I'm off to 'Nam
Trip Start
Feb 28, 2008
1
6
18
Trip End
Jul 06, 2008
Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam
Monday, March 24, 2008
I am now safely in Nha Trang, Vietnam. And guess what? I have another eventful coach ride to tell you about! This blog is for Ho Chi Minh City.
Friday 21st March
Today I left on the 8am bus to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. I was sad to be leaving Cambodia because I absolutely loved it there. They Khmer people have a way of making you feel very welcome. On the bus I got chatting to an English guy, Colin, who had been travelling for the last 10 months. When we stopped just before the Vietnamese border for food I bumped into Tim, who I had met on the bus from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh yesterday. It turns out that he was on the same bus as me, so I went back to sit with him and an American girl, Kristen, who he had been speaking to.
The park in Saigon
It only took about 10 minutes to get the whole bus through departures and immigration and we were on our way again. In HCMC we ended up staying at a guesthouse called Thanh, run by a strange little Vietnamese couple. Me, Tim & Kristen shared a room, and two girls from New Zealand, Rebecca & Jade, who we also met on the bus, got a room upstairs from us. We decided to dump our bags and go straight out for food. We found somewhere around the corner, ate, and then something really weird happened. On the bus about an hour earlier, I had said that everytime I left England I see someone I know. As we were sitting in the restaurant 3 of Stu Hunt's Uni buddies walked in and sat right next to us! I had met them all at Reading Festival in August 2007! After a chat, and realising that we are pretty much doing the same trip, I went upstairs to join the others where we stayed until midnight playing pool and chatting to an English guy, a Swedish girl, and two Australians. I can't remember any of their names!Saturday 22nd March
I had another bad nights sleep last night. After falling asleep at about 1am, I woke up at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep. After my roomies woke up and we had watched some Prison Break on TV we headed out for some breakfast. Afterwards we decided we would go to the War Remnants Museum. We walked along the busy streets and occasionally you would get a moped come flying at you on the pavement
The crazy tall, thin buildings
. And they expect you to get out of the way! When we got there it was 11.50am and we found out that it was closed 12.00-12.30, so we decided to go a have a look at the Royal Palace. We almost walked past it, as it did not look like a palace at all. It kind of looked like a library or a museum! The War Remnants Museum was incredible, but very hard hitting. It was basically six rooms of photographs from the Vietnam War. I spoke to Kristen afterwards and she said that it was very hard for her as an American to see photos of the atrocities caused by the US. We braved the boiling temperatures inside for about 2 hours! In the evening we went for food and Kristen went to find her American friends that had flown in from Bangkok. When she came back with Lindsay and Lauren, who had both studied a semester at Sussex University, she also had a random guy with her. Ebi was a Nigerian dude who was playing football in the Vietnamese V-League. We went to a pool hall for an hour to meet Ebi's football buddy, Apollo, before going to a bar. After a couple of hours all 9 of us managed to get into one taxi that pumped out loud house music all the way! It was a bit of a squeeze to get in! Way too much beer was consumed inside, and by the time the club closed at 4am I had been up 24 hours.Sunday 23rd March
I had an amazing 7 hour sleep last night, straight through until 11am
Look at the really small guy on the left!
. I didn't feel particularly great though! We all went somewhere for breakfast to meet the Nigerian duo, but when they showed up the staff would not serve them because they were black. We quickly finished our food and left. Me and Tim walked Lindsay and Lauren to the W.R. Museum before heading to the market. We didn't stay long as the smell of the meat, fish and vegetables was making me feel ill thanks to my hangover! After we met the girls we jumped in a taxi to a football stadium just outside of town to watch Ebi and Apollo play a friendly match. The quality of fotball was terrible compared to English. After the game had finished we jumped on the bus to an awesome Indian restaurant that Ebi knew. After we finished we went to a little bar to watch the Man Utd - Liverpool game. The bar sold a mug of beer for 4000 dong, which is 25 cents (12.5p)! Inside two of Ebi's football friends started arguing about football. This turned into a fist fight, which spilled outside. Tables were knocked over, the police were called, and the bar closed. We went somewhere else to watch the Chelsea - Arsenal game.Monday 24th March
Tim and the girls all got up early to go to the Cu Chi tunnels, where the Vietcong hid during the Vietnam War. I decided not to go as I'm really claustrophobic. I just stayed around town, wrote in my diary and did an internet blog
Me and Tim enjoying the Saigon Beer
. In the afternoon when the gang returned we went for food, and then I went back to the market with the American girls. After that I had to quickly get back to the guesthouse to pack so that I could get to the station for the 7.50pm night train to Nha Trang. I managed to find a taxi and told him where to go. He told me that it was very busy and he didn't have much time to get there so he would "go the wrong way". This confused me initially, but as he made a series of turns down roads where he shouldn't have gone and hurteled down tiny alleys I realised what he meant! He got me there by 7.25 in the end. In the station I asked a lady where I should go and she took my ticket to ask someone else. When she came back she told me that my 'train' ticket was actually a coach ticket despite me asking for a train ticket in the travel place!!! This left me with 20 minutes to get all the back to where I had just come from with heavy traffic to contend with. The moto driver then dropped by some buses and drove off. I asked another man which one was my bus and he told me that the bus was picking me up from the travel place itself! I then had to run with my heavy backpack to the correct place! What a nightmare! Luckily the bus was 30 minutes late so I had enough time to catch my breath and change out of my sweaty t-shirt. The bus was actually very comfortable. The driver moved a girl onto a different bed as I was too tall to fit in any of the others! I could lay out fully stretched. The bus ride was a bit bumpy, but I managed to sleep most of the way apart from 2.00-2.30am when the driver decided to play some really loud Vietnamese folk music. I had a speaker above my head!!!To be continued...
The next blog should be ready on the 27th or 28th.
Happy Birthday for Thursday Jimbo! Sorry I can't be a Spartan with you guys!
xxx
Comments
What a trip!
Matt, it's been great to hear about all your adventures. It seems that you've crammed in so much and got through some mad bus journeys (especially to someone who hasn't got much further than the Lake District!) Hope it all continues to go well.
Sue (Russell's mum)