Should I stay or should I go?

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I just arrived at my hotel (hotel 97). Tonight was planned as my last night in Saigon ... and man did I have fun. Tonight was the craziest night Ive had up until now. Where do I start?! Let's start with me waking up at Kah's place.

As Seleena, Cat and Taco had left yesterday there was more room at Kah's place. So I took the mattrass/blanket Seleena and I had been sleeping on and folded it double so that I had a softer bed. Travis was sleeping at the other end of the room and Sarah and Samantha (actually her name isn't Samantha but for some reason I always call her that) slept on their own mattrass/blanket thing. I also took both spare pillows. Needless to say I slept better last night.

My alarm went off at 6am and it didn't wake anyone but me. I took my shirt that I had washed by hand the night before (lather, rince, repeat!) and was glad to notice it was all dry. I had already packed most stuff in my bag so I just put in a few small things and went downstairs to wake up Kah. He opened the gate for me and we said goodbye, with a lot of thanks from me on top. Then I headed to the bus stop which isn't far from Kah's house (yes, it's his house!). I had to wait a few minutes for bus 18 to arrive, during which I received quite a few stares. You get used to that actually. As it was rush hour (busses start to ride at 5am and life is already buwwing at 6am, just like in Thailand and Cambodia) there was no place for me to sit. So I stood up in teh middle of the bus, very much like our own superb De Lijn busses. I was fine with that as I could keep my bags close to me. A little later the girl who sat right behind me touched my arm to get my attention and pointed out that there was 1 empty seat as a passenger got off. But from that seat I could not see the bags. So I thanked her but declined. A short time later a seat was available right next to her, so she proposed I'd sit again. This time I had a clear sight on the bags to I took the proposal. She immediately started talking. That was difficult because as opposed to Han, a girl I met on the bus the day before, this girl's English was rather poor. But with patience we got a conversation going. She asked a lot of questions, default ones like where I was from etc. Because we were talking I hadn1t noticed we arrived at the bus station where everyone has to get off. So I got off as well as I knew the bus station was near the Sinh Cafe. The girl (her name is in one of the previous entries, Ngoh or something) then asked me for my details. Phone number, email, address. But I think she kind of collected strangers addresses as I on the page before where I wrote I saw the details of a Dutch girl.

I took out my map to find my way to the Sinh Cafe. I knew I was at the bus station of course but that wasn't pointed out on the map. So I asked here where we were and how to get to the Sinh Cafe (btw, thats like a travel agency, not an actual cafe. You must be thinking I drink there a lot by now =P). She asked a motorbike driver to get me there. That's not a big problem as -everyone- knows where that is.

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And as I was typing that last line a motorbike driver just snatched a wallet from a pair of Danish girls, right in front of where I'm sitting. I just saw it happen, it went so quick. But they started shouting and some of their friends could block the motorbike drivers path. He had to drop the wallet and drive off. The other girl threw something at him as he passed by again. But they're ok and got everything back now.

What a night ... earlier as I was at the back of this girls motorbike I saw a guy fall pretty hard with his motorbike. Damn, weird things tonight!
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The issue was, I had my big trekking bag and my small backpack with me. But no problem! Big bag on the back, small back on my belly, on the motorbike and away we were! I put my left foot on the foot rest pedal thing and I try to do the same with my right ... but seem to fail. "Do not try to put your right foot on the foot rest pedal thing. Instead, try to realise the truth ... there is no right foot rest pedal thing". The thing was missing. And I didn't want to put my foot on the exhaust pipe as it was dangling about already. On top of that, my big bag was pulling my backwards so I had to hold myself tight on the bike. Then it occured to me ... "don't put your foot too far out, as someone in the rush hour will hit it ... but don't put it too far in ... as you'll end up putting your foot in the wheel." It all got very exciting from that point on, haha. But we made it, as mostly happens here. I Got to the Sinh Cafe and and after I got the important stuff out I put my bag in their storage area (which is free) so I wouldn't have to carry it along all the time.

As I was waiting for the bus to the Mekong Delta to arrive a Korean man started talking to me. He pointed out that he was going on a Mekong Delta trip, so we started talking. I told him that there were 2 trips. One that included a bike ride and one that included a rowing boat ride over the Mekong. As it turned out, he had the bike ride one, as I had chosen the rowing boat one. He introduced me to his wife, so I talked to her as he went off. She in turn introduced me to their daughter. She was nice but very shy, she could speak English, but she was too shy to do it. Every time she talked she hid her braces with her hand.

I helped out 2 more people but I don't recall who they were or what with. But anyway my bus arrived, and as I got in I saw the Korean man sitting on the bus. I told him he was on the wrong bus and that his would arrive half an hour later. What I didn't know was that he exchanged his tickets so he would have the boat ride tour as well. His family, however, was still inside. And I was under the strong impression that they didn't know he changed the tickets, haha.

So once everyone was on the bus he introduced me to his son. Yeah, I got to know his whole family and some of their life in Korea.

A 2,5 hour ride followed. I slept partly through this ride so nothing interesting there except 2 French women yapping away behind me. They just wouldn't shut up. I mean ... if your conversation topics go as far as liking to buy presents, how to wrap them, what kind of wrapping paper you use and which posters you buy on line ... it really, really, really is time to shut ... up.

We arrive at the boat and get in. I sat behind a Vietnamese guy, Steven Farm (if I got it right, his last name I mean). He lives in the USA now but as the conversation got going he told me he was one of the boat people that fled Vietnam in the years 'after' the war. He was very impressed by my knowledge of the history of Vietnam (teh Chinese driving the Vietnamese more South, the Vietnamese stealing land from Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge fighting back because of that, ...) and the war. And all day long I received compliments from everyone for my excellent English and good French. Kind of nice to hear =) But that also made that I had to translate a lot between French and English for some people. And the whole time when the Korean family was walking behind me I could hear the father speaking to his daughter and saying 'Belgian' quite a lot. So I distanced myself somewhat from them.

The Mekong Delta tour was good because of the people I met, especially Steven. Not as much for what they showed me. The rowing boat ride was in a real Sampan style boat, but lasted only 15 minutes over a small canal. Nevertheless, it was the best part of the trip.

Then eating and bus ride back to Saigon, nothing exciting.

Back at the Sinh Cafe I recovered my bag and went to Hotel 97. I got a room and had a shower, after which I changed my sim card to a Vietnamese one I got from Cat before she left. I called Kah to ask where we should meet. He made sure everyone came to Hotel 97, so I just had to wait. His Vietnamese friend (who's name I forgot) was there too. A lot of waiting followed, but eventually most of us (except for Travis) went to a really nice place to eat. The 4 of us (including a new guy, Jan from France) got on the back of motorcycles and headed to that place. "Sorrento -something-" I made a video of the entire bike ride which was a lot of fun, a must see to get a real idea of the Saigon traffic haha. Dinner was lovely. I had their specialty which was Hue Beef style noodles. Kah's friend put a very spicy kind of sambal in my noodles, of which a part ended up in my throat at first bite. It was fun for everyone but me, haha. But then she softened it up by squeezing some lemon in it, which helped a bit. But the noodles were still very spicy, and I liked it!

We had an amazing amount of fun during dinner and made plans for afterwards.

10 minutes later I found myself at a karaoke bar singing my ass of, hahahah. And yes there are plenty of videos and photo's of that. And no, I'm not going to share them ... for free ;P I have actually no idea how much time we spent there. But what I did figure out was that Kah's friend seemed really fond of me. At dinner and even on the motorbike ride there we had a lot of fun and we laughed a lot, but I figured it was just good fun. But at the Karaoke bar she kept close to me. I asked Kah if I should be worried about that but he said no, so I went with that. He knows her and who know's it's just the way things go here? We closed the place (as in, they came to ask us to leave as they wanted to close up). Just before that Kah's friend asked if I could step outside with her. ... oh-oh =P I'm still not sure, but I believe she might have alternative motives as she asked what I was going to do tomorrow. Well ... I'm leaving. this seemed to disappoint her, and I felt in an awkward situation. Then the rest came out and asked me if I could stay one extra day. But I already booked the ticket to Mui Ne. When all of us left, Sarah, Samantha, Jan and Travis (who joined us at the Karaoke bar) got in a taxi to Kah's place and Kah told me that he would bring me to Hotel 97. Just a minute later, everyone was gone and apparently Kah and his friend agreed that she would drive me to Hotel 97. ... I may not be very good at all that ... but I think that's no coincidence, correct me if I'm wrong, haha. No worries though Lise, I love you and you alone! During that ride I saw a guy fall quite hard with his motorbike ... it had to happen some time. He looked ok, but you couldn't really tell. He fell, slid over the ground a bit. Got up quickly, started his bike and drove off, leaving behind a slipper.


So, I told the group that I would try to exchange my ticket to Mui Ne from Saturday to Sunday. And that I would call Kah at 7am to let him know if I would stay 1 more day or not. If I can exchange the ticket, I'll stay the 1 extra day. The amount of fun we make here is actually very worth it. If I can't ... then Mui ne beach here I come! Of course I'll let all of you at home know what happens as well.

Oh and Lise, earlier today I bought you (and me) something! I can't tell you what of course, but I' sure you're going to laugh when you see it ^^ I saw one of those frogs as well! But the stick to rub over it's back was missing (Lise knows what I'm talking about 😉 I hope to find a complete one!

This is a long entry ... did I leave anything out? Yes, oh yes. A lot, tons. But I'm very tired of typing on this qwerty keyboard and correcting my mistakes. And I' quite sure you wouldn't read on much more either, haha.

So it's off to bed for me here at Hotel 97. A room with 1 big noisy fan. Goodnight all!

(Oh btw, as said above, I changed my sim card for a Vietnamese one. I'll try to put mine back in. If the pin number I received is correct all will be fine. If not ... I won't be able to read the messages sent to me today, or anything else until I get home. So don't worry about messages that do not seem to arrive!)

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Comments

[Lise]

WAAAOOOUHHHWW
hey hunny Het klinkt daar echt geweldig, ben echt zo jaloers! Als ik je uitleg zo lees, klinkt het een beetje zoals Siem Reap ^^. Hier same same, veel regen vandaag gehad enzo...Nog 7 dagen werken en 't is gedaan ^^. Kben kei curieus naar wat je gekocht hebt ^^....Bij de kikker hoort idd een "kwak" stokje =P Khou van je en kmis je, amuseer je daar nog kei hard!!!!! xxxxxxxxxx Groeten van de familie hier!