After yesterday's post about how tired I was we proceeded to walk the waterfront of the Perfume River. We really had no choice. The power in the entire city went out and the temperature in the room slowly crept up. Sadly it was not the first time we lost power in Hue (the first day there we lost if for a few minutes and today when we left it went out in the morning) and I don't think it is terribly uncommon. Almost every hotel and store had a backup generator to give some lighting but nothing fancy. So with the city growing dark we walked the banks of the river looking for a place to eat. We eventually settled into the DMZ Cafe. Sporting a more western feel and at least having a few fans running it was as good a place as any. We took seats on second floor deck overlooking the street and ordered a few beers and food. When I looked to my right I noticed a couple from the Intrepid group on our train the day before. We talked to them a bit, found out how the Intrepid tour was going before shifting over to the pool table.
My lack of pool skills was in full effect and our games took forever. It did not help that with the AC out my hands were sticky as hell and having no chalk made shots much more difficult. Eventually we got challenged for the table by an older guy and a younger girl. I assumed father and daughter and asked if their accents were Australian or British. He said he was Australian, she was not his daughter, was not his lover but was the daughter of a guy he met on the bus. Chris (that was his name) was taking Jolene (the Dutch girl) out on the town because her father had come down with a bad case of travelers sickness. Kind of an odd situation but they were nice people. After losing to them rather quickly our fan base of 3 Irish girls challenged them to a game. We sat around and watched talking to the Australian guy and Jolene. Chris said he got the feeling the girls wanted to play against us but we were not terribly interested. That and they were looking to really party, evident by their table top singing downstairs after the game. Eventually Chris said he had to take Jolene, who was a bit tipsy at this point, back before her father killed him. She didn't seem to want to go. Maybe it was her being drunk or just having someone closer to her age to talk to. By closer I mean within 20 years because as I found out she was only 16 but looked 25. Even though I have been on white chic withdrawal (where every white girl I see looks attractive to me at first) I was not quite ready to become a pedophile, so I told her she should go home so she could catch her flight the at 8 am. We left pretty soon after they did and crashed back at the room. Thankfully the electricity had come on at some point so we got to sleep in a cold room.
The next morning after getting up at 9 the electricity went out again. Even though we liked Hue a lot the hotel was pretty shitty. Besides the electricity going out multiple times and the sound of non stop honking coming from the street, the guy at the counter seemed to be giving us the hard sell on tours which we were not interested in. This morning when I wondered downstairs to check what was up with the power the guy said "you leave at 10:30 for airport", more of a command than a question. I told him no we had said 11:30 since our flight was not until 1:40pm. He gave me the "Ok" that doesnt instill positive feelings. After grabbing lunch/breakfast at a restaurant around the corner we went to the room to pack up. Even though the car wasnt coming until 11:30 and check out was not until 12 the lady at reception said we had to be in the lobby at 11. Again we got the feeling we were being rushed out the door. The taxi showed up early, of course, and got us to the airport with over 2 hours to spare. The airport was nothing special having been a military airstrip built by the US army during the way. 1 hour flight to Saigon and we were into the finally stages of our Asia tour, arriving to the instrumental version of Rain Drops Keep Falling On My Head on the airplane speakers. An omen of days to come I am sure.
Saigon was not the modern Mecca we had been hoping for. If anything it felt a bit like Hue but with more people. Our hotel seems to be fairly close to most of the sites though which is a good thing since we like to walk places instead of wasting money on taxis. One thing we have noticed is that every one of the cities in Vietnam has a tourist ghetto area, with cheap hotels, tourist offices, internet cafes and restaurants selling some strange interpretation of Western food. Not quite as bad as Khao San in Bangkok but you do see plenty of tourist walking around and English menus are not difficult to come by. I guess that is a good thing since I am a little Asianed out. And that may just be travel in this area of the world now since it's main revenue stream seems to be tourism. I guess for authentic experiences I can go live with a family in the country (which tour companies do offer).
