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Published: June 30th 2007
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I suppose the time had to come to say goodbye to Vietnam....but it wasn't easy! The farewell, and the journey that ensued were both tough going..... Through a hazy combination of boats and buses, it has taken us a total of two days to get to Phnom Penh. To be honest we chopped and changed our mode of transport so many times I can't really remember how exactly we got here - but there were some memorable sights along the way, thanks to our Mekong experience!
We were picked up bright and early from our hostel in Ho Chi Minh and took a three hour bus ride to the Mekong, where we spend most of that morning and afternoon taking a tour of the river delta. Must say, it was fantastic. We started off on a wide stretch of the river, but after about an hour or so we were brought through much narrower waterways, with tree fronds bending towards the boat and local kids waving to us from the muddy banks. We were taken to a small village where they were making coconut sweets (delish, although after a packet of them I don't know how I have any teeth
left). We then went ashore further down the river to have lunch, and then we spent the afternoon taking another bus, and hopping on another boat to get us as far as Chao Duc, which is close to the Cambodia border. That evening on the boat was fantastic - we had a unbelievable view of life on the river bank - there were endless children washing themselves in the muddy waters and waving frantically at us, with huge smiles on their faces.
Things got a little hairy later that evening when the three amigos sat down for dinner......we had each order a big bowl of noodle soup, and we had been muched for a good five minutes when all of a sudden Claud gasped and pushed her bowl away from her. With an ominous gulp and her head slightly lowered, Spud uttered the words no backpacker wants to hear "Oh my god. There's a COCKROACH in my soup." Yes yes, a big juicy shiny black fecker, on his back, floating amongst Claud's noodles. Surely nobody deserves that?? The little woman who had made the soup was completely unpreturbed by the incident, and simply dished Claud up a fresh bowl -
which in fairness she did eat! Claud received much praise for her handling of the entire incident; I think me and Sib would simply have jumped overboard. And our tour guide just kept on asking "Before or after??" I mean, does it really matter WHEN it got in????
After recovering from the insect experience, we arrived at our hotel (which we had no choice over) and were told that Chao Duc is the mosquito capital of South East Asia, so we were cajoled into paying another five dollars to get air con in our room, which is supposed to reduce the mossie problem. Our room was still crawling with the little feckers, as well as a lizard or two. Lovely jubly.
We were forced out of bed at a ridiculous hour the next morning, and after a dodgy brekkie we and our rucksacks were flung on the back of a rickshaw and brought down to the port for another, shorter, trip on the Mekong. This time it was even more upclose and personal - in pairs we were brought on rowing boats that were only about two feet deep and weathered local woman rowed us past houses built on stilts
in the river. It's incredible to see how the people live; we were taken to a fish farm which consisted of one of the wooden houses with huge gaps in the floor, and about 60,000 pink fish swimming underneath. The man of the house seemed completely unimpressed that we were there - mainly because he was too busy watching the footy on a TV set in the corner! There's a universaltruth in there somewhere..That afternoon we had to take a slow boat further up the river to Phom Pehn, which was quite tedious, but it was pretty cool passing through the border. Due to our sinful flights in and out of Laos, it was the first time we had crossed a border by land. The boat stopped at two different points, one for exiting Vietnam and one for entering Cambodia, and we had to clamber up the muddy banks (with our rucksacks the first time) to get our luggage scanned and our passports stamped.
So finally we're in Cambodia! The last leg of the journey was a two hour bus ride in a clapped up minivan from the 70s. Suspension is obviously a luxury rather than a necessity in Asia
- the truck bumped, bashed and jolted its way along the road, throwing its unsuspecting passengers roofwards every couple of seconds. Sore arses and heads followed. It is instantly apparent how much poorer Cambodia is than Vietnam - the road was little more than a dirt track at times, and many of the houses along the way were made from wood and straw. Phnom Penh on the other hand is much more developed than expected. Unfortunately we've ended up staying in the hotel where the bus dropped us off, which is never a good idea. Our room smells, the sheets kinda look dirty and our sink is broken, which means we've been washing our teeth at the tap on the wall in the bathroom, which is all a tad too "village watering hole" for my liking. Oh and the gits who own the place have been consistently trying to rip us off at every opportunity since we set foot in the place. But we got here and that's the main thing!
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Sharon Lovie
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Juicey Fecker!!
Oh my Jesus Sarah......your story puts the Boiled Onion's little green crawler into the dark!!! Stomach churning and hats off to you all for even trying the food....where would I be for God's sake! Once again sounds amazing - please keep up the wonderful accounts of your travels! xx