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Published: June 15th 2007
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On the Road from Phnom Penh to Saigon, Viet Nam
This is a typical sight in the morning. Well, anytime really! Well, so far I have to say my favorite two countries are Cambodia and Viet Nam. The People have the biggest smiles, and they're so willing to help.
The bus trip from Phnom Penh was nice and easy; we stopped once on the road, and customs and immigtation at the border was a breeze, probably because the bus company that runs the buses do it every day - very quick and organized, and no extortion!
I didn't have a hotel reservation, and went to the hotel that had a recommendation online, but the rooms smelled of smoke and air deoderizer, so I went to the next one down the street. It was the same. The third one was great - huge room, huge bed, spotless, and completely smoke-free. It was run by a hospitable local family, and it had probably 50 or so rooms. I booked day tours in the backpacker area, and met a nice girl in the travel agency. I had Vietnamese coffee with her each morning, sold by a guy out of his house in the alley next to the agency, for 5,000 doong (about $.35 US). It's a thick coffee, similar to Greek or
Turkish coffee, served hot or cold, with sweetened condensed milk, and really good - especially iced. I guess the water's OK here, because ice or fresh vegetables & fruit haven't made em sick at all. And there's a lot of interesting fruit in these parts, so I'm glad I'm able to try
something new!In the evening, I found a bunch of fresh seafood open-air restaurants, that set up each evening in the street outside of the main daytime market as it closes.
The first full day was spent on a trip to the Mekong Delta, with agreat group of people from all over - Korea, norhtern Viet Nam, Germany, England, etc. We were transported to the little channels by larger boats, where we boarded 6-man dugout boats (two crew at either end). We made a few stops, and had a nice lunch on a small island of remote villages. I had elephant ear fish served with rice paper (for rolling), mint basil and rice. The rice paper was salted, so I basically had a minty fish salad with rice! And a Viet Nam made '333' beer. After lunch, we had time to bike around, or relax on a hammock,
On the Road from Phnom Penh to Saigon, Viet Nam
If it weren't for the motorcycles, it looks like an old western town in the 1800's. but I started walking in a village, and met a nice family. The mother knew a little English, and between that, charades, drawing, and my mostly useless phrasebook, we had a nice time. I left them all my hotel-size shapoos and conditioners, along with some necklaces my friend Julie left behind, and a few other small things, because I know it was hard for them to get these things. The longer I was there, the larger the family got - cousins, aunts, uncles, kids! I had a photo taken of us, so I'll send her a copy. And, I left the phrasebook for one of the teenage girls who was very interested in the Vietnamese to English dictionary section. When i returned to the hotel that evening, I started reading a book on the Cu Chi tunnels used during the Viet Nam war, because I booked a tour to see them the next day.
Our tour guide was a veteran, but was on the American side, for the south, so he didn't
really know the tunnels, he only knew what the Americans knew about them, which wasn't too much, only what they could see. The book was written from
accounts of officers and soldiers on both sides of the war, then translated. For the most part, the south's accounts correlate with the north, but there is one bit of blatant nonsense. Wheteher is was told like that, or spun by the writers/editors, I don't know, but it is very interesting. We got to go inside the tunnels. There were two exits for those who got clautophobic, but I stayed to the end, and cannot imagine staying underground for hours, let alone days, or weeks.
In the afternoon, after the tour, I searched for a nail salon to do my much neglected nails, and there I was in Viet Nam, and could not find one salon that did acrylics! So I walked around getting to know the town.
My third day was spent walking, and on the backs of motorcycles, seeing all the sites, and checking out the main daytime market, and another, Chinese market. I could've skipped that one!
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