Cambodia-Vietnam-Phuket - the long blog...

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....so to pick up from the last blog.... we decided to go with the bus to Phnom Phen as the other crowd were and it was cheaper... the trouble was we went out with the Irish the night before (Shona and Wes) and didnt get in until 4am, after drinking (more) warm beer and witnessing lady men trying to hook up with all the tourists...
So at 6am we were up to set off to Phnom Phen... the bus... well it seems that every time we think one is bad the next one rolls in and we wish we had the one before... anyway i wont go into too much detail as we got there in the end. On entering Phnom Phen, it was chaos... madness, just tuk tuks, taxis, bikes etc and the smell was horrific, but we were there. After what seemed like the walk to the moon we found a little hostel/guest house with an AC room and an en-suite bathroom so for us this was heaven.... (ok so the 4 flights of stairs with a heavy bag was the down side but gotta be positive) so we all booked in and had some dinner and had early nights. Tuesday we woke early and firstly went to the shooting range... the guys went mad... we all took turns shooting a hand gun (if you want to know names and sizes etc you will have to ask Bran as to me ...its big gun, small gun...this one was small gun)
Then Bran and Wes did the boy thing and got a machine gun.... so loud... but fun.
Then the really awful, sad stuff begun...

With the backing of prominent Communist states, notably China, support grew for a radical group, the Khmer Rouge. We learned of this group’s actions on several tours, horrific. They came to power in 1975, and wanted to wipe the slate clean with the country, declaring the time as YEAR ZERO. They burned all the money in the country, destroyed all the roads, schools, and hospitals; and any intellectuals that couldn't escape were killed, including doctors, teachers, politicians, and soldiers and anyone who could read or write whose interests slightly opposed the majority. At one point in time there were only 50 doctors in the whole country. The people they thought were spies were interrogated, tortured, and killed, and the common people were forced into the countryside, without food and water, forced to work the land to their death. Mostly this was auto-genocide, they were killing their own people. Out of 7 million people
in the country at the time, 2-3 million were killed! We visited the killing fields where there are mass graves and human remains are obvious everywhere.
We followed on to the High School (Tuol Sleng) where there were cells and various forms of torture were carried out and remnants of this is still very obvious. It was horrific and devastating to see, and we left there both sadened and grateful for the lives we were born into. The taxi driver who took us all over that day, loved the shooting range and was in hysterics when Brandan and Wes were being boys and running around with their guns. Ironically, his father was a victim of the Tuol Sleng prison and he visits it often to see if his fathers picture has been put up or his name listed as a victim of genoside. What a lovely man, so honest about his brutal life and sad country. As all Cambodians, he loves tourists to visit his country of which he is fiercly proud.

Wednesday we were up early and on our way. We took a bus to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). We arrived late afternoon, found a cheap and cheerful Guest house, that was recommended to us by a very eager taxi rider... to explain ... There are few taxi cars or "Tuk-Tuk" in Saigon but thousands apon thousands of scooters... it is an absolute mind boggling site to see the streets which are littered with scooters, all travelling at the same speed (quite slow) and no one gets mad or irritated as they all cut eachother off and you fear for your life on the back of one. We each got a taxi and went to the War memorial and wondered around which was again.... sad and humbling...
Then we got ripped off by the very charming taxi drivers as we were in a fluster when we were paying them and with all the currencies we had been working in, we ended up paying them about 10 times what they would usually get, as they saw us coming from a mile away...but such is life - we live and learn and if they needed it so much well then hope they feed their family better this week.

Thursday we booked a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels. Our guide was a small Vietnamese guy who had actually fought in the Vietnamese war on the American side, so we could not have chosen a better guide. The Cu Chi tunnels are tunnels that stretch some 200km underground that were hand-dug during the time of the War. They are 4 levels deep in some places and each tunnel is 60cm wide average of 1.2m high, purposely done like this as the Vietnamese are small people and it was said that the Vietnamese could tralve faster in the tunnels than the Americans could above, through the dense vegetation and heavy packs they carried. Brandan went into one of the tunnels and travelled only 45m or so and had to crawl on his hands and knees in some places in the pitch dark.

Friday we caught a flight to Bangkok and then straight onto Phuket. Apon arriving we met a Finnish girl/lady who we went in search of a place to stay. We arrived in Patong at about 1.30am and found a guest house.

Saturday we hired two scooters (Paula - from Finland on one and us on the other), which was just amazing. We headed off down the coast along the beaches, had breakfast at Kata beach, where alot of the footage from the Tsunami devastation was taken, and continued south down to the tip and around. We got a puncture on the way, which turned into a blessing as it bought us to an Elephant Sanctuary. We stopped off and had a beer while the friendly locals fixed the tyre and met "Charlie", one of two fairly tame monkeys, who kept us entertained for some time trying to steal our beers. We bought Charlie some green bananas, but he turned his nose up as he only likes the yellow ones. The Elephants were not as fussy and fed happily on green bananas from our hands.
We carried on around the Coast and about 45mins from home, another flat tyre... we decided to call it a day, as both of us are red as tomatoes with sunburn.

Sunday (today) we hired a scooter once again and went to Kata beach for some time in the Ocean. Kata beach is just so beautilful which makes it a little easier to accept it taking Brandans wedding ring. We were swimming in the surf and a big wave came and crashed on Bran and his wedding ring fell off. We spent ages looking for it but its just no use so its a real pity and we both quite upset but such is life.
Tomorrow we are off on a tour of Phi Phi Island, Maya Bay, Yao Yai Island and Khai Island. So sunscreen is needed as we are snorkelling.

Thats all for now, we are off on the boat from Wednesday until Sunday so will update when we return from that when we will be in Ko Samui or around there.

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