whoa! uncle ho!

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previously in the Adventures of Alexis in Asia:

I left Sapa, only to get tricked out of my first class train ticket and was really mad and upset about it
I went and got a $3 refund from my travel agent, I felt petty but really I just wanted an apology and to kinda make sure that it won't happen to another trusting traveller

I tried to meet up with Corrina only to meet the most useless hotel staff on the planet, they kept telling me that Coco and her mom were not there and finally I saw their name in one of the books (seriously, they had a computer and didn't use it for bookings, instead they had all of these log books filled with messy writing, wtf!) and left a note that they never got.

we made plans to meet up yesterday at the museum of ethnology which my moto driver pretended to know about, after driving me to the wrong place twice and deedling around town looking for someone to translate for us he pretended once again that he knew and dropped me at what he said was the right place, but it was closed (and I was 1/2 hour late) and asked for more money. not my fault he doesn't know his way around so I gave him what we'd agreed onm which was a rip off anyway. then I was stranded in the middle of nowhere. awesome. then I found a taxi and went back to my hotel to change. yeah, it was POURING.

later I phoned Coco and she said the museum was open and it was great. made me mad again that he dropped me at the first available place he found and effed off, but glad I didn't cave and give him more money.

so I decided to try again and took a taxi this time, which cost me 100 dong (roughly $6 US) on the meter. the museum was pretty cool, had lots of info about the various language groups and tribes in Vietnam. then we get to the cherry on top of the bad transportation cake. I go out to get another taxi and a moto driver intervenes with a lower price and I get him down to 50. he drops me off and I hand him 50 thousand dong, seeing as this is Vietnam and that is their currency. then he says "no, 50 DOLLARS" I tried to laugh, hoping he was joking, but nope, apparently it was a "very long way." I told him I wouldn't pay that much for a ride in Canada (esp on the back of a moto in the rain, I had mud all up my legs), he kept saying "very long way" so I just put my dong on his moto and walked away. (hee hee, I put my dong on his moto, oh dong humour, never gets old)

anyways, I was able to meet Corrina and her mom for dinner and swap Vietnam stories and we made plans to meet up today for the market and another dinner later today.

but earlier today I saw the body of Ho Chi Minh
I couldn't help thinking that for everyone else there this would have been a profound and moving experience, while for me it was prolly the creepiest thing I've ever seen. I mean, I just saw a DB (dead body for those non-CSI watchers), the first I've ever seen and it didn't look real.

k, I think that's all for now, today is my last day in Vietnam so unless something really exciting happens I prolly won't be posting again until I'm in Chiang Mai.

much love
Alexis

PS added some photos yesterday
also, big ups to Jane who is turning into my biggest fan!

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Comments

[Jane]

Numero Uno!
I sit for twelve hours a day in the Clearihue computer lab writing my paper and checking on important things like 1) WebMail 2)Hotmail 3) WebCt 4) TravelBlog! I'm rooting for you!