Today we head back to Ho Chi Minh City for 2 days before heading to Tokyo and home. Our flight isn't until evening though so we had some time to kill.
How did we spend it one might ask? We rented a taxi to drive us around for a few sights. The concierge desk tried to get us to rent a private car/driver for the day for almost twice as much (I'm starting not to trust concierges). Nevertheless, we went to these this beautiful temple (can you tell I don't have my guidebook on me) which looked like Angor Wat (which we're both sad we didn't have time to visit and were tempted to tell everyone that what was the picture was). The taxi driver said while we were there that he knew of this other temple about 20km away which was bigger and nice. Hmm... So first, as planned, we went to Hon Choung bay which Thao has loved since she was younger and we walked and hiked over giant boulders. There is one huge boulder which has this strange hand-like indentation which is said to be the hand print of a giant. The bay was a beautiful sight. The only downside is that it's REALLY hot today (hotter than I think it's been on this trip which is saying a lot).
Afterwards, we went to this temple which the taxi driver said was big and nice. (He also promised us that the ride would be about 1/2-2/3 of what the price actually was). The temple was OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! It is apparently a very busy temple during a particular festival in March but we were nearly the only ones there (and most certainly the ONLY tourists there). It was at the top of a giant hill (a hill with 175 stairs to be exact - Thao counted). The views of the valley were nice but the temple was the least exciting we've seen on the entire trip. The taxi driver's "village of weavers" that we stopped by on the way back to the hotel consisted of 2 houses in the slums. Still it was half the price of the private car though...
Now we're back at our hotel (which we checked out of earlier in the day) awaiting the taxi to take us to the airport (which for those who know what I'm talking about reminds me of a smaller version of St. Croix's airport).
I don't know when we'll have a chance to write again as tomorrow we'll be back in Ho Chi Minh City and are again at the mercy of Thao's family's neighbors (who were so kind to let us write on their computer previously). I think that we might try to take a day trip from the city out to the countryside to see the underground tunnels used during the Vietnam War.
Take care and if I don't write back soon it's because we don't have the internet (but we should at the Tokyo airport at which we'll be spending something like 10 blissful hours).
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2 comments:
Woohoo! You're almost home! Can't wait to talk to you again. Missed ya. Lv Stacey
good of you to trust your gut about the concierge desk. you can assume that they'll kindly refer you to a "friend" to take you around the city. i wonder who gets more of the cut, the driver or the concierge?
the underground tunnels are cool, definitely a worthwhile experience!! i got there on the back of a moped. you can fire m16 rifles too if you like. i didn't though.
ikuo
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