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Published: July 12th 2010
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Well! So much to tell!!
After spending 16 hours in Kuala Lumpur I got my short flight to Ho Chi Minh City!
Driving to Petes from the airport was an experience. There was sooooo much traffic. Mainly bikes! Bikes
everywhere !! Petes house is brilliant. Its a narrow building with 4 floors, one bedroom on each floor. Its huge. They have a roof terrace and a huge downstairs area with loads of room for all their bikes. After a well needed shower Pete took me into the city on the back of his bike. MENTAL!!!! There are no rules really! Bikes everywhere... coming from all directions. Everyone is very horn happy too! Went for breakfast in the backpacker area and then went to the Victory Hotel which has a rooftop pool. You pay like a pound to use the pool or the day. Petes flatmate was there too, who is also form Bangor! Three Bangorians sitting in a rooftop pool in the middle of Siagon! Surreal! Gail (who is a friend I lived with in Melbourne last year) came to meet us there too. Was so good to see her. Pete had to work all weekend so it worked out perfectly
(and very coincidently) that we were both in Siagon on the same weekend! That night we went to an amazing BBQ place for dinner. There is a little mimi BBQ in the middle of your table and they bring you a big platter of different marinated meats and rice and loads of delicious dips. It was so good!!!! We had fondu for dessert too!!! All that plus a big fresh fruit drink was about 4pounds!
I slept in backpacker land with Gail that night because the next morning we had an early start to head off to the Mekong Delta!!!!! Best 15pounds I have ever spent. It was about a 2hour bus trip to My Tho where we got on our first boat of the day. We then headed over to Pheonix Island and got on smaller boats through the smaller tributaries. It felt like we were in the amazon! So beautiful!! Our first visit was to a coconut sweet making factory. We got to try some fresh sweets and Gail bought a packet. They were so good. We then went to a honey bee farm and tried honey tea.... hot water, fresh lime juice, honey and tea flavoured stuff.
Next thing this little boy appears with a
python !!!!!! So we all got our pictures taken with the Python! I thought I could be really brave but it turns out I hate snakes!! Ha! As took as he put it on me I was like "Ok... you can take it off now! TAM (our tour guide) TAM seriously!?? Why is he looking a me!?!?! Get him off!!" Gail didnt see what the big deal was until Tam put it round her neck! She reacted just like me!!!!! Managed to hold it long enough to put on a fake smile and get a photo though!
We then went to Unicorn Island for some lunch which was pork, rice and veg. It was really nice but the people next to us were having this whole fish thing and it stank so I was put off a little! Need to get over that though!
After lunch we went to eat traditional fuits and listen to local music which was brilliant!
Back on the boat we headed back to My Tho and got a 2hour bus trip to our hotel in Can Tho. We went and got some local grub and then
headed to bed. We were so tired so I think we were in bed by about 8.30pm! Early start again the next morning, but well worth it as we went to the floating market about an hour down the river. It is just all the locals selling there fruit and vegetables on boats. They advertise what they are selling by putting some samples up a stick on the front of their boat. We got to go aboard a local sellers pineapple boat and taste some pineapple.
Next stop was to a local rice noodle farm which was pretty cool to see. They make it with rice power, sugar and hops, then cook it and leave it to dry before shredding it into noodles! We also got to see dinner! They had a pig pen with about 10 pigs in ready to be sent to the slauterhouse. 😞
On our way back to the boat we met this little Vietnamese girl who was such a poser!!!! She
loved getting her picture taken. Even when we were trying to leave she was posing away and running along side the river. She was so cute.
The rest of the day
was spent around the farms and seeing where all the fruit was grown. Lots of tasting!
We then took the long bus trip back to Siagon. Our aircon broke about 10 minutes into the journey so the journey was even harder! Managed to get a bit of sleep and then we arrived back and spent about an hour in the shower!! The foorball final was on that night and so we went round to Petes and met all his teacher friends who are all lovely. We then headed into the city to wath the game at a bar. It didnt start til 1.30am so by half time i was so tired! I bet Pete 50,000dong (2pounds 50) and a cup of tea in the morning that Holland would win so i had
another early morning!! I stayed at Petes because Katie (my friend from Newcastle who is coming here to do her placement in Ho Chi Minh hospital for a month) was arriving at 11ish. Its was so good to her! She was so laoded with stuff because she had just come from winter in Australia, so we emptied her bags of scarves and hats and headed back to backpacker land. We checked into our wee local guesthouse and crashed out for a while. Then we went to book out trip to Cambodia which we got for $US15. So its a 12 hour trip to Siem Reap at 7am tomorrow!! Fun! Lets home the aircon doesn't break!!
All in all I've had such a good time so far! The city is completely crazy but there is something brilliant about it. Its always buzzing and there is just a great feel to it. All of Petes friends have been pointing me in the right direction job wise and have been so lovely and helpful. I have said that I am happy to chill out for a few weeks and get to know the city better. I dont want to take oany old job so I want to take my time and make sure I'll be happy. Sam and Jamie (a great guy who she lives with in Newcastle and went travelling with last year) are on there way down from the north and seem to be loving it. Icant wait til they get here. They're going to love it!!!!!
So until some brilliant teaching job comes along I am
very happily unemployed.... living in Siagon!
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Snakes Alive!!
wow ! such an amazing time already - can't believe that python - was the fake smile on you or the snake ????Am loving this travel log and will pass it on - be good take care - love you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx