Now there are a couple options for this. First of which is taking a four plus hour trip to the Thai border, hopping off the bus, walking over the border, then simply paying $25 bucks for a new Visa, walking back into Cambodia, then hopping on a 4 plus hour bus trip back to Phnom Penh. Been done plenty of times by folks, and my roommates, needing to extend their Visa, and if you ask me a pretty fucking awful way of spending a day off.
The other option, which is less popular for some reason, but a way more awesome option is to take a six hour bus to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon fill your face full of pho and spring rolls, throw a couple cheap cold Saigon beers in the mix and have an overall pretty sweet weekend. I chose option 2, and could not have been happier.
Besides the fact that Vietnam is not a third world or developing country, which in itself was a great treat, I found Ho Chi Minh to be an amazing city with blends of French Colonialism smashed right into Asian Tigeryness, all tied together with some nice cafes and the best coffee in the universe. Nice green parks filled with young people just hanging out and chillen all over. Oh yeah and malls, a bunch of em, which I absolutely love!
Quick recap of my weekend goes like this: arrived at 3pm and promptly cruised the city to check it out, grabbed a banh mi(hold the mayo) and ca phe sue da(ice coffe with sweet milk), watched a lil TV and cranked up the AC in my room(superduper nice as I have been without both since I got here), met some new homeys and got my skate on( these dudes were rad and had names like Sword and Imagine), ate spring rolls and a couple Saigons(add a splash of pleasant dinner conversation with some Aussies), cruised the city more(got offered just about any vice imaginable as being a westerner rolling by yourself people have you pegged for a certain type), fell asleep( AC and TV on again), woke up and stuffed my face with pho and soda chanh(don't worry I had about 3 ice coffees later in the day), cruised to the ZOO(place makes the Denver Zoo look like a critter Ritz Carlton), looked at some communist posters(they are still at it), discovered Trung Nguyen(best vietnamese coffee chain), found the coffee bean(best american coffee chain), back to hotel(cue AC and TV), met up and skated with Sword and the homeys(this time there were about twice as many and it was twice as fun), ate a vietnamese hotdog(recipe: chopped hot dog, pate, laughing cow cheese, waffley/crepe batter all cooked together in a street forman grill), grabbed a couple more Saigons( Angkor beer is no match), went to go find some late night eats and ran into Sword again(no luck on the food), hung out on some tiny chairs and tiny tables(broke a chair), drank some johnny walker red with sting(a strawberry flavored energy drink, much better than it sounds, just ask my boss Benji), finally cruised home(last night of AC and TV), woke up and fed my face of street pho(this one had yummy chickeny meatbally tubes floating in it for added deliciousness), one last ca phe sue da(you bet I brought some coffee back),hopped on the bus( lucky for me this version didn't have the traditional mothball smell), maneuvered the border back to Cambodia(got that new Bizniz Visa!!!!!!), made it home by 8pm.
All in all I had a pretty good time and it was nice to see how much different these two neighboring countries, Cambodia and Vietnam, are. For a little bonus feature this week, I am gonna square them off in the first eva VayaConDoritos battle royal. At the end we will will see how these two SouthEast AZN amigos stack up.
Street Food and overall Yumminess
Bodia < Nam
Bodia has some good eats, but Nam has more variety and less flies.
Coffee
Bodia < Nam
No contest here, Bodia needs to stop serving Nescafe ASAP and get with the program.
Flavorocity of Beer
Bodia < Nam
Saigon and Hue taste much more like beer and less like water, Bodia you need to step up Nam is already running away with this.
General Lawlessness
Bodia > Nam
Bodia is pretty much the wild wild west, anything goes and I mean an y thang.
Moto Unpredictability
Bodia > Nam
Nam, sometimes you just gotta say fuck it and roll head on to oncoming traffic, yellow lines be dammed.
Livestock on the Road
Bodia > Nam
As soon as you cross the border in Bodia, less cars and more cows, buffalo, dogs, chicken, naked babies just straight walking across the highway. I do not envy my bus driver at all.
Making a nice lil comeback here Bodia.
Tummy Troubles
Bodia > Nam
Bodia you might have earned a point here, but not in a good way, wakka wakka.
Friendliness of Folk
Bodia=Nam
Push here people, both places have amazing and kind people always smiling and helpful to ole uncle lorli.
Cleanliness
Bodia < Nam
After a day out and about in Bodia you have a weird combo of sweat, grime, pollution, and maybe a bit of shame covering your body, Nam only has the sweat, and a touch of grime.
Mosquitos
Bodia < Nam
Pretty sure they forgot to mention in the brochure that I would have additional roommates here. Sometimes I think my blood is Mosquito Spanish Fly. Ouch.
Well, disregarding the extra point for constantly keeping my tummy on edge, it looks like its Nam by hair. Now I don't want to debate world politics today, just wait for my next post I got a lot to say about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happyness here in the Bodia. Nam was pretty rad, and a place I will be taking regular weekend trips to so expect another post or two about adventures on the east side of the Mekong. Here are a couple pics of last weekends trip and the remains of communism. Yayyyy!
Old School and New School Saigon
This is what happens when we lose a war.
Ice YUM YUM.
Nuevo Amigos, Sting and Walker, perfect combo.
Vayacondoritos
rorirent express
Is Vietnam up on Linsanity yet or also stuck on Angry Birds?
ReplyDeletePlease post pictures of the malls at your convenience, I know you'll find one some day.
ReplyDeleteA journey is a gesture inscribed in space, it vanishes even as it's made. You go from one place to another place, and on to somewhere else again, and already behind you there is no trace that you were ever there.
ReplyDeleteCheap Flights to Ho Chi Minh City
“The farther you go, however, the harder it is to return. The world has many edges, and it's easy to fall off.”
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