Thursday, 27 September 2007
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Saigon Saigon
We've had a hectic few days! Now on our last night in Saigon - have absolutely loved it here! It's humid, hectic - there is a moped for one out of every two people living here and there are 8 million people living here - crossing the road is an adventure all in itself! Decided to take the more adventurous scenic crossing from Cambodia into Vietnam via Chau Doc and the Mekong Delta and persuaded ourselves that a $24 tour which included one night accommodation, breakfast, all transport and a tour of the Mekong Delta would still be value for money.....hmmmm...cattle class tastic. We took a bus from Phnom Penh to the river where we thankfully joined some other worried looking tourists to get on this barge that had two planks as seats for 3 hours - 10 people and a chicken (no joke) over the border stopping off to have "lunch" which luckily served up some veg and rice. Then another 2 hour boat trip during which time there was a monsoon and Dene and I wearing shorts and t-shirts got completely soaked! Tour was good though - taking you into the Mekong Delta, over monkey bridges and visiting Cham minority villages.
We're pretty glad to be in Vietnam. The last couple of days in Cambodia were kind of hard going - we went to the Killing Fields and to the Tong Sleung museum which is the actual prison used by the Khmer Rouge to torture all the smart Cambodians. They have left all the beds and torture tools where they were found and have mug shots of a large number of the prisoners taken there and killed - had to take a bit of a breather half way through, it's pretty grim stuff. Phnom Penh is a world away from Siem Reap.
But Saigon is fab. We have visited the War Remnants Museum and learnt about the "American War" from the Vietnamese perspective. It's a bit propaganda fuelled but very interesting to see it from a different side! They actually have an Anti-American day here!!! We went to the Cu Chi tunnels yesterday where the VC lived during the war - we went down them which is quite claustrophobic and very sweaty but again really interesting - have some very funny footage of us crawling along them! Today has been a bit hectic as my camera (my pride and joy!) stopped working or at least the LCD panel/menu stopped working - depression, despair, panic stations etc etc. We've left it with a repair shop overnight and the guy has said that he should be able to fix it by tomorrow morning otherwise we've already scouted out a replacement (which of course is nothing compared to my baby but at least records where we've been)! So no photo updates at the moment but hopefully soon! We're off to Nha Trang tomorrow for a couple of days relaxing on the beach and then to Hoi An.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Nic x
We're pretty glad to be in Vietnam. The last couple of days in Cambodia were kind of hard going - we went to the Killing Fields and to the Tong Sleung museum which is the actual prison used by the Khmer Rouge to torture all the smart Cambodians. They have left all the beds and torture tools where they were found and have mug shots of a large number of the prisoners taken there and killed - had to take a bit of a breather half way through, it's pretty grim stuff. Phnom Penh is a world away from Siem Reap.
But Saigon is fab. We have visited the War Remnants Museum and learnt about the "American War" from the Vietnamese perspective. It's a bit propaganda fuelled but very interesting to see it from a different side! They actually have an Anti-American day here!!! We went to the Cu Chi tunnels yesterday where the VC lived during the war - we went down them which is quite claustrophobic and very sweaty but again really interesting - have some very funny footage of us crawling along them! Today has been a bit hectic as my camera (my pride and joy!) stopped working or at least the LCD panel/menu stopped working - depression, despair, panic stations etc etc. We've left it with a repair shop overnight and the guy has said that he should be able to fix it by tomorrow morning otherwise we've already scouted out a replacement (which of course is nothing compared to my baby but at least records where we've been)! So no photo updates at the moment but hopefully soon! We're off to Nha Trang tomorrow for a couple of days relaxing on the beach and then to Hoi An.
Hope everyone is doing well!
Nic x
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