You live in Phnom Penh!

Cambodia has a pretty dark past, in the 14th century the kingdom of Angkor was the most powerful in S.E Asia, however attacks from Thailand and Vietnam marked the start of a few centuries of unrest in the country, being passed back and forth between a number of invaders. In the early 20th century the French were ousted and Cambodia declared its Independence. This peace was short lived as the revolutionary Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, "liberated" Cambodia and set about enslaving and murdering the population. People who were deemed to have ties with north Vietnam, intellectuals, free thinkers and those thought to be against the Khmer Rouge rule were rounded up and brutally executed, along with their families. The estimates of how many people killed range from around 2-3 million. The Vietnamese forced the Khmer Rouge, including Pol Pot, into hiding in the north west of the country, in the late 70's. From here the Khmer Rouge waged a guerrilla war on Cambodia, and planted a massive number of landmines in the country. Pol Pot died in 1998 and escaped punishment for his crimes. He was cremated very unceremoniously on a pile of old tires. This week in the news we saw that other leaders in the Khmer Rouge will finally stand trial for their atrocities, in the international court in Geneva.
Today, Cambodia is quite a poor country, rising inflation and widespread corruption are not helping matters.

We left Saigon by bus at about 6:30 and headed west for the border. It took about an hour to clear immigration and get out of Vietnam, meanwhile it took no time at all to get a visa to enter Cambodia. About ten minutes into the country the poverty became apparent. The quality of the road we were on deteriorated, the number of shack like houses increased and the number of motorbikes and privately owned traffic on the road decreased. The conditions in Phnom Penh improved drastically from the surrounding areas, although it was a far cry from Saigon.

On our first day we visited Tuol Sleng museum, it was a school which was converted into a prison (S-21) and a house of torture by the Khmer Rouge. Here we witnessed the barbaric nature of the Khmer Rouge. The prison cells were tiny and had shackles bolted to the floors. There were photographs everywhere of dead and brutalised bodies. Every man, woman and child who was locked up in the prison were photographed as they entered, and many of these photos were on display. It was impossible for us to fathom the terror they experienced in that place, as we looked at their ghostly faces staring out at us from the past.

The next day we hired a tuk-tuk and visited the killing fields at Choeung Ek. This is where the prisoners from prisons like S-21 were taken to be executed. Just inside the entrance there was a monument to the people who died there. Inside this monument was a collection of over 8,000 skulls and bones belonging to the people executed there. All over the place were craters, which were excavated mass graves. It is said that around 17,000 people died here, and there were more than 300 places like this dotted around the country.

 As depressing as all this was, we still managed to have a nice stroll around Phnom Penh afterwards. The city has a unique character, a lot more smiling faces then we had seen in Vietnam. We had a few trips in tuk-tuk's and thoroughly enjoyed our day.  But the heat! The humidity! The never ending flow of sweat! Cambodia is the warmest place we've been to so far, but before we melt, we plan to check out Angkor Wat, so tomorrow we hop on a bus to Siem Reap and to the largest religious structure in the world!
See ya!

 

PS. The title of this post is from a song that has been repeating in our heads every since we got here. Tiger Phone Card by Dengue Fever.

Saigon, me love you long time!

Hello there!
Its been a good while since we updated our blog. Now I know some of you are thinking that we have forgotten our avid followers, but that couldn't be further from the truth, well I guess it could stand be be a little further! The reason is that while in Vietnam we had some trouble logging into our blog and posting. We had the same trouble with Facebook, perhaps the red eye of Communism was keeping watch. It was probably something else but I like the sound of my theory! So here is a post detailing what we've been up to for the last while.



Mekong Delta

After a few hours on a hot bus, getting on the boat at the delta was, literally, a breath of fresh air! Our good friend Lonely Planet advised us to use one of the many arranged trips from Saigon to the Delta so we went with their advice. One of the first stops was at a small restaurant to enjoy a local speciality - elephant ear fish. Scary stuff but we decided to just go for it, and it wasn't half bad!

Smile!

After lunch we went cruising for a bit on the river before walking through the jungle and meeting up with with some horse drawn carts that drove us to another souvenir shop where we could ¨enjoy¨, or endure if you will, local music along with some honey tea. Then we entered a small rowing boat which took us down one of the numerous small canals that criss crossed the area. After a stop at a coconut candy factory the boat brought us back to the bus.

Cu Chi Tunnels

Now you see me....

Now you don't!

During the Vietnam war these tunnels were dug in order to live underground and survive American attacks. The tour took us around the jungle and showed us different areas of the tunnel network. In total there were around 200km of tunnels. Underground they had everything they needed to survive, such as kitchen, a hospital and a school. Then we got to crawl through one of the tunnels. It was only about 15 meters but felt very claustrophobic and hot. Lucky for us the tourism board had widened the tunnel a little, paved it with concrete, and added lights. It was hard to imagine what it must have been like to have lived in that subterranean world, while the bombs were falling overhead.
They also showed us a number of nasty traps and other contraptions.
The whole tour was then summed up by an incredibly old, 7 minute long film, imagine the "duck and cover" style information reels from the cold war, about how much America sucks and how many "Bravery for killing an American"-medals were handed out to the Vietnamese after the war. We then got to see a model of the tunnel network, showing its 3 levels, and the skinny section of tunnel way, where the tunnel became vary narrow so the that the "fat Americans" couldn't make it through!

Apart from this we have just been enjoying the city. The other night we wandered into a local karaoke bar for a laugh. It was quite a bizarre experience. We were served very suspect cocktails, one of which looked like it somebody had already been drinking it.

Every time we ordered a drink the barman disappeared for ages, we couldn't see a bar either. It's still a mystery where these drinks were coming from! We eventually played our part and sang a karaoke version of Oh Carol. The lyrics were typed into a computer, so knowing where to start and stop was tough going, especially while under the influence! Later I was talked into singing The House of the Rising Sun, and was promptly joined on stage by some guy that was in the bar! As I said earlier we didn't know when to start or stop so the song went on for about six minutes! There is a clip of this below, best watched with mute!
But alas everything must come to an end, Saigon, me love you long time, but it's time to head off. Next stop Phnom Penh!

I think there's a problem with my line!

Thinking that we were only gonna spend a few days in Vietnam, we've now stayed for over a week and, thanks to the dumbass in the Thai embassy, still have a few days to go. One of the days a lovely man volunteered to show us around the city just of the goodness of his heart. Needless to say we were touched and accepted the friendly offer. After an hour of power walking through the streets of Saigon we decided that enough was enough but the only way to get rid of our ¨voulenteer¨  was to pay him...I guess we should have seen it coming but we did feel a bit cheated. So we gave him a few thousand (around a euro) and headed off a little wiser than before. 

Our friendly ¨guide¨.

City Hall

Notre Dame

After a long break with a lot of water and coffee we headed for the War Remnants museum, or as it used to be called, The museum of American and Chinese War Crimes. It was full of Vietnamese style propaganda and had disfigured and disabled people, due to agent orange, on display in the lobby playing music to collect money. A bit too much for our fragile, European hearts but well worth a visit.

The streets, paths and anywhere you can think of are filled with motorbikes. They'll drive anywhere they want and at anytime. Red light, one way street, pedestrians, they don't care!It's like everyone in the city is out driving their bike around all day. Crossing the street is mad and the only way to do is to jump in and hope for the best. The clip here is from one of our first days and we have since encountered roads worse than this.

From Kuala Lumpur to Saigon

Hello and welcome to another edition of our travel blog. We know that you have waited with baited breath for it! A fair bit has happened since we last updated so I'll try to be brief.
In KL I had to get my Vietnamese visa sorted out, but due to the Malaysian national day the embassy was closed for a few days, making a mess of our plans. Luckily I managed to get an electronic visa and all went well. The national day in Malaysia was a major let down, no celebrations, no parades, no parties, no fun. We were told by a Dutch couple who live in Malaysia that the official celebrations travel around to different cities every year. It did however, happen to be in KL this year, but it was held at a stadium outside of the city, and it was mainly for government officials and big wigs. The citizens of the city filled the streets like it was any normal Saturday, too bad for them.

After a lot of researching we decided that flying from KL to Saigon was the cheapest and easiest option. Since we are travelling through Thailand and Cambodia soon we didn't want to waste any time back tracking. The whole trip was uneventful for the most part, we did pass the circuit where they hold the Malaysian Grand Prix, we could see the curved stand from the road.
We arrived in Saigon the day after the Vietnamese national day, and we were informed that we missed a lot of parties and celebrations. While Vietnam is a communist country, it is an open form of communism. After the fall of USSR, Vietnam relaxed some of their laws, particularly the laws governing business ownership and trade. Which was very well received by the people of the south, who had enjoyed a capitalistic life from about the 1950's until the war. So there are a lot of small business's to be seen around the city. Mainly electronic shops.
We arrived in the city just as it was getting dark and had a hard time finding our hotel. We were going to take a taxi, until the driver told us our hotel was no good and he would take us to a "better" one. So after about an hour and two pints of sweat we found it. The hotel told us that they were overbook and our room wasn't available so they bumped us up to a deluxe room. Something which until now, we had only witnessed in the movies :)

Compared to Malaysia, Vietnam seemed to be more relaxed. While Saigon is incredibly busy and congested, the people come across as being more friendlier. Then again, it was Ramadan when we were in Malaysia, so i guess it's kinda hard to be nice to tourists when you're not allowed to eat from sun rise to sun set.
Well thats probably enough for now, so see ya!