Cambodia: Phnom Penh and the journey there

7 hours on a bus to Phenom Penh - nothing exciting to report on that, just glad to have made it in one piece peacefully after the stories I heard. PP was a lot nicer than I was expecting - clean, put together, and just a cute little town. We only had that day to see the town so we hired a tuk tuk for the day to see S-21 Tou Seng Prison and the Killing Fields. What a depressing day. I had no real knowledge of Cambodia's history before; its just not taught in school like European and US history is. The Poi Pot regime is so recent, so fresh in hisotry too. The museum had so many photos and personal stories of events that happened just 30 years ago. Even outside the museum, there were many people begging for money and it was obvious they were landmine victims or somthing equally as tragic. Then we rushed out to see the Killing Fields. I just can't phatom the horror of the prison and the fields. What those people experiend, its just horrifying to think about. The fields closed and we headed back to town just as the sun was setting. Such a beautiful sight!

Cambodia architecture was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. So different from Vietnam! The people are also so different: so much darker and shorter than the Vietnamese. It was such a striking difference as soon as we crossed the border.

That night in the Phnom Penh may just have been my favorite night of the whole semester. Definitely of SE Asia so far. Had a delicious Indian dinner then went in search of a happy hour. A group of guys invited us to join them for a free drink, so how could we refuse? Tehre's no way to transfer the greatness of that conversation to the page, but it was a great night with a Kiwi, Australian, and a few Americans just shooting the breeze and celebrating the Kiwi's upcoming child. The Kiwi, Stanley, is 60 years old, been in Cambodia since 1988, married to a 28 year old local woman, and just found out his wife is pregnant with their 3rd child. Phil is 40 something and had been living in Cambodia for 4 years. Th was traveling around SE Asia and just never went back to TX. Joseph had been working in Japan for 2 years and is travelling around before going home for the first time in 2 years. All of them had interesting stories to tell. We ended the night all too soon and it was time to move on to Siem Riap.

Vietnam! Ho Chi Minh/Saigon City Redux

Kelly hadn't seen the city so ther was a bit of a repeat in sights, but getting around on our proved a challenge. We decided to dip our toes in slowly by hiring a cylo instead of a motorbike. It was a great ride - slow but in the thick of the action. Allowed us to see the city rather than just zip through it. But, this being Vietnam, it wasn't going to be easy. We just wanted to go to the Cathedral, but we got taken to a pegoda first, then the Cathedral. And because of this detour we didn't ask for, it was more than triple the original agreed upon price. Well, argument ensued but in the end we got a good deal. then getting from the zoo (which wasn't as bad as China's, but still not that good) we hired motorbikes. Such an exhilarating ride! To drive in this environment takes such awareness and just TRUST in the other drivers.

We stopped at the night market to pick up a souvenir shirt & keychain. We ate at Pho 2000, which is where Bill Clinton ate way back when, and stopped at frozen yogurt, which was so out of place but I'm not complaining!

And now, bus to Phnom Penh! Bring on Cambodia!

Vietnam! Cao Dai Temple & Cu Chi Tunnels

After Checking out the bar scene, we decided to call it a night so we'd be awake for our Cu Chi Tunnels tour. The first half of the day was spent at the main Cao Dai Temple. It's a new, purely Vietnamese religion blending Buddhism, Hinduism, Confusionism, and even bits of Western religions. The temple was beautiful - so different to ancient temples that had started to all blend together after spending so much time in Asia. While those are dark, small, andcovered with Buddhas/figures with incese, this was so bright, airy, and new. The worshippers have to wear white and the monks wear colorful robes - which made for great contrast, and overall look of the service.

Next stop was the Cu Chi Tunnels. It's hundreds of miles of underground tunnels that stretch from the Cambodian border to Saigon and further. The intro video was another example of biased hate against the US with such sounds bites like "The American devils" and "hunting the American animals". Oh well, again this video was made too soon after the war. We got to go down into the tunnels, which were small and claustrophobic , and this is even after they've been widened for tourists! Also at the tunnels, they have old weapons (M16, AK47, machine guns) that you can shoot for about $1/bullet. This was the main attraction for me, because where else can I shoot an AK47 for $10/round?! I fired my round, nearly going deaf in the process since they don't have proper headphones, and just missed the prize by 1 bullet. If you hit the target 3 times you get a prize, but my skills are not that good. Yet.

That night Brad had an overnight layover on his way back to HK. We met up and enjoyed the bar scene until he ahd to head to the airport at 4am. The downside of most of the guesthouses in HCM is that they lock up at 11:30 so to get back in afterwards you have to ring the bell and wake up the owner so he'll unlock it. I felt bad disturbing him so late, but it had to be done.

Vietnam! Ho Chi Minh/Saigon City

Vietnam isn't very single-traveller friendly since there are no dorm hostels. Plus, everything you do, you have to watch for the scam, the exorbitant amount they want you to pay just because they think you don't know better. The simplist taskes become ordeals (like laundry and buying band aids). But, despite all this hassle, I love Vietnam. And as long as you're aware and stand firm, you can get through it unscathed. This same advice goes for crossing the motorbike flooded streets.

Day 1: City Tour

Since I was alone this day, and hadn't met anyone since there are no traditional hostels, I went ona US$10 tour of the city. Tours always to to get you to buy stuff but I do enjoy them because I usually get more information about what I'm seeing and therefore appreciate it more.

The tour group was on the whole older than me - a few retired couples, and then the rest were 30 somethings on xmas vacay. Made it a bit hard to relate, but the tour was really nice. It made seeing the city really convenient.

Saw City Hall, the Post Office, and Notre Dame - where they're so french that you forget for a second that you're in Asia. The Reunification Palace was pretty, but nothing really spectacular. We went to a huge market, where it was piles and piles of goods as far as the eye could see. The most memorable sight of the day was the War Remnants Museum. It was depressing and disgusting to see. The Vietnam War was the first to make it into American living rooms thanks to the media, but I'm pretty sure these images never made it to the US news. The most distubing was the section on Agent Orange and other chemical weapons. Graphic photos of the resulting disabled children and deformed fetuses on display were hard to take. Before and after photos of entire regions that were beautiful and lush turned into barren wasteland unable to grown anything for years. Gruesome and chilling, but the museum was also so biased and was basically propaganda against the US that it made me angry. I have family who was in this war and not all soldiers were monsters or responsible for the blanket bombings. Its understand that its so biased though - built in 1975 right after the war, it was too fresh to be built objectively. At least they changed the name since then, it used to be called "The War Crimes of American Imperialism and its Puppet Government of South Vietnam." So it seems like their taking baby steps in the right direction towards being objective.

Vietnam! Ho Chi Minh!

Overall thoughts on Maylasia: interesting mix of Malay, Indian, and Chinese. You could see it by just looking at the streets - different foods, different languages (on signs and spoken) and different architecture. It was so easy to get around and so simple - no fear of being ripped off as I do here in Vietnam.

I loved Vietnam when we were in the north, but it REALLY helped that people had been there to pave the way and make the mistakes that we learned from. I've been here 3 hours and I've had to be on my toes the entire time. From getting to the airport to the right area, looking into deals to get us to Cambodia, and even just to eat. It makes me really glad that I went to Malaysia for those 5 days instead of coming to Vietnam early. I'm sure that would have been fun, but just a lot more difficult.