Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City, as its now called)

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Hey again - once again, its raining outside, so I thought I'd catch up with the blogging a bit.

After a very uneventful week, we left Mui Ne, and headed down to Saigon. Saigon was cool, but when we first arrived, it was a bit much - Mui Ne is such a sleepy little place, and Saigon definatly isn't.

Anyway, we stayed in the backpacker area of the city, and had a bit of a heavy night the evening we got there - randomly bumped into a couple of Swiss lads that we met in Laos again, so we ended up spending some time with them.

The next day, we went to the War Remnants Museum, which housed a load of old US helicopters, tanks and guns left over from the war. But it also had a section detailing the atrocities of the US forces during the war - some of the photo's and stories were pretty bad.

We also visited the Cu Chi tunnels that the Viet Cong used to creep around underground. Went into one of these, and it was a pretty tight squeeze - the guide later told us that the one we tried was twice the size of the original too. Presumably they got fed up of prising westeners out of the really small tunnels. Also saw a load of the VC's traps, which were vicious - lots of spikes and pits.

The same day, we went to see a church of the most random religion - called Cao Dai, its a combination of Buddism, Hinduism, Taoism (?), and Chrisianity. Completly nuts - only got set up in the 20's, by some lunitic who had a dream. Very odd, but colourful at least.

Found some great places to eat in the city too - several rooftop bars and things. Ther guys that I am currently travelling with went a bit nuts, and boaught a load of artwork and clothes. I think Ro may be a wee bit over budget now...

When we left Saigon, we went on a quick tour of the Mekong Delta, the land to the south of the city. Actually, nothing particilarly impressive in the area, bar a good sunset and a crocodile farm that we visited.

The main point of the tour was to get us over to Cambodia. Which we did fairly sucessfully - my damp, faded passport and visa again got me over the border, after they photocopied it and gave it a once over. Most of the journey was done by boat, and it is very hot down here - when it isn't raining it is really humid and warm. Needless to say, we all needed a shower after we made it to Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh is very different to any of the other Asian cities that we have visited so far - apart from anything else, it is a lot poorer, and the roads aren't good - lots of dust and rubbish everywhere.

That said, its still a nice place, with some good things to see. Like in Saigon, lots of the sights are war related - although, in Cambodia, it generally concerns the Khmer Rouge's extermination of thousands and thousands of people during the mid seventies. Anyone who was educated, spoke a foreign language, or anyone who had ever left, or expressed a wish to leave, Cambodia were forced into various 'security' offices (which were nothing more then prisons and torture rooms), before being sent to the killing fields to be killed and dumped into mass graves.

We have visited both S-21 (the main security office, which used to be a school) and the killing fields. It was all very interesting, but made for a pretty depressing day. So, to cheer us up, we went Go-Carting, and then went to a shooting range - we used an AK-47 and a handgun. Great fun! After that we were all pretty much cheered up.

Today, we met up with some other frineds we met in Laos, so tonight I imagine we will be haveing a couple of drinks. Tomorrow, we head off to Sihanoukville, on the coast.

Anyway, hope everyone is well. As usual, time is flying past here - less than 7 weeks left to go now, I think. And so much left to do...

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Photos

Skulls of the dead at the killing fields
There was a tower of these, about 4 stories high, filled with just skulls discovered in mass graves