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6th May 2009
We arrived in the costal town of Nhu Trang at 6:00am. The 12hr journey had been horrendous, the bucks were to small and the road (I use that word cautiously) was one long series of pot holes we felt every jump, roll, jerk and bottoming out, we slept for maybe an hour so we were wrung out when we arrived at the 62 Tran Phu Hotel.
Pili headed straight fro the shower and bed. I decided to walk the street and find some breakfast which I did. I then walked down to the long beach front and sat by the sea for a while. On the way into town, looking through the windows we saw what seems most of the locals meet at the beach at 6:00am for Tia Chi, badminton and just a general workout. It seems everyone here works out to some degree; it’s a good thing to see.
When I get back to the hotel it’s about midday, Pili’s awake and showering and I suggest we go and find a light lunch. We go and eat next door to the hotel but it all goes a bit wrong and we end up
arguing about something and so it doesn’t escalate to war fare I go for another walk but end up back at the hotel, Pili turns up an hour later and we both apologise and talk about the future and what we’ll do after our travels (it’s a secret for now but we do have plans).
In the evening I find a little bar with an English guy sat outside. Pili had gone to call home which could take hours so I try to find some company. I forget the guys name but we had a good conversation, I think he worked in the I.T. for the banking industry, anyway he happily share a bottle of local whiskey which we consumed over the course of two and a half hours (that’s how long Pili was on the phone). Merry but surprisingly not drunk we headed back to the hotel at midnight via a sandwich stall for Pili.
7th May 2009
We spend most of the day on the beach working on our long gone tans. In the evening we catch another sleeper coach to Saigon. We learnt our lesson and get better seats and manage to sleep most
of the way thankfully.
Leaving the hotel I did have a small disagreement with the very pregnant manageress over our checking out. She wanted to charge us an extra day for being an hour over the checking out time. We had no idea of this as nobody had told us and with no info in the room how were we to know. It makes no sense that we would loiter and incur ridiculous extra charges. I refused to pay the extra charge and she lost it completely and called security. She also tried to charge us for a bottle of water that we’d drank but replaced from the fridge. She really badmouthed me to the security guy and he seemed quite uncomfortable. She threatened to get us kicked off the coach which I knew she couldn’t do. The security guy asked me politely to pay just to keep the peace, NO WAY!!!! Anyway the long and short of it is that she gave up, swore at me and told me to piss off, all in Vietnamese (you know when your being sworn at in any language by the body language and vocal inflections). The security guy walked out with
me with his head hung low, he was very apologetic and said she was a crazy woman because of the hormones coursing through her pregnant body. It not really politically correct but obviously true, SHE WAS A NUT, god help her husband!
8th May 2009
We arrive in the centre of the madness that is Saigon in the early morning, Pili’s in a bit of a panic as to where we are but I’m confident about the layout of the city and walk us directly to Madame Cuc’s 127 Hotel within ten minutes much to Pili’s amazement, at least we’d slept on the coach. We had a couple of hours to kill for a room to be made vacant but we didn’t mind, we ate our free breakfast (warm bread and jam with bananas and glorious coffee).
When we finally got to our room on the fifth floor we showered, did some washing and strung up the washing line from the bathroom and across our bedroom. The room was smaller than the last one but it was for one night so we didn’t give a toss.
In the afternoon we cruised around, did a little shopping
for food and then chilled out in the air conditioned room. Saigon is a cool place I suppose and we’re glad we’ve visited but at the end of the day it’s just another Vietnamese city, thousands of people and bikes, deafening noise, pollution and neon and a million things to spend you money on. We’re country people through and through and all this mad and chaos is very exhausting, especially in the heat (it was 40C) and humidity which was at about 80%.
In the evening we find ourselves back at the little side street bar that we used last time, we sit with our beer and have a really nice talk about our experiences and longingly look forward to the white sand of Thailand and relaxing for the end of our current journey. We fly tomorrow afternoon and we’re excited. Cambodia and Vietnam have been a struggle and has tested our nerves and resolve at every turn. I think if you have a large budget and two to three weeks it could a paradise trip but on a tight travellers budget (which most of the people we’ve met have) you really struggle with the people and services. The
same as everywhere else sadly, the attitude is money talks. It’s really a shame, the travellers that have the cash to stay in the best hotel, play on yachts and eat in the fine restaurants probably are doing the right thing and get what they pay for, the rest of us lowly backpackers have to fight for everything we purchase, be it a musty room, water or bread or even transportation. The travel industry in Cambodia and Vietnam seems to care only for the wealthy and don’t realise that most of the cash is with the mass of backpackers as we out number the wealthy traveller a thousand to one. We did have many highlights along the way and they will be treasured for the rest of our days. The travellers we’ve met have all been amazing and as the old saying goes ’a problem shared is a problem halved’ and we heard similar horror stories about similar situations from everyone we met. I didn’t get to several places that I wanted to see such as some of the more remote National Park’s but travelling on a budget is about compromise, especially when travelling as a couple. We deserve some
R n R and I hope we’ve made the right decision to end the trip on a beach in Thailand, fingers crossed; we have the notorious Bangkok to get through first!
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larry dinh
non-member comment
Thank You
Reading your blog made me feel like I am really there in Vietnam. I agree with you 100%. Vietnam has a "money first policy" to all tourists and even local people. I am an American-Vietnamese and was there in April 2009. I didn't go through what you'd been through because I was so 'chicken' to venture like you do, and I admire your bravery. Although I did have some bad experiences there because they know I am not from Vietnam and tried to rob me blind and I didn't fight back like you did. It is sad that such a beautiful country is ruin by greed and hostile. Once again, thank you for sharing your experiences and pictures are great! Really enjoy your blog.