My travelling adventures...

This was Stella's comment when we saw this poor drenched nun getting out of a canoe ride that we missed out on being on - thanks to a number of boat and bus changes throughout the day... (was pretty funny but guess you had to be there). 
We started off at 7.30am lugging our baggage across the main square to a separate bus to the rest of the people that had been waiting... - only to swap over to the original bus about 2hrs later....  We went thru some local floating markets and round some villages and then we went on a canoe ride up to this island where we had lunch... After lunch we were told to join a different group and cycle across part of the island to join another boat (where it was promised our luggage would be)...  As we were waiting for the boat we could see a sheet of rain heading straight for us along the river... our group all managed to be tucked inside the boat before it hit... unfortunately the other group that was joining us didn't make it back from their canoe ride in time and got absolutely sodden... Ad also unfortunately my day pack didn't make it on the boat either (luckily it joined me at the fancy hotel where only Stella and I from the group are staying - but it is very lovely :) )
We then had to catch a bus to Can Tho (where we are staying tonight)... and as there was a major traffic jam (apparently takes over 2hrs to get on the ferry across the river) the guide told us we should walk the 10mins to the ferry (in the rain of course) - so we all bought plastic ponchos and did the walk... we ended up in this metal cage with all these scooters waiting for the enxt ferry (40mins apart) we were lucky as one was just pulling in - but we had to fight for space as obvsiouly no one wanted to be waiting for the next one - so our group of about 16 had to fight our way across the cage in bewteen scooters scootering along to get out and onto the ferry - rather scary excercise! wish i was coordiinated enough to have the video camera running for that one but i know that an accident would have been inevitable...
I can't remember the names of the actual villages we visited - but i do know we are in Can Tho tonight - and it is quite nice here - fairly pretty... went for a walk by the river after dinner (stopped by some mini markets along the way:) - nothing like a good bargain before bedtime! :) )
Today was a bit disorganised, with one of the guides being particualry disppaointing in just trying to make more money from us all (offering other 'upgrades' etc etc) and the delta was a bit... dirty in some places... but it was still a good day in the end and I do think we have gotten to the nicer part of the delta now... and the locals have generally been very friendly, smiley and helpful... off to see some more of the delta tomorrow... :)
Happy NY!

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well... stella and I managed to get across the road using frogger maneuveurs last nite (my heart was pounding - i was sure that minivan was going straight for us! - let alone all the scooters!)... there is a huge park across the road that had all these stalls so we finally decided on a clean looking one and had some pork rib thing...  listened to some vietnamese screeching (think they were singing) and ventured back to the hotel...  Today - we were meant to get picked up at 8.30 for Cu Chi tunnels... well we got picked up with 2 other girls at our hotel and delivered to this bus which had a couple too many people... and anyway about an hour later we got pushed off the bus - cos it was apparently the wrong one!! (going up to Nha Trang half way up the coast) so a taxi driver took us back into town... The hotel was really apologetic and gave us some flowers each which was nice...  The rest of the day we wandered around - went to the war remnants museum which was pretty interesting and had some gruesome photos of what happened...
Tonight we went for a meal across the road and the very top of this lop-sided restaurant... and it poured I mean POURED with rain - the roads got flooded people were crossing the road up to their knees in water... 2 hours later we thought we would venture back while there was a break in the weather - only half way up my shins... and ohh its is lovely shuffling along in flip flops through dirty water with bit of noodles etc floating past...  all part of the fun tho ;)
Well we have booked thru a different company for tomorrow's adventure to the Mekong Delta... the hotel where we are staying (superior class) looks pretty fancy so it should be good... not sure whether the village we are staying at will do many NY celebrations but am sure Stella and I will have fun.
Anyway nearly bed time...

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Howdy! Well I have started my 3week Vietnam/Cambodia adventure - yay!!! 

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