Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) - 2

We got up this morning and headed to the gauntlet that is Ben Tham Market, when we first went through they were pulling out of us and grabbing us to come to their stall, it was if you were a famous celebrity! Tina was called a 'difficult woman' by a Vietnamese woman when she was examining the flimsy t-shirts I was looking at, I of course agree 100 percent with the woman!


After the market our next stop was the War museum, very interesting stuff about the war in Vietnam and the various conventions and peace treaties the Americans decided to ignore. The place is littered with American Planes, Tanks, Helicopters, Guns, etc. It made a sad read the amount of people who perished in Vietnam, I can understand why they can be abit snappy with western people. 3 Million Vietnamese died in the war and only 58,000 or so Americans died, one such story tells of the American troops shooting and disembowelling an entire village, 500 people including women and children. If my country was responsible for such horrendous act, I'd find it hard to show my face. Suffice to say little has been learned by the good old U.S of A with their oil grab of the Middle East over the last few years.

We booked our tickets to the Chu Chi tunnels and went out for a meal. It was an early night as my stomach didn't seem to be the best.

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

We traveled to Ho Chi Minh City A.K.A Saigon at 1pm today, by none other then out favourite bus company, Mai Linh Express!...All is forgiven however we got on a coach this time with fine big seats and nice headrests all for the bargain price of $4.

Arrived in HCMC (Saigon) 4 Hours later, there was a barrage of Taxi men at the bus trying to get our business I had read online that there is only 2 companies that won't rip you off, Mai Linh Express Taxi and Vinasun, we went through the crowd of taxi's and saw a Mai Linh Taxi at the side and grabbed him for our 10km journey to the city centre, the roads are absolutely crazy, thousands of scooters and bikes everywhere with some close shaves with them and our car.

We arrived at Bien Vuie which is the backpacker part of town and the street is full of hotels, boutique art galleries (Oil painting for $15) and Souvenir shops, these shops don't sell the usual tacky keyrings and junk but some tasteful stuff, If I wasn't going around the world I'd fill my bags with the stuff.

I got my long overdue haircut, which hasn't been cut in 3 months! I'd so much hair I nearly broke the poor guys razor.

BEFORE:

AFTER

Can Tho Floating Market

We got up at 5am this morning to venture out the Mekong Delta to see the floating market. Our driver had little english but we understood what he meant alot of the time. The boats are amazing alot of them have a car engine on the back with a propeller attached to the flywheel. They really are resourceful people.

On arrival at the market it's everything you'd expect boats crammed with pineapples and colourful fruit you'd struggle to name. The gem of the boat trip alone was traveling along the Mekong and watching people do their daily chores, the market was really a bonus.

Our driver took us the scenic route back and at one stage some stuff got caught in the propeller, he took off his pants and his shirt, hopped into the Mekong and released what was stuck, wile the engine was still running!

Can Tho

After an over-enjoyable day yesterday on the bus we decided to have a bit of a sleep in this morning before we took a wander around Can Tho. The city seems to be huge and very spread out. We took a wander to the Ho Chi Minh statue and booked our 5:30am trip to the floating markets for the following morning.

Next it was a case of walking around and watching the city life go by. We saw some guy getting a treatment know as 'Ba guaan' done on the street, it's basically a load of jars stuck to you with fire and this releases toxins from the body, all I know is the guy who done it had about 20 massive purple circles on his back!

Good EVENING Vietnam

Well we had booked our lovely bus to Can Tho, complete with Toilet and AC...what we got was another story, we were told we'd be taken to the border on a minibus which arrived an hour and a half late, he took us to the border like a bat out of hell.

We arrived at Cambodian immigration about an hour and a half later and it took them around half an hour to process 8 passports, off we went to the Vietnam Border (Ha Tien) which was a few hundred metres away and alot more impressive then the Cambodian one.

At the border we went to epidemic control and filled out the form which carried a fee of $1 (It's supposed to be free) which the guard put in his wallet I'm not going to argue with him for the sake of a dollar, I hope he chokes on it.

After a half an hour we got back on the minibus and proceeded to Ha Tien centre where we were dropped off, about half an hour later another minibus comes and picks us up to drop us to the bus station which was about 80kms away we learned, during this time nothing was communicated to any of us we didn't know what was going on, and the driver of the bus was an absolute prick (He must of thought we were American!), I thought the Vietnamese would have a better level of English then the Cambodians but I think it's time to bring the phrase book out with me. Some people on the bus were handed tickets and we got none, he ended up giving them to some random guy?

So we arrive in Rach Gia, the driver tells us to get out no other information so we're standing outside and thinking we;ll finally get on our lovely bus, whats there on another poxy minibus, this better be the last bus I said!

We didn't arrive in Can tho until just after 8 O'clock, the journey itself was OK mainly due to the fact we'd met a nice English Couple (I think she was originally from Scotland). So when we arrived tuk tuk seem to be a foreign concept here, there was people offering lifts on the back of bikes, Tina decided on a Taxi which after everything we'd been through was probably a good idea, the English couple however were pretty brave and got on the bikes and the driver had his backpack infront of the handlebars, crazy stuff! We're staying in a very nice hotel for the night..thank god.

We chilled out in the room for a while and headed out to look for a meal in Sao Hom which was pretty middling considering its top rated in Tripavisor and Lonely Planets pick but it was getting near closing and things were abit rushed so can't complain. Other then that I had one beer and that was enough!!

The Offending Bus Company was Mai Linh Express

Kampot ...Now that's some scaffolding!

Rented a lovely illuminous Hello Kitty Scooter today (at least I'll be seen), we went out to the country and toured around the various sights, such as the pepper fields and paddy fields. I didn't take much pictures as the weather was very hot and miss and we were convinced a storm was brewing.

As per the title: see first picture of a fine effort on the most dodgiest looking scaffolding I've ever seen. We got a fine big bag of Kampot pepper and booked our bus to Can tho: Vietnam. We'd a bit of bad luck with the bike itself enroute back to town we got a flat so I had to walk the thing 2 kilometres.

We headed to Rikitikitavi again as the food was just so good the first run, as were in 'rural' Cambodia the electricity is hit and miss and frequent short blackouts are a common occurrence.

I'm sad to leave this beautiful country and it's friendly people behind..lets home Vietnam is half as nice.