Rach Gia, Vietnam

I was busted by one of our readers by trying to slack off and have you all read Ian and Tiara's blog. Thanks Carol. :) It is nice to know someone is reading. The only way we know you are reading is if you comment on the blog or drop us an email. Keep those cards and letters coming.

Anyway, we left Can Tho and are now in Rach Gia which ranks among the real s@#%holes of the world. We arrived late afternoon with no idea where we were in the town as the guidebook provided no map despite the fact that many independent travelers, such as ourselves, end up here in transit to the island of Phu Quoc. Arrival at bus stations in Vietnam is always chaotic. There are always about 20 moto drivers vying for the priviledge of ripping you off by coercing you to jump on back of their motorcycle at exorbitant rates to haul you off to whichever hotel will give them a kickback. Needless to say, neither Deb nor I are eager to get on a motorcycle much less with our baggage. However, in this town, feeling the need to get to a tourist agency and get a map so I would at least know, 1. Where we were; 2. How to get to the ferry to Phu Quoc in the morning and 3. Where I would be likely to find a hotel since we had not pre booked anything for this town.

After haggling the price for a moto ride down from 50,000 to 15,000 Vietnamese dong, (a little less than a dollar) I got to the tourist agency to find it closed. Additionally, I was right in the center of town at rush hour with 200,000 motos zooming around and frantically beeping their horns. On top of this, still I had no idea where in the town I was, there were no sidewalks so I was wandering aimlessly around while being swarmed by the aforementioned 200,000 motos. It was not one of my finer moments traveling.

I finally found another moto to take me back to where I left Deborah. After much hand wringing, gnashing of teeth, and buckets of sweat ( did I mention it was 90 degrees at 90% humidity?) we decided to catch a cab to the area that we knew the ferry would leave from in the morning. We would look for a room there. Fortunately we got an honest cab driver and 75 cents later we were dropped in front of an acceptable hotel where we decided to bed down for the night. I asked the proprietor if there were restaurants in the area to be told that the only restaurants were in the "center" from whence we had just come.

We walked back to the center which was only about a ten minute walk along the "charming" waterfront which was an extremely dirty side channel of the Mekong. We were assaulted by an endless and mindless litany of small children screeching, "Hello, hello, hello" . We escaped them to not find any restaurant we would consider eating in, again surrounded by 200,000 careening and beeping motos. We finally gave up the idea of a restaurant and decided we would find a store and at least get some potato chips or something else to sustain ourselves. We walked all the way back to the hotel without finding a store. But right across the street from the hotel we found a little pho restaurant. For the uninitiated, pho is the national dish of Vietnam. It is a beef broth with noodles and other "stuff". Usually it is reliably good but this night, in concert with everything else, it was bad but edible enough to get us through the night and hopefully on to a better day tomorrow.

As you may have ascertained, dear reader, it isn't all fun and games out here. I would post some pictures of this place but we could not even find a good photo. :)