This is going to be a long one...

Nha Trang was a really nice place, although you did feel a bit like you could be in a beach resort in any touristy hot country. We ended up staying in a couple of dodgy places though, the first place gave you an electric shock if you tried to plug anything in and the second place was full of ants and smelt really damp. But we didn't spend much time in the rooms anyway, so it was fine.

The first day we went to Thap Ba Hot Springs, an outdoor spa place with mud baths and spring water heated pools. Bliss! The evening was mostly spent in a bar called 'crazy kim's', which helps street children in the day by giving them lessons and lunch, all funded by the money it makes as a bar in the evening. They had a selection of 'crazy' hats for you to wear and the buckets came in giant hip flasks or watering cans.

Unfortunately, we had to be up nice and early for a boat tour we'd booked for the next day, which involved a trip to four of the many islands surrounding Nha Trang. It was really good, but probably more enjoyable without a hangover! We were the only 2 westerners on it at first, but we were joined on the first island by a couple of girls from London. The Vietnamese people kept wanting their pictures taken with us, which was quite wierd and it was also very strange seeing them put on their face masks, tights and over the elbow gloves before they stepped into the sun, all because they want their skin to look as white as possible. Crazy! We saw some huge turtles in one of the farm pools on the first island, and some huge jellyfish in the sea as we were going around (luckily this was after we'd finished swimming in the water, although one of the London girls did get stung by a little one!).

The next day was mostly spent lounging on a beach, getting ripped off for food by little old ladies and giving more money than we should have for mentos to some sweet street kids selling stuff. We also ended up chatting to another Vietnamese student on the beach, who wanted to know everything about England, especially about the royal family and how marriage worked in our country. She was particularly interested in how the princes choose their wives! In the evening we boarded the night bus to Saigon.

We managed to find a really nice place to stay in Saigon called Madame Cuc's. The rooms were basic but really clean and they had a tv and air con. But it was the people that ran it that made it so good. We got breakfast and dinner included, so every morning and evening you'd sit in the reception area around a big table eating with everybody else staying there, and throughout the day they'd always offer you free tea and coffee. When we met up with one of the other girls from the halong bay trip, called Kate, they asked her to come and have breakfast with us for free even though she was staying at a different hotel. And they were always really helpful and lovely. They also had a really cool hook and winch thing to get your bags up the stairs, which was handy given that we always seem to end up on the top floor of wherever we stay (this time it was on floor 6! With no lift!).

Saigon itself was really cool. The people felt a lot friendlier than in Hanoi, and there wasn't the need to always question the change you'd been given! We spent most of the first day getting our bearings and wondering round the market places and shopping centres. All the cameras were really expensive, so I didn't end up getting one there as I'd planned. The next morning, we met a friend of Jen's friend for breakfast, a guy called Darren who'd been living in Saigon for 8 months. We went for a traditional pho (noodle soup) breakfast and got all the details about the best places to go. We spent the reast of the day on a bit of a museum/sightseeing tour, starting with the museum of Ho Chi Minh City (ok, but nothing special), notre dame catherdral (supposedly a replica of the French one, but really not), the 'reunification palace' which was the main building used by the Repulic of Vietnam party before the communists drove their tanks into it and took it over, thus gaining political control of the south and 'reunifyng' the country, and finally the war remnents museum. The war remnents museum was pretty harrowing, with lots of graphic pictures of people killed by American soldiers and others affected by the agent orange that was spread over large portions of the country. Although it was still obviously portraying the Vietnamese side of the story, it felt a lot more balanced than the biased museums in Hanoi. There was also a really interesting exhibition about the work of the photo journalists covering the war who died whilst doing their job.

The next day was a bit of an odd day - the plan had been to get up and head to the nearby waterpark, but Jen had been having problems with her card the previous day and couldn't get any money out. She insisted that I should still go, so I decided to go and get my phone unlocked and then head out. Luckily for me, I decided to check on the internet whilst I was waiting for my phone and, despite being in all the recent guidebooks, the water park had actually closed down! By this time, Jen had managed to sort things out with her card and we decided to just head to one of the posh hotels and use their rooftop swimming pool for the day, as recommended by Darren. We were pointed in the direction of the swimming pool by all the staff without ever being asked to pay the $4 fee but we were both big babies and were too scared to lounge all day without paying incase we got questioned, so we went and paid at the bar. It was really nice until it started raining! But it was only quick shower and we used the time to go and get some delicious spring rolls from the street for lunch instead of paying the ridiculous prices in the hotel for food. In the evening, we met up with Kate, and went to a nice resturant that was recommended by Darren for dinner. We got some strange 'combination cakes' for starter, which were like rice cakes with fish on top and were actually really really nice. The rest of the food was greatand all reasonably priced.

The next morning, the three of us got picked up early to go on a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels, where the guerrilla fighters hid out and fought from during the war. First stop was a strange Cao Dao temple, which is some religion founded in the 1940s and the temples all look very odd, like mickey mouses house at disney land. We got to watch mass taking place there, which involved a lot of chanting and bowing. Then it was on to the tunnels. It was really interesting to see how they lived there, making shoes from tyre rubber and devising a stove system that would get rid of the smoke in an inconspicuous way. Then we got to fire an AK47, which was fun! They also showed us all the vicious looking traps that were set for the american soldiers before we got to crawl through a section of the tunnels. It was really cramped, even though they have been widened to twice their original size for tourists. Despite being warned about dropping things, I managed to loose my sunglasses down there! Doh! In the evening, the three of us went round to Darren's flat, which had a rooftop garden with an amazing view over Saigon. Then we got taken to a little place for cheap and delicious food with the locals and a traditional 'che' dessert, which is like coconut milk rice stuff with beans and bananas in it.

The next day was the start of our mekong delta tour. We'd heard a few dodgy things about some of the tours, so we didn't have high expectations, but it was fantastic. The first day we got on a little long tail boat and taken through all the little windy tributaries off the mekong to a place where they hand-made coconut candy (Yummy). Here I also got to hold a snake and drink some lemon tea before being rowed back to the bigger boat and travelling on to have lunch on one of the islands, whilst listening to some traditional music. After that, we were driven to the town of Can Tho, where most of the group were staying in a hotel but us 3 and one american guy had signed up for a homestay at a nearby viallge. I got put on the back of a motorbike (the man driving balanced my huge backpack between his legs the whole journey) and the other were piled into a tiny rickshaw surrounded by their luggage. Then we had a short boat ride in the dark, where you could see all the people living along the river bank eating their dinner and cleaning their homes. At one point, the driver switched off the lamp on the boat and pointed out that you could see hundreds of fireflys in the trees. They looked like little christmas lights flickering on and off. When we arrived at the home, we got settled in before the family showed us how to roll the sping rolls and fry them and then gave us a huge dinner that they'd cooked. Then we sat and talked to them about daily life in Vietnam. We went to bed pretty early though, because we had to be up and ready for a walk round the village and 6am. It was really nice walking round the village and we took some of the coconut candy to give to some of the kids we saw. We also went to the 'squatting market', where the local people go to buy and sell their food for the day.

After we left the village, we went and met up with the rest of the tour group and visited some of the 'floating markets', which were basically a lot of boats selling fruit to eachother (and a lot of boats with kids on trying to sell drinks to tourists). Then we got on a bus to Chau Doc, stopping at a crocodile farm and a pagoda where you could see over to Cambodia. In the evening, the three of us went for walk around the local market in Chau Doc before getting something to eat at one of the street resturants. Everybody shouted 'hello' to us as we walked past and all the kids were waving. They were particularly fascinated by Kate, who is pretty tall, blonde and very white!

It was another early morning again as we went to visit a catfish farm and a cham minority village (a small muslim community that live on the river bank) before heading to the cambodian border. We sat and ate lunch whilst the guide sorted out our visas for us and got our exit stamps for Vietnam. I started panicking though when she handed out all the passports and I still didn't have mine back...but it was because she'd seen it was my birthday the next day and had put some 'lucky money' in a little envelope and got me a piggy bank that said 'happy birthday to emma' on it!. It was so sweet. We all piled back into the boat and headed on to the cambodian office, where we had to go and get the visa stamped. Then we all piled back onto the boat again, before being told we all had to get off as there was 'big waves' coming. It started to rain a little bit...then it rained a lot! Even though we were standing under a shelter, we all got absolutely soaked through, including our bags with our passports/i-pods/phones and cameras (or at least people who hadn't lost their cameras) in them. What an introduction to Cambodia in the rainy season! Eventually the 'big waves' died down and we could continue on to Phnom Penh.

We didn't get up to much in the evening in Phnom Penh, except for a nice meal where I tried a delicious khmer curry. But the next day was my birthday! After a lay in to recover from the numerous early mornings on the tour, I got up for breakfast and got a sweet little made card from Jen. Then we went to the big central market to meet Kate, who'd bought me some gorgeous lotus flowers. We wondered around for quite a while. I finally managed to find a suitable new camera (although it's definately fake) and also bought myself a traditional khmer checked scarf. After street food and shopping, I went and got a $2 hair cut (she didn't use scissors, just the razor and she has hacked off a lot more than I wanted... but I didn't expect anything less). Then we went back to a salon place near our guesthouse and got an hour long traditional massage and a manicure and a pedicure. The massage was nice, but painful (which I was expecting after the Thai massages, but she actually stood on me! I think my backpack weighs more than she did though). Then we got all dressed up and headed to a really really nice resturant called Malis. The food was some of the best I've eaten since I've been out here. Then we went for a few cocktails before heading to a club. It was such a strange mixture in the club - backpackers, old men, obvious prostitutes and other girls trying to pick up rich western boyfriends. The most shocking thing was how young some of the girls were though, or how young they looked anyway...

It is quite heartbreaking some of the things you see here, especially in Cambodia, which is obviously a lot poorer than some of the surrounding countries. You walk down the riverside at night, which is packed full of tourist bars and resturants, and you are surrounded by loads of kids and women sleeping on the streets, some with no clothes on, and little ones trying to sell you books or flowers or shine your shoes, and men trying to sell you tuk tuks and drugs. On our way to the killing fields yesterday, we stopped off at a petrol station and a little girl came up begging for money. Jen gave her half her baguette and her whole face lit up and she went skipping away. But it's so hard, as you can't give to everybody and you don't want to encourage the kids being sent out onto the streets just because they're cute and therefore get more money. We've been walking round with sweets to give to them but that seems really futile - it's not really what a hungry homeless kid wants or needs!

Anyway, we went to visit the killing fields yesterday morning, which is where many people were executed during the reign of the khmer rouge and pol pot. Some estimates say that 3 million were killed by the regime, which is nearly 1/3 of the whole of the population in Cambodia! The prettiness of the place seemed really at odds with the awful things that happened there. They had a big stupa that was full of the skulls of the bodies they found buried there. In the afternoon we went to the S-21 prison museum, which is where the accused people were taken and tortured and killed (or sent off to the killing fields to be killed). Again, the events that had taken place seemed at odds with the surroundings, since the prison used to be a school and they still had all the jungle gym bars up, which were apparently used during the torture of the prisoners. One of the most interesting parts was walking round all the photos of the prisoners that were taken when they first came to the site. The experessions on their faces were all of fear, defiance or disbelief and it was heartbreaking to see pictures taken of toddlers as if they were criminals. So it was all pretty full on stuff.

In between the two places, we went to the russian market and looked around for a bit (all museums in asia close for lunch, so we had a lot of time). We had some strange but tasty rice porridge at one of the stalls. It did have lots of unidentifiable pieces of meat in it and I'm pretty sure I can now add 'pigs lungs' onto my list of food I've tried. Talking of odd food...they eat fried trantula here and they sell it everywhere. In fact, I have been warned not to get off the bus on the toilet stop between Phnom Phen and Siem Reap because they also have little girls with live trantulas who think it's funny to chase you with them. I'm definately just going to hold it in!

Last night was Kate's last night with us, as she only has another week and a half left of travelling and she wants to see the rest of Cambodia and some of Laos in that time, so we went out for a few drinks. We were all so shattered fromthe night before though that we switched to drinking tea and hot chocolate!

We've got a few things to sort out in Phnom Penh before we move on, and I still haven't decided my route through the country yet - I'm not sure whether to see some of the 'wild east' or not or to head striaght for the beaches. Rainy season means it's a lot harder to travel around... but it is still doable and it only seems to rain once a day. The rest of the time it's incredibly hot and humid. Too much!

Miss you all, and thanks for all the birthday messages

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