Day 88 - Ho Chi Minh City/Kuala Lumpur
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Thursday 4th November
Final day in Asia (I'm not counting tomorrow, as that's simply my flight from KL). I was awoken at 5am with a phone call from home - as I had spoken to my parents for a week (through a combination of them not being able to get a hold of me and vice versa), they had started to get worried and thought I must have already been in Vancouver (I guess ... which explains the time of the call).
I enjoyed a bit of a sleep in after that, packed my bags, and then headed down to the Post Office to post a parcel home. I was worried about how much money I had in my wallet, and the parcel ended up taking most of it - 611,000 dong (such a stupid amount!)
Months ago, I had read an article about a chocolate cafe in Ho Chi Minh, and had ripped the article out of the magazine, intending to find it once I arrived. I decided to treat myself to the cafe as a prize for my last day of travelling, however no taxi drivers knew where it was! (I think the world was trying to tell me something ....) I ended up at Gloria Jeans with a frappucino, which was nowhere near as nice as a Starbucks frappucino (there are no Starbucks in Vietnam, India, or Cambodia, so it had been a while since I'd had one).
Knowing I had only a little money left in my wallet, I walked for 40 minutes back to my hotel, past the Reunification Palace and to Bu Vien, the backpacker street, where I surfed the web for an hour. WIth another hour to kill, I had lunch at a fancy looking restaurant - fancy looking perhaps, but cheap indeed! A tasty toasted veggie baguette was my last meal in Vietnam, before I returned to the hotel for my bags and flagged down a taxi to the airport. (I had no trouble packing everything, I still had heaps of room left in my daybag!)
My flight to KL was uneventful, and a quick 2 hours. I cleared customs in Malaysia for about the sixth time this year (1 - work trip to KL; 2 - first entry to Borneo; 3 - entry from Singapore; 4 - flight to India; 5 - flight to Vietnam). I'm starting to wonder if they think I'm a drug mule, as my stays last generally less than 24 hours, and in some cases less than 2 hours!
I'd booked a night at the Tune Hotel (cheap AirAsia hotel), which was about a 15 minute walk from the arrivals hall. One thing that offsets the cost of the hotel room is floor sponsors - i.e., McDonalds might sponsor your floor, so whilst trying to fall asleep you stare at a picture of a Big Mac. This hotel was way better than that in KL city, even having free internet (albeit limited to an hour), and a few restaurants and a 7-11 within its courtyard. The vibe was fun - obviously, everyone was just in transit here.
I walked back to the airport to grab some dinner (kaya toast at OldTown Coffee - pathetic service and pathetic food!); use the free wireless; exchange my money (whilst at the airport in Vietnam, I'd exchanged my remaining dong for US dollars, as I'd been told that Vietnamese dong aren't excepted anywhere outside Vietnam); and buy some Aussie Cadbury chocolate. Returning to the hotel, I only read a chapter of my book before falling asleep ... I knew tomorrow would be a big day, and an early start at that!
Final day in Asia (I'm not counting tomorrow, as that's simply my flight from KL). I was awoken at 5am with a phone call from home - as I had spoken to my parents for a week (through a combination of them not being able to get a hold of me and vice versa), they had started to get worried and thought I must have already been in Vancouver (I guess ... which explains the time of the call).
I enjoyed a bit of a sleep in after that, packed my bags, and then headed down to the Post Office to post a parcel home. I was worried about how much money I had in my wallet, and the parcel ended up taking most of it - 611,000 dong (such a stupid amount!)
Months ago, I had read an article about a chocolate cafe in Ho Chi Minh, and had ripped the article out of the magazine, intending to find it once I arrived. I decided to treat myself to the cafe as a prize for my last day of travelling, however no taxi drivers knew where it was! (I think the world was trying to tell me something ....) I ended up at Gloria Jeans with a frappucino, which was nowhere near as nice as a Starbucks frappucino (there are no Starbucks in Vietnam, India, or Cambodia, so it had been a while since I'd had one).
Knowing I had only a little money left in my wallet, I walked for 40 minutes back to my hotel, past the Reunification Palace and to Bu Vien, the backpacker street, where I surfed the web for an hour. WIth another hour to kill, I had lunch at a fancy looking restaurant - fancy looking perhaps, but cheap indeed! A tasty toasted veggie baguette was my last meal in Vietnam, before I returned to the hotel for my bags and flagged down a taxi to the airport. (I had no trouble packing everything, I still had heaps of room left in my daybag!)
My flight to KL was uneventful, and a quick 2 hours. I cleared customs in Malaysia for about the sixth time this year (1 - work trip to KL; 2 - first entry to Borneo; 3 - entry from Singapore; 4 - flight to India; 5 - flight to Vietnam). I'm starting to wonder if they think I'm a drug mule, as my stays last generally less than 24 hours, and in some cases less than 2 hours!
I'd booked a night at the Tune Hotel (cheap AirAsia hotel), which was about a 15 minute walk from the arrivals hall. One thing that offsets the cost of the hotel room is floor sponsors - i.e., McDonalds might sponsor your floor, so whilst trying to fall asleep you stare at a picture of a Big Mac. This hotel was way better than that in KL city, even having free internet (albeit limited to an hour), and a few restaurants and a 7-11 within its courtyard. The vibe was fun - obviously, everyone was just in transit here.
I walked back to the airport to grab some dinner (kaya toast at OldTown Coffee - pathetic service and pathetic food!); use the free wireless; exchange my money (whilst at the airport in Vietnam, I'd exchanged my remaining dong for US dollars, as I'd been told that Vietnamese dong aren't excepted anywhere outside Vietnam); and buy some Aussie Cadbury chocolate. Returning to the hotel, I only read a chapter of my book before falling asleep ... I knew tomorrow would be a big day, and an early start at that!
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