Last day in Nam

They say you only do two days in Nam, the day you go in and the day you come out. My last day in Nam was the type of day that you just never want to have. The day started with banging on our door, loud banging, also a lot of loud Vietnamese coupled with the realization that you have over slept. It was 5:57AM we were supposed to be outside our guest house by 5:30AM ready and waiting for our pickup. We exited the building in under 2 minutes but it took a toll on our nerves. Each of us cursing our respective alarms while rubbing the morning out of our eyes. Mine was set for 4:45PM not AM and his time was set correctly but the alarm went unactivated so neither rang. We looked up and through the pre-dawn morning darkness, it was still possible to see the look on the faces. Our two motorbikes drivers were pissed. Getting on the back of mine we took off down the street. I felt down, no wallet in my front pocket. Its always in my front pocket, did i leave it in the room? Do i have it somewhere? got to stop, oh man he is going to be so pissed", i thought while i tapped on his shoulder. he came to a abrupt stop, jumping off yelling wallet over my shoulder running while i searched my bag as i went, "Found it! wow", i thought. Back on the back, flooring it now, the guy that i was trusting with my life to, looked at his watch and shook his head, gassing it. Riding on the back while a Vietnamese is driving is like a roller coaster. Death seems imminent at times, often multiple times before the ride is over. Yet you always seem to make the critical, vital turn just at the last moment and arrive safely, rattled but also thinking, awesome. We made it to the mini van that would take us deep into the Mekong delta, two hours away, in one piece. The goal was to reach Vihn Long and use it as a jumping off point from which we would explore the Delta. We got to Vihn Long, went to see about a home stay and we passed. it was far to sterile. We had a different idea about what we were looking for in home stay. We also wanted to visit the floating village an hour away deep in the delta but the cost was far to prohibitive. I was tired and a little frustrated, the plans we had for the next two days were busted pretty good. We had talked about the possibility of going to one more location, Ha Tien, close to the Cambodia border right after our home stay. so we decided to just head there, right after i had a ice coffee, Vietnam has some amazing ice coffee. Lonely planet told us that we were able to go direct with a bus from where we were. We hoofed it to the bus station only to find out that you would have to go all the way back to Saigon first. that was three hours. We asked around and found two motos (motorcycle taxi) who took us to another station that was suppose to be able to go to Ha Tien, nope. We were told that there was yet another bus stop, we found two more Motos and raced off. We sped into the bus stop, our driver assured us that the bus that was pulling out was to Ha Tien, he ran stopped the bus, conferred with the bus driver and he waved us on, we lurched foreword smiling, we had made it. "600,000" we heard as we pulled on to the "highway" that was a ridicules fee. but we looked at the alternative, staring at the dude with the serious face using his fingers to make the money sign we payed it thinking, "at least this thing called Nam will be over at the end of this bus". Vietnam was rough, bargaining, haggling, often with anger, with the possibly of shouting, is a daily occurrence. It wears on you. So we decided to take our seats. the bus was a sleeper but there were two people per one seat. We of course felt double screwed we jammed our bodies into a seat normally for one and tried to forget the day. Lucky us, it wasn't over at all. The bus, when it finally came to a stop was two and half hours in the wrong direction of Ha Tien. We had just been lied to, yet again. We stood on the verge of defeat, completely encircled but touts trying to sell us a ride somewhere and getting pusher by the second. We snapped out of it, mostly by burning some of the anger we had in ample supply to make energy. We negotiated the price to the last bus station, praying that we would get to the boarder in time to cross. Off we went, flying through traffic, saying our prayers and counting our blessing. The third bus was ok, we were charged extra because, well we never really understood, we tried to argue maybe for our bags or the "size" of us. A tactic they like to you sometimes. Surely they couldn't mean the bags, the lady next to us had a rooster in her handbag who clearly had no idea what time it was. For him, it was always dawn somewhere. We paid the meager over charge but it was enough to see red again. Tired from our shotgun wake up and the exhausting days events, we were quite the whole ride. When we finally arrived in Ha Tien we had won a small victory. Not knowing when the border crossing closed we hustled into town to find out and we were stopped. Stopped at a time we did not want to be stopped by someone who wanted our money. His first words were "Cambodia? You go?" We stopped, "hell yes", he was smiling. We jumped back on two bikes and sped to the border, we had 15 minutes.

When we crossed we hugged and cheered and shared a beer. We leaned against a minivan, smiling, something we hadn't done all day. 
Cambodia, has been great for the past three days i have been in Sihanoukville Cambodia, ran into some people from the circuit in Laos. Staying in a bungalow with a fan, toilet paper, but no hot water, Toilet seat but scoop flush. you win some you lose some. i spend my days just sitting in the shade, with a fresh cold one or empty warm one, counting the minutes before i swim again and before sunset. hope this reaches you all well and happy. 22 days left till i fly to India, i am not sure i am ready to leave this part of the world. I am dreading carrying the encyclopedia that is the Indian Lonely planet.  

 In Thailand they could fake all kinds of documents, i now have a degree from Oxford actually. In Cambodia i just came out of a book store that only sells photocopies of originals. In Laos everyone sells "Reeel rayban, cheap". In Vietnam, i stumbled on this. I was on the back of a bike but i assume its fake too :( is nothing sacred? 

 The Border crossing, its smoothed paved all the way through Vietnam till it hits Cambodia and then right to dirt and potholes. taking the picture from this side made me unbelievably happy. 

Where i have been for the last 4 days, i leave tomorrow for .   Silhanoukville Cambodia

We had three good days of beach with fairly no one around but Tet started today so many Vietnam and Cambodian residents are taking the week off, i would spend it on the beach too, i don't blame em. But to escape the crowds we are heading inland in the search of adventure and cheap Khmer curry.