Package from Ho Chi MInh City!

Floating at sunrise

After revisting Phnom Penh for the 3rd time, we took a slow boat down the Mekong and crossed the border into Vietnam. We stayed in Chau Doc and then in Can Tho, where we did a tour of the floating markets and around.
Vietnam is a different world to Cambodia. The whole place is just buzzing with people and motorbikes and boats and bikes and buses and cars and cyclos and more people. It makes you realise how poor and small Cambodia and Laos are. There is a constant drone in the back of your skull from the reverberation of motorbikes.
Floating down the Mekong was pretty relaxing though- the people were super friendly- especially all the kids waving out at us. Our guide gave us an impromtu Vietnamese lesson while crouching the roof of a shop boat, writing with a pineapple core- HEO! is PIG!
It was all riduclously photogenic and I got all snap happy.
In Saigon now- and the roar of the motorbikes at 5pm is phenomenal. Crossing the street is mental. You have to just go for it- as you start trying to wait for a 'gap' you're doomed. Moving slowly, motorbikes whizz past you at every angle.
I think I really like it!

Bokor Chainsaw Massacre

Right now I'm sitting in an internet cafe in Can Tho, Vietnam and all around me kids are smoking and playing some kind of futuristic online dancing computer game. Cambodia was crazy but Vietnam is something else altogether - we're in the south right now, in the Mekong Delta, which is supposed to be quiet and slow compared to the rest of the country but after Laos and Cambodia even this town feels frantic, bustling, fast and electric.

Our last mission in Cambodia was a strange one. We spent a couple of days in Kampot along the south coast and got to visit the Bokor Hill Station - once a top-of-the-line French holiday outpost complete with luxurious art deco hotel and casino, now an abandoned ghost-town. It's a spooky place - since the French got run out in the 40's its been a battleground several times over, with the clifftop hotel providing an ideal strategic fortress for various versions of both Cambodian and Vietnamese government and guerilla armies right up to the 80's. Bloody, bloody history there.

To visit there now is like living a horror movie. You can walk right through the shells of the hotel, the casino, the post office and a catholic church perched right up this spectacular hill, and needless to say it's pretty eerie experience. The day we went up there were even thunderstorms, as if the atmosphere wasn't quite horror-movie enough.

Khmer New Years

From the first day we arrived in Cambodia every local we've chatted to has been talking about one thing: Khmer New Years. For these guys its the big one, like all our holidays rolled into one: three solid days and nights of family, feasts, drinking, water fights, fireworks, music and whatever other crazy ideas drunk Cambodians might come up with along the way.

As the day grew closer it was obvious we'd have to find somewhere fun to be to see the celebration out. We wouldn't be able to travel during those three days as the whole country stops to party, so we'd have to stop and party too. Tough life this. The obvious choice was Sihanoukville, Cambodia's most popular beach/party town which was being swarmed by thousands upon thousands of Khmers from Phnom Penh and other inland cities.

Well, I think Sonya's earlier post proabably summed it up well. Sihanoukville is place of crazy extremes - stunning beaches, covered in rubbish, bars all along the edge of the beach, hundreds of charming and quick witted (and bloody persistant!) little entrepeneurs hustling you to buy bracelets and shorts and mangos, and landmine amputees begging as you sit and sip shakes or cheap beer and wath the beautiful sunsets over the water. Perfect place for a crazy party.

And party they did. By day thousands of Khmers filled the beach, the water and every available space of ground with huge picnics, lots of drinking and laughing and shouting. In the afternoons the water/talculm fights broke out, people lining the roads pelting waterbombs at passing motorbikes (including ours, hard to steer straight while trying to dodge flying waterbombs!), kids running around tipping buckets over picnicing families and girls running around covering the recently soaked in liberal handfulls of talculm powder. Great fun!

By sundown each day the fireworks were out and the drinks were starting to kick in and thats when it really got crazy. I'm sure you can imagine.

Now we're in sleepy Kampot, dragging ourselves back to reality and good health. Wish us luck!

Thanks, for living

Sihanoukville.
Hot and noisy.
Water bombs and talcum powder wars.
Slick kids and rude ladies commenting on my leg hair.
Beautiful beaches, lots of rubbish.
Mad fireworks.
Cool cinema.
Hot.

Sticky Rice

Angkor Wat. There aren't words big enough to sum it up.

We got picked up by Mr Hun, (our tuk tuk driver who came recommended and he was great) at 5am and got out to the Angkor Wat in time for sunrise- which we watched overlooking the reflecting pool- it was a magnificent sunrise- reds and golds and crazy ancient ruins. It was worth the ungodly early start to wander through the temples in the quiet time just after dawn.

I'm not going to bore you to death with a indepth recout but here's a few highlights of our 3 day adventure:
Bayon Temple which has 216 giant carved smiling faces watching you suffer in the mad heat- a bit creepy.
Ta Phrom- where the jungle is taking over the ruins and trees are growing up all over the temples (where Tomb Raider was filmed).
The kids- who drove us mad but also cracked us up yelling at us:
Lady, you wanna cold water?
Lady, you wanna bracelet?
Mister, you wanna tshirt?
Mister, you wanna flute?
Lady, you wanna carving?
Mister, you wanna pineapple?
Lady, you wanna fan?
And Mr Hun, who enlightened us with his theories of the ancient sticky rice building technique.

But I think the best experience was on our last day. We went a bit further than most tourists out to Beng Melea, 2 hours from Siem Reap- where none of the jungle has been cleared away from the ruins. It looks as if it had never been discovered and thanks again to Mr Hun, we got there before anyone else. Crawling over broken carvings and stuggling over vine strangled wreckage with just the sounds of the jungle in the early morning was mystical and awesome. Definitive Indiana Jones moment.

Loved it.

Hey, where you go?

The French call Cambodia 'Cambodge'. I think that's where the expression 'bodgy' must come from.
Cambodia's a bit different to Laos... a lot more full on. I think that when we first arrived it took us both back a bit- but now a week on, we're finding our feet. The trick seems to be to keep smiling and not take things at face value. You've got to work a bit harder to stay ahead here.
Phnom Penh seemed so full on at first, but then we hadn't been in a big city since Chiang Mai over a month ago. It's also the start of the hottest month and damn, it is hot.

Today we went to Toul Sleng Museum (S-21), which is where over 17,000 people were imprisoned and subsequently killed during the Khmer Rouge regime between 1976-79. It was a pretty grisly experience and I find it impossible to put into words the tragedy that occurred there. As a photographer I found the photographic documentation of the victims shocking, moving and numbing. The number of faces seemed never ending. There are rooms and rooms of mug shots.

We passed on the Killing Fields - where S-21 prisioners were 'smashed' and also on the shooting range. Apparently it's a popular combo apparently for tourists- you do the Museum, Killing Fields and then the shooting range where you get to fire the gun/rocket launcher of your choice.

It seems like madness to want to get your hands on a gun after seeing such brutalities up close.

That said, Phnom Penh is an interesting city and our tuk tuk driver today- Som Sang was so friendly and we had a really fun morning with him at the markets. After the museum we went to great Khmer place for lunch and really enjoyed chatting with Sang about the city and the madness of driving in Cambodia!

Long Time, No Internet

Well, we've been busy. The South of Laos and the North of Cambodia have past us by since we last posted anything and it's hard to believe we haven't had the time to sit down and write anything.

Last time we posted we'd just arrived in Vienteine and were trying to find shelter from the sun. We ended up spending a few days cruising round there on a motorbike, checking out the sights and living the (mostly charming, occasionally infuriating) lazy Laos pace of life, but mostly again, trying to survive the heat. From there we pottered slowly south through Savannaket and Pakse before spending a couple of days in beautiful Si Phan Don, where the Mekong spreads out and winds through four thousand tiny islands before it hits Cambodia.

Which is what all the backpackers do too, I suppose. We really loved Laos - nice cruisy pace, no hassles, really quiet, friendly people - but by the time we hit Si Phan Don we'd spent enough time on hot stuffy packed out local buses and were definitely ready to crash out somewhere for a few catch up days of swimming and relaxing and book-reading. (Its always about the swimming for us.) Si Phan Don was a pretty amazing place - beautiful lush surroundings and we were lucky enough to see some of the rare Irrawaddy river dolphins which might not last much longer - but the place seems to be in the process of becoming another Vang Vieng style tourist cash-in. Lots of construction everywhere on the island we stayed on but we had a lovely guesthouse with a balcony overlooking the river and a lovely family looking after us so I don't know why I'm complaining. I think they do understand that the big part of the appeal of the place is that its so quiet and slow and the fact they only have electricity from 6pm till 10pm will probably stop any Club Meds opening up for a while yet!

Then, Cambodia. And we though Laos was disorganised! Long story short (to be shouted enthusiastically): Boat hits rocks! Wait for van! Wrong border! No visas today! (we had ours sorted already), Big fight! (not us), Extra money! Big fight! (not us), Change van! New border, different road! Extra money! Change van again! Lost packs! (us this time!), To many people for van now, too bad, squeeze in! Get off van! Get on boat! Found packs! (its not a totally sad story) No more vans, you stay here tonight!

Actually as you read that story someone should be yelling Hot! Hot! Hot! at the same time trying to distract you. You really do have to take a deep breath and laugh or you'll go nuts.

A day later than we meant to we ended up for a few days in dusty Ban Lung. Again, more motorbiking (this time on some seriously dodgy dusty dusty red dirt roads) and swimming in a stunning volcanic crater lake with green jungle all around. Yeak Loam was easily a solid contender for best swimming spot of the trip, and we've done plenty of sweet swimming spots. We spent last night in Kratie and today we took another hot dusty packed local to Phnom Penh. Did I say hot? April is the hottest month of the year here so its only going to get better.

Still a bit too early to make any solid calls on Cambodia but first impressions? Hot and crazy. Terrible roads. Lots of people hassling you everywhere for moto rides, rooms, pineapples and just straight out begging. Let me wipe the sweat off my face first.