I had a great time in Cambodia but at the same time I was a little disappointed. I was disappointed with the food and I had diarrhea on and off the entire time. I ended up taking two of my Cipro and later needing to take a Diflucan! I was concerned with gaining too much weight on my trip, so not liking the food may not be such a bad thing! I also managed to run a couple times in Cambodia so lets see if I can keep that up!
Birthday run along the Mekong
I was also bummed with how much everything cost. I guess in a way I was comparing Cambodia to Thailand. In Thailand, the food is amazing and everything is so cheap! I do understand that I was in tourist areas but I don’t understand how I was paying Hawaii prices for bottles water in a country that is so poor. My favorite part of Cambodia was by far the islands. I was excited and ready to head to Vietnam.
Close to the Vietnamese and Cambodian border
A direct bus to Ho Chi Minh City picked me up from my guest house. The bus cost $11.00 dollars and was about was supposed to take about six hours. On the bus there was a man that helped out with the border crossing. When I got on, I had to give him my passport so that he could check my visa. He said that he would hold on to it until we got to the border. I hate giving up my passport but everyone had to do it! The border was a little chaotic! We all got are passports back and had to go through the immigration checkpoint. Our border helper was literally running back and forth! We had a couple people on the bus that had visa issues (or lack of a visas!) Another guy had overstayed his time in Cambodia by 5 months and needed to pay the police a visit! The rest of us waited around for a while until we were told to get our luggage off the bus to be scanned at security. Knowing that my dad’s ashes sometimes causes me problems, I asked our helper if they would be a problem. He said they would not.
After a successful security scan, I waited around some more and thats when I met Manu. Manu had heard me ask about Mitch’s ashes and expressed his condolences. We started talking and I learned that he was from Madrid and that his father had also died in 2009. We ended up hitting it off and talking to each other the rest of the way to Ho Chi Minh City.
Lots of little alleys in Ho Chi Minh with guesthouses
We got Ho Chi Minh City a lot later than I had originally anticipated. Neither Manu or myself had a guesthouse yet so we decided to figure it out together. It was a bit crazy when we got off the bus. People and cars were everywhere and taxi drivers surrounded us and called out. I decided that we needed to find some Wifi and get our bearings. We found a little cafe and started looking up guesthouses. I found Ngoc Thao Guesthouse and it looked pretty good. It had dorm rooms for $7.50 and great reviews on Trip Advisor. The dorm was much nicer than in Phnom Penh. It only had 4 beds and the lockers were huge and new.
When we checked in, the sweet girl (Dorris) cautioned me not to take my purse out. She said that people sometimes drive by on motorbikes and grab them right off you. I had been warned about this in other places and I always tried to only put the minimum cash I needed, no cards and no passport in my purse. ( I did always have my iPod though) I would think to myself “It would suck if this got stolen but it would not be the end of the world”.
After getting settled in, Manu and I decided to head off and have a beer and I decided to take my purse. We spent the night talking, laughing, and drinking beers. There is some of the best people watching in Ho Chi Minh and it was fun to just drink beer people watch.
Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon)
Later in the night as we were walking down the street by purse was taken. A motorbike with two people slowed down and the guy on the back grabbed my bag off of my shoulder. By the time I realized what had happened they were halfway down the street. I did a quick check in my mind to figure out what was in my bag. I had about $20.00, my local phone I had purchased in Cambodia and my iPod. I was very grateful that I did not have my passport or any credit cards but it still sucked! I also felt like a fool because I had been warned only a couple hours earlier. About a half hour after my bag was taken we were sitting at this bar outside having a beer and we saw the same exact thing happen to another girl. I am hoping my world nomads insurance will cover my iPod!
