Adventures as Miss Saigon

Now that I’ve finished my Christmas/Cambodia blogs, my focus is on catching up on the month of January…a fair bit has happened, even though it’s all low key and local!

Two weeks ago, I got an email from Will, one of the Aussies we met on New Years Eve in Cambodia. He was in Cambodia with his girlfriend, Katie, and friend, Ben. Katie had to return home shortly after NYE, but Will and Ben were continuing to travel and Vietnam was next on their list. I agreed to meet them the next day for dinner and drinks in D1 (downtown/backpacker’s district).

The fun began while waiting for them at Go2. I was minding my own business, sipping my ca phe sua da, when I was sexually assaulted by one of the young girls selling items on the street. She came up, plunked herself down beside me and began pestering me to buy her items. Sadly here, the only way to be left alone by people selling anything is to avoid eye contact and to “shoo” them away with a shake of your head or a flick of your hand. Anything more (smiling while “shoo-ing”, saying no, or being polite in any way) is guaranteed to get you engaged in an epic sales pitch, by the instigator and their friends. The first time I “shoo-ed” this girl away, she reached over and grabbed both of my breasts. Then, when I more directly “shoo-ed” her off, she stood up, gave me the finger and yelled “f**k you” to me and other Go2 customers who had also brushed her off. Not a way to make a sale!

Will and Ben showed up shortly after, and the girl returned to hassle the newcomers. Being tourists, Will and Ben hadn’t learned the avoidance techniques I just described. They were suckered into playing games and giving her money (her last ditch sales pitch was “give me money and I’ll go away”). We went for a delicious Vietnamese banh xeo (pancake) dinner…pancakes here are not like Western pancakes. Here, they are made out of rice flour (and other ingredients), and stuffed with bean sprouts and, traditionally, pork and shrimp. You rip off pieces of the pancake and wrap it in lettuce leaves with mint, basil or other herbs, and dip it in fish sauce. It’s messy, delicious, and Vietnamese.

banh xeo

Dinner lead to drinks, and drinks lead to more drinks, and this girl was out way past her bedtime, especially on a school night! Will and Ben were a lot of fun to hang out with, and it’s always a good time in D1 – the place never closes! After a long day at work the next day (due to the previous night’s events) I headed back to meet Will and Ben for a few more drinks. Ben was flying home the next morning, and Will was sticking around for a few more days. The night was much calmer than the previous night, seeing as the guys were just waking up, and I should have been in bed. It was still fun to hang out with them and show them around a bit.

The next night, Wendy and I went out for sushi dinner with Laura, who was flying home the next day. Laura had just finished her one year contract here with the family she worked for, and was going home for almost a month before returning to a supervisory position here. It’s sad to think that that could have been our last dinner with her had she decided to move home or to the states. Lucky for us, she’ll be around here for the next year at least! It was still sad saying goodbye, but Laura was so excited to get home and see her family and friends that she hasn’t seen for so long!

Saturday morning found Wendy, Will and I on an early morning bus headed to Mekong Delta for a two day, homestay adventure. This “adventure” was very touristy, with not much physical activity and snack breaks every 2 hours. We covered a lot of grounds though, and sights included a pagoda, a coconut candy factory, a vermicelli rice noodle factory, and a trip to the floating markets. The highlight for us, was definitely the homestay. Eight of us from our bus load had signed us for the homestay, and while the rest of the bus was checking into the hotel, we were greeted by Hung, who took us by taxi, then boat to his family’s “house”. Although the family lived on the property, we slept in basic bungalows by the water. We had a delicious fresh dinner prepared by the family, and drank beers and rice wine with Hung after his family had gone to bed. We arrived back in HCMC on Sunday evening, and although it was fun, I’ve sworn off all bus trips for the next little while.

big buddha at the pagoda

pagoda in mekong delta

coconut candy factory

dog at the homestay eating fish breakfast

floating market

floating market

wendy and i playing with pythons in mekong delta

On Monday night, Tony had invited me out for a goat curry dinner. Tony picked me up on his motorbike, and we drove across the city to get to this little back alley restaurant that he and his wife know about. The city is already beautifully decorated for Tet (Vietnamese lunar new year) with festive lights throughout downtown, and I strangely enjoy riding on the back of a motorbike through the busy city. Intimidated about trying goat for the first time, I decided just to trust Tony’s taste buds. We sat on little stools, surrounded by Vietnamese locals, and thankfully Tony took care of ordering the goat, as the menu was in Vietnamese, and my guess is the restaurant staff only spoke Vietnamese as well! Of course the meal turned out to be delicious, and I hope I get invited out for goat again soon! (I’d never be able to find the alleyway that the restaurant was down, nevermind order off the menu!) We finished our evening sitting at Go2, drinking beers with ice and discussing work, my future in Vietnam, and life in Vietnam in general. Tony’s been very understanding about my decision to return home at the end of my 12 month contract, but assured me that I could return at any time. In fact, he said he’d place money on it…we’ll see! 🙂

Tuesday evening held an unexpected adventure. Just when I thought I had things in Vietnam figured out, I received notice in the mail that there was a package to pick up at the post office. Thinking I knew where my post office was from the first package that had been sent from home, I went there but was given another address. After work, the mom I work for told me to give the address to my motorbike guy, and he would take me where I needed to go. An hour and a half later, 3 stops (including random houses/construction sites), we finally found the right post office and I claimed my package. I at least have the post office system kind of figured out now – there is only one post office in my district where international packages are held. Troi oi!

This weekend has been a quiet one – pedis and dinner with Wendy on Friday night, a hair appointment Saturday afternoon, and dinner and a movie with Wendy on Saturday night. Saturday night was the first time we’d gone to the movies in Vietnam, and it was quite an experience! From the $3.50usd movie ticket, the sweet popcorn, the hilarious Vietnamese movie previews, the awkward edits/scene censors in the movie, the guy loudly answering his cell phone and having a full discussion during the movie, to the bright lights being turned on before the credits started rolling, the experience was definitely better than the movie! It cheap and hilarious entertainment, and we’ll likely do it again soon.

For now, we just have to get through this work week, before another week’s vacation, including 5 days back in Cambodia, this time to visit Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor. I’m so excited to get back to Cambodia with Wendy!

And so begins the intimidating task of blogging after an amazing 10 day vacation…I debated about whether or not I should try to “blog as I go” in hopes that I wouldn’t miss posting anything that way, but I didn’t want to miss a minute of the adventure. (Wifi was also difficult to come by at times throughout our trip.)

First off, let me lay out how I’m going to attempt to cover 10 days and 1000s of pictures…I think I’ll break the trip into 4 separate blogs…We traveled to 4 different cities/areas in the 10 days we were away – Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam, Phnom Penh in Cambodia, Koh Kong in Cambodia and Sihanoukville in Cambodia. As for pictures, I’m going to try and post just enough, but not too many so that you’re sick of someone else’s vacation photos! Wish me luck! Hold on tight…like our many bus trips through Cambodia, it’s going to be a loooong and bumpy ride!

Christmas seems like ages ago at this point, but Christmas eve morning (at 4am) is when the fun all began. Our flight to Phu Quoc Island left HCMC at 7am, so between packing and all the excitement, I didn’t sleep much the night before we left! Phu Quoc Island is “fringed with exquisite white-sand beaches lined with swaying palms and gently lapping turquoise waters…tourism is set to take off in Phu Quoc, with the Vietnamese touting it as the next Phuket. For now, Phu Quoc remains blissfully undeveloped…” (quotes courtesy of LP Vietnam…and they weren’t kidding!)

little plane to the island

window seat

flying into the island

After a 1 hour flight on a small plane and a quick shuttle bus ride to our hotel, Wendy, Laura and I were settled on the beach by 9:30am on Christmas eve morning. We spent the day sipping coconuts, soaking in the warm sunshine and sitting with our toes in the sand. For the first time in a while, I was truly relaxed…it was an amazing feeling.

delicious coconuts

snowflake toes

white sand and palm trees

bliss

That night, we indulged in dinner and drinks on the beach at our hotel, and went back to our room fairly early. After a skype call home to the family, I got into my annual Christmas pajamas from my mom (mailed to me a few weeks earlier), and the girls and I settled into bed to watch a movie and wait for Santa. Like children, we were all excited for Christmas morning – to call home, and to exchange the gifts we got each other that were waiting by our teeny tiny Christmas tree that I had brought with us from HCMC.

pretend puppy

oh Christmas tree

one of many beautiful sunsets

Christmas tree on the beach

After waking up several times throughout the night to check the clock, we finally rolled out of bed at the decent hour of 6am. My mom and sister can confirm this, but I am the worst at patiently awaiting the arrival of Christmas morning. As soon as I get a gift for someone, I get so excited to give it to them, that they are often forced to open it early. If, for some reason, the gift makes it till Christmas, I am desperately trying to wake my family up at 5am to get the party started! Over the last few years, my family and I have started a new Christmas eve tradition that involves a themed meal (we’ve done Mexican and Jamaican meals so far) and corresponding drinks in order to get me drunk enough to sleep past 7am! Next year when I’m home, I’ll be requesting a Vietnamese meal and rice wine (or maybe mojitos, seeing as that’s my drink of choice here)!

Christmas pjs at breakfast before Christmas morning on the beach

After the skype calls home (thank goodness for wifi and my skype iPhone app!) and opening presents, we got into our “swimming costumes” (as Laura the Scot calls them) and headed back to our spot on the beach. I spent my Christmas morning relaxing with my book…relaxing with a cool beverage…and relaxing with a $2.50usd full body massage on the beach. It was decided that if we couldn’t be at home for Christmas, Phu Quoc was definitely the place to be.

my view for most of the trip

Vietnam beer, Vietnam beach

beach massage

That afternoon, we decided to do something other than just relaxing. My fellow Canuck, Wendy, wanted to learn to drive a motorbike, and everyone agreed that Phu Quoc was the place to learn. Renting a motorbike for a short period of time in Phu Quoc is cheap and easy to do, and you don’t have to worry about the ridiculous traffic that exists in HCMC. So, after handing over $6usd per bike for 2 hours (no names, no signatures, no talk of what hotel room we were staying in), we were off – Laura and I on one bike (with Laura driving) and Wendy on another. I’m going to leave a gap in this story here, so that Wendy can have the honours of sharing her motorbike experience when she gets around to blogging. To quickly summarize, she’s earned the nickname “wipeout Wendy”. I’ll link her blog here when she posts it.

paying before driving off into the sunshine

Christmas day evening we decided have some fun and signed up for a night fishing/squid fishing adventure. To get on our fishing boat, we had to hop from one boat to the next, to the next, to the next, trying not to fall into the water below! Fishing was…interesting. Everyone on board caught at least one fish, except me! I had nibbles. I had fish steal my bait. I even had a fish get away with the bait and the hook! The guy that seemed to be running the fishing show tried to help me out by handing me his line after he had done the hard work of catching the fish – all I had to do was pull it in. Three times we did this, and three times the fish escaped! Thankfully they still let me eat the delicious fresh fish dinner on board the boat that night!

goodbye land

the one that didn't get away

My skype call home that night was pretty emotional – it was Christmas morning at home when I called, and lucky for them I was on a boat until 9pm meaning I couldn’t call and wait them up at 6am Ontario time! I miss my family so much on a “regular” day…not being with them on Christmas hurt that much more. I also decided that night that I will never miss another Christmas with my family again. No matter where I go in life or who I end up with, Christmas will always be spent with my family. Promise.

On our last day at Phu Quoc, Laura and I rented a jetski and zoomed around the Gulf of Thailand for an incredible 15 min! (A 15 min jetski rental cost $15usd, so we weren’t about to go over our time limit!) We were the only jetski out on the water at the time, surrounded only by fishing boats. I’m mildly terrified of the water (likely due to my sub-par swimming skills), so lifeguard Laura assured me that if I bounced off the back, she’d be in to save me in no time! (As you’ll see in the next few blog, this is a reoccurring promise from Laura!) And thanks to our amazing photographer on the beach, Wendy, and the crazy zoom on my camera, we have some great pictures to show for our 15 minute ride.

setting off!

zoom zoom!

weeeeeeee!

hold on tight

And that about wraps up our Christmas trip to Phu Quoc Island…but Phu Quoc hasn’t seen the last of me! It was such a cheap and amazing weekend that I hope to return before my time in Vietnam comes to an end! We got home around 5pm on Boxing day, but there was no time for relaxing and looking through pictures…time for laundry, repacking and a few hours sleep before we left at 6am the next morning to get on our bus to Cambodia…!

peaceful

beach beauty