“Even in this 20th century, on Kampuchean soil the clique of Pol Pot criminals had committed a heinous genocidal act. They massacred the population with atrocity in a large scale, it was more cruel than the genocidal act committed by Hitler fascists. With the commemorative stupa in front of us, we imagine that we are hearing the grievous voice of the victims who were beaten by Pol Pot men with canes, bamboo stumps or heads of hoes, and of the ones who were stabbed with knives or swords. Imagining the horrifying scenes and the panic. Stricken faces of the people who were dying of starvation, forced labour or torture without mercy upon their skinny bodies. They died without giving the last words to their kith and kin. How much pain those victims were in when they ... read more

22.11.08 Km travelled 18822 It's raining so hard that I'm really glad we decided to leave this morning. As usual we have to wait a while for the bus to come. For us has been an incredibly long and boring day on the slowest bus ever in the world. We spent ridiculous money for a lunch we didn't order and didn't even finish, plus the bus wasted a lot of time in unjustified stops every hour. We'd been told it was going to take eight hours and it took twelve. But fortunately the landscape was very beautiful along the way and despite the rain, our arrival in Sai Gon has been the warmest we ever had. At Madam Cuc's hotel we're offered a seat, juice and fruit. We have a rest and then we check in. ... read more

17.11.08 Km travelled 17982 We've been sleeping almost all night. It means it wasn't that bad at the end. When I open my eyes we're still one hour from Hué. We're all still half asleep. When the bus parks, in a place that looked like anything apart from a bus station, we grab our bags and get off. A young guy wearing an helmet is holding a sign with my name and the one of the hotel. I wave at him and he helps us picking up our stuff and put it on a van. We jump on and in few minutes we're at the hotel. We are shown a spacious room with two double beds for 15$. It's perfect. We settle in. we can have a shower and get ready. It would be nice to ... read more

14.11.08 Km travelled 17252 The start of the day hasn't been very fortunate. But you can't always tell the day from its start. We woke up very early to have some breakfast and make to sure to be ready to leave by 8.00. The breakfast room was very busy and we had to wait to be served. Obviously we wouldn't have rushed if we knew that then we would have had to wait more than half an hour for the bus to come and pick us up. I was already getting quite nervous, as we knew that to get to Ha Long it was going to take us at least three and half hours. When we found ourselves on the edge of desperation the guy that had to pick us up stepped into the hotel. We ... read more

2.11.08 We woke up early this morning, with the only purpose of going to see Ho Chi Minh. The ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Complex closes at 11.00, so if you plan a visit you' ll need to be there early. We weren't actually planning to visit the whole complex, but still, we wanted to walk there, which took us some time. The third (or fourth including Stalin, even if you can't actually see him) embalmed communist hero on our way, we really couldn't miss it. Considering the fact that, with all respect that Vietnamese people have for him, he as well didn't want to be embalmed. We walked around the complex area fenced by guards to keep people at a distance. We got to a point south where it seemed like you could pass, but there ... read more