Quad Biking, the Killing Fields and a tuk-tuk race

"10/05/2013"

Today was a crazy crazy day.

Having checked out of my room, and feeling a little hungover, I decided a spot of breakfast would be a good idea.

I had left plenty of time in wait for the quad bike trip...all should be fine.
Except that breakfast took 30 minutes to come...and when it did come, my lift to the quad bikes arrived.

I scoffed breakfast down - not ideal, but felt very guilty for keeping the others waiting...then after the staff took an age to let me PAY? I could have walked off, right?  I finally made it to the trip.
Transport was yet another tuk-tuk...I am getting quite familiar with this mode.

It is probably better than a taxi as the traffic was pretty crazy.

Tuk-tuk was able to cut down some back roads when there was a stand still traffic jam.
I had no idea how far the quad bikes were, and was getting slightly anxious with my bus leaving at 1pm.

Eventually we arrived at the quad bikes, which involved a village tour on quad bikes.
Lots of fun, but the seat kept burning me, and I'm glad I had someone with me to take over every so often as the control was tiring on the hand.

There were some very cute village kids who ran out to greet us...again so similar to Africa!

I miss Africa.

When the tour ended we went to the genocide museum.  The killing fields are where millions were executed during the war.  When there were too many to dying, prisoners were kept, held and then killed later on, including children.  It is horrifying.

After a sombre experience the tour guide gave me a lift back to the hostel by motor bike...as time was ticking by.  This was rather scary, and I did hold on for dear life, but I do think he went slower than usual...though I do think they go slower on the motor bikes than in the UK.

Having arrived back at the hostel, and changed, I was ready to leave for the bus station.
Except no-one knew where it was.

It would have been really helpful if Bamba experience had sent the details of which bus company I would be travelling with...
Instead I had to guess, and go with the place I was dropped off at.

Turned out that this was incorrect.  Panicking, we managed to get through to the emergency contact.  I was still getting concerned that 1pm was getting ever closer.
Eventually we got hold of Armin and the details "The Sinh Tourist Cafe"....but it was now gone 1pm...too late.
"No" said Armin "the bus leaves at 1.30pm".

I grabbed another tuk-tuk, who knew where this place was...problem was it was 20 minutes to get there...
Please no trafific!!








I made it with 5 minutes to spare...what a relief!!!


I needn't detail the journey...pretty uneventful and standard border control.
When I arrived in Ho Chi Minh, despite being ripped off by a taxi driver...grrrrrrrh....I received the loveliest welcome from the Long Family, who run Long Hostel.  A lovely lovely place.

After a crazy day...settled down for a restful night's sleep before the Mekong Delta.