Chau Doc and goodbye Vietnam

Well we decided to take off one day earlier than expected to Chau Doc on the border of Cambodia.  We took a local bus, which was a big chaotic.  The bus station was absolute madness, with people trying to sell us tickets the minute we stepped out of the taxi...we almost forgot to pay him it was so crazy!  The bus was actually a minibus that should have sat about 12 people but, as per SE Asia style they jammed about double that in, with people sitting on tiny plastic chairs beside the regular seats.  We were fortunate to have secured more comfortable ones at the station.  People also came on with all manner of cargo, some pretty stinky, and because the driver was a bit of a maniac, my backpack arrived in Chau Doc reaking of raw fish...lovely.  Dan said it was "part of the experience."  I took it into the shower and gave it a good scrub down though so it's nice a clean now!  I guess that's what you get for a 3 hour bus ride that only costs 3 dollars!

Things started out a little rough for us upon our arrival in Chau Doc as well!  We got off the bus as were met by the usual swarm of moto drivers trying to take us to a hotel, but we decided to sit down and have a coffee and wait until they dispersed before making our way to the hotel we had scoped out from our travel book.  It wasn't long before this random guy came up to us trying to sell us a room in his hotel.  We were not really that interested and just wanted to enjoy our coffee, but we thanked him and took his buisness card just to be polite.  About 10 minutes later he came back and started offering us a boat trip to Cambodia, which of course we intended to purchase eventually, but not 10 minutes after getting off the bus!  We politely declined, but he just stood there and asked us what was wrong.  We smiled and thanked him for his help and told him we already had a hotel.  And then he started to get really angry with us!  He told us we were abnormal, that Vietnamese people were friendly and nice and that we clearly were not, and that he didn't know which country we were from, but we should just go back there!  And it got worse!  He then concluded that we must be part of the mafia, and could we please accompany him to the police station!  Eventually he took off, but he kept coming back on his motorbike and stalking us and yelling at us!  We paid for our coffee and were very relieved to find some moto drivers to take us to our hotel of choice, which I am please to say is lovely :>)  The people are so nice and helpful but not pushy about tours and stuff at all.  But I have to admit I was a little shaken up by that little fiasco.  Especially since I feel we try very hard to be nice and polite to people, smiling and politely saying "no thank you" in Vietnamese.

We drove out to the countryside that afternoon where there were some temples build on a mountain, and climbed to the top for lovely views of the never-ending rice fields and into Cambodia (although we were not sure exactly where it started.)  We found a wonderful local restaurant on a busy street for dinner where we had soup and a hot pot.  Today we went to Two Million Dollar Hill, named so because they Americans spent so much money bombing it during the war.  It's very rocky and there are caves inside where Viet Cong members hit out, making it a target for the Americans.  The caves are quite extensive!  We went through part of them, accompanied first by 3 kids, but by the end there were about 8 of them tagging along...we had no idea where they all came from!  We were also the only foriegners there, and everybody wanted to say hello to us!  We stopped by the side of the road for noodle soup for lunch and I tried out my Vietnamese again, asking for vegetarian noodle soup.  I even pointed to the vegetables and the noodles just to be sure.  They seemed happy and smiled and nodded and motioned for us to sit down, and then my soup arrived...vegetables and several pieces of "name that mystery meat."  I think it was liver and lung.  Ah well, at least they could be removed easily :>) 

So tomorrow we really are off to Cambodia.  We have opted for the slow boat, because it's only $10 each instead of $25, but it does mean that it's an all day ordeal.  But if everything goes smoothly we should be in Phnom Penh by about 5pm tomorrow!

I also forgot to mention a couple of posts back that we have seen this coffee for sale here called Weasel coffee.  I had never heard of this, but apparently the Asian Civet actually eats the coffee berries and the beans are pooped out, washed (thoroughly, I would hope) and used to make coffee!  The digestive tract of the civet actually breaks down some of the proteins in the bean and makes the coffee less bitter!  It is apparently the most expensive coffee in the world!  I am reluctant to try it however, because I hate the idea that some of the coffee comes from farms where I do not think the civets are treated well.  But the history as to how this kind of coffee came to be drunk is rather interesting, and if anyone wants to read it the Wikipedia link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak.  Oh also this computer is uploading pictures well so I have added some to a few of the older posts.

Bye for now!

Hanna and Dan xoxo

View from the temple on the mountain just outside of Chau Doc

 Cute local kids

 Beautiful countryside

 Cows walking down the main street

 Two Million Dollar Hill