Tired of the Tourist Trail
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
We’re both getting a little tired of the tourist trail in S.E. Asia. Not that we’ll be getting off of it any time soon, but we’re going to try to fast forward a little through it. Vietnam has been great in that we got all of the clothes made. In the end we stayed in Hoi An for 7 nights, not leaving for Ho Chi Minh until the 2nd since my sundress was such a pain. I went to a random place to get it made, and I thought it’d be pretty painless since we’d had such good luck with my wedding dress and Steve’s suits. We picked a place based on the fact that they had the dress I wanted hanging up in the shop. So they just had to make one in my size and the colors I wanted. But it turned out to be a nightmare. After 8 fittings and the tailor remaking the dress twice since she made the wrong dress twice, it looked like a Frankenstein dress and it still didn’t fit right. The lady in the store was mean and unhelpful. She wouldn’t listen to me when I was telling her what needed to be changed and that led to her making the waste tighter when I wanted the skirt tighter, and then blaming me for the change that I hadn’t asked for. In the end the whole dress looked like something a 5-year-old had made (and poorly, at that) and it was so tight I couldn’t get into it by myself and couldn’t breath once it was on. I ended up just walking out of the store, forfeitting my deposit. To me it wasn’t worth dealing with anymore. Even if it somehow miraculous was perfect I still wouldn’t have wanted to wear the dress since the whole process was so miserable. I also met another girl in the shop who was having a similarly bad experience with a pair of pants that were hilariously misformed when I saw them. They just don’t seem to know how to make clothes. So, if you’re ever in Hoi An looking to have anything made, steer clear of shops you haven’t gotten a good recommendation for. I, unfortunately don’t remember the name of the store (I might have the card in my back pack, in which case I’ll update this later), but it’s on a street corner on the main street just past the market.
But after all of that unpleasantness, we did get a bit of luck in that we flew to Ho Chi Minh from Danang (just north of Hoi An) instead of taking the 20 hour train, and all for about the same price! It was $45 each for a train ticket and $50 each for a one hour flight on the very new IndoChina airlines. It was a nice, quick way to travel that felt sort of like cheating. But since we’re both a bit tired, it was nice to speed things up. They even gave us a free drink and a little snack pack of fruit, bread, and meat products (that were suspiciously like cat food), so it was fancier than a lot of American flights these days!
We’ve only been in HCMC for one full day now, but it’s so noisy and crowded that we’re looking forward to moving on. It seems that this place is crowded with people trying to get money out of tourists, and the touts far outnumber the actual travelers. We’re staying in a little room on the 5th floor of one of the many hilariously tall and thin hotels around town. Each floor only has two rooms and we have to walk up 5 flights of stairs to get to our room. The power went out last night for a good hour and the night before the evil old lady downstairs who runs the place turned off our power at some point so I woke up covered in sweat and about ready to make the trek down the steps to give her a hard time. But someone else must have beat me to it, because the power came back on in our room and I heard footsteps below. They have switches for each of the rooms so they turn off the electricity when you leave. A nice power saving technique when the room is empty, but not when you’re trying to sleep in this hot and humid city.
Yesterday we finally got to walk around a bit since there was no rain. We sent off our fancy clothes to our friend Nicole in Berlin for safe keeping until we get there this Spring. We’ve settled on a German wedding since we met in Berlin and the process sounds fairly painless. It’s also good to have German friends to help us out if we need it.
So the game plan now is to leave in the morning for the capital of Camodia, Phnom Penh. It’s a 6 hour bus ride across the border. We’ll get our visa on arrival and hopefully will have an air conditioned, toilet on board ride for $12 each. It sounds like a bit of a rip off to me, but all of the tourist agencies around all quote the same price, and we don’t have the time or the patience to look into other options. We’re ready to get out of ‘Nam. We’re probably going to spend a few days in Phnom Penh getting a tourist visa for Thailand. You can get one on arrival, but they’ve changed it so you can only get one for 15 days, and we still might volunteer there. Getting one beforehand is for 30 or 60 days, so that would work out better for us. After Phnom Penh it’s off to Siem Reap and the much looked forward to Angkor Wat temple ruins. I can’t wait to see them! I haven’t been taking many photos lately since I’m sort of burnt out (and it’s been so rainy), and I’m looking forward to having something to take photos of that I’m excited about!
If it wasn’t so cold in Europe right now, I think we’d both take off to there after Siem Reap. But we’re going to try to give Thailand a go, and definitely try to get some snorkeling in at one of the islands. We’re still thinking about volunteering there, but only if the accomodations are cheap. We have a lot to figure out, but it’ll all come together. Hopefully we’ll stop in Bangkok long enough for me to get a reception dress made! I still want one, but it’ll have to be a completely different style!
Tags: HCMC, IndoChina airlines, Vietnam
montarsig
I found your blog from a Google News Alert I have set up for Phnom Penh. Great fun blog to read. I don’t know if you have already
been and gone from the area, but if you are looking for great volunteering opportunities, great beaches, cheap
accommodation, food and the kindest most generous and welcoming people you have ever met of …you really
might want to think about just staying in Cambodia and skipping Thailand..we lived in Thailand for over a year
before moving here and we wouldn’t ever think about changing places. So many very rewarding places to volunteer!
Wishing you all the best in your travels! Debra