After a few phone calls my world is much better. Grandma is chasing the nurses around to do her bidding (they already did her bedding ;-) and after seeing NUMEROUS different doctors for 2 months, my Kookum finds out that she doesn't have liver cancer after all. It takes SO LONG to find ONE GOOD doctor !
6:00
I check my credit card statement and there is a $2000 pending charge from Air Transat. WTF? Some Canadian asshole is trying to use my credit card to book themselves an overpriced 1-week getaway to Cuba or Mexico? Well, FUCK YOU! I'm going to report this to the credit card and make sure they GET YOU, FUCKER ! Why is it that in small-town Vietnam NO-ONE is trying to rip off even a wealthy tourist, but that in North America some asshole tries to illegally use my credit card about every 5 months? I'm SO SICK OF IT !6:15
What is that I smell when stepping out onto my balcony? Freshly Fried Fish ?
YUMMY !
7:00
I step outside. Right into pandemonium.
Women sitting in front of their baskets filled with fish and mussels along the river bank. On the other side of the street women sitting in stands with huge piles of 5 different kinds of eggs. Ranging from quail, chicken, duck, goose to something that looks like dinosaur egg. And it's all FRESH FRESH FRESH !
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| My breakfast is on that bicycle on the right ;-) |
10 feet away, I am greeted by an old Viet man with Bon Jour Monsieur. I guess the French were still here 70 years ago ;-)
One of those deep fried meat thingy. And a glazed crunchy sugary thing. Ngon! The total for that filling and very enjoyable breakfast is $0.44.
Grandma said this morning on the phone "...you might not come back". I assured her that I definitely would do so but deep inside have to hide my disappointment to have to leave Vietnam again.
7:35 am
The heat dropping onto me when I step onto my balcony is INTENSE. Beach weather is here, LOL.
Time for another nap ....
9:30
I pick up my ferry ticket at the reception. And YES, it is stated on my ticket: I will ride the Superdong 9 today.
I decide to WALK the 1.6 km to the ferry terminal in the outrageous heat instead of taking a taxi. This will give me a chance to see the town, the river, and the ocean from the bridge.
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| Pedestrian walk? NOPE. Imagine walking over a major bridge without one in North America ! No problem here though ... |
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| They just swerve around you, as they do everywhere ... |
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| Ha Tien |
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| .... out there .... is an island |
But I make it. 5 more minutes and I see my ride arrive.
Yup. That's what it's called .....
15 minutes later, the passengers are admitted into the FREEZING passenger room.
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| heavy, I guess .... |
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| first OVER, now UNDER |
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| there goes my hotel (the dark orange one) |
In Vancouver it probably would be suicidal to spend any time on the outside decks of a Fast Ferry at this time of year, but here the combination of temperature and wind is just perfect (MUCH preferable to the FREEZER conditions inside the passenger compartment).
But it definitely IS windy !
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| a small island in the middle of nowhere |
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| Phu Quoc at the horizon |
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| getting closer .... |
The ferry person is corralling the crowd of hopeful taxi drivers first to one side of the exit plank and then to the other. He uses his hands to SHOVE them back.
There will be too many taxis for the guests coming off the boat. Half of the guys here will have waited and let themselves be shoved for nothing.
I watch the shoving from the boat and I see him. He's the youngest. He has the biggest grin of them all and every time the bulk of taxi drivers gets shoved somewhere else, he grins and VOLUNTARILY goes into the second row. The kid knows how to show respect to his more experienced colleagues. But acting like that, he will NEVER get a fare !
I am the last to leave the ferry and more than half of the taxi drivers are still there. The older and more bullying drivers instantly approach me with their taxi taxi? calls. This means that the kid is no longer hidden in the second row. I point at him and say "Taxi?". His facial expression couldn't have been more confused if I had told him that today is TET, Easter, CHRISTMAS, and his birthday all together. As soon as he realized that I'm NOT kidding, he puts BOTH hands across one of my upper arm and starts pulling me towards where I assume his taxi is. His taxi is the VERY LAST in the row, furthest from land and furthest from the ferry. LOL. I picked the right driver ;-)
The taxi driver has NO idea where my hotel is.
I have NO idea where my hotel is.
So we just drive towards the location indicated on Google Maps on my and his cell phones. Then the map says that we passed it. But there was NOTHING there! His driving skills are horrendous as I notice when he tries a U-turn and gets stuck at right angle to the road between a bicycle and a lorry.
STOP! The location marker matches the hotel marker ! Still NOTHING here. Thankfully I manage to convince him that it would NOT be a good idea to drive down the road-resembling gully leading to the ocean.
I start walking, hoping that there are no cobras sleeping in the dense low brush surrounding the narrowing path.
I reach the water without bite marks on my toes.
Still NOTHING !
But people in a nearby occupied restaurant nod in the direction I was walking already when I asked them where my hotel was.
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| There it is ! |
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