Getting home before the mail

Somewhere on the Mekong River

One of the things starting to get heavy (!) when you travel is the backpack you carry around. Like a snail, you carry your house, gathering so much stuff. Sometimes, I hesitate to leave a guidebook or to throw away a plane ticket I might want to keep as a souvenir. The solution : sending everything back home.

I sent a package from Hong Kong and it got home safely. The one I sent from China is still on the road (!). Today, I ran to the post office just before it closed to send another package.

For 2 kg, they were asking for 50 $. Those Vietnamese are a little crazy I think. I chose the "ground" option, cheaper, that will send my guidebooks by truck and by boat. I have to allow three months for it to get home.

It means I'll be back in Quebec before the box I left behind today. I don't know if it'll travel on a donkey, but I'll have time to get stamps from around ten countries while it's gonna make its way home.

Mekong

I started taking the pills to prevent me from getting malaria, hoping I won't have any side effects. For now, no problems. Malaria was a risk in Sapa, in the Mekong Delta and might be a problem in Cambodia.

Yesterday, I made sure I didn't pay for nothing by going in the Mekong Delta area. I was hoping for sun, but since it's the rain season, the weather forecast was stating we would get thunderstorms all week long. I had to take a risk.

In the end, I got a cloudy day, but I was more disappointed by the activities themselves. Three hours on the bus to get there, three hours return, all of that to see a floating market for a few minutes, see how they make rice paper and eat a really small meal.

Today's visit was more interesting, in the Cu Chi tunnels, where Vietnamese were hidding from the Americans during the war. Claustrophobic people should refrain from going : the most adventurous people, which I was part of, accepted to "walk" in those narrow tunnels. In an intense heat, it was almost certain we would hit our head on the low ceiling. After a while in the dark, leaning in an uncomfortable position, one can't wait to get out of there...

They had demonstrations of very cruel traps Vietnamese made to slow the enemy down. Nothing tempting for Uncle Sam soldiers.

On that note, I'm heading to Phnom Penh in Cambodia on a bus trip that should last for six hours. Transportation in south-east Asia is a little bit slow.

I am planning on getting the Cambodian visa at the border. I'll tell you about it when I'll get in Cambodia's capital.