Good Morning Vietnam

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Well we've been moving right along somewhat according to schedule. We made it to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Vietnam two nights ago.

We had a great time in Sihanoukville. The weather was overcast on both days, so it wasn't really beach weather but it was still hot. The beach we stayed on was called Serendipity beach. We had a beach bungalow right on the water. The bungalows were owned by a British lady and her daughter and they had a nice little restaurant that served up some home comforts. Sunday night they had a huge roast dinner with bread pudding and apple crumble. It kind of made us feel like we were back on Speyside drive for a November Sunday dinner. Other culinary highlights include red snapper that I ordered one night. The menu read :"red snapper (whole)". I didn't realise that this meant I would literally be served a massive fish straight off the grill. Although I was a little intimidated by the teeth at first, they had cut it well enough that it was fairly easy to eat (and really delicious). Good thing "Uncle Roy" on Manitoulin taught me how to de-bone a fish, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to enjoy my meal as much.

Because it's monsoon season in Cambodia (the low tourist season) the ladies and children selling things on the beach had kicked their sales pitches into high gear. We befriended a number of children who were out selling things after school. This one little nugget named Manchester (I think he just called himself that because he was really into European football) bet Adam a dollar that he could beat him at tic tac toe in the sand. What Manchester didn't tell Adam was that he got to start in the middle every single time. After several tied games, Manchester was frustrated that he might never win and stormed off. We met up with him the next night and he and Adam reconciled.
There were lots of ladies on the beach walking around with kits to do manicures, pedicures and threading (they role string tightly together and run it along your skin to rip out the hair). Of course it was just my luck that I hadn't shaved my legs in awhile... so I was a prime candidate for their services. I must have had 10 ladies that day come up and touch my legs and say "oh, madam, you want to have nice legs?" One of the ladies even did a trial spot near my knee so I could see what it would feel like. Then she turned to Adam and said "wouldn't your girlfriend look beautiful with no hair on her legs?" At this point we were both laughing too hard to answer. That night I shaved my legs.

Our bus ride from Sihanoukville to Vietnam went well (there weren't any flat tires, so I guess things are improving). The border crossing into Vietnam was pretty disorganized. The border police had to completely re-adjust one of the cameras at customs to be able to capture Adam's head. Also, the bus attendant on our bus was on a serious power trip. He collected everyone's passport on the bus and then brought the passports to the customs agent who individually called out our names. I bet you can only imagine what Adam and Nicole sounded like pronounced in Vietnamese.

There is only one way to describe Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC)... INSANE. There are 6 million people here and there must be 10 million motorbikes. There are so many people on mopeds driving around that you can barely cross a street. That being said, the weather is a lot better here than it was in Cambodia (less humid and it hasn't rained yet). When we first arrived we had our first of two Vietnamese rip off experiences (we were warned by other travellers that you have to bargain for everything that isn't written down because the Vietnamese will try to charge you three times the actual price). We arrived in HCMC late at night and got in a cab to take us to our hostel. We asked the cab driver how much to take us there, and he said not to worry he would run the meter. Bad idea. It was after we passed the "crazy buffalo" restaurant for the third time that I realised he was doing laps around the neighbourhood and that the bus had dropped us off 5 minutes away from our hotel. We paid him the 7 USD and flipped him the bird once he was out of sight.When we got inside the hostel they told us that they didn't have any room at that hostel but that we could stay at their sister hostel across the street. The "hostel" across the street is actually a family's storefront and home where they have converted the top floors into hostel rooms. After we walked up 10 flights of stairs with all our bags, we decided that we were too tired to go anywhere else and decided to stay. I write this blog from the computer in the family living room. The two kids are eating breakfast and watching cartoons on TV as the mother and grandmother eat Pho (Vietnamese soup) and gossip. The lady at the first hostel we could switch back to the main hostel if we wanted to, but Adam and I are enjoying a little reminder of family life. They also gave us free dinner the first night and breakfast is included. Sold! The mom even changed our sheets and towels after the first night. That never happens in South East Asia (you always have to ask for clean sheets and towels no matter how long you've been staying).

Yesterday we had seriously action packed day. We checked out a huge market in the heart of the city. This was not a good idea first thing in the morning because we were massively overwhelmed by people grabbing our limbs to pull us in the direction of what they were selling. We also visited the reunification palace and war remnants museum. The war remnants museum was fascinating. Adam loved seeing all the tanks, helicopters, and fighter planes that the US army used. We were both totally blown away by a lot of the information. It's amazing to see how far Vietnam has come after such a huge devastation. After the war museum we want and saw Transformers 2 in theatres. Adam had been dying to see it since it came out and we hasn't been anywhere that had a movie theatre since June 15th. It was really entertaining to watch a movie with a theatre filled with Vietnamese teenagers. They were reading subtitles and laughed at different parts than we did. The Vietnamese LOVE to see people wipe out or have any kind of toilet humour.

Today we're off to a waterpark in HCMC (yesterday was pretty educational, so we figured we mix it up with some wave pool, lazy river and slides). Tomorrow we are going to Cu Chi tunnel network that was built during the Vietnam war (it stretched all the way to the Cambodian border and had an underground hospital network, kitchen, artilleries, etc.) Should be pretty cool. The following day we head to Nha Trang along the coast.

Lots of love,
Nicole/Poke/Coco
xoxoxo

ps. I think I have ring worm on my arm... started antifungal cream treatment and hopefully that gets it under control.

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