The Temples...

In Siem Riap, people come for the temples, lots and lots and lots of them, the place is filled with tourists, and it creates an interesting though hectic atmosphere.

I'm not going to linger on the temples, as they are big, and contained interesting carvings, for more information use google.

we're out of here tomorrow, then back home, plenty of pictures and a few stories.

later

G

Cambodia

Well not quite ready to subject outselves to a 12 hour bus journey across the border we took a short flight to Pnonh penh (sp?). the plane was small and crusty, but we arrived safe.
Its an interesting place, clean, good streets, savy advertising, EVERYTHING in american dollars, a big, big change from Nam.
The tourist strip we were staying on was by the water which reminded me of the yarra with more mud and boats.
Took a few moto's for the day and went and visited the sites. Temples, palaces, shopping centre's, the works. Its a really charming city, a big change from Nam and personally i could see myslef living there for a short space of time.
Lots of knock of stuff, I bought my first pile of rip off Polo's and other random stuff, you can feel the difference....but for a dollar..who cares.

Our moto driver took us to an authentic Cambodian restaurant, which was over the big bridge adn a few KM's from town. THe restaurant was big, massive, and glitzy, really the type of place for weddings, barmitzvah's and other events. there was singing, and what I can only guess to be comedians, food wasn't too expensive, booze was stupidly cheap (as it is in all of Cambodia), and we were only looked at like we were Aliens for the first 20 minutes or so. Oh and one other thing...BEER GIRLS, we sa down and we were pounced on by 6 girls in different alcohol brand uniforms, Heineken lost out cause her outfit was gross and she didn't do it justice...but misss Tiger beer.....better, much better.

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A few days later we're in Siem Riap, and frankly it shocked and frightened me, it reminded meof Cancun, a place buit for tourists, lots of them, tons of hotels, locals used to tourists, great cocktails.... etc.

Saigon part 2

We spent a couple of days in Saigon prior to heading off to cambodia, within a few hours of getting off the flight and wandering around the backpacker section of town we had bumped into the Brits who stole the seats on the flight leaving the island, i yelled ÿou bastards you stole our seats", and we spent the next 2 nights going out together, great people.

Alos found some time to do a few of the sights,war museum, reunification palace etc. The palace was interesting, big, out of date furniture and a basement which had a command post set up, straight out of doctor strange love.

otherwise we spent the rest of the time wandering, drinking and buying pirated stuff/ presents for people, its probably not getting your hopes up as frankly i thought the tourist stuff was crap and wasn't willing to buy it for anyone (your all far too good for it).

today boarded a plane for Cambodia (f*ck the 12 hour bus ride).

The Island

So finished up with Phu Quoc now, it was relaxing, very relaxing, at some points even too relaxing.
when you got nuttin to do but sit in the sun and read whatever you can get your hands on, sometimes I thought i was going to go mad. Still it was relaxing, revitalising, and skin cancer generating, and its certainly been one of the highlights of the holiday. Seafood was plentiful and devine, the bungalows were simple, with a good mosquito net and right next to the beach.

so other then eating, getting sunburnt and drinking, not alot went on there, hired a bike and went for a drive round the island, good roads, and access to other great beaches.

don't really have a hell of alot to write when everything goes well with no hassles, but there was a drama trying to get off the island....

so we turned up to the airport early, very early as all flights were booked out till the 10th which was 100% not practical, there was already a solid standby list, which doesn't really mean a hell of alot apparently. Stood around, met some people, tried to get on the morning flights to no avail, there were alot of people trying to get on the flight, small planes, 60 odd seats, lots of disaster.
It didn't work, to no avail, so next time I swore I would get on, armed with the passports, a couple of houndred thousand dong (under $20), I was ready to bribe, or maim, whatever came first.
got at the front of the counter, jammed myself there, so none of the vietnamese, could squeese in in front of me, and was very persuasive and pushy and hoorah, we got on.


anyway currently in Saigon, off to Cambodia tomorrow.


G

Saigon part 1

Well we finished up in Hué and after a 3 hour delay due to fog finally boarded a plane to Saigon, upon arrival we promptly had a taxi try to screw us before reaching our overpriced, and remarkably tacky hotel (shows what you know lonely planet).

so we were in the Tourist section, I normally am in faqvour of avoiding this type of place but we were getting up early to try to catch a flight to a nice little island.

anyway it was absolutrly brimming with backpackers, travellers, potential sex tourists, the works. a total hussle and bussle, with lots of locals trying to flog lots of stuff to lots of tourists.
There were bars as far as the eye could see, and it certainly had a lively atmosphere to it

dropped our stuff and went in search of westerner food (authors note: I'm a firm believer that when in rome and all that, but frankly a burger sounded like a pimp'in idea). Had a few beers, all overpriced, but hey part of the experience. wandered some more, bought some pirated dvd's and all that.

on closer inspection it really hit me, the place had a really dity, sleazy feel to i, it felt like the foreigners were using the locals and the locals were using the foreigners, one for a godo time the other for their livelyhood. We saw alot of older single men there, and frankly it gave me the creeps, sure i'd see the same demographic on a golf course, but these one's were leering and everything in a skirt and a pulse.... not pretty at all, and i'm being far from prudish.

anyway ate some great tasting western pizza (italian inspired to be more specific...which im still suffering for today) and had an early night due to us going on stand by to get a flight to Phu Quoc island...as its hot and sunny and has beaches there...all the things im currently missing

so here now, a bit sunburnt and feeling great.

G

TET and beyond

well being stuck we decided to make the most of it, and rented a motocycle, Paulina being the more experienced..pretty much everything was the driver and within a short time we were hooning around the countryside checking out the sites, and dodging stray livestock on the road (water buffalo anyone?)

The guys at the hotel explained in Vietnam that the man never rides on the back of the motor cycle, so bascially we had to switch sexes.... I wasn't too fazed by the whole thing, hell i was getting driven around.

The preparations for TET were well and truly underway, and people were hanging up their chinese new years equivalent of an xmas tree, cleaning up and getting hair cuts.

We also took this opportunity to go on a pharmacy run, with a couple of words written in Vietnamese thanks to our friendly hotel guy.
We discovered that in Nam, you don't actually have to know about drugs to work in a pharmacy and we were given a range of strange and mysterious pills to try...YAY!

our bus to Hué left at 8pm so the afternoon/ evening was spent sitting around.
when the bus arrived i was more then a little relieved to discover a) it was empty abd b) the seats reclined, and i proceeded to dose myself up on half a xanax, to take the edge off the ride.
A few hours later i was awoken, we had stopped on the edge of a freeway, it was 11:45 and the bus driver had called a 30 minute break for TET.

dazed, confused and foggy I got off the bus, and watched the fire works, not too impressive but the vietnamese seemed excited, we wished each other happy new year (Chuc mung nam moi), and the drivers invited us to have a beer and some of the new years speciality which was goat, cooked in some sort of leaf.
I'm prety easy when it comes to food but frankly it was pretty damn gross, shortly after the entire highway which had been deserted, came alive with the sound of motobikes, lots and lots of them as people went to new years parties etc.

so we arrived in Hué at 5:55 am, found a hotel, some old lady banged on the door, woke them up we were showed a room and in bed by 6:10...

Hué was ok, big fobidden city, alot like the one in Japan only crustier, and most of it had been destroyed anf rebuilt less then a hundred years ago, the entire town was cloudy and not so much fun so we booked a ticked for Saigon for the next day. Also bumped into this Aussie couple from the boat, and had a few drinks which was nice.

in Saigon now, happy new years everbody.

Stuck!.....in Nimh Binh

Well due to a bad case of Tet (New years) we're stuck in Nimh Binh for another night,
I didn't think this damn holiday would have such an impact on travel....but it seems to.


Today we went and did tourist shit, got ripped off, saw some sights the usual. Rented a bicycle and went to see the country side. It was scenic, the kind of scenic you pretty much expect in Vietnam. Sprawling ricefields, bumpy lane ways, dirty children, ugly dogs, you get it all.
but despite that it really is beautiful, peaceful and sort of majestic in a sprawling ricefields kind of way.

The Tam Coc caves were your typical toursit spot, beautiful, but a tourist spot. some old ladies rowed us for a few hours through some caves, saw some sites, tried ot sell us stuff, and I ended up 'helping' to row the boat, maybe they were trying to make me feel important.... i'm still unsure.

So we rented a bike, its funny because traffic in Vietnam is flat out mind bogglingly insane, the craziest and most dangerous I've ever encountered, but being on the road is different. When your one with the flow of traffic , on the road with a set of wheels, people notice you and drive around, even cutting across rediculous intersections, its much safer on a bike. its kind of like the Force, and once you embrace it, the whole process is less scary, sure its absolute brimming with pure chaos....but thats really part of the experience.

tomorrow we board a bus for Hué, since there is no trains its basically a good 12 hour ride, the current plan is to visit the local Pharmacy and get whacked out on 'pharmies' for the trip...fingers crossed we can communicate with them!.

and finally I now have a local mobile number, should any of you have the desire to send me highly overpriced SMS's, please don't hesistate (MMS not available) +84 - 904409678

stay well

G