And Onto Cambodia...
So for my final day in HCMC I decided just to chill, I got a pedicure for pennies, had a leisurely lunch involving some Chicken Pho (noodle soup) and several cups of coffee as I watched the world go by, I also had a little browse around the Market. As I was swooped on by all the saleswomen, I realised that even a polite ‘no thank you’ isn’t enough to deter them attempting to sell me a plastic ‘jade’ bracelet or some other piece of tat I have no need of. Now I’ve learned that the best thing to do is to just smile at them, say nothing.
I had great fun as they ran the gamut of all the languages they’ve learned so that they can shift this crap. Actually, it’s incredibly impressive just how many different ways they can say ‘Come look my shop’!
After dinner - rice, shrimps, greens - I spent a fair bit of time sorting through my clothes and deciding which items I wanted to take for my four day trip to Cambodia. Not an easy choice, and not because I’m a girl, but because CNN was full of tales of flooding but the weather web-sites weren’t. I didn’t wanna have the wrong stuff and end up being all whingy.
Once that was done I hit the sack, and slept the sleep of the righteous.
The alarm went off about 30 seconds later (or so it felt) and I was in the shower before I’d even opened my eyes. I packed all the stuff I didn’t need in my suitcase, and got my ‘weekend’ bag together, before heading down to meet my driver. He dropped me at the bus station to connect with my coach, and promised my suitcase would be safe. Let’s hope so.
I boarded the bus and was assigned the seat right behind the driver - cool. Gone are the days of school trips where I always made a dash for the back seat along with my mates. I asked the guide if the bus was going to be busy as there were only a few of use at this point and he said ‘Yes, full’. As we set off from the bus depot, I still had an empty seat next to me, and the naive fool inside of me held out the hope that I’d have the extra space for the more than four hour journey that lay ahead of me today. Finally as we left the outskirts of HCMC the entire bus was full apart from the seats across the aisle and the one next to me. I was sure my question had been lost in translation.
Of course, it was at that point that the bus stopped and three people got on. There was an elderly Vietnamese lady, a younger one and a very young boy who was to be my neighbour for the next four days. As he sat down, he began to sneeze and cough and in my head I cursed him as my previous cold was just about gone, and now this legroom stealing mofo was gonna re-infect me!
After a quick hello, he pulled out his iPhone and attached his headphones, and basically I heard nothing from him but the coughing till we got to the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. Just before the border we stopped for breakfast and it was then that I got a good look at all my fellow passengers. Eventually I realised I was the only European.
A Vietnamese lady seated next to me in the roadside cafe asked me where I was from and when I said London, she replied ‘me too’! Su-Ann and her husband Danny were over here visiting their family. Talk about a gift from the gods. Not only were they a cracking couple, they became my guardians for the entire trip, translating what they guides were saying for me, talking me through the breakfasts, lunches and dinners we shared, and of course I could have flowing conversations with them instead of the pidgin English I’d been using since I arrived!
I had my first traditional Vietnamese breakfast which was basically the same as lunch and dinner with the odd variation here and there. It felt odd to be eating something sooooo savoury this early in the day, but it sure was tasty!
A woman came around the tables with a fistful of notes and Su-Ann explained that she had Cambodian currency and charged no commission. I gave her $60 and got a huge wad of money in return. I didn’t think it was possible to have a currency even madder than the Vietnam Dong but the Cambodian Riel makes me feel as rich as Bill Gates!
We got back on the bus and drove about 10 minutes up the road to the checkpoint. The tour guide told me I could just leave my passport here and collect it on the way back in four days’ time. He assured me that it was perfectly safe and that I’d be given a scan of it for use in Cambodia. I looked at him like he was insane, and calmly explained that I’d be going nowhere without my passport. He began to moan that it would take three hours to sort out my Visa on Arrival and I just said ‘so be it’. They knew they were going to have at least one non-Vietnamese person on the bus so wtf?
Once he saw that I wasn’t going to be fobbed off, he walked me through the entire process and it took all of 20 minutes instead of the three hours he said. It kinda made me wonder what scam he and his pals at the border had planned for my passport.
We drove on, and on, and on and by now me and my schoolboy neighbour had begun to communicate. His name was Anh and he was 16 and a great young man. He was looking to practice his English and as a result I ended up with another translator. Just as well really cos we collected a Cambodian guide who spoke maybe 5 words of English in total. So much for my promised “English speaking guide’!
Ah well, eventually we arrived in Phnom Penh and the bus parked up at NagaWorld - a casino with an allegedly five star hotel attached. I guess there are different ratings around the world. Still it was clean and safe and I was ready to just relax after almost an entire day of travelling.
A shower, dinner and a read of my book and I was sparko by 9pm!
I had great fun as they ran the gamut of all the languages they’ve learned so that they can shift this crap. Actually, it’s incredibly impressive just how many different ways they can say ‘Come look my shop’!
After dinner - rice, shrimps, greens - I spent a fair bit of time sorting through my clothes and deciding which items I wanted to take for my four day trip to Cambodia. Not an easy choice, and not because I’m a girl, but because CNN was full of tales of flooding but the weather web-sites weren’t. I didn’t wanna have the wrong stuff and end up being all whingy.
Once that was done I hit the sack, and slept the sleep of the righteous.
The alarm went off about 30 seconds later (or so it felt) and I was in the shower before I’d even opened my eyes. I packed all the stuff I didn’t need in my suitcase, and got my ‘weekend’ bag together, before heading down to meet my driver. He dropped me at the bus station to connect with my coach, and promised my suitcase would be safe. Let’s hope so.
I boarded the bus and was assigned the seat right behind the driver - cool. Gone are the days of school trips where I always made a dash for the back seat along with my mates. I asked the guide if the bus was going to be busy as there were only a few of use at this point and he said ‘Yes, full’. As we set off from the bus depot, I still had an empty seat next to me, and the naive fool inside of me held out the hope that I’d have the extra space for the more than four hour journey that lay ahead of me today. Finally as we left the outskirts of HCMC the entire bus was full apart from the seats across the aisle and the one next to me. I was sure my question had been lost in translation.
Of course, it was at that point that the bus stopped and three people got on. There was an elderly Vietnamese lady, a younger one and a very young boy who was to be my neighbour for the next four days. As he sat down, he began to sneeze and cough and in my head I cursed him as my previous cold was just about gone, and now this legroom stealing mofo was gonna re-infect me!
After a quick hello, he pulled out his iPhone and attached his headphones, and basically I heard nothing from him but the coughing till we got to the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. Just before the border we stopped for breakfast and it was then that I got a good look at all my fellow passengers. Eventually I realised I was the only European.
A Vietnamese lady seated next to me in the roadside cafe asked me where I was from and when I said London, she replied ‘me too’! Su-Ann and her husband Danny were over here visiting their family. Talk about a gift from the gods. Not only were they a cracking couple, they became my guardians for the entire trip, translating what they guides were saying for me, talking me through the breakfasts, lunches and dinners we shared, and of course I could have flowing conversations with them instead of the pidgin English I’d been using since I arrived!
I had my first traditional Vietnamese breakfast which was basically the same as lunch and dinner with the odd variation here and there. It felt odd to be eating something sooooo savoury this early in the day, but it sure was tasty!
A woman came around the tables with a fistful of notes and Su-Ann explained that she had Cambodian currency and charged no commission. I gave her $60 and got a huge wad of money in return. I didn’t think it was possible to have a currency even madder than the Vietnam Dong but the Cambodian Riel makes me feel as rich as Bill Gates!
We got back on the bus and drove about 10 minutes up the road to the checkpoint. The tour guide told me I could just leave my passport here and collect it on the way back in four days’ time. He assured me that it was perfectly safe and that I’d be given a scan of it for use in Cambodia. I looked at him like he was insane, and calmly explained that I’d be going nowhere without my passport. He began to moan that it would take three hours to sort out my Visa on Arrival and I just said ‘so be it’. They knew they were going to have at least one non-Vietnamese person on the bus so wtf?
Once he saw that I wasn’t going to be fobbed off, he walked me through the entire process and it took all of 20 minutes instead of the three hours he said. It kinda made me wonder what scam he and his pals at the border had planned for my passport.
We drove on, and on, and on and by now me and my schoolboy neighbour had begun to communicate. His name was Anh and he was 16 and a great young man. He was looking to practice his English and as a result I ended up with another translator. Just as well really cos we collected a Cambodian guide who spoke maybe 5 words of English in total. So much for my promised “English speaking guide’!
Ah well, eventually we arrived in Phnom Penh and the bus parked up at NagaWorld - a casino with an allegedly five star hotel attached. I guess there are different ratings around the world. Still it was clean and safe and I was ready to just relax after almost an entire day of travelling.
A shower, dinner and a read of my book and I was sparko by 9pm!
Labels: Travel
posted by JoJo Smith at Tuesday, October 18, 2011
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