HELLO ALL!

Me and Kirsty decided to write this one together...

So we continue our story where we left you in Nha Trang, a little confused as to what it was coming from the sky. It turned out to be rain, just we hadn't experienced it in so long we forgot what it was like!

We spent 2 full days here, with 1 day on the beach and another in the rain - where we took advantage of a local spa. On the 1st day we swam in the warm, but strong sea and a beachside pool. Foolishly I bought a football and some snorkells, we ahd to give the football away as there was no room in the bag and the sea was too murky for snorkelling! Kirsty did use the football to beat me at a game of beach football 5-4 though (she insisted I included this little detail).

The next afternoon we paid 6 pounds each for as many different types of baths you could name; mud, hot, cold, mineral, jacuzzi and hydrotherapy pools to name a few! The mud bath was fun as Kirsty sneakily turned the mud tap on and overflowed our bath! Thoroughly relaxed in the evening we had a few drinks and watched Liverpool beat Man U in an Irish pub! The place was a bit of a tourist spot, but we enjoyed relaxing here a little.

Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City - HCMC):

Former capital of Southern Vietnam (renamed HCMC when the Northern Vietnamese captured it I think) was a heaving, bustling, modern (compared to Hanoi) and exciting urban sprawl. We had 1 full day seeing the sights- 1st we saw a war museum, which was quite anti american, but nevertheless very interesting and then The Presidential Palace where Northern army tanks finally captured the city in 1979 (I think). We then strolled down to Notre Dame Cathedral, which was closed for lunch! In the afternoon we went shopping for a new memory stick and I bought an old gameboy to keep me entertained on all the long journeys.

On our second day we took a trip to The Cu Chi tunnels, a former stronghold where the guerilla Viet Cong dug an impressive 200km of underground tunnels (by hand) to hide from the bumbling Americans. We watched an extremely anti American video, followed by an extremely interesting talk by a former South Vietnamese Army Officer. He had been sent to a re-education camp after the war for 3 years by the N. Vietnamese Army and was now pro- communism, or so he told us! A tour followed, showing living conditions and the sneaky traps left by the Vietcong for the American soldiers. Traps consisted of sharpened bamboo stake pits covered with leaves and looked pretty gruesome. We tried some of the tunnels, which were pretty claustrophobic, despite being widened for the fatty American tourists who plagued the site.

We got to try firing a weapon of our choice - me and Kirsty bought 10 bullets to fire from an AK47 (an old soviet assault rifle). The noise and ferocitiy at which they fired was remarkable. We both had ringing in our ears for several hours afterwards, the noise was unbelievable. Neither of us hit the target and did not get recruited to the Vietnamese army fortunately!

En route to the tunnels we were forced into visiting a laquer-ware factory operated by disabled war veterans relatives. This was an excellent way to guilt trip tourists into buying overpriced laquerware - which is essentially painted wood. We did have the chance to talk to some of the workers, which was nice. Oh and th name of the shop in the factory was "HANDICAPPED HANDICRAFTS!" - a bit un-PC?

The day finished with a trip to a stressful market, where we bought some more reasonably priced laquer pots (don't worry mum and dads they are not your xmas presents!). The day actually finished with a water puppet show. This was a fantastic 1 hour puppet show set over water! It was really quite remarkable - a lot of fun and neither of us could quite work out how they did it! A fantastic day all round, Cu Chi and the puppets were highlights of the trip!

Chau Doc:

We took a 6 hour local (and run-down!) bus to the border town of Chau Doc, in the middle of the mekong delta. Initially we planned to spend only 1 day here, but it looked so nice we decided to delay our passage into Cambodia by 1 day and have a day exploring. We checked into our best room so far - only 10 pounds a night, with breakfast inc. The room had a huge bed, a balcony, a set of table and chairs, fantastic bathroom with a sit down shower - real luxury! (I will claim the credit for getting us into this 'VIP' room after some nifty haggling with the owner!).

During Dinner we befriended a local cyclo driver (a bike taxi) by buying him a drink, he was called Dung (!) and was the same age as us. He certainly struck a cord with me (Kirsty was rightly a little skeptical of him) because he was our age and obviuosly so poor- him and his family had migrated from Cambodia to find work here. We paid him to take us to some temples after dinner, where we saw our first ladyboys of the trip! Urrgh! After dropping us off at our hotel, we agreed to go to Karaoke the following night with him.

The next day we headed out on a small rowing boat across a branch of the Mekong with a driver called Nan! He was a little bit special, but took us to a floating village and fish farm. We got to feed the millions of fish and enjoyed seeing everyday life of the people of the mekong. In the afternoon, we walked through the market and saw some very cute ducklings! Unfortunately, they were doomed to be cooked! Just before sunset, we visited Sam Mountain offering excellent views over both Cambodia and Vietnam. The sunset was phenomenal - a really special way to end our last day in Vietnam.

In the evening, Dung took us to his family's restaurant where we enjoyed a buffalo barbecue - delicious! We then headed next door to the karaoke bar where we signed up to sing. After realising that the other singers and audience took it seriously we were a little apprehensive - although a few beers cured that! We opted to sing Dancing Queen by Abba as Born in the USA (Bruce Springsteen) seemed inappropriate! We killed the song and cleared the bar! After we had a few games of pool - and we actually won one! We had a really good night - but stayed up too late considering the jouney we had the next day.


Border Crossing + Phnom Penh + The King of Cambodia:

We jumped on a boat to take us across the border and depite starting an hour later than we were told (much to my anger as we were up at 6am) the border crossing was the smoothest so far. We paid $22 for our Cambodia Visa, jumped off the boat at the border, had our passports checked, got on 1 more boat and a bus after that which took us to Cambodias capital - Phnom Penh. We left Vietnam at 930 and arrived at about 3pm to a crazy city. Phnom Penh is difficult to describe, busy streets, beggars, stalls selling everything from fish kebabs to scarfs, shops, cafes, hotels, cars, motorbikes and all kinds of transports - 3 wheeled tuk tuks and 4 by 4s make it a vibrant and incredible place, like no other either of us have experienced.

It took us a while to find a hostel among the madness, but we eventually settled for a small, but clean $15 room (The currency here is Riel, but US dollars are used alongside!) near the front by the river Tonle Sap. We had a sunset stroll and discovered that the next day was the start of a 3 day festival and holiday for Cambodians, so the city was even more busy than usual! throngs of people lined the front, watching the boat races on the river. Shattered from a days travelling, we got an early night.

The next day we went to see the killing fields - over 9000 people have been exhumed from mass graves here, massacared during the reign of Pol Pot. Another 11000 have been left untouched. The memorial contains the skulls of the 9000 people and is quite striking. It really struck a chord with me and I wasn't suprised to see other people wiping tears from their eyes as they learned about the attrocities committed here - only 30years ago.

After this we visited a school which was converted to a torture and prison facility (Tuol Sleng/S21 as it was known), where some 20 000 people were 'processed' before being exterminated at the killing fields of Choeng Ek. It was a sombre morning. In the afternoon we planned to visit the royal palace and silver pagoda, but due to the festivities it was closed. We walked to the front, where there was a large police presence and a wall of people lining the streets. Kirsty asked a smartly dressed policeman what was going on, who spoke good English and informed us The King of Cambodia was due to arrive at the festival imminently! We waited for an hour and a half (imminently in SE Asia time frames), but did get a glimse of King Sihamoni, which made our afternoon!

Unfortunately, Kirsty had her camera stolen during the excitement - some rotten thief sliced open my pocket with a knife and removed it at some point during this precession. Neither of us were suprised, considering the poverty in the city, but we were both a little upset it had happened - however pleased we lost no photos after we saved them on a USB stick the night before. Phew! At least some poor person might be able to feed his/her family for a little while for the money they get. Despite this negative, Phnom Penh is still an exciting city.

Today we got the bus to Kratie (pron: Kra - che) and hope to see some super rare Irawaddy river dolphins in The Meking Tomorrow. The town is the capital of its province and consists of 1 street and 1 market! It's a bit of a dive, but we're only here for a day until we visit Angkor Wat.

Hope you read it all - will make sure Kirsty is typing on the next one!

Love Jonny and Kirsty x x x