Siem Reap

Most of the pictures are self explanatory -- Angkor ruins and more Angkor ruins. Also is a video of the Cambodian children that encircle their touristy victims at the ruins, pedaling their wares. There is a picture of pigs heads at the central market in town, several stacks of krama (traditional Cambodian scarves), and a weaves demonstrating how krama are made.

The six of us, Jimmy, Salvador, Jane, Jasmine, and YeeGuan arrived in Siem Reap at night. We found a dorm for $1/night that amounted to an open-air shack with mattresses, pillows, and mozzie nets, but really isn't that all you need? We arranged to be picked up at 5:00 am the next morning to see sunrise at Angkor Wat. We went to the rooftop bar which was really chill. Great tunes, good ambiance, and the aroma of pot filling the air. We put down a few beers and passed out maybe around 1:00 am.

Sunrise to sunset, we wondered ancient ruins and temples. The sun was intense, I would say unbearable except that we did bear it. It was absolutely taxing on my body and mind, but somehow we did manage to go out drinking that night. I passed out "early" around 2:00 am; others went to sleep at 3:00. We took it easy, starting at 9:00 am the next day, and it was quite pleasant. I took far too many photos of the temples, and remarkeably those posted are only a fraction of them. That night we hit the booze hard, went to a club, and ended the night around 4:00 am when Salvador was accused of stealing someones drinking, punched in the face (we deduced by his swollen lip), and dragged out by two security guards.

We spent one more day here, seeing the city and drinking only a couple beers each. On Thursday the girls left for Malaysia, Jimmy and Salvador left for Bangkok, and I stayed behind to chill in Siem Reap till Saturday.

Phnom Penh or "Genocide in 25 Hours"

Cambodia was a huge shock. Soon after crossing the border, our bus stopped at a market next to the river we would ferry over shortly. Here were girls and woman in dirty clothes carrying baskets of everything from fish to friend insects in wicker baskets atop their heads, streets littered with piles of plastic garbage and food scraps, cattle walking the streets and sidewalks, naked toddlers running about with no supervision, and children banging on our bus windows and door yelling and begging for money.

Entering Phnom Penh the traffic was thick and the air putrid with pollution from whatever dirty fuels they burned. The streets and buildings here were almost as bad as the city by the river where we had stopped earlier on. When I disembarked along with the Englishmen and the Spaniard I met on the bus, I found that the tuk tuk drivers were far more insistant than elsewhere in SE Asia, and appeared more gruff as well. Later we would admit to having been scared by what we saw on our initial entry into Cambodia. As Salvador said, "I'm wouldn't want to go out here alone." We stuck together along with two Chinese-Malaysian girls and one Chinese girl that we met. We arrived at 1:00 pm and by 6:00 we had seen the most prominent "killing fields" in Cambodia, the S-21 sight, and found our way to a nice dorm. We drank that night, I ate grilled frog, bought some juicier crickets than I had previously had, and ate a snake on a stick. The next day we visited the S-21 prison (seperate from the killing fields), and the history museum where many Angkor relics are housed. By 2:00 that afternoon we were gone.

Saigon

Another quickie, I spent 2 days in Saigon. On the first I saw the War Remnants Museum, more aptly known as the The Museum of American War Crimes. This a gruesome and truly sobering museum which houses many of the weapons used during the war. It displays countless photographs of war atrocities (mostly taken by U.S. Associated Press), agent orange victims, napalm victims, phosphourus bomb victims. On the second floor were explanations for the imperialism of western forces from the time of French colonists up to the ending days of American involvement. It quotes various politicians and government documents detailing the reasons for the war as they relate to resource acquisition and to some extent the prevention of the "domino effect," which theorized that as one country fell to communism, so would neighboring countries until the whole of the democratic and freeworld fell. On the top floor of the museum were news article, photos, and descriptions or the massive protests taking place all over the world to end the gruesome war and grant Vietnam its independence. The last and possibly most sickening portion of the museum, located outside, was a replica of one of the American Prisoners for detention, interigation, and torture of suspected VC. It contained several of the "tiger cages" used as punishment, and described the tortures and disfigurements used.

The following day I visited the Cu Chi tunnels. The guide was involved in the war. He fled the country after his girlfriend and sister were both killed by American bombs. Ironically he fled to America and joined the military. He was careful to mention often that he never killed anyone, but has still never fully forgiven himself for being involved in the war effort. Upon returning to Vietnam he was placed in a communist "re-education camp," where he was made to clear landmines and subjected to the usual brainwashing. While in this prison his mother died and the rest of his family took him for dead and left the country. He has since located them.

Mui Ne

Mui Ne was another 2 day stop. The first was spent with a bit of walking, a bit of bobbing around in the ocean, and a bit of drinking and pool at the bar. The next day I spent motorbiking to the sand dunes, Red Canyon, and the Fairy Stream. It was great fun and very pleasant despite the wretchedly hot weather.

Nha Trang

Nha Trang was surprisingly clean for a large city. I arrived very early in the morning, shortly after sunrise and the ocean looked beautiful. This is the first tropical beach I have seen. After checking into a hotel, my most expensive accomodation yet coming in at $8, I ventured out for breakfast, a sandwich that I took to the beach to eat. There I saw throngs of soldiers and university students hauling away debris left from the typhoon and heaving it into large piles. I approached to join in, although for all the hundreds of people cleaning there was nerie a westerner to be seen. Some university students took to me and told me they were actually just finishing, but I could come to the cafe with them and get some coffee. It turned out they were studying to be tour guides, and they agreed to drive me around on their motorbikes for the day. One in particular spoke very good English, knew quite a bit about the sights around town, and was very charismatic. The rest tagged along and enjoyed the adventure having never taken an actual "tourist" about the town before.

The next was making to be significantly less interesting when, late in the afternoon, I was picked up by a man on a motorbike with a girl her claimed to be his neice. We went back to his place and I ate with "the family." It consisted of about 6 local dishes and was all very good. Soon, a man took me to a room with a table set out for playing cards and taught me how one might cheat with the dealer at blackjack. It was a very long scam and I originally wrote out about a page of text to describe it, but alas it was just too much. Suffice it to say that involved convincing the victim that he would win... I think it was $30,400 split 2 ways between him and the dealer if the victim could only come up with the $400 that the dealer could not borrow from a friend. It involved tricky deckwork, and I am still not sure how he managed to deal me exactly 21, as I saw him shuffle the cards well. Also I am not sure where the hell they came up with $30,000 cash in $100 bills that looked perfectly legitimate. I told him that I could only withdraw a very small amount of money from the bank per week, which of course was a lie. He asked how much I did have. I pulled out a wad of cash, all sorted from large notes to small, and it amounted to $12, or about 220,000 Dong. The rest of my cash, amounting to around $150 was in a seperate pocket of my wallet that he would not have seen. I said that I had no part in this, as he was playing with his money, and I would not contribute anything to the pot. He told me he would do what he could and take me back to my hotel in the meanwhile, picking me up when he had gathered the money. The driver never returned. It was likely one of the most interesting I have had on this trip so far and I was glad to have participated and then got away unscathed.

Hoi An

Buses from Hue to Hoi An shut down for a day, but when they opened I got on board and followed the tail end of the typhoon, seeing giant, towering cargo ships beached perhaps only 10 meters from the road; It was an awe-inspiring sight to be sure. Along the way I befriended a Swedish couple, and sticking together along with two Danish girls I met at my Hue hostel, we booked our rooms at a cheap hotel with a pool. Six dollars for a 3 bed dorm in a hotel with a pool and free alcholic smoothies seemed reasonable enough. I spent several days here doing the typical Hoi An stuff. I visited several museums, an old trading house, the Japanese Covered Bridge, saw a traditional music performance which embodies all the same Chinese/Japanese/Vietnamese fusion as the rest of this trading town. I spent one day simply walking, touring the town, eating at the same local stalls I usually do where the meals cost less than a dollar and the patrons are shocked to see you and laugh as you load your bowl of Pho Ga (noodles and chicken) with chilli sauce.

Hue

I arrive in Hue on the morning of October 30th after a long bus journey, a harrowing one for most. I was wise enough to load up on a bit of vodka and successfully passed out before long. I had read of the horrors of the Hanoi-Hue bus journey online before my departure. It is a horribly bumpy drive with all the usual honking of Vietnam traffic. I made myself cozy in the back of the bus where the sound of noisy Vietnamese people talking on their cell phones and the honking of the driver was drown out by the whir and rumble of the engine. I started out with a 4-5 person mattress all to myself. A couple, from Poland if I remember right, joined me after a time. Then things got to be too much halfway through the drive when the bus drivers shift ended and he and his sweetheart joined us. With two couples on either side of me on a cramped mattress, and the bus driver making out with his lady, I finished the journey on the top bunk.

Halloween at the Hue Backpackers Hostel was a hoot, with a great deal of free spring rolls, grilled chicken on skewers, and penut butter "witches finger" cookies. There was decorating, dressing up, music to fit the festivities, and of course lots of drinking. It was only a day or two later that the eve before the Melbourne cup was celebrated, again with dressing up and a great deal of drinking.

While in Hue I visited a number of the tombs, contained in large park-like estates. I small village that is dedicated to making incense and derives most of its living, it would appear, from tourists like myself that are hearded through on an hourly basis. I did a day tour of the DMZ further North. I saw a number of old military bases, a landing strip, and the Vin Moc Tunnels used by the Vietcong during the war. This was all at the tail end of the typhoon as is evidenced by the image of the raging Pacific Ocean.