Long Awaited

So here’s where I stand now. I’m on Tylenol 3's because I just had a third molar (a.k.a. wisdom tooth) pulled, the same one that got infected in Bangkok. So I’m at my parents house, with only a week left in Canada, using dial-up internet, and trying to load all my cd’s onto my new external hard-drive (which is taking way longer than I would like), typing on the world’s loudest keyboard. Serious, I wish I had ear plugs. But I feel great.
As far as I remember my last blog was when I first entered Thailand. That’s ridiculous. I mean, if any one says ‘Hey, I haven’t read your blog for a while’, instead of scolding them like I used to, I get to tell them that it’s a good thing they haven’t looked, or else they would be disappointed.
So now I have the tough task of relaying my entire 3 months of vacation into one blog. Which could end up super long, but most likely will be a mere synopsis of the actual events.

Assuming my last blog was in Koh Chang, my next stop was Bangkok. It turned out that my friend from Carleton U., Jesse Egger, was selling advertising space in the U.K. Times for medical tourism. He also happened to be selling this space to hospitals in South East Asia, and by even more random chance, was selling to hospitals in Thailand, centered in Bangkok, at the exact time that I was passing through. So, I got to hang out in an amazing serviced apartment in downtown Bangkok for a few days. Then my dear and bestest friend Dave McCarthy flew to Bangkok to begin his adventure.
It just so happens that the day he arrived was the full moon. And for those that don’t know, Thailand is famous for it’s full moon parties. So 6 hours after Dave arrived, we headed back to the airport, picked up his previously lost luggage, and along with Jesse and his co-worker Natasha, hopped a sweet twin-prop down to Koh Samui, then a boat to Koh Phangan, then a sawngthaew to our pre-booked hotel (thanks to Natasha) and then down to the beach for an all night party, with thousands of people and ten djs. Needless to say, for those who like partying, go to Thailand for a full moon. It’s a blast.
After the full moon weekend, Jesse and Natasha had to return to work, but Davey and I were free to do whatever we wanted, and we had 50 days to do it. So we took a boat up to the next island up, which was a small place called Koh Tao. Approaching it was awesome. There were coconut trees everywhere. I see coconut trees all the time, but on this island there were a disproportionate amount of them. And as I later found out, this is because coconuts are a major industry on the island.
We made our way to a hotel, but decided to walk the beach to look for something better. Within 20 steps of being on the beach we saw a couple of Scandinavian girls tanning topless, and along with the blue water and green trees, we both felt like we were in paradise. We eventually made it to the end of the beach, and found an amazing bungalow and settled down. We spent that night and the next day wandering around, enjoying the scenery and deciding whether or not we should go scuba-diving. Turns out it is a very cheap place to do the PADI diver course, and I decided to go for it, while Dave would only need a refresher before doing some fun dives.
Result: I am a certified PADI diver, and Dave and I both were able to experience wonderful diving, lots of fish and coral, and excellent instruction. It was quite fun. The only bummer was that when we weren’t diving, it was raining. We always got lucky that it was sunny while we were on the boat or underwater, but once we made it back to land it was often dreary or raining. Just another nasty day in paradise.

After a week of partying with random people on the island, scuba-diving, and re-uniting with our friendship, we decided to head back to Bangkok to hang out with Jesse and Natasha, and see my dear friend Alex who was still in Bangkok. So we took the same boat (a large catamaran) we had taken to Koh Tao, to the mainland at Chumporn. This was an interesting trip. We went up to the sun deck to enjoy the view, same as the previous trip, but within 10 minutes we had been absolutely drenched by the crashing of the boat on the 10 foot swells. But to seek shelter we had to head inside, where the air conditioning was pumping, making me cold and Dave feel sick. So I tried to sleep while Dave went outside to heal.
We were quite happy to reach shore. We grabbed some food and drink to try and soothe our upset stomachs, and waited for our bus to take us the next 8 hours to Bangkok. The buses in Thailand are generally nice. They are quite spacious and have movies playing. However, we somehow managed to get the worst seats on this bus. I mean, we got the seats that were jammed in to make it a round 40 passenger bus. When the girl in front of Dave leaned back, he literally could not move. It was a bearable trip do to a couple movies and Dave’s ipod, and at long last we were in Bangkok. And we headed straight to the pimp palace of Siri Sathorn for the comfort of our friends apartment.
We did a lot of hanging out in Bangkok. Dinner’s, shopping, movies, bars, Pat-Pong and enjoying the tuk-tuk rides through crazy Bangkok traffic, while breathing the terrible Bangkok air. We were spoiled by the luxury or our apartment, and got to see Alex the night before he flew to Myanmar. The only downside of Bangkok was the infection I got in my third molar, and the trip to the doctors office that cost me money and told me that I was going to need surgery, basically as soon as possible (of which I am now recovering from). And after 6 days in the big smoke, we headed up north to Chiang Mai, a major tourist attraction in Thailand, and the second biggest city in the country (250,000 - which is amazing because Bangkok has about 9 million).
Our ride was awesome because we were up top on the bus, at the very front with a big window for our enjoyment. When we got there, Dave right away jumped on the trekking bandwagon. He had a desire to see the countryside, and I had a budget that wouldn’t allow it. So we separated for 3 days. He went hiking and took an elephant ride and a bamboo ride down a river etc. etc., while I stayed in the city and did some writing and exploring. When Dave returned, we only had one more thing to accomplish before we went into Laos: to see a Muay Thay fight. And that we did. We got ourselves there with the help of Dave’s guide, the wonderful Captain Jack Sparrow, and then we got ourselves a bottle, and the good times began. We met a couple other guys there, and Dave won some money betting. We then hit the town with the guys to see what Chiang Mai could offer us. It offered us fun. The next day we chilled out and got a body massage from the blind before taking the night bus to Laos.
The bus was not too bad, but it got us to our destination about 3 hours before we expected. It was 2 am, but we weren’t supposed to arrive until 5. The man offered us beds for 50 Baht ($3) so we took that and slept until noon. A couple people on the trip were quite upset at what happened, and thought they were being taken for a ride. But in the morning it was obvious that we were in the right spot, and everyone had set out on their proper paths.
Thailand Analysis: Thailand is filled with pleasant people and stunning scenery, but compared to the countries around it, has become far to accustomed and jaded to the tourists. Though it offers great tourism, it is expensive for budget traveling, and has nothing that specifically calls to me, other than the islands. However, by no means am I telling you not to go, as I’m sure you will have an excellent time. Hey, it’s the tropics.
When we got into Laos, we had to spend the night in Huoay Xai, (I’ve seen 5 different spellings for this name, who knows??) because buses only left in the morning. So we went to the local Red Cross and had ourselves a sauna. Soooooo refreshing. Nice herbs, and a glass of tea afterwards. We attempted to join the Gibbon Experience (a ropes course throughout the Nam Tha forest reserve), but it was all booked up and the girl wasn’t very friendly.
In the morning we took our mini-bus to Luang Nam Tha in the north, and got to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Laos. We arrived in this seemingly small, slow town, which is one of the biggest towns in the country, and began our Laos adventure. First thing that happens after stepping out of the bus is that we are approached by 3 ladies dressed in traditional dress (I believe Yunnan Chinese dress) selling handmade goods for cheap. These ladies appealed to Dave, and ended up being our friends for the next week as we went back and forth from their home turf.
We had a nice bike ride around the area, checking out a waterfall, a temple, biking through the back woods and coming across a graveyard, then a town, and then a wicked bamboo bridge across a river where the children were either playing in the water, or returning from school. We also stopped by Green Adventures, and booked a two day kayaking trip down the Nam Ha river. We then went to celebrate, and met a couple older gentlemen that were doing a dirt-bike trip around Laos that sounded awesome. Then came the girl from Oregon. Apparently Dave’s Canadian accent and pronunciation of Oregon (O-ra-gone) was not acceptable, and she became upset when we said “Oh, so it’s pronounced Oregon. Like organ donor?”. After that she wasn’t our friend.
Our trip had 6 people on it, and it was awesome. Though it was done in 2-man inflated kayaks, and the rapids were quite poor (i.e. not exciting nor death defying), it was wonderful to coast down the river weaving through dense jungle, and seeing tribes fishing or farming all along the way. We stopped at one of the villages to have a look around, and eventually came to the village where we would spend the night. A group of ladies was waiting for us there with goods and beer to sell. The night was spend under the magic of the Laos sky, by a fire, and ended with all of us asleep on our beds under the bug nets in our one room shack. The pictures and crafts from this village are priceless.
The next day when we arrived at Luang Nam Tha again, we settled in for a quiet evening. Watched a little footy, cried to Lady in the Water, and slept, preparing for our adventure the next day that would take us to Xieng Kok. I had asked my friend Jack where I should go in Laos, and he said to rent a bike and drive to Xieng Kok. So we did. Driving is the way to travel. Having the freedom of a bike, the warmth of the air, and the speed is just wonderful. It beats a bus any day. Though pack light, cause riding with 30 kg or stuff on your back or between your legs is not nearly as fun. But seriously, do bike trips. The first part of the trip was awesome, driving through mountains on a paved road. But from Muang Sing to Xieng Kok, the road was awful, dusty, and long. It took us quite a while to get there, and when we arrived at late afternoon, we were happy to find a beautiful bungalow on a cliff above the Mekong River, looking at Myanmar, for a pidly 5,000 kip per night, or five dollars. We only had power from 6:30 until about 10:30, but that’s all you need, if that. We spent two nights there, experiencing a town where travelers almost never go, restaurants don’t want to cook for you, there are no fruits or vegetables, and it only cost us $30 for the both of us including basically drinking our faces off. A budget of $7.5 per day per person...... absolutely incredible. And then we had to drive back, which obviously was no more pleasant than the drive there, but with no where to be, we could take our time.
Our next destination was Luang Prabang, which meant an eight hour bus ride, which turned into the craziest bus ride in the world. First there was an exploded tire. Then the seat in front of Dave collapsed on him, and Dave and another guy turned it into a lounge seat. Then the seat in front of that had a leg go right through the floor. And after 10 long hours we eventually arrived safe and sound, and found a sweet room in a good location just before a couple other dudes from the bus walked in. It was the last room.
Luang Prabang is beautiful. Situated on the convergence of the Mekong and another river (which escapes my right now), it is the second largest city in the country, is a UNESCO world heritage site, and is very french influenced with loads of french architecture and loads of retired french people spending lots of money. The markets here are also the best markets I have ever seen, with some of the nicest crafts in the area. When we first came across one, it was at night, and the small street was all lit up with lights, and it looked marvelous. The people are wonderful, the crafts are wonderful, and the prices are quite wonderful too.
We spent the evening getting a full body massage with a seaweed wrap, which was nice, but we did it at the end of the night and did not get the best service around. The next day we just walked all day, finding different things to do and see. Mostly temples, and talking to a monk at the mountain pagoda. We also happened to find the children’s cultural centre which was putting on a performance that night. So we returned for the performance. It was awesome. It started with a traditional ceremony of sharing food, and the elders placing string around our wrists for health, good luck etc. Then the band started, and a puppet show began. After the puppet show there were 5 traditional dances. They showed traditional dances or the farmers, of specific tribes, and of how boys and girls of different tribes dance and act when they meet each other. Instead of grinding up against each other in the clubs, they have elaborate dances, set up by the villages, in order to encourage children to date outside the tribe (non of that pesky incest!). It was truly amazing, and lovely to see that they are preserving their traditions among the young generation.
The next morning we made our way to Vang Vieng, of which we had heard plenty about. Here you can go tubing down the river while drinking at several bars and enjoying rope swings and zip lines. And it was all true. Our first evening I decided I wanted to eat street food, which was a mistake that pretty much dictated the rest of our trip. Directly after eating I went to the bank machine and felt a nasty ball of gas inside of me. After releasing it (and running from the ATM), I found Dave in quite the same discomfort. Mine disappeared, but Dave kept getting worse and worse. In the morning we found a place to do rock-climbing, but Dave was a little sick still. He really wanted to climb, so we kept on going with the trip anyway. Well, once we got to the site it became clear that we weren’t climbing. Dave spent about an hour (at least) purging his body. And even if it was fully purged, there was no way he would have energy to climb. And so our climbing dude let us leave, and we had a pleasant boat ride down the river back to base camp. We ended up at a popular beach place (actually the place we had been to the night before, it’s a big party place with fire pits and lots of people. We met Carrie and Ko-dog the night before as well. More on them later) and got ourselves a hut with a couple hammocks. Here we spent the rest of the day. We ordered food and healthy drinks, and had a great time. That evening we met up with Carrie and Ko-dog, and their friend Mitch came along. Mitch and Carrie are fellow Canadians, while Ko-dog is a filthy American, who we can forgive because she is a wonderful person (just like most Americans I know :). As a result of our hanging out, we decided to go tubing the next day. However, we had to go out that night to celebrate. My wonderful, tough friend Dave trudged it out with us for a while, and we had an good night at some seedy bar with a group of Irish people that make my friends look tame. We aimed to get going at 10 am, but of course it took longer, and we eventually made it to the rental place at noon. It took another hour to get going, and we eventually hit the water around 1. Five minutes later we were stopped at the first bar with a couple more people in group. In fact, we had a bunch of Aussies, and a new group of Canadians we had just met at the bar. There were about 25 people that left that bar at one time.
The next bar had a zip line, which gave us plenty of fun, and that’s when the heavy drinking began. At first you don’t know if you’ll drink at all, and then all of a sudden everyone is in a frenzy of fun, with buckets of booze being passed around aplenty. It really is wonderful. The day just spirals from there. Along the way there are more zip lines, a rope swing that starts about 30 feet up, a beach volleyball court, a ta kraw court, a boulles court and loads of people. The only issue is getting the motivation to leave before the sun goes down, because then it gets really cold. We were decent with our departure time, but still spent some time traveling in the dark, and got pretty cold. We did eventually make it, but I don’t recall what happened that night, though I think Ko-dog got a little green.
In the morning we had to get up to wish our party friends a good trip north, as they were heading up, then over to Vietnam, where we would eventually meet up with them for a party night in Saigon. They took off, and we didn’t have anything planned. With Dave still recovering, we didn’t want to take it too hard, but we didn’t want to take it too easy either. So we rented a couple bikes and decided to check out some of the caves in the local limestone karst system. Well the first cave we went to was quite the disappointment. Though naturally wonderful, it was clear that this cave was not preserved, and therefore not as stunning as one might wish. The beauty came as we left the site, in the form of a couple attractive British girls. They were walking their bikes, and we started up conversation. Well, we ended up riding their shitty bikes so that they would be a little more comfortable, and after biking down the road and finding out that it would be fruitless, we turned around. The couple that told us to turned around was wiped out on the road just over the hill, and we found out that, to fit the cliche, she was driving. And he had the cut.
When we finally made it off the terrible dirt road and onto pavement, we just wanted to chill. So we headed back to the same huts we had stayed at on Dave’s sick day, and hung out once again for the afternoon. Well the girls weren’t feeling sick, so they ordered a bucket (in case I haven’t said this already, you order buckets of booze in most of these countries, allowing more people to drink out of them). Well after a few buckets we decided to get some dinner and planned a party for the night. We met up for dinner, and met a bunch of their friends and went out on the town, again. We ended up at the bonfire place, partying and getting thrown out again when the police decided it was time to shut down. Then the mob (probably 100 people) moved together toward the ‘late night’ place called Joe’s, that was so in awe at the mob that it shut it’s gates shortly after we entered, and ended up being shut down shortly after that. With that we retired, once again with plans of going tubing the next day.
This tubing day would be quite different, though fully the same. We knew to start early, and so we did. Unfortunately, that means you start drinking earlier too. We were actually among the first at most of the bars, most notably the big one. And we got a good seat, able to watch the people float in, and be up front for the zip swing. This is where things got close to going out of hand. I’ll spare the details. Once again it was difficult to leave, but the buckets made the time fly, and our first experience forced us to force our group to leave. And everyone was glad, because even though we made it back while the sun was still up, there were a lot of cold bodies. Though we tried to make another big night of partying out of our day, it was kind of impossible. Everyone was pretty tired. The highlight of the night was my lucky roll of six on the die at the bar, which got us a free bucket. Dave and I decided it was time to take off after 6 days of being stuck in Vang Vieng. Everyone says that it’s a wormhole that you just can’t help getting sucked into, and you won’t believe it until you go there. So the next morning we awoke, bought our tickets, and watch some Family Guy to raise or spirits, to make us laugh, and prepare us for the sedation of driving in a bus again.
Of note is how we planned our Laos trip. Mainly... money. There are few ATM’s in the country. And even fewer that are linked to the world bank system, meaning getting cash can be difficult. In fact, Luang Prabang and Vientiane are accepted as the only real places to get money in the whole country. So we planned ahead, myself planning to keep myself on budget, by taking a certain amount in, and I figured that when that ran out, we’d head south to Cambodia. Well that really didn’t’ work. Not that I spent money fast, but we did a trek, and we had a blast. And thankfully Dave had thought more ahead, and brought a bunch of ‘back-up’ cash. Well, it turned out that we could get money in Vang Vieng, at least through a credit card advance, of which we had to do two. But this was all on Dave because I had a debit card that wouldn’t work in the only machine there. Which meant that we were dealing with one wallet, and we did have to budget wisely, because until the last day, we didn’t know the cash advance was available. So we spent three days where we’d wake up in the morning, fill the wallet with however much we could spend that day, and hope for the best. I don’t’ think we ever abided by the budget, because somehow everyday we’d check our leftover cash, and it would be less than we wanted. Buckets.
On our bus to Vientiane was our friend Danny, who had joined our group tubing the previous day. She stuck with us for the day and we got a sweet hotel room for the 3 of us. And right near our hotel room was the national soccer stadium, that just happened to have a game on that evening. And for $3 we got to take in a soccer game, which was a lot of fun. We took it easy because we had all over spent our budgets, and we had also just come from Vang Vieng, which is worth giving the body a rest from. Danny awoke early to catch her flight to Cambodia, and Dave and I slept (as much as Dave could sleep at this point, like 6 hours a night, if that) to let our bodies heal more.
It was unfortunate that we only had one day in Vientiane, however it also made it very nice. We booked an overnight bus all the way down to Pakse, a retro-fitted bus with beds so we could sleep. After eating breakfast we did what we weren’t going to do in Laos, used the internet, and then booked a tuk-tuk to take us to the main sites of Vientiane. The temple was very nice, but almost closing, and we weren’t allowed inside or even up the levels, so it was a relatively short trip. But the arc in Vientiane was next, and was much better. It is a very impressive monument, but who knew that you can go up it?? I didn’t. Sitting on top of Vientiane gives you a warm feeling. Seeing a city from that view is just pleasant, and with it being such a nice city, it was even more rewarding. But alas we had to go for dinner, which we did along the Mekong, and fetch our things to catch the bus.
Though the bus was not superb, it was much better than riding 10 hours overnight in seats, and the trip went quite quickly. And so we arrived in Pakse at 6:30, and made our plans on the fly. You see, we had tentatively planned to take boats all the way down the Mekong from Vientiane. Well no boats were available there, so we took that overnight bus. But we knew that boats went from Pakse to at least Ch_______. Well when we showed up at the agent and asked, they said no way. Well, they said we would have to rent the boat for ourselves, and that would be, like, a lot of money. So, we decided to bite the bullet and take the bus. We could have caught a boat from Si Phan Don across the border, but that would have taken a lot more time, and we decided it was time to change countries. So we crammed ourselves with like 15 others into a small van to take us to the border. It was not a pleasant trip, but the border was interesting (very minimalist) and the ride into Cambodia was better. We also knew that when we got to Stung Treng in Cambodia, we could take a boat down to Kratie. So we arrived in Stung Treng, were the only ones getting off the bus (which was good because the continuing bus was terrible, and terribly tight). Our driver owned a hotel, a nice hotel, and put us up for $5. But when we asked about getting to Kratie by boat, we were once again disappointed to find out that the boat trip has been replaced by the cheap and fast buses on the new roads. (Gasoline wins again, I don’t know why). So we had to book a bus once again. But once we got to Kratie, we had a wonderful time.
Dave and I split ways right off the bus, and both had people selling us hotel rooms. In general, the one Dave would have taken us to was better, because it had a direct view of the Mekong. The one we went to turned out to be quite the adventure too. It had a balcony right over the market, which is an enjoyable spot to be, and the manager was interesting. He was a young man, and we found out that he had just finished school in June or so, and had graduated with the highest average in the ENTIRE COUNTRY OF CAMBODIA. And so had been granted a trip to several countries, including Singapore, and of all places, Canada. Niagara Falls to be exact. Needless to say he was a very nice man, and he treated us well. He knew what we wanted to see, and we wanted to see the famous (and nearly extinct) Irrawaddy river dolphins. This is one of two places in the world where freshwater dolphins exist. So we hopped on motorbikes, Dave on the back of his, and I on the back of his friends, and we made the trip. We had to rent the boat for ourselves (a trend) but this was much cheaper, and very rewarding. Why, because we saw the dolphins. The drivers know their stuff, and we managed to watch them for quite a while. We got several photos and a video. We then chilled on an island and made a couple sand sculptures. But it didn’t stop there. On the way back he asked if we’d like to try palm tree juice, apparently to get drunk off. We said yes. Then when we were there, he asked if we would like to eat snake. We said yes. They were small garter snakes, and they didn’t’ have much meat, but they were pretty tasty. The juice was not my favourite though. It wasn’t terrible, but you had to drink a lot to get drunk, and it wasn’t worth it. That could have been because I was dead tired. We ended up sleeping around 8:30 or 9. Pretty lame I suppose, but we had another bus ride to Siem Reap the next day.
And so we got up early again and hopped the bus. We had to take the long way around, only because there are only 7 highways in Cambodia, and they don’t exactly take the most direct route. So this bus didn’t get us to Siem Reap until 5 or 6 pm. And although I always go to Mommy’s guesthouse, we decided to switch it up, and went to Smiley’s, which was a pleasant surprise (also run by the same family) with a nice room and wonderful atmosphere. We also booked a tuk-tuk for out two days to Angkor Wat, and he was a very nice driver.
And so that’s what we did, Angkor Wat. It’s difficult to describe, and this trip was a little different than my others. Mainly because I had been there twice before. Which isn’t to say I was jaded or uninterested, but I had different ideas in my head. I forgot what it was like to see it for the first time. I think we did very well though. We were still sick, in fact, both of us had puked up our dinner from the night before that morning before we set out. My body was not happy, and I ended up puking up all the water I had drank in the grounds of Angkor Wat. Not one of my proudest moments. So day one went slowly. And we did well because we didn’t push ourselves. It worked out quite well that I had been there before, because Dave could go explore, and I would sit in the lower parts of the building’s and enjoy the cool, damp environment. It was a very relaxed day. The second day was much the same. We took it easy, saw what we wanted to, and took it easy, heading home early so as not to wear ourselves out.
The next day we went to Phnom Penh, planning to have a good night out and then take a boat into Vietnam. This plan worked out perfectly. We chilled out for the evening, and then went to the Blue Lagoon where Alex and I had had our party time back in October. Because they knew me we had a wonderful welcome, and had a great night. Unfortunately we were broke, so we had to call it early, though I stuck it out a couple hours past Dave, giving me a solid 2 hours sleep before our river trip.
The funny thing about Cambodia is that you can book a river trip, and still ride in a bus for 2 hours. It was utterly horrible. Especially for me. I was in the front seat, and this was one of those vans where the engine was behind the driver. So I was the first thing in the van. We came so close to hitting so many other vehicles, hit so many potholes that the van should have fallen apart, and it was continuous like that for almost 2 hours. Not pleasant. And our boat to the border was kind of boring and shitty, but it just felt wonderful to be on the river, even if we were in the middle of this fast paced, 2 kilometer wide river. At the border I realized a few things: 1. I really do like living in Vietnam and 2. Being able to communicate in a foreign country like Vietnam makes you feel really good.
And so my decision to return to Vietnam after my Christmas holidays was made. And the fun began. I kind of became a tourist guide. It was fun. I ordered food for everyone. I taught them about the monetary system, and I joked with the ladies running the restaurant. It was nice. The rest of the boat ride was much better. The boat moved slow, the tributaries were small, and it went right through rural Vietnam. And it had a deck on the back where we sat in a couple chairs and enjoyed the sun.
When we arrived in __________, I realized how big of a group we had. Most of the people on the boat were young people, and we all got a long, and decided to stay together. We just had to make a decision as to where to stay. So eventually I told everyone to get on the cyclos (these ones where bicycles with carts behind them, not the standard pedicabs), and they took us to a hotel that was suitable. And finally after discussing prices and sorting out who would stay where, we were settled. We also booked our tickets to HCM City for the next day. Then we walked around a little, ate a little. I introduced a couple of our new friends to sugar cane juice, and tried to teach them a little Vietnamese. But once again, with bus trips looming, we hit bed early.
Our dear friend Nina, the beautiful German girl, took off at like 5:30 in the morning, while we departed at 7:30. When we arrived, they clearly didn’t know what to expect, because there was little room for our bags, and they had to kick a lady out of the bus so that we would fit. We also picked up a boy along the way who had to sit on Dave’s bag in the ‘aisle’, that is after jumping on it to fit it in. Basically the driver was a jackass, and ended up charging us extra to get us where we wanted to go once we got to the city, but after all was said and done we were at a hotel. And do you remember what I said was going to happen when we arrived in Saigon (it was the reason we made such a hasty return)...... Right.. We partied with the Canadians we had met in Laos. Ironically I saw Ko-dog and Carrie walking down the street on my back from booking my plane ticket. Pretty random, and pretty perfect. So we planned a meeting time, and Dave and I did our errands. Which consisted of getting tailor-made suits. The first shop we went to was nice but didn’t have a good fabric selection, so we went to the store that had bolts and bolts of fabric. And we picked beautiful suits, each to be made for the day we left. With that set, we went to chill before we had a night out in Saigon.
The night started at Go 2 Bar. Which is a standard tourist bar, and a good place to get messed up. And after a few hours there, we made it to Volcano. Volcano is a club where you go to have a good time, and you can never worry about cash. Unfortunately, travelers almost always have to worry about cash. We had also met up with a couple Canadian guys who weren’t worried about cash. And everything was good (except that Ko-dog and Carrie hadn’t stood up, or even really touched their drinks all night, and Dave was pretty reserved too) until the two guys ordered the second bottle. I suppose they didn’t realize how early clubs close in Saigon, but it was quite unnecessary. And it also made our bill very expensive. And with Carrie and Ko-Dog not drinking, and Mitch having only 300,000, and Dave not really drinking, it sort of split up between 3 people, one being me. The two guys paid for most of the second bottle as they were going to come back and drink it, but it still cost all three of us quite a bit. I have begun to understand why Vietnamese don’t divide the bill up. We were the last people in the club because we kept recounting and asking people to pitch in little by little. It’s much easier for one person to pick up the tab, and then someone else the next time. But that requires seeing the people again, and traveler’s don’t always have that liberty. Well it got sorted, it was a fun night, and it was time for everyone to head to bed, since most people were traveling the next day.
Dave and I were traveling, to Vung Tau that is. I was going home of sorts. And it was refreshing. We rented a bike, visited the ILA crew, and made rounds around the city. We made it to Rudi’s to pick up my bike, which didn’t end up happening because it was dead as a door nail. That’s for when I am back for good. Miraculously, Rudi’s turned into party central, and we had a god crew of people just chillin’ out, enjoying the sunset. We did David’s and the dog track, and then Adam and Dave got hooked on FIFA.
Sunday was another excellent day. We had a badminton tourney, went to the water park, went to beach b\club, and got Dave hooked on VT. It’s always wonderful having visitors because they make me realize how sweet a place Vung Tau is. Though it has it’s intricacies, the beauty of it is remarkable. And to cap off our stay (I was flying the next day) there was an ILA dinner to which we were invited, on top of the Imperial plaza. It’s a really nice looking restaurant, and it was nice to see all those who I worked with. We also had an episode of shakeface, which always ends up with hilarity. Everyone came over to Adam, Alec and Fiona’s pad, and we had a wonderful shindig.
And then it was time to leave. At least once the morning came. We packed up and shipped out. I had to pick up my ticket in HCMC, pick up my suit, and then hit the airport. All went smooth until they said my suit would be ready the next day, not today. Well this was unpleasant to say the least, and my happiness quotient went down, but I won’t go into details other than Dave brought it to me because he didn’t fly for two days, and all was fine.
And that was the end of my South East Asian traveling. Though I have had 5 weeks in Canada, I wont’ divulge the information on those. To say the trip was successful is an understatement, all I can say is that everyone should travel. You learn a lot, and coming out the other side is a whole other feeling in itself. This blog was much longer than I thought it might be, but still quite sparse on details. If anyone still reads the blog, thanks :)