Hello Vietnam

Saturday morning we were up bright and early to catch the bus to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We were both really excited to hit the road and check out a new country. We were kind of tired of Cambodia.

The bus ride was in three parts: first, a four hour ride back to Phnom Pehn; second, a two hour break in Phnom Penh, and; third, a 7 hour ride to Ho Chi Minh City. Needless to say, I had to prepare myself mentally for this leg of the trip. The bus was actually really nice, and it was nice when we got to the border, because the bus guy acted like a tour guide and got all of our passports stamped for us and everything so all we had to do was get off the bus and walk through their little entry gate with our luggage. It was much less of a hassle and much less nerve racking than when we crossed from Thailand into Cambodia.

When we got to Vietnam, we got totally ripped off by our first cab driver, which they warn you about in the books. It still makes me angry when I think about it. We had just gotten off of the bus and it was dark. We went into a tour agency to get some directions and she recommended we take a taxi to the hotel and she told us that it should cost about 40,000 Dong (about 2 dollars). So we walked out into the main street an hailed a cab. We put our stuff in the trunk got into the can and he started driving around. We knew we were on trouble when the driver went down one street, turned up to the next street, and then basically backtracked. Then we noticed the meter. It was ticking up faster than one of those ridiculous national debt counters. Once we felt we were reasonably close to the hotel we told him to stop and let us out. Joseph yelled at him for a few minutes and then refused to pay the whole fare (although he still seriously overpaid). I asked him why he didn't just pay less as walk away. He said that he didn't want to end up in a physical altercation with the guy, but that he wanted to make sure the guy knew that we were wise to him and not happy about it. I think that's silly, we still got ripped off. But that type of reasoning is very Joseph. Anyway, lesson learned, now we are much more careful about the taxis we use, and haven't had any other problems since then. Actually, it is really cheap to take a taxi here if they aren't ripping you off.

Overall, we really really like Vietnam. I have found myself wishing that we had spent more time here. We spent our first day here wandering the city, looking for a tailor to make some clothes for me, and checking out the local sites. The city is really impressive, Joseph says it reminds him a little bit of Taiwan. The buildings in the city are really interesting because you can definitely see the influence of the French. Some areas seem very European and others seem very new-world Asian. We tried to find a French restaurant that we had read about in Lonely Planet, but it apparently no longer exists. We think Pizza Hut bought it out, since there was a legit Pizza Hut where we think the restaurant is supposed to be. Americans.

Also, I have included a picture of Joseph in his 50 cent rain jacket we bought on the street.