Day 22: Phnom Penh, Saigon, My Tho

I took the morning bus at 6:30 AM back to Vietnam ($30 for the visa, $9 for the bus pass, and an extra $5 for the extra page). I cannot believe it is $5 for an extra piece of paper. I met Helen from Warrick, UK, who showed me her gigantic passport book that has about 50 pages, which is twice our size. She thinks the US passport is more colorful.

She is fun to talk to.
So Helen has been in Southeast Asia for around 2 weeks. While a part of me says it'd be fun to travel with her, I already had my mind occupied and wanted to go straight to Mekong Delta. She wanted to stay in HCMC and maybe only 1 day of delta.

At 4:00 PM, I got to the bus station by a Ve Xe Khach bus. I found that Ve Xe Khach is the only bus company that provides transportation between Saigon and My Tho (24,000 VND). There is also just one bus station at My Tho. These were all good signs.

I met a moto driver that spoke a little English, who is going to appear later and has continued to be my friend in this ordeal. You will hear about him later.

My room is 70,000 VND without AC. I saved 20,000 VND and he kept the remote. I could not find a control on it. By that time I was a little tipsy and did not care.

Here begins my tale.

花者無缺

有越女使壞

寄花亂行者

使失步車內

麗人遙去

行者覽眾里

四夜坐候

五夜無功

為了強顏笑

只得空言歡

樂洽高歌

盡野狂奔

他見人即問

我找這人

你認識她嗎

眾人訕訕點點

都道他呆呆癡癡

行者笑笑

他原是個聾啞

句句皆虛聲不得語耳

心道吾天生英雄才子

爾等 日日求溫飽而不怕風雨吹 何足道

但又覺 地擴人達

竟無人試其語

前席與其共言

不禁潸然下淚

何奈去不復也