Good morning Vietnam....and the last bit of Cambodia :)

We arrived in Phnom Pehn surprisingly only one hour later than expected on our ‘VIP’ bus.  This time we got what we paid for with Cambodian karaoke all the way! Watching the world go by on the bus we saw the extremes of poverty in Cambodia, this seemed to be the poorest country we had seen in South East Asia so far.

Following our bible - the lonely planet, with Carole and Yannick we checked into a nice clean and cheap hostel Fortunately it had great wifi as we had a date on Skype with the Barr family in Perth!  Which was great, can’t wait to see you all in March especially my little niece Sophie B!

Phnom Pehn promenade

It was inevitable at some point that one of us got Delhi belly and both of us had it at the same time. With a bit of a dodgy stomach on the first day in PP we took it easy, ate western food, drank gallons of water and managed to get through nearly a whole series of breaking bad which I am now addicted too!  All better, we hit Central Market where we managed to pick up a few bargains after a lot of bartering and walk away tactics. We then walked another mile or two to the riverside which was very pretty.  Lined with palm trees and flags, locals kicking around a feather stuck to a ball thing and endless bars and cafes.  People watching heaven for us, we are becoming pros at it!

Next day we were feeling on top form and joined Carole and Yannick for a goodbye breakfast as they were off home to France. “Hope you guys made it home safe and sound, keep in touch”

Later that day and being in Phnom Pehn we couldn’t leave without a visit to the S21 museum. This is the place Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge) held all the prisoners before they took them all to the killing fields. It is an eerie place with remnants of the torture that went on there. Some of the photographs are horrific and the conditions terrible. Can’t believe this was allowed to happen even 30 years ago. Feeling slightly shocked we left the museum, skipped the killing fields and went in search of something a bit more up-lifting. This came in the guise of Coffee and a Lemon shake on the riverside. After a lovely meal overlooking the river we arrived back at our hotel to find our Vietnamese Visa’s had arrived and so we booked our bus to Vietnam for the next morning.  Good morning Vietnam!

Susi clinging on for dear life whilst the driver
is blinded by the rucksack!!!

Our first destination was Saignon (Ho Chi Minh City) and after a very painless border crossing we were met by 1000s and 1000s of scooters.  We had arrived.  I have never seen anything like it, it was chaos and not a highway code rule followed. We got off the bus and there was not a tuk tuk in sight so it meant a scooter journey to our hostel – yes with our 18Kg back packs too!  Ended up racing each other on our taxi scooters and clung on to my wee Vietnamese driver for dear life.  We checked in to an average hostel (hotels being that little bit more expensive in Vietnam) to be reunited with my dear old friends the cockroaches, but it did have aircon and cable TV.  

People watching heaven...

Scooter mania, cross this road if
you dare...

We headed straight out to Bui Vien just down the road to the Back-packers street which was awesome, sampling the Vietnamese Beer – Lees favourite so far (Saigon Green).  The Dalat Red wine is alright too thank goodness.  First impression of Vietnam – Fab.

On our first day we went to the Wartime Remnants Museum, bumping into our Irish buddies we experience the journey from hell with, David and Alison.  

One of the most famous
pictures from the vietnam war...

The museum itself was full of propaganda but unbelievably biased towards the Vietnamese. If you were to believe everything that was written there then senator Bob Kelly is a bad, bad man! It was really interesting though to find out about agent orange and the Cu hi tunnels before we visited them.

Susi and a local exercising in the park...

On the way back we walked via the park to do a bit of exercise and then we went our separate ways for a couple of hours. Me for a bit of pampering and some barber action/pub for Lee. 

 







That evening we met David and Alison again for a small pub crawl up the strip.  Enjoy the rest of Vietnam guys, hope you enjoyed the tunnels! The little shops turn into bars at night with tiny plastic chairs made for kids, they are positioned perfectly for people watching overlooking the narrow street packed with scooters carrying everything from families of four, 10 crates of beer to enough vegetables to feed an army. They also have these wheelchair like bicycles chauffeuring around oversized Americans, very funny.

When in Vietnam...

The strangled vietnamese cats...

The next two days we had organised trips. The first was to the Mekong Delta. It was very relaxing and included activities such as making coconut toffee, seeing how rice paper is made and being flogged Royal Jelly, however it was quite relaxing but somewhat more for the older traveller >50. Over some tasteless dragon fruit and funny looking lychees, the locals performed some traditional music for us and it was shocking! We were all in stitches, tears rolling down my face hoping not to get noticed by the locals. I willingly handed over a tip for the sheer comedy value.

Don't think you'll be needing the glasses down there!!!...

Our next trip was a day visiting the Cu Chi tunnels and a local business set up for victims of agent orange (The chemical used by the americans that caused deformity up to 20 years later). Our guide Jackie was a war veteran and was very passionate about telling the truth as he saw it. Jackie was on the south side and supported the Americans, he was nicknamed Jackie as he looked like Jackie Chan. He was an excellent guide and told us all about the war, the protests, and lots of information the museum didn’t tell us. We arrived at the local business and had an hour to wander around, the workshop they had set up was fantastic and we bought some really nice little pictures they had hand made.

I can breath at last...

The tunnels themselves are unbelievable, over 200km of tunnels dug during the war and that the Americans couldn’t find the Viet cong so they bombed the whole area trying to flush them out. Lee had the nerve to go in one of the original tunnels, it was pitch black, extremely narrow that you had to crawl and he had to feel his way around to get to the end, and was even joined by a few bats along the way.  

Jackie Chan demonstrates the leg trap..

Boys and their toys...

Lee also got to climb into a tank, boys and their toys. Jackie showed us around 20 different traps that were used by the Viet Cong for the Americans. Gruesome! The final bit of the tour was a 200m stretch of tunnels that had been made 10% bigger for tourists with lights along the way. I was a bit scared at first as I’m not the best in confined spaces, but I managed it and was great fun. Cant believe people lived like that for years?  

A great day out all in all, Saigon is a great city to visit.  Forgot to say Vietnamese food is delicious, beats Thai any-day!  Also fruit shakes are delicious and only cost about 40p

After 2 early starts with day activities we decided that we were Mekong’ed out and Citied out and it was time to hit the beach on the South China Sea up to Mui Ne for a few days chill out! (I hear the weather is bad in Europe, but a typhoon is apparently heading our way!)