We woke up to catch a ferry to Macau where we
are flying back to our hub, Bangkok. We tried to catch a standby on an earlier ferry. It was a long line and when it looked like no one else would get on, everybody rushed to the next ferry for standby. We just decided to wait for our scheduled ferry rather than follow the herd. The ferry before ours was delayed so we were a little concerned that we would end up missing our flight, especially since we still had to go through customs. Fortunately, our ferry took off on time and we caught our flight to Bangkok. Once in Bangkok, we took a cab to our hotel. Our first impression of the cab driver was that he wouldn't try to scam us. Once we arrived, he tried to charge us more for the highway tolls than he paid - 150 bahts when it was really 70 bahts. Come on, we've done this several times, we're not gullible tourists, at least when it comes to taxi rides from the airport. He kept saying "150" and we said "no, 70", finally, he's like "oh yeah..." then UNDERcharged us. The man couldn't add. We politely corrected him, even though we were irritated that he had the nerve to try to scam us. So rude.
This time, we decided to stay at a different hotel, the Legacy Suites. It's a little more convenient location-wise and more modern-looking. We were upgraded to an executive suite, probably because it's a slow monday night. It has the look and feel of Le Meridien.
We were starving, so we headed out to dinner. I wanted to go back to the Japanese restaurant from our first day in Bangkok. We know that we should be trying new restaurants, but it was really good the first time. (Theresa: I swear Eric had a homing device focused on this restaurant.
He made a bee-line for it without hesitation as if he'd been there many times.) And the second time was just as delicious. We had a little trouble at first with the menu (the english was basically the same as the japanese), but managed to order. In addition to the pork tonkatsu filled with cheese and the fried oysters, we countered it with some vegetables, edamame and tomato salad. Theresa loved her strawberry juice and the fact that they peeled off all the skin on the tomatoes. We were pretty sure we were the only non-Japanese people there.On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Emporium Mall to just browse through some of the high end shops. We then went to the top floor to get some dessert at the food court. Theresa had a mango sticky rice (her go-to dessert) and I had a chocolate cheesecake and later an orange ice cream. Exhausted with our bellies full, we headed back to the hotel.
Tomorrow, we head to Vietnam.
Day 36 - "Mosquitos missed us and we lost our bargaining power" - Bangkok, Thailand and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
We both needed haircuts. So we went back to the place that I went to a couple weeks ago. Theresa enjoyed the 5-star treatment, starting with two shampoos
(each lasting 5-10 minutes with head massages) and conditioning, then the menthol cooling head massage. She was jealous I got an extra 15 minutes shoulder/back massage that she didn't get, but was happy that the stylist spent over an hour on her hair. She ended up with a japanese haircut, but it was much better than the bad 12-year old haircut she got back in Tampa. Theresa then got a 90 minute thai massage while I went back to the hotel to book our Ho Chi Minh hotel and pack up our bags. Hmmm, that doesn't sound like a fair deal at all.
As usual, our taxi ride back to the airport required us to force our cabbie to use the meter. He kept trying to charge us 300 bahts without the meter, we refused. Our meter ended up being 199, and we were nice enough to give him 60 bahts on top of that. These taxis can't trick us!
Er, Ho Chi Minh is another story. We landed and promptly headed to the taxi stand. Not sure how it works cause we stood there for awhile and the dispatchers kept ignoring us and helping other people. Finally, we got someone who acknowledged us and hailed us a cab. We knew it would get interesting since they don't use meters. We asked how much a ride to the hotel would be. They kept saying "$300" which confused us since we heard a ride
would be roughly $80,000 Viet Dollars. Turns out what they meant was $300,000. I started to argue with the cab driver that it should just be $100. He finally said $200 which was still too high but we were already in the cab and our bags were in the trunk, didn't really have much bargaining power. Oh well, lesson learned. Next time, we will finalize the cost before getting in the cab. We arrived at our hotel - Asian Ruby - after weaving in and out of traffic. As expected, there were tons of motorcycles and mopeds everywhere. We saw one where this baby (less than 2 years old) was just sitting in the lap of the driver of a moped. Scary stuff. The hotel is pretty nice. The room is small, but it's nice and clean and the amenities are nice. A little nervous because they keep our passports at the front desk...hopefully they don't lose them.
We had heard about this Pho place called "Pho 2000" that Bill Clinton visited that is supposed to be really good. We asked the front desk about it and they said it was too far, and suggested another place for us to go to. So we headed out. We found the street and while looking for street numbers, I randomly found another Pho 2000! So we decided to eat there. I had beef vemicelli and Theresa had beef pho. Both were really good. Theresa said it was the best pho she's ever had - which was solidifed by the fact that she ate the whole thing. The broth was really tasty and they claim that it is MSG-free. Theresa topped it off with a pineapple shake.
We then took a walk around town and hit the night market. I think our
bargaining skills have gone downhill, else, the vietnamese are much harder to haggle with. We couldn't get our 40% numbers. At one point, I think I pissed a vendor off cause my counter-offer was so low. She wouldn't even engage in a counter-offer, she just dismissed us. It was amusing walking around, everyone spoke to me in English but spoke to Theresa in VIetnamese. Maybe she does look Vietnamese. In addition to the vendors, the mosquitos greeted us with enthusiasm. After being in HK for so long, we forgot how aggressive these mosquitos are. We opted to walk out of the hotel without mosquito repellent. Big mistake. Theresa's collected about 4 new bites. We bought a few items, a belt for Theresa, two shirts for me, and some other items for gifts. Headed back around 10pm, since we have an early morning tomorrow -Tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels.
For pictures of days 35 and 36, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=theresang1977&target=ALBUM&id=5397692900567296865&authkey=Gv1sRgCLT63OijuJ67gAE&feat=email
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