Vietnam Part I

We akwoke the same way as we did the prevous day. Quickly grabbed breakfast and then waited for our transport to the bus. However this time was a little different. The transport was 30 minutes late. Not knowing when our bus is coming or even where to catch the bus we were quite frustrated at this point. Latanya asked the reception lady to call the company twice but her response was they were coming. But when? After a few more minutes passed she called again and the same answer, but when? A taxi arrived I asked if a taxi was picking us up and she said no. Latanya asked the taxi driver but he did not speak English very well and shook his head. We waited some more, and so did the taxi driver. He called his boss and the receptionist called the company. We were about 20 mintutes from departure and extremely nervous. Not wanting to miss the bus we headed for the taxi which turned out to be the transportation we were waiting for.  The driver frantically drove us to a group of buses. 
We tried to get on the first bus but the driver said no, it's not our bus and points to the bus behind his. We try to get on the second bus but this driver points to the first bus. In complete frustation we head back to the first bus, the driver points to a random bus ticket office. However there are several offices, which one? He just points again. So we start showing our tickets to everyone and they all say no. Finally one lady says yes tells us to get on the first bus. We tell her that the driver said no. We try again and again he countines to say no. Not taking No for an answer we go back to the lady and she says yes that's the one. Finally she talks to the driver and we are able to get on the bus! 
Once on the bus we realize that it's rather nice and full of mosquitoes. It's practically identical to the airport bus we take in Korea. We departed on time and headed out of the busy city. We tried to take a nap here and there to catch up on some sleep but due to the poor road conditions and constant honking we were unsuccessful. It was about a 3 hour drive to the border. Just before the border was a mini Vegas we almost forgot where we were. All the passagers had to get off the bus to go through Cambodian immigration to exit the country. We got back on just to cross the border and then back off to go through the Vietnam immigration to enter their country. We were one of the first buses to pass through so the whole process took around 20 to 30 minutes. After we finished several buses started to pull in. What great timing!
As we drove to Ho Chi Min city we noticed the country side was a little different than in Cambodia. Vietnam appeared to be less rural, with less huts, and more concrete structures. It probably took another hour and half to get to the city. Once we made it into the city limits it took another 40 minutes to get to where we were going. We were looking at the chaos of the city. We thought Phnom Pehn was congested, but HCMC was far worse. Unlike Cambodia Vietnam does not have tuk tuks, instead they have taxis. The amount of motor bikes were astounding. The streets were just filled from curb to curb of erratic drivers. As we continued to drive through the city Latanya was reading a street sign and I quickly asked her to repeat it. She did and I said this is our street. Sweet we could just get out here. The driver had been letting off passengers throughout the city, no problem right? Well he said no. What? NO? No, you open this door now, that's our street. No. We were so mad. Finally after argueing for 3 blocks he let us out into frogger like traffic of motor bikes. Once safely to the curb we walked back to our street and found our hotel easily. Our hotel was the best yet too bad we couldn't stay longer. 
We checked in and then hit the sites quickly. We saw the reunification palace, a giant pagoda, and the war reminants museum. All were educational but educational in the sense that you can see how a government can control what is learned in history. It was all very anti-American. We already knew that it would be. 
After walking around some more we had some delicious Pho and the strongest Vietnamese coffee that was great with the first sip but the after taste was extremely bitter. Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel. We planned not to spend too much time in the big cities like Phnom Pehn and HCMC because we wanted to spend time else where. The next day we were off yet again. This time we were flying to Da Nang, Vietnam to go to Hoi An.