Okay, deep breath. Sometimes it is so hard to start a new post because it is just so overwhelming, but here I go. First off thanks to all of you who have written or commented on my blog. It is really good to hear from people. I may seem busy, but mail from home is always great.
So, on to my exploits. Well, when I last left off I was in Saigon. I had a nice, if somewhat tame, time there. Had a funny experience when I wandered down a side street and found a new street food option. I gave the woman a look like, what is it? She points to a sign in english--fried rice flour. So, I thought, okay, why not? So she has me sit down, beaming, she's so excited that I want to eat her food. She offers me fruit while I wait. Then the rice flour comes out. It is in 3 cm rectangles, looks kind of like tofu, but wonderfully fried. on top is an egg and it is served with some lime and a special sauce. Omg, it is delicious. I can't remember when I've had anythigng so good. The best part though, was that she kept telling this kid to tell me things. Like that I should scoop it up with the spoon, not the mini oyster fork thing that I have, that's just for putting it on your spoon apparently. She just sits there the whole time I'm eating, just beaming. I keep telling her, so good, I take a picture, she's just so happy. As I''m ready to leave she hands me a whole bunch of fruit to take with me. I don't really want it, but I think it would be rude not to take it, so I take it and search for some poor child to give it to.
Speaking of food, while in Saigon I also ate what they call a kabob sandwich, which we would call a gyro. Oh, heaven again. the meat was succulent, and the veggies fresh, the bread hot and the sauce to die for. Mmm, my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it. Those are the main new foods I've had in the past week.
The delta tour was fun. It wasn't a ton of biking, more like ride for an hour, have some coffee and fruit, ride for an hour, take a boat ride, etc. But it was really great to see life on the delta and I think I saw more than I would have just being on a big boat. Our guide was really good and the group was fun-an Irish couple in their thirties and a Danish couple in their forties. Strangely, the two 65 year old Danish women that I thought I was going with weren't there. Anyway, we saw a lot of people washing clothes, cooking, working on their houses, etc. We also saw a brick factory where we were able to see the whole process from beginning to end. The delta with so much in the way of natural resources and that coupled with access to many parts of Asia via the river makes it kind of a bees nest of activity at all times. We also saw the floating markets which is basically a bunch of boats on the river with whatever they are selling advertised via a large stick that shoots up vertically waving their product i.e. pineapple, potatoes, clothing.
At the end of the trip we asked our tour guide about getting a massage. Ahh, I had just written this whole story and then the power went out and I lost it. So, I'll try again but I don't know how good it will be. So, we asked our guide about massage. He points out a hotel we should go to. We wind about 10 minutes through the streets of the not very exciting town of Can Tho. We enter into this hotel, seems pretty fancy. Bellhops in some serious old school uniforms. We are led up stairs and my eyebrows raise. The floor is a bit dingy, there's kind of an odd blue light and there's a sign for karaoke (for those of you that read my last blog post, you catch my drift). But, there's still a really nice pool and well, we've been sent by our guides, so okay, whatever. We negotiate down the price to $8 since there's so many of us, stilla bit expensive but I've got Vietnam Dong to burn as I'm leaving the country in a day, so I figure, why not? I decide to do body massage along with this older dutch couple who were on a different tour with our same company. Sioban and Simone, two women from my tour opt for foot massage. So, I'm waiting for the body massage room bc, as the guy tells us, the clients need to get dressed. Eyebrows raise again. Then, out of each room comes a girl in a short pink mini-skirt with an asian guy hanging on to her, arm around her shoulders, looking extremely smug. There are about seven of them, they just keep coming. I'm like, oh no, I'm outta here, I'm switching to foot massage. The manager/john, oh no madam, no problem, you have your own room. I was like, no, I'm switching. So I go running into the foot massage room, which at least looks like a normal room and is in the open so there's safety in numbers. Simone and Sioban are like, what's wrong? I tell them, which completely horrifies Simone. A few minutes later, the Dutch couple come in to our room. I guess the girls kept winking and beckoning the guy. They were disgusted. Anyway, we all get subpar foot massages and after a forced tipping find out that the girls don't get paid at all, only tips. Simone's like, well, what are we paying $8 for, he's like, for me, I'm the manager. Oh, that was pretty much the icing on the cake for her. She was so pissed. It is all pretty sad, disturbing and disgusting.
Anyway, we recovered from that and the next day I moved on to Chau Doc, along with David and Sioban so that we could take the speed boat to Phnom Penh. The boat ride was long, about 7hrs, I thought it was meant to be 5. Frustrating beacuse I had to pay $60 to get out of Vietnam as a bribe bc i overstayed my visa. Before you tsk tsk me, just listen. Everyone I talked to told me it should be no big deal, maybe $2 a day, and I should be able to negotiate with them. This was from vietnamese people and ex-pats and even my tour company. So, I believed it. But unfortunately, I couldn't even talk to the official bc there was some middle man from the boat who was doing it all for us. So irritating, as I'm sure he got his part of the action as well. Anyway, I eventually paid it, after trying every angle. Apparently, my other option was to go back to Saigon (at this point, I'm in the middle of the Mekong river, hours and hours from Saigon) wait 5 days for an extension and pay the fee of 2million dong (about 100 dollars). I tried arguing it, but the guy just kept saying, the law the law. Yeah, I'll bet we're really adhering to the law here. Anyway, it is just money, but now I've got 60 less.
And, we had one scare where the boat screeched to a halt. All of these Australian people start screaming, what happened, what happend? The boat driver runs to the back of the boat, and so does 2/3 of the passengers. I'm like, would everyone just relax and balance the boat. What a shock, the staff of the boat tell them to move to the other side, we're stuck in some reeds. The boat crew tear off their clothes and hop in the water to free the boat. They were under there for quite some time but eventually got us free. It was a bit freaky, but even more so for Sioban who can't swim. We just talked about my vampire book and kept her mind off it and all was fine.
Next, I spent a day in Phnom Penh. That city is a bizarre mix of really poor people begging on the street and really rich people driving around in giant suvs with the name of the make plastered on the side just in case you missed that it was a lexus. The streets are really big enough for suvs, cars, motos and tuk tuks, so it is a bit of mess. It is quite a bit quieter than Vietnamese cities and the people are a bit more chill. However, it kind of smells like gabage and it is really dirty. I actually stayed a little away from the touristy area, which was odd bc i was in the midst of car dealerships and printing places, but it was nice to see that there's a middle class which you don't see in the tourist section. I spent one night and decided to head to Sihanoukville, the beach and come back during the week to apply for my India visa. I'd like to spend as little time there as possible.
Finally, Sihanoukville, has been a strange time as well. Met three Finnish guys and hung out with them last night. Today I tried to sit on the beach, but the kids with bracelets, and ladies offering pedicure, manicure, massage and threading (a form of waxing) was a bit too much. I got a moto to take me to another beach but there were still people hawking things there. Plus it rained, but at this point, that's not news. It is too bad, bc this town could be really lovely. I started to lose my patience by the end of today and might have even been downright rude when I told a woman she was interrupting--I'm trying to read my book. But there's only so much one can take. Tomorrow I'm off to another town called Kampot. I'm not totally clear on what's there but I think I can get to a national park and do a bit of trekking before I head back to Phnom Penh.
Alright, I've been here forever, I must go rejoin the world. You can look at some photos on picasa if you wish.
xoxo
dina
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