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SAIGON (Ho Chi Minh City) - 28th November
We finally arrive in Saigon at 6am!! Luckily we were dropped off in the centre so many guesthouses!! We left our bags with Camel Travel (bus company) whilst we searched for our pad!! 4/5 guesthouses later, typical we go back to the first one!! Averaged between 10$ to 15$ a night. The difference between the two was quite different so decided to go for the 15$ room!! Nice room, air con, TV and hot water and clean!! So we get settled dump our bags and out we go for breakfast!! Good fry up started off the day nicely. A little wonder around the shops and got approached by many sitlos!! We had been told that STA Travel / Quantas BA was very nearby and as we needed to change our flights from Singapore to OZ we decided to take the sitlo!! Bad Mistake… Many roads later, horns beeping continuously, several near misses, 3point turns in busy roads!! We just about made it… we arrive at Quanta’s BA. Great… this is not the right place, not the place to change our ticket anyway. We decide to pay the pedlo man and we end up walking back, or trying to work our way back. No luck, so we jump into a car taxi!! Complete morning wasted…
The rest of the day we chilled out, had some lunch and then a quick shower at the room. Glad rags on and off we go out. Crazy Buffalo seemed to be the place to be, a few cocktails and a boogie. Go 2 Bar was opposite, Gemma and Karl who we had met in Mui Ne suggested to meet up with them, unfortunately we couldn’t find them!! Had a good night, and headed to bed around 3am.
Next day, up at our leisure. Didn’t really do a lot, had lunch, dinner and chilled out in Crazy Buffalo again, reasonable early night!! Early start in the morning.
Leave for Cambodia – Sihanookville via Phnom Penh
Up early at 6am, bus at 7am. Rachel had decided that the jumper she was given by Laurel, she will probably never wear, or more to it: won’t fit in her backpack!! So we decided to do the nice and thoughtful thing and give it away to a beggar!! Wow, the most rewarding pleasure ever, the man couldn’t be thankful enough, smiles from cheek to cheek. He just kept saying: For me, For me?? He must have thought it was his birthday!! So sad..
5 hours of travelling on the bus, this was nothing for RAT.. Easy ride!! We had to cross the Mekong River by boat. Queuing up waiting to board was the worst. Beggars tapping our windows, begging for money. Kids running around naked, awful!! Luckily we boarded quite quickly so didn’t have to hang around too long to see. Only a 20minute ferry ride, we was then over the boarder. Stop off at Phnom Penh to change buses!! So we get off with all our bags, they told us to leave our bags at the bus reception desk whilst we can go and have lunch, we get 1 hour. So we have lunch, 1 hour’s passes and we wait for our pick up bus to take us back to the main coach station. & also where are bags were. We were told that we had missed our bus GREAT!!! So if we miss the mini bus and don’t make it back to the bus station in time, we are screwed!! Many debates and loud noises we still didn’t get very far. Lucky for RAT our tour guide saw us, or heard us either way!! Came to our rescue, thankfully he phoned through to a mini bus to come and collect us. Back at the bus station, we collected our bags and got on the next bus. STOP… the lady conductor refused to let us on, we only had one ticket for both of us, that’s all we were given. No, No they say: we lie!! They obviously thought we were pulling a fast one, by trying to travel 2 on 1 ticket!! Trying to explain is the hardest thing ever… we finally get on the bus!!
5 Hours later we arrive in Sihanoukville!!
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