Good Morning Vietnam!

Vietnam, Vietnam, Vietnam. *Shakes head*

What expereinces I've had. And to think I've still got one more night. My favortie thus far must be my "17 Hour Adventure" with my new friend Laura.

On our second day in Vietnam we left for an adventure that would change my life. You see, Kristen was sick in the room and Laura and I decided that we wanted to spend some time outside of Ho Chi Minh City and go to the beaches of Vung Tau. Little did we know, this mission would be near impossible.

At 6:30 pm we set off on motorcycle taxi's to the bus depot. Note to all you travelers: do NOT go to the bus depot. Basically we when we arrived we were new attractions at the zoo as many of the locals had never interacted with foreigners. On the 30 minute drive to the depot my driver proceeded to get in an accident. Like legitimately. We rear-ended the motorcycle in front of us and then another guy crashed into our side, missing my leg my mere inches. Oh, so that's why riding motorcycles are dangerous. Opps. Anyway, we arrived at the depot safe and sound, and our drivers helped us out in getting bus tickets.

We finally got our bus tickets and rushed to get onto the bus. We were pointed in this direction than that direction until we finally hopped onto an airconditioned motorcoach. Laura and I sit down and uncomfortably check out our surroundings for the first time. Of course this is when we realize we're on the wrong bus! This bus is going to the beach 7 hours away!! Well, we skadaddle off the current bus and in broken English and various hand gestures attempt to find the bus we're really supposed to be on. We are passed from Vietnamese person to Vietnamese person until we can exchange our tickets and get onto another bus...or well, van. This time we're sitting on a 12 seat utility van, where we are clearly the only foreigners and people are obviously confused by our presence. It was unconfortable, but we stayed. Why we didn't get off and go back to the ship, I still don't know. Long story short, at 7:45 the van/bus takes off and now we're stuck...on our way to God only knows where.

We met one man on the bus who speaks English and we're talking for a while on the bus. He gives us the name of some hotels that are nice and right along the beach. Ironically this guy is getting married on Saturday and going to Hong Kong for his honeymoon--maybe we'll see him there. Anyway, he made polite conversation and we got to ask him about life in Vietnam. Well, in the midst of our conversations and excitement our driver gets pulled over. And let me just say that police are scary, but Communist Police are REALLY frightening. He got a speeding ticket.

Two hours later we pull up to a gas station and are told to get out...this is the final stop. It's 9:45 at night. Upon our arrival we were greeted by two cabs and one homeless man, sitting on a dumpster, vomitting. Well Laura and I ran into the nearest cab and pointed to the only hotel name we recognized and said "Go." In Ho Chi Minh City SAS has a shuttle bring us to and from the port and city and we get dropped off at a 5-star hotel called The Rex Hotel. Well the Rex is apparently also in Vung Tau and we decide that it's our best bet as a hotel, even if it's a little expensive. Of course, when we roll of to this hotel, it's nothing like the Rex we're used to. Think Motel 6...but Asian themed. Oh yeah.

Well, our corner room--number 112--is just delightful. Out one window we have a lovely view of a garbage dump rooftop, and out the other window we see into a massage parlor. In the bathroom there is a hose coming from the ceiling and is directly over a drain...aka a shower. Oh and there is an outlet inside the shower too. There's also a gecko inside, just chillen. The comfortor has a cigarette burn in it...and by the way...they are plaid flannel comforters and sheets. Anyway, Laura and I decide to just hit the hay and attempt to fall asleep. We watch some quality tv--My Super Sweet 16--and then pass out.

The next morning we are woken up at 7 am by the phone ringing. The front desk wanted to confirm our ferry tickets back to the ship for 3 pm. Laura grumbles into the phone and we decide to start waking up. At 8:15 there's a knock on the door--the cleaning service is there to make the beds. So we get kicked out of our rooms and we decide to grab breakfast--since it's included in the bill. Well, breakfast turns out to be either a big loaf of bread or a little loaf of bread. Fed up and tired, since we tossed and turned all night, we decided it was time to head to the beach. We check out and get all ready just to find out--it's a fishing beach. No tanning! Ugh. Well, we wandered around, got coffee--which was literally like mud--and then decided we wanted to go "home" aka back to the ship.

We traded out 3 pm tickets for the 10:30 am ferry and peaced out. Vung Tau wasn't such a great experience. Wikitravel lied. Now I look back and laugh. I can say: "Remember that time in Nam?" It was the best 17 hours in my time in Vietnam.