Mytho - Vietnam

After lunch we were spirited off on our way to Mytho.
Everyone else on the bus was heading to Ho Chi Minh City. Jim and I were the only two staying in Mytho. Before we reached Mytho, we stopped off at an incense stick making factory. It was pretty cool watching them make the sticks.

Then back on the bus and on to Mytho. We were all due to get out and have a wander around at the Bonsai Garden but we didn’t get the chance. (Jim couldn’t be arsed so we decided to head to our hotel). Our guide whistled up some motorcycle taxis for us – basically we sit on the back of a motorcycle (but get this) WITH OUR BACKPACK ON OUR BACKS! Sheesh – holy moly.

First of all, I wasn’t even sitting properly on the bike before yer man started taking off! The weight of the backpack on my back nearly swept me backwards off the bike. Eek! So I grabbed yer man and held on tight – a laughable offense in these countries where the moped is king. We have seen motorbikes loaded with all kinds of everything; 3,4 or 5 people on one bike, two lads carrying a pane of glass between them on a moped, another bike with a barrel full of pigs on the back, and countless numbers of people carrying sacks upon sacks or boxes upon boxes of stuff on the back of these mopeds that have no rear view mirrors!!
Now imagine all of the above multiplied by ten all on the road at the same time, all going in different directions, no traffic lights, lots of beeping, tonnes more bicycles, the odd few cars, and me and Jim on the back of two bikes with humoungous bags on our backs, giggling insanely, holding on for dear life, whilst our two drivers went hell for leather aboot the town in a semi race to our hotel! Staying in Mytho was worth it just for the bike ride!

Mytho itself has not too much to see. Our hotel room had the potential to be a mozzie free for all, but we found some nets in the wardrobe. It wasn’t the happiest of hotel rooms, and the pillows smelt musty but we were pooped out after our big day. It also had satellite TV and Jim half enjoyed the Liverpool match later on. I say half enjoyed because obviously the krappy TV was not able to cope with the satellite and the blinking yoke kept going off.

Tired as we were, we went for a stroll down by the river all the same. Well it was back to celeb-land, with local children and adults all vying for our attention, shaking Jim’s hand and asking us our names (while a sneaky one tried to rob my bracelet – “off ye go mate, it’s worth about 4pence). Tee hee.

We hit a recommended place for some grub and may I say I wasn’t too pleased with the frosty reception we received!! (I nearly said – Do you know who we are?? – we’re local celebs). Not.

Obviously not impressed with our westerner status, they didn’t give us any frozen wet wipes to wipe our hands with and they forgot Jim’s rice. Plus they didn’t even say goodbye.
With a heavy heart we left, and took to strolling up and down the part of the street where everybody was really nice to us. Ha, I jest I jest, we just walked home, I thought about writing to Lonely Planet to tell them of the frostiness, but really, between blog-writing, track-making, temple-viewing, market-hopping, match watching, coconut-candy-shop-visiting and general beer comsumption, who has the time….

We watched the Pool match and a documentary about Octopuses. (not Octopussi as previously thought).

Schnerf..