My Happy Place

Vietnam.

Greetings from Can Tho, Vietnam. It's Friday morning. I last posted on Friday, so lets go back.

The hotel we had stayed in that night was a very posh. I was also starting to feel a bit sick. So,I pretty much just bummed it for the rest of the day, nothing exciting.

The next day, Saturday, I was feeling more sick. It was a cold, runny nose, itchy eyes, sore throat etc. In hind sight it's kinda funny that I had a "cold", granted it's the tropics. Anyways, my fellow travellers and I ventured out for a bit of lunch. We noodles in yellow curry. It was ok, though I didn't particularly enjoy it, maybe because of how sick I felt.


My new friends were leaving that day, so I said my goodbyes to them and went to find a new place to stay. I got a tuk tuk to go find one. A tuk tuk, if I haven't mentioned already, is a type of taxi. They're mostly found in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. From what I saw, Laos and Cambodia have few traditional taxis (that is, a car). Tuk tuks are a motorbike with an attached carriage that has seats for 2-4 people.

I made my way over, in the tuk tuk, to the Boeung Kak Lake area. This is where a few budget hotels/hostels/guesthouses are found. I got a room at the Buong Meas Guesthouse. I splurged and got a room with air-conditioning and private bathroom (I normally get a fan cooled room), mainly because I still felt crummy. Still, it was only $12/night. I didn't do too much the rest of the day. I went to the store for a few snacks.


I also went to the "pharmacy". It's a bit unnerving to buy medication in a developing country from someone with whom I share no common language. I mimed my symptoms, which the woman working there (something tells me she's not a trained and qualified pharmacist) understood. She showed me a few different packets, I saw one of the drugs, "Tiffy Fu" had pseuphedrine (sp?). Good. I know that one. It's Sudafed. It's made in Thailand, so I can maybe trust it too. There was some other stuff in it too, I'll have to read up on those later. I got 4 packets of 4 pills (8 doses, more than I needed). I stopped in an internet cafe and researched my new medication, I wanted make sure it wouldn't kill me. Everything seems ok. Company has a good reputation, the other components in the pill are harmless, etc.


My Tiffy Fu worked alright. Nonetheless, I still felt pretty crummy. The only other thing I did that day was buy my boat ticket to Vietnam, more on that later.




The next day, Sunday, wasn't too much better. I did manage to wander around a bit. Phnom Penh can be a really gritty city, as I think I've already mentioned. Nobody gave me any trouble or anything, but it's quite visible what life is like. Even though it's densely populated, with a population over a million, there's still dirt roads (like the one where my guesthouse was). And the dirt roads are very rocky and bumpy with plenty of holes. There's a lot of garbage around too. On the upside, though, people are extraordinarily friendly. Little kids say "hello" and a lot of people smile at you.



On Monday I was feeling better, ready to do my 2nd real day of sightseeing. I hired a tuk tuk for the day (though it wound up only being a few hours). I visited Wat Phnom, a temple on top of a small hill (Wat mean temple and Phnom means hill. Phnom Penh means Penh's Hill.). It's a central part of Phnom Penh. Honestly, it wasn't my favorite temple, but it was worth a visit, due to its importance to the city.



I also visited Independence Monument, which celebrates independence from colonial French rule. Nearby was Liberation Monument, which celebrates the Vietnamese freeing the country from the Khmer Rouge.




Next, I went to the National Museum. That was a good hour walkaround. There's lots of statues from Cambodia throughout the ages. I also wasted away quite a bit of time by feeding the fish in the courtyard.


Next stop, Central Market. I wandered around this very large market. it's quite lively and people are selling everything. I had lunch of noodle soup, delicious.


Next, I went to Sisowath Quay, the riverfront. Pretty boring, there's construction blocking most of it. It was getting to be late afternoon so I took the tuk tuk back to the guesthouse. After refusing my tuk tuk driver's offer to take me to the shooting range where I can fire anything from M-16s to AK-47s to Tommy Guns to Rocket Launchers, I made me way inside. By the way, this shooting range really does exist, it's quite famous with travellers, I really just had no desire to go.

I made sure all my stuff was ready to go for the next morning (leaving for Vietnam). I had dinner (I remember eating on some random street, but can't remember what I had, sorry I haven't been too good in this post about keeping up with the culinary aspect). I went to a nearby bar for a couple beers and talked to someother travellers. I called it an early night (I had to be redy at 6:30 the next morning) and headed off to bed.


I got up early the next morning and walked down the the fron of the travel agency where I was to be picked up by bus, which would take me to the dock in Phnom Penh, where I would catch the boat to Vietnam. While I was waiting I had a bit of breakfast. It was Le Vache Qui Rit (Laughing Cow) on a baguette. I know what you're thinking. It's quite common in Cambodia, though (with locals). It's also all over Laos and Vietnam.


Then my Tuk Tuk picked me and the other guy who was waiting up. Wait a minute, I thought a bus was picking us up. No, the tuk tuk will take us to the bus. So after driving around Phnom Penh for half an hour, and picking up 2 other guys, we arrive at the guesthouse/travel agency where the bus will pick us up. We wait another 45 minutes. When the minibus arrives, the guy at the travel agency decides its a good time to take down our information that needs to be handed to Immigration. Could he have done this during the 45 minutes we were waiting. Of course he could have, but he didn't. The 4 of us took turns showing him our passports while he copied down information, excruciatingly slowly. He spoke alright English, the language on the form, but each one of us still needed to tell him we'd be arriving in Vietnam on the 23rd and so on and so forth. Meanwhile, the bus is waiting, we could be on the way already.


After getting on the bus, I started to notice something. We aren't going to the riverfront. We're heading out of the city. Fine, maybe the boat it somewhere close outside the city. After about half an hour I ask one of the fellow passengers if he knew where the bus was going. He had been told (correctly) that the launching point of the boat is an hour and a half away from the city! I had explicitly asked if the boat was in Phnom Penh. I had been told "yes".


Whatever, we'll get there eventually. Finally, after driving along a river, and through countryside, for a long time I see a big boat at a dock. It looks pretty nice and new. It has two stories. Nice boat.


Wait a minute... Why is the bus turning onto this dirt path? Ok, we're parked on the street. We're getting out here. Um, we're in somebody's backyard. There's a few rotting wood planks propped up on rocks leading out to a little wooden bumboat. That couldn't possibly be.... It is... Well this is gonna be fun.





After a precarious walk over the planks (with my big backpack) I got on the boat with the other travellers. There were already 5 other passengers on board, making a total of 9 passengers and a "crew" of 4 (though 2 of the crew just sort of hung out). The seats were just 2 benches running the length of the boat. The crew positioned us so we didn't throw the boat off balance.





As we made our way I took in the scenery and got a bit wet. I also chatted with some of the other travellers. Along the way the boat dropped off some bicycles at a village, giving us a bit more room inside. We docked and went out Cambodian Immigration. We then reboarded, went a km or so, and got off again to go through Vietnamese Immigration. We then got on anopther boat to go to the town of Chau Doc, an hour's ride away. The ride went through small canals/tributaries. I'm sure you've seen those romantic images of the Mekong Delta. Let me just say, it really does look like that. There's bamboo houses on stilts and floating houses. People row (often standing up) long, narrow wooden boats along. People are fishing. There's lots of trees with submerged trunks. Oh yea, and countless conical hats.





We finally arrived in Chau Doc. Chau Doc is a nice town of about 70,000 people. One of the other travellers and I split a Xe Loi (Vietnamese cyclo) to go to the hotel; everyone on the boat wound up going to this hotel eventually. We found out that the hotel is 2 blocks from the dock. The trip was much longer however. Our driver stopped at his buddy's hotel. His buddy tried to sell us a room there, we weren't gonna take any of that crap. After much refusing they finally got the picture and our driver took us to the right hotel.


We explored the town a bit. The market is great, all sorts of variety. In addition to countless fruits, vegetables, meat and provision, there's plenty of live seafood flopping around. There's tons of fish in wide, shallow buckets of water. Some of em flop out on the sidewalk, onlyto be quickly captured by their owner. There's tons of live shrimp (big ones with claws, like langoustines) in buckets as well. The fish are butchered right there on the street,on a block of wood. The butchering is done with amazing speed and efficiency, faster than I could ever hope to be. A firm whack of a wooden club to the head, scales come off, a slice and the guts are removed and so on. Oh yea, don't forget the live frogs jumping around.


Lunch was a lovely bowl of Pho, the ubiquitous Vietnamese bowl of noodles. The cost was 8,000 Dong, or about 50 cents US. This was my first meal in Vietnam, and I really enjoyed it. I wandered around some more and laid down for a while backin the hotel.

I made my way out later and had a little snack of sliced pork and cucumbers, yum.

I can't remember muchelse of what I did that day. I did have a late dinner of Bánh Mì, which was really, really delicious. Bánh Mì is a Vietnamese sandwich. It's made on a baguette with pâté (there's that French influence again) and various other items based on the stall owner's choice. This one has two kinds of pâté, one being like the traditional pâté made with liver and such, though in the form of a large wheel, and the other being a much firmer chicken pâté. The pâté is a touch spicier than the French varieties. This particular Bánh Mì had a scallion and some cilantro, and a bit of sliced chili. Wow! That chili is hot! Really hot! And its only in one spot on the sandwich (intentionally, my fellow traveller got 2 sandwiches, which were the same as mine). I was there munching away, then it hit me all in one bite. I gotta say, it's really not bad, I quite enjoyed the kick from it.


The next morning, Wednesday I had another bowl of Pho. I was picked up by Xe Loi at the hotel to go to the bus station. I was heading to Can Tho; I bought ticket the day before. Turns out it was a 16 passenger minibus, but there weren't too many other passengers. Before we left a vendor stood in the door of the bus and convinced me to buy a Bao, a steamed bun with filling. It was really good. It was slightly sweet with an also slightly sweet filling with onion and meat and quail eggs.


The bus ride was alright, lasting about 3 hours with a stop in Long Xuyen. We picked up and dropped off lots people along the way. The bus was shared with a chicken for a while; it didn't cuse any trouble though; it stayed under the seat.


Once in Can Tho (pronounced Can Tao) I hired a xe ôm to take me to the hostel. A xe ôm is simply a motorbike taxi. It's a bit uncomfortable sitting on the back of a motorbike with a big backpack. I won't complain, its not uncommon to see 3-4 people on one of these things, usually carrying a few bags/boxes. The most amazing was the family of 5 I saw on one bike (2 kids and 3 adults).


I checked in and made my way out into the city. Can Tho is a great town. People have been really friendly, with plenty of kids waving and shouting "hello!" I had a good bowl of Pho as a late lunch. I poked around the riverfront for a bit. I wandered around a market for a while too, it was quite busy. The city as a whole isn't too hectic, though it is a good size, about 1 million people.


I got quite bit of exercise so I relaxed for a while, making my way out for dinner a bit later. I had rice with a charcoal grilled pork cutlet and pickled vegetables. Its served with fish sauce for pouring over the whole plate. It was awesome. The pork was really tender and smoky. The fish sauce made everything taste even more amazing. For those of you who dont know, fish sauce is the result of letting fish, water and salt sit in barrels for a few months out in the sun. This very stinky stuff is strained and the clear amber (though the color often varies) liquid that comes out is bottled. I know it sounds gross. It does in fact smell horrible. Its good though, trust me. It's used as seasoning and really brings out flavor (The Vietnamese use it instead of table salt, much like the Chinese and Japanese use soy sauce). Still think it's gross? Don't forget how cheese is made.

I crashed back at the hostel.


I slept late the next morning,not getting out until around 10:30. I started to wander and eventually found a cafe. I settled in and communicated that I wanted a coffee. They didn't have (or they didn't understand me) cà phê sữa đá (as a note, Vietnamese language uses our alphabet, but all sorts of crazy accents, often with multiple accents on the same letter). Cà phê sữa đá is strong Vietnamese coffee with ice and sweetened condensed milk. They served me black coffee with ice and lots of sugar. It was really sweet, but very good.


The people at the cafe were the best part of the experience, however. They were all very friendly, unfortunately, I don't speak Vietnamese. Two of them spoke English, but rather basic, heavily accented English at that. Nonetheless we had quite a bit of fun going back and forth. Just smile and nod and laugh. It became apparent, partially through the broken English translations, that they were trying to introduce me to a young lady there (I think part of the family that runs the operation). Too bad I don't speak Vietnamese and she doesn't speak English.


I had a lunch nearby of rice with chicken and vegetables. That was good.


I went for another long walk. I chilled out by the river for a while. A walking vendor sold me a snack of hard-boiled quail eggs and a bit of salt for dipping.


That afternoon I stopped at a street stall for a Bánh Mì. This one had 2 kinds of pâté and a few branches of cilantro, I can't remember what else. I sat down on one of the tiny plastic chairs at one of the tiny plastic table (both were only as high as halfway to my knee). There were a few friendly old guys chilling out, eating bánh mì and drinking bia hoi. I had a Bia hoi myself. Bia hoi is "fresh beer." It's made daily and sold that day, often as draught. It's served with large chunks of ice. I have no idea how they make it. I do know it's super-cheap, about 5,000 Dong, or 30 cents US. It's very popular with the Vietnamese, particularly older men. At the place I was eating at it comes in plastic bottles of various shapes and sizes. I saw the vendor filling up the bottles out of a larger one, screwing on a cap, and wrapping plastic around the cap. It's very light, and tastes alright, and the price is great.


I enjoyed my delicious meal with good company. Teung, one of the people working there, it's a family run joint with an indoor cafe, spoke English rather well. We chatted for a while, moving inside when the torrential downpours came.


I didn't really do anything exciting the rest of the day, it rained for a while; I stayed inside the hostel. I had dinner of grilled meat and rice and vegetables. It was tasty. Common foods in this area seem to be bánh mì, pho, and rice with grilled meat.

The ridiculous amount of second hand smoke is really starting to annoy me though. There's chimneys sitting all around me in this internet cafe.


I slept in a bit this morning. I had another coffee at the same cafe. I also had breakfst of more rice and meat and soup. I lingered there for a while.

On my way over here I had an interesting encounter. An elderly Vietnamese man was walking towards me on the street, and upon seeing me, he said, "Bonjour, monsieur!" Good thing I took all those French classes. He continued to speak French to me. We spoke back and forth a bit and then we both went on our ways, with him wishing me a Bon voyage. That made my day

Well, that was another long post. I should be heading on to the next town in a few days, don't know where yet. Tommorow I'll visit a floating market nearby, that should be fun.

Take care,
Mike

Ho Chi Minh