Big Cities to the big City game...

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Hi Everybody,

We've been to a few places since last time I wrote, so I thought I would fill you in to take my mind off the (slight) nerves about tonight's match! Prediction is an edgy 2-1 win please, please, please! (Not least because despite my warnings about the unpredictable Premier League, the hotel owner insists on betting on everything I suggest and Liverpool let us down last night!)

After initial reservations, we spent a few really fun days in Sihanoukville. The beach itself was nice enough but the area generally was being rapidly developed and as a result wasn't quite the paradise we had hoped for. There was however a small stretch of excellent bars which turned into clubs as the night went on and we had a couple of funny evenings there.

We did buy the first thing we ended up not actually having and surprisingly it wasn't dodgy food... We bought a $2 cocktail which I watched have literally 3/4 of a bottle of local whiskey poured into it. Fortunately, in a shrewd move, Emma managed to find a couple of guys from Newcastle who swapped us for their far nicer, far less repulsive drink and we proceeded to encourage them to make fools of themselves for the rest of the night.

We went from Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Emma wasn't feeling 100% so I wandered around on my own mostly as we were only there 1 full day. It was busy and noisy and didn't really have that much going for it over other cities but there were some nice areas. There is a large open area of parkland in front of the palace and in the evening huge groups of people get together and do aerobics/street dancing in perfect timing.

We quickly moved on to Ho Chi Minh City (which everyone still calls Saigon) in Vietnam and we immediately preferred it. If Phnom Penh was busy this was insane, even arriving late evening (after an uneventful border crossing, BRILLIANT) the number of motorbikes was staggering. Every road was 10-15 bikes deep in both directions and the queue went on basically as far as you could see, to make it even more chaotic they all weaved in and out of one another relentlessly. Crossing was a nightmare!

As well as enjoying noodle soup which it seems is about all the Vietnamese eat, we visited the city war museum. Having studied the war a long time ago I was surprised how different the story was from the Vietnamese point of view... I'm sure the truth lies somewhere in the middle but going to a workshop where people who had been born deformed due to the chemical sprays 40 years ago was an eye opening if not an enjoyable part of the trip. We also visited a famous Vietcong tunnel complex around 2 hours outside Saigon. This was brilliant, we were shown how a lot of the traps used in the war worked and they were really brutal. We also went into the tunnels themselves and this was definitely not one for the claustrophobic. The tunnel had been widened to approx twice the size of the originals but it was still probably only 2 feet by 3 feet and stretched for over 200km (we did about 20m!). Our guide also opened one of the hidden entrances and picked Emma from the group to demonstrate getting in (She was the closest in size to a Vietnamese solider). The hole cannot have been more than 14 by 10 inches!

We took a night bus from Saigon to Nha Trang a beach on the South China Sea and we arrived yesterday. It is to put it simply, beautiful, white sand, beautiful food (well the Pizza last night was stunning anyway), busy bars and good diving apparently. Weather permitting I will do my first dive over the next couple of days, Emma's not quite decided whether she will join me yet. I'm sure we will spend a while here relaxing and getting ready for the next stretch (and the next 12 hour coach journey...) and if you see where we are spending our days:

www.louisianebrewhouse.com.vn

I'm sure you'll understand why! It's not exactly traditional, but for $1.50... no complaints especially since the pictures don't do it justice!

I'll write again when we get further up North, that is, if we can... Flooding apparently!

Love

Adam And Emma

P.s. We miss you too Lily!!!

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Comments

[Pat]

Travelling
Is the only thing Emma eating noodle soup that she can sqeeze through a gap 12"x14"?