Still no news on the job-front, the idea of leaving this country becomes more and more appealing. Doing business with Kiwis has been no fun so far. How different Asia is in that regard, here’s my collected know-how on getting good deals in SEA. Everybody knows that in Asian countries bargaining is common and locals often try to charge foreigners ridiculously high prices. So how do you bargain successfully, how do you get a price you know is not completely hilarious?

Still no news on the job front. The agency apparently had a bit of trouble and I had to call them twice to get things going. By now all my referees have replied to them and hopefully they’ll provide some feedback to the company early next week. Can’t stand this waiting around without anything to do. The job is so attractive that I’m not seriously interested in applying for other offers and thus there’s not much to do other than wait.

Once again, time to get up early. My taxi was to pick me up at 6:30 and I needed some time to enjoy one of these Vietnamese coffees. The ride to the airport was shorter than expected and I arrived half an hour before check-in opened. That’s something new for a change, usually I queue up half an hour before they close. There was still a million and a half VND floating around in my wallet so I utilised the time to have a look for an exchange booth.

Absolutely stunning place, nice boat, good food. Could have stayed a couple more days. Off to Vientiane in Laos tomorrow. It would be 24-30 hours with the bus and I just can’t be ffff bothered to do that. Thus I splurged a bit and got myself a flight ticket. I’m really building a carbon footprint here, but as I flew more than 45,000 kilometres during the last 1.5 years already, it doesn’t make that much of a difference.

Hanoi’s old quarter is a busy labyrinth of small streets packed with shops and people. My hotel is somewhere in there and I just have to step out the door to be in midst the chaos. Before doing that I needed a coffee though and Vietnam is a good place to get one. Vietnamese coffee has a unique flavour, a bit sweet, and is extremely strong. Somewhere between a triple espresso and eating coffee ground.

5:30 in the morning, my alarm is ringing. Good thing my room has a window showing the sunrise over the Mekong - additional incentive for getting up. My bags are already packed (mostly), so half an hour later I’m ready for pick-up. Pretty much on time (for SEA standards) my lift arrives at the hotel and delivers me to the bus station. The company looks considerably more serious than the jokers that took me for my first ride here in Vietnam.

Can Tho is the capital of the Mekong delta and situated right next to a river. It’s called the Can Tho river but as far as I can tell from the map, it’s the Mekong waters flowing through here. My hotel is right next to the river front and I could observe a bit of the river life. They have some form of water tuk-tuk here, dodgy little boats piloted by old women who are as pestering as their land-based counterparts.

After leaving Phu Quoc, I had a couple of hours in Ha Tien before the bus to Can Tho departed around noon. The first part of the journey led along the Cambodian border up to Chau Doc. The road was a mess and for two hours the minibus basically jumped from one pot-hole to the next. The area on both sides of the road was heavily flooded, sometimes the water reached as far as the eye could see.

The south was discovered and I wanted to have a look at the more remote north of Phu Quoc. My favourite travel agent helped me to the usual transport and on late Wednesday morning I was on my way. Surprisingly the road north is in very good condition and stretches seemingly endless through the countryside. Usually that’s the kind of road to change to highest gear and under slight disregard of the speed limit seek an end of boredom.

Finally, internet access! The power outages on this island are as frequent as the nightly monsoon downpour. Yesterday we went to discover the south of the island with Sao beach being our main destination. It’s only 25km away but the roads are in a disastrous condition, parts of it dirt-tracks with more pot-holes than solid parts. Driving a motorcycle is actually better than driving in a car as the latter doesn’t have much options in avoiding the holes.

I had to write a post titled with that sentence, it was inevitable. Phu Quoc has been treating me well, it is a pleasantly undeveloped island and even though there is several resorts on the island, it is still far away from Koh Tao and other Thai islands. The town I’m staying at still has few English signs and the harbour is full of fishing boats. They look a bit dodgy, wouldn’t want to go out to sea with these.

From all the countries in SEA I was interested in Vietnam the most. Simply because it is the only country I had an idea of before I came here. I heard about it and saw it in movies, books, computer games and a few school lessons. Yet the more I learned about travelling here, the less I was eager to come. In Vietnam I have the highest probability of being scammed, cheated and having my stuff stolen.

On Monday I paid the Vietnamese consulate in Frankfurt a visit. The address: Villa Hanoi, Kennedy-Allee. That sounds awfully wrong but at least Kennedy was kinda pre-war. The consulate was pretty busy and I had to wait a while before I could hand in my paperwork. ‘Ok, come back next month to collect passport’, I was told. ‘Ah hang on mate, I’m only in town for today, any chance you have an express handling?