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Published: March 5th 2008
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Steven/
So We spent a few days on Phu Quoc island( the pictures speak for themselves- it's a paradise on Earth!), off Vietnam's southern coast, then hopped into Cambodia. After crossing the border, there was a marked change in the local's behaviour and general demeanor. Trying not to generalise here, but we found people in Vietnam to be a bit shifty- prices needed to be nailed down or the person would invent all sorts of sums and try to play different tricks, eh, tiring after three weeks!( an egsample of this is that we were asking a Western couple for directions to the ferry booking office, a local lady came out of her restaurant to show us the way to a ticket agent, then asked us for money for the favour, afterwards!)
In contrast, the people in Cambodia are all smiles, no hidden agendas here. They were great, start to finnish. We both got the opportunity to donate blood( my first time!), something which is in great demand by the people. The hospital was set up by a Swiss doctor and, for now, provides free health care and treatment to Cambodians running entirely on donations.
The recent history of
Cambodia is disturbingly dark. We visited the killing fields monument at Cheung Eks (just outside Phnom Penh) and saw the place where the victims of Pol Pot's genocidal regime came to an end- in mass graves( around 17000 men women and children were killed here). Afterwards we went to the Tuol Sleng Genocidal museum, the site of the regime's secret facility for interrogation and torture. This is a former primary school, and still looks like one with tiled floors and classrooms that were used to house prisoners. The place now is serene and it would be hard to imagine the horrors that happened there if not for the record left behind- pictures of prisoners and guards as well as the torture weapons and "confessions" of the Regime's enemies.
After a few days walking around in the heat of Phnom Penh, we spent a few days at the awesome Angkor Wat and surrounding temples.
Lelde met a hawker kid selling bracelets with an interesting pitch. Her gambit included phrases like " you tell me the capitol of Madagascar and you get 2 for one, if you get it wrong you pay full price" and " how many bones in
the human body?". After Lelde succumbed and got two, the ten year old then gave us the name of Madagascar's capitol and the number of bones we each have, turned on her heel and left. She was really charming and funny!
Lelde/
Well, we haven't written for a while , so many places we have seen in this time.. .I hope I will be able to recall everything I want to write about.
So lets start with our last and most wonderful destination in Vietnam - Phu Quoc. It was really great iland, beautiful and peaceful and nobody selling anything on the beach (well there was a lady selling fruit, but she was very discreat and time to time I was happy to get a big pineapple for 10.00 VND (around 0.75cents). We spent there 5 nights (and it didn't seem enough) and stayed in a house next to the beach for only 7$ (very nice room with TV and our own bathroom) - a bargin!!!!! 😊 We would have stayed longer, but because we had to be in Thailand by certain date, it was time to leave. So we made our way to Cambodian border (got ripped off
big time for transport etc.) and I was really ready and looking forward to leave Vietnam (probably never go back😊) and enter Cambodia.
Cambodia.
It's a very nice country. I felt so much better there, it's more relaxed and more friendly...And people smile at you, if you smile at them - they give you a big and genuinly warm smile - it's so great!!!
We had to stay in Phnom Penh for 5 nigths as I had to get my Thai visa (on arrival I only get 15 days, but now I can stay 60 days!!!). It's very hot in Cambodia of course, but streets and pavements are very wide and you feel you have lots of space. People litter surrpoundings with the same intensity and carelesness as in Vietnam and China though, and streets might be rather dirty and smelly, river channels are black as night and stink like hell and, of course, endless amounts of plastic bags all over the place....
We went to the Killing fields as Steven wrote and the museum (previous prison), I also got a book (a copy, of course) about that secret prison, interesting to read...
We also went to give blood
(they have reall shortage of it) and got T-shirts as well as some snacks 😊
Another thing on our itinerary was a trip to the Monestary where we offered to give free english lessons (we saw a poster that advertised this option in our hostel). It was a bit strange to teach monks and we felt slightly nervous at the beginning, but actually the lesson went very well.
After spending some time in the capital we went to Siem Reap to pay wisit to the grat temples of Angara Wat. The entrance tickets seemed to be a bit expensive (20$ for a day's visit; 40$ for 3 days; 60 - for a week), but to see beauty takes succrefises sometimes. The first day we had a tuk tuk (motocycled carrage) driver to take as from place to place, we also got up before 5am (that was hard!!!) to see the sunrise ..., as teples are in some distance from one another, but the next day we rented bysicles (much cheaper!!!) and did our own toure. To be honest one day is enough to properly see/explore the best parts of it and get extremely tired...
And now we are in Thailand-
Bangkok. A hectic city. One of the main attractions could be people watching - all sorts inxibit this place. It's a bit hippiish (well at least in the area we are staying). It's not as cheap (anymore) as Lonley planet stats in it's book, but still cheap enough. People do not seem as friendly as in Cambodia, but they are still very nice, in the same time nobody bothers you in attempt to sell something. It's more chilled and layed back. The city is big and seems to be more like a one huge market place, but we haven't seen the major tourist attractions yet as my Mum will arrive tomorrow with her friends and we will do that together! I can't wait !!!!😊) (for my mum, not the attractions 😊). I believe the best of Thailand is it's beaches (that's where we are heading as well), so I'm looking forward to experience that.
Ok, my friends, that's all for today. I will have some relaxed (no walking , no doing time) time as these past 3 days since we are here, we've been running around and sorting things.... I hope all off you are sound. Take care and give
me some insight into your lives as well! 😊
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Caroline Bury
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Cor...
Awe and Some! What an incredible place....how come things got sooo bad there. xXx