Adventureland

Hello from "Happy Guesthouse", Siem Reap, Cambodia.

It is currently a cool afternoon with lots of evil thunder threatening us with rain which believe it or not is a nice change from the extreme heat we have been experiencing!

Now to pick up where I left off...

Our next stop after Hoi An, Vietnam was Nha Trang. We boarded another sleeper bus and set off on another long journey south to the beach town. We arrived at 6.am in the morning and to our suprise the beach was heaving with people. It seems that 6.am is a great time to play beach sports, do some aerobics, practice dance routines and swim in the sea! We found a hotel straight away and then decided to follow suit and head onto the beach our selves. We lay under huge thatched umbrellas on some surprisingly comfy sun loungers and read, caught up on sleep and when we were ready had a lovely dip in the sea! The sea was actually a lot colder than the sea in Hoi An and the beach wasn't as nice but I can't complain it was still lovely! The next day we decided to take a trip over to a small island called 'Vin Pearl Island'. Vin Pearl belongs to a millionaire who thought it would be fun to have his own theme park, sort of like Michael Jacksons Neverland if you ask me! We took the worlds longest over water cable car and reached the crazy island after about 15 minutes. Our first stop was the water park! We were all really excited and practically ran towards the huge gates feeling like little kids going to a theme park for the first time. Daniel, Chris and I decided to be super brave and go on one of the biggest slides (one that makes you go head first might I add) only to have a small disaster at the end! The ride is scary enough as you can imagine going head first, a million miles an hour, water splashing in your eyes only to get to the bottom and see that a strange lump has appeared on Daniel's elbow! We all automatically thought the worse,"the lump was bone, he has broken his arm, wheres the travel insurance!?" Fortunately he was rushed to the doctor who didn't speak a word of English who poked and prodded, bandaged him up and within about 10 minutes sent him on his way with us so we could all enjoy the wave machine. We went on a few more rides that we all highly questioned the security of before heading on to the aquarium for a little rest and relaxation. We enjoyed the long cable car journey back and that evening found something we had all been dreaming of...CHEESY CHIPS AND GRAVY! Oh yes! Who would believe it in Vietnam we could find a treat as good as that. It sounds very sad I know but when you've been away for a while its the small things you miss and it was a great taste of home!

We only stayed for a few days in Nha Trang before moving to our last city in Vietnam, Saigon (otherwise known as Ho Chi Min City). We had plenty to do in Saigon and we made sure that we made the most of it. We did lots of walking around, visited the war museum, found lovely parks to stroll through, made friends with a monk, enjoyed Edward Scissor hands style trees and bushes and visited the royal palace and this was only in the first day and a half. Chris and I had a great trip down the Mekong river visiting a coconut candy factory. We rode on a horse and carriage, rode down the Mekong in a tiny boat, ate "Elephant Ear" fish (well I did), tried loads of amazing fresh fruit, listened to the locals perform music, tasted coconut liqueur and honey tea and saw how rice paper is made. The next few days in Saigon were great, we met our dear friends Mike and Ellie again who took us to the most amazing street cafe where Steph and I ate the HUGEST most amazing prawns and lovely garlic rice. We obviously had a few beer and laughter filled evenings with our pals and managed to visit the amazing Cu Chi tunnels before we left. The tunnels were crazy, I cannot believe that people actually lived in the tiniest tunnels under ground for 20 years. Chris and I only managed to crawl through 25meters worth of tunnels before getting really claustrophobic but Dan and Steph managed the whole 100. Quite a horrible experience but 100% worth a visit just to see how brave the people who lived in them were.

By the time we were due to get our bus to Cambodia we were all VERY excited to be moving on. I loved Vietnam and really enjoyed all the different things it had to offer but after 3 weeks I was itching to see another amazing country. Arriving in Cambodia was wonderful, I experienced my first ever tuk tuk ride and we were taken to our $3 a night hotel...what more could you ask for!? The amok curries are delicious and even though the beer isn't as cheap as Vietnam you can still get a cold can for 50cents. We had a cultured few days in Phnom Penh. We visited a few difficult places like the s21 museum and the killing fields which were extremely hard to not be affected by. The brutality and murder that took place at these sites is just shocking and it is so strange being allowed to walk around mass graves and especially to see bones and teeth that the ground brings up every time it rains. The most awful thing to see was a huge tree called the killing tree where soldiers would hold children and babies by their feet and hit their heads against the tree to kill them. We also visited the Royal Palace and saw some beautiful architecture, strolled round the Russian Markets and sampled some street food, walked round the huge temples and checked out the cool museum.


Cambodia is such an amazing place and we wish we had loads more time here to visit all of the small towns and spend longer in the cities. I will write next time about our visit to Angkor Wat as my eyes are going a little blurry from the computer screen and I can hear Chris's belly rumbling for some food! We are off to Thailand tomorrow and I cannot wait!!

Until next time!

LOADS OF LOVE

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