Tuesday - Phnom Penh to Chau Doc
Yesterday morning we got the boat down the Mekong river from Phnom Penh to Chau Doc. We were told it would take 4 hours but it ended up being nearly 6.
The boat was quite small with no more than 10 people on board, including four people from Spain. We decided to sit out the back of the boat so we could take pictures and were soon joined by our fellow Europeans! One of them had brought a picnic which included baguettes, various meats, cheeses, olives and a bottles of red wine. He swigged the wine out of the bottle and passed it around for us to share; much appreciated by me and Mark. It did, however, make us feel a bit embarrassed by our poor excuse for lunch which consisted of a tube of Pringles and a packet of Ritz biscuits. We offered them round but funny enough no takers!
The first part of the journey was fantastic with beautiful views of the Mekong river and friendly conversation with all of speaking fluent English!
About 2 hours in the cloud came over and and it started to rain heavily. We had to sit inside the boat and the driver had to slow right down as he couldn't see where he was going.
Despite her boat history Rach did really well and wasn't sick once!
As we approached Chau Doc we came across a stranded boat that had broken down so we had to tug that along to, slowing down our journey even more. We finally docked at around 5pm and walked with the Spanish couple (Eva and Jordi) to find a hotel and after looking at a couple we decided to go with one for $13 including breakfast. We dumped the bags, met Eva and Jordi and went to find a bar, badly in need a beer. Bia Saigon is the local brew so we sampled a few of those! Eventually we went in search of some well needed food and found a place that more resembled a street side bar than a restaurant. It was cheap and sold Bia Saigon so we were happy! Again we managed to pick some Vietnamese phrases that would help us.
Wednesday - Chau Doc to Hoi Chi Minh City (HCMC)
This morning we got the 9am bus from to HCMC. It was another long journey which in total took 8 hours. The bus was ok but as we also found in Cambodia they played music videos on full volume for the entire journey! Even the ipod on full blast didn't block out the irritating sound of Vietnamese music! Funny enough neither of us slept a wink.
It got worse though when part way through the journey the woman behind Mark threw up in the aisle and underneath the seat! It ran all the way down the bus and stank but didn't get cleared up until over an hour later when we stopped.
We were very relieved to arrive in HCMC at around 4.30pm. After a taxi ride and a bit of lost wandering around we found our hotel which seems really nice.
We plan to spend a couple of days here and then head north to Dalat!
Hope all is good at home, thanks for all the messages and emails!
Lots of Love
Rach & Mark. xxx
Yesterday morning we got the boat down the Mekong river from Phnom Penh to Chau Doc. We were told it would take 4 hours but it ended up being nearly 6.
The boat was quite small with no more than 10 people on board, including four people from Spain. We decided to sit out the back of the boat so we could take pictures and were soon joined by our fellow Europeans! One of them had brought a picnic which included baguettes, various meats, cheeses, olives and a bottles of red wine. He swigged the wine out of the bottle and passed it around for us to share; much appreciated by me and Mark. It did, however, make us feel a bit embarrassed by our poor excuse for lunch which consisted of a tube of Pringles and a packet of Ritz biscuits. We offered them round but funny enough no takers!
The first part of the journey was fantastic with beautiful views of the Mekong river and friendly conversation with all of speaking fluent English!
About 2 hours in the cloud came over and and it started to rain heavily. We had to sit inside the boat and the driver had to slow right down as he couldn't see where he was going.
Despite her boat history Rach did really well and wasn't sick once!
As we approached Chau Doc we came across a stranded boat that had broken down so we had to tug that along to, slowing down our journey even more. We finally docked at around 5pm and walked with the Spanish couple (Eva and Jordi) to find a hotel and after looking at a couple we decided to go with one for $13 including breakfast. We dumped the bags, met Eva and Jordi and went to find a bar, badly in need a beer. Bia Saigon is the local brew so we sampled a few of those! Eventually we went in search of some well needed food and found a place that more resembled a street side bar than a restaurant. It was cheap and sold Bia Saigon so we were happy! Again we managed to pick some Vietnamese phrases that would help us.
Wednesday - Chau Doc to Hoi Chi Minh City (HCMC)
This morning we got the 9am bus from to HCMC. It was another long journey which in total took 8 hours. The bus was ok but as we also found in Cambodia they played music videos on full volume for the entire journey! Even the ipod on full blast didn't block out the irritating sound of Vietnamese music! Funny enough neither of us slept a wink.
It got worse though when part way through the journey the woman behind Mark threw up in the aisle and underneath the seat! It ran all the way down the bus and stank but didn't get cleared up until over an hour later when we stopped.
We were very relieved to arrive in HCMC at around 4.30pm. After a taxi ride and a bit of lost wandering around we found our hotel which seems really nice.
We plan to spend a couple of days here and then head north to Dalat!
Hope all is good at home, thanks for all the messages and emails!
Lots of Love
Rach & Mark. xxx
Rachel – you’ve changed!! I hope your not losing your ability to prepare and cook food- Pringles and ritz- poor poor effort! Well done for making friends with the right people though!!
ReplyDeleteEva and Jordi eh…… Sounds like the new D and C to me, Frank will not be impressed!!
What is this Bia Saigon like, does it compare to Fiji Babies?
Wednesday didn’t sound like much fun – Rachel you must have been knackered with no sleepy time!! Then someone being sick!! Not very nice!
Sounds as though you guys are having an absolute ball!! All is good here, poppy is behaving herself (most of the time, franks lost a few socks but that’s his fault)
Take care of each other, hope you manage to get some good weather soon. Thought the blog was called chase the sun, not follow the rain hehe!
Love you lots
xxxx
Glad you have discovered Bia Siagon - also look out for the fresh beer they sell on the streets for 3000 dong - Beer Hoi its called I think. Feeling your pain at the bus journeys - if you get really fed up with them you can get some crazy cheap flights internally in vietnam! Enjoy Dalat, it is so much fun...very jealous - seriously do make sure you go to the tour guide i told you about, mention we recommended him - defo try out the canyoning, and exploring on mopeds is great (prob the place with least traffic)! Oh wont be long to Hoi An - my 2fave places in Vietnam! Enjoy you lucky buggers! xxx
ReplyDeleteRach and Mark - can you send me a text before you blog next time so I can get here first!
ReplyDeleteBex stole all my lines as I was reading it and planning my comments. At least I got your post card today from Siam Reap and managed to read it before Bex came in. The weather here has caught a bit of your rainy season - chucking it down and cold so even though the sun might be hiding from you I guess it is still warm. Love to both. xxx
Hi Rachel & Mark,
ReplyDeletejust had a read through some of your news - sounds fab. Missing you at left back! I just made some brownies - not sure ther'll be any left by saturday though! (gr8 recipe!)