Goodbye Vietnam, Hello Cambodia!

We wound up flying from DaNang to Saigon. The flight was delayed an hour because of engine trouble (they were working on the engine just outside the gate so we had a perfect view of the mechanics' puzzled faces). We boarded the plane and had a very nice flight, until landing.  The plane was swaying side to side and when the plane touched ground the plane lurched to one side, then to the other and then to the other before straightening out and slowing down. That was a Boeing 777 by the way, gee thanks Boeing.

So we entered Saigon with a small scare and a great relief to be alive. We then took a taxi to the backpacking area. The taxi driver stopped the meter and tried to overcharge us and refused to stop the taxi. It wasn't until Matt opened the car door at a traffic light as I threatened to report the driver that the taxi driver agreed to negotiate. Then he was a perfect teddy bear.

We stayed in this small guest house on the fifth floor in an attic room. It wasn't bad, but the toilet was outside of the room and the spray hose moved every time someone used water in the house (really scary the first time it happened, thought for sure there was a rat), also the wall between the two rooms in the attic was separated by a short wall, allowing us to hear everything in the other room. That man liked to take showers all night and had a woman and a kid with him on and off all night. And our visit was put to an end with a cockroach running around the bathroom.

We got a bus the next day to Chau Doc, seven hours to the west of Saigon. The highlight of the trip was to watch our giant bus load onto a ferry. Once in Chau Doc we took motorcycles into the main part of the city (three km from the bus station) and got a nice hotel close to the docks. Unfortunately, close to the docks also means rats meandering in and out of the hotel lobby (needless to say, we passed on breakfast that morning). Because of the late hour and it being Lunar New Year's Eve (Tet), we had to eat street food. It was quite tasty, we ate pork fried rice and drank nuoc mia (a drink where sugar cane, lime, and pineapple are squeezed together) while watching the fireworks rise over the pagoda.

We boarded the speed boat at seven in the morning and we were on the Mekong River by seven thirty. The boat ride was more relaxing than a bus would have been. We sat outside, so we got lots of fresh air. It was a great way to see the delta. Houses were dotted along the river, sitting on stilts. In some areas an entire floating village could be seen. We arrived at the Cambodian border around ten in the morning and got our visas. The houses in Cambodia looked very much the same, but the poverty was immediately evident. By 1:30 we were in Phnom Penh.