Advertisement
Published: February 8th 2009
Day 29/30/31- Chau Doc
Aw yes, where were we?!? Our lovely bus ride. This was a truly local bus, the luxury of A/C & a free water bottle was long gone. The bus ticket assigns a numbered seat, but the people inside didn't abide by this, so we just sat ourselves in the second row from the front. A women in the lone right seat in the front row sat staring at us for about 20 minutes, it was awkward but we guess that's a day in the life of a celebrity (see previous blog). Our bus took off at noon as scheduled but once it pulled out of the "station" it then crawled at an extremely slow pace (an eleven year old girl on a push bike over took us) for about 15 minutes. With no A/C and only the wind to provide us relief, we were getting a bit annoyed. Eventually a women pulls up on the back of a motorbike and gets in. We start to pick up pace but then slow down to a crawl once again. The bus comes to a full stop and this guy hands the same women he luggage - oh we
Young Rice
Shoots sprouting. These are about 20 days old.were so annoyed. We continued on but then realized how truly local this bus was - it made a stop in every village from Ha Tien to Chau Doc (which is about 100 miles North). Not only did we pick up more people, but we picked up a huge bag of white sugar and two huge crates of live crabs. After one stop, G counted that their were 26 seats on the bus and 28 people (plus 2 children - so 30 in total) and plus all of our cargo. A guy (we think the bus owner's son) stood at the entrance with the door open yelling at passing motorbikes the entire time. We couldn't help but to look at each other and laugh. And to top if off, at one of the stops the women behind S leaned out the window to throw up. It was definitely one for the record book. The ride other then being bumpy and taking 2 hours longer then we were told, was extremely beautiful. For the most part the two of us stared through the window watching rural Vietnam pass by, reflecting on our past few weeks in Vietnam.
We got to
Bridge
In the countryside out of Chau Doc. Chau Doc and picked a hotel out of a book and got drivers to take us there. However, they took us to a random hotel at first but we told them to take us to the right hotel and without much argument we arrived there finally. Steph was starving (therefore a bit crabby) so we made our way to the river for an early dinner. We got back to the hotel and watched "Blades of Glory"before heading off to bed.
The next day (Sat Feb. 7), we walked around the city for the better part of the morning. At 3:30PM, we got motorbikes to take us to the nearby rice fields to get a closer look at rural life. We arrived at a cluster of houses along a dirt path - not sure if it even can even be called a village and walked around a bit. The places that the family's call home are just utterly heart- wrenching. There was just one bead for an entire family in a tiny house that consisted of old rice sacks and wood sticks. The people were not home, rather in the field working (they receive just pennies for their rice). Besides
Steph
They call her 'Rice Woman'. . . . just kidding the green rice fields, there were caged in ducks, a few buffaloes, pigs and a few families of chickens that roamed free (the baby chicks were so cute).
Next we went to Tay An Pagoda at the foot of Sam Mountain. It was more or less similar to other pagodas we've seen in Vietnam. Except that we got to see the cutest thing ever - this little boy dressed in pink praying next to his mother to the Happy Buddha. G snap a pic because it was too cute for words. It really melted our heart and we thought about kidnapping him and carrying him in our pocket for the rest of trip. We decide against it and moved on. We also saw a kid that we think worked there since we was collecting incense wearing a "Jesus Loves You"shirt which put a smile on our faces.
Our last stop was Sam Mountain to watch the Sunset. It was a scary ride getting up there as Steph's driver had trouble shifting gears and the jerking motion gave S a few scares that she would fall off. While G's driver thought he was in some kind of race and
Fishing
A fishing contraption used by the farmers. took the corners so sharp G was afraid her sneaker would scrap the pavement. However, it was worth the scares (and def. worth the money to take motorbikes instead of walking) once we got to the top. It wasn't too over run with tourist at this point and we got to enjoy outstanding views of Vietnam before settling into our hammocks to watch the sunset. We were really worried about "Western weight"might be too much for the wooden poles holding us up, but it turned out okay. About 45 minutes before the sunset, a huge tour rolled up but we weren't too fazed since we had the only hammocks with a front row view. The sunset was amazing, as most in Vietnam.
We arrived back at the hotel, counted our money and realized we only had enough for the hotel, breakfast and a snack for the boat trip the next day. There was no point paying yet again another ATM fee, so we betrayed our backpacker's oath and went to the fancy "Victoria Hotel"for dinner since they took credit cards. We dined like kings among the huge groups of European 50 somethings all for just under $20. We weren't
Village People
This cutie pie blew us kisses as we left. able to satisfy our food cravings though. Steph is in desperate need for a big bowl of Guacamole which G wants Chick-fil-A. Our stroll back from dinner was quite entertaining, we passed by a karate class taking place on the boardwalk. We tried out our own moves but no one was impressed. Then we mixed in with a group of street kids, marching, clapping, stomping, and yelling somthing in Vietnamese that was undistinguishable. For all we know it could have been "We hate Americans." After that encounter, S&G got a eyefull with an upclose view of a women puking on the street - chunks and all. After rounding the corner, this adorable girl on the back of her grandfather's bike, gave S a high-five! It was awesome!
We went to bed quite early since we were getting picked up at our hotel at 7:30AM to go to Phnom Penh, Cambodia the next morning. We used up our last few remaining dong and headed to the pier. In typical Steph fashion, she totally ate it while climbing into the speed boat - totally missing two steps along the way. So her grand total of falls in Vietnam is 4 (
just beating out her 3 falls in Thailand). We got to the border after just 20 minutes or so along the river - got our exit stamps and moved on to the Cambodian check point and got stamped in there. It took about 5 1/2 hours but we eventually reached Phnom Penh a little past 1:30PM.
Our adventure has just begun in Cambodia and we already have loads to tell so hang in and we'll be back with more.
xx
G & S
Advertisement
Tot: 0.048s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0278s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
