Vietnam day 1

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Today we took a 6 hour boat ride on the Mekong to cross into Vietnam. Borders are always a bit interesting and fun to play my personal favorite game "no really who has my passport". To cross the border we had to get off the boat like three times and then go through customs. The boat ride was great and I got a look into life in some of the small fishing villages. I got to get some sun and hang my feet off the boat so I was happy. The ride was pretty smooth and it was nice to just kind of hang out and read on the boat. Once we got to Chau Doc, a sleepy little fishing village on the Mekong that sees few tourists, we ventured out into the town. It kind of reminds me a bit of India, in that there is a lot of livestock running around. Lauren and I had read about watching sunset on top of a local mountain, Mt Sam, so we hopped on the back of motorcycles (don't worry mom I wore a helmet). We road to the top of the local mountain in rain (about 30 min). Once we got to the top it stopped raining and we saw the most beautiful sunset we'd seen since we've been here. We figured we were due, since we missed good sunrises at Angkor Wat, Taj Majal, and sunset at the Sun Temple, Pre Rup. So Lauren and I sat on hammocks and had a beer with the locals. After the rain stopped one of the locals ran over and told us to come over and see the rainbow. It was the first time I'd ever seen a complete rainbow that touched down on both sides!!! After the sun had set, my moto bike driver found a snake and showed us how to kill, clean, and cook a snake. Pretty entertaining. We just got back from a nice dinner on the river and are having a low key evening, since we have to get up to catch a 730am bus to Ho Chi Minh City. Lauren and I are hoping to get up and go to the early market before then and find our personal favorite treats, pandam puffs. The locals are pretty friendly and everyone wants to say hello and wave to you. Apparently few travelers come through this city. Getting used to the currency is a bit different. They use the Dong and it converts to about 16500dong to $1. This will probably be the only time in my life that I will be able to say that I have 1.65 million in my wallet (100 bucks! ha). Vietnam is cheaper than Cambodia, which I find interesting. I would have thought it would be the reverse. A liter of h20 in Cambodia for example was 1 buck and here it is only 40 cents. Food is much cheaper too. I am excited about spring rolls, shrimp in the clay plot, and pho soup. 😊 I am really enjoying SE Asia and am looking forward to the rest of Vietnam.

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Comments

[Mom]

Still looking for the picture of EP that you promised me.

[Lois Eastwood]

You ate a tarantula? -------
Good grief! Loved the elephant ride and so good to hear your voice again. The whole trip sounds awesome and I can hardly wait to hear about it in person. But please don't bring any tarrantulas here to cook! Great blog....look forward to it each day. Love, Granny

[Laura]

snake
i would be terrified of that snake. and that monkey is quite obese. did you get to pet the elephant? did you see any spray water from their trunks? i also love to play "no really, who has my passport", the eastern european edition. :)