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Published: November 19th 2006
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My exit from Phu Quoc Island was an adventure all by itself. My boat to the mainland was suppose to leave at 1:20 PM and I was to catch a motorbike ride of approximately 30 kms at 12:15 in order to have a nice liesurely ride along the dusty road with safety being uppermost in mind.
Well, I made the mistake of taking in a two hour massage at 10 AM thinking that would leave me 15 minutes to get my stuff together.
Guess what happened !!!!!
I fell asleep and next thing i knew the motorbike driver was tapping me on the shoulder saying lets go, we are late, maybe we no catch boat in time. Well, talk about moving from serenity and perfect peace to panic stations in the matter of 5 seconds.
We were racing down the dirt road at 80kmh in no less than 5 minutes, dust flying everywhere and me holding my hat on with one hand and holding onto the driver with the other for dear life. So much for a peaceful exit from paradise. We made it the 30 kms with 20 minutes to spare. Good thing i always carry a
roll of toilet paper in my backpack for situations like this....hahaha
The boat journey of 3 hours was relaxing and I stayed the night once again at Rach Gia in the same hotel as my outward journey. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the town centre square so much the first time I went back and just sat there sipping on a few yogourt drinks, eating some french pastry and taking picture after picture of enthusiastic children all wanting to have their picture taken. I felt like the centre of attention in the square and felt sorry for the vietnamese photographers trying to make a living taking pics for cash. I was taking them by the dozen of happy smiling children all with toothy grins and huge ear to ear smiles. Even some of the parents got into the act and asked me to take thier picture with thier children. Then i would show them the instant results which the local photographers couldnt do since they are still using film cameras. God I really love the children here. They are so expressive and natural and not afraid to come and say hi or even try and engage is pigeon english.
7am came early after a late night and my bus to Chau Doc on the Cambodian border left Rach Gia at 8 am. My motorbike taxi arrived on time to pick me up but had mechanical problems on the way and we barely made the bus on time. The journey to Chau Doc consisted of a regular city bus, packed solid to the roof with sweaty bodies crammed tight together and an even tighter minivan bus which had 12 seats but carried 15 passengers and a shit load of cargo to boot. They tried to charge me 3 times the locals rate but I just laughed and said nice try but no way am i paying 9 dollars for a 3 dollar bus ride. The conductor just smiled, laughed and said sorry, i make mistake and charged me the right fare. If you dont do your homework here in advance concerning the price of most things, you can be sure you will be gouged big time.
Chau Doc is a medium size town very close to the border with Cambodia and is a popular sleeping place to catch the slow boat into cambodia for a day long excursion
up the Mekong to Phom Penh. I spent two days in Chau Doc, meeting a couple of long time english residents in the process and learning many of the ins and outs of a foreigner living in vietnam. I also rented a bicycle and cycled around the town and its environs. I managed to cycle to the fish farms west of town where all the homes or shacks are perched high on stilts over looking their fish ponds or rice paddies. The people were very engaging and yet again the children would run out and say "hello, what your name? " I just waved and said hello back and that seemed to make them all happy.
The electricity was out for 12 hours on Sat. but fortunately my hotel ( 5 dollars a night) had its own generator so at least we had fans running to take the edle off the 35C heat. Apparently its a regular weekend occurance in the area to lose power all day on the weekends. Guess the power company must be a government agency that doesnt work weekends.
Today, I hopped the slow boat to Phnom Penh via the Mekong River and enjoyed
a 9 hour boat cruise in two different boats and then a 1 1/2 bus ride into Phnom Penh to stay at a nice 4 dollar a night guest house in the heart of downtown.
Tomorrow I will try and upload some pics of the river cruise with a detailed account of the journey, stay tuned everyone. Am off to roam around Phom Penh.
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phil cooper
non-member comment
fascinating/educating
I am in rainy ole limey reading your blogs. Absolutely fabulous reading! What a spirit of adventure you have! keep on writing bill!