Advertisement
Published: September 11th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Hi All,
More stories from our travels:
Thurs 30th Aug - Tues Sep 4th - Sihanoukville
Sihanoukville was not as we had hoped. It was very touristy and the beach wasn't the best. However with a $20 a night hotel including breakfast with the most amazing views looking out to the ocean and the best ever seafood restaurant next door we stop for 5 nights. The first day I decide to expose my lovely white scottish skin to the elements on the beach. Within 5 minutes of arriving I was surrounded by 4 women, one filing my nails, the other threading my legs, one pleading me to have a pedicure and the other just wanted to watch. Humphrey couldn't believe his eyes. My beach bed had been transformed into a beauty parlour and I don't even remember saying yes to any of them. Anyway by day 2 I had learned my lesson and low and behold they moved onto Humphrey. However Humphrey didn't quite fancy having his nails manicured, so kindly told them no thanks but they stayed back for a chat nonetheless. There was not much chance of getting any peace on this beach that's for sure. The following
day we take a trip to Ream National Park. A small boat takes us up the river through the lush green jungle and then into the open sea. We are then dropped at a deserted sandy beach for a swim in the sea. Bliss. Then it was a hike through the jungle, passing through thick forest then a few small remote villages before reaching where our lunch was being prepared for us by the guide, fresh barracuda being cooked on the log fire of one of the locals. The trip back upstream was amazing, Humphrey was of course bird watching and i sat back and watched the world go by! After reading our guidebook we decide to be adventurous and not take the most common route into Vietnam from Cambodia - Phnom Penh to HCMC(Saigon). Instead we try out the newly opened border to tourists 3 hours south of Sihanoukville. So we leave Sihanoukville on Tues 4th Sep and take a taxi one and half hours south east to Kampot.
Wed 5th - Frid 7th Sept - Kampot
Kampot is a small town set by a River, main attractions are the Bokor National Park and a seaside resort close
by called Kep. On arriving we decide to hire a moped and set off into the countryside following the river until we reach some amazing rapids. The drive is amazing passing rice paddy field after paddy field, seeing true rural life in Cambodia, basic, primitive living existing on the natural resources which exist around them. We then decide to watch one of the hotel's many DVD's (bootleg of course) collection. We opt for 'the Killing Fields' (as we had been to visit them) , (for those who know me well, in the end only Humphrey watched the film from beginning to end, I as usual fell asleep!! ) the next day we took the moped to gorgeous Kep. Once again the trip was amazing. All the locals waved as we passed by, I think it was not very common for them to see the white girl and black man driving through this remote part of Cambodia. On arriving in Kep apart from the crab market, of which Kep is famous for, we decide to hire a boat to take us across to Rabbit Island. 40 minutes by boat and we arrive at this peaceful picturesque island with only 6 other
tourists along with the local residents. We spend the day swimming, snorkelling, sunbathing and of course eating the local prawns saving the crab for the crab market on the way home. Humphrey got to finally wear his the kilt on this day!!! The next day we visit Bokor National Park, which we have nicknamed backsore National Park. The road, if you could call it that was so bad. The Hill station, built by the French in the 1920's which was on top of the mountain took 3 hours to get to on the back of a pick up truck. The most uncomfortable trip of our life. We managed to break the first truck after 2 hours, hiked part of the way and waited for the next truck to arrive to take us our final leg of the journey to the top. At the top we then have the most bizarre experience which we get caught in the middle of the crossfire, no need to worry it turned out the Cambodian army were in training. We end the day with a sunset cruise along the river back to our hotel.
Frid 7th Sept - Vietnam
The next day we head
to the border by taxi. As we get on the dirt track road after half hour in taxi, we double check the taxi driver has understood where we want to go. yes yes he replies this is the road to the border. A dirt track road surrounded by salt and rice paddy fields takes us to the border, bizarre!! 10 mins from the border a moped driver drives up alongside taxi and touts for the business to take us the 8km drive from the border into Hat Tien. So we agree a price and him and his friend with rucksacks balanced carefully on the bikes take us into Vietnam and to our destination. Ha Tien by the stares we were getting doesn't see many tourists. We stumble across a friendly local who spoke English and volunteers him and his friend to show us the sights of Ha Tien. So we are off again on the back of another 2 strangers mopeds being shown around the town of Ha Tien. In the evening we decide to sample our first Vietnamese local cuisine at a roadside cafe. With no common language they bring us samples of food on a plate for us to choose what it is we want to eat. We received many stares and lots of laughs and in the end not quite sure which animal it was we ate but it was worth the experience.
Sat 8th Sept - Mon 10th Sept - Ho Chi Min City (Saigon)
Our friendly moped drivers pick us up at 6.30am and take us to catch the bus to HCMC. It's an 8 hour journey but the trip through the Mekong Delta is stunning. Our first glimpse of HCMC is blocked by the haze of smog, not a good first impression. The traffic is chaos, there are 5 million mopeds in HCMC, enough said!! It is much worse than the infamous Bangkok, the moped drivers resort to the pavement if it means getting them through the traffic. We sample the delights of the night market Red Snapper, yum yum and explore the many stalls of Vietnamese goodies. The following day, we explore the city initally by foot and then by the 3 wheeled cyclo. Great fun, but then the guys think they can rip us off. Our fault we make the BIG mistake of not agreeing the price upfront. Big lesson learned. The next day we visit Cao Dai temple followed by the Cu Chi tunnels. Another day seeing the pain of war unfold before your very eyes.
Not much else to do and see in Saigon so we head off onto new pastures.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.095s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 11; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0543s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dolina
non-member comment
HCMC
Hey pal you not get the experience of the prositutes and a good night of drinking and singing? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha