Con"tours"

iWiFi

I give in to the simplicity and convenience of signing up for an organized tour to the Mekong Delta versus taking a $7 cab ride to the “unknown” bus station to catch a local bus.

An organized tour is like a bootcamp- with a difference – I don’t like them, now even more than before.

You are made to get up at 6 AM everyday and while you are still recovering from a sleepless night in the village, herded to visit bee farms and floating markets and explained in minute detail how coconut candy or rice paper or rice wine is made. Thankfully there’s always “free” candy/wine that comes with it- the much-needed sugar/alcohol overload.

And then sometimes, you also get kicked out of a hotel at 9:30 PM!

Vietnam is the only country I have visited where you are required to surrender your passport as you check in to a hotel- as a guarantee for payment when you check out. Every hotel takes all passports to the police station everyday to get them registered (?). They aren’t allowed to entertain guests without a passport and can be raided and fined in case they do.

Half-asleep, I checked out in Ho Chi Minh to catch a bus to the Mekong delta at 6 AM, and left without my passport.

Since the guide knew about the passport situation beforehand (he never warned me), they had to “hide me” in the hall where security guards sleep- the police won’t check it, in case there is a raid.

An innocent (ok inane too) mistake of forgetting my passport– one that cost me a night’s sleep- not over the fact that I don’t have a passport (the passport was safe in Saigon) but because of where I spent the night- with a bat hovering over my bed (a mosquito net somewhat protected me) and about a 100 geckos clicked their tongues and swallowed mosquitoes while I watched the entire Season 3 of Sex and The City in one night.

And then there was light!
the only day I would be glad for a 6 AM wake-up call !