Welcome to the 'Communist' Republic of Vietnam

Well, technically it's "socialist" but I'll just go with how the expats in this town describe it.

I'm finally in my first new country on this trip!! and my first new country since March 2005 (Costa Rica) Cambodia was really lovely, but I was certainly ready to leave when I did. So much poverty and beggars started to wear on me after a few weeks. Phnom Penh, the capital wasn't too bad and it was much more like a regular city. We took things slow and spent a lot of time chillin at our lakeside guest house which was relaxing.

We got into Vietnam a few days ago and even just crossing the border I could immediately see the difference in wealth between the two countries. Once we arrived in Saigon (District 1 of Ho Chi Minh City) we met up with Kelly (K-Dog) from SF. She's been living here for two years now teaching English and being a dive instructor alternately.

The hostess with the mostess, she certainly showed us a hot night on the town. We started off at a local place, LUCKY 33, for eats and drinks. The three meals we shared and at least 12 beers split between the three of us ammounted to only 100,000 dong TOTAL(less than $7!!) We sang some kareoke Vietnamese style in our own private room and sat drinking beers on little chairs on the street and kickin it in the bars till at least 4 or 5 am. The next day we were fully destroyed and took things reeeaaaalllllll slooooooooow.

It's really great to have our personal tour guide for the evening and to meet foreigners who are actually living locally. Ultimately I've decided the "backpacker thing" is getting old for me. I'm bored of the same stock questions: "where are you from? where are you going? where have you been? how long are you traveling for?" and it starts to get old four years later having the same conversation for the 50millionth time. ... maybe I'm just getting too old for this. or maybe I'm just ready to do it a little differently now.

Anyways, we have a few more days in the South befpre we head north through some beaches and old towns on our way to Hanoi, Halong Bay and Sapa.
til next time, shayna