Originally written on November 17, 2004

Breakfast at Kim Caf? Onto sh*tty bus. Bus was late getting there. It went around the backpacker district picking up other passengers. Then back to Kim caf?45 minutes later. So glad I woke up early! Turns out two Canadian girls slept in, then we later found out they were hungover. Bus to border about an hour and a half. Stopped at gas station 20 minutes from the border. Bathroom break and time for the tourists to spend the remainder of their dong (Vietnamese currency). The bus did not get any gas. The bus pulled up at the border and a cart pulled up alongside. Two guys started unloadeding all of the bags onto a cart. They never asked if we wanted this service. Kirk and I knew this was not for free and kept our bags. Be without our bags, I don’t think so.

Before we left the bus our guide told us that we would go through three rooms at the Vietnamese border, rooms 12, 9, and 7. He also said it should take 1/2 hour. So, at 11am we all made our way to the first room. Along the way we were accosted by shouts of you change money dong to dollar by a handful of persistent women. Carrying all of our luggage,I with backpack and Kirk with two bags, as we bought too many clothes in Hoi an and were to cheap to ship them. Kirk kept this extra bag on top of his backpack (as he carried it).

Room 12 is hell’s gate, a concrete walled room with a wicker wall on the inside (with a tiny window between the wicker). One fan, on low speed is attached to the right wall and is the only mild sense of relief in the staggering heat. The climate is hot, but more importantly the conditions increase the heat. 50 people crowd in the room facing the wicker window, waiting to give the officer their passport for an exit stamp. There is no line, just a (mass) cluster f**k of people not knowing who has already given their passport to the guy at the window, nor when it is their turn to give the passport to the dude. No one moves, because no one knows how long it takes to get a stamp, so the “cluster f**k” doesn’t move and you just stand there waiting for someone to tell you what the f**k is going on. Eventually we wise up and realise that we will never reach the window. We see some people pass their passports to the front over the mass of poep;e. We follow suit and hope ours reaches the window. It does and the waiting continues..

There is no officer directing traffic or telling anyone what should be done. There are just bribe takers, scummy guys who tell you that if you pay them so much dong they will ensure the passport goes to the front of the line. There is no point in paying these guys because we came as a group so the bus on the Cambodian end has to wait for the slowest person. Money does make the world go round here because others, not from our bus, who do employ the service have their freshly stamped passports in their hot little hands very quickly. This slows down the stampling process for us cheapies. Plus, the stamping process is done at a extremely slow rate, whereby the sound the of the stamper is heard and 20 minutes later one passport is revealed. Remember there are about 50 people in a crowded sweatbox, some carrying their bags, amongst women asking us to change dong to dollar and scummy men suggesting that we pay the bribe. Every once in awhile there is mad stamping. About 7-10 stamps in a 10 second period. This sound brightens our spirt, but we soon realize it is a cruel joke.

One and a half hours later, after every asian, and every other nation from close to far proximity to Vietnam is given their stamped passport Kirk and I receive ours. During our wait one of the Canadian girls, who is the most hungover injures herself (after vomiting all morning). Her friend thinks this is very funny, so she decides to take a picture. Bad idea. Frankenstein, I.e. the the officer in charge of room 12, visible through the wicker window was very upset.Why this name, because he had a huge scar across his forehead, the doctor did a poor stitch up job and it look extra creepy. All of the guidebooks say do not photograph in any government building, and common sense tells you not to drink heavily the night before a long bus trip but what do I know?

After we finally get our stamps, we proceed to room 9 where we get our bags checked and cleared. This consisted of one guy collecting a yellow form that we got when we arrived in Vietnam. On it are things like how much money you have brought in, jewllery, bags, etc. This guy just takes the form without even looking at our bags. We could have had some small children in our 3 extra bags and he wouldn’t care. Then to room 7 where they check that your passport is stamped.

From there a hot walk past a guard post (where they check your passport one last time) and through a construction site. Crappy hard packed clay riddled with old scars of where trucks at one time where stuck. Perfect ankle twisting country especially when carrying two bags under 33 C heat. The walk was about 5-700 meters long. When we got to Cambodia we where sweating like old fat Elvis’s.

Here, we paid the officer 25 US for a 30 day visa, the whole process took about 45 more minutes of mostly waiting in the shade in a more or less orderly line. Bribery was less common here although who knows what the real cost of the visa is seeing as how I was denied a receipt. Whatever, we made it to our new bus, got on, and off we went towards Phnom Penh.

This trip was pretty, although boring. Rice patty and palm tree over and over and over. In the middle some where we had to take a ferry accross the Mekong. Our bus got on right behind a truck full of live pigs. Mmmmm bacon. But not too smelly.

Finally we arrived in Phnom Penh at about 5 PM at the King Guesthouse. The bus parked in such a way as to block us in to try and keep the bus passengers from leaving to find other accomodation. I’m sure the trip was also designed to arrive in the evening and thus discourage people wandering around. Heather stayed with the bags and I went out to roam the streets of Phnom Penh looking for a place to sleep.

After about 30 minutes of climbing up and down the dark, rubble and garbage filled side streets I finally found a decent place just down the street from where we were dropped off. I came back, got Heather and the bags, and we checked in, showered, and left to find some dinner. After looking for quite awhile, we finally settled on a greasy pizza place as it was the only thing that wasn’t serving dinner off of plastic tables for kids with short plastic chairs — apparently we weren’t in the eating out part of town. The place was dark when we got home and hit the hay. By this time the AC was broken in our room so we switched to another bigger room same price. Lights out.

Originally written on November 16, 2004

Got up early and had some breakfast at kims cafe, bacon and eggs and tea with condensed milk for Heather (barf says kirk). We then had another round of organizing finaces for most of Cambodia where they have no atms and getting at your money is trickier. We then purchased bus tickets to Phnom Penh through the travel agent portion of Kim Cafe. Next we took a taxi to jade emporor pagoda. Our driver was friendly and told us about his family, and how his baby has a birthday today. He works hard all day but when he goes home and see his babies he is very happy (he never mentioned the sex of the baby, and communication was difficult). Pagoda highlights include; the hall of many hells which depict all the ways you will be punished for different offences; the giant statues of guys who killed the tiger and dragon; great tiles on the floor; and the really scary scary fans on the ceiling.

Next we took two cyclos to reunification palace which is basically like a more open 60’s university building. It could be on york campus, ugly. Inside pretty nice although very cold in feeling, hot in temperature. Various rooms show how the place operated when the South was in power, things have been left as they where. The bunker was interesting as was all the old radio equipment.

The best part was the propaganda film at the end of the tour, actually the room at the end of the tour where you watch the film. It was air conditioned and set to keep a temp of 30 C, pure heaven compared to the rest of the building.

Next down the street to the war museum, lots of sobering pictures and information. Not over the top commie, but my no means fair. Still, the US did some bad things there, lots of facts about agent orange, and a really great display of press photographers in war zones.

Back to hotel, shower, then off to dinner of chicken in rice paper with lettuce and minty-licorice leafs, cucumber, all wrapped up and dipped into peanut sauce, pork rolls not deep fried, chicken with crispy noodles and vegatables and pineapple, very very good. Afer dinner catch up on internet and back up all photos to mp3. While walking the streets we saw a girl get taken away, the shop owner I was in said the girl was on heroin, looked like it to me.

Later, near the end of our evening, 10:30 or so, Heather was looking at shirts in a stall and my spidey sense went off. I turned around to see a big white guy chasing a small vietnamese guy around a taxi. The big guy was mad, but couldn’t catch the faster smaller guy so they just went around and around the car for 30seconds. Then the white guy sneered and shattered the passenger side door window. The street went quiet.

Then the big guy trotted off, and the small guy pulled out his phone and started diealing while saying, where you go? By the time we went 30m down the street the police had passed us. That dude was going to see some real Vietnam, no idea what it was about. Heather only clued in when the guy started yelling where you go?

But the shop owner and me watched most of it. I asked him what was going on and he says, “I didn’t see anything.” Hmmm I say, “I didn’t see anything either.” He looked and me and smiled patted me on the back knowingly. Off to bed.

Originally written on November 15, 2004

Woke up and dealt with various money issues surrounding how to pay, commision on exchange of TC’s CC’s seeing as how the resort only accepted “the cash”, after we had lunch (heather a wicked good clubhouse and the best fries in all of asia so far, me a crappy ham sandwhich and no fries as they forgot them). Over lunch realize no reciept for purchased ticket, had to go back to place and get it. Then back to room to pack with enough time before the bus came for a leisurely swim. When the bus did come we were the last to get on meaning we got shafted on seat selection. Heather took the 2nd last seat (2nd last row in the bus) and I took the last seat, the middle of the back row. A fantastic journey ensued, hot, sweaty and bumpy. But at least it was short (only 4 hours). We arrived in Saigon after dark at about 7pm and a quick walk to our Hotel Quanh Thanh. We checked in and showered immediately. Out to dinner at Allez Boo, unremarkable. Dead tired and to sleep.

Originally written on November 13, 2004

In the morning we had our free breakfast of eggs juice and tea (eggs, extra salty just they way mom never made because we would have run out of a whole box of salt in a week). We hopped on the bike and headed out to find ‘fairy spring’ and never found it. We headed down the road to find red dunes (never found), saw fishing village, great beach, beautiful views. On our way to the dunes we stopped at an internet cafe to download some pictures onto the mp3 player and to look up departure methods and times from Mui Ne to Saigon. The women running the cafe/internet told us that she operates a morning minibus. Later, we asked all around town and no other designated tour company leaves Mui Ne in the morning, so we thought that her deal was shady or more likely a crappy local ram jammed minibus ride from hell.

We decided to turn back, as it was late afternoon and still many km’s from the white sand dunes. We had a great swim in the ocean waves, watched the kite surfers and drank our beer. MMMM…

We wanted western food (hadn’t had pasta since we left) and went to an Italian restaurant. What were we thinking?!!! It was very disappointing: garlic bread, cheese ravioli, spaghetti in tomoto and bacon sauce (hardly any sauce and not crispy bacon). To make up for the meals shortcommings we destroyed the parmesean cheese that was free FU ‘Good. Movies before bed, then sleepy time.

Originally written on November 12, 2004

We arrived in Mui Ne after our 4 hour bus trip from Nha Trang at about noon. As per usual, we were dumped off at the place where the bus company get some commision if we stay. It looked OK, but it wasn’t near any restaurants so we would have to eat there or catch a cab every day — not bloody likely! So, I left Heather with the bags in the hotel restaurant and went out front, rented a motorcycle of some guy for 5 bucks (he filled it up with what he said was gas from a green 7up bottle, said see you tomorrow, and drove south looking for a good place to stay. I checked about 5 places and all were either OK and expensive 50US or more, or crappy and expensive. Except for the Rachua dua which was nice and only 25 US. We got a pretty decent AC room, 30 seconds from the beach, and the place had a pool. I probably could have gotten the place next door for cheaper, but it didn’t have a pool. We arrived, had a quick shower as is the custom to rid the travel sweat, and headed out on the motorcycle.

Where were we going you might ask? Question: where would 2 canadians go who were living on the cheap? Answer: to get beer! No need to pay ridiculous hotel prices. We headed into the town of Phan Thiet picked up some beer. This was also where we had our first really good whiff of Nuoc Nam, or fish sauce. Let me describe the smell: first a smooth sweet smell, like old honey or weak maple syrup followed by a puzzling, if not quite shellfish-ish then certainly fishy, but definatly pungent after smell. The first smell is good the second is bad leaving you feeling the need to constantly inhale to keep the sweet smell always going through your nose. Sadly, this is not possible. We got out of there quick, it really stinks.

On the way out of town we noticed two cham towers on the hill overlooking the place. We found our way there and after paying the 2000 dong toll we rode our motorcycles right up the ancient structures. There we were greeted by two young girls who happily guided us around and told us of their family. Li and here sisiter (sorry li’s sister, wher you May?) also showed us some berries they were eating. We enjoyed one or two only A)because its wrong to just ‘eat some berries’ and B) they where growing on an old military outpost which we also toured. Not nearly as exciting as the Cham towers, but certainly more dangerous. With daylight fading, and the camera batteries giving out, we headed back to our resort stopping along the way for some dinner, then to bed. Below is the original message (the sunset was from tonight):

We are currently in Mui Ne, Vietnam and still the internet is ass. We have been keeping up to date and hopefully when we get to Saigon next week we will be able to update pictures and the daily events. Here is where we are staying: http://www.elephantguide.com/hotels/phanthiet/tropico.htm Cheers for now. Sunset at Mui Ne last night…

Originally written on November 11, 2004

We arrived in Nha Trang at 6:30 am from our all night bus trip. Glad to be done we were greeted by many solicitors (touts) offering rooms for rent upon exiting the “bus terminal” (parking lot behind hotel). We made our way to the beach to think of where to stay and to get away from the touts. Our peace was short lived when a nervous solicitor approached trying to get us to go see hotel. They get money if we go to hotel, a finders fee. It took awhile to get him to go, he was so nervous talking to us that we couldn’t just say get lost pal, either that or he had a major case of the shakes. Anyway, we got away from him and went down the street for breakfast, we had bacon, omlette and bread (no jam or butter). Quote Heather, “greasy tummy is maxed out.”

I checked two hotels (one the nervous solicitor suggested cause it looked ok and one next to the greasy spoon). We settled on the one near the greasy place due to it being cheaper and still nice (AC, TV, hard bed, shower) and it including breakfast (12 US). We checked in then back to the beach to figure out what to do in Nha Trang and how long we should stay. We were disappointed in the beach, it kind of looks like california but water depth deep nearly right away so no good for swimming really. We then walked to pagoda and white buddha. Walking the city settled it for us that we should leave tomorrow and head to a quieter, cleaner spot (Mui Ne). Nha trang is kind of seedy compared to some of the other places we have been, no charm, all business. Also, a lot of night theft if you belive the guide books.

We bought bus tickets out to Mui Ne and were happy. Dinner was indian food: Vegetable korma, chicken tikka masala, pawaa rice, pakora (bread), bad beer (Saigon) and safe and good sprite. Water from store, gave us a useless 1000 dong coin, scammed again!. Packed till late, what’s new?

We aren’t dead, painfully slow (I mean really slow) internet combined with frequent outages makes updating web almost impossible. Have been keeping up via the pda, expect a whole bunch of days to pop up once we find fast internet. We are in Hoi An and enjoying the nice beach and cheap shopping (the latter mostly heather). Also, much better food here. Cheers for now!

Originally written on November 6, 2004

We slept in, yay!, refreshed and had a late breakfast at the Banana caf�. Kirk had a make it yourself peanut butter and banana on a baguette, and most of the meal was quiet as he tried to eat the super sticky and yummy peanut butter. I had prawn curry and bread. A first, seafood for breakfast. The curry was good, the best yet for Vietnam, but pales by Laos and Thailand standards (too oily and not enough spice).

Midway through breakfast Kirk noticed a gentlemen leaving the restaurant wearing a conical hat (with the plastic wrap still on). We quietly commented that it is tourists like him, that enhance the Vietnamese belief that tourist will buy all sorts of crap. Shortly after our quiet review, the caucasion sitting next to us started up conversation with us. He is a business man (American citizen and Vietnanese resident) and shared our thoughts. Over the next hour or so he taught us some basic Vietnamese, ie. Di (go!) and Chai Yea (what’s this?), Nit Dow (you’re giving me a headache). We also talked about the Vietanmese business mentality and shared his travel stories on how to best get around south east Asia. Next, we were headed for an internet caf�, but saw that the sun was out, and the sky was blue. A rare sight at this time of year in Vietnam, so we decided to head for the beach. We went back to hour hotel to gather our beach wear and start to catch up with our web site.

We rented bicycles and rode to the beach (a 5 km ride). At the beach we played in the waves and lazed around on the sand. We headed back to the hotel before the sunset, and prepared for dinner. I finished my book, Atonement, a good read. We walked towards the river, checking out the many cloth shops.. At night it is less aggressive, so it easier to look around (with out of course going in). For dinner, we had a vegetable hot pot, chicken and curry, rice and cau lai (goughy noodles, bean sprouts, fried wontons and pork slices). After dinner we had a drink (gin and tonic) at the two for one happy hour bar and a pineapple pancake with chocolate sauce (awesome! And worth the wait). On our way back to the hotel we lloked for an internet caf�, and went into one briefly. As we were warned by the american we had spoken to this morning, the internet connection is painfully slow, so we gave up and went home to type out stories on our pda and write postcards.