Photos - Nha Trang

Beach time

Nha Trang, Vietnam

Nha Trang wasn’t a place that I would expect to find in Vietnam. It looked more like Spain: modern skyscrapers towering next beaches littered with sun loungers, restaurants and bars on every corner, proper pavements… it was incredibly touristic.

And although it’s hardly what we came to Asiato see, we loved it!

We felt a bit guilty eating in western restaurants, paying for sun loungers and playing on the inflatable obstacle course in the sea. But we felt we needed it. After the chaotic atmosphere of the cities we’d visited over the past few weeks, and the depressing tours and museums. It was nice to just stop, and relax!

We met up with Laura and Graham, bathed in the sun and swam in the sea. We learned nothing, we experienced nothing new… we just enjoyed ourselves. Can’t beat a good beach day!  

Photos - Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)

Decided not to rent a moped here

War remnants museum

Saigon's beautiful cathedral

Not quite as good as 'King of Bus' but still cosy

First stop in Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), Vietnam

Another city full of crazy traffic! We visited the war remnants museum here; it was a strong reminder of how the Vietnamese war has affected the lives of people even today. It was another depressing but interesting trip.

We also went to the cinema, not exactly a must do but Jack was eager to see Mad Max. 

Photos - Koh Rong Sanloem

Found this colourful fella in our bedroom

Big kid playing in the waves

Our little beach hut

The view from the bedroom

One of the few sunny days

Plankton and Prostitutes

Sihanoukville and  Koh Rong Sanloem, Cambodia

Sihanoukville was probably the most touristic part of Cambodia that we visited. Neon lights and the thump of bass pounding from nearby bars greeted us as we stepped off the bus. Kerry had – unintentionally – booked us a hotel bang in the middle of the city’s red light district. My venture for water that night turned into an assault of men, women and men-women, all eager for business. One girl pretended to trip in-front of me, in hope that I would catch her in my arms, where she could then deliver her pitch with no chance of me getting away. Her mistake was thinking I was gentleman enough to catch her. The she-males were especially hard to refuse, dressed in revealing outfits, displaying their big feet, deep voices and delicate adams apples... I soon found myself walking quickly back to the safety of the hotel, thankful that we had only booked one night.

Koh Rong Sanloem is an island just south of mainland Cambodia. We decided to book 5 nights on the island for a break from the busy cities we had been spending so much time in. Laura and Graham also joined us. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great. Typically, after days on end of cloudless skies, scorching sunshine and blistering heat, the rain decided that now was the time to arrive.

And not just rain…

2 of our 5 days on the island were host to some of the craziest storms we have seen since we came to Asia. I’ve never heard thunder crack so loudly or seen lightening strike so close! Graham and I were close to jumping into each others arms when one struck just meters from where we were standing.

Weather aside; there was one particular sight that certainly made our trip worth while:

Fluorescent Plankton.

It wasn’t guaranteed but we were told that you either see it, or you don’t. You have to disturb the water at night, but it all depended on how dark the sky was, and what position the moon was in, and whether or not it’d been raining… and even then it wouldn’t always show up. With this in mind we thought our chances of seeing it were next to none, so when Laura threw a stick into the water, we were pretty amazed to see the ripples burst away in fluorescent blue circles… We couldn’t believe our luck! Moments later we were throwing everything we could find off the end of the pier (biodegradable – of course), to witness the vibrant splashes and incredible ripples they caused.

Photos - Phnom Penh

This little guy made himself at home in our room

Tuk-tuk driver gave us these for the dusty roads

The infamous killing fields

A city of sadness

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The traffic in Phnom Penhwas fascinating, as well as incredibly scary. The roads were always busy, even at night. There doesn’t seem to be any logical traffic pattern. Crossroads are a nightmare, they aren’t regulated, everyone just goes at the same time and somehow avoids crashing. A tuk-tuk driver taking Jack and I to our hotel, came to the back of standstill traffic, he avoided this by casually driving the wrong way up a one-way street full of cars driving straight towards us. We decided not to hire a mo-ped in Phnom Penh.

From Phnom Penh we visited the Killing Fields and the Museum of Genocide, one of the best but most depressing trips. Here we learnt about the unbelievable events that took place during the Cambodian Civil War. I felt really emotional at the Killing Fields witnessing the mass graves and thousands of preserved skulls. The museum was just as bad, seeing the torture cells and learning about how innocent victims were forced in to confessing to crimes which they hadn’t committed. As depressing as this trip was, it was an eye-opening experience of how tragic these events were and knowing it happened so recently is shocking.

During our time in Cambodia we have learnt that unfortunately child trafficking is still a major issue. Thankfully there are now several organisations and support groups in place, which aim to help and ultimately put a stop to this unacceptable behaviour, one of these being the Daughters of Cambodia. This restaurant/shop provides an exit for victims of trafficking in Cambodia by providing the girls with the necessary skills, training and jobs to move them away from sex-work and in to other careers. The organisation has done a great job helping these children and the restaurant is lovely!

Photos - Siem Reap

Our favourite bus so far!

The 1000 year old Angkor Wat

Performers of the Phare circus

The long journey

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Bus journeys aren’t our favourite part of travelling. Unfortunately, they can’t really be avoided, so 7-8 hour bus journeys are not uncommon for us now. 30 hour bus journeys, however, are another story.  

It was stressful right from the offset when we’re handed two pieces of paper with random numbers and incorrect dates scrawled over them in barely legible handwriting. I asked several people several times whether or not our tickets made sense and got increasingly frustrated answers. Of course these ripped pieces of paper you could have easily written yourself are legit, are you stupid!

It didn’t help that at every stop our tickets were replaced by others which seemed to make even less sense. Wrong place, wrong time, wrong date… At every following stop, the staff took the ticket, understood it, and sent us on our way. In the end, we gave up and just went with the flow.  

10 hours into the journey and things were looking up. We found ourselves on “king of bus” a coach aptly named! We had beds, plug sockets, water, toilets and even a custard sandwich… erm, yum.

After that it was all downhill, I don’t want to rant through this entire blog post so I’ll make it short.

16 people rammed onto a 12 seat minibus along with luggage. Claustrophobic and sweaty doesn’t even cut it.

Then, we are taken to the “border,” which was just a place to scam us all into paying twice as much for a visa into Cambodia. Objections were met with the alternative option of being left alone in the wilderness.

Finally, the last bus, the steaming pile of ancient sh* that it was, was so completely and utterly broken that we couldn’t stop for toilet breaks or food for hours on end… making us go over 24 hours without food. The clutch was burning out so badly that we broke down twice, the driver somehow miraculously got it back into gear both times.

Anyway, this post was meant to be about Siem Reap… so, a little about that. The first thing we noticed about Cambodia was how unbelievably friendly the people here are! Even when you’re turning down a begging woman or a relentless tuk-tuk driver you receive huge smiles.

We visited some incredible temples, the most noteworthy being Angkor Wat; a giant fortress of stunning architecture that has really stood the test of time!

We also watched an acrobatics performance with Laura and Graham. This was one of the highlights of our trip so far: an organisation in Cambodia, called Phare, take children from some of the worst imaginable backgrounds and teach them various life skills as well as ways in which they can express themselves through arts such as painting, crafts and acrobatics. The energy and passion that the performers had was mesmerising! The show itself was incredible and told a story unique and personal to the performers themselves, who had all been affected in one way or another by the Khmer Rouge genocide. If anyone reading this ever finds themselves in Cambodia, go and see this show!