Phnom Penh of Cambodia

Ok a little history lesson for you to start with. In a nutshell Cambodia has some really troubled history that dates back only 30 years ago. In 1975 the khymer rouge, led by Pol Pot began the genocidal destruction of their own country in an attempt to wipe out all other political campaigns that opposed them. This includes the imprisonment and execution of 17,000 Cambodians, most of whom were family of the said parties, so that the future generations would not fight back. We visited the S21 prison, that once was a high school, but was transformed to hold the kymers prisoners captive. Classrooms were turned into cell blocks and torture chambers and the halls were used for mass incarceration. It is said that upto 100 people were killed here each day while the masses were being detained. Little of the building has been tampered with since its use in the 70's so it is clear to see the nightmare that those people had to live their final days through.

We also visited Choeungek, better known these days as the killing fields. This is where the prisoners were transported to (about 15km away from the prison and center) executed in the thousands. There were grave sites, that had been excavated and in one in particular over 1000 human skulls had been removed from an area the size of half a tennis court. All these skulls have been placed inside a huge monument dedicated to those people and you are free to see and even touch the skulls (I have no idea why?) The most disturbing images we witnessed were of tiny babies being swung by the legs into tree trunks and added to the body count. Walking around the grave sites it is clear to see the remains of human skeletons on the surface of the ground, real disturbing stuff.

Since those days Cambodia has worked damn hard to reclaim its name as a nation. The people here were unbelievably friendly especially our friend DJ. He was a tuk-tuk driver who took us around on our sightseeing day, and boy was he a character. He told us how he was pissed off that porn was banned and had been blocked on the net in Cambodia, this really upset him. He also explained the difference between BOOM!-BOOM! (sex) and BA-BOOM! (rockets). Great teacher.


Being in Cambodia we took the opportunity to go to a shooting range where me and Abbie fired an M16 assault rifle. She hit a big fat zero out of 5. And I nailed 8 out of ten on the targets. She claims that she was aiming for my target, the video tells us otherwise, haha. But it was great fun. We passed on the option of shooting a rocket launcher at a live cow, it was too bloody expensive.

Our guesthouse, the drunken frog, was a lovely little spot with bamboo huts built above the lakeside, and a bar/lounge area also over the lake. It was a great spot to watch the sun go down.

I also checked out the central palace, Maj couldn't get in because he had a vest on, and he would scare the royal family. He didn't miss much except some beautifully decorated golden buildings. The area surrounding the palace was really nice though, again, next to the Mekong river, it was defiantely where the money was being spent in Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4544100011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Vietnam Summary

Days travelled- 25 days (3 weeks, 4 days)

Distance travelled- Approx. 3243 km (2026 miles)

Hours on transport- 76 hours (3 days, 4 hours)

Destinations- 11

Top 3

3 - Hoi'an - Even though we had a lot of crap here from the locals, you have got to appreciate the beauty of the beaches in Hoi'an. Especially as it was our first since our days in India. The nightlife here was really great too, just dont mess with the local mafia, they'll knock you over the head with a bike helmet, or even worse a louis vuitton man bag!

2 - Halong Bay - Very close to taking the number one spot. We referred to this place as the Yangshuo of the sea. We had a really fun group to take in the experience with, which made everything that little bit better. It was such a good cruise. But again, its unlike anything in the world, a real unique destination.

1 - Phu Quoc Island - This was just paradise here. The guesthouse we managed to stay in was the best, and we paid so little for it. Making the short walk to the beach in the morning with a lipton ice tea (lemon of course) and good book to pass the time and your doing some serious chilling. Caution. Watch out for jellyfish.

Final Advice
We were warned numerous times about the scams that can go down in Vietnam, so we were extra cautious here. Especially when it comes to drugs and alchohol the locals and the police will try to trick you into trouble and make you pay a fine. Luckily we were not cheated whilst we were there. The roads are extremely dangerous here and its rare to go on a long road trip without seeing some form of acccident. The people here were friendly in the more rural areas of Vietnam, but in the big tourist spots you can get some pretty rude and unwelcoming sorts, which isnt too nice. On a better note, the country has some great things to offer, from its sights like Halong Bay to its cuisine. The North is very different to the South, with the South being favoured in our opinion. English is very widely spoken in Vietnam as is French, with it once being run by them. Once we have visited other countries in South-East Asia we will be able to compare it to the rest.

The old capital-Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

We spent most of Saturday travelling back to the old capital and when we did get there, we were shattered so some food and it was time to spend some time with my bed. We already spent a couple of days here, before we visited Can Tho, to say our goodbyes to Jeff Burns (Elliot), Arab (Nadine) and monkey boy (Gee) and because we had to come back here, we moved on straight away.

Now we're here to do the sightseeing and main thing we wanted to see was Cu Chi tunnels, which we booked through the guesthouse and ended up going with a huge tour group, which are never good because everything is scheduled. Our tour guide, Bang spoke decent enough broken English to understand if you really concentrated. The first 20 minute of the tour was with Bang speaking about himself and the Vietnamese tradition. The one that we loved the most was that the man is allowed to marry another woman after 3 years if she hasn't given birth to a boy, so he told us that he knew a guy who had 9 wives and each wife shares responsibility of looking after this one kid -PIMPING.

I've always wondered how a country so small as Vietnam defeated America in their own backyard and visiting these tunnels answered this question for me. The booby traps, the bombs they developed and the Cu Chi tunnels they made just baffled the Americans and this system obviously worked. We saw the tunnels they had to get through, they were 40 cm wide and 80cm high-just enough space for a skinny Vietnamese. They even had a hospital and a kitchen that was underground, so they could hide under there for a while. We were able to go through some tunnels that were 5 x bigger than the normal size and even that was a struglle for westerneres, especially a big lad like me.

We came back to Saigon for 2pm and had booked a bus to Cambodia (Pnom Penh) at 3pm-no messing about! We got there around 9pm and got hassled by tuk tuk drivers straight away and for some reason, even though their currency is Rial, they prefer to use US dollars, which is weird but thats they way it goes I suppose.

Ho Chi Minh photo link:
http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4299977011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Phu Quoc-ing Island

Phu Quoc Island is a small island off the mainland of South Vietnam and it seemed that this was the place to go if you wanted to be part of the cool kids. We had to get a speedboat across to the island, which took 2hr 30min and cost 250,000 Dong, which was a lot more expensive then we thought it was gonna be. Once we got to the island, finding a budget guesthouse was hard work and in the end we stayed at a holiday resort, on the beach that had bamboo bungalows for $10 (RESULT). The guy did try charging us more once he realised he missed out on the opportunity, but with me and Danny being tight gets and from Sheffield, he had no chance!

The beaches on this island are so lush so the first day was dedicated to the beach. I know it seems like we've been doing lots of this lately but come on, we did travel China and it was freezing for 2 and a half months. The sea was full of jellyfish so I was a bit reluctant to swim in there, especially when some local guy pulled out the biggest jellyfish I've ever seen with a poxy stick. On our second day there, we hired some motorbikes and rode to south of the island, to see all the mini islands and then rode up to Sao beach from there. Sao beach was definatley the nicest beach I've ever seen with white sand, clear water with fish swimming around you and the water was so warm-sounds good ey? Obviously we stayed here for a while, had something to eat and made our way further up the island. Our aim was to get to the north of the island but I got a puncture on the way and had to push my bike for a little while to the garage to get it fixed. As I got off to check my tyre, I burned the side of my leg against the exhaust of the motorbike so I was in some pain for a while, until the guy brought out some Colgate toothpaste and put it on my burn, which took the sting away. These guys don't need the NHS-just toothpaste. Unfortunatley we didn't make it to the north but the ride around the island was beautiful. The roads are still dirt tracks and have old school wooden bridges to get across, however they are just starting to tarmac the roads, which will definately take the edge away of it once being a small island with a small population.

The last day on the island and these white people wanted to tan up. Yes i do tan and burn but I'm almost to my limit so I went for a walk down the beach listening to my ipod. The walk made me realise how many resorts there were but only on a small section of Long beach but there was still loads of the beach, which was empty, so you definately need to make it to this island before it turns into a definate tourist attraction. You can see construction going on around the island and with the roads being tarmacced, I think they have serious plans for this island.

Phu Quoc Island Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4460292011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Can Tho, Mekong Delta Style

With us making our way towards the island of Phu Quoc in the southwest of 'Nam, it only made sense to stop off at one of the local towns within the Mekong Delta. The point where the Mekong River (12th largest in the world) makes its way into the South China sea through a large number of distributaries. If you interested the River started its long 3,050m journey from the Tibetan Plateau.

Can Tho and the surrounding area are famous for the floating markets that are all over the Mekong Delta. Instead of taking the easy (but considerably more expensive) way of seeing the markets, by booking a tour through the hostel, we decided to make our own way there. Oh, and at this point its just Abbie left with us. We had said our goodbyes to Elliot, Gee and Nadine in Ho Chi Minh on the previous day, but we will be returning there, so Maj is going to write about it all in one blog.

We got some biker boys to take us to the floating market vicinity and from there we took a walk along the villages by the river to try and get someone to sail us through the markets. It didnt take long for a reasonable offer to come our way, so we followed this guy to what looked like his home and we waited for the boat to arrive. The house was built above the edge of the river bank, and some of the floorboards looked really unsafe, plus it had really unstable roofing and there were no doors, just open spaces in the walls (now this was ghetto) cannot imagine having to live there.

While we were waiting, a girl dropped her detergent in the river at the back of the house near the little dock-thing. She climbed on top of a floating crate to reach for the detergent and in slow motion fell backwards into the water (hilarious at the time) she came out looking so embarrassed, especially with the tourists above her laughing their heads off.



We went on the boat and took a small cruise down the river to another boat that was stationed in the middle of the river along with a tonne of other boats. On board we were giving some watermelon to munch on and we basically just sat there in the shade chilling out with some locals. The conversation was non-stop. We arrived pretty late so most of the shops (boats) had closed up for the day and moved on. We did a get a basic gist of what the place was about so thats all we needed. When we got back to the same little home we walked through earlier. The young man there put on a home video of his late fathers final days. He looked really badly on the video, bedridden, and all of his friends and family were bringing him there wishes and love. It was the strangest thing to show some strangers but like I said before the attitude towards death in these countries is completely different to our own.

Can Tho Photo Link:
http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4301013011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Back to the hills in Dalat

The second of our visits to Vietnams French Hill stations. This time in Dalat. It was cool to see the differences between a northern and southern Vietnamese hill station. Here there were less tribal villages and more of a farming scene, where the locals grow exotic flowers, produce silk and grow coffee to aid the countries income from overseas trade.
We decided to book a tour to see all that Dalat had to offer, and it turned out to be a very tiring day. The tour started by visiting the flower gardens out in the country, where there main product was the rose. It was interesting to see how the flowers are snipped, their heads carefully wrapped then bundled together in order to be sent across the world to destinations such as the U.K, Holland, France and the Czech Republic. It was also funny watching Maj and Elliot being little gays, taking the most close-up shots of these flowers ever, I think they were competing.




Our second stop was at the coffee plantations. Here we tasted freshly picked coffee beans, which look nothing like what you'd think before they're roasted. It was here where I ran through the biggest cobweb ever and had the biggest yellow spider attached to me. I'm not that fearfull of spiders but that mo'fo' was terrifying, I just thought it was poisonous. The guide told me it wasn't. Then Gee, threw a coffee bean at my head and I nearly had a heart attack, thanks for the support ya prick. We went to a local cafe and tried the coffee, it was mighty strong, but tasted real good. My likeness of coffee has definatly improved since traveling. We found out that after the United States and Brazil, Vietnam is the 3rd largest exporter of coffee.
Stop number three took us to a silk producing factory. Here they had a collection of silk worms who make their cocoons out of a delicate material which is transferred into silk through a long process. Each cocoon gave off around 1 km of silk. Another fact for you.



Stop four was to the local rice wine factory, where they brewed and distilled they're own alcohol. We got to have a taste of the final product and it was ghastly. A real nose burner. For some reason there were pigs dotted around the factory, must be a special ingredient. I became more interested in taking pictures of the piggies.

Stop five was a quick visit to a cricket farm where we ate some battered crickets. We also sacrificed a cricket to a spider and watched him take the effort to spin up his prey, then the tour guide took the cricket down and freed him. The spider was well pissed.

The next stop was to visit a waterfall and a surrounding Buddhist temple, with another big Buddha statue. Standard ting nowadays.

Our final stop was to see some crazy 'Alice in Wonderland' style hotel/house. It was really strange, but great to explore. Made a nice end to a great day.

Dalat Photo Link:

http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4299721011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Nha Trang and the islands

Nha Trang is known for it's beaches, party atmosphere and the neighboring islands. We spent the first day there relaxing or what you white people call 'getting a tan' but for the second day we booked a boat tour to the islands. It cost us $5, which included visiting 4 islands, snorkeling and dinner.

Our first stop was at the aquarium, which was very small considering how many animals were in the water tank but had something interesting animals that I've never seen before. The 2nd island we visited was for the snorkeling (again another first for me) and after me getting used to the crap gear, I realized how poor this snorkeling area was with only seeing a small handful of fish. The third stop was on the boat for lunch with an island in view (apparently that counted as the third). The food was nice with a mixture of sea food and traditional Vietnamese food. After food, there was a karaoke session and a floating bar, which required people to get off their arse and jump into the sea. The staff on the boat had limited English but they knew the words 'it's fucking minging', probably some English tourist sharing their words of wisdom. The last stop was another island but this was dedicated to sun bathing, which we could have done on the normal beach, so we just sat in hammocks and chilled for a couple of hours.

The last day was again dedicated to sun bathing (these white people need a lot of sun to get brown as me) so noting much happened on that day. Me and Elliot went to play pool in the evening and discovered the real billiards, which we couldn't work out so we stuck to pool. He gets really competetive and thinks he can beat me but always bottles it in the end!

Nha Trang photo link:

http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4299227011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/