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Published: April 15th 2012
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The last day in Saigon is a slow day. Ellen and Alex are trying to throw off lingering tummy bugs and I was keen that these are arrested before we undertake the next stage of travel, a lengthy trip by bus through the Mekong Delta to the Cambodian border. Loc and I meet in the evening for few beers to say goodbye. He had come back from Vung Tau earlier that day and was carrying a bag of cooked horseshoe crabs to take to a mates place for a house warming. These were a special treat rarely seen in Saigon and we devour one at the roadside café we are drinking at.
The next day, after fond goodbyes to Mrs Long, we take the Phung Tran sleeping bus for a six hour ride to Rach Gia. That is pleasant enough but we then have to board a small 18 seater bus for the rest of the trip to the border town of Ha Tien. What a ride. The smell of stale urine, shrimp and tobacco is unpleasant. But it wasn’t until a chap hopped onto the bus and dropped a bag of large dried fish at my feet that my
olfactory senses went into meltdown. No problem, only three more hours to endure this. Anyway there was plenty to keep the mind occupied. The female conductor was great value. Her worn but gaily coloured blouse and thinning track pants belied her authority on the bus. Her cajoling of passengers and moving them and their wares from one seat to another to accommodate new and departing passengers was very entertaining. And we weren’t spared her efficiency measures either. The bus driver bellowing at the top of his voice, yelling “yeah-eh” as well as giving the bus horn a constant thrashing was also intriguing. Alex somehow manages to sleep through most of this – it’s one of his great qualities, to be able to sleep through any sort of ruckus. Ellen reminded me that these small bus trips are always good fun. That reminder came just as a male and female passenger almost came to blows, separated only by a couple of other passengers. Shortly afterwards, and I can’t underline the timeliness, the bus rolls into Ha Tien just as an elderly passenger starts to choke – he is slowly hauled off the bus to conclude his expectoration by the roadside.
So with another interesting bus trip under the belts, we make our way by motorbike taxi, under some protest from the drivers to our chosen hotel, the Hai Yen. We seem to be the only guests of this very large hotel and despite the warnings from our moto riders about it, the large clean rooms on offer for twelve dollars are too inviting. After the long bus trip it turns out to be a comfortable stay at the Hai Yen. Not much to say about Ha Tien though, probably the most outstanding feature is the significant manifestation of swallow nests under the eaves of the main karaoke bar in town.
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