31/12/2006 Phu Quoc / Ho Chi Mihn / Can Tho
Woke up this morning and went for an early ocean swim. Nothing like it at 6 in the morning. I was suprised by the amount of old euro women on the beach doing Tai Chi and a few doing Yoga.
Anyways, we found out that our boat had once again been canceled. After deciding that we cannot spend another day here we decided that heading to the airport and trying to catch a flight would be the best action. So off we went. Luckily we made it to the airport at about 08:10 and there were 5 seats open on the 08:30 to HCMC. $45 dollars and 15 minutes later I was sitting on a seat of a turbo prop taxiing for take off.
Back in HCMC, we took a taxi to the local bus terminal and managed to get four tickets on a limosine bus to Can Tho. 1 ticket runs about $4USD. I forget the name of the company, but it was definately the best. Their buses are air conditioned and no smoking. Anways, around 11:00 we were on the road. The buses weren’t made with tall people in mind. Luckily I was able to manage an aisle seat and could strecht my legs out.
About 4 hours later we were crossing the Mekong getting ready to find out hotel in Can Tho. Can Tho is one of the larger (if not the largest) city in the MeKong. We found a hotel in the old downtown area and booked our rooms. The hotel is above a restaurant called Restaurant 31, hence the hotel is named Hotel 31. The rooms were really large, yet really cheap. Again about $7 a person. There were 4 large aquariums in the lobby, 1 containing snakes, 1 containing fish, 1 containing frogs and the final containing crabs and turtles. It turns out these are the main cuisine of the restaurant, nothing like fresh meat!
After we settled in, we decided dinner was the mission at hand. But first we had a detour. While venturing through the urbanized riverfront, we came across a Thai massage parlour. Now, if you have never had a Thai massage, you’re missing out! Bad thing is, outside of SE Asia they are expensive. In Thailand you can get a 1 hour massage for maybe $5. Anyways, after a 4 hour cramped bus ride, an hour massage for $4 sounded good.
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