Day 68: Behold the Power of British Twins

Listening: Born to run, baby. Run like a stream down a mountainside with the wind in my back. I don't ever even bat an eye. Just know it was you all along who had a hold of my heart, but the demon and me were the best of friends from the start.

What's my problem? I have less than 24 hours.

I'm not going to go to sleep after three in the morning for the fourth night in a row. I'm just putting that out there. I'm not going to do it. Setting it down for the record. I'm seriously not fucking around.

And besides, the twins are gone.

Furthermore, I have a flight at half eleven tomorrow, which means I have to be at the airport at half nine, which means that I have to leave the hostel at either half seven or half eight, because you never know how traffic is going to work out here in Asia.

Yesterday was a pretty chill day. I didn't do much besides hang out on the internet and walk around a bit until I met the twins for dinner. They were on a quest to find this one shirt that they saw. It said "Allow me to explain it to you in interpretive dance." It was a funny shirt, but we only saw it at one stand and they didn't have it in Clover's size. Sophie did pick up an I (heart) BKK shirt. I saw some of the poi sets that I had been looking for, but they were around five hundred baht before negotiation, so I figured I'd save it for today. I also found the Buddhist prayer beads that I have been looking for as well, and they were two hundred and fifty baht before negotiation.

We actually had dinner in Chinatown. We were searching for dumplings, but didn't really find too much. One restaurant was serving dim sum buffet, but when I went in and looked at the shu mai, it looked like complete crap. They were tiny, and the wrappers looked like they were sitting around, not in the steamer, for ages. I saw that and I told the twins, "We're not eating here. The dumplings look like ass and I wouldn't feed them to a dying dog to euthanize it." Yeah. They looked that bad.

We ended up getting some fried pot stickers, some spring rolls, and I ended up getting some turnip cake. It was all pretty good, but when the pot stickers are deep fried, you lose the beauty of the doughiness. I also wanted to get some Chinese soup that I haven't had in ages, but we had to get back to the Khao San area so that the twins could pick up their laundry before the place closed.

So, for the second night, we hung around Khao San Road. It started with one drink at Silk Bar, then we decided to check out Chart, because they had good music for the past few nights bumping out of their front door, bu when we got there the music wasn't very good. The plan was to stay for one drink. "Lucky" for us, they were doing a two for one drink promotion and we had no clue. So when we each got two drinks, we were quite surprised. From there, we went back to Shamrock, where we were the night before.

Shamrock has a cover band every night, and they're a lot of fun. They play everything from Guns 'n' Roses to Kings of Leon to Eminem to Jason Mraz. It's just a lot of fun. People are all singing along. I almost lost my voice singing along. It was crazy fun.

We got there at around eleven o'clock, and we didn't come out of there until around half past three. Clover was... enthralled with one of the guitarists. Sophie and I had been shooting pool. For some reason, a bunch of Australians felt the need to whip out their cocks in the middle of the bar. It was a generally rawkus night.

Sadly, I had to say goodbye to another set of travel buddies that I had met along the way. I feel like I've known them forever, since I really met them about halfway through my mainland leg of the journey. They were there for my birthday in Halong Bay. I was there when they pulled up in Sapa covered in road dust. I ran into them in Hoi An on the day I left as they were riding their bikes to the beach. And finally I saw them in Siem Reap and traveled with them back here to Bangkok so we could all fly away.

Sophie and Clover are good kids. They had me pegged from the start. They knew what kind of dirty old man I am, and how my sense of humor works. They figured out early that I don't like hanging out with knuckleheads, and that I dig just chilling out and enjoying my drinks instead of skulling them. Smart kids. Very smart kids. I wish them the best of luck in Australia where they're going to try to find work for three months or so. I wish I could join them.

Anyhow, by the time I got back to Sukhumvit, it was, again, four in the morning. Amusingly enough, I saw the same British guy out front smoking a cigarette as I did the night before. He was staying at Soi 1 as well. Today he was off to Koh Phangan.

Now, again, like in Phnom Penh, I am alone. Which is fine. I'm trying to upload some pictures, but again, it's slow going. I miss my Mac and Linh's wireless network. Today I'm planning on going to Pantip, where supposedly, all of the night market and street vendors get their stuff to sell. I might stop by MBK to maybe purchase a new phone since my knock off iPhone Mini won't charge... I'll have to see if I can fix it once I get back to the States. Aside from that, there's not much more on my agenda.

I do have to book at least one night's hostel in Hong Kong though. I'm thoroughly scared though. The price of a bed jumps from ten dollars a night to about twenty five, and even then you're not guaranteed comfort, cleanliness or safety. I'm only booking one night though. I'm gonna stay somewhere crappy on the first night and then that first day I'm going to find somewhere good for the following day. I can't express to you how apprehensive I am about making this booking. I think in order to get a decent place to stay, you're going to be looking at around fifty dollars a night. Over five days, that kills me. For the same amount of money, I think I paid for at least the last three weeks of accommodation. That's just fucked up.

Okay... that's it. I'm not even going to make a booking. I'm just gonna drop into the Tsim Sha Tsui section of Kowloon and try to find a place. I know that if push comes to shove, I can walk into the Chungking Mansion or Mirador Mansion and find hostel with a crappy, bug-infested bed there for forty dollars if need be. I'll try my best not to though.

Wish me luck.

Day 67: The Crap Wagon I and the Crap Wagon II

Listening: I won't hesitate no more. No more. It cannot wait. I'm sure. There's no need to complicate. Our time is short. This is our fate. I'm yours.

What's my problem? I can feel my travels coming to a close. And for the first time I'm regretting not bringing rain gear.

After spending almost three full days of seeing ancient ruins and temples (a feat that all of my friends agreed was insane) in the scorching heat, it was time to take my leave of Siem Reap.

The night that I left, as I walked down the aptly named Pub Street, I saw two girls sitting in a restaurant. They looked very much like each other. They looked like they could be from England. And they were. They were the twins, Sophie and Clover, that I had first met on the boat in Halong Bay, had seen again in Hanoi, Sapa, Hoi An, and now Siem Reap. They expected to not see me again for the rest of their trip, and I had expected the same.

Since I was on the hunt for dinner anyways, I just joined them as they sipped coffee and I chowed on some Khmer style white noodles... which were okay, I guess. We chatted for quite some time before I brought them to the best green lemon and kaifir lime sorbet in the world. Clover had the strawberry sorbet, and Sophie had the rum alcohol and raisin ice cream. It was all really good. If any of you end up in Siem Reap, go to the Blue Pumpkin bakery and get yourself an icy treat.

I told Paolo, another guy that I had met in Halong Bay, that I would meet him at the Ankor What? bar that night, as that's where I had been hanging out every night that I was in Siem Reap. The night before, I was playing wingman for him with this pretty chute bird from Rochester. Unfortunately, when Sophie, Clover and I showed up, he was nowhere to be found, and the Racha girl hadn't seen him either. By the time Paolo did show up, the girl was long gone. Too bad. We just had to work the room a little more then.

All in all, it was a good night. We didn't leave the bar until several buckets were consumed and, for me, a number of beers. It was three in the morning. I had to be ready for the bus at seven in the morning. This meant that I had to be up at six in the morning to finish packing. In reality, I didn't get back to my room until half past three, then I spent a half hour puttering around trying to pack as much as I could then... still a little buzzed. It was kind of a mess, but not nearly as amusing as it could have been given more imbibing.

Two hours of sleep.

Two.

Crappy bus.

Ouch.

Luckily Sophie and Clover were on my bus as well. Unfortunately for them, they each paid sixteen bucks. I paid twelve. It was a craptastic bus that was almost like a yellow schoolbus, but a little smaller. Not quite the short bus, though. The windows opened wide, which was a good thing, because the aircon wasn't working and it was a bazillion degrees out. We stopped two times on the four hour trip to the border. They didn't let us know how long the stop would be or anything like that. They barely spoke two words to us. The information exchanged between the bus people and the travelers was that of a deaf man signing to a blind man three blocks away. It kind of pissed me off. I mean, I was already cranky from lack of sleep and the heat.

What made me say, "If I don't get some information soon, I'm gonna start kickin' people in the balls!" was when we got to the border. They brought us to the departure part of the Cambodian border, and we exited alright, but we weren't told what to do then. Eventually we found out that we had to walk about a kilometer to the Thai arrivals place, where we got our visas.

Once we were through that, we expected a bus to be there for us. No such luck. We had to sit waiting in the scorching sun for at least an hour. Nothing was said to us other than, "You wait here."

We were all hungry. At that point, I had no Thai Baht, no Cambodian Reil, only some US Dollars, which was also the case for Sophie and Clover. I hadn't had breakfast, because, really, who can eat breakfast a mere three hours after you stopped drinking. At the stops, we didn't know how long we had, so we couldn't order food. Now we were in the sun, I had just run out of water, and there wasn't any ATM or any food besides a single cart to be seen.

After a good long waiting period, they told us to follow them, where we walked another kilometer to some songthaews (pickup trucks with benches in the bed and a hood over the top). We rode them ten more minutes to another kind of a restaurant/stop. Again, we didn't know how long we had to eat, but it didn't solve the problem of not having money. They wanted thirty baht for each dollar, when I should be getting about thirty four or thirty five. I had a little bit of baht though, some change that I dug up from the top compartment of my pack where I keep little bits and bobs. I had enough to buy some water. SCORE!

We waited there for quite some time. We saw a bus in the parking lot that looked all shiny and friendly. Mickey Mouse and a bunch of his pals were decaled on the side. It was a big bus too. We knew that the busses were better in Thailand than they were in Cambodia, so we assumed, shiny, new-looking bus... that's what we were gonna get.

After a while, another bus pulled up. This one had the Little Mermaid on the side of it. For some reason, the Buddha was shooting hearts at her too, but that's of no consequence. There was Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian. Nice. Once we got into the bus, we realized that the bus was nice on the outside, but almost as craptastic as the first one on the inside. There were high back chairs, but Sophie, Clover and I didn't get them since we were the last few on the bus. Instead, we were in the back, where there was a semicircular couch/bench that we shared with two other people. Sophie got dripped on by the aircon or rain dripping in from the roof (yeah it started raining). The back of the couch/bench was so low that you couldn't rest your head back unless you scooted your ass almost all of the way off the bench, and then the bottom part of the bench would tilt and slide off. Some of the people in the high back chairs also had issues. Bottom cushions sliding off or were completely detatched. Armrests were rusty, exposed metal. It was awful. I could see it being worse, but it was pretty bad.

We got to Khao San Road at around eight in the evening. Sophie and Clover decided to stay on Ratchaburi near Khao San, but I was booked back in Sukhumvit. We ended up meeting for a late dinner and then hanging out on Khao San until half three. We spent the majority of the night drinking and smoking shisha from a hooka with a pretty cool Thai girl. Never had shisha before. It was crazy smooth, and tasted nice too.

That brings me to today. After two nights of being out until half three, I slept in. I got out of bed at noon and now I'm just chillin'. I'm gonna get a massage (finally), and maybe do a little bit of shopping before I meet Sophie and Clover for dinner.

I have two more days on the mainland before I head to Hong Kong. It kinda makes me sad. I wish I had more time and money, but that's how it goes as a traveler, whether you're traveling for a week, a month or a year. Next time, if I have no time constraints, I'm going to pick up jobs along the way, the way that AJ got a job at Hanoi Backpackers and Julia got a job at the Red Apple Bar. It'll make it easier for me to travel longer and really see places more in depth. But that's it for now. Dunno if the next post is going to be from there or if it'll be from Hong Kong. Either way, in a little more than two weeks, I'll be in my own bed... if only for one night.

Day 63: Walt And Mickey Ain't Got Shit

Listening: Old man, don't lay so still. You're not yet young. There's time to teach. Point to point. Point observation. Children carry reservations. Standing on the shoulders of giants leaves me cold.

What's my problem? Everything becomes a double edged sword.

Seim Reap is a million times better than Phnom Penh. Really I'm only saying that because the traffic is better, the sights to see are cooler, and I've actually met some people here.

The day after I saw the Royal Palace, the Silver Pagoda, and the National Museum, I took the six hour bus ride to Seim Reap. The Royal Palace was cool and all, but all of the parts that I really wanted to see were closed off from the public.

But I rolled into Seim Reap at around three in the afternoon. I just wanted a tuk-tuk into the city center. It was offered to me for a dollar, but the dude wanted take me to HIS friend's guest house and wanted me to commit to having HIM drive me to the temples the next day. I wasn't having any of that, so when I said, "NO. No tomorrow. No guesthouse. Just to the market and that's it." the price went from a dollar to three. I told them all to piss off and I ended up finding a moto driver that would take me for a buck. It was a rough ride with both my pack, my day pack and being on the back of a motorbike, but I survived.

when I got to the city center, the finding of a guest house wasn't nearly as easy as I thought. There were a lot of places in the fifteen dollar range. Of course, they were nice rooms with aircon and cable TV, maybe even a balcony, but I was shooting a little lower. I'm going to be in Hong Kong next week, and I feel the need to brace myself financially.

I ended up having a tuk-tuk driver take me to a guesthouse. He said free of charge. If I like it, I stay. If not, we go to the next one. He seemed like a nice enough guy. Again, the first place I looked got as low as twelve dollars. I wanted lower. So I finally got an eight dollar room at the Green Town Guesthouse. It has a fan and a TV. Actually it's a triple room, but they're letting me have it to myself for the eight bucks. I could have had a single room for five, but it looked like a cell, had no TV and the bathroom was muggy and smelled of mold. My room is worth the extra three dollars. You think it's just three dollars, but three dollars goes a long way here in Asia if you're smart about it.

Since my tuk-tuk driver was so good, I decided to book him for my temple trips. He took me that evening to get my three day pass to the temples of Ankor Wat, which includes the sunset the evening before the pass starts if you go after five in the afternoon.

I passed by Ankor Wat, just because I wanted to save it for the last day, but I could see its greatness. Instead I went to another temple called Phnom Bakheng. It's a temple on a hill. There's not much to explore, but the view of the sunset is amazing.

****Continued on Day 64****

There were an immense number of people on this temple. People would jockey for the best possible position to take pictures of the sunset.

It just so happened that on that particular afternoon, there was a band of clouds that hovered right at the horizon. So, when the sun came down, it hid behind the clouds for the most part. You could, though, see the light of the sun burn through the clouds making a perfect ruby red circle in the middle of the clouds.

I actually went to bed early that night. It had been an early morning getting the bus at tweny past seven in the morning and spending the day on a bus with seats that were just the right size to make them uncomfortable to sleep in.

The next day, I woke up early to meet my driver (whose name is ACTUALLY Boratt) so that we could get a move on seeing the temples. Again, we bypassed Ankor Wat and headed straight for Ankor Thom.

The temple that I saw for sunset the prior night and the view of Ankor Wat from the street as we drove by gave me no real indication of what I was in for. I knew that it was supposed to be impressive, but I wasn't prepared for the sheer awesomeness that was the temples of Ankor. The first of the temples that I saw in Ankor Thom was Bayon. The sheer magnitude of this place was indescribable. There were huge towers that represented mountains, and at least a hundred faces carved into the building as tall as I am and as wide as my wingspan.

I spent a good three or four hours walking around the greater Ankor Thom area, which included other temples, the Terrace of Elephants, which was a sort of raised grassy area where royalty and special guests would watch parades and special events from, as well as the Terrace of the Leper King, which was kind of the same, but had a trench around the terrace that had walls that were covered in intricate carvings.

I spent a solid ten hours exploring different temples and royal palaces that date back to the 11th century. By the time it hit half four, it was time to go see sunset. Since I had seen it at Phnom Bakheng the night before, I wanted to see it somewhere different.

That's when my driver told me that the only two places to see sunset were Phnom Bakheng and Ankor Wat. So, I sucked it up and went to Ankor Wat. I didn't explore much at all when I was there. I was still saving it. Well, sort of. I'll get to that later.

When I got as far back in Ankor Wat as I could, there still wasn't a great place to see the sunset. And then, to top it all off, the workers at the temple started kicking people out. I asked the guard why we were being kicked out, and he said that the only place to catch sunset was at Phnom Bakheng. Oh well. So, before the sun really set, I caught my tuk-tuk driver and headed back to the hotel.

That night I ended up having dinner with some of the people that I met at my guest house the evening before. We had a good time kicking back with some good food and then a few beers afterwards. I think that the gem of the night for me was that I had the most amazing yellow lemon and kaifir lime leaf sorbet. It was the best sorbet that I have ever had in my entire life. My. entire. life.

Today, I woke up early to catch sunrise at Ankor Wat. See, I heard that you have to go every day until you get a good one. This one was lackluster, but it was so early that I've decided that it was good enough. I ran into some guys that I had met in Halong Bay in today's temples. I also saw the Landmine Museum which was pretty cool.

Since I was up so early, I packed it in at two and have spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing around the guesthouse. Tomorrow, I'm starting at half nine and I'll be going straight on through sunset.

Being on these temples make me think a lot about what it means to see the world. I have been to Disney's Animal Kingdom and I've seen how they try to emulate things, carvings and so on and so forth. But once you see the real thing in person, you realize how hollow it can be. It's a distilled, sterilized version of the real thing in 1/100th scale. I wish everyone could be atop some of these temples. I wish that everyone could walk through the maze of rooms and hallways to see the bas-relief carvings. And, I wish that these ruins could last forever, but I know that they're rapidly crumbling despite UNESCO's best efforts. I can't wait to get back to the States so I can upload my pictures. There will be some big picture payoffs once that happens.

Day 61: Lonely Planet Said it Best

Listening: I don’t need anything else to make me feel alive.

What's my problem? Traffic, long distances and pushy tuk-tuk drivers.

Oh, Phnom Penh. It's exotic, it's chaotic, it's beguiling, it's distressing, it's compulsive, it's repulsive. Every day brings a different experience, some a shock to the senses, others that bring a smile, some that confound all logic, others that wrench the emotions."" --Lonely Planet's Southeast Asia on a Shoestring

This place truly is all of that. It's disgusting and intriguing, and most of all frustrating.

I woke up yesterday morning and moved closer into town. Michelle is a weird one. I'm not going to get into it, but she's just bizzare. She caught the tuk-tuk with me to the guesthouse so she could try to exchange her Vietnamese dong (money not penis) for some US dollars to someone on their way to Vietnam. No dice. So, while I checked in, she scurried around to each of the people in the restaurant.

She only had that day to see the sights. She was scheduled to be on a flight at ten that evening. But, instead of sharing a tuk-tuk with me for the day, she chose to go out on her own. It was a financially bad decision for her. It made no sense. The only thing that I could think of was that she really had no interest in hanging out with me. If that was the case, then why did she choose to split a room with me for the last night, when she could have shared with someone else? Whatever. She was weird.

By the time I had finished all of my dealings, it was right around eleven o'clock in the morning. I had planned on going to see the Royal Palace and then to the Silver Pagoda, but whadday ya know? They're closed from eleven until half two for lunch! That's one hell of a siesta. To be honest, with this heat, I don't blame them.

I ended up sitting at a cafe for a bit, reading up on my guidebooks, and then my relaxing book (I've moved on to Alex Garland's The Beach.). I had a rather lackluster lunch, but I think I sacrificed quality for aircon. If you were here you might do it as well.

From there, I hired a tuk-tuk driver for the day and headed out to the Killing Fields, where thousands of Cambodians were killed under the Pol Pot administration and the Khmer Rouge. Three words: Mass. Graves. Everywhere. Huge craters in the ground are all that are left of some of the mass graves. It's almost like you're walking on the raised walls of rice patties, but instead of growing life in the craters, it was where life was ended. In the middle of the "Genocide Center," was a large pagoda that was filled with the skulls, bones and clothes of the victims that were unearthed from the mass graves.

After that sobering place, I went to an even more sobering place. It was an old high school, converted into a prison, where many of the people who were killed in the Killing Fields came from. Tuol Sleng, or S.21 is a five building compound where torture and false imprisonment happened. The mugshots on the walls were eerie. Some of the prisoners were hardly ten years old. They're dead, but their mugshots stare at you as if to say, "Why the fuck aren't you helping me?" Even more sobering than the mugshots were the cells that they preserved. Classrooms were turned into cell blocks, with as many as fourteen cells per classroom. Think about that. Fourteen individual brick or wooden cells in a classroom. It was dark. It was dank. And you could feel the death that happened there. It took me a good hour and a half or two hours to get through the entire compound.

By the time I got out of there, it was already half four. There was no chance that I would be making it to the Royal Palace or to the Silver Pagoda, so my drive took me to the Russian Market, which was just like the JJ Market or the weekend market in Bangkok... except the schwag wasn't as good.

After that, it was dinner and drinks with my tuk-tuk driver and some of his friends, and then a long hot night in a fan cooled room.

Since I didn't get to the Royal Palace or the Silver Pagoda, I decided to stay another day. So that's where I am now. Still in Phnom Penh. I'm going to the National Museum, the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda today. I'm also planning on booking my bus to Siem Reap. I was told recently that during dry season, the boats can get stuck in the mud, and that they really overcrowd the boats as well. I have a feeling that it wouldn't be as pleasant as the Slow Boat to Luang Prabang.

Oh, and I forgot to give you my final impressions of Vietnam. Hmm.... Vietnam was kind of a mystery to me. I had some really good times and some really bad times. I got good vibes and bad vibes too. Overall, I liked it a lot. It definitely got better as I traveled south, but I also think that it had a lot to do with the fact that I met people in the north and kept bumping into them all of the way down the country. It was a beautiful thing.

Here in Phnom Penh, I'm alone again. I have a mere nine days before I fly to Hong Kong. I don't want to stay in Phnom Penh for much longer, but I sure would like to stay traveling in this part of the world for a lot longer.

Day 59: A Rush Through the Delta

Listening: And we learned fast to travel light. Our arms were heavy, but our bellies were tight.

What's my problem? I need a massage, but I'm holding out for Thailand.

Well, I've left Vietnam. I spent two days in Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, one day in the Mekong Delta, and I spent the greater part of today in transit to Phnom Penh.

I got to Saigon early in the morning. It was probably half six, and things were already bustling. I didn't have a room, but I knew where a good place was supposed to be. Across from the Yellow House, a hostel that a lot of backpackers go to, is a hotel called Tan 58. John from Nha Trang/Switzerland had recommended the place. When I got there, the metal gates in front of the door were closed and the lobby behind it was dark. It wasn't strange though. Everywhere was still locked up tight. It was early.

In front of Tan 58 was a little coffee stand. So I sat there with my bags, talked with an Aussie fellow, and had a bit of white coffee (coffee with condensed milk for all y'all not in the know). In about a half hour, the gates opened and I asked about vacancies. No such luck. They were fully booked for the night and this meant that I had to do some serious legwork.

Luckily I was in backpacker central for Saigon. There were about a million independent hotels (no exaggeration) on that street.I saw about four different rooms, all with prices ranging from $8 to $25, but I settled on staying at Hung Loi Hotel for $10 each night.

The room itself was adequate. It was small, but had aircon and cable TV. It did not, however have hot water. When I brought it up to the owner, he said, "Why you need hot water. It 37 degrees today! It hot every day. Aircon important. Hot water no important." He had a point, and I never did miss the hot water.

Since I was there so early, I first headed off to the market to find myself some breakfast. I ended up getting a bowl of glass noodles for twenty thousand dong, or a buck twenty five. It was actually recommended to me by a couple of Australian Vietnamese girls who were already sitting and eating. To be honest, they were okay. They weren't the best noodles that I have had and they were hella hard to eat. They kept slipping out of my chopsticks and spoon.

After that, it was off to the internet to do a little bit of research. I needed to know how I was going to go from Saigon to Phnom Penh. Do I do it by myself, or do I do it with a tour? Do I choose an expensive tour that seems to have a lot of really cool things or do I do a cheap tour? Do I do one night or two nights? I actually spent a lot of time gathering information. I went around to different tour places seeing what they had to offer. By the time I had finished collecting information, it was noontime and I was drenched in sweat.

So, I kicked it back to my room for an hour. I knew that the sights would be closed for the next hour or hour and a half, so I chilled out and enjoyed a shower and the aircon.

In the afternoon, I hit the sights. I first started at the Reunification Palace. It was the place where the tanks crashed through the gates and Saigon fell. Everything was kept as it was when Saigon fell, with the exception of some plaques being put up detailing what each room was for. Overall, it was a little less than impressive. I thought that it would be like the White House or something, but it really wasn't that big. It was four floors and all, but just not impressive. There were hoardes of school groups there making a racket and just generally being unruly, but who am I to talk. I was that way when I was a kid.

After the Reunification Palace, I headed over to the War Remnants Museum. That place was intense. After walking through the gates and seeing all sorts of old war vehicles and weapons, I went into a room that was dedicated to all of the photojournalists who died in the war. There were a lot of prints of their last photos and stories about how they died. It was very sobering.

From there, I went into the "tiger cages." The tiger cages were prison cells where they used to keep war criminals. They were tiny little cells where anywhere from five to fifteen prisoners would be kept. They talked about how the Americans tortured the prisoners and even had paintings depicting the torture methods. That's when it got grim. There were pictures of the victims of Agent Orange, and crayon drawings that Vietnamese kids made asking for peace. It was a rough place to be an American.

From there, I walked around town some more and ended up back at my room around six so that I could have another shower before dinner. When I got to my hotel, I ran into Paolo and Craig, two Indian fellows from London who were on my Halong Bay trip. I had run into them in Nha Trang as well. They said that they were going to eat at the Rainbow Cafe down the street, but when Lydia, a girl I met in Hue and ended up hanging out with in Hoi An, turned up and we went to meet them, they weren't there.

Instead, we went to meet some of Lydia's friends that she had met in Phu Quok. It was a good thing we did too. One of her friends had lived in Saigon for the past six months or so and knew the terrain quite well. We met her at this great barbecue restaurant. By barbecue, I mean like Korean barbecue, not southern barbecue. The menu had a lot of great stuff on it. We just sort of ordered everything and shared. It was a lot of fun and the food was good to boot.

By the time dinner was over, Lydia and I had to rush back to our part of town to book a Cu Chi Tunnels tour. Somehow over dinner, she convinced me to do the full day tour which included the Cao Dai temple in Tay Ninh.

Cao Dai is a sect ov Vietnamese who believe that we all worship the same god and proceeds to combine a number of religions and philosophies such as Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity and Islam. It's pretty hokey. I did, however have the privelage of seeing a ceremony of theirs. It was cool seeing all of the monks and nums bowing and singing. I dunno if it was worth the three hour bus ride, but it was something to see.

The Cu Chi Tunnels were quite an experience as well. Talk about communist propaganda. They talk about a girl who has to pick up a gun to avenge her family who was killed by the "crazy devil" Americans. I got to see a bunch of the different types of traps that they used to hurt and kill American soldiers. I went into the tunnels for about sixty or so meters. They were hot as hell. I can only imagine how they were in the hottest part of the season. I was sweating balls.

That night, I went to Pho 2000 for dinner, a place that President Clinton went to on his visit to Saigon. I have to say that it was some damn good pho.

Oh, I totally forgot. The day before, I went for pho for lunch and ended up meeting an older couple from Malaysia at the pho stall. We talked for a while and he said that his neice, who lives in Saigon, would be going to do some work at Mass General Hospital. He wanted me to get together with her to tell her about the city. I told him that I would try to meet him the next day, but that I wasn't sure what would be going on with my tour and with my friends. Unfortunately, since I went on the full day Cu Chi Tunnels tour, I didn't get to meet his neice.

Yesterday, I checked out of Saigon and hopped on my Mekong Delta tour. Everyone that I have talked to has said that it can be done in a day, so I opted for the Sinh Cafe two day/one night tour to the delta, exiting in Phnom Penh. It was quite a whirlwind. First, it was three and a half hours in a minibus. Then, it was onto a boat, where we saw people making coconut candy, rice paper, and puffed rice. Then, back on the boat to the place for lunch. After lunch it was a four song traditional music performance followed by taking the boat to a ferry. Once on the ferry, we rode to the other side of Can Tho, and hopped back into the minibus. The minibus took us to another bus that we transferred to and rode to Chao Doc.

(If this sounds rushed it's because it was)

We overnighted in Chao Doc, and I shared a room with another American. Her name was Michelle, and she was a Vietnamese American. She spoke the language and everything. We got along well enough and all, and we're even sharing a room tonight in Phnom Penh. It was included in our tour.

This morning, we were woken up at half past six, had breakfast and got on some rowboats and headed up the Mekong. We saw a fish farm and a Cham village, and then took a boat up river to the border crossing.

The border crossing was pretty crazy. We were waiting forever in this god awful heat. The restaurant that they brought us to was wikkid overpriced and though I ate a bowl of pho there, I ended up getting a second lunch at another stall for a quarter of the price. Bastards.

Literally the rest of the day has been spent on that loud ass uncomfortable boat. It was only like the slow boat to Luang Prabang in that it was on the Mekong and it was slow. Other than that it was totally different because it sucked. I don't know if I would have liked to have taken the bus more, but I know that the ride was rather unpleasant.

From the boat, the crowded us into another minibus and brought us to Phnom Penh. I actually only had half a seat to myself. The other half of my ass was over a wheel well. It was like being in the back of a very uncomfortable place. It was an hour and a half before we reached Phnom Penh. And, actually, I'm on the outskirts. I'm going to have to find another hotel to stay in tomorrow night. Hopefully it won't take up too much of my time tomorrow morning. I plan on going to see the Killing Fields and some of the other sights around town. I don't know how long I'm going to stay in Phnom Penh, but so far it hasn't made a great impression. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

Day 55: Farewell Dinner

Listening: Please forgive me, girl, if I say the future is not bright. But please take my hand and we'll have one last dance in the place where we first met eyes.

What's my problem? I only found the fish lady today!

1 Night's accommodation at Backpackers House Hostel: $6
1 BGI Beer at the Red Apple Bar: 15,000 dong ($0.80)
1 Deck chair at the Lousiane: 25,000 dong ($1.50)
4 lobsters, 4 tiger prawns, 3 crabs, 8 scallops, 2 conch grilled: 200,000 dong ($11.25)
1 last meal with your best travel buddy in Asia on the beach with the salt filled air and the aroma of shellfish as the sun goes down while Vietnamese women shout in the background: Priceless.

Day 55: Surprise, Surprise.

Listening: I did my best to notice when the call came down the line. Up to the platform of surrender, I was brought but I was kind. And sometimes I get nervous when I see an open door.

What's my problem? Only fifteen days left on the mainland.

They say that luck is when preparation meets opportunity. There was no preparation on my part. It was just the normal flow of traffic. There was no opportunity. I had to come here either way. My hands were tied. But, lucky, I was.

I took the night bus from Hoi An to Nha Trang with Julia three nights ago. We were both ready to leave Hoi An. We had both been there for four or five days. We had seen the sights, had our clothes made, and have had the local food. We had strolled aimlessly down the quaint Chinese/French streets and heard the touts of tailors and vendors saying, "You buy something from me?" It was time to move on.

Our night bus was a little bit late. It was supposed to pick us up at a quarter to six, but ended up picking us up at twenty past. To be honest, I was getting worried. The bus pulled up to the hotel, though and we hopped on. We chose two sleepers in the back row, thinking that if the bus wasn't filled to capacity, we would have more room. The back row consists of five sleepers across, whereas there are two sleepers on each side of the aisle all of the rest of the way up to the front. With the five across, if there is one person missing, you can just sort of spread out a little more.

That wasn't my our luck that night. Instead, there were three Norwegians, two girls and a guy, who talked extremely loudly the entire night long. Do you know what loud Norwegians sound like? They sound like a fjord is pouring water into your brain. It sounds like a viking is having a vasectomy. It's nothing nice. Or maybe that's just what it seemed like for at least seven hours of the twelve hour bus ride. This all could have been compounded by the fact that I hadn't found dinner before I hopped on the bus and the bus didn't stop anywhere that had any sort of food until around ten at night. It was bull, wait for it... shit.

After the bus ride that wasn't quite from hell, but was from at least one of the seven circles, Julia and I arrived in Nha Trang. Apparently, we got there on the right day, because the day or two before, there was a big rugby tourney that Ireland won. So, there was a big party in the room at Backpacker House that Julia and I were put in. Apparently there was a naked girl who showed up and proceeded to sit on one of the ladders of the bunk beds and urinate all over the floor. Lucky for us, it was all clean, couldn't even tell it had happened, by the time we checked in. To be honest, everything in the dorm looked great. It was near immaculate.

After dropping our bags and getting into our swimmers, Julia and I headed over to the Louisiane Brew House/Relax Club. Louisiane is kind of like a bar/restaurant on the beach that has a pool, deck chairs, a stretch of beach, cabanas, and so on and so forth. It costs 25,000 dong ($1.50) for a chair for the entire day, which is a small price to pay for the luxury that you feel.

We sat at the Louisiane all day long. All. Day. Long. It was brilliant too. I read, wrote a postcard, listened to some music. It was totally relaxing after running around in the heat of Hoi An. The sea breeze was refreshing, as was the pool water. I made some friends at the pool, took a nap. How much more could you ask for?

Prior to coming to Nha Trang, I had heard awful things about it. I heard that it could be any beach town and that it was crazy touristy. I heard that it was a lot of party and that it could be skipped. Truth be told, all of that is accurate. The thing was, it was what I needed right now. I needed some beach days. I needed some relax time. I needed to catch my breath after the Sapa->Hanoi->Hue->Hoi An stretch.

After a day at the luxury club, Julia and I met John. He's a guy who just finished University in Switzerland, and has been traveling around for about four months. He joined us for dinner and then some drinks at the Red Apple Bar next door to the Backpacker House.

It was ladies night that night, so Julia got a bunch of discounted drinks. I was just drinking beer all night. I saw a bunch of people that I knew from different places. There were the Norwegian girls who sang me happy birthday at Halong Bay, along with a couple of British blokes from that trip as well. I saw Annti from Finland, who I had met in Hoi An, as well. It was a good time. I spent a lot of time bouncing from table to table, meeting new people and hanging out with the "old" friends.

The next day Julia and I split. She went on one boat cruise and John and I went on another. After comparing notes, they were exactly the same (including in price). We all had a pretty good time, but, for me, it could have been a lot better. The food was pretty good and plentiful. I think what got me was all of the hidden charges. You had to pay to swim in the Marine Protected area. You had to pay to lay on a beach in a cabana. You had to pay to get into the aquarium. You had to pay for your beers. I miss the days of all inclusive or, at least, just pay for your own booze. I think that the fact that I was shelling out and additional 120,000 dong ($6.50) for all of these activities made me not want to drink as much on the boat. I had heard that it was a booze cruise, but not a single person was even tipsy on the boat.

There was a Vietnamese family on the boat, as well. There were two adorable little girls. I kept trying to make the younger one smile, but she was having none of it. She just sat there staring at me, looking at me like I'm crazy. I even tried to reason with her, telling her that she was a kid and that she was supposed to smile and laugh. Clearly she didn't believe me. I ended up running into the family on the way to dinner in front of a shop. I kind of got a smile out of her then, but I don't think it really counted. That kid could have been classified as a tough crowd. I don't think that even Mike Wazowski could have made that kid smile.

That evening, Julia, John and I walked around town for quite some time. We found ourselves outside of the tourist area and happened upon a restaurant that was PACKED. I mean this place was hopping. It was all locals. So, what do we do? We decide to have dinner there. Not a single thing on the menu was in English. One of the servers, who I think was the owner, spoke very little English. I tried to order grilled lobster, but ended up with grilled squid. Not what I ordered, but really fucking tasty. This stuff was fresh and perfectly grilled. John got some beef noodles, and Julia got some sort of clam and rice soup. To be honest, for two nights in a row, I have won the dinner competition. I ordered the best dishes. The night before, it was beef in boiling vinegar.

After dinner, we kind of got lost. We ended up running into a couple of guys who work at the Backpacker House. They were eating dinner at another restaurant and looked at us like they were wondering, "What the fuck are you doing in this part of town?" Luckily, they pointed us in the right direction, and we made it back okay.

The rest of the night was filled with drinking and dancing. Julia, John, two of his friends and I were all out until three in the morning. It was one of John's friends' birthday, so we whooped it up a bit. I ran into Mikey from Canada/Chiang Mai. He hung out for a while. We all just had a blast. So much so that I'm the first one out of bed this morning.

On the way back to the hotel, I was walking with John and Julia, and what happens? John and I are accosted by prostitutes. Luckily, I just get a back massage, but John gets the full on cock grab, and breaks his flip-flop as he tried to get away. Julia grabbed my camera and tried to take a picture of the action, but the hookers were having none of that. I was afraid at one point that my camera would get smashed. Luckily that didn't happen.

So that brings us back to today. Julia and I are going back to the Louisiane Club to chillax for the day. I'm going to be hopping on a night bus to Ho Chi Minh City tonight at eight o'clock. I think Julia may be getting a job at the Backpacker House for a little while. I don't blame her. If I could do that I would. Maybe next time. Maybe next year. We'll see.

But, much to my surprise Nha Trang has been awesome. I've had a lot of fun and I've relaxed quite a bit. Now I'm off to the heat and the bustle of Ho Chi Minh. Hopefully, I'll meet some more great people there. It'll break my heart to leave Julia. She's been a fantastic travel companion. Hopefully I'll see her on the trail somewhere else, or maybe she'll even visit me in the States. Until then, fuck Facebook. I'll just e-mail her.