerve to ask if we could go upstairs to see his medals and the secret meeting room where they planned the Tet Offensive and countless other battles, and they let us. So, we got to see that too!
Now, we were all pretty damn tired of the war, so we walked around the city a bit and ended up finding this ice cream parlor called Fannys that has an all you can eat ice cream bar the first Friday of every month – sadly we missed it by days. But, we had awesome ice cream / gelato including passion fruit flavored and a frozen mango stuffed with mango sorbet. Honestly though, how good does an all you can eat ice cream bar sound??? Pretty damn awesome to me.
Taxis in Saigon have better meters than those in Hanoi had. However, our first night we had a taxi driver take us on our first drive around. Aka where they know you don't know where you are going and therefore drive you around aimlessly and run up the meter. We caught on but it was too late, also, there wasn't much we could do- they speak very very little English in Saigon (surprising to me). Most tour places spoke some but we got numerous taxi drivers who spoke not a word of it.
Then, we had a quick night cap/beer at this Saigon Bar near our hostel where draft beers are 15,000 dong (about 90 cents). This bar also sells or exchange books – including Nancy Drew which I was excited about!<
This ended day one in Saigon. By the way, we did all that in about 8-9 hours. Phew.
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