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Vietnam-Cambodia Tour Itinerary
Of all the trips I had planned, the Vietnam-Cambodia one was the most stressful to date. Up until the last minute, I wasn't sure if we would even push through with it.
Our series of unfortunate events began as soon as I purchased the tickets.
1. I bought two tickets going to Vietnam instead of one going and the other returning back. Talk about carelessness.
2. Months after we already bought the ticket, two of my traveling companions backed out, leaving only me, my boyfriend, and one other friend left.
3. My card holder, along with my PASSPORT, was stolen a MONTH before the trip. I almost gave up hope that I would get my passport on time for our flight. Fortunately, I got it 2 days before the trip.
4. My boyfriend's cellphone got stolen the night before our trip.
It was almost as if someone didn't want us to go and I was beginning to worry that all the omens meant that something bad would happen to us while abroad.
However, like a shining sun, our third companion was so excited, constantly asking me what to bring, what to buy, where to go, even when I hadn't gotten my passport yet. If I couldn't go, there would be no trip since I planned everything.
Anyway, to make a long story short, we went ahead with the trip because we didn't want to disappoint my friend. My boyfriend still had doubts but kept them to himself.
I was still apprehensive even while we waited at the airport. I was thinking of all the things that could go wrong with the trip. My friend said that the worst thing he could think of that would happen to us was stay in the hotel the whole week because we had nowhere to go.On the other hand, I was thinking that we could get hostaged, kidnapped, scammed off all our money, get our cameras stolen, hospitalized, etc. Yes, as you can see, I am quite the pessimist.
My fears were not really that far off because the moment we left the Ho Chi Minh airport, we got scammed by the taxi driver. The fare to our hotel was supposed to be only $7. We paid $10 for a 30 minute drive and he even let us down on the wrong address and kept insisting that our guest house, which was printed on the paper I showed him, was in the street where we got off. Well, it wasn't. We walked two more blocks to find the guest house and I was so irritated with the taxi driver.
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| Vietnamese Pho |
Since we arrived at midnight, there was nothing to do but check in and rest. Fortunately, the people from our guest house were very friendly and the room was clean and adequate. I thought I wouldn't get any sleep that night but was asleep almost as soon as I lay down.
