I woke up in the morning early enough, packed my stuff, went downstairs, checked out, ordered some breakfast and waited for my bus. The first difference this time – the bus was actually on time. We were only five people in a bus and I started wondering that this can’t be good. Some more people entered after another stop, but the bus was far from even half-full. It took us a little while to get to the pier where we had to wait for some more for a speed boat. We got to the boat and moved toward Vietnam. Leaving Cambodia was easy, the guy didn’t even care about my visa and let me through without taking a look at my stuff, I could have transferred drugs, guns, whatever to Vietnam [but don’t count on that – I heard stories, they usually check everyone very carefully]. Some more minutes in a boat and we finally entered Vietnam. Not sure how easy or hard that was, since our guide collected our passports and all we had to do is to wait for the process to end. While waiting some women came, a.k.a. portable exchange booth and offered us to exchange some money. I got 2 000 000 Dong for 100$. Funny how I exit Cambodia almost poor, came to Vietnam and poof – I’m a millionaire. We followed the same Mekong river till the Chan Doc through some floating villages.
It’s amazing how river is a road to those people. Their houses are on water, they use boats as transportation, most of them, if not all, are fishermen [and fisherwomen] and it’s all happening just there, in front of your eyes. It is definitely something you have to see once you get to South-East-Asia.
When we got off the boat and checked in the floating hotel, I went for a walk. The town itself has nothing much to see really, so I went through the market, getting attention from everyone there with almost no exceptions. Vietnam welcomed me to the country with some rain, so I have been walking through the rain back `home` and I was honestly surprised, how people vanished from the streets so fast.
After the rain stopped I went out to the city once again – just to see if I can be lucky enough to find some place with some good local food. Turns out – I was lucky. I stopped by some place that looked just like a street kitchen I used to see all around this part of the world and asked for the noodle soup. They brought it for me in several seconds making me wonder once again – how they manage to make something so fast and so tasty. I was eating it with pleasure, watching the woman, who served me, laughing with such a sincere eyes, that made my face smiling too. After the food she asked me if I wanted a beer and I just couldn’t say no. In total, for the delicious soup and a beer I paid 2$. Cool a?
I was going back, planning to do a stop at my hotel’s bar for a beer and little reading or writing when this Australian couple offered me to join them. So I did and we had a nice conversation. They even gave me some Australian coins, which will very well fit in my coin collection.
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