Feb 13

My last full day in HCM, I just decide to take it easy. Blair left early in the morning for a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels but since I already saw some of the tunnels around the DMZ, I decide to skip the tunnel tour here. I sleep in, get breakfast and then spend hours online updating my blog and on Project Noah. Blair gets back in the afternoon and I’m shocked to hear he got a bit sick on the tour. He’s feeling a bit better now but just wants to rest so I go out for lunch alone. For him, it’s good timing to get sick. He goes back to Canada tomorrow and it’s not ruining any of his trip.

Linh, Blair and I go later. Linh takes us to a supermarket where I buy some of the Vietnamese coffee percolator type cups and Blair buys coffee. I already have a few of these cool coffee cups but buy 2 larger ones for home. They are fairly unique to Vietnam and most of the coffee brewed here uses them. They aren’t the fastest but produce a great blend.  Blair isn’t quite up for dinner, so Linh and I go out to eat. I have a delicious meal of grilled pork and rice noodles. It was great to see Linh again and to have a friend in HCM. I would have liked to stay longer and hangout with Linh more but my Vietnam visa expires tomorrow. Plus, after what happened to me on my last night, I was more than ready to get out of HCM.  Read on.

My last night in HCM at about 3am there is a bunch of noise and commotion outside my door. Someone even knocks on my door. I think they have the wrong door and I don’t bother to answer. Well, 10 minutes later there is knocking again. Now I’m pissed off and angry. Who knocks on a strangers door at 3am? I answer the door and see no one. Just across the small hall, is a guy with his door nearly closed and is peeking out at me. I ask him why is he knocking on my door. He comes out of his room and asks if I am alone and then tries to force his way into my room! I immediately and strongly push him back and close the door. In the process though, my left hand gets caught in the door and I scrap and bruise it. The guy was obviously gay but I’m not sure what he wanted. Was he trying to rob me? Trying to get me into bed? I don’t know. Who does such a thing? Either way, it ruined my night as it was hard to get back to sleep with my hand throbbing. It was a terrible last night and I couldn’t wait to leave HCM.

Feb 14.

Blair and I have breakfast at 7am and I leave for the airport at 7.30 for my 9.45 flight to Bangkok. It worked out perfectly for Blair and I, as the day my Vietnam visa expired was the same day he was flying back to Canada, just a few hours after my flight. It was great traveling with Blair and having a friend from home who could handle and enjoy everything that I suggested. How about a 15km walk in the jungle Blair? No problem! Also Blair was kind enough to take all my souvenirs and everything else I didn’t need for the rest of my trip. This lightened my load by probably 5kg (10lbs) and saved me some worrying about my things. This helped huge and gave me a ton of room in my pack and made it feel so much lighter again. I was used to it being really heavy and now it seemed so light, even thoug it was still 18kg (40lbs), according to the airlines scale, it seemed easier to handle. My flight left a little late but only took and hour and a half to reach Bangkok.

Now I’ve spent 75 days in total in Vietnam and really felt I’ve visited and seen most things I wanted to. Yet I would come back to explore more of Cat Tien national park. It’s one of my favorite parks in SE Asia. It still has many secrets to unlock. Also I would come back to visit Linh and spend another night in Crazy House.  So many things to do and see, so little time!