Beginning of Vietnam

Sooo as you can see I am already slacking in keeping up with this blog! Goodness! I believe I last left off about me learning/attempting to bargain out in Thailand! So now I can pick up to where we have made it to Vietnam and our airport arrival was a disaster. Ah! Pretty intense waiting on our visas (and time consuming) but we survived! However, since it took so long we saw our bags being carried away by some airport people (who didn't speak English by the way) because apparently they thought we forgot to get them! Crazy! Lol. So after a bit we got them back and headed out, relieved that we'd have someone from STA picking us up... Well... that didn't happen. Oh we were SO mad and sad and confused and clueless on what to do. We didn't have the accommodation address (never gave it to us! Only had the one for Mekong, not Ho Chi Minh) And there were no pay phones to be found, no English speakers, and few English signs. So basically we thought we were screwed... Anywho, after freaking out for like an hour we went to reception and they let me use their phone (3,000/min!) (which is actually not THAT bad) And I called STA. They were like "oh you're in Vietnam??!" talk about me being not very happy!! It was SO unorganized! So they had to let us just take a taxi and get some Vietnamese person to write down the address. And of course the taxi jerk wouldn't put his meter on! I couldn't believe him when he said that we were his first fare for over an hour so he wanted more money! He originally said 350,000 (but me, used to being screwed over in Egypt, Lol, had already asked the receptionist how much it should cost. She said max 150,000). So I told him basically he was rubbish and we wouldn't pay it. We tried to get out and he just took off!!! My goodness! Buuut in the end we just paid 200,000 (I wasn't too too worried because we were getting refunded!) Anywho, it was super nice to be in a house with other people!! We met some kid named Jake, 18 years old. Awesome guy! But Megan and I were so tired (still hadn't slept for the last two nights!!!) that we went to the super fancy (for Vietnamese terms!) cafe behind the house and had a quick lunch, cocktail, and passed out for like 3hours!) When we woke up Karina had moved into our room. She was awesome!! Shes working at an orphanage with disabled children. And she brought LOADS of supplies from her school and gave us some to take down to the delta. (HOWEVER, since I am not working with orphans as I was told originally, this school is not getting the supplies. I am gonna go find an orphanage and take it to them!) John and Jonny (the two guys who are going to be joining us in the delta) were also there when we woke up. So we drug all of them out back to the super cute cafe for cocktails (since it was Jake's last night and a good way for us to all hang out). Then we went into town to the most amazing dinner place. Very Vietnamese and we ate out on the balcony that overlooked the road. Had some amazing Pho. REALLY good. And I tried Saigon beer. Then we went to a roof top bar and had a few more cocktails. This bar was pretty westernized (white folk) So after a few rounds we went to ALLEZZ BO. Or something like that...and proceeded to rack up a bill of 2.5 million. Oh dear. Lol. Now granted we each spent like 20 quid total that was a ton of money in Vietnamese! Awesome! So yea... first really crazy night and it was pretty fun! However, paid for it the next day. Eek! We all got up at like noon. (OHHH AND MEGAN and I stayed up till 6am to watch the sun rise from the top of our roof! AMAZING!! :) ) So anywho, we all got up feeling rough and jumped into a taxi with no food (hoping to find some at the War museum and it didn't have any). I immediately got sick once we arrived. Lol... it was pretty bad. We have NOW discovered its because I took the malaria tablet on an empty stomach. But at the time I just thought it was heat and lack of sleep. After an hour of just sitting in the grass by a machine gun I managed to be ok (and sitting in the random rain storm. lol). The museum was awesome. Clearly very biased and oh... Americans apparently lost. Who knew! haha. I found it interesting on some torture pictures that there was not a translation offered. It made me want to know what was being said!!!! Well we had a Mexican lunch later... very nice however I didn't eat much. Stomach still not loving me. haha. Then went and got manicures with John, Jonny and Megan. We made the boys but they didn't seem to mind! I must say the manicures here are not at all up to the standards set by the American Asians. We thought we were going to the source and they'd be phenomenal! Oh well! We went down to the river at night. Amazing as well. That night was early simply because we all had to be up at 7am to go to the Cu Chi Tunnels the next day. Tunnels were awesome! Tour guide was an actual vet, which was pretty neat to hear his side. Clearly doesn't like Americans. So us Americans tried to stay out of his way and not say much. Lol. But he did it in a joking way. We crawled all through the tunnels which was a bit scary at points when you couldn't see ahead of you. Megan got a bit emotional since she has a ton of people in her family who are involved with war type stuff. I felt bad because I couldn't relate as well! It must be intense seeing stuff that your family members went through!
PS. It was SO HOT! I had never felt so gross before!!! But definitely a neat and worthwhile experience. That night just John, Jonny and I went to an uber posh restaurant geared for Americans. haha (prices were even in dollars!!) Amazing meal and I tried fried banana (SO GOOD!) Walking home I fell on something (fruit probably!). Camera broke the fall (but now camera wont work. I am SO sad!!!) So now I'll need a new one. Which is fun, but expensive... and I was just figuring out some neat stuff with this one. oh well...
Pictures: Me shooting and AK47 (or M60..can’t remember!), Megan and I at a tunnel entrance at the Cu Chi Tunnels, the Delta crew after our manicures, me holding 1 Million Dong!!, and part of our group on the first night 