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Published: December 10th 2010
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I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City in the afternoon. I hop into a cab only to have a driver who thinks he can rip me off. I ask the airport security if the driver knows where he is going and of course they said yes. After 2 minutes in the car he asks where I am from. Once I say America, he tells me to give him $20. I know a taxi is only around $8-$10. He asked if I know where I am going. Uhhhhh…. I had the map of where the hotel was and he said he wants $20. I told him I would pay what is on the meter, yet his meter isn’t very clear… He said, I know where you go, you don’t, you pay me. OYE. I said things in the English language that this man will never forget. He eventually shut his mouth and continued to drive. I didn’t nail the Vietnam Dong thing down yet, so I asked how much the meter said in Dong. He claimed, 1,090,000. Hmmmm – doesn’t sound right. I give him $10. He yells at me. I yell back. Security comes over and he bolts. He tried charging
me around $55 in Dong. I am glad I read up a bit on how taxi drivers operate here.
Once I get to the receptionist, I am told there is no key to my room, but my roommate is in the room, so I should just go knock. I am super lucky as my new roommate for the next 12 days is a girl named Marley from South Africa. I couldn’t ask for anyone better! She is so nice, so easy going and is a super traveler. Nothing really bothers her and she can have ‘poop’ talks without worries.
The rest of our group meets at 5:30pm. There are 12 of us which is awesome. What we didn’t know is that we are part of a bigger group which starts 2 days later, so our group is actually 27 people. We head out for dinner and some drinks. Ho Chi Minh City is one hectic place! The amount of motorbikes is astronomical (the most I have ever seen my entire life). There are no crosswalks, so you kinda just have to start walking across the streets and the bikes go around you. The cars don’t stop though. So
you have to be so careful and the most important thing is not to flinch or pause during the journey across the street! At our hotel, there are 2 security guards that will actually walk you across the street – that is how nuts it is.
After dinner, Marley and I walked into town. It was scary as all hell, but we made it. Turns out the markets are closed, but we managed to walk for a while and stop for a $7 30 minute foot massage. As our time to get moving is 8:30am, we thought it was a good idea to get a good night sleep by midnight.
We started our morning with a drive to the Mekong Delta. Here we boarded a local boat. We saw the floating markets and then headed to a ‘candy’ factory. Here is where we saw the locals make things like caramels, popcorn stuff, nut brittle, etc… It smelt really funky! Of course I bought some local goods as they seem pretty healthy (including smelly python fat for my cracked feet)??? We then head to lunch a little bit further down the river. This was awesome. We had whole Elephant
Ear fish. I loved it! It was fried up and you made pancakes with the fish. Two of the people at my table looked horrified and didn’t touch it. More for me! I also held a 45 pound python on my shoulders. The tail crept up my back – I started hysterical laughing as crying was not an option!!! It was awesome.
Before we knew it, we arrived at our local guesthouse for the night. This was the first night I had ever slept under a mosquito net! We took an amazing afternoon walk into town, which was muddy hills and scary bridges. As a local custom, one of the girls cut off the head of a live snake which we ate for dinner. To be honest, it was pretty gross. After the snake’s head is chopped off they throw hot water on it where it continues to move around – YUK. Truth is the snake was so bony; there wasn’t much meat to eat. Before we knew it, a local band showed up to play us some songs… it was so nice, I fell asleep listening to them while I was curled up in a hammock. Dinner was a feast and a half! Not to sound crazy, but all 12 of us where in our beds by 9pm. We had such a long ass day, one of the best days in a while. I am really enjoying Vietnam so far. It is mystical, interesting and very different from anywhere else I have been so far!
BTW – Sin Chao means hello in Vietnam.
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