Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death

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having arrived to the Camobodian capital phnom penh - we visited the killing flieds - very disturbing - loads of mass graves because of the Pol Pot genocide in the 70s and also S21 - a museum which once was a school which was then turned into a POW / concentration camp - gruesome. the locals are amazing - with such a terrible recent history and with corruption still rife in the current government they are so forward looking and happy and the country is literally ameliorating and becoming a force to be reckoned with before your eyes...... Go Team!!

To lighten the load, we went to a international kick boxing match that afternoon. in its setting and time it gave a very underground feel to the whole thing. the place was jammed and the atmosphere was electric. the locals were happy to cheer even if their guy lost if the opposition boxed well which was very sportsmanlike of them....

All this travelling called for a beach holiday so we jumped on a bus to the southwest coast to shanoukville, which seems very unpopulated has real secret hideaway gems to it;
I just chilled out for a couple of days and took the opportunity to update my ipod by 242 albums for the princely sum of $190USD - what a f**king bargain!!! I couldnt live the locality without getting some Dead Kennedys & Kim Wilde.... & with 7GBs left on the ipod im hoping to fill it over the next few weeks!!!

then in order to go to vietnam we had to go back to phnom penh and get a bus from there. so we stayed there over night and then got the bus at 6.45 the next morning. we spent last weekend in saigon (now called ho chi ming city) the difference between both countries is really apparent. Vietnam is becoming a real SE Asian economic powerhouse. Even the physicality of the Vietnamese is strikingly different to the Cambodians - you can see theyre
not on the breadline

we went to the cu chi tunnels there which is an area in the forest near Saigon where some of the war against america was fought. the native insurgents lived in tunnels underground and fought the americans from the tunnels. they'd burrow under the US base to steal their armaments! their resourcefulness was amazing - how they fought & won against such a military powerhouse...
i went down the tunnels for around 100m which was amazing. you kept going down deeper levels and the tunnels kept getting smaller & smaller - my legs still aren't right after it!!!

we also went to the war musuem which was once again horrific.like S21, there is a strong photographic presence to illustrate the absolute atrocities of the period. in the courtyard was various US fighter jets, choppers,tanks, bulldozers etc the physicality & volumes of them & their futility was breathtaking - another disturbing afternoon facing the cleansed
renmants of war

on a brighter note the places are dead cheap here - our cheapest accom was $2 and street food is $1 or less. the local beer which they brew all over the country and which differs from locality to locality Bia Hoi is beer without preservatives and has to be consumed within a day. A glass of which is 10c - beats dutch gold anyday!

presently im in dalat - which is this area up in the mountains
yesterday we rented mountain bikes for $1 for the day and travelled around the countryside - not the brightest idea was the place is soooo f**king hilly and naturally the traffic is crazy here - trucks overtaking buses on blind bends- theres no traffic lights anywhere (theres hardly any in the big cities)
nobody uses their mirrors - if youre overtaking you just hound your horn to tell them to get the f**k out the way - its hilarious!!! and motorbikes everywhere - loads of fun!!!
we went to a waterfall which was cool and got a cable car through the mountains to a lake / temple region - all in all a very active and fulfilling day though my legs are paying for it today!!!

we also went to this place called the crazy house which is very alice in wonderland - its a guest house where each room has a different theme (bamboo room, kangaroo room, etc) all spiral stairs and giant spiderwebs - very groovy!!

anyway that's all me - we head up the coast tomorrow - was thinking of taking in beijing / hong kong on the journey whilst we're right next door so the itinerary is in a constant state of flux!!!

always good to hear from ye all - keep the mails coming

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