Yesterday and Today (1/8/08)

Dong are now the centerpiece of my world. I'm forced the think about them all the time, whether it's people asking me for them on the street or constantly doing the math to figure out how many dong I need. The Vietnamese currency, like many of their words (see Phuc) can't help but bring a smile to your face.

But smiling was not what I was doing earlier today, as the bus crossed the Mekhong on a ferry. No, instead I was chiding myself as new information has meant a change in travel plans and will force me to backtrack. I'm not sure why, but it goes against something very deeply ingrained in me to backtrack. To waste the time and money to be places I've already been is especially painful when traveling and having to buy another 1 month visa on top of that...unacceptable. But I'm coming to grips with it now and realize that this will likely be the first of two trips to Saigon (HoChiMC). In 23 days I will likely arrive here again to begin Phase III of the trip, with Brock-O.

So reluctantly I arrived in Vietnam today. It was an quick trip with an effortless border crossing. Arriving in Saigon felt very different from anywhere I've been thus far. The buildings are different, the feel of the city unique. The fast pace of development can almost be felt when entering the city. I was traveling today with an american couple, Ryno and Devin, that are my age and traveling around the world for however long it takes them. He had been to Saigon 6 years earlier and when we went to the old market that was one of his favorite spots in the city--it had become an American style shopping mall...only the tiling at the entrance and the old tiled stairs remaining. A Chanel booth, next to Louis Vitton replacing the poultry stall where birds were slaughtered after you paid for them.

I plan to only be in HCMC for a couple of days as I now need to high tail it up to Laos, the place that I expect to like the most...and to have enough time there before flying back to meet up with Brock and go up the Vietnamese coast.

My last day in Phnom Penh was pretty amazing. I was taking it easy, renting a bike to go to the Central Market and to do a couple of errands. On the way back from the market however I was riding and thought I recognized the guy riding past me on his motorcycle in the opposite direction. 2 seconds later I hear a crash and he and his passenger have collided with a blue car that looks like an old Nissan Sentra in the intersection through which I have just passed. It was a really bad accident--I rushed back to see if I could help but even before I could get to the accident there was a swarm of people around him, someone presumably trying to help. I didn't want to get in the crowd of Cambodians so I hung back and watched, hoping that someone would pull him out of the mass of people and take him to a hospital. 5 minutes passed or maybe more (it felt like a really long time) and finally an ambulance came. Not sure if he made it, but it was a crazy thing to have seen. And interesting how the Cambodian people in the area were reacting (some laughing and joking, others honking their horns to get the traffic out of the way, others visibly shocked). I rode back to the hotel cautiously and pretty stunned from what I had just seen.

I made it back to the lake for sunset and was recounting my story to Lorri, another Canadian that I had been hanging out with when I read in the Cambodian Daily (I was looking for information about the tribunal for Bill C.) that there were 40,000 cases of Dengue Fever in 2007. 1 in 100 people affected died, a significant improvement from the 1 in 34 fatality rate from 2006. Once again I slathered on some extra deet and was once again impressed with how many ways one can meet their end in Cambodia.

One last amok from my favorite place and one to go for breakfast and I was all set to head off the next day.