March 2: The Wrap Up

I've been back in Suncheon for four days now. It already feels like my trip to South East Asia was a dream.

The rest of our time in Mui Ne was just as glorious and relaxing as I could possibly have wished for. Everyday I rented a bicycle ($1USD) and drove several kilometres along the coast. Then I'd spend the rest of the day lounging on the beach, chatting with other travelers.

We sadly waved good-bye to Mui Ne on February 25th. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh after nightfall. We were offloaded across the street from the back-packer portion of the city.

Key phrase: 'across the street'.

Oh my.

99% of the vehicles on the packed roads are motorcycles/scooters. There are no traffic lights; just twenty lanes of vehicles going Southward, and another twenty lanes of vehicles Northen-bound.

Thankfully it's congested enough that no one's driving faster than 30-40km/hr. But no one stops for pedestrians, they simply swerve around you. You have to walk into forty lanes of two-wheeled vehicles with blind faith that no one will hit you.

It's invigorating to say the least.

It's scarier to cross a street in HCMC then it is to drive a bicycle in Siam Reap, and that's saying something!

After being on a beach for a week, the noise and confusion of HCMC was overwhelming. I collasped on our hotel bed, and pleaded with Ali when her fingers reached for the T.V remote, "NOOOO!! Silence PLEASE!!!"


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February 26th was our last day of the trip. Our plane didn't leave until midnight, so we had the whole day to spend as we pleased. Amanda and Susan opted for a tour to the tunnels. Ali took a trip to the reunification palace and the museum formerly known as, "The Museum of American Atrocities".

Lazy Lisa and I were not interested (I would be NOW, but after sight-seeing for so long I was a bit burnt out). So Lisa and I did what any teeny-bopper would do, and spent the day at a waterpark!

It was a bit confusing at first. Our cabbie dropped us off at an amusement park of the same name. We saw carnival rides and said, "no no no, that's not a waterpark!" We were directed 500 sweaty metres to our left. Upon arriving we tried to check in our bags with the locker man, like everyone else was doing.

"No no", grunted the man, "upstairs".

Confused, Lisa and I started to walk away, as he continued to service other people. We found stairs, but they led to a water slide. On our way back to the locker man, I asked another foreigner (who was with a local) how we checked our stuff. He told us we needed to buy a ticket from a lady sitting across from the locker man. Dutifully we approached her, and asked for a ticket.

"Upstairs" she murmers.

Meanwhile, twenty other people are granted the use of the lockers directly behind us. Exasperated, I repeated, "ticket please" with a bit of an edge to my voice.

With a dramatic sigh and eye-rolling we were finally sold tickets. After checking our bags, we climbed the stairs to the waterslide closet to us.

As we were climbing, we stopped and checked out the landing called 'foreigner sunbathe area'. Sure enough, there were lockers.

Can you imagine a waterpark in Canada that had a seperate area for foreigners?

Anyway, Lisa and I had a fabulous afternoon being eleven years old again.

I have nothing more to say about the waterpark, except! that in the washroom (that we got to share with the locals) a lady was combing her hair using a comb that was bolted to the wall. That's right! Communal comb!

To round off our last day, the five of us had a 'last supper' at a fabulous vegetarian restaurant. Then we watched a water-puppet show.

Our tickets said we were in row 's'. I can only assume that the 's' stood for 'splash' row. We were in the very front row, and at a water puppet show that is a wet place to be!