We made it

Kim getting her thongs fixed

The big journey to Vietnam began with a stop over at the middle pub in Wynyard, with Mum and Dad taking us to the airport. I had the roast pork and Kim had the rissoles, which seemed appropriate when leaving Australia for 4 months. The ‘middle’ seems to be doing a roaring trade, by giving seniors’ discounts on meals, a free keno ticket and so on to entice people onto the pokies. It seemed to be working as the gaming venue was packed before lunch time. Dolphin Treasure, Queen of the Nile (2^nd Ed.) and Geisha were all flat out sucking people’s money in.

At the airport, Kim’s hand luggage was over weight, so they made her remove a book from her pack, but let her carry it on anyway. It made no difference to the weight she carried on board. When we got to Melbourne it was bloody cold with the wind blowing across the airport. I got sniffed for explosives at the airport, but they didn’t sniff Kim. Then we had about 9 hours to kill, so we went across the road to the Park Royal Hotel.  While here we drank beer and cider fairly slowly and had a meal, and spent about a hundred bucks.

We got on our first flight to Malaysia about midnight. We managed to get a few hours pretty uncomfortable sleep, the kind of sleep where you stay feeling tired for the rest of the day. You also get a really sore arse, thankfully something I am quite unaccustomed to. In Kuala Lumpur I had an Asian breakfast, which consisted of various meats and vegetables in a hot soup or stock. It was really nice and only cost 5 bucks. We are trying to save money on this trip as we are no longer drawing an income from work.

Then we flew to Vietnam and got scammed by the first person we talked to and paid $35 Au for a taxi to our hotel. We tried walking away, but they follow you and persist, and after the flight and tired feeling, it is easy to just give in. Normally it only costs 10 bucks, but the taxi was pretty plush.

Our hotel is in a back alley off a busy street. It is impeccably clean, very comfortable and only costs $17 for both of us for the night, and that includes breakfast. We went out for a walk and had a beer. It is about 35 degrees outside and fairly humid. The beers here cost 20000 Dong, which is $1 AU, but 20000 still feels expensive simply because it is a big number.

While we sat outside with the beers we get approached by heaps of people trying to sell us stuff. People walk around trying to clean an repair shoes, and even though I wasn’t aware at the time the soles of my shoes were coming unstuck and I paid a bloke a dollar to fix one shoe. Kim also got her thongs repaired. The photo shows trhe bloke fixing Kim’s thongs as she watches on.

The roads here are chaotic compared to home. At first you feel really nervous about crossing. But after an hour or so you just walk out into the traffic and it avoids you, somehow, but that is just how it is, its part of the fun of the place.

For tea, we found a place called Kim’s Café, and couldn’t resist going in. I told them about Kim, also being called Kim, and they smiled and said that Kim was the big boss. Kim is a very common name in Vietnam. Kim said you could go up to people and say “What is your name? Ching, Chong or Kim?”, not as strange as it seems. We had spring rolls and a beer each for tea and it cost about five dollars.

Today we will have a bit more of a look around Saigon/Hi Chi Minh before heading to Cambodia for more adventures and cheap meals.