On to Vietnam

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Leaving Cambodia

We finished off Phenom Pehn in style with a night out on the town. We chatted to one of the barmaids in a nearby bar and asked her where the 'hip Cambodians' hang out and we ended up at this excellent club called Sparks with live music and dancers performing in between the dj sets. I heard the best remix of a Shania Twain song ever 😉 and with the help of a few beers we joined in with the chilled out, loose-limbed Cambodian dancing!

Then it was down south to Sihanoukville for a few days on the beach. And although we didn't find the beaches to be as nice as Thailand, we took a worthwhile journey to Ream National Park (where Will showed off his excellent off-road biking skills) and we had an enjoyable, if expensive, night at the casino.

Leaving Cambodia was sad but we were also excited by the thought of new country and we actually managed to get a bus (a miracle for us) direct to Ho Chi Min City where I am right now..

Ho Chi Min City - 12th Sept

HCMC is a vibrant (and very busy) city with a noticably strong Chinese influence. There are good shops and markets and plenty of great restaurants and bars which is always a bonus! Plus everything is so very cheap - even when compared to Cambodia surprisingly. There is also a similarity to Cambodians with their preference for wandering around in pjamas!!

We planted ourselves in the middle of backpacker territory for convenience and then took the "highly recommended" walking tour to familiarise ourselves with the area. After a pleasant stroll around Saigon (the center of HCMC) stopping to check out the Fine Arts Museum, Theatre and Ho Chi Minh Museum we finished the day with a well deserved cold beer. Unfortunately the day was somewhat tainted by seeing a young Japanese tourist have her camera stolen by 2 men on a motorbike. An unwelcome reminder to be on guard when walking around the streets.

We've also been to the Saigon Water Park, where we enjoyed lazing around in the wave pool and zipping down the waterslides. Then yesterday we took a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels where the Viet Cong fought, communicated and lived during the war. We saw some examples of the booby-traps laid for American soldiers and had a chance to actually crawl through part of the tunnel network. It wasn't too bad as the tunnels had been widened for tourists but it just gave us a glimpse of how the VC travelled around the area unnoticed.

As some light relief in the evening we went out for a slap up meal (even going all out only costs about twenty quid) and then on to possibly the best bar I have ever been to. Carmen is a Spanish style bar with live music performed by some extremely talented musicians, particularly one of the singers who actually brought a tear to my eye. A fantastic evening and totally worth the hangover I have today!!

Our plan at the moment is to set off tomorrow to Dalat to do some mountain trekking (wish me luck) then to work our way up the coast by train to Hanoi.

Bye for now x

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Photos

Tunnel Entrance
The actual tunnel does get smaller than this!