The Magical Mystery Tour
Trip Start
Feb 21, 2008
1
16
20
Trip End
Mar 18, 2008
Chau Doc,
Vietnam
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Well it took all my strength to get into the boat without a meltdown (I was a bit hysterical but it wasn't just me there was general hysteria going on) and then when Solenn went to get in the boat nearly toppled over. Lots of screeching. Of course we had heavy bags and the boat was barely floating above water.. it was actually lovely in the end although I was frozen with fear all the way and my hand was like a claw gripping onto the side of the boat! On one of the islands there was a python so we were all set to take turns holding him, being so brave and everything and Solenn went first - but then some other guy jumps in and picks up the snake and started tying him into knots thinking he was hilarious (the poor snake) and nobody wanted to touch the snake after than in case he was angry, so that was the end of that!
After a lovely day at the islands we were supposed to transfer to a luxury air conditioned coach (according to the intinerary) to go up to the border with Cambodia.
Frozen with fear part 1
Hmm. The guide said: who is going to cambodia? We put up our hands. Guide: You take local bus. Us: Em no we don't. Guide: Yes yes I show you. Us : What? you can't leave us here (car park in the middle of nowhere). Eventually he decided to wait with us which is just as well because we didn't even know where we were supposed to be going or staying because we thought we were on a GUIDED TOUR! Anyway our bus eventually arrives and it's a mini van and it's full. Packed with people and their worldly possessions. So they very kindly cleared a space for us and only let us sit in those seats (you sit you sit). No air conditioning all the windows wide open the filth and the rain flying in on top of us! Cait summed up the situation when she said the airconditioning was a bit overwhelming. So we had to make the traditional five or six stops for toilet, food, shopping, whatever. But instead of the usual tourist places we were stopping at real vietnamese places which was great because the tourist places are all the same and people are hassling you to buy things but not great as me and Cait had shorts and vests on (not done) and no-one had a word of english and we didn't know what anything was! The people on the bus were priding themselves on looking after us and made sure we knew where to go to the loo and when the bus was leaving. Now for some reason we thought we would be on the bus for two or three hours, but time was marching on and we were still not there. But there were three lovely old men sitting in fron of us and they took care of us and bought us vietnamese sweets (yuk but we had to eat them really) and water and corn on the cob at various intervals to make sure we didn't expire.
the pier
So about 6 or seven hours later we arrive at the place Chau Doc and thank god a girl from the hotel meets us at the bus. BUT of course there has been some mix up and they have no rooms for us (which was ok because there were quite a few cockroaches crawling around the place and I went to the toilet there and it was the worst yet). So after a bit of panicking and fratic phone calls the girl dragged us down an alleyway to some lady's house who had rooms and it was spotless, which was great because we were terrified after seeing the filth of the other place. Had some really nice street food for dinner , one of the best meals we have had since we got here. The best bit was when the guide came to collect us in the morning she was giving out about how bad the mix up was and Cait said it turned out ok in the end and she said not really beacuse where we stayed was much more expensive than the hotel. hahaha.Down to the docks we went to get on our boat and what do you know it's another tiny thing and we have to climb down a hill to go on a little wooden pier with our 400 bags. We had another cruise on the Mekong taking in some floating fish farms and a muslim village and mosque on the way and then we go the Cambodian border so we had to get off to get our visas. More huffing and puffing dragging the bags up muddy banks and then back down again to get a different boat..the whole luxury tour concept had totally gone out the window at this stage, but I met an Australian guy at our hotel yesterday and the same thing happened to him so I didn't feel too bad. When we got to Cambodia we were supposed to be getting a luxury air conditioned coach hahahahahaha. A mini van and in all fairness the driver was a genius he packed us all in with the luggage (behind his head he couldn't see out the back window at all).
We stayed in Phnom Penh for the night, guesthouse was fine, had some amazing food and one of the waiters fell in love with Solenn (well we think that's what happened he kept giggling at her but we had no way of communicating). Got a nice airconditioned bus to Siam Reap. Not as many stops as the Vietnamese buses but the same kind of places. At one, a little girl had a stall selling what looked like snails but turned out to be tiny cockles. Sitting out in the sun all day. Everyone was buying them and eating them. We didn't chance it. Hotel in Siam Reap is really nice and it has a swimming pool which is just as well because it's about 40 degrees.
