Hi all! Well, the past few days have been quite the adventures traveling across land and water. Two days ago we left Saigon by mini bus - 15 people, plus the driver crammed into a barely airconditioned mini bus/15-passenger van. We were stuck in the very back seat with two other people and very little leg room. Everyone on board was Vietnamese except for another young couple from New Zealand. We were on this mini bus for 6 hours, mainly over secondary type (paved) roads. About 2 hours into the trip we made a lunch stop at a roadside diner/market. The New Zealanders and us were the only non-Vietnamese in the entire place and were just kind of milling around wondering how much time we had and what we were supposed to do. The next hour and a half to two hours was over partially paved roads, meaning you'd be on paved for about 200 yards, then potholed dirt roads, then paved, then back to dirt, bouncing up and down and around. We were driving right next to the Mekong Delta dodging in and out of potholes, motor bikes and other cars and traffic coming in the opposite direction. We eventually arrived in Chau Doc, a border town on the Vietnamese/Cambodian border. We hopped on motorbike taxis with our 25-30 pound backbacks and headed to a hotel. I was hoping like hell that the driver wouldn't make any quick starts or stops, otherwise I'd be on my back on top of my backpack! Our room was a windowless, fan only room, but only $6! OK for one night. We left early the next morning on a small speed boat up the Mekong River to Phnom Pehn, Cambodia with about 10 others. The border crossing was about an hour into the trip. There was a guy traveling with us that takes our passports and $ and gets our Cambodian visas taken care of. Then we go upriver a couple minutes more, get out and get in line to have our passports stamped. Back on the boat and into Cambodia we go, 3-4 hours more. The river is murky and brown, really wide at points, and very flooded right now as it's the rainy season. Lots of people live along it in stilt houses with fish farms netted under their houses. The weather was rainy and there wasn't much to do on the boat except sit and watch the river go by, sleep or read. We arrived in Phnom Pehn, found a hotel near the docks and since we only had the afternoon there, we went right to it. We ate a traditional Khmer lunch; went to the Tuol Sleng (S-21) Genocide Museum which was a high school that Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge converted into a terrible prison where many people were tortured and killed during their reign in the late 1970's. Very disturbing. Then we went to the opposite side of the spectrum and visited the Silver Pagoda in the Royal Palace grounds where there is a Buddist statue made entirely of Baccarat crystal! Dinner at a food stall at the central market and then we BOTH hopped on the back of a motor taxi back to our hotel.
Had to get up incredibly early this morning for another boat ride, this time up the Tonle Sap river, which is a tributary of the Mekong, into the Tonle Sap lake to Siem Reap. This boat was larger - about 70 people and our luggage strapped on top at the back of the boat. The boat was not made for the taller Western person. The seats were so tight and below decks, but at least it was air conditioned. By the time we started out a bunch of people decided that riding up on the narrow decks or on the roof of the boat was more comfortable. We made our way up there about a quarter of the way through - MUCH BETTER! We sat at the very front of the boat in front of the captain waving at the locals in their boats and enjoying the view. Once the river opened into the lake, the water was a bit rougher, so they told everyone to get back down in the seats. Now for those of you who've been on a boat before, it was just medium choppy water. But in this boat when you're below decks it seemed like the boat was going to tip over every time he hit a chop wrong. I guess the captain didn't feel so comfortable in these conditions either because after about 1/2 an hour of this he headed over to a more secluded area of the lake, tied the boat to a stand of mangrove trees and said we were going to sit their indefinitely until the wind died down a bit! Well, at least the sun was shining and it was a pretty spot - we sat there for over an hour. One of the guys left on a local boat and came back with bread and bananas for us. When we took off again, it was still pretty choppy for another hour, water leaking through the windows, flipping back and forth, etc. As soon as we saw land again (this lake is huge) and things seemed calmer we all clamored up on the roof again and arrived in Siem Reap soon thereafter. A 5-6 hour trip that took 8 hours!! It was all really fun believe it or not! ;-)
So, after all that, we finally arrived in Siem Reap which is a small touristy town, very poor, but then you see the odd Japanese or Western business man in their fancy cars and houses right in the middle of the poverty. The town is the gateway to Ankgor Wat and all its associated temples, what some people consider the 8th wonder of the world. We'll spend 2 and a half days exploring as much of them as we can. Some we have to be driven a couple hours to as they're out in the jungle, pretty much undisturbed.
Can't believe we only have a week left here - it's all gone by so fast, but then I think of all we've done. Much love from both of us to all of you!
