On Thursday the 14th April myself and Maddy shall be setting off for Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and then Japan.
Here I will do my best to keep anyone who might be interested up to date!
You can see Maddy's blog at www.madeleineinasia.blogspot.com
The bus over to Mui Ne was awesome, a sleeper bus even though we were travelling early in the morning. Obedient passengers that we are, we all had a little nap.
To be honest, there isn't really a great deal to say about Mui Ne. The beach was nice but at the same time quite dissappointing. The current was too strong to go in the sea without practically falling over. We stayed at Mui Ne Backpackers - which seemed to be one of the only low-budget accomodations that actually had a few people there. The rest of Mui Ne was either completely dead or filled with rich Chinese tourists in really fancy resorts. It was a bit strange. The nightlife was pretty shit, to be blunt. Our hostel sorted out a "bar crawl" every night, which consisted of dinner and then on to the same two or three bars each night. In keeping with most beach towns like this, the music was awful, made worse by the fact that they were trying to push it through a soundsystem that couldn't handle it - the result was that it sounded as if everything had been recorded and played back on a phone - as anyone who ever uses public transport can attest, this is torture.
On our last day in Mui Ne we had to check out at 11am, but wait until 1am for our bus. We found another resort with a better pool that agreed to let us use their pool all day if we ate our lunch there. We had tried at loads of nicer resorts (the ones full of Chinese tourists) but they weren't playing ball. Where we ended up was deserted and they had wi-fi so it was all good. Long day though with lots of waiting around.
There isn't alot else to say, because there wasn't alot else to do. We ate some decent food and chilled out, met a few cool people. Our next stop was Nha Trang. Despite originally being in our plans we had decided to skip Nha Trang because we heard Mui Ne was similar but much better. Because of the open bus ticket we passed through there anyway so we decided to check it out and see for ourselves.
José González. Serious tekkers on the guitar. The man makes beautiful tunes - great live too. This is a favourite.
Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, is the most populated city in Vietnam with just over seven million inhabitants. It's very, very busy. There are so many sidestreets and alleys that it's easy to lose time just wandering about the place, which is what we've spent a fair bit of time doing. It's not the most beautiful city we've been too but it has loads of character. The streets (and alleys) are always alive. Haphazard wiring, neon lights and lots and lots of motorbikes and scooters are everywhere you go - traffic is beyond crazy, to the point where scooters take over the pavement even (check the video below!). The beer is insanely cheap (18p a glass), and the people are friendly. It's a great city.
Lunchtime!
Other than wandering the streets our time has been spent largely doing thigns related to the Vietnamese War. On our first day we headed to the Reunification Palace, the second we checked out the War Remnants Museum, and the third we headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels. Each of these provided a fairly biased account of the war, but were all pretty interesting.
The Renuinification Palace was the base of the war for South Vietnam, and the site where the war ended when a tank crashed through its' gates in april 1975 (the same month the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia). We had a walk around, watched a propagandist video and then headed home - it was interesting, but probably the least interesting of the three.
The War Remnants Museum was really well done - outside it had loads of replicas of tanks, helicopters, planes and all other sorts of vehicles from the war. Inside were three floors of displays and information about the war, most of the displays were photo displays but they were really good. There were also some weapon displays and such. We weren't expecting it to be as bad as the S21 and Killing Fields in Cambodia but it was quite a bit more horrific. Lots of really graphic photos. There was an exhibition about Agent Orange - a chemical that was used to strip the foliage in the jungle to stop the Vietnamese hiding there - that was really sad to see the families that are still suffering today and will be for future generations as people are born with horrific birth defects and disabilities. Again we didn't take too many photos of this but if you want an idea, put Agent Orange into google and have a look at the images that come up. There was another section on the war atrocities commited by the Americans during the war - again very sad.
The third day at the Cu Chi tunnel was a little bit more lighthearted and quite good fun. We drove about an hour and a half out of HCMC and arrived at Cu Chi. The tunnels are an extensive network of tunnels apparently stretching out over 200km where Viet Cong guerillas hid, fought and lived during parts of the war. We were told that the tunnels contained living quarters, communications and ammo bases and even schools and hostpitals. There were also loads of traps around the areas and apparently the Americans couldn't really get near the Viet Cong. We had a little tour of the area and were shown some of the traps and hatches that soldiers hid in before being shown into the tunnels. We passed through a section that was 40m long (and had been made taller and wider for westerners) and it was really hard work, we all came out sweating and out of breath. There was also a shooting range where you could fire any of the weapons used in the war. I didn't have a go since it seemed to cost quite a lot for something that would be over so quickly. The reason I mention it is because there was a similar thing that could be done in Phnom Penh near the Killing Fields. We'd heard that you could blow up a cow with a rocket launcher for $350. We found out you can shoot a rocket launcher for $350 but dismissed the cow part as something of an urban legend. Anyway, last night we met someone who did shoot the rocket launcher, and he told us that actually the cow part is true (though it costs an extra $100), he watched a video of a guy he met doing it. Even shooting the thing seems crazy to me, that's over two weeks budget out here, and as for the cow thing that just seems twisted to me. Only in Asia....
Our guide
On our last day (today) we hopped on a local bus to the other side of town to check out some Pagodas in Chinatown. The architecture was really interesting and they were pretty cool inside but nothing particularly mindblowing. Alot of the stuff we had done in Ho Chi Minh was concentrated in one area so it was nice to get out and have a bit of an explore.
Tomorrow morning we hop on a bus over to Mui Ne, which will be one of the last beaches on our travels (devastating). After that we travel up the cost stopping at Nha Trang, Hoi An, Hue and Hanoi. Hopefully the rest of Vietnam will be as much fun as it is here!
Here is a great tune by Oceansize. I think it was on an Orange advert quite a few years ago. Not a massive fan of most of their stuff but this tune is a beauty!
So thankfully our border crossing went without a hitch, for the first time. Helped partly by the fact we already had our vísa for Vietnam - a strange process. In Sihanoukville we sorted it out through our hostel, it was cheaper than anywhere else in South East Asia, we filled out our forms and within twenty minutes the guy from our hostel was back with our pasports and the proper vísa - a level of efficiency not otherwise encountered so far! Considering what a ballache visas are back home this really was pretty impressive!
In Vietnam the currency is Dong - the pound currently fetches 33,293.70 of these (we withdrew a cool three and a half million today). Once more we are confused.
First impressions of Vietnam are great. Ho Chi Minh City is a bustling metropolis with lots of character, and the people (despite reports to the contrary) are great. My only gripe so far is the fact that this keyboard keeps replacing strings of letters with letters with accents (sê?) - this blog is hard work, and the fact that facebook is blocked (which it will be in China also). The traffic ís crazy to an extent not previously witnessed - my mum would freak if she saw me walk into the middle of the road in the manner I have over the past couple of days. Back home, stopping, looking, listening and waiting for a suitable gap in trafic might make you king of the road - out here it would mean we were still in Bangkok struggling to depart from our hotel. At some point I will post a video that hopefully captures this madness.
I have high hopes for Vietnam!
Have some Mike Sheridan! I'm still in awe of the fact he wrote his album, I Syv Sind, when he was 17. Eagerly awaiting some more stuff from him.
The capital of, and our last stop in, Cambodia. Phnom Penh is a pretty busy place. On our first day we took things pretty easy. Bit of a swim and chillout before the main event - we were going to see Diplo, or so we thought. We met up with another friend from home, Martin. When we went to the venue to find out about tickets it turns out that the places we heard about the tour got it wrong, he is in Phnom Penh on sunday, by which time we'll be in Vietnam. Oh well, he is playing in Ho Chi Minh on wednesday too (well, at least according to the same source that screwed us over this time!), so we might catch him there. The night faltered somewhat after that, we had a couple of beers and said our goodbyes to Henry who was heading home the following morning.
The day after, we headed to two of the main sights to see near Phnom Penh, Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng - otherwise known as The Killing Fields and S21. Between 1975 and 1979 the Khmer Rouge (after taking power) killed around 1.7 million (the estimate varies, up to 3 million) Cambodians, about a quarter of the countries' population. All intellectuals were killed, that includes doctors, teachers, anyone who spoke a foreign language, anybody who wore glasses. They forced everybody out of their homes and sent them to labour camps where they were basically starved and worked to death. On top of this many innocent people were imprisoned, tortured and eventually murdered. It sounds like a completely horrific and tragic time. S21 is perhaps the most famous of the prisons at the time, 20,000 people passed through it over the four years the Khmer Rouge were in power, 7 survived (one of which we met). The rest were transported (after torture and interrogation) to the killing fields to be executed and thrown into a mass grave.
We'd learnt a bit about what happened in Cambodia over the past few weeks, we've both been reading a couple of books about it which are good but very dark - my friend Laura got me First, They Killed My Father as a parting gift in Siem Reap. I read it in two days, it was the account of a girl who was five in 1975, and her family - I'd definitely recommend it, but it is very dark. Anyway, the point was that seeing these places really brought it all home. It's a bit surreal looking around to realise that anyone we see that is over about 35 years old has lived through it, and pretty much everybody here has been affected by it through their friends and families.
We didn't take too many photos for obvious reasons, it was a pretty grim day but interesting nonetheless. I think the Cambodian people have been my favourite so far, everyone is so nice here and so upbeat - it's strange to think what was happening here so recently.
The 7 suurvivors - we met the one third from the right
Some of the victims - there were many more photos like thís.
After that we headed for some dinner at a great place called the Friends Restaurant. It is a restaurant run by a charity that helps street kids, and the staff at the restaurants are students that are finishing the programs and on the verge of getting qualifications in the catering industry. The food was by far some of the best we've had in Asia, but a bit on the pricey side.
The next day we had a fairly chilled out day, checked out the market and had a wander. I bought two new books, one called Lucky Child, the follow up to First, They Killed My Father, and one called The Girl In The Picture, which is about a girl who lived through the Vietnam war - this girl.
That night we checked out a couple of clubs - it was bizarre, but fun. We checked out the club where Diplo was supposed to play - turns out that the day he was supposed to play in Phnom Penh he actually played in Ho Chi Minh - so we wouldn't see him afterall (in case you're wondering about time discrepancies, thís blog was written over two different days). Oh well, after explaining that we came to Phnom Penh a day early to see him, the Glaswegian on the door changed hís stance from me not being allowed in at all (because I was wearing a vest), to letting us in for free - silver lining! At the end of the night the three of us (Me, Martin and Benson - Maddy was at home in bed by this point) hopped on the back of the same scooter (that was four of us including the driver) to head home - in hindsight a stupid idea, but also quite fun. We had to stop when my hat fell off, other than that we arrived in our individual pieces without a hitch.
The next day, hungover, we jumped on the bus bound for Vietnam!
Telefon Tel Aviv remix of Apparat - both worth listening to, Apparat in particular!
Sihanoukville is in the south of Cambodia, and has plenty of nice beaches, so it was great to get down here and spend a bit more time chilling on the sand. We eventually got here and settled for some food and a couple of beers before crashing.
The next five days and nights were busily spent doing very little. It was great. It's properly into monsoon season now so we don't really get through many days without some rain. It's pretty crazy though, it can go from blue skies to torrential rain and back to blue skies within about 20 minutes, and since it's always hot it's not really an issue.
Initially we stayed at a place in town which was nice, and pretty cheap. We had been told there were better beaches out of town though, so we checked out one of them, Otres Beach, and it was indeed nicer. The main beach where we were you are constantly hassled by loads of people trying to sell you things you don't want or need. The kids are pretty cute, and cheeky, so fun to have a chat with, but it's gets a little annoying at times. We moved on to Otres Beach for the last couple of nights which was amazing but a bit more expensive. We stayed at a really cool place called Mushroom Point where all the bungalows were built like mushrooms - it looked like Smurf Village. On our last night there we saw probably the most amazing sunset I've ever seen in my life. It was mindblowing. We went a bit overboard on the photos, but I think it was at least partially justified!
Next we were off to the capital, Phnom Penh, before heading to Vietnam! We're about at the halfway point in our journey now too - doesn't feel like we've been here for 8 weeks at all.
Want massage?
Here is a quality tune from three great musical minds - Burial, Four Tet & Thom Yorke. Really excited to see what else these guys come up with (I've heard an album is in the pipeline).
It was a relatively short bus journey to Battambang (about four hours). We were quite sad to leave Siem Reap in the end, we stayed about a whole week, which was longer than anywhere else so far. It's hard to really pick a favourite place since they are all so different, but Siem Reap was up there for me.
We just had the one night in Battambang, partly because there wasn't loads to do, partly because we wanted to get back to the beaches. We met our friend Benson and his friend Henry who he had been travelling with in India before meeting up with us. After some lunch we headed out to see the bamboo train. This is basically a little bamboo platform on some train tracks, very sketchy. Riding it felt like something at Alton towers, the track was terrible and a little uncomfortable at times. There is just a single track as well so if a train is coming the other way, one of them has to take the train apart and take it off the tracks while the other goes by. It's all pretty quirky, and sadly won't be around for much longer. Good fun!
Because of rain we got stuck at the other end of the bamboo train journey for a little longer than we would have liked. We also wanted to go and see the killing caves in Battambang. They're certainly on a less fun note - as the name suggests, Cambodians were killed there during the genocide. We got to the caves a bit late for that but we were at the right time to see all of the bats coming out of a different cave. Someone told us that there are a billion bats in this one cave that all come out at sunset - it takes an hour and a half for them all to come out and they come out fast. So there must be lots in there. It was quite surreal, as we got our tuk-tuk back home you could see all the bats moving around in the distance - they looked like the black smoke out of lost.
After that we just went out for a few beers - we had to be up before 7am again the next morning for our bus to Sihanoukville which was supposed to take 9 hours (but actually took about 12).
Love this tune by Croms called Invisible Cities. It's on a compilation called Mosaic by Exit Records, which is a pretty good showcase for some of the newer more progressive 'dnb' type music around. Well worth a listen
Don't really have too much more to say about these, the third day at Angkor was amazing again. We cycled again that day which was fun. Saw more temples but there was still plenty we didn't have time to see, despite having three days there. After that we went back out for some more drinks to meet our friend Laura and some of the guys we had been in Laos with.
After Siem Reap the plan was to head to Battambang and meet up with our friend Benson before heading back to some beaches in the south of Cambodia at Sihanoukville.
Here are a few photos from the final day at Angkor.
