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Nov.9 Said goodbye to Dani & jumped on the bus to "hell" alias Saigon - or Ho Chi Minh city as it's called now!- Met some European people in the bus & tried to talk them into visiting Cambodia - without luck! The trip from Dalat was beautiful - paddy fields - mountains - rainforest - palm trees & KAPAUUUUU - there it was SAIGON!!! noisy - dusty & of course the rain was pouring down. The bus stopped outside Kim's cafe - we got off - wandered around for a while - then met a guy who knew a very small new guesthouse & we followed him between the houses in a narrow alley. We found another world in there a real Vietnamese world away from the cafe's & hotels. Now we live in a huge room with a balcony - shared bathroom on the floor below. Walked up to the GPO (general post office) to check our poste restante letters - got a load. Walked "home" & sat on Sinhs cafe - Met Jannero & while we sat there a bus stopped & Perry - David & BirgitSusanne jumped out. In Dalat they lived only 50 meters from us & we never met them. David moved into our room - We all ate at Sinhs & also met the Dutch guys again & the other Dutch gang from Sapa! Nov.10 Met the others at Kim's cafe' - & some of us went air ticket hunting - Perry & Annemette & me are flying out Sunday. Had a relaxing day - bought some more CD's & went to the ladies room in the Rex hotel - it's so much better than the toilets in backpack area - ! My poor toe is inflamed - got some penicillin pills from Fred & Jan - & I'm limping around. Went to a Baskin Robbins ice-cream place & had an ice-cream! Outside the door the beggars are lying with their wounds & 1/2 limbs. One gets extremely cold - we'd realized we can't save the whole world on a backpack budget! I kicked my budget & bought a new huge backpack - it took me & David 1/2 an hour to find the right good one. We ate dinner in an Indian restaurant & went over to Apocalypse Now bar - what a dump - Later we walked home through this chaos of motorbikes - beggars - cars & people - entered at the Rolling Stone bar & played a homemade pool game where Annemette & I cheated - 'cause we understood what all the other said to one another but they didn't understand us. Nov.11 Celebrated one month of traveling today by drinking a lassi & a glass of milk tea. We'd been lazy - been to the post office & walked around - packed our bags & are now ready to leave for another country !!!!!