Cambodia to Mekong River Delta, Vietnam

After leaving Battambang we left for Phnom Penh, Cambodia to arrange our trip into Vietanm. Once again we had a great time in Phnom Penh where we stayed close to the riverside, planning to leave for Vietnam the next morning.

The riverside in Phnom Penh is a very nice area, but not a realistic place for Cambodia, really a beautified tourist area full of nice restaurants, cafe's, hotels and bars. We spent the late afternoon and evening in this part of the city and enjoyed socializing, eating and drinking. We also arranged our trip to Vietnam through our guesthouse. We'd decided to take a slow boat that would travel mostly along the Mekong river, before turning off into some smaller waterways and finally reaching the small city of Chau Doc, Vietnam, along the banks of the Bassac river.

Our lazy trip along the rivers took the better part of the day and with the warm weather and sunny blue skys the whole experience was very pleasant. The riverside immigration was straight forward and we were made to feel very welcome into Vietnam.

Along with a small crew of two on the boat there was also another couple from London. We had initially planned to travel from Chau Doc through to Ho Chi Minh City (which the Southern Vietnamesse prefere to call by its older name, Saigon). While on the river we were chatting with the other couple and found out that they were going to spend another 2 days getting to Saigon, traveling on the rivers and spending some time staying with a family that lives along one of the tributaries. We decided that it was a nice plan and arranged to join them, this turned out to be a really great decision.

We spent one night in Chau Doc, a nice little city that bustles with riverside life, full of markets where people from all around the Mekong Delta come to sell there goods, mostly food. The people here were very friendly and it was clear that Vietnam was very different to Cambodia. It was clear that the economy was much healthier and people here enjoyed a much better standard of living than their Cambodian neighbors.

The next morning our boat navigated through a maze of rivers to get to the home we would stay at. On the way we stopped at a fish farm and a small and interesting riverside village that was made up of an entirely Muslim population of about 2000. In Vietnam the Muslims represent only about 0.5% of the population, most Vietnamese identify themselves as Buddhist (although in reality it is not so clear cut as the major religion here is actually a combination of Buddhist, Confucianist and Taoist) .

The fish farm was particularly interesting. Farmed fish represents 15% of all the fish consumed in Vietnam right now and these fish come from small family run fish farms rather than large operations. The fish live in nets underneath floating homes along the Bassac river and many of the family's began their business using government grants which are available for starting this type of business.

After a few hours on the river we arrived at the family home where we would stay, deep in the Mekong Delta. We spent a lovely afternoon playing games with the family, eating their traditional food and swimming in the river. We were something of a curiosity and many of the cousins, aunts, uncles and neighbors come by to hang about the house too. The food they made was very, very good and we felt very lucky to be able to enjoy some real home cooked Vietnamese food, delicious!

In the early evening before dinner we went out to do some fishing with the daughters of the family. We were given bamboo sticks with a piece of string tied to the end and then a homemade metal hook, I was a little skeptical as to how well this would work. We left from the house and began to follow a small trail through a lovely orange grove, the air was rich with the smell of the citrus fruit. After navigating our way across some precarious logs balanced over water ways and some serious mud we arrived at what looked like a small man made canal that ran between the orange grove and a large tree lined rice field. We then baited our hooks and started fishing and the 6 of us started pulling out fish like you wouldn't believe, the most successful of us was the 5 year old girl from the house who caught four fish in no time at all, so much for modern fishing technology. We really enjoyed our little fishing adventure and eventually made our way back to the house with a bucket of fish which we were sure would be a big hit. On the way back we ate all sorts of berries and enjoyed the smells of fresh lemon grass which we picked and rubbed between our fingers, it was all a great delight for the senses.

That night we enjoyed another great meal and chatted at length with a neighbor whose English was excellent. He told us about life in the Mekong Delta where food and fish are available in abundance. We also talked about what life was like during the Vietnam war and what the families had to do to stay alive and safe while the military boats powered their way through the rivers looking for the enemy hiding out in homes. It was a great insight into life in this part of the world and it's amazing how different it is from our own. These people are mainly farmers, they work the rich soils of the Delta, constantly battling against the water which is seemingly everywhere. This area is formed entirely from sediment of the 4500 Kilometer long Mekong river, the waters here run a rich colour of reddish brown with all the silt in it. So much silt washes down these rivers that the shoreline can be extended by as much as 79 meters in a single year. All of this makes for the great agriculture and this region produces enough rice to feed the entire population of Vietnam (84 million) and have a significant amount left over for export. They also grow many other crops.

The next day we left our family home and traveled the rivers to see floating markets near My Tho. We also stopped to visit a small business that produces rice paper and another business that produces incense for the temples that are in abundance all over Vietnam. After several hours our boat docked and we boarded a small mini bus for Saigon.

We only stayed in Saigon for two nights. It was a busy busy city and there must be enough motorbikes here for every person in Vietnam. Justin managed to get hit by a motorcyclist who was more interested in his female passenger than where he was going. Other than a tire mark on his leg he escaped without injury but the whole event made subsequent road crossings in Saigon a little scary. We didn't do too much in Saigon, just walked around a bit and enjoyed the general hustle and bustle. But we left pretty quickly anxious to hit our next stop Mui Ne beach, kitesurfing capital of South East Asia and a beautiful tropical beach area to boot.

Lots of love to family and friends, wish you were here...

The Temples of Angkor

We left from Phnom Penh and had a short 5-6 hour bus ride up to the central Cambodian town of Siem Reap. When we arrived at the bus stop we got off the bus and were immediately swarmed by about 60 touts with tuk tuks, all aggressively trying to get us to go with them to their hotel. It was pretty crazy! They would grab our arms to get our attention, all yelling that they had the best deal in town, just trying to get to our backpacks off the bus was real work. Fortunately, for us we had pre-arranged a place to stay and our tuk tuk driver had exchanged a look and a nod with us confirming that he was there to pick us up, so he waited quietly outside the mob scene. We checked in to our hotel, had a rest and prepared our plans for an early start the next day for visiting some of the temple ruins around Siem Reap.

The next morning we woke up just before sunrise, organized some bicycles and started peddling the 8km to the first of the major temples. The quiet road wound its way lazily through the countryside and eventually opened up to reveal our first site of Angkor Wat and the massive moat that surrounds it. It is a moat that makes the castle moats of Europe look like a kid's swimming pool by comparison. We were stopped at a check point to verify our tickets, which we didn't have yet. We were so excited to start exploring these places, but that excitement was quickly squashed when we were told we would have to ride back towards Siem Reap about 5km on a different road to purchase our expensive $40, 3 day pass, urgh! We missed the sunrise on the temples as a result, but what can you do.

Once things were sorted out we eventually ended up at the temple of Bayon and it was still early enough that we had the whole place to ourselves. Bayon turned out to be a magnificent 1000 year old 3 story temple covered with carved grimacing faces everywhere you look, it was a very special place. It was surreal to have the entire temple to ourselves, which certainly enhanced the experience of exploring the many corridors, ancient bas-reliefs and of course discovering all the carved faces. This temple turned out to be the favorite of Steff's of all the temples we would visit in our three days of exploring the temples and monasteries that dotted the jungles all around Siem Reap.

The shear number and size of the ruins is what makes this area mind boggling. Our visit to this area was easily one of the highlights of our trip so far. The Angkorian period in which these temples were built spans 600 years between AD 802 and AD 1432. The more of them we saw the more apparent it became how different they all were. Roughly in the centre of the expansive ruins was the Bayon temple which would have originally sat in the middle of the city of Angkor, the capital of the Khmer empire, more than a thousand years ago that would have had over a million citizens. All of this at at a time when London would have had barely 50,000 people. To enter the city, we had to cycle through a very tall, but narrow and impressive stone gateway/city wall, which had enormous heads peering down at us. It was certainly a grand entrance, even as a ruin and since we were the only ones there so early in the morning, it left a lasting impression on us. We cycled from temple to temple through the very humide jungle, but at least while we were riding we had lovely breezes which helped cool us a little. Despite being a major tourist centre, we managed to get off the beaten track with our bikes and attempted 'off-roading' through the jungle on our rickety, almost ancient, Cambodian bikes. We were treated to discovering small makeshift Cambodian villages and even watched some men fishing in traditional fashion by throwing weighted nets into the water.

Justin's favorite temple was Ta Prohm which is undoubtedly the most atmospheric ruin at Angkor. This is due to the fact that, unlike other Angkor temples, it has been left to be swallowed up by the jungle and looks more like the way most of the temples of Angkor appeared when European explorers first stumbled upon them. The massive root systems of the jungle trees hold together much of the crumbling towers and courtyard walls which are covered in moss and lichens. The true awe of this temple is not so much the beauty of the stone work, but more the cycle of ruin, with humans first conquering nature to rapidly create and nature once again conquering humans to slowly destroy. Our 3 days exploring the temples and monuments at Angkor were truly wonderful days and certainly worth a visit when traveling in South East Asia.

After Angkor and Siem Reap, just a few kilometers West, we took an 8 hour boat trip, which left at sunrise from a small village. Our guide book described this as a lovely floating village, sounds nice. When we arrived there it turned out to be one of the poorest areas we have seen on our travels. The 'floating village' part of it was basically a few wooden homes built on empty steel drums, they were very basic. These poor families lived in temporary stilted shacks and were built, not on solid ground, but on the mud flats that extended far into the lake. These families can only live in their shacks until everything floods, once a year and then they are forced to find a home elsewhere. Some families move their shacks to dryer ground, while others move into small wooden boats, some only 5 meters long. Things felt rather desperate here and we felt slightly uncomfortable with our big backpacks and cameras in the midst of this desperate poverty.

The boat eventually set out from the 'village', completely overloaded with people and luggage, and began to make its way across the expanse of Lake Tonle Sap, a huge lake of silty brown water in the heart of Cambodia. Once we reached the other side of the lake we entered a network of rivers through rice fields and jungle, some sections barely wide enough for the boat to navigate.

After our river trip we arrived in the incredibly boring city of Battambang. There really wasn't' much to do here. Again, the guide book was really off on its description of this place as 'a city full of attractive old French colonial buildings.' Wrong! We did however enjoy a meal at a fairly nondescript restaurant on the river where actress Angelina Jolie supposedly ate during the filming of Tomb Raider. I am fairly certain that this was the most exciting and interesting thing that has ever happened in Battambang.

We left on the first bus out of there, early the next morning back to Phnom Penh.

Two new set of Photos have been posted in the Cambodian section of our Gallery for you to Enjoy. Cheers! :-)

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

We arrived a few days ago in Phnom Penh, capital city of Cambodia, a country that is the home to the temples of Angkor which are some of Asia's most spectacular temples and ruins. Cambodia is also the place where some of the most horrific crimes against humanity have occurred, and not very long ago. It is difficult to understand why the atrocities that happened under the rule of the Khmer Rouge during the later half of the 1970's took place, especially in a country where the people are so genuinely friendly and kind. Part of the experience of visiting Phnom Penh is to realize what the Cambodian people have suffered.

The last few days here in Phnom Penh have shown us the warmth of the Cambodian people, despite what they have been through. We have visited the sites of S-21, a detainment and interrogation prison set up under the Khmer Rouge, and the Killing Fields, also known as Choeung Ek, which was the genocidal extermination camp of almost 20000 Cambodians. Sadly this was only a small number of the more than 2 million people who died under the brutal regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Being here and learning about these horrible times in recent history it is hard to believe that this has happened in our life time, and to such a wonderful people.

On our first full day here we decided to visit the Killing Fields and S-21, with the hopes of gaining some understanding into why these events happened. Our day began with overcast sky's and light rain with a cool breeze, somehow appropriate for our experience that lay ahead. The killing fields, just 15Km's from the centre of Phnom Penh, was were people were taken to be executed, and then disposed of in mass graves, each containing hundreds of bodies. Under the Khmer Rouge the lives of these people were considered so meaningless that they did not even want to waste their bullets on them, so they were bludgeoned to death. Small children were sometimes just picked up and beat against the trees in an area that was once an orchard. In the Killing Fields only a portion of the mass graves have been unearthed, many human remains will stay in the ground.

As we walked around the area bits of human bone and clothing can be seen on the ground, often partially embedded in the dirt, a grim indication of what lay beneath. On the site a monument has been erected which contains the skulls of many of the victims, arranged on glass shelves according to age and sex. Strangely though, it was the pieces of clothing that we found more disturbing than the bones and skulls. I suspect this may be because the bones are somehow generic and without identity, while the clothing is a reminder of each of the victims individuality, it makes it more personal. The people who were executed on this site were transfered from the former school-turned-prison, S-21. Following our visit to the Killing Fields we came back to city to visit S-21, a site which has been preserved as a kind of museum, a solemn reminder of the darkest side of humanity which must ultimately lie within us.

S-21 is a crudely made prison, whose purpose was to interrogate and torture Cambodians who were suspected of working against a highly paranoid Khmer Rouge. The torture that happened here was a evil as one can imagine and regardless of the outcome of the interrogation many of its prisoners met their unjust end in the killing fields.

A visit to both these sites, needless to say, left us feeling pretty down and still without an understanding of any justification for what happened here. Many of the Cambodian people also cannot understand why these events happened, these were the actions of a truly evil regime. But, despite these relatively recent events, the Cambodian people remain as some of the nicest and welcoming people we have met since our travels began.

After a pretty heavy day we decided to go out to a well known local night club, the aptly named (given the local history) 'Heart of Darkness.' It was a fun night out, shakin' some bootie to a variety of disco classics and modern electronica well into the wee hour of the morning. When we arrived at the club we had a stark reminder of where we were, there was a sign at the entrance indicating that guns and knives were not welcome here, along with flip flops. Several security guards were outside to properly pat us down. Inside the club locals and tourists alike got down to some funky tracks while private body guards to some of Phnom Penh's elite stood motionless, protecting their clients. It was a good night out and a pleasant contrast to the day.

While here we have been tootling around the town, enjoying some fantastic food and certainly the best cups of coffee we have ever had, Khmer Coffee (the term 'Khmer' basically referring to 'Cambodian', not to be confused with 'Khmer Rouge') . The city is slightly chaotic and is a small, pleasant reminder of India, only fewer people, cleaner and the food is better.

The food has been very tasty and not spicy, something we were not expecting. After looking into the local cuisine a bit closer we were surprised find that much of the spicy food in Asia is due to the influence of the Portuguese in the 16th century, when they introduced the Asians to the chilly pepper. I suppose with such a small population (a mere 14 million, small by Asian standards) and the very difficult past that Cambodia has had it is not really that much of a surprise that few people hear much of Cambodian food and coffee outside of the country.

Another uniquely, although controversial, Cambodian tourist activity is paying to fire weapons selected from a virtual buffet of guns, grenades and missiles. Love it or hate it, it is a real part of what tourists can do here. After 25 years of civil war in Cambodia there is a surplus of weapons and artillery, and enterprising military personnel have created a business from the situation. So, when presented with the opportunity to check it out we agreed, more with curiosity than anything else.

We were driven out into the country and taken down a quiet dirt lane that led to a walled compound with large steel doors. A young boy, no older than 8 or 9 opened the solid gates and waved us in. Inside the compound was a long brick building with some tables outside and a small pond filled with muddy water. We sat at one of the tables, a selection of guns hung on a wall nearby. We were given the 'menu' listing what was on offer; AK47's, Tommy Guns, Grenades, Rocket launchers and Anti Aircraft guns. We were also told that we could arrange to fire a tank if we wished. Intrigued by all of this, and keen to get a few photographs, Justin decided to fire 7 rounds off on a Colt 45 hand gun. The gun was loaded and we were led inside the very dimly lit brick building, at one end was a large pile of tires and a target set up in front, the air was thick with the smell of gunpowder from the recently discharged weapons. Admittedly it was pretty exciting and the whole experience, while bizarre, was certainly unique, and this was fair from a slick and safe facility like you would imagine in Las Vegas for example. When we came out of the building we met a young British guy who, having fired a couple of different fully automatic machine guns decided to throw a grenade into the pond, this is just not your normal type of holiday activity! We were surprised when the grenade went off by the shock wave that could be felt deep in the earth below, the British guy walked away from the pond shaking but satisfied. After this surreal experience we headed back to Phnom Penh, glad that nothing went wrong and having experienced one of the more unusual sides of Asian tourism.

Krabi, Ton Sai and Rai Lay Beaches

Following an absolutely blissful 10 days on Koh Phangan we decided to make a move for the the Krabi area on the West coast of Thailand. The trip across took about a day and involved a pick-up truck, a ferry boat, then a big bus, then a mini bus and finally a very wet and rough ride through big waves on a long tail boat. We went to Ton Sai beach, just a smidgen north of West Railay Beach. When we arrived (wet, very wet, soaked in fact) we had a look at some different bungalows and finally opted for a bit of luxury, which was nicely priced since it was low season. Instead of the usual bamboo bungalow, we treated ourselves to a modern designed bungalow complete with A/C, fridge, large balcony, big bathroom and satellite TV, what luxury! Our main motivation was, however (surprisingly), not the satellite TV, but the close proximity to the beach. The traditional style unkept bungalows were a serious trek into the jungle and the area around them had a depressed feel about them.

For those people who have been to this part of the world you will no doubt have been most impressed, not by the beaches, which are great, but by the incredible Karst rock formations. They are truly amazing! These unusual rock formations are not overly common on our planet since they require a rare mix of natural chemistry to form. These rock formations are formed in limestone and are caused by erosion, but not your usual weather based erosion. The limestone erodes into these formations from very acidic water, which happens when salt water and fresh water mix. The mixture must be exactly 97% salt water, which acts as a sort of catalyst to acidify the fresh water to just the right amount to erode the limestone. The appearance of the rock in places is like liquid (almost as though the rock has melted) and often forms stalactites like you might see in a cave. Probably some of the most impressive sights are some of the giant overhanging sections of rock that can sometimes look like a wave of rock reaching out from above. All of this stuff makes for the most interesting rock climbing we have ever seen, which is why we just had to get set up with some climbing gear and have a play on this stuff.

It is certainly no secret that this area is one of the world's most famous regions for rock climbing. There are plenty of people out on the rock which makes for a great spectator sport too, especially when climbers are on some of the more challenging routes. Around Ton Sai Beach, where we were based, there is a large selection of climbs and many of them are rated as quite difficult. A great aspect about our location was that we could sit at the beach bar or restaurant and watch people climbing virtually over our heads and at night a huge rock face that hangs above the beach was lit up and looked positively surreal.

For our climbing adventures, we decided to hit some of the easier climbing routes on other beaches and near an area called the Diamond Cave (no real diamonds in the cave mind you, just some impressive looking formations of limestone and quartz). It had been a while since we had been out climbing with ropes and gear, and did we ever feel it! We found that we tired easily and were filled with more fear than we would have liked. Mind you, some of the rock was quite sharp, which meant that even small falls could be dangerous. But it was really good to get out and do some climbing, a great way to enjoy these fabulous rock formations.

Another highlight to the area was visiting an idyllic deep lagoon that was basically a large deep hole in the rock that filled in the bottom with sea water at high tide. The hike in was pretty treacherous, but a super adventure. Some of the rock decents into the 'hole' were roped for extra safety, but the seriously slippery mud and the fact that we were in flip-flops did nothing to help the situation. When we arrived in this magical little Lagoon we treated ourselves to a swim in the shallow water. It was really nice to just float on our backs and stare up at the 360 degree rock face and hanging jungle all around us.

After a few days in the Railay/Ton Sai area we took a 15 hour overnight bus ride back to Bangkok to arrange our trip east to Cambodia. We really enjoyed our few days in Bangkok and treated ourselves to some great films at one of the cities very modern cinemas. We both got to see our first film in a fully digital cinema that uses digital projection instead of the usual celluloid projection cinema. It was really incredible quality and a nice treat for Justin since he has been reading about the technology for many years. We saw Pixar's 'Ratatouille' an animated film about a cute rat who is a great French chef. This was the perfect pairing of cutting edge digital animation and presentation, just great! We did enjoy some of the other Western treats that Bangkok has on offer, Dairy Queen and Pizza, just to name a few. I guess, thinking about it, we were probably missing home just a little bit.

Thailand has been a great place for a real vacation, very easy and uncomplicated. But we have left Thailand for now, but we will return but next time to the north, it will be interesting to see how our experience in the north compares to our travels in the south.

We left Bangkok via the airport. We had just heard one too many stories of seriously uncomfortable journy's to Cambodia overland, and decided to avoid the whole problem by flying. With a flight time of just under an hour, we were in Phnom Pehn in no time at all.