To Vietnam

05/04/07 - to Phnom Penh for the night before going to Vietnam...

Our travelling hasn't been the best of late, after misguided Taxi Driver and the nice Road to Siem Reap, and well todays Travels werren't to be any different.
The Bus company had organised a Mini Bus to travel around Siem Reap and pickup the passengers, we were told to be ready outside our Guest House at 6:40am, but when we hadn't been picked up by 7am for our 7:30 bus we phoned the bus Company and asked what was up they told to wait and someone would be there shortly to pick us up. A guy on a Moto (small scooter type Motorbike) turned up a couple minutes later and organised a Couple other Moto drivers to give us a ride to Bus Station, so atleast we got to the bus on time.
About 2 hours into the Bus trip someone at the back of the bus noticed Smoke, so the bus stopped and found the problem. They had stacked peoples luggage on top of the Battery and some plastic had started to melt, thankfully not burn, but it still added about 30min's to our 6hour journey. the rest of the journey was pretty uneventful.

Phnom Penh was pretty boring, the highlight of the over night stop over was the 1 hour Foot Massage.

As we stayed in the guest house that organised our next bus ride, we managed to get there without any issues... Finally! This bus trip was surprisingly uneventful after all we had read about how bad the Vietnam border crossing was. I'd heard of waits of around 2 hours, but it was about 30-45 minutes all up! Brilliant!
We got to Ho Chi Minh City at around 3 PM and just wandered around the backpackers area and to a market (apparently Bill Clinton had Beef Noodle Soup there, wow). Then we had more food, we do like food after all. And more beer, if there is one thing we like more than food, it's beer. And finally got to bed at a normal hour... No more crashing out at 8 PM!!!!
Next day we went to the Cu Chi tunnels, these crazy Vietnamese people made 200 kms of tunnels with a bamboo basket and a hoe (not the North Shore kind, a short handled one). Sorry Sarj. It was really interesting, as they had the total opposite opinion about the Vietnam War to what we see in the movies. They're pretty passionate about it, but willing to forgive and forget. The Cu Chi people managed to fend off the Americans for pretty much the whole war, and lived in the tunnels for a long time as well. And they still tended to the crops in the afternoon, now that's dedication!
Alan couldn't quite fit into the secret holes that they jumped out of to shoot the 'Evil Americans'.

Next stop was the War Remnants museum, which was pretty eye opening. Seeing what Agent Orange, Napalm and Phosphorous bombs did to people makes the Americans look like they're the bad guys... Not the Vietnamese that we so often get the impression of in the movies. Wandered around the central city, it's pretty impressive see...

Actually, that's the royal palace, but the rest of the CBD is pretty flash. Lots of construction.

Now we're in Nha Trang after taking the overnight bus. Grant slept like a log, Alan kinda slept. Opposite to every other night so far!

Now we're waiting on our hotel room to be ready, then off for a walk and to book our trip around the islands tomorrow. Swimming and Snorkelling sounds pretty good about now. So how's work been everyone???? Muahahaha I'm so evil...

Ka kite, Stay Wicked ass good.
Grant and Alan