22 April 2009 - First week in Vietnam

We finished up our last week in Cambodia by making a trip up to Kratie in the north to see the rare Irrawaddy dolphin which lives in the Mekong river. We have realised that whenever anyone tells you how long it is going to take to get somewhere on the bus you should add at least two hours to whatever they say. Getting to Kratie took a total of about 7 hours for what was supposed to be a four hour trip! Kratie town is quite small but has a really nice location right on the Mekong – you can see across the river to a big island where people live.

We stayed in the Oudam Sambath hotel which was quite expensive as it was right in the middle of the Khmer New Year (US$20 per night). Actually everything was expensive for the three days of New Year. The hotel charged us $10 each for a moto to the dolphin viewing area which was about 14km north of town (we probably could have gotten a ride from the market for about $4). Then it cost us $9 each to go on the boat to see the dolphins (Cambodian people paid $2).

The boat trip lasted about 45 minutes and we saw about 6 different dolphins. Some came quite close to the boat but I was pleased that the drivers didn't use the motor close to the dolphins. Apparently there are only about 100 dolphins left in Cambodia...

We also spent a few days hanging out in Phnom Penh, seeing the Royal Palace (vastly overpriced at US$6.25 per person – don't bother), picking up our Vietnamese visa and seeing Wat Phnom which was quite a sight during New Year with tonnes of families and kids running around throwing water and talcum powder over each other. Just a hint for anyone heading to Phnom Penh – in total we stayed in four hotels/guesthouses and we found Okay Guesthouse by far the best of the bunch. The rooms were really clean and reasonably priced (we paid US$10 for hot water, cable tv and air con) and they can arrange any kind of tour or bus ticket. Steer well clear of the Royal Guesthouse (bedbugs!).

We took the bus from Phnom Penh to HCM City (Saigon) on Saturday 18 April ($9). It was pretty strange crossing the border that way – a guy on our bus took our passports and our entry cards and gave them to the border guards who stamped all the passports and then called our names and let us through the gate one by one.

We had booked a guesthouse in HCM City through www.hostelworld.com as we wanted to have something waiting for us when we got there. The bus dropped us right off on Pham Ngu Lau (the backpacker district) and our guesthouse (Vy Khanh) was just down a little alley off that street. It's a really nice guesthouse (US$15 per night) with everything you could want and the family that runs it is really nice. The location is really good because it's central to everything but it's not too loud and it's nice to walk down the little alleys looking into people's houses.

We spent a few days seeing things around HCM City including the War Remnants Museum which has a lot of relics and photos from the war, the Museum of HCM City and the big central market Ben Thanh. We also made a trip to the post office to pick up my parcel from poste restante (of the clothes I want to get copied in Hoi An) – confusing!! If anyone is wondering – pick up the ticket with the details of your parcel at the main post office, then head around the back of the same block to the international mail section where you actually pick up the parcel. It took about 45 mins to work that out and we squeaked in just before the 5pm closing time. Most importantly, Paul got the computer screen fixed and it only ended up costing US$80 which was better than expected.

HCM City is massive and there is soooo much traffic. However, we have found that the driving here isn't really any crazier than the driving in Cambodia – it's just that there's so many more vehicles! The craziest thing we have seen are the powerlines – you would not believe how many powerlines can be attached to one single pole!

As usual, everyone here thinks that Paul is Vietnamese – they all talk to him in Vietnamese which he doesn't understand of course. That has to be some kind of record – now he has been Malay Malaysian, Chinese Malaysian, Iban Malaysian, Khmer and Vietnamese! I think it's pretty funny – he has been trying to learn how to say “I don't speak Vietnamese” in Vietnamese as he's positive it will be the phrase he uses most!

Since we got to Vietnam we have totally abandoned our safe eating rules (to the extent that we were still following them). The salads are just too good to pass up! We met up with Paul's friend and his fiancee who took us out for a delicious seafood meal. We have also been eating tonnes of the national specialty pho (noodle soup) as well as rice vermicelli salads and this yummy ice dessert thing that has coconut milk on top (not sure what that's called). We are still drinking tonnes of ice lemon juice (it's called da chanh here).

Today we caught the bus from HCM City south to a city called Can Tho which is close to a number of floating markets. After wandering around the waterfront for a few hours this evening we managed to reduce the price for an eight hour boat trip around the markets and the canals from US$60 to $35 (still pricey but not that bad). So that's what we're off to do tomorrow. After we spend a few days here we are thinking of heading up to an area called Dalat which is up in the mountains and is supposed to be a bit cooler. Then it's back to HCM City to meet up with Angus who is coming to spend a few weeks with us.