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Published: February 18th 2007
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Five People!
It's very common to see three or more people on a scooter. Well Phnom Penh was a shocker. On our drive in we were greeted with the smell of burning rubber and a large slum along the Mekong river. Getting off the bus was difficult due to the fact that the exit was crowded by men, woman, and children selling anything and everything. The locals would try to get you to stay at their guesthouse, to take their taxi, buy their food or beg you for money. The city was huge but had nothing a big city should. The whole city had only two ATM's so it was difficult to take money out. It was definately the dirtiest place we had been yet. We lucked out though and found a great guesthouse down a dodgy ally. We were aprehensive at first but the room was big, had a nice bathroom and was clean. The room only cost us six dollars American. A little pricey but there was GREAT food, a large movie colection and a pool table. It was definately worth the couple extra bucks. We really enjoyed the atmosphere. We stayed there for 4 days and most of the time was spent at our guesthouse as the city was not the safest.
View from our guesthouse
We loved this guesthouse.
Phnom Penh We played lots of pool each night and got pretty good. We ate way to much food talking to other backpackers and watching the newest movies. While in Phnom Penh we did achieve a few things, we got our visas for Vietnam, helped out the local kids at an orphanage and did the only two things tourists do there. We visited the exstremely depressing and disturbing Killing Fields as well as the S-21 genocidal museum which was fairly unpleasent. Overall, our stay in Phnom Penh was great and very unique. The following day we booked an air conditioned bus to Saigon which was a 6 hour drive for only $4 each.
The border crossing into Veitnam went without problems and once across we took our bus and traveled to the busy city of Saigon where we stayed for four nights. Our first impressions of Vietnam were good because we had left Cambodia and were pleased to be somewhere safer. Our guesthouse there was very different, it had only one small room per floor and was five floors tall. It was in a small alleyway not even large enough to squeeze in a car. The city was colorful and vibrant
View from our guesthouse
We loved this guesthouse.
Phnom Penh all night. The traffic consisted of almost all motor bikes. The city was fairly clean which made it more enjoyable than Phnom Penh. We enjoyed the cultural aspect because it seemed very different from Thailand and Cambodia. Many people in Vietnam wear those conical hats! During our stay we mainly wandered the streets and mazes of alleyways and ate at little places we found. The food was very good here and we tryed our first noodle soup called Pho and both loved it. Andrew ate it every day without fail, where as Trev branched out and tried other dishes as well. The last night of our stay in Saigon we joined hundreds of thousands if not millions of people for the Chinese New Years countdown and firework show. They blew up a large hot air balloon pig for the celebration, which was interesting. The night went well, we enjoyed the fireworks and the atmosphere full of anticipation. We met some interesting Vietnamese students and also noticed even more how everyone stares at us. Trying to escape the crowd of bikes after the celebration was one of the wildest moments of our lives. The streets were packed with bikes, which we
Alley by our guesthouse
At night you would not want to walk down there. had to cross to get back to our guesthouse. The moving bikes were packed shoulder to shoulder with each other. Even the sidewalks and parks were full of moving bikes! The choking gas made both our throats hurt for hours afterwards and we feared for our bodys in the moving sea of bikes just missing and ocationaly clipping us. We witnessed one bike crash and heard a few others and just wanted to get back to our place. It seemed as if there was no safe place to walk. Finally after a 30 minute walk that would have normally taken 5 minutes, we found our quiet alleyway. We hoped for a fresh breath of air but were horiffied to learn that every household and guesthouse had lit incense for the New Year. The whole hotel and alleyway was full of smoke, which was really hard on our lungs and noses. We hoped for a breath of fresh air in our room but were once again horrified to find our room full of the incense smoke as well. The smoke wafted into our third story room from under the door and from the alleyway. The next morning we awoke bright and
early to catch our bus north to Mui Ne.
After our short bus ride of 4 hours we got to the small fishing town of Mui Ne. We quickly found a hotel right on the beach with a great room for $10 a night. It included a warm shower and even came with little bottles of shampoo, soaps and toilettries! We ate some food and had an early night after staying up late for New Years. Today after our great sleep we got two bike taxis for 100,000 Dong each or 8 dollars Canadian. We spent the day exploring the sand dunes that this area is famous for and both got a bit to much sun. Mui Ne seems very nice and laid back. We would definately recommend this place. The beach is fairly nice too. Tonight we are just being lazy from our long day of sand dune hiking and tobogganing and are just taking it easy before we leave tommorow farther north to Hue.
Thanks for reading, we love to hear from you!
Andrew and Trevor
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Auntie and Grandma Pat
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Happy year of Golden Pig
Your travel blogs are great. The New Year Celebrations looked wild. Good work with finding comfortable places to stay. Jenny and I are visiting Grandma and Grandpa for 5 days. Enjoy the rest of your adventure. love Patsy, Jenny and Grandma Pat.