Crossing the border,

My diary entry from 1:30pm, on the bus to Phnom Penh.


Just crossed over the border into Cambodia, and what a strange experience that was! Dogs and chickens running everywhere, dust clouds filling everyones eyes, nose and mouth until you can't breathe. 'There is a gap of about 300m between the Cambodian side of the crossing and the Vietnamese side. Between the two points are rows and rows of casinos and clubs, with signs saying "Welcome to Ha Tien Vegas!"We decided that the rules must get a bit foggy in this dusty no man's land, so it would be the perfect spot for something as dodgy as a mini world of casinos. The only semi official thing about the crossing was the stamps, the security checkpoints are pretty much just little huts in the sand, with guys in hats propped up behind a desk. It was unnerving relinquishing our passports for even a second, especially when we found out that our group had somehow ended up with some other guys passport-he was going a few hundred k's in the opposite direction :S 

We walked through the sandy wasteland for about 600m, got some stamps and a visa, and piled back onto the bus. The whole interior of the bus was completely caked in the red dirt, so when we finally had to change buses we all looked like we'd been on safari with Bear Grylls for a week. We drove through the Cambodian countryside for about 4 hours, and finally arrived in Phnom Penh 3 hours behind schedule. Stepping down from the bus steps is like descending into a churning ocean of tuk tuk and moto drivers. Absolutely overwhelmed, we tried to find our bags amongst the growing pile whilst fending off the yelling and grappling. "Lady! Lady!"they scream, grabbing your arm and trying to pull you over to their tuk tuk before you go with someone else. "Guesthouse!" "Hotel"-they yell anything to try and get your attention. I have never been so glad to look up and see two people I know, standing amongst the swarming crowd. Lucy and Rob (two people we met in Vietnam) picked the four of us up from the bus and walked us to their guesthouse just around the corner. We checked in, and then made our way to the market- delirious with hunger! There were 8 of us at dinner, and I think we ate them out of work! We pointed at a handful of random things on the menu, and for about 2 hours the dishes just kept coming! So much food. It was such a fun thing to do, actually having to figure out what is on your plate. Thank God it was dark because I don't know how much I would have eaten if I could have seen it properly! Haven't been sick yet though, so fingers crossed :D

Can Tho.

Ok so I'm jumping a little bit back in time, to tell you about the night we spent in Can Tho before we went to Phu Quoc Island. After an amazing day of touring the Mekong Delta; drinking tea, eating local fruits and seeing how they make coconut candy and rice wine (an interesting combination) we pulled into the riverside town of Can Tho. The bus ride hadn't been bad, but we were ready to get off asap when we saw ourselves stopping outside an amazing hotel in the main street. As we pulled up, Claire and I squealed with delight, hypnotised by the glow of the neon signs reading "jacuzzi"and "sauna." The reality soon set in, however, as we realised that we were dropping off two people from the group who could obviously afford to pay a little more, and thought themselves to be above the "simple accommodation"offered on the brochure. We were most certainly put back in our place as we turned the corner and made our way, on foot, through the flood waters in the street beside the jacuzzi hotel. Damn. Haha. We didn't let it get us down though, because we thought we would freshen up and treat ourselves to a nice dinner. Armed with a fistful of cash and some clean clothes, we ventured out into the streets of Can Tho. The streets themselves left a bit to be desired, but the riverside area was just beautiful! Parks and walkways stretch along the bank, which is dotted with little benches and statues, as well as street vendors and restaurants. We walked for a little while, but then got this uneasy feeling that people were staring at us. Little eyes followed us everywhere, people on bikes were craning their necks to look back at us over their shoulders, groups of girls looked at us, then talked to each other and all stared again. We started freaking out. First I thought that maybe I had a piece of toilet paper hanging off my pants or something, then we started thinking that maybe there is some secret way to wear your scarf that means you're a prostitute, and we had somehow accidentally stumbled upon it. We decided to get off the street, and so we ducked into the first little restaurant we came across. From the minute we walked in we were treated like queens, it was incredible. We both had sauteed vegies with lemongrass and chilli. Absolutely fantastic! We paid for it, and thought we would retreat back to the hostel, considering how uncomfortable we felt, and thinking that maybe we were offending people somehow. The girl out the front was staring at us but trying not to make it obvious. Sweet. We went to leave, and said thank you to her as we passed, at which point she started absolutely gushing over our "beautiful skin"and my blonde hair. Who would have thought that being pasty as would bring such compliments. We asked her if we were doing anything wrong, or dressing strangely, but she just said that we were beautiful and had lovely *pale* skin. Very flattered (in a weird way) we left the restaurant with a little spring in our step. You might say the compliments went straight to our heads, and we decided to wander up the river a little more seeing as we were 90% sure that we weren't advertising sexual favours. A group of 5 people-4 girls, one boy- approached us shyly about 100m on, and asked if they could talk with us to improve their english conversation. They were adorable! Especially the boy, who was the vietnamese version of Carson from Queer eye. Haha. They were pretty great at English, and we sat with them for a while just chatting about life and school in vietnam. It's always a tad awkward, but they were the same age as us, so we had heaps to chat about. They bought us each these gorgeous little roses that a lady was making from ribbon on the street. They also got us each a bird that she had made from this ribbon. We were so flattered! They thanked us for talking to them and we wished them luck in their studies. We were so happy to have met such great people, and felt really lucky to have had that chance to talk to people our own age. Then these four little girls came running over to us, no doubt they had seen the roses and birds, which we gave to each of them. Their little gap toothed grins were just priceless. We took a photo of them with their gifts, and I'm smiling now just remembering the way they skipped and jumped back to their parents. It was such a good feeling to see them so happy and amused with such trivial little things. Compliments, lovely people and cute kids. Needless to say, we loved Can Tho!

Phu Quoc Island

For the last 3 days we have been in absolute paradise! We arrived safely after a hellish journey from Saigon, complete with taxi drivers trying to rip us off, lots of yelling in Vietnamese and some seriously dangerous cramming in a minibus. It has all been worth it though, we are staying in a little bungalow about 50m from the beach, complete with hammocks, a little porch, lots of sand and a gecko which we named Loretta. The power only comes on between midday and 8:30pm, so that makes things fun when you forget a torch! We have been strolling down to the beach every morning, having breakfast (and the BEST coffee) with our feet in the sand, sipping out of coconuts and getting massages, jumping in the sea to cool off and then just like that it's dinner time and we're faced with the biggest decision of our day, what to order! It certainly is a far cry from the lives we were living this time last year! On the first night, we treated ourselves to some incredible cocktails, and lounged in the ocean-which was like a bath. It has rained a couple of times, but usually only at night, and we are managing to score some beautiful sunny days. A few days ago we got some coconuts and got the guys at the restaurant to chop them open for us. That was all fine until we thought it might be nice to roast them over the barbeque-to the absolute bewilderment of the locals. Everyone crowded around to stare at the weird foreigners with no idea how to eat a coconut, and we were equally as confused that they had never even tried it. As we sat down to eat, I sprinkled some sugar over the top to sweeten it up a little, which was obviously way too much for the old lady sitting opposite who began shrieking with laughter and collapsed into hysterics. I had to stop with the sugar for fear of causing her a heart attack! We met up with the 9 people who we had been seeing all the way down, so we have had a few really good nights with them. We spent almost the whole night in this one deserted bar called Amigos, just the 11 of us playing card games and hanging out. It was so much fun! Then last night we thought we'd venture out and try somewhere different, but that backfired when we ended up in what was obviously a strip club and filled with ladies that were definitely actually men... That was fun. Most of them went off to Cambodia today, and so we are waiting to hear how it goes before we book our trip. It's so weird to think we are nearly done in Vietnam, but at the same time it feels like we have been here for years! We are missing some home comforts, muesli, our own beds and our families, but we are having so much fun. Today we are looking at another day lounging in the sun, most definitely some more Vietnamese coffee, and possibly a dip in the ocean. Wow, life is hard.

Recent events.

Ok so I have been a bit lazy with updating lately, but we have had a pretty full on couple of days! in the last post, we were heading off to dalat on the night bus. it was a serious journey (12 hours!) but we managed to sleep most of the way. Luckily we werent near the bathroom this time, but we might as well have been because the b.o coming from the guy below us was actually the scent of death! I spend most of the trip with a packet of chips over my mouth and nose to try and block it out. Ugh im shuddering just thinking about it. Anyway, we got to nha trang and it was underwater like they had predicted. We were congratulating ourselves on deciding to go to dalat until the driver stood up and said that there would be no busses to dalat that day, and he couldn't guarantee there would be one in the next week. With nothing else to do, we decided to get back on the bus-another 12 hours on the dreaded bus! that passed pretty easily though, and pretty uneventfully, and just like that we were in saigon! That night we were so exciting- we went and tried fruit shakes at like, 5 different places to suss out the best ones. We stayed in this horribly dodgey place with cracks in the walls and a rooster literally just outside, weird because we were on the 4th floor...The next day i was feeling a bit sick, so i went back to the (different, obviously) hotel while claire went to see the museum and stuff. Welll, thats what she told me she was doing. He came back to the hotel about 8 hours later looking like she was about to faint. She managed to get so completely lost that she went about 5 ks in the wrong direction and had to get a school girl to tell her she was in district 5. We were staying in district one... That night we met up with some of the other backpackers who we seem to bump into in every town, to this place called le pub. We had a couple of drinks and then this random 34 year old vietnamese guy was trying to impress someone on our table so he bought everyone cocktails (sweet!) and started talking about his job (accounting, not so sweet) Needless to say, we took full advantage of the situation, im not one to say no to free mojitos! After le pub we jumped in a taxi and went to this club called apocolypse now. We had so much fun! It was absolutely packed, and the dancefloor was massive. They played heaps of western music, but i think it as half half tourists and locals. We haven't been out together properly in ages, so it was probably the best night so far :) we got home at around 2, because we had a 6am start the next day. We got out of the taxi and realised that the hotel had locked us out! Freaking tthat we'd have to sleep on the street, claire started frantically ringing the doorbell until this lady opened the door. The poor thing, im not going to lie, she looked like hell. She had about 20% eye openage happening-maximum. Im surprised she even made it to the door. We laughed for about 45 minutes about it when we walked up the millin steps(not exaggerating) to our room. The alarm went off about 3 hours later for us to get up and go to see the cu chi tunnels. It was 2 1/2 hours to get there, but the man driving had attatched this god damn clanging charm to the bus. It was like someone scraping their knife wrong on a plate, or nails on a chalkboard. But LOUD. I thought i was going to have a breakdown halfway there. Wasn't helped by the fact we were pretty hungover. We were tip top by the time we got there and found it really interesting. Our guide was great, and i even jumped in a hole. We got to run through the tunnels, using the local one rather than the tourist one which has (ironically) been widened to accommodate for fat westeners. Go figure. I went first because i couldn't think of anything worse than beingandwiched in ntunel between two slow and sweaty people. I pretty much ran the whle way, but at some point i had to crawl, there were parts in total darkness, and every now and then it just dropped away below you. I freaked at one point when whacked my head on a couple of bats on the roof of the tunnel. Delightful. That night we went for dinner at this place we'd been to the night before. We had come across two restaurants opposite each other, that had exactly the same menu's. This is not uncommon in Vietnam, as it seems that as soon as someone finds success doing something, everyone sets up an identical enterprise right next door. We decided on the on the left, and sat upstairs looking back down on to the street. We ordered soo many fruit shakes (only 50c each!) and the waitress took down our meals. She disappeared downstairs and 10 seconds later we saw her run across the road to the other place. Naturally, we were a little confused as we watched her, but this only intensified as we saw her clip our order to street vendor stall just outside what appeared to be the kitchen. We actually sat and watched our meals being prepared on the street from the second floor of the opposite building. Haha! When the food was ready, the waiters loaded up their arms with plates, crossed the crazy street traffic and came up the stairs! Despite the curious arrangement, the meals were amazing! I got a whole roast pumpkin, with the middle cut out and filled with risotto. Best ever!

Hoi An

Today is the last of almost 3 days in the so called "sleepy" town of Hoi An. We have had a pretty interesting time, but still can't figure out if we like it or not. Driving in to the town, we were so excited and fell in love at once with the old style houses, the colourful boats on the river and the prospect of getting any garment at all made to fit you perfectly. That's where the trouble began. I'm a pretty indecisive person in general, but when you have hundreds of different patterns, materials, styles and modifications to consider, you can get very confused very quickly. Just choosing which tailor shop to go to (there are over 200 in the small town) is a mammoth effort in itself. There are even places where you can get shoes made to fit you exactly, complete with your own design and colour. We went to almost every shop, hoping to find some kind of sign that this was "the one" but after a whole day and a half of wandering, we just picked a couple of random ones and hoped for the best. Claire got 2 dresses, a suit blazer, 2 pairs of shoes, a silk shirt, skirt and 4 dress shirts made in various locations around town. This made it interesting when we had to co ordinate multiple fittings at different times, the difficulty in actually finding the places only adding to the fun... It is a novelty to have clothes made this way, but as we are all finding out, it can be really unnecessarily stressful! I was so overwhelmed for the entire time that I only just got a dress made today, with this adorable lady who completely restored our faith in Hoi An and the tailoring business in general. She was sweet and gentle, and really did want to make us happy as her customers. When I couldn't decide on anything, she told me not to buy something for the sake of it, because it would never be right. She made Claire the most beautiful things out of everything she bought, and so e went back every single day. She was so happy when I finally decided on something, and spent the afternoon helping me plan it. The enjoyment she got from making the things for us really showed, and made the whole experience really wonderful. We have spent the whole of today telling everyone to go there.
There seems to be a group of about 20 of us (backpackers) who all end up in the same towns at around the same time. It is the most bizarre thing to be walking down the street in a Vietnamese town and bump into people you know more often than you would at home. It's great though, we all went out last night and the night before, and feel so lucky to have met such an amazing group of people. We had a couple of cocktails at a good spot after dinner, but were keen to head back to the hotel by about 11. The weather has been a bit horrible, with flooding and rain, so we weren't surprised when it was drizzling as we started walking home. Two minutes later it had turned into a torrential downpour and we were stranded out in the street getting absolutely soaked. All we could do was laugh and run, trying not to slip over or fall in a puddle as we tried to navigate our way past bikes and what appeared to be waterfalls coming off the roof of every shop. It was so funny.
This morning we got up bright and early (we didn't need an alarm clock because we have been woken at 6:30am on the dot every morning by some man hucking up his lungs in the next room. Yummy.) and decided to hire a couple of bikes. We spent a couple of hours just biking around, seeing some of the less busy areas of Hoi An, where it is much more peaceful and there are less hoards of camera wielding foreigners. We stopped at a little food market and Claire got into this massive bartering argument with one lady, who stole her money then gave it back and succeeded in confusing the hell out of me. It ended with Claire in possession of 4 lychees and a smack from this crazy laughing lady.At one point during our ride, a man went past us on a motorbike and looked at us over his shoulder for long enough for it to be a little creepy. About 50m ahead he pulled over and got off his motorbike, and proceeded to unzip his pants (yes, it is what you think) and shout "hello" as we went by. I think he was after a bigger reaction than us just looking the other way, but we're still unsure just what he was trying to achieve.
On a lighter note, there is this one lady walking the streets of Hoi An who has made my stay in this town completely worthwhile. She is old and slow, and is the master of what can only be described as heaven in a bowl. You can hear her from miles away, this incredibly distinct call of what sounds like "Cow Hong Laow" but is most probably something completely different. It is (apparently) boiled down soy beans, and is one of the hardest things to explain, let alone make it sounds as appetising as it actually is. It has the appearance of natural yoghurt, the consistency of jelly, and tastes like sweet porridge. She puts grated ginger and some kind of sauce on top, which tastes a bit like golden syrup. Oh my god. Today, I saw her across the street and heard her calling out whatever it is she calls, and my stomach literally somersaulted with excitement. I am pretty sure I ran across the road to her I was that happy! Claire just laughed but it was most definitely  the best part of my day!
Tonight we are going on the sleeper bus again, 12 hours, but hopefully we can snag a seat that is more than 2 feet from the toilet. We have decided to bypass Nha Trang because it's waist deep in water, but are heading for the higher ground of Dalat instead. Altogether I think we're in for 20+ hours of travel. Good thing we bought books!