Vietnam:
We visited the Cu Chi tunnels on Sunday. What an incredible place. Both Carl and I attempted the tunnels but I freaked out slightly.. Carl made it to the other end though. They're hot, dark and cramped and pretty incredible given they are all dug by hand and once ran from the Cambodian border to Saigon. The Americans didn't stand a chance against the Cu Chi people.
Monday we were up early to go on our tour to Chau Doc in Vietnam... We visited a river village en route which was fascinating. We also saw how rice paper was made and had a local lunch. On arrival in Chau Doc we found a restaurant called Bay Bong which served Vietnamese specialities.. Basically anything you want cooked in a pungent fish sauce..! Interesting.
We had to get up early on Tuesday to get to the Cambodian border by boat... We firstly visited a small fishing village on stilts and had a rowing boat trip around their houses.. Then on to a larger boat for our journey to the border. This took about 3 hours. Border control was fine and we arrived in Cambodia to get another boat for 2 hours in to the outskirts of Phnom Penh. We checked in to the Boeng Kak Lake area into a guesthouse that was crawling with midges but had the most incredible views over the lake and the sunset was pretty spectacular too..!
Yesterday we hired a tuk tuk driver to take us around the city. His name was Tai and he was a lovely guy who spoke some English but didn't con us into going anywhere we didn't want to go. We went to the S-21 prison in the morning. This was a school in PP before the Khmer Rouge took it over and turned it into a prison. All but 7 of the prisoners who went into the prison came out alive. The rest were taken to the Killing Fields and murdered. Our next stop was the Killing Fields in Choeung Ek where there is a monument to all the 17000 people who were killed there. So far they haven't dug up all of the mass graves but nearly 9000 bodies have been found. It's a very strange place, almost beautiful and peaceful now but the stories you read about are anything but. It really hit home hard to Carl and me that we are very lucky at home. Let's just hope this genocide never happens again to Cambodia because they seem to be coming through the tragedy now. They're a very positive race.
In the afternoon we visited the Royal Palace in the centre of PP. very similar to the Golden Palace in Bangkok. Last night we had some great Khmer food and lots of drinks..! Well at 35p for a double vodka and redbull it would be rude not to!
Today we're heading nearer the centre of PP where we'll pop to the local markets and then meet up with some friends from Laos who have just emailed us...
Tomorrow we're off by bus to Sihanoukville, the BEACH! We'll spend a couple of days there before heading to Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor Wat on Sunday...
Love to everyone,
B and C xxx
