Vietnam Cold Turkey

Another update, just to remind us what country we are in. Vietnam this week, it has been hilarious already. Love the food, the people, the madness. We both highly recommend it as a travel destination.

We had to go back to Phnom Penh in order to get to Vietnam. That was a relatively uneventful trip. We met another Australian couple who we thought might be good fun. . .this however went horribly wrong. They were the most annoying people I think I have ever met. They were both very young and you could not hold a conversation with them - could not get a word in, bless them. Adam and I showed immense amounts of patience (yes, I was patient - true story). Classic comment from Matt (I still remember their names which annoys me even more):

Annoying dude: "I wonder what Egypt is like?"
Me: "I lived there for six months last year - really interesting trip."
Annoying dude: "Really? I met a girl from Darwin last week who went to Egypt, she said it was blah. . .blah. . . .blah . . "

Then he proceeded to tell me all about Egypt and what is was like. I didn't say a word. All our conversations were exactly like that one. Anyway, enough of them, you take the good with the bad I guess. Adam faked an illness so he could leave dinner early, then I faked caring about him and left early as well. I love it when a plan comes together!!! (Actually, Adam really didn't feel well . . .)

We decided to catch a boat down the Mekong River to get to Vietnam. The border crossing was relatively easy and uneventful and the boat trip was fantastic. We ended up in a town called Chau Doc. It was a charming place and very scenic. We went to the markets and had dinner - people were staring at us like we were aliens but they were all so keen to look after us. We decided to join a tour group for two days to travel to Saigon. It was such good value - we couldn't have done it on our own any cheaper. It was good but incredibly annoying being told to get on and off buses etc etc. Anyway, the next overnight stop was Cantho - it has fantastic floating markets and is the capitol of the Mekong Delta area.

We arrived quite early and had the rest of the day to hang out and enjoy the town. Adam and I and an Irish girl we met along the way thought we would head into the markets for some food and to have a look around. We ended up stumbling upon a huge party (Chinese New Year), everyone was wasted and there was live music (bad live music) and crates of beer everywhere. Next thing we know, we have been invited and the locals are plying us with beer - it would have been rude to refuse. Everyone loved us, don't know why, but we were hits.

One of the male singers came up to Adam and said
"You are a very handsome man."
Adam said
"Um . . . thanks. . . .so are you . . . "

Hilarious and he wasn't even wearing his man bag (Adam bought a man bag, it is very pretty).
(It is not pretty, it is cool and very macho)

Needless to say there was much disappointment all round when they worked out we were married. So twenty beers later we were still there and we were invited by our host (we think his name was Phil - not very Vietnamese but that is what we called him) introduced Adam and Meaghan because it was our turn to have a sing. By this stage, a massive crowd had gathered and we were both a bit plastered. We sang a very heartfelt, stirring rendition of Waltzing Matilda to at least 200 people. They loved it. . . . .we are now artists with international acclaim. . . .bloody hell it was difficult extracting ourselves from the party. Got heaps of hilarious photos especially of Adam's boyfriend who was wearing an awesome outfit. Turns out he was actually a well known TV dude. Explains his outfit and the make up he had on I guess.

Anyway, we are now safe and sober in Ho Chi Minh City. What a great place - it is mad with Tet celebrations and we are stuck here until the 19th but that is ok. Cheap beer and food and we get a second New Year, awesome. Chuc Mung Na Moi (which is Happy New Year in Vietnamese).

We say it all the time, just rolls off the tongue and is a great way to distract dudes trying to sell us stuff. Not much else to report, Chuc Mung Na Moi celebrations hit fever pitch tonight with fireworks and complete madness everywhere. We are planning to drink beer and do fake countdowns in Vietnamese. Have met a few people that we will hook up with tonight. We are still traveling with our Irish friend - Catriona - who is lovely.