Friday, 26 June 2009

Phnom Penh/Ho Chi Minh City - 26th June 2009

I didn't sleep too well during the night as I'd been worrying about waking up on time, and I was a bit hot, and I seemed to have accumulated a few mosquito bites, although I'm not sure where from as I never seem to see any!
I woke to the sound of music, which entertained me in my dreams for a while, before the sound of repetitive knocking broke my daze into consciousness, when I suddenly realised that I'd slept in by 40 minutes and only had ten minutes until I was supposed to be catching the tuk tuk! I opened the door, to my 14 year old tuk tuk driver, who looked like he'd just fallen out of bed himself; lucky for him I'd thrown on my nighty during the night!! as I was in no state myself to have realised otherwise!!
I threw on my clothes and managed to get the tuk tuk in time. The boy seemed to be beeping his horn more than most, even when there was no other cars or drivers on the road! He went over some tretcherious pot holes and I thought he was going to break the poor vehicle.
We arrived at the Central Market in good time, 10 minutes before I was due to be at the bus terminal; and after studying the map a while, I headed off in the wrong direction! and subsequently went in circles until I decided I was going to head to the wrong bus terminal!! My brain eventually turned on at around 6.20am, and after a quick sprint with rucksack on my back, and mini rucksack on my front, I arrived just in the nick of time before the bus was due to leave at half past. I'd past a rather rabbid looking dog, with blood shot eyes, on my journey; poor thing was probably just ill with some curable disease, poor wee thing. Of course, it didn't actually get set off until 7, and I was now dripping in sweat!! I had to hand in my passport, which made me rather nervous, as they dealt with all the border crossings, and I checked they'd put my rucksack (or flung would maybe be a better way to describe it!) into the bottom of the bus.
The bus was packed mainly full of locals, or at least Asians, I was the only white! The man beside me clicked his fingers which was a bit disgusting but thankfully he didn't do it for the whole journey! There was a tv, a rather cool one! which was playing some kind of comedy. There was a Johnny Depp look-a-like (sort of) in a woman's dress, who looked strangely attractive! I had no idea why it was so funny, but the audience kept on laughing! I was a bit annoyed that I hadn't stopped on the way to get some food (although obviously, if the bus had actually set off on time I would have missed it!), as I'd only got some biscuits from London in my bag! (indeed I resisted them for over a week!! Miracle!) and we got a complementary bottle of water too, which was nice and cool.
We passed various curious things; various green uniforms brushing the street and cleaning; a school with many rows of immaculately dressed school children all chanting something or other; and someone selling avocados.
On the back of a truck with building materials, there were a couple of boys, aged 14-15 or so who looked like they were in some sort of lovers hold, although they were probably just cuddling incase they fell off. It was quite adorable!!
There was a TELF centre for 3-4 year olds; various gardening shops selling cactii; a truck full of ducks; very posh looking tabole and chairs set with very smooth, beautiful wood; and crazily enough, statues of kangaroos!!
The land was very flat, and we passed over a few small rivers. There were houses on stilts which looked rather unsafe, although I'm sure they were perfectly safe and well-made!
A few hours into the journey we had to cross a rather large river, so we boarded onto a boat in our bus, and lots of motorbikes piled on, squeezing in between the larger vehicles. A boy was selling some sort of eggs; small and patterned, although I'm unsure what type they were. On reaching the other side of the river a small boy sitting in front of his mum's push-bike, waved at me, they were both smiling, so I smiled and waved back! They were so adorable!! I can tell why celebrities want to adopt kids from abroad, they are so friendly and lovely!! (no offence!!)
Along the streets someone was selling some sort of weird fruit that resembled the spout of a watering can! Also one of the towns had quite a few horses in it, some pulling carts etc.
We stopped for a short break, where most people got out, and started urinating almost side by side along the road!! It was a bit crazy, considering the bus had almost 40 people on it!
We passed through Ba Vet, and stopped at a cafe, but I was a bit anxious about going to the toilet incase the bus drove off without me. We eventually got to the border shortly after 11. It was extremely confusing, as I didn't know whether I needed my passport or whether it would all be done for me. I didn't know which forms I needed etc! I was stamped out of Cambodia, and before getting stamped into Vietnam, a man with a mask came on board and I handed in a health declaration form (which I'd lied on, as there was no way I was going to admit my swollen glands, cough, cold...! to be honest, who would?!) He stuck a thermometer in my ear, and I passed with flying colours!; and I hadn't taken an anti-pyretic for good luck beforehand unlike previously!!
Eventually after being pointed into various directions and asking various people for help I made it through the border! Yay!! On entering Vietnam we passed various "Massage" centres, which were a bit out of the way, and seemed to suggest they were more prostitution centres! There were so many people wearing the famous straw cone shaped hat! There was a rather funky house on the side of one of the river which looked incredibly peaceful; I was eyeing them up for when I move out here officially!
We passed through Cu Chi, which I correctly assumed was where the Cu Chi tunnels were; and an hour or so later we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City. I'd just been dosing for the last leg of the journey, with my legs clamped around my bag and my arms firmly attached to my money belt as advised by someone earlier on my travels. For the most part of the journey I was reading up my $3 Lonely Planet Vietnam guide, and taking notes and planning a route for my walk through the city. I'm going to ad-lib slightly the given walking tour, which takes approximately 7 hours! and is about 3km. (With stops in various museums on the way).
I got off the bus and gathered myself up. A man offered me a moto for 20,000, although later charged me 40,000 (pfh!). I hadn't really thought about the practicalities when I said yes, as I had my huge rucksack as well as my small day rucksack, but thanfully I managed to balance okay on the moto. Most people wear helmets too, unlike in Cambodia. There are some quite cool designs too, and I'm pretty sure I saw them being sold on the side of the road for only one pound!! Bargain!! We went via a ATM, the first one didn't work, but thankfully the next one did. I was a bit nervous when withdrawing money as I wasn't 100% sure I'd remembered the exhange rate correctly. I arrived at the backpacker district, where I was almost guaranteed to find accomodation. I'd aimed to go to a couple of places I'd read about in my guidebook, but they seemed to be non-existant! Random people offered me accomodation which I turned down as I was a bit afraid of walking far and then being ripped off, so a few doors down, I noticed a Room for Rent sign which had a friendly looking lady in the front room. I enquired about the room and at only $5 I decided I'd have a look. It was a couple of floors up, and there was no rats, cockroaches or obvious signs of weirdness to the place, so I decided to take it! I was sweating profusely, yet again! The room had seemed quite a reasonable temperature when I first arrived so I was a bit confused as to why I was still dripping!
It was around half two by this point, and having only eaten three bourbons during the day I decided I really needed to find something to eat. On leaving I noticed that my accomodation had a small puppy, who looked adorable, but was a bit scared of me, although the puppy hiding behind him (his brother) was a lot friendlier! I think I might dog-nap him on my way out! I popped into a small shop, and bought some juice, and enquired about cheap places to eat. I also noted that one of their brands of water was called Joy!! I wanted to take a photo but thought they might think I was a little insane, so I decided against it! Lucky for me, two doors away, was a small vegetarian restaurant which served many variations of tofu! I chose a duck/chicken tofu with rice noodles in a sort of soup! It was very tasty, although I couldn't manage all of it! I struggled at first to eat it with the chopsticks, and after watching me 'play' with my food for a while, the girl waitress suggested I used the spoon-like instrument, as found in Wagamamma's. I think I maybe should have been in training for a while first before coming here!! The meal was a bargain too! Even with a drink it only cost just over a pound!! I couldn't believe it!!
The streets are filled with people selling books, probably photocopies, and also motos for hire; I am sooo tempted!! and I could even buy a stylish helmet to go with it...
I was struggling to cross a road, doing my best not to die! and a moto driver approached me trying to sell me a tour. I told him I just arrived and wanted to chill out for a bit first and do a bit of reading, and so he held my hand and guided me across the street! I think it would be quite useful to hire someone just to help me across the roads to be honest!!
I sat in a park, which is more of a piece of land for people to sit, inbetween the dual carridge-way, although much more spaced out and peaceful than it sounds! I started reading my guidebook again, working out which way I needed to head. I was a bit disturbed by a women a few seats away who was peacefully reading a book, and enjoying the weather like I was, apart from ever 20 seconds, she would clear her throat and make mucus loosening sounds and then spit on the ground, it was rather unpleasant.
I didn't get very far on my walk before I stood up, a man introduced himself and said he was studying English, a common ploy in attempt to mug me I was sure. After a conversation about Vietnam and various other things, I said I was going to head off and go for a walk. We said goodbye, and I was no less well off! Yay!!
I did a bit of scouting for tickets to Cu Chi tunnels, and a half day trip was costing $5 and a full day with visiting a religious centre too, cost $7. These prices are $3 more than listed in the guidebook, but I checked out several places and they all seem to be the same, so I guess inflation must have affected things.
I walked a little further along the park, and came across some kind of festival. There was people dressed up in animal costumes and acting out some sort of play, lots of tables and chairs where children could play with various toys and creative crafts, there was a huge stage which had a poster beside it describing what would be happening over the next few days. There was also a stall selling various stationary and books, and Vietnamese jewellery and crafts; there was a display of paintings by youngsters too. There was a join-in group of people doing some sort of relaxation martial art/exercise class, and also a badminton court, it was a pretty cool show!!
I was enjoying the sights, and got waved at by a couple of local girls who were playing with clay, making little objects. We got into conversation and had quite a nice chat. It was so random!! I felt more like one of them than I did a white, as they were so friendly! I created a hammerhead shark, a gecko and a mouse! We were trying to teach each other our languages which was quite fun! They were aged 31 and 24. Another boy joined us who was in his early 20s, he is due to graduate this year with a law degree. He was telling me about their education system, and it costs $150 a year for university!! I didn't mention how much it cost in the UK! Another lady, who I don't think spoke much English, was asking me a few things, and asked about where I was staying and how much, and she wondered if $5 was expensive! It just shows how expensive things are to people here!
I said I must continue walking as I want to see more things, but I agreed to meet one of the girls the following day so we could teach each other more things!
It started to get dark as I was eyeing up some crafts on a lady's stall, and then the heavens opened!! The lady was doing a good job of selling them, and just as I'd decided what to buy, they had to cover up the stalls due to the rain. She invited me under the cover to keep dry which was really kind of her, but after quite a while I gave up with waiting for the rain to stop, so I said I'd be back the following day, and thanked her for her kindness. I got completely soaked on the way out, and escaped into a coffee shop which was only a couple of doors away from my accomodation. I noticed it had internet, which was what attracted me, but thankfully the coffee wasn't too expensive either, although drinks seem to cost the same as some meals here, so it's best not to drink too excessively in public places! I enjoyed a coffee, and then to take advantage of the internet I bought a smoothie too, which was also delicious! The rain seemed to have calmed a little by 9pm, so I decided to head back to my accomodation.

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