We needed to be at the bus station at 7:30 so Roh came at 7, we paid him $1 each plus a little extra for taking us around the last few days
Mekong Express Limousine left on time and gave us each a wet nap, bottle of water and a small box of pastries and they stopped at a restaurant outside of Siem Reap for 20 mins for whatever anyone may need
Three hours after leaving Siem Reap our bus started smoking so they pulled over... We waited a bit and they announced that they could not fix the bus and we would have to wait for a bus to come from Phnom Pehn.. 3 hours away!!!! What?!! We were already warned that the road to Phnom Pehn was of poor condition and they would try their best to get us there on time since we had the catch the connector to HCMC!
Luckily the bus broke down by a gas station so some of us sat in the shade and purchased drinks while others invaded the yards of people's homes!
I will try to recount the next several hours as best as I can without become irrationally upset again... When the SOS bus finally came they hauled ass over the poor road to get us to Phnom Pehn as soon as possible... That ride was so terrible! The bus was slightly too small so 2 people had to sit in the aisle and the bathroom was not working! The people who had to connect to bus to HCMC asked about that bus and crossing the border in time, our questions were never quite answered... They said the bus would wait for us, but how? We're 3 hours late! Will we make it to the border in time? When does it close? Not sure... What?!!
When we finally made it to Phnom Pehn I ran inside to ask the clerk about which bus was taking us to HCMC... She looked at me dumbfounded! HCMC? You're late!... Yes I know that, our bus broke down. Is there another bus taking us or not? Umm... I don't know... Her desk said "information".... GRRRRRR !!! After asking 3 more people we finally found the bus going to HCMC! Unfortunately this time was rush hour so traffic in the city was motionless. We asked again, will we make it to the border in time? Maybe. What time does it close? 7:30pm. What time will we get there? 8... What?!! What will we do?... No response... THEN! They stopped to pick up food for themselves on the side of the road!! We're all in a hurry with no guarantee that we'll make it to HCMC tonight and none of us have eaten since 10am (its now 5:30 or 6pm) and you stop for food for yourselves?!!!? At least the bathroom on this bus worked but the wifi they advertised didn't! Finally close to the border, the attendant asked if we wanted anything to eat, they would order it and we would pick it up on our way and eat on the bus... Yes!! We picked it up but couldn't eat it cause we had to cross the border first!!!
After leaving Phnom Pehn they collected our passports and did not explain what would happen at the border... Basically when we got to Bavet (Cambodia border) our passports were stamped for exit and handed back to us, we drove 20ft to the Vietnamese border and had to unload the entire bus with no explanation again... We had to have all of our belongings x-rayed and passports stamped for entry, then board the bus and a customs agent followed to check that everyone had a passport and it was stamped for entry... At this point we're all very tired and hungry, I was furious that we had not been given any answers about anything on this god forsaken bus ride. We finally made it to HCMC just after midnight, luckily our hostel was 2 blocks away...we would've slept in but we had booked a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels before we left for Cambodia with an 8am pick up! FML!!
You better believe I wrote a professional and strongly worded letter to Mekong Express Limousine about how disappointed I was in their company and that I would never recommend or use their services again! I still have yet to hear a response...
After being physically and emotionally drained from our ridiculous trip, we passed out so that we may crawl through some tunnels tomorrow... What did I let Chris talk us in to? So the Cu Chi tunnel tour boasts the ability to shoot AK-47s on the tour and Chris had a real desire to shoot one... Cu Chi here we come
The road to Cu Chi is lined with rubber trees, it's quite a pleasant drive
The map of the tunnels and the points of interest
A jackfruit tree on steroids... So many jackfruits!
I found my twin in Vietnam! She's on the brochure about the tunnels!
First you sit through a propaganda tutorial
Some underground bunkers leading to tunnels, but this is turned into a media room
A tunnel entrance
This is a recontructed tunnel pop up, reconstructed to fit a western body... The real ones are incredibly small! I mean I'm Asian and I think I'm small but the real doors are super small!!
Swinging booby traps, deadly bamboo spears below
Various booby traps on display... Some are really ingenious...all of them look like they hurt
Model figures whistling while they work
Using spent bomb shells as raw material
Uniform room
They used tires to make shoes and they set the treads going the opposite direction to throw off their pursuants
Hospital tunnel
We were able to crawl in the tunnels... It's more like walk hunched over for me and Sherena as we're both small but Chris was on all four... There's barely any light in there and the air is rather dank, the combination of walking hunched over got me very claustrophobic and I started hyperventilating... I had to make an immediate exit so that I didn't faint, Chris felt the same way but Sherena went 100 meters!
We didn't get to see it but we were told the kitchen was an incredible idea... The kitchen bunker was underground and had an exhaust pipe that was hundreds of yards away from the actual kitchen, all the cooking was done during dawn so the exhaust would be covers by morning fog. If exhaust was detected and bombed, because it was so far from the actual kitchen, no one would be harmed!
The soldiers survived mostly off of steamed tapioca root or casava with a sweet and spicy peanut mixture and drinking hot water boiled with pandan leaves. They gave samples, as much as you want actually, and it's quite tasty!
Sherena and Chris really wanted to shoot AK-47s so they were alotted time to do so. You can shoot a variety of other guns and prices for the bullets varied with the gun. I believe the AK-47 bullets were $2 each and all guns require a minimum of 10 bullet purchase... Chris and Sherena rounded up all they cash they had left and split 10 bullets (I'll explain about the cash later)... The gun range is very loud so I stepped away but they shot their bullets and felt unfulfilled. The guns are secured to their unit, so don't worry about crazy people holding guns, but the person loading the gun for you doesn't really tell you what to do, he just smacks you to tell you to shoot or to stop, and then that's it... Quite uneventful
This lady demonstrated how rice papers are made.. It was really neat to watch her move so gracefully
After the tunnels we were taken to a non profit craft site where Agent Orange victims make things for sale to help people with dioxin related disabilities. They made beautiful things and were very detailed and intricate and I really wanted to support them but unfortunately the resulting products weren't anything I'd take home for myself or as a gift for anyone I know
The tour was a half day tour (8am-noonish) at $7 per person, paid to the hostel... We didn't read the description in the tour pamphlet that tells you the price doesn't include the $9 entrance fee to the tunnels, so once we were on the van and were told to hand over $9 to the tour guide, we were caught off guard and therefore parted with most of the money we were carrying at that moment... Don't do what we did, plan accordingly and read tour pamphlets!
Now for our favorite time of day.... Nap time! We contacted Alex and Sam and said we'd meet for dinner so we rested a bit then they took us to a Báhn Mì place they found while we were gone... I reslly apologize for not getting a picture but trust me, it looked good! It was just around the corner from our hostel... They offered pork, chicken, fish, combo deals and they give cold tea upon ordering. The bread was the size of a traditional Báhn Mì loaf, I ordered the pork special which had pâté and headcheese along with cilantro, pickled daikon and carrots, and jalapeños.... All for 21,000VD (yes you did the math correctly, that's $1!!!). One was fine for me, Sherena and Alex but Chris and Sam had another sandwich so they spent $2 on dinner!! Incredible right?! And the place was clean too!
After dinner we all picked up beers from the Circle K and drank in our lobby for a few hours recounting the last few days and talking about our future plans
Here's Sherena double fisting on the streets of Saigon hahahaha!
Apparently we're a rowdy bunch cause we got shushed.... So we called it a night and decided to meet again tomorrow
This tiny closet of a smoothie shack was so close to our hostel and made delicious smoothies for cheap!
I had a Matcha green tea and avocado shake for 25,000VD ($1.19)!
We hung out with Alex and Sam at a cafe a few doors down called Sozo, also geared towards helping those diabled by Agent Orange. They have coffees, teas, food and pastries... And incredible wifi! We had to check out of the hostel by noon but we were able to leave our bags in the corner of the lobby until we were ready for them... Alex and Sam wanted to have lunch at Sozo but I wanted to try a place we passed by earlier down the street so we went to try Bún Riêu
I was under the impression that Bún Riêu was a crab noodle soup... Apparently there are different kinds...
Chris is annoyed cause once again he is too big/tall for anything in Asia, like this table
Hahahaha
The small and truly backyard style kitchen, look at her small pot!
This Bún Riêu had Bún noodles (smaller than Pho noodles and round), pork, daikon, cilantro, green onions and crispy garlic with a side of veggies. It was sooo increibly delicious and satisfying! All for, drumroll please.... 25,000VD ($1.19)!!!! I need more time to eat in this city... if the people weren't so rude, it would easier to stay here and explore!
We returned to Sozo to continue our hangout with Alex and Sam, exchanged ideas, exchanged contact info, traded travel secrets and secrets about home... Then they decided leave ::sadface::
I'm glad we met them and got to hangout, they're really great and genuine people!
For dinner we went back to Five Oysters and sat on the roof again. I ordered a dish I had been dreaming about for 2 years, Báhn Xèo....I know I can get it in Westminster but I wanted to have it in the motherland! It's a tumeric scented egg crepe filled with pork, shrimp and bean sprouts. Eaten like a lettuce wrap with herbs and I think the same sauce you get with Bún, sweet and tangy... This one was
gigantic and really hit the spot! It was 55,000VD ($2.61) with a beer for 12,000 ($0.57)... You can't beat that price
After dinner we went to the hostel to collect our things, asked them about average price for a taxi to get to the airport, thanked them sincerely... They were really nice people to us... And went on our way. We hailed a taxi around the corner from our hostel, we agreed to the price our hostel told us was nomal, 150,000VD ($7.11, half the price for the ride from the airport...)
Sherena and Chris were celebrating the fact that we were leaving this country but I wanted to wait til we landed in Bangkok... Wouldn't want to jinx it!
Honestly Vietnam wasn't a bad country... Seeing HCMC for 4 days isn't much of a trip to really judge the country. Most of the people we experienced in HCMC were terrible but when we were in Cu Chi, the countryside, people were nicer, and so were the people at our hostel... Would I go back to Vietnam? Yes, but this time I'd like to go through the central part and up to Hanoi... Apparently people are more civilized in the capital (like in every first world country, HA!). But am I in a hurry? Not really, there are other countries I'd like to see/revisit first
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