7 hours

June 22, 2011

8:53 PM (Vietnam Time)

Today was a challenge for me. Scott and I wake up early to pack up, so that we can head out to Rach Gia, a small beach town south of the Mekong Delta. This is where we are going to do our stroke research project and where I will be shadowing at the hospital. We want to try to make the 10 am bus, but we have to go pick up my ao dai from the seamstress first. As always, we rush to get out of the hotel. I pick up my two dresses, and they are gorgeous. They fit me perfectly.

We then head to the bus station to catch the Mailinh Express to Rach Gia. It was about 10:30 am. We had already missed the bus we wanted, and now we had to get on the 11 am bus. The taxi driver was trying to get us to pay him 3 million dong ($150 US dollars) to drive us to Rach Gia. I had some trouble understanding and communicating with him and had thought he said 300,000 dong, which is only $15 US dollars. Luckily, I called my friend back in Saigon, and she said just take the bus. Scott and I basically got out of having to pay a bunch of money when the bust ticket is only $7.50 US dollars each. It was 10:50 am at this point, and we only had 10 minutes to buy tickets and get on the next bus. It was a bit stressful, since Scott and I had all of our bags, and we were trying to fight to get tickets while running to the bus. I have no idea how anyone can travel to Vietnam without knowing some Vietnamese. Most of the people I have run into, ,who are not in school, do not speak any English, and Vietnamese is an extremely difficult language to learn. However, the situations have forced me to speak Vietnamese and be the main communicator of Scott and me. We make it on the bus just in the nick of time; we are one of the last people to board.

Girl on bus

The bus drive is long and slow. The whole time they play ridiculous dubbed Chinese or Vietnamese movies with either people flying around and doing martial arts or with really bad graphics. I fall in and out of sleep and the little girl sitting in front of us keeps staring at us as if she is looking into Scott and my soul. Of course, Scott takes a picture of her. Even though she is staring us down, she is very cute. We make a 30 minute pit stop at some random bus station, where Scott eats his first bowl of pho in Vietnam. He says that it’s not that good (given, it was only a bus station/pit-stop).

Eating his first bowl of pho in Vietnam

Back on the bus, the scenes out of the window are visually stimulating. The landscape changes from flat fields to brown river to metal shacks interspersed with jungle. It is different from life in Saigon, where Scott and I have been for the past 2 days. There is much more poverty. People live in small metal shacks with dirt as the floor or sheets as their walls. Children are walking around bare foot and dirty. It is all thought-provoking and contrasts home. We get to a point where the bus drives onto a ferry with other buses, and we slowly crawl across a muddy brown river. Finally, we arrive in Rach Gia, almost 7 hours later. The moment we get out of the bus, 5 or 6 men in tattered blue shirts point to us, stare, and just surround us without leaving. I don’t know what they want, and they will not leave us alone. Scott says that I visibly look uncomfortable.

Baby on board

I call Dr. Man to tell him we have arrived, and he comes and picks us up, but he is on a motorbike. Now I find out what those men in tattered blue shirts want; they want to give us a ride and get paid. Dr. Man tells us to hop on, so Scott and I each hop on to two of the blue men’s bikes. Helmet on head, I experience my first ride on a motorbike. Scott’s face is completely lit up like a child’s on Halloween night. He has been wanting to do this since we got to Vietnam. The experience is bit liberating, and the bikes don’t even go that fast, so it’s not too scary. I have Scott’s camera around my neck, so I decide to snap a few pictures, and the blue men laugh (in a good way). We arrive at our hotel, Hotel Hoa Bien, and it’s cozy and clean and only $15/night.

First ride

Audrey on a motorbike

After settling in and saying goodnight to Dr. Man, Scott and I head to Hoa Bien Restaurant to feast after a long day of traveling. There is a beautiful restaurant that sits out on the water, and we order so much food—way more than we should have. We had fried squid, fish simmered in tamarind sauce, glass noodles stir-fried with seafood, goi (Vietnamese salad), and some water spinach. Everyone is staring at us because we have ordered so much food, and we keep taking pictures of everything. Scott knows a few words and phrases in Vietnamese, so he orders us two bottles of water. The waitress giggles at his efforts. Scott and I feast, and the bill comes out to $20 total, which is expensive for Vietnam. They also charged us for the napkins! Scott and I take a stroll around the block, and we notice how suburban everything is. The houses are clean and tall, children are biking around in the dark, and women are strolling around in pairs. Scott and I get back to the hotel, and I cannot wait to get in the shower. It’s only 9 pm, and I am absolutely pooped. It’s been a long day.

-Audrey

See the rest of our full-size photos here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbauer810/sets/72157627011360334/with/5855972348/

Hoa Bien Restaurant