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Published: October 10th 2007
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Since my last post I have crossed into Cambodia, where I will spend the next few weeks of my journey. Back in Saigon, we took a trip to the Ben Dinh tunnels in Cu Chi around 50km away from Saigon. We were part of a tourist group lead by the cheekiest looking guy I have ever seen in my life. He took us round the Cu Chi tunnels explaining how they were used leading up to and during the American war. Here we saw the various booby traps which were used to kill or immobolise American soldiers. Near the end of the tour we were allowed to go into the tunnels. Unlike the tunnels I visited near Hue, these were extremely tight and almost pitch black. After squeezing in we crawled on our hands and knees for just a few minutes until the next exit. Personally that was enough for me! It was extremely humid and cramped. There is also a shooting range where you can buy bullets to fire for $1 each (minimum 10 bullets). Ive already done this sort of thing before in Latvia and decided to miss out. My mate Dan however fired an American machine gun, which
saw him shoot 10 dollars away in a few seconds. Before leaving Saigon we took a quick look at the reunification palace which was, to be honest, fairly boring. Surprisingly I actually met another West Brom fan in Saigon. I cant believe there is another out there let alone one half way across the world. This made my day but also made me miss the being back home watching the Baggies!
It was now time to leave Vietnam for Cambodia. Instead of the normal bus entry across the border we decided to take a two day boat up the mekong delta ending up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The Mekong Delta is extremely dirty looking and absolutely huge. We first visited a village where they make coconut candy which tasted amazing. We then stopped off at a 'bee farm', which was in fact one box containing bees making honey. That does not constitute a farm in my book but we did get to try some of their honey and lime tea. Also I got to hold a huge snake, which was pretty cool. After going a bit further down the Mekong we were treated to some traditional southern vietnamese "music".
In the afternoon we paddled some small boats down a small canal off the mekong. The best part about this was getting to wear the cool triangle hats. The rest of the day was spent travelling by bus to Chau Doc where we stayed the night before taking a boat into Cambodia. At one point we had to take a ferry across part of the river because the bridge which was only recently built had collapsed. Most of the next day was spent on the boat where we stopped off to see a fish farm and an ethnic village where they made traditional clothes to sell to tourists. We went on to land near the border and waited for about an hour while our visas were sorted and then we walked over the border and got onto another boat. It was more interesting crossing the border this way but it is a lot slower than a direct bus crossing and is slightly more expensive.
We arrived in Phnom Penh in the evening and our tour operator dropped us off near a bunch of guesthouses miles away from our agreed drop off and miles away from the recommended riverside and
central areas. After a bit of arguing we took a tuk-tuk to our original destination. We were amazed at how developed Phnom Penh is compared to what we had read and heard. The streets are a lot quieter than Saigon and the shops are a lot more modern. Our first day was spent wandering around and visiting the markets which sell pretty much everything cheap cheap. The best market was the Russian market. Phnom Penh is extremely spread out but is actually really good to walk around. The next day we took a tuk-tuk to the nearby killing fields which is were many Cambodians and a handfull of foreigners were executed by the Khmer Rouge regime lead by Pol Pot. The first site when you walk in is a small tower, which on closer inspection is just stacked full of skulls. The rest of the site contains the holes which were once mass graves and highlights some of the places where people including women and children were brutally executed and dumped. Walking around the site you can see some bones sticking out of the ground and the occasional tooth. It is an extremely shocking and disturbing place. It is almost surreal actually seeing where all this happened and learning the true extent of Pol Pot's attrocities. If that wasnt enough we also visited the site of S21 which was a prison where people were tortured and held before they were executed. S21 was formerly a high school and was turned into a prison. Here we learnt of the violent unsympathetic torture which took place. Here you get to see the pictures of some of the victims and of the torturers which made it in my eyes a more disturbing place to visit than the killing fields.
On a lighter note I guess I will sum up Vietnam. Vietnam was an amazing place to travel and was a lot easier to get around than India. The vietnamese people were extremely nice and we didnt really recieve much hassle. Some of the places like Ninh Binh, Ha Long Bay and Da Lat will always stay with me. Although I have enjoyed Vietnam more so than India, it did lack the unique cultural experience which can be found in India. Vietnam is a lot more touristy and therefore loses some of its cultural heritage.
Next we are heading into the more undeveloped north east of Cambodia for a bit of a rough experience. Should be fun.
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