Back to the Land of Siamese Cats and Red Bull

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The overnight bus down to Saigon was spectacular. I ended up with the entire back row of five seats all to myself, so I lounged out and pretended it was a bed. Definitely one of the more pleasant overnight trips yet.

I ended up in a really nice guesthouse in Saigon, centrally located, complete with a huge bed, air conditioning, and a refrigerator, all for $8 per night. And a Bia Hoi stand was right next door. I spent the first day catching up on some sleep and then went to the War Remnants museum, previously known as the American War Crimes Museum. It's really striking how different things can be portrayed depending on where you are. I was literally jaw dropped several times. I definitely missed the day in school when we learned about this part of the war... oh wait.

All the hype about the motorbikes in Saigon is entirely justified. I've heard all kinds of statistics about the number of people versus number of motorbikes, but I think the real numbers are somewhere in the neighborhood of 6.5 million people and 4 million motorbikes. Crossing the street is a tourist attraction in itself. Basically you walk out into traffic and continue at a steady, suicidal pace and don't change that pace or stop for anything. Motorbikes will whiz by you seemingly from every direction and usually not hit you. I spent a few minutes at each roundabout I walked past and just watched the chaos. Swarms and swarms of motorbikes all merging and weaving through each other. If you want a better picture for yourself, do a youtube search for "Saigon street crossing"or "Saigon motorbikes"or something.

That night I budgeted my drinking wisely at the Bia Hoi stand with Marc and Simon, two Brits from my overnight bus. I ended up shooting pool all night after that with some locals. By the way, I've shot a lot of pool since leaving home and I've never been this good.

The next day, I went out to the Cu Chi tunnels, which are of course left over from the war. We got to crawl through the ridiculously small underground tunnels. This place would have been a claustrophobe's worst nightmare. It was cool at first, but totally unnecessary after the first time. They also had a shooting range where you could fire AK47s and rocket launchers and all that good stuff. We capped the day off watching some documentary that explained the Veitcong would get awards for killing Americans. Being the only American in our group was slightly awkward. I kept thinking what the Vietnamese were thinking I was thinking. But they were friendly as could be.

After getting back into the city, I volunteered to go to a school and help kids learn English. They motorbike taxied me out there, which made it worth it already. I was pretty certain I was going to die during the ride but I miraculously got to the school uninjured.

The principal at the school, and old, Chinese guy was an interesting character. I think he drank about 12 cups of coffee the time I was there. He also showed me pictures of this mansion in the states and said it was his, but he had to ask his wife what state it was in.

Anyway, I went over shapes with the kids. One part of the lesson involved me drawing a shape, then picking a kid at random to write the word of the shape. Basically a kid would come up, write the first two letters of the word, then look back at the classmates, who would be screaming what letter came next. It was exactly like The Price is Right. Together with my hut building experience in Tanzania, this was the least self indulgent part of my trip.

I took a bus out of Saigon the next morning, bound for the Cambodian border and ultimately Phnom Penh. This ride would not go as uneventful as the ride into Saigon. First, as we approached the border, the driver collected $25 each for the visa fee. After I got my visa, it said $20 on it. After asking for my change, he laughed and suddenly forgot all his English.

So we entered Cambodia and, for those of you not keeping track, that puts me up to 40 countries. About an hour into Cambodia, we hit a traffic jam. And we didn't move an inch for about an hour. Eventually some lady came onto the bus and said we were waiting for a ferry and it would either be five more hours of waiting, or we could all pay a $2 bribe and get on the next ferry. I swear, you can literally get ANYTHING in southeast Asia if you're willing to pay. So obviously we opted for the latter but it was still an hour more wait.

As we waited, we got the chance to walk around and people watch. I really wish I could upload some pictures here. There's nothing really to write about, just lots going on in every direction. Oh, and the Cambodian way of transport: take a 15 passenger van, stuff it with 25 people, and put 20 more people on the roof. I'm serious. No exaggeration.

We finally crossed the ferry and ultimately got into Phnom Penh. Well, almost. They stopped about 10 km outside the city and said they couldn't take the bus any further due to traffic jams. So they told us we could pay $5 for a tuk-tuk into town. I lost it at this point and said the driver stole my last $5 for his inflated visa fee. I then took a picture of the company's logo on the bus and said I was going back to Saigon and back to the office to complain. It was only 20 seconds later that I was climbing onto a tuk-tuk that the driver paid for.

So I got to Phnom Penh and it was different right from the start. You couldn't go a minute without seeing a family of five on one motorbike. The ATMs dispense $50 US bills, then it's an excursion to find a place that will accept a bill that high. Everything is listed in US dollars, but Cambodian riel is also accepted. The food was good; a bit of a mixture of Vietnamese and Thai, but nowhere near as good as either. Within two meals, I already missed the seafood in Vietnam.

Unbeknownst to me, I arrived on the last day as the water festival, the largest event of the year in the country. After dusk, it turned to utter madness. Think Times Square on New Years on every street in the city. Huge barges decked out in flashing lights raced down the rivers. It was a great experience for the first hour or so, but then it became excruciating to walk through the crowds. And in southeast Asia, you can't expect them to do something senseless like closing off the roads. So motorbikes would drive right through the crowd, blaring their horns and people would somehow manage to dive out of the way. I did see one person get hit though.

The next day, I went to the Tuol Sleng Genecide museum, which honors the deaths during the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s. I was tagging along with some Norwegians but they went to see a documentary called S21 but I had already seen it at home and didn't want to see it again. So instead, I hired a motorbike taxi to take me to the killing fields. Basically what went down was the prisoners were interrogated and tortured at Tuol Sleng and then trucked over to the killing fields for execution. There were a bunch of mass graves and an eerie monument in the middle about 5 or 6 stories high completely stacked with human skulls. The whole thing is a similar experience to the concentration camps in Germany and Poland, except this was only 35 years ago. Craziness. So, obviously not the happiest day of the trip, but nonetheless a must if you're passing through the area.

Next, I bused up to Siem Reap in the middle of the country. The town itself was a lot more likeable than the capital. Almost immediately after arriving, I went to the top of a huge hill overlooking the famed Angkor Wat for sunset. The view was incredible but the sunset wasn't the greatest. Hey, I've seen more sunsets in the last five months than in my whole life, so my standards are high.

That night I ran into Sara, Sinc, and Allistair (all from the slow boat in Laos) and later ran into Simon and Marc. So we had a good night out on Pub Street, shooting pool and drinking cheap beer.

I spent the entire next day roaming around the temples and ruins, most notably Angkor Wat and Wat Thom. They were great but honestly, I'm completely burned out by five months of sightseeing. I was a strange blend of awe and apathy. I'm definitely due for some diving, swimming and partying down in the peninsula.

The next day, Sinc and I took a bus to the border town of Poipet. There were signs everywhere at the border warning you of the dangers of drug traffiking and possesion: life imprisonment or the death penalty. They don't mess around with that around here.

We got back into Thailand, jumped on a tuk-tuk and got to the train station less than 5 minutes before departure. I felt like I was in the Amazing Race as we rushed through border patrol, got the first tuk-tuk we could find (with no bartering) and ran to the ticket booth. We also had enough time to get a bunch of beer for the ride.

We got into Bangkok 6 hours later and then booked an overnight bus 2 hours after that. So right now I'm in Surat Thani somewhere down in the south. I just booked a 2 night liveaboard trip to the Similan Islands, which are unanimously rated as one of the best spots in the entire world. I've also more than caught back up to my budget so I might buy an underwater camera for this one. I've seen unbelievable pictures from other travelers diving down here with HUGE whale sharks, manta rays and dolphins. The liveaboard trip also includes a night dive and has a Thai chef on board!

A lot of people have asked me along the way what it's like traveling alone and if I recommend it. Since leaving Colleen in Nha Trang, and up until meeting up with Sinc, this has been the longest I've been alone since leaving home. Six days. You literally have to try to avoid talking to people to become lonely. So the answer is a definite yes... travel alone.

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