Drifting down rivers and the suchlike

I've never really done much in the way of riding on motorbikes, but touring around Dalat on one was definitely a great experience. If nothing else it is simply a great way to appreciate the Vietnamese countryside and travel from place to place. Our guides were extremely friendly and spoke surprisingly good English. We travelled around visiting places such as a waterfall, a coffee plantation, a silk factory and the 'Crazy House'. The 'Crazy House' was utterly bizarre, a building with the most ridiculous architecture I've ever seen. You could even spend a night there, although I'm not sure how enjoyable it would be to wake up face to face with a giant ant in your room. I can't really do it justice without photos, so you'll just have to wait until I get around to putting them up. We had a great local lunch with our guides which involved a fair amount of rice wine, and the experience was completed with a tropical downpour. Overall Dalat was quite a surprising place, especially in that it was a bit like a European mountain resort town with pine trees, fancy hotels and a lake. It was lovely and cool though, and we managed to stay in quite a nice place with probably the best breakfast spread included.

After our time in the mountains we headed down to the coast to Mui Ne for a couple of days for some relaxing by the beach. We didn't really do anything of note here apart from a couple of good nights out (involving one guy we met waking up at the bar at 5am and a nice swim in the sea) and lazing in the pool, but it was a nice change of pace. It seemed quite quiet while we were there but apparently weekends can get quite mental.

I wasn't particularly looking forward to Saigon, especially because of what other people had said about it being really hot and busy, but it turned out to be quite pleasant. Admittedly we didn't spend a huge amount of time there, but it seemed quite nice from what we did do and see. The main things we did were visiting the Cu Chi tunnels were the Viet Cong were based in the Vietnam War and the War Remnants museum which provided a very sobering view on the events of the war and the use of Agent Orange by the Americans. It's really strange to think that 30-odd years ago there were Vietnamese soldiers running about through the tunnels and the Americans were engaged in bombing and wiping out the jungle to try and find them, especially when places like Saigon seem so prosperous. In the end we decided that Saigon wasn't nearly as bad as some people had made out, but unfortunately time was again our enemy and we left the next day for the Mekong Delta.

It was lovely to spend time on boats heading down the river past floating villages and some beautiful countryside, although the company wasn't quite as serene. In our tour group there were a group of young Canadians who were arrogant and boring, but with their loud voices they were hard to ignore. Our 2 day trip through the Mekong didn't go entirely to plan though. As we were heading down the river towards the Cambodian border we heard a couple of loud *thunks* before we just began drifting. After a quick inspection by the driver we were informed that the whole propeller had in fact come off... This led to an hour floating around by the bank of the river which, in the heat with the Canadians daring each other to eat chillies found on the bank and then proceeding to moan loudly about how hot they were, was not the most enjoyable experience. Fortunately it wasn't long before we were rescued and proceeded on to the border. After a couple of long but uneventful stops at the border we were in Cambodia.

Since we've been doing quite a lot of long journeys (and a fair amount of lazing about), we've also ended up doing a fair amount of reading and our author of choice is Stieg Larsson. We must have looked pretty silly when we were all sat there each reading one of the Millenium trilogy, but the truth is that they are SO GRIPPING! This meant that I didn't really notice what the rest of the trip up the Mekong to Phnom Penh was like because I was so utterly engrossed.

I found Phnom Penh to actually be a lovely city. It isn't as busy as places like Hanoi and Saigon and is really quite pretty in places. Couple that with some nice bars and restaurants to give a great place to stay, which is even more impressive when you consider that it was deserted 30 years or so ago when the Khmer Rouge came to power. We only had one full day there and it was quite a sobering one. We started off by visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which was originally a school before Pol Pot turned it into a detention and torture center for political prisoners and intellectuals. It was quite a harrowing experience, especially because of how the Khmer Rouge had documented it by photographing everyone who was interred there. Seeing displays of some of the thousands of people who suffered there only 30 years ago was really something to think about, especially when reading about how the trials of the leaders are still going on today. We followed this up by heading out to the Choeung Ek killing fields where thousands of people (many brought from Tuol Sleng) were brutally murdered and buried. There is a monument there containing the skulls of about 8000 people who died there and walking around the mass graves was a very much shocking and disturbing experience. I did find it odd to think that these atrocities had happened so recently and yet I really wasn't sure of the details as it doesn't seem to be mentioned in schools or the media.

The next afternoon we caught a bus to Siem Reap where we are currently staying in one of the best hostels I have ever been to. It has everything from nice rooms to a swimming pool to a cheap bar. On the first night we just went out and ate too much (as usual) and then today we headed over to see the Angkor temples. They are truly spectacular and it's amazing how they were built back in the 12th Century. It was a good day out (apart from being harassed by everyone from children selling postcards to old ladies in the temples trying to give us incense etc. in return for a 'donation') and apart from the scaffolding for conservation work Angkor Wat is truly as impressive as it is supposed to be. We considered hanging around for the sunset, but it was pretty cloudy and it had been a long, hot and sweaty day so we headed back.

As I write this the other two are napping but we are planning to have a good night out as this is our penultimate night together...