Rain Follows Me

The rain was coming down hard as I rushed through flooded streets to catch the first bus of the morning out of town. Just as I sat down in my seat it occurred to me that I saw none of the sites of Phnom Penh, didn't buy any knick-knacks at the market and most importantly, never tried fried tarantula. I had been so busy working that I never got a chance to be a tourist. I should have gotten off the bus and spent the afternoon visiting the city as a vacationer but thought better of it for the rain. It would have been pretty uncomfortable trying to get around in the downpour. Of course, as soon as we started rolling, the sun shined through.

It was a pleasant ride through the country on the way to Ho Chi Minh City. The entire trip takes about 6 hours including a relatively smooth border crossing. The first thing I noticed when we got to HCMC is the traffic. The streets are wide like a modern planned city and are insanely congested with motorbikes. The bus takes you to the touristy Pham Ngu Lao neighborhood of District 1. I found a nice hotel about a block away called the Viet Nghi Hotel on Bui Vien Street, which is the main backpacker drag. It cost a couple bucks more than the others I saw but it is worth it for the cleanliness and comfort.

Zing from the project is accompanying me this afternoon until she has to fly to Hanoi. When we got out onto the street the rain started pouring down. As you know from yesterday's blog, I love rain walks so we made our way to the moneychanger that at 18,000 Vietnamese Dong to the dollar made me an instant multi-millionaire. We looked like two wet cats. Monsoon rains are quite different than what we have back home in the US. The raindrops seem huge and there are a lot more of them falling at once in each square foot. Every time the rain seemed to be coming down at maximum possible volume, it would come down even heavier.

I took it easy tonight. I picked up some Banh Mi, Vietnamese sandwich, and some beef and rice from a cart to take back to my hotel where I caught up on some blogging and watched Monsters Inc on the Disney Channel. I stepped out for a midnight stroll before calling it a night. The sex trade is booming over here. I kept getting propositioned by prostitutes and pimps all along my route. As soon as I got back into my room, the guy at the front desk rang me up and asked if I wanted a girlfriend for the night. I thanked him and declined but I should have explained I still wasn't interested but wanted to know how much.