Cambodia to Vietnam: Rainy Seasons, Crazy Driving and Vietnamese Hangovers

---

Gene Kelly would have his Umbrella out and his dancing shoes on, were he here. Instead we decided to visit the internet cafe rather than get drenched in a Vietnemese "shower". You find us in Mui Ne on the South East coast of Vietnam after what seems like an eternity since we last wrote in Phnom Penh. We've cancelled our trip to the sand dunes this afternoon and rearranged for a sunrise tour. Those who know Sarah well will not wish to be in my shoes at 4:45 when I wake her up!

So what have we done? We spent a couple more days in Phnom Penh before moving on. We actually really started to like the place: once you get past the fairly constant "you want Tuk Tuk, Moto", the place has a really nice atmosphere to it. The Tuol Sleng museum and the Killing Fields were fairly humbling experiences. The former being an ex school turned S21 prison of the Khmer Rouge, a place where men, women and children were tortured and imprisoned. All but 7 of the inmates were then moved to a quiet village on the outskirts of PP (now called the killing fields) where 17000 bodies were dumped in mass graves. It's not so much what you see in these places, but what you know occurred; it was quite a strange sensation to see a mass of butterflies and wild flowers grow on the sight of these mass graves.

Probably slightly inappropriately :-) I then decided to have a trip to the Shooting Range. Just on the outskirts of PP, I armed myself with an AK47 and had 25 shots at some terrorist resembling target. As Sarah looked on in what i liked to think was admiration or adoration (more likely confusion or even pity) i fired all 25 bullets into Carlos. I was impressed if Sarah wasn't. On a serious note though (this blog seems to have a few of these already), it is scary, one, how easy it must be to have guns in the country (let's just say they weren't exactly locked away) and two, how easy the AK was to shoot. You then think about 14 year old boys (and girls) carrying these in war-torn places around the world!

The next day we went to a local orphanage (armed with a sack of rice!). It was nice to see and the kids were fantastic and friendly as we chatted and saw some of the work they do. Sarah was befriended (or should i say jumped on and clung to) by a little girl as I saw some of the work they did in classrooms. 114 kids in a small compound is still sad to see, but even more humbling to think is that these kids were probably a fair bit better off than some kids with parents who live on the streets in abject poverty. After this we went to the Royal Palace (all of 1/2 km away). A series of temples and state artefacts, lined with gold, silver and gems - what a contrast to what we'd just seen.

We then headed south, where we made our own way (via bus and moto) along the coast to Kep, Kampot and Sihanoukville. Kep was a bit of a washout (apparently in rainy season it does actully rain quite a lot) and we decided to skip the highlight of Rabbit Island for a bottle of wine and a really nice dinner. Then onto Kampot via 2 motos - an interesting half hour trip with backpacks, rucksacks, and 2 people to a bike. Here we had a Moto tour (this time 3 on one bike inc. driver) to some caves. This road was so potholed it looked like a teenagers skin, "this road's dry in the dry season you know" we were informed - no s@it. Anyway the caves were dull but the journey was fantastic. We saw the real Camboia. Driving through little villages and seeing the wooden farms, ox pulling ploughs, people working in the rice fields and the hundreds of little kids waving and shouting "hello". I felt a bit like royalty, but i guess the Queen would likely choose a different mode of transport and would probably object to the mud splattered back - although what an image.

The next day will go down in my memory for a long time to come. We had a trip to Bokor National Park (a beautiful park, with semi-rainforest jungle, tigers, wild elephants, waterfalls, views for miles and an old abandoned town (once inhabited by the French and then the Khmer Rouge)). Well that's what we could have seen.... instead we made the 2 hour, 4wd drive journey (i think the track would be better called a river bed than a road) to the top of the hills in what could be described as heavy precipitation. This would have been bad enough, but some of us (i'm not bitter) had to sit in the back of the pickup, completely exposed to said, "it is like you say Piss is it not" as our friendly guide pointed out. As my 2 rainjackets effectively gave way to the rain - how did it get through? - we reached the top and saw little more than nothing as the clouds and horizontal rain were rudely blocking our view. We did see a couple of abandoned buidlings, which did look quite eerie in the cloud, but didn't hang around too long as the rain swept through. The highlight was lunch (it was warm) and our guide's interesting choice of jokes and phrases (i wasn't aware "Fruitcake" can be used as a term for homosexuality) - not sure who he picked them up from but i wasn't aware of the Khmer for "is that politically correct". We didn't stick around too long at the top and headed back down (still getting soaked in the back of the truck i might add). Oh, i almost forgot, we broke down on the way back for an hour (i'm surprised we lasted that long, with the state of the road) but at this point the rain made no difference. Once we got to the bottom, the other pickup decided to break down too (the smell was a little disconcerting) and we ended up with 12 in the back of our pickup: not for long however as our truck decided no way was it carrying that load and broke down for a second time. So soaked to the skin and 2 pickup trucks abandoned later we made it via minibus to the river for a sunset (less sun that you'd expect to see at such an event) and that was it. An interesting day (although a good laugh in many ways) - with the icing on the cake of a cold shower when we returned to the Guest House. At least the incessant mosquitoes gave me a break that day!

Kampot seemed quite pleasant despite the rain, but we moved on to Sihanoukville further along the coast. A busy coastal resort which seems quite popular with Cambodians and travellers alike. We stayed right on the beach and had some fun in the surf as the slightly indifferent weather of late had caused some good waves (it didn't rain so much here). We also visited the Ream National Park for a day via boat: that was nice enough and we actually had some sun! Then it was back to Phnom Penh, where we went up to the Lakeside for dinner (this is the main traveller place to stay) - it was alright but we preferred our guest house in the centre of town.

And that was it for Cambodia. Such a poor country and you just hope that those who govern start to invest in the future. We saw a lot of poverty, but through this comes great drive, resourcefulness and above all friendliness.

And so to Vietnam. We got the bus and despite a little scam at the border (some bloke in a uniform who took our passports, only to fill in the entry form and charge us a dollar. A dollar and 2 incorrectly filled in forms later did we realise we could do this ourselves as we had to anyway!) it all went smoothly and we arrived in Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City. We found this really nice little guest house run by Mrs Long (aptly named "Long's Guest House"). This was basically her house with two extra rooms. All this for about half the price of bigger alternatives.

The next day we headed into HCMC on foot. We headed for the Reunification Palace, Notre Dame, some Pagoda somewhere and the War Crimes Museum. The War Crimes museum portrayed the US actions in the Vietnam War: the weapons, tactics, methods and chemicals used. Interesting stuff and although obviously one sided accounts, an eye opener to what went on at the time. One thing to say about Saigon though is that the traffic is nuts! You've heard about plague of Locusts - this is definately a plague of scooters - and they come out of nowhere!! I think anyone who drives, has the middle name "danger" (which we found out fairly quickly when we got a moto) and driving across juntions, wrong side of the road, anywhere you like just seems the norm. So after our Crystal Maze like experience of touring Saigon by foot (you have to cross roads at some point and i'm not sure that traffic lights aren't just for show) we headed for dinner. Fantastic restaurant with make your own beef (we BBQ'd this) rice pancakes. Despite the restaurant staff seemingly trying to repress laughter as we tried to make and then eat (with any sort of manners) these pancakes we had a really nice dinner. Then to a bar where we drank on these tables made of aquariums. As we sat sipping cocktails above what seemed like a fairly large crocodile we decided we liked Saigon (if you can escape the crazy scooters) - it seems quite westernised, with a fair amount of space and decent architecture, nice restaurants and bars. Based on our experience we preferred it to Bangkok.

The next day we headed on a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels - a network of tunnels occupied by the VietCong in the war - basically 200km of tiny tiny tunnels that they used to live and hide in. You get to go in a bit of the network (made a bit bigger for us fat western tourists) and they are small and very claustrophobic. An interesting day. The next day we went to the Mekong Delta on a one day tour. This turned out to be a short boat tour and a couple of fairly touristy stops to see local crafts. Not really my thing as you don't really see anything of how people actually live but a relaxing enough day. And to celebrate just that (any excuse will do) we decided to dive into the Vietnamese wine that night. A considerable amount of $2 a bottle wine and some terrible dancing later and we stumbled to bed (although neither of us can really remember that part of the night) - the bus journey at 7.30 was a challenge!

So we began our journey up north with a hangover yesterday. First stop was Mui Ne and tomorrow we're onwards again. Although not necessarily the best way to see the whole country (local buses or even motorbike riders are better), we opted for an open bus ticket all the way up (you can go on to the next place any day you like) as they're so cheap and for our limited time very handy. So that's us so far and it's still raining (2 hours later) so I'm thinking a couple o' beers and then an early night - a possible sunrise awaits.

Once again thanks to all those who've sent messages and comments, sorry if we haven't replied to them all, but we have not actually been on the internet that much! But please keep up as we like to know what's going on because unless you make the BBC news headline page we just wouldn't know - that isn't a challenge Shaggy!

Lots of Vietnamese bows and kisses

Jonny and Sarah

---

Photos

Drowned
A Bokor style drenching

Cambodian Cow!
MOOOOOOOOOOOO

"now don't get stuck"
Cu Chi Tunnels - not for the Mcdonalds fans

Comments

[Bennie]

aquarium resturaunt
Wow where excatly was the aquarium restraunt. that sounds cool. I will be in vietnam in 3 weeks, would love to go.

[Amelia]

Keep them coming!
Wow these updates are amazing - it's great to hear all your news. Glad it's going well. Lots and lots of love XXX

[Jonny and Sarah]

Hi Bennie, if you get this before you get to Vietnam then the aquarium bar is in Saigon. It's called Sango Aquarium Cafe on D Thai Van Lung. It's in Lonely Planet if you have it. A bit more expensive but well worth it for the novelty factor!!