Ok, enough is enough. I haven”t updated this website for far too long and it’’s starting to look a little sad. Sure, it’’s sometimes tough to get on the internet when you”re on the move but, to be honest, the lack of updates has mostly been due to laziness on my part. However, times are changing and I am going to make a HUGE effort to get this website back up-to-date - starting now. Please bare with me whilst I now attempt to both remember and summarise 3 months worth of solid travel. Oh, I will add pictures from all the places we have been within the next few days (depending on whether I can find that bloody USB cable). What follows is a summary for Vietnam and Cambodia. I will add Thailand and Laos tomorrow.

Vietnam
Vietnam was the first country I have ever entered via a land border. In my mind, when you travel by plane, both the flight and the immigration formalities kind of create a mental distinction between the countries you are travelling between. However, when we crossed from China into Vietnam, other than a few scary looking officials, an hours time difference and a big sign saying “Welcome to Vietnam”, there was little to suggest that we had just crossed an international border… I was expecting a huge white line at the very least!

In just under a month we were able to cover pretty much the whole country thanks to the touristy - but oh-so-efficient - tourist bus that travels the length of Vietnam on a ”hop-on/hop-off” basis. The best part is that the ticket only costs about $24!!! We heard people criticise the bus due to the way that it isolates travellers from the Vietnamese but, having come from China (see my Yangshou bus rant post), having a reliable and cheap bus service at our disposal was… well, fantastic! Nevertheless, generally speaking, travelling in Vietnam - no matter what type of transport you opt for - seemed much easier than is was in China. That’’s not to say that Vietnam has better railways or buses, it’’s just the fact that everyone, from the woman at the ticket counter to the tramp slumped in the corner, speaks English and most will go out of their way to help a confused traveller - yes, even that tramp

Indeed, having since passed through Cambodia, Laos and Thailand, I can honestly say (with hindsight on my side) that the Vietnamese are by far the most friendly people we have met on our travels - although the people in Hanoi (actually, the people in the Hanoi Lotus Guesthouse) are perhaps a notable exception. Actually, given the country’’s recent history (psst… the Vietnam War), I had thought there would still be a lot of resentment towards Americans and, because we all look the same, ultimately all westerners. However, although I”m sure there is some, I never felt any hostility… which was nice.

Highlights of our time in Vietnam include our trip to Halong bay (where we spent a night on a boat, saw some fantastic scenery and met some great people), HCMC (a fantastic semi-modern city that has embraced the modern world without losing it’’s soul to commerce), and Hue (near the old de-facto border between North and South Vietnam). On another note, we LOVED the accommodation in Vietnam. For the same price of a hostel dorm bed in China, we were getting rooms complete with air-con and cable television!

There wasn”t much we didn”t like about Vietnam, although the money was a little confusing at first. It’’s just hard to work out how much stuff costs when $1 is worth 16,000 dong. Mind you, when you exchange a $100 travellers cheque, you feel like a millionaire. “Here’’s your money Sir”… *thump*. Actually, that reminds me, banks in Vietnam has zero security. Forget bullet proof glass, metal blinds and security guards, a bank in Vietnam is a woman sitting behind a desk with money piled all around her.

We left Vietnam (via the Mekong river) just before our visa expired. Next stop… Cambodia.

To see some of our Vietnam pictures, click here.

Cambodia
We knew it when we arrived in Cambodia. After getting off the boat we all climbed into the bus (yup, a mini-van) that was going to take us to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’’s capital. I remember my first thought well… “where has all the road gone?”, followed shortly after by… “why are there so many naked children?”. Yup, unlike our China / Vietnam border crossing, there was no doubt we had changed countries.

Simply put, although they are getting better, Cambodian roads are in fact glorified dirt tracks. There are some major routes that seem to have received the tarmac treatment but the vast majority remain bumpy to say the least. Another problem is that, because you are driving on dirt, dust goes everywhere. I remember Yuki looked at me about an hour into our journey and, with a shocked expression on her face, yelled “what’’s happening to your hair?”. When we stopped at a service station I ran to a mirror and discovered that all the dust had got stuck in my gel coated hair turning it a sandy, ginger colour. This was my first experience of ”Cambodian snow”. Oh, as for the naked Children, I have no idea.

Phnom Pehn was OK, although I had (and still have) no idea how to pronounce it. For a capital city is seemed a bit dilapidated but hey, this is Cambodia. The temples of Angkor in Seam Reap were - of course - fantastic, although I had imagined them to be larger, especially Angkor Wat. You can actually climb (in every sense of the word) to the top of Angkor Wat on this insane staircase. Going up is ok but coming down is a weak knees moment.

I actually spent my 23rd Birthday in Cambodia’’s second largest city, Battanbang. I had a headache and a bad tummy and did nothing for the entire day except stare out my window at the trees and grass below thinking, “if this is Cambodia’’s largest city, where are the buildings?”. It was a strange place.

Actually, the most interesting thing that happened was when we went out to order some lunch. We went into this restaurant, sat down and began browsing through the menu. Suddenly a little boy (clothed thankfully) appeared and asked us if we were ready. Amused, we placed our order. A few minutes passed and we became aware that behind us, in the depths of the kitchen, we could hear childrens voices. We went to investigate. Inside the kitchen we found about 5 kids between the ages of 5-12ish eagerly preparing our food. Two were struggling with the ice crusher, two were cooking and 1 was, as far as I could make out, running around in circles. We quickly returned to our table. A few minutes passed when a kid no older than 3 ran past us, pulled down his trousers and ran into the kitchen (do they just love to be naked?). The food was great though.

Seriously though, the Cambodian people were really cool and, despite the country’’s tragic history, really positive. That said, you don”t have to spend long in the killing fields or the now empty torture prisons to feel a great sense of dread. You get the feeling that behind their smiling faces, the madness of Pol Pot’’s regime still haunts many.

To see some of our Cambodia pictures, click here.

Categories: South East Asia
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