Saturday 14/2, Sunday 15/2 – Days 12 & 13
I forgot to mention a very cool thing; It was night-time when we were heading to the Homestay on the river that Friday night when the boat driver stopped the motor and said to look up in the trees and be very quiet. It was pitch black and after about a minute or so they stopped freaking out from the sound of the boat motor and resumed doing their thing… thousands upon thousands of fireflys. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen, and then it became unbelievable. As the bugs began to glow again, after about 5 mins, they synchronised. I’m talking hundreds of thousands of them in the trees both sides of the river and as far each way as we could see, were flashing in complete synchronicity like Christmas tree lights. On further reading since our return, I have discovered this is a phenomenon known as Biological Synchronicity. I prefer to call it Freaking Awesomicity. Either way, I thought it was a story worth sharing.
So back to the present time, Saturday morning and breakfast at the Homestay was 7am sharp. I kissed Shorty good morning and wished her a happy Valentine’s and told her I’m taking her to breakfast in Vietnam for Valentines day. “WOW!” she said, “That’s a LOT of effort!”. “Ahhh, it’s nothing” I said. We opened the door, walked outside and sat at the breakfast table. Breakfast was of course, Pho Bo and fresh fruit. Perfect. Now as you may have noticed, I’m all for a good chat, but the trip back to Saigon is basically Chapter 14 in reverse so I won’t repeat myself. If you really need all the details, you could possibly read that chapter backwards then continue to the next paragraph. The rest of us will wait for you, off you go.
Hey! Welcome back, OK so we’re back in Saigon and have organized to meet our new friends David and Brenda at the Go2 Bar. It is Saturday night and tomorrow we will be preparing for the orphanage visit and packing for the next leg of the trek; Nha Trang. So, Go2 Bar, pretty much a staple for any backpacker in the Q1 backpacker area. It has good reviews and bad reviews throughout the internet, but my personal opinion of it is fantastic. It changes a lot but currently consists of 4 floors: Go2 Bar, Go2 Eat, Go2 Bed and Go2 BBQ. Eventually you get used to ignoring touts, and also get used to having enough money to cover the little kid touts with eyes like a cross between a puppy with a thorn in its foot and Bambi re-incarnated as a baby seal that you are about to club because a pirate-gangster-rapist-lawyer-terrorist is forcing you at gunpoint. Once you master these skills, sitting outside on the corner at the Go2 Bar is a very relaxing place.
We never went to Go2 Eat, although I’m told it becomes a nightclub later in the night. Go2 Bed is not a guesthouse. It is for, so they told us, “getting away from the noise” when you are trying to have a conversation with one of the many Vietnamese girls sitting by themselves downstairs at the bar after 9pm who happen to like sitting alone at a tourist bar talking with fat, old, sleazy western men. Go2 BBQ is the coolest. Two for one drinks and propane BBQs in the centre of each table. The menu is unreal, prices not even a middle-aged tourist from Kensington would complain about and the staff are awesome. There’s not much to tell about the rest of the night, except maybe that when we left I had to hold Shorty’s arm, when we got to our hotel I had to hold her arm around my neck, and when we got to the staircase I had to carry her. I have to give it to the little trooper, David and Brenda are a ~50 year old Irish couple who are no strangers to drinking sessions, and Shorty kept up drink for drink. Bless.
Sunday was easy. We slept off a formidable hangover and decided that before we leave for Nha Trang, we need to send half our luggage home. Word of warning: If you plan on spending a month in South East Asia, don’t start in Bangkok. The Vietnamese postal system is extremely efficient, reasonably priced and safe. We sent off 8kg of stuff back to Australia and it arrived in perfect condition within a week. But seriously, talking about postage is somewhere in between playing scrabble at a Tool concert and reading National Geographic articles to a hot naked blonde. So here are some pics:
