Is it Possible that I am Sad the Boat Trip is Over?

Day Nineteen: 3/1 – RV Tonle Pandaw Day #8 and transfer to Saigon
Title: Is it possible that I am sad the boat trip is over?

Do you want to hear (read) something crazy? I think that I am actually a little bit sad the boat trip is ending. As you all know I was extremely nervous about this trip. Going in I thought I was going to be stuck on a boat filled with old people, for nine days, without diet soda and in a 100sq foot cabin with dad. Turns out the trip was only eight days, the people were old but not super old ;~), the boat had diet soda and the cabin was actually comfortable.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about what made this trip a 1,001 times better than the cruise in China. There are a lot of possibilities, including the things mentioned above, like diet soda. The boat was also way cleaner and didn’t smell. However, if I could only pick one variable, it would be the people. Both the passengers and the crew were downright enjoyable. Out of the 43 passengers on board there were really only four that I tried to avoid (OP, WOP, Napoleon and his wife). I truly enjoyed everyone else. I think there are likely a few reasons for this.

This cruise was more “active” than the one in China, so I think the passengers were generally in better health than those on the Yang-Tze. To afford a trip like this a person (or person’s dad ;~) must have some level of financial independence. Generally speaking, financially secure people have worked hard at their careers and often done interesting things. I think that was very much true for the passengers on this boat. Additionally, on the whole, the people on the cruise had very good senses of humor. That makes all the difference in the world. Finally, Nicole specifically made a huge difference as well. While she was not the hot young man I was hoping for, she was a lot of fun. Having another English speaking person on the boat in the 20-30 demo made ALL the difference in the world.

The Pandaw portion of this adventure ended with a final two-hour bus ride. The water levels were such that the boat couldn’t sail to downtown Saigon, so we had to settle for the bus transfer. Upon arrival in downtown we were left at a centrally located hotel. The final goodbyes amongst the English-speaking passengers took place there. Those of us who weren’t staying at that hotel were met by new guides and taken to our individual hotels. Shockingly… I sincerely hope to see many of our fellow passengers again.

We arrived at our Saigon hotel (The Legend) around 11 am. Our room wasn’t ready yet so we decided to take a stroll around town and look for some lunch. Once again we are sharing a tour itinerary with John P. and Sigrid, so we went to lunch with them.

Across the street from the place we chose to have lunch there was an Internet café. I hadn’t been on the net in five days and I needed a fix. Dad decided, after we had paid the bill, that he wanted dessert. I took that as a sign that I was supposed to go get on-line. I ran across the street to quickly check email while the old folks finished up.

Checking email was REALLY great. Like seriously great. It is probably sad how much I miss the Internet when I don’t have it for five days. I feel totally disconnected from the world. George Bush could have been assassinated while we were on the boat and I wouldn’t have known the difference. I don’t like being that disconnected. I also don’t like going weeks at a time without seeing attractive men in my age demo. I am not sure what I liked better about the going to the café… the fact that I got to reconnect with the world or the fact that were at least ten different young men that came and went while I was there. Regardless it was a good time.

After I finished up computing dad and I walked back to the hotel. I was pretty darn tired and starting to get sick. My skin, eyes, and sinuses were super irritated. Dad believed this irritation was caused by the pollution in the air. I don’t know if he was right but I do know that I was kind of miserable. I took a three-hour nap upon our return to the hotel. I also used Afrin, Rhinocort, eye drops and lotion. Needless to say I felt some better when I woke up.

After nap time dad and I took another walk around the city. We wanted to acclimate ourselves to the Saigon and get some dinner. We strolled for a half-hour or so before we wandered in to a shopping mall. Traditionally shopping malls in Asia are weird and this was no exception. They are almost all built with many floors (which makes sense since space is very limited) but the strangest part is the collection of stores. This one was pretty random. It had a few clothing stores, a book store, multiple toy stores (lots of Mickey Mouse), multiple furniture stores, a kitchen store, a supermarket and a silk flower store. It wasn’t a Care Four but if you put it all together you would get something similar to Wal-Mart with higher end furniture and better food. Maybe it would be like Target ;~>

For dinner we ate in a place with a vast menu and a colorful red interior. I was getting pretty sick of Asian food, so I decided that cheese pizza would be an excellent choice for dinner. In actuality it was surprisingly good. Dad had some type of Vietnamese something or other that he “oohed” and “ahhed” over for a long time. My favorite thing on the menu, which I did not order, was the Mickey Mouse Sundae. Mickey really is an extremely popular fellow over here.

After dinner dad and I walked the streets of Saigon for a solid hour. We saw all kinds of crazy stuff. I think in all of the traveling I have done, utter disregard for traffic laws may be the greatest here in Saigon. There are scooters EVERYWHERE and they just go when they feel like it. There are few traffic signals and those that are in place are not really respected. Crossing the street is quite exciting. You feel like the frog in the old school video game “Froger”. Speaking of games…

It is time for the Dr. P. fun fact of the day. The first game dad ever remembers playing was Chinese checkers. He used to play it at Auntie Peg’s Holiday House. This was a summer home for underprivileged kids (that in itself is kind of funny… dad had his first tux when he was six… he was not underprivileged… at least not financially). Barbara and John would get sent there every year for two weeks when their parents went to the Pocono’s for vacation. According to dad those two weeks were a highlight of every year.

I am still feeling a little crappy and I am definitely tired. I am going to call it a night but I’ll be sure to write again soon. I miss you all.

Katy