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On to the next one! Nha Trang done and dusted, we jump on to the later bus (as we missed the early one!), and head off on ridiculous bus journey number 3. Can't remember the exact duration, but it was another sleeper, some where near 12/13 hours. The only way I can differentiate this bus journey to any other is my little bump. Getting back on to the bus, half drowsy after getting some water, I'm strolling back to my bed. I totally mis-read the position of a pillow on the floor (that a driver has been sleeping on), put my foot on the pillow, the pillow now slips down the middle entrance to the bus, which is where my foot follows, and a nice, loud crack meets my shin. Nice one idiot.
Bruised journey over, we get off with no accommodation booked. A cab driver offers to drop us to backpacker central and find us a hotel, so we agree. He calls some back alley guesthouse owner, a middle aged woman, and she allows us to check the room. Gary the inspector comes down with a cheeky smile, which we know means "hell no". We kindly thank the woman and walk off, at which point she seemed to well up! Oops!! We find a decent side street guesthouse for the 3 of us, and decide to freshen up....which obviously means catching up on the lack of sleep from the damn bus! We awake a few hours later and decide to go boozin - I mean exploring! I can quite proudly say we turned Ho Chi Minh into Burger Ville for our duration (the noodles were getting boring!). Day 1 was spent walking in the sun around the city. This is definitely the scooters home. Hundreds of them at every turn. Where are all of these people going??! Madness. Anyway, as we were burning away, we saw the holy grail, the face to bring joy to millions, the iconic colours. Yes, the red and white of the mighty K...F...C! We scurried in like kids on a sugar high and got our orders in. Unfortunately, the burgers were slightly pink...but the fried chicken was DAMN good!!
Fast food aside, we wandered along the main shopping streets. The main roundabout which has 8/9 exits branching off was pretty nuts to behold....so crazy we decided to have a beer break slap bang in the middle. Sitting back watching the mayhem unfold was tiring itself. The amount of near-miss accidents we saw in Asia was in the hundreds, but we never actually saw an accident. Gutted.
Freshened up from the beer, the three musketeers headed to the hostel, slapped a bit of eau du toilette on and went out for dinner and drinks. We were based pretty much in backpackers central, so finding the hub wasn't too hard. Seemed like the place to be was GoGoGo Bar and Crazy Buffalos (as far as I can remember anyway), so we hung around there, had some western food (burgers for Gary and Ryan) and drank till the early hours. I think this was the night my beloved Arsenal failed yet again. Gary had gone home by this point, so me and Ryan found a bar with $2 buckets and the footie! Constant harassing from little kids trying to sell us roses and cigarettes was slightly distracting, but we wondered home in the early hours. Being a fat boy, I was hungry! I left Ryan to it and headed to the nearest Pho store. Noodle soup was ordered, and I made the stupid mistake of throwing a few chilli's into the soup. Super hot chilli's at 7am is just dumb.
Day 2 was very laid back. As me and Ryan got back at like 6/7am, we weren't up till early afternoon. Some food was had and we got a few essential things done - washing, trip to the Cu Chi tunnels for the following day, as well as our bus ticket out of Vietnam to Cambodia. Once that was done, we decided to go for a massage. We specifically asked the hotel lady we wanted somewhere decent, no happy ending malarky, as the sleeper buses left us battered and bruised! She recommended a place and we wondered off to check it out. It seemed pretty decent, everyone in uniforms, clean, receptionist spoke English. We opted for the 90 min Thai massage, but we were also given unlimited time in the sauna and steam room, which was basically just us in there! The massage was actually pretty good, and was made even more entertaining as we could hear Gary being violated. This included the lady putting her finger in his mouth like a fish hook!! He's been getting banter from me and Ryan ever since. The last 5 minutes of the massage was basically a bone cracking experience. Back, neck, legs, what ever you can think of, they cracked it. Not sure if we felt fresher walking out, but it was definitely an experience!!
Day 3 was an early one, as we had our trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, and then an immediate bus to catch into Cambodia. Our tour guide for the trip was, as expected, a Vietnamese chap...by the name of John Wayne (legend?)! Nickname aside, the guy was pretty funny, and was pretty well educated in regards to the tunnel and the war, as he apparently fought in it! I never knew John Wayne was a Vekong! The actual walk/crawl through the tunnels was seriously tough, and we only managed to barely get halfway before finding the exit. Not the easiest thing in 35 degree heat! We had only booked a half day tour, so we waved goodbye to Mr. Wayne and jumped on a coach back to Saigon, where we waited for our bus into Cambodia and on to Phnom Penh. The end of our Vietnam travels. 10/11 days is nowhere near enough, and I can safely say I will come back one day for a lot longer (hopefully!).
So, the Cambodian adventure begins...!
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