Saigon

Saigon/Hochimin City is a city of 8 million people, most of which are on a motorbike wizzing through the city at any given time. Try crossing a crosswalk... Ummm, yeah, very difficult! :o The trick is to look straight ahead as you enter the chaos and allow it to move around you. Maybe this is symbolic of life.
I arrived here from Mui Ne late last night, and had very little trouble finding a cheap guesthouse, and a yummy meal. I was sad to leave my Iirsh kite surfing friends in Mui Ne, especially Paul who was my boyfriend for the week I was there. I mean, how can you have a relationship while you're traveling? It's especially difficult while you're following your dreams, and you don't want to prolong them for an interesting beautiful man who you share a soul connection with in a sticky spot. A sticky spot is a town that you get very comfortable in and end up spending a lot of time. Paul for example took a vacation to Mui Ne from Ireland and ended up staying there for 8 months and becoming a wicked kite surfing instructor, but he returns to Belfast on Tuesday. You can't help falling in love with Mui Ne, because it's such a wonderful place! :) I will return there.
Now I'm in Saigon handling some business. When I left my guesthouse this morning in a sleepy daze I looked into a cafe, and who did I see? My Finnish friend Elina! I run into this girl everywhere. What's funny is that she met a guy who gave her the same book Paul gave me: The Alchemist. What an amazing book! I loved it so much that I read it twice, and plan to find a bookstore today so I can buy more books by this same author.
Elina and I are going to check out some war museums today after I run some errands, and then she may join me into Cambodia tomorrow.
Initially I was going to take a boat along the Mekong River into Cambodia, because I heard several horror stories of people on buses being driven into the middle of mine fields and threatened to be abandoned there while being conned for more money, and obviously I wanted to avoid this scenerio. This happened to a few of my friends. So, I wanted to take the boat tour. It seemed fun and safe for a woman traveling solo. However, I don't want to spend 3 days on a boat! I did 2 days on the Mekong from Thailand into Laos, and it was beautiful, but uncomfortable. So, I'm going to take a bus through a reputable company, and pay a little more to get me to Phenom Penn in 7 hrs. I will arrive during the day, and check into the Lazy Fish guesthouse on the river.
Every experience prepares you for the next...