Cu Chi Tunnels, March 5 The Cu Chi Tunnels are an incredible system of underground tunnels built by the Vietnamese people in the town of Cu Chi during the Vietnam War. Cu Chi is located a few hours outside of Saigon and Peter and I went there on a day trip with Sinh Tourism. Our tour guide was quite informative and I tried to take notes as best as I could so here's what I can tell you from those notes and my memory: The Vietnam war lasted from 1948 to 1975,...

Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon, March 3-9 Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is a large city in southern Vietnam. It can get confusing sometimes because maps, addresses, and people all use the two names interchangeably at times. I may do the same so be forewarned. When I said it was a large city, I meant it. According to my tour guide, it has 10 million people and 5 million motorbikes…there are A LOT of motorbikes around this place! On a side note—it...

I try to write my first impressions of each country as soon as I enter it since it's interesting to see which ones are accurate and which ones change after being in a place for awhile. You're probably thinking that this blog will be skewed since it's been awhile since I first entered Vietnam, right? Well, since I know I don't have time to blog all the time, I at least keep notes on each city, including first impressions so this entry will be based on those notes...

Phnom Penh I had one final night with my friends in Phnom Penh before they all left me the next day—Jay for Malaysia and the girls to Laos. Luckily, at dinner that night I ran into two British friends from Laos, Russell and Tom, so I spent the next day with them. Also, Peter, Hywell, and Johnny joined me the following day so I wasn't alone for long. Phnom Pehn was the cultural capital of Cambodia for a long time and, for this reason, was the most persecu...

Saturday, February 18, 2012 4,000 islands SUCK! Saturday, February 18, 2012 I'm sitting in my lounge chair outside my bungalow on Don Det after a hard day at playing at the beach with friends. Don Det is one of a few inhabited islands in the area of Laos known as 4,000 islands. It's a quiet, tiny island bordering Cambodia and is the jumping point for people continuing their travels there. I had heard the stories of how much people love it here. ...