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Published: November 26th 2009
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We left crummy Dalat behind wishing we’d never bothered and headed straight for the Vietnamese coast to a town called Mui Ne. The bus journey was much like all the rest, long, hot, the bus driver trying hard to travel at the fastest speed possible and no toilet stops. On arrival we were greeted by the bluest of sunny blue skies and tallest palm trees beautifully placed along the seas edge, wonderful. We quickly came to realise that Mui Ne is a holiday resort and one that is aimed at the wealthier traveling westerner. As such there is an abundance of nice restaurants, spas, dress shops and bars, the streets are also lined with a nicely laid pavement unlike much of the rest of Vietnam.
We chose a hotel at the budget end of the scale but still with a pool and rooms lapped by the tide. Days were spent swimming and playing ‘wall ball’ in the pool and wandering the town in the late afternoon. We quickly fell into a nice little routine, frequenting a rather fabulous dining establishment for breakfast and a good ol’ English grub restaurant for dinner. After 5 months of Asian cuisine there was nothing
more pleasing than a menu including Heinz and Pukka pies, as well as ‘home made cider’ (cava and apple juice!!). We found an 18 hole mini golf nearby and played a round of this one evening and entered Andy into a poker tournament another evening. One day was spent at Mui Ne's 'White Sand Dines' a few miles from town. They are pretty impressive, much like being in the desert, only sand for miles around and lots of kids selling plastic sheets to slide down on! Before we knew it we’d spent 7 days like this and our visa deadlines were looming.
The 12th of November and off to HCMC or Saigon as it is still known to the locals. We arrived in the city around lunch time and got ourselves a suitably shabby hotel room in the heart of the backpacker region. Along our journey we’d been warned several times that HCMC was very busy and after our scooter dodging exploits in Hanoi I rather wondered if we’d leave HCMC in one piece. However, it seems that the warnings were uncalled for and it was no more difficult to cross the road here than up north. Though you
wouldn’t want more than a few days here, unless you enjoy breathing in copious quantities of CO2. Our second day was spent in the aptly named War Remnants Museum. They haven’t bothered much with chronology and hit you straight in with the Vietnam War. The remnants of this include deformed fetuses in glass tanks - the results of Agent Orange - and very graphic images of bomb victims. The museum certainly isn’t for the squeamish and after only the first display I felt fairly sick and pretty depressed. It’s a good museum though, with a lot of detail and definitely worth visiting to understand exactly what this country has been through. I was hit hardest by the extreme nature of the violence carried out by the American soldiers and how recently this war took place. After leaving the museum and walking back past the American bomber planes, I felt slightly less inclined to have my picture taken with one.
The next day’s activities were less heavy going and we spent much of the day in the local market which turned out to be pretty fantastic and sold everything from fake designer perfume, dvds and hand made leather goods to
dried fish and pepper corns. After parting with some of our diminishing funds for Christmas gifts we sloped back the backpacker haven for a beer or two before retiring ready for tomorrow’s journey into Cambodia.
It was with a heavy heart that we left Vietnam, a country that is so new and yet steeped in traditional values. The locals welcome western travelers as if the Vietnam war never happened. As a guest in their country you feel both humble and grateful and extremely in awe of the national spirit and ability to re-grow a country so soon after loosing almost everything.
Moving into Cambodia was a bit of a shock to the system as we quickly had to get used to limited amenities and more of a struggle again. Phnom Penh is the capital and the 1st stop on our trip through the country. We were taken to the ‘backpacker ghetto’ as it was termed in the lonely planet and they were not wrong. This place felt very much like a ghetto and was not a pleasant experience at all. However it was to be our home for the next couple of nights so we settled in to
the nicest hotel around. The next day was our only full day in the capital as we decided to pack everything in to one day in order to leave the following day. We started in the morning with a pretty disappointing market and a trip to the palace which was much like the Grand Palace in Thailand. For the afternoon we hired a tuk-tuk driver to take us to S-21 and the Killing Fields. I had been dreading this afternoon for a while as I had heard that much of the remains of the Khmer Rouge’s torturing and slaughtering remained at these sites and knew I was going to be facing some graphic realities but decided it was important in understanding Cambodia and its history. The Killing Fields was the first stop, 14km out of town. This was where the Khmer Rouge brought people to kill them. There have been 129 mass graves found here and 89 of those have been dug up to reveal the bodies of men women and babies of all ages. At the site you can see the graves and there is clear signage with details of the victims found inside. Walking around the site it
is possible to see clothing appearing from the ground, left there from the upturned soil during the grave digs. There is a tree still standing where they used to hit the babies to kill them and many of the weapons used for the murders still remain in the small museum on site. A monument to the victims stands within the grounds containing the skulls of thousands of victims. It’s very hard to put into words how tragic it is and to visit the site makes it all too real. We went from here to S-21 - the prison used to house people before they were sent to the killing fields, where they were tortured. S-21 is an old school and was turned into this nightmare of a prison by the Khmer Rouge. The metal bed frames where victims were tied in prison like cells made of the divided class rooms still remain here. It is an eerie experience walking through here while the sun shines in from outside and the torture implements still lay on the ground. Some of the rooms are filled with photographs of the victims, presumable taken by the Khmer Rouge to keep track of their ‘progress’.
Again, it is hard to find words for this experience as it is too appalling and such a recent event that people still remember so clearly.
We left Phnom Penh the following day and headed for the beach town of Sihanoukville. This is a very popular stop on the backpacker trail so we were looking forward to the promise of a nice beach and a few good bars. Unfortunately what we found there was a small beach covered in litter. There are so many women and children selling their wares on this stretch that it is impossible to relax for more than five minutes without being begged to have a massage, legs threaded (!), buy jewelry, fruit, shoes etc etc. Thankfully we found a hotel nearby with a big lovely pool where we could go and not be pestered. Unfortunately after this I developed a stomach bug which made me bed ridden for the following four days so not much happened. I reached the end of my Animal Planet threshold and started to feel a little better so we booked a night bus to Siem Reap, our final stop in Cambodia.
We have now been in Siem Reap
for two days, which I can thankfully say is much nicer than the rest of Cambodia that we have experienced. We have been busy job hunting as our trip is sadly coming to an end. Tomorrow we plan to visit the largest religious site in the world - Angkor Wat.
Until next time…..
e & a. xxxxxxxx
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Alys
non-member comment
hi
HI guys Your latest diary has reminded me of also being touched by Cambodia when Hannah and I went a couple of years ago. Much agree that Siem Riep is certainly more peacful. The market is much better too - you must go!! The temples are amazing!! I prefered Tha Prohm to Angkor Wat tho. ANyway now you're out of the bustle of Phnom Pehn you can enjoy the more serene side of Cambodia. Well done for braving the killing fields. That can't have been nice. Good luck with the job hunt xxxx