Yesterday I had dinner at Cabbages & Condoms. A restaurant of the PDA Population & Community Development Ass. with restaurants and hotels that earn money to provide financial support for education, environmental protection , Hiv/Aids prevention. Its good food and together with the bill you get a condom. Just in case you meet the right girl. The condom has two purposes. - To prevent the girl have your baby long after your flight back. - To prevent you share her diseases. So a Win Win situation. Bangkok has still a lot of traffic. For public transport they are using the old [View Full Entry]

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Had bought a bus ticket Phnom Penh- Bangkok at Sapaco tourist for US$ 22.--Sapaco have no own busses on this route but sells the ticket for a colleque company. Sapaco brought me with a shuttlebus to the Bangkok Bus. Left at 7 oclock. Was the only foreigner again. Bus bit less comfortable than the Vietnamese one. Roads have been improved considerable in Cambodia compared to 8 years ago. Big bridges under construction over the Tonle Sap River and all the small bridges in the road to the border being rebuild of newly built and no signs anymore that only one car [View Full Entry]

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This afternoon I ate Tom Yam Kung a very spicy thai riverprawn soup. Excellent quality. Too late however I remembered that yesterday I saw the river and the water quality was not where I as prawn should like to live. Phnom Penh 1,4 million inhabitants about 20% of Cambodian population. Has not much changed in the last 10 years. Some new buildings not too high. On the route from the border lots of new small schools where children probably in 2 shifts get their lessons. People in Cambodia don t look very happy. I always wonder when I m walking around [View Full Entry]

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Took the 6 o clock coach in Saigon for Phnom Penh. Trip took incl border procedures about 7 hours. Compared to 8 years ago roads in Cambodia, at least route nr 1 from Moc Bai border crossing to Phnom Penh has been improved. 8 years ago it took 6 /7 hours now not even 3. Vietnam as good communist country cannot allow gambling and Casino s on its territory. That s why Cambodia helps out. The Vietnamese just cross the border at Moc Bai and I counted at least 9 huge Hotel/Casino s. Border procedure at the Cambodian side has been [View Full Entry]

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- With the reunification after Nord Vietnam won the american war in 1976 Saigon has been re named into Ho Chi Min City. However in dayly use as long as it s not official it s still Saigon. - It s unbelievelable that they were able within 8 years to destroy big parts of district 1 the centre of Saigon. Big parts of the old city has been demolished and build up new, specially hotels, 5 stars and some shopping malls. It s a pity for this is not Saigon anymore this can be anywhere. - Only the Cathedral, Notre Dame, [View Full Entry]

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Due to the lack of space and the length of the trip I did not buy souvenirs and sometimes that s painful. In my Saigon hotel Liberty 4 however they call stealing buying souvenirs. There is a complete list of all the items you might steal from the room with prices. That starts with the doorlock dong 500.000 via the ashtray dong 20.000 to the boiler dong 1.200.000 So actually you can take at least 20 listed items from the room as long as you pay it when leaving. Had a haircut at the hotelbarber. That worried a bit for it [View Full Entry]

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Joined train SE 3 from Hanoi to Saigon in Danang. In my cabin were a grandmother and granddaugther and a father and his little son, all vietnamese. They had lived already 18 hours in the closed cabin and you could smell it. They were still sleeping at midday and the granddaugther was able to sleep the full 16 hours to Saigon with only one toiletstop and in Saigon she still looked tired. Now I know from a dutch guy living here how they "clean " during the trip the bedsheets and blankets and pillows. In Danang many people get of the [View Full Entry]

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Met yesterday in a restaurant a father( dutch) and his two sons (austrian).The sons owned the restaurant, bit mix between Vietamse and european with a worldfamos, at least in Hoi An, Austrian cook. Good food, good concept only on the wrong side of the river where you only found it by chanche if you crossed the river what no so many people did The boys, mid twenty, were living in Vietnam for almost 4 years but id not speak one word Vietnamese. Father is worse, he lives and works as project developer for 14 years in Saigon and does not speak [View Full Entry]

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Went yesterday evening for massage. Full body massage for not even US7.-- As usual I fell asleep after a few minutes and when I woke up half an hour later or so I wondered what was wrong. I felt too many hands.How come? Still dreaming? I started to count: 2 at the legs, two at the arms two at the shoulders. Than I heard three different voices and saw at the floor at the same time 6 feet. That s how they do it in Hoi An. It s one hour massage with three girls doing the job. Hoy An old [View Full Entry]

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Trang a 14 years old vietnamese girl travelling with her kidbrother and her mother from Hanoi to Danang to see her father said : you can solve all my problems. Meaning that I could help her with her english study during the 18 hours trip. Trang wants to become an interpreter and want to be rich so she can travel all over the world and even to Hoi An, Today it was the first time she travelled and she was very excited to see the sea for the first time in her life. Earlier than expected I saw also again a [View Full Entry]

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