Vietnam

First let me say that the chicks in this country are totally hot.  I find them to be more appealing than the Thai women.  

The whether here is hot as well.  I can’t believe how much hotter it is than Cambodia.   I arrived yesterday by bus.  I didn’t really want to come by bus but thought it was wisest to exit through a small point of entry.  I made mention previously that I had to leave my hotel in a hurry.  Nothing too exciting, but here is what happened…

I made 20 minute international phone call.  The next morning I left my key at the front desk and the lady working the desk said, "We need your passport."  I asked why, and she pointed to the owner of the hotel and said, "Because you owe us $1600 for the call you made last night.  WTF??  Crazy!  I debated this for several minutes, and the owner told me he was going to phone the police.  There is no way in hell that a 20 minute call costs $1600.  No way.  I told them I was going to return to my room to retrieve my passport.  I loaded my electronics into my daypack and returned to the lobby.  I told the owner that I would need my passport to make a bank withdrawal but told him that all of my things were in my room as a security deposit, then I left and never returned.  It will be a hell of a lot cheaper to replace my losses than pay 1600$ for a damn phone call.  I had already purchased a plane ticket, but the hotel card contained that information so I  opted for the bus.

A bus ride is what it is:  A bus ride.  They wrote "Express Limosine Bus" on the side, but it didn’t drive any faster than any non-limo bus.  I had two extremely snotty Aussie girls behind me, which is very rare to find a rude aussie.  Once we hit the border, we were delayed for a good two hours for passport control.     Once we crossed into Vietnam, the changes between the two countries was extremely drastic.  This place is much better maintained.  I was initially suprised at all of the human roadkill we passed on the way to Saigon.  There must have been half dozen motorscooter accidents…something that no longer suprises me now that I’ve been using them for taxi service. 

My hotel is more like an apartment, and I really like it there.  The down side is that I’m on the 3rd floor (which is actually the 4th floor), and there is no lift in the building.  The rate is $15/night.  It’s much better than the places I stayed in Cambodia.  I forgot to mention the place where I stayed my last night in Phenom Penh.  A room with AC, fan, TV, hot water:  $20.  AC, hot water, TV:  $15.  Then I noticed a price of $7.  I asked what I would get with such a room. She said, "A fan."  hahhahha! 

I am quite impressed with this city.  Compared to Bangkok and other places in Asia, there is very little pollution, and the streets are quite tidy.  I am really liking the Viet people.  Unlike the other places I’ve been in Asia, these people have a certain air about them…a very welcome level of confidence which I’ve not experienced with the rest of Asia.  Perhaps it’s because the Americans dropped 12 bombs the same size as that dropped on Nagasaki the these people STILL kicked the shit out of them!  haha  I don’t know…their level of confidence is unlike anyplace else I’ve been to in Asia.  As I wrote already, the women are absolutely gorgeous.  I am suprised at how much English many of the people speak here compared to the rest of Asia.  They are totally fun to hang out with as well.  I hung out last night with a very sweet woman.  We had quite a lovely time and drank entirely way too much, which is why I didn’t do the tour things today.  Tomorrow I’m taking in about seven sites…one of which is a tunnel network. 

I went a bit ago to purchase some clothes.  I went via motorscooter taxi.  I can’t tell you how many close calls we had.  It seemed to my like my driver thought his horn was to the other traffic on the street what Moses’ staff was to the Red Sea.  He would continually beep his horn and never slow as we entered into intersections.  Nutty. 

I can’t believe how much weed there is here.  Every taxi driver on the street asks, "Gonja?  You want weed?  Women?"  You gotta love the communists!  Allah bless em’!