Our plane left Phuket at 8:40 and by 11 o’clock we were in a new apartment in central Bangkok, where I quickly took a shower and reorganised my bags before boarding another cab to go back… to the airport I came from. This is when I “left” Umby, but in reality we kept in touch throughout the day via WhatsApp while still on the same timezone and weather. From tomorrow he will join you winter haters 🙂 Once at the airport, surprise surprise,I discovered with 90 minutes to go that I needed a return ticket to meet the Visa requirements (unlike most other European nationalities, we are Visa exempt in ‘Nam).Said and done,I booked the cheapest flight back in 4 days time (50 GBP) to make sure I could board. Once in ‘Nam I found out that nobody really cares if I don’t board that flight, so let’s consider it as the cost of my Visa in Vietnam, paid to AirAsia at departure. Of course Thailand had to hit my wallet one last time on my way out, I should have known better 🙂
Anyway: as soon as I landed I got myself a SIM and some cash (2 MILLION Dongs. Roughly 60 GBP), and headed to a hotel suggested by some random German girls at the airport. It was full, but the same same guesthouse next door was not, so I booked myself into it for 26 dollars for 2 nights. Good start. The rest was even better: nice people, prices slashed in half compared to Thailand and apart from the occasional “massage massage” (but only in the “Kao San Road of Saigon”), girls don’t act like… Thai. No Russians (?!), but quite a lot of Americans and Aussies. Usual cheap drinks, pubs, restaurant and all the Western stuff. The rest of the city, for what i could glimpse, is very busy with millions of moped moving around. A few taxis but mainly scooters, everywhere. I bought some t-shirts, a pair of flip flops, stuff from the supermarket, a meal (kebab, sausage, coke) and what not and only spent in total some 15 dollars. My room is very…spartan let’s say. The best feature is THE notice hung on the wall. Please read it and you will understand. My eye is slowly getting better, the pain is subsiding even though it is still a bit swollen. Let’s hope not to have to “cut eye” but I feel much better and this is the most important thing.
A mention of honour for my poor taxi driver: since the Australian girl in Phuket had warned me of taxi scams, I was very grumpy from the start, tracking my driver in real time with Google Maps and complaining that he was probably taking a longer route. Not that he spoke English but the best bit was that after having endured me for 30 minutes complaining, pointing at the meter (which by the time we arrived strangely showed 6 MILLION Dongs, say 180 GBP), being generally as untrusting as one can be… Asked me for the 200.000 Dong we agreed upon at the start (6 GBP). Yes… cause in all that, I had said meter a million times only to be told 200.00 and pronounce a grumpy “OK” – after having checked on google twice how much that was supposed to be. With hindsight, I could have just relaxed. Blame the Aussie 😉 Goodnight ‘Nam!
spinningaroundasia 
What a nice start with the taxi driver. At least, you sorted everything out in the end. Enjoy Vietnam! 🙂
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I will, thanks!
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