Good Morning Vietnam!

At times during our bus trip I wondered if we would make it, with the bus driver slamming on the brakes to avoid cows, cars, scooters and children on the streets. We flew out of our seats with every bump of the road (and in Cambodia there are a lot of bumps), and listened to the rhythmical sound of the horn hoping it was never for anything serious. We made it through the 'high security' border no problem and continued to bounce our way into Ha Tien, a small border town on the river.

This is the high security border, flash border.  Check out how much stuff is balanced on that motorbike!

 We checked the place out for a day- well actually we checked the food out- it seemed we did nothing but eat (and drink) there! We ate some delicious foods such as noodle soups, coconut slice, amazing Flintstone-sized BBQ chicken drumsticks and banh mi! Hellooo Vietnam! Mixed among those flavorful delights was some dried sting ray (we ate it with a group of locals who eat it as a beer snack, like we would peanuts) and sea snails... Not our favorite. We had to put on our poker faces! Anyway, the city was packed wih vietnamese tourists the night we were there! It was April 30th, Vietnam liberation day, when 37 years ago the Vietnam (or American) war ended. Apparently Ha Tien is the place to be to celebrate the country's biggest holiday! We were the only white people in town and we not only stood out but were welcomed and stared at as we walked the small city's streets. People would pat Chris and Jeff and stand beside them up to their armpits laughing at how much taller they were. One man was particularly enthralled by Jeff's nipples, and proceeded to tweak them in delight. A total stranger nipple-tweaking, yes. There is no such thing as personal space here! Hilarious!

Celebrating Reunification Day with new buddies we met on the street.  On this day Jeff was Bulgarian... mot, hai, ba, YO! (Yo is cheers in Vietnamese - awesome!) 

Eat me!

A highlight of this night for me personally was getting locked inside a hot and sweaty bathroom. After discreetly excusing myself from the table and heading across the street to use the facilities, post-flush I went to open the door and the rusted handle fell off into my hand. What?! After fiddling around uselessly I had to bang on the door for what seemed like ages before my circumstance was discovered! Then it took a good 10 minutes for the mystery man on the other side to free me!  Luckily Neda found me stranded before too long and called reassuringly to me from the other stall until I was released. Good times! That same night we met Hayden, a university student who also tour guides around Vietnam. Finally someone who spoke (really good) English, who wasn't trying to take our money! He introduced us to even more food and we peppered him with questions about Vietnam all night. It was a great night to kick off our Vietnamese adventures!

We then spent the next week checking out the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh city. Once again, it was questionable as to whether we would make it to our next stop. This was without a doubt the worst bus experience any of the four of us had ever had! First we were rushed in to this locals bus before we could find out that they planned on charging us triple what they should have. Then the sweaty hot bus kept stopping to pick up passengers. The seats slowly filled up and yet the bus stopped again to pick up more people... But where would they sit? No problem! Five teenagers climbed up behind us past the back row of seats to squat behind our heads. I felt like I was in a horror movie when I awoke from a gravol-induced slumber to see a hand dangling on my shoulder! The driver then proceeded to fill the aisles with people sitting on little stools until there was no room left everybody was so crammed together. But hey, these guys are crafty! They had the person in front of Jeff (both Chris and Jeff are almost twice the size of vietnamese men remember) tilt her seat forward so that a man could sit in between Jeff's legs. The picture says it all, except to add that the man was smoking! Jeff's expression was priceless, he had reached his limit- no, surpassed it- by this point.  Those meditation skills must come in handy at times like that!

Priceless!

Anyway, after transferring buses three times, experiencing the worst 'WC' facilities to date (a tiled floor with a drain in the corner, you just squat on the floor?!?) and having to duck down in the aisles each time a police car passed so our drivers weren't dinged for having 50 people on a 28-seat bus (no word of lie!), we finally made it to Can Tho in one piece!


Generally, traveling the Mekong was probably the least touristy place we have been so far, so thankfully we had Hayden who met up with us and hooked us up with a cheap tour of the floating markets.  That is the main pull for people to go to Can Tho: the floating markets! It was an awesome sight to see because it was an actual working mishmash of run-down boat wholesalers selling watermelons, jackfruit (bubble gum flavored fruit!), pumpkins, bananas, etc. to the smaller vendors on little rowboats.  It's quite the sight to see, all the hustle and bustle of a fruit and veg market like we would have back home but instead all of it takes place on the water. Each boat has a big stick on the end of it with a fruit or veggie attached to advertise what they are selling. There are also a couple of breakfast and coffee boats, to help wake you up since the market is its busiest at 6am!! In the last two weeks I think we've seen four sunrises- criminal! Anyway the fact that the farms and produce are so close to the river means that everything you buy in Can Tho is fresh and delicious! Oh how we miss the mangoes and watermelons! I'd recommend going there for that reason only.

With Hayden, our new friend, headed to the Floating Market!

Hot noodle soup breakfast on the water.

Can Tho = best watermelon EVER!

 Vinh Long was a quick stopover, just long enough for me to have a major bail on my bike. Luckily by bike I mean bicycle and not motorbike! A word of advice: when renting bikes for a leisurely stroll through the beautiful winding paths of farmland and rivers, don't assume that your bike will have brakes. I learned the hard way! The biggest problem with this bail was that my jandal (Chris' term- means japanese sandal aka flip flop) broke! This wouldn't have been such a big deal except try being 5'10" in an asian country and finding shoes to fit your long ass feet! Chris and Jeff had already been looking for weeks to no avail. Not to mention women here don't have any kind of need for comfortable footwear.  They could do the Grouse Grind in high heels without breaking a sweat! In any case we continued our bike journey which remained interesting. Chris and Jeff experienced a cockfight where roosters had metal barbs attached to their legs before entering the ring. Yeah, animal rights aren't high on the priority list here! Neda and I decided to skip that part of the experience.

Uh oh! The brakes don't work! I thought I could handle it...

How I made it home- crafty, eh?

That night we had a mission trying to find a 'restaurant' and Neda found the most delicious mini-cakes for only 75 cents- score! We celebrated the one-week anniversary of our friendship and said goodbye to the Mekong delta.

Wow only a few days but so many adventures and funny stories- Vietnam is hilarious! The fun in our foursome continues: next stop, Ho Chi Minh city!