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Day 28 - 'The sublime to the damn right ridiculous'. A 04:30 alarm call ready to go to the floating markets on the Can Tho river. Breakfast was being cooked for us to takeaway as we went down to reception so we grabbed that and waited for our guide to arrive. 'Tom' (he was Vietnamese) arrived at 05:00 on the dot and off to boat we went. The first floating market was about 45 minutes up river so we had a good chat with Tom about lots of stuff and as it started to get light, we arrived at the Cai Rang floating market which was a wholesale market of food types on big, medium and small boats. There were boats buzzing everywhere with us just cruising around taking it all in. The boats that are selling have the type of food they are selling up their flagpole instead of the traditional home country flag! We even grabbed a quick coffee from a passing drinks boat.
After 30 minutes or so cruising around Cai Rang, we set off for Phong Dien, another smaller floating market which was 1.5 hours away. We stopped off at a noodle factory on the way and saw the process of how noodles are made. One of us had a go at making the initial pancake required but failed miserably. With temperatures rising and the sun coming out, our 'pilot' gave us both traditional Vietnamese hats which looked damn fine. We arrived at Phong Dien which was similar to Cai Rang but on a smaller scale and aimed at local market stall holders to buy their goods.
On the way back we took the smaller canals back to the city centre and also stopped off at a fruit farm to have a look round. Cruised back to the city and back to the hotel where Tom wouldn't take a drink from us as a thank you.
As it was about midday, we had an hour to grab some lunch before being picked up for our bus to Ho Chi Minh City. We went to the Mekong restaurant as we hadn't had food there yesterday. Sitting at a table, the first thing we noticed was a bloke with 7 empty Heineken bottles in front of him just sitting staring out into the street. We then noticed a western couple on the table out the front ordering vodka shots and then coke separately. Also a British guy talking very loudly on his phone about no one being able to understand English around here an being pretty annoyed by this. A quick bite to eat (traditional Vietnamese pancakes) and we grabbed the bill and left as soon as possible. Horrible place and we can't quite work out why it is raved about on tripadvisor and the guidebook. Back to the hotel to wait for the bus. We got chatting to the receptionist and learnt she is coming to England next month to study at Bristol university.
Then the fun really started. The minibus to take us to the bus station was 20 minutes late so we very very nearly missed our bus to HCMC so stress levels were slightly higher than usual. To be honest, the 3.5hr bus journey to HCMC was ok (probably the nicest bus of the trip) but the only issue is that it drops you at a bus station about 10kms outside of the central part of the city. We had been told by a few people that there is a shuttle bus into the centre and it also said this in the guidebook. Jumping off the bus, we sort of stood around looking very confused before one chap approached us. We told him where we wanted to go and he said bus no.2. We stood by bus no.2 which had the name of the place we wanted to go to on the front. Happy days so we jumped on and bought a ticket. Oh what fun we were in for. The bus set off with us and 2 others on board so loads of space. We turned out of the bus station and headed out of the city back the way we came and kept going and going and going with loads of stops on the way to pick people up and drop people off. At one point, 2 guys got on and one sat behind me and the other in front of Alice. Considering that there were loads of other spaces available, this made us (or me anyway) very uncomfortable and we considered getting off at one point. Luckily, with our bags firmly grasped, they both got off. The bus snaked it's way back towards the city centre, we thought, but really we had no idea where we were. Stop after stop with manic traffic - we were about 1.5hrs into the journey and both getting very restless as we had been only 10kms away and could have got a taxi. Finally we arrived at our destination but had to be told by the conductor to get off, thank god that was over. We were at another bus station at what we thought was still quite a way from our hotel. We crossed the road, an experience in itself and found a taxi. Alice opened the door and explained where we wanted to go, district 1. He seemed to be pointing behind him but we didn't know whether this was to get in or what. A bit of confusion later and he pointed to the back seats so we hopped in. He proceeded around the roundabout, back the way he was pointing down the road about 200 yards and started to look around. We thought this was strange but then started to recognise names of hotels from the guide book. We thought best to jump out so paid the guy the equivalent of 60p and feeling slightly embarrassed started to walk back the way he had just driven again to find our hotel. Turns out that we were actually closer to the hotel at the bus station before we got the taxi!! Still struggled to find the hotel as its down a small alley but asking a few people we soon found it, The Beautiful Saigon 3. Checked in, dumped our bags and headed out for dinner as we were both starving. Went to Good Morning Vietnam for a pizza as hasn't had any western food on the trip except once and was easy and quick. Sorted our tickets for the Chu Chi tunnels on Wednesday and hit the hay after a traumatic day to say the least. Two of the worst decisions if our lives, 1) don't get a 'local' bus in HCMC (think we got the wrong bus, not a shuttle bus) and 2) don't walk to get a taxi when your destination is closer than said walk!!
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