Return of Cousin

Saturday, January 21, 2012
Posted by TwoLively

We needed to get from Sai Gon to My Tho. We contemplated going by water taxi, mini van, etc.--but we had too much luggage to take. The Travel Agent talked to Cousin, who said he would take us. He had another tour group to pick up, but he could take us as well. We paid him directly (instead of the bus company), so we realized Cousin was doing a lil' side business...except Cousin didn't factor in our luggage, and there wasn't enough space on Emergency Exit. After a long, animated discussion between Cousin and someone from the bus company, we were told our luggage would be sent separately. NO WAY! We refused to part with our luggage, so we were moved to a second, larger bus. The bus driver made several stops, packing more and more backpacking granola crunchers onto the bus. Oz sat at the front of the bus, guarding our valuables, while the cool kids sat in the back! Tootsie tried to nap (aka: she shut her eyes, mentally removing herself from the situation)...MarcoPolo zoned...and Glinda and I (TwoLively) gabbed the whole way! We realized how sad it was that we had to travel halfway across the world to really talk and get to know each other better. Sigh.

We were told there would be a mandatory 1/2 hour rest stop break, where we could buy tourist souveniers--handicrafts by handicaps (it actually said something to that effect on the sign...so we're not that bad. Ok, yeah, we are.) Tootsie was feeling a bit Oppositionally Defiant, and when they announced everyone needed to get off the bus, she refused to move. Cousin, to his credit, came onto our bus, and turned on the A/C for us. He kept saying it was ok, because he was a friend of the driver. He also removed the sticker that MarcoPolo had sneakily placed on Monte's back (he literally had our back.) So, Cousin tried to get back in our good graces...but we still aren't going to invite him to the Family Reunion this year.

All-in-all, the 1 1/2 hour drive took over 3 hours! We paid 1/4 of the price--but we all agreed we should've paid more and gone direct. Sometimes you get what you pay for!

1/3 of the luggage...Emergency Exit 2...packin' the bus...the gang...
Tootsie watches our bus almost get creamed by another bus...scooters

We made it to My Tho, and checked back into our first hotel. Except for Glinda and Oz, the rest of us got our original rooms back (and the leaking / non-working bathroom shower issues were resolved in our absence. Hooray!) On the street in front of our hotel, along the riverwalk, flower vendors set up rows and rows of flowers being sold for New Years. And, almost every shop had flowers placed on either side of the front door.


We decided to head back for another boat tour. It took a few minutes to convey to the boat tour company that we wanted to do a different tour--but once we were understood, they put together a personalized tour for us. Since it was a holiday weekend, the boat tours were packed; however, our custom tour deviated away from the tourist hotspots (the islands we had previously visited.)

Boat ~ Tootsie gets her Karaoke on
MarcoPolo shoots a palm-tree arrow ~ banana-leaf bracelet ~ sticky goatees
sausages drying in sun ~ house ~ ginormous pig at farm
mud skipper ~ coconut toast

We boarded a boat and headed from the mainland to the island. Our tour guide asked if we wanted to hear a song on the way, so we politely said yes. He grabbed a microphone and started singing, "Nothing can change my love for you...you ought to know now how much I love you...one thing you can be sure of...I've never asked for more than your love..." He was so genuine and passionate in his song--but hello--awkward, super-cheesy moment! It was hard not to laugh! He passed the microphone to us, and insisted everybody loves to sing. Tootsie pretended to take one for the team (but we know she's a ham and loves to karaoke!) On the island, our guide took us on a nature walk. We walked single-file along a simple 2 1/2 foot wide path. Our guide stopped to rip off sections of palm leaves, which he taught us to shoot like an arrow. Then, he ripped a banana leaf into a strip and made a bracelet. He ripped the tip off a sticky plant, and gave the girls goatees. As we passed another plant, he stopped and picked a few leaves, which were velcro-like on the underside. He arranged the leaves into a smiley face on Monte's t-shirt. He rolled a section of banana leaf into a tube, and when he blowed into it, it sounded like a newborn baby's cry. We continued walking and stopping whenever something caught our eye: mudskippers along the bank, pig pens in someone's yard (the ginormous pig had human-like green eyes!), etc. When we returned to the boat, our guide gave us fresh coconuts to drink.

Velcro leaves ~ floating hotel
bees ~ coconut tree vases ~ crossing a suspension bridge
crossing a bamboo bridge ~ feeding crocodiles
grubs for lunch

We stopped for lunch on one of the islands, and noticed grubs on the menu. No matter how hard we tried to convince Oz to order them, he didn't want to try them! After lunch, we headed over to the choc-o-dile (as our guide pronounced it) farm. We fed them chunks of meat, which was speared onto fishing lines. Once again, the fence was extremely low, and we realized that with one false move, WE would be the crocodiles lunch!

On the way home, we stopped at Co-Op to buy groceries. Since it was the night before a holiday, the store seemed especially crazy. We tried to find the ingredients for making salsa, but the ingredients weren't available. The only canned tomatoes we could find were tomatoes canned with fish. We opted for making Pico de Gallo. In the produce department, we discovered that you had to stop and have your produce weighed, bagged, and tagged. We couldn't find tortilla chips...so we improvised with Pringles (trust us: NOT even similar!) It made us realize and appreciate the variety we have when shopping in the United States. As we were walking around, people gawked and stared at us. We heard a familiar voice call out to us, and it was The Travel Agent's Brother, who was shopping with his Mother. It was nice seeing familiar faces in the crowd! After we left the store, Brother accompanied us outside and hailed a taxi for us, which we appreciated very much.

Hailing a Cab: Marco, Monte, Tootsie, Brother, Oz

For dinner, we made the tragic mistake of returning to the restaurant directly across the street from our hotel. Since our hotel only serves breakfast or drinks, this was the only option available. Plus, in our bus travel, we had forgotten how truly rotten this restaurant was! We were the only customers (bad restaurant sign #1), and the staff scowled at us as we came in. AFTER we ordered we suddenly remembered, "Hey...wasn't this the awful place from before? Why are we eating here?" We noticed a salt/pepper blend on the table, which Tootsie jokingly said it had ground up seafood in it...and wouldn't you know it, we noticed a whole, microscopic dried fish in the blend. Once again, we found someone else's dried food on the spoon. To top it off, Tootsie ordered "fried rice with PORK" which came out as "plain rice with SEAFOOD" (the menu was written in Vietnamese with English subtitles, so we're assuming that line got lost in translation.) The rest of the food was not noteworthy, either. Honestly, going hungry would've been preferable.

We tried to counter-balance the nasty dinner with something good: kem (ice-cream.) Our hotel had a little cafe, that was open, but dark. We walked in and sat down, and ordered. They turned the lights on, and we realized we were in the Fun House of Kem. The walls had striped wallpaper: pink or blue. There were many strange named items to choose from: "Valantines" Night, Keep Forever Dream, Love Boat, and Clown Faithful (pictured below.) We sat, fishbowling, inside the kem cafe, as people on the street walked by and blatantly gawked at us. One teenage girl walked directly into a New Years tree because she was staring so much! Tootsie couldn't stand the pressure of it all, and wigged out! (See the next post...)

Fish in salt bowl...Clown Faithful kem...Tootsie wigs out