Cambodia, Vietnam

Cambodia Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/pdullock/Cambodia?authkey=-i61t-AXzZo#
Vietnam Pictues: http://picasaweb.google.com/pdullock/Vietnam?authkey=m3zr9eC5H4I#5252214682838385090

To Start i want to apologize to everyone for not publishing any pictures yet, i will post pictures when i get back, the drawback to posting via the iPod and internet cafes is that they do not always have card readers for the memory cards for my camera's. believe me i have a lot of pictures and will go back through the blog and insert links to galleries.

Cambodia is a country that i am very glad i visited, however, i have no intention of going back. The country in and of it self had a dirty and dangerous feeling, that feeling you get when people are WAY to nice to you. The bus to Cambodia was through the Poi Pet border in Cambodia, this was anarchy at its finest, i am overly relieved that i made the decision to travel via an organized tour. On the bus from Thailand were two gentlemen, one from the north of England named James (think football hooligan), a great guy who was chasing the waves through SE Asia and was a first time travellor through these parts of Asia, and a Swede named Gustof (we called him Christof for the first three days not realizing that wasn't his name), also a first time travellor. We made a great pair walking blind through some of these places.

We recieved visa's on arrival that were not offered by Cambodia, so we stoped about a 1/2 mile from the border at a mom and pop restaurant, this was the first time a complete and utter stranger walked up and just said, "passport" and held their hand out. We filled out the immigration/Visa forms and paid our 1200 Thai Baht (1:34) and ordered the lunch, the women just disappeared, my first thought was where in the hell is my passport, the communiction lacked a just a little. The border for thailand was quite organized, the queue was set and we just came up and got stamped, our passports were steadfastly returned to us as we entered the immigration station, complete with cambodia visa's. Once we cleared immigration for Thailand we entered the no mans zone, straight out of the wild west, their were touts everywhere, people pushing carts that were gargantuan, and no clear direction of where we were to go or what we were to do. then out of no where the cambodian hgalf of our organized travel group (us three guys) shows up and guides us to the cambodian immigration place. This is a small room thats about 100 degrees and just awful, its packed with foriengers trying to get into cambodia, which in and of itself isn't not a hard thing to do, as they seem to let everyone in. We stood just jumbled in this room for about an hour before walking through officially in Cambodia, the other side was no better than the wasteland between the immigration stations. Our guide had let us know that the bus we were supposed to take was not leaving for another three hours, and not air conditioned, we were not keen on that idea due to the outside tempetue was the same as inside the immigration room. The side deal we made was for 1500 TBT for the three of us (500 a piece) for a private taxi (air conditioned) to Siem Reap. The road was absolute shit on the way their. Theere was plenty of construction, but this project which they project they will complete in one year will probably take 10, one thing about south east asian countries, expecially the poor ones is that they mix the cement by hand in buckets, no cement trucks or big mixers in most places. So imagine a highway overpass being done with hand mixed cemement.

Arriving in Siem Reap was a relief, the hotel i stayed at ended up being 5 star, and i only paid 27 a night for on an internet deal through asiatravel.com. the other travelors i was with found a half way decent place for 13 about a mile away from the hotel i was staying at. We went out that night and got our first taste of sanitized cambodia. Siem Reap is designed entirely for tourists, the bars are all western and the street food is close to nil in the "bar street" area. We ended up going to a dinner show that night that had an international buffet. It was hard to tell what food was cambodian, or if cambodians had a food that was signature to their country, their was kim chi in the buffett if that helps explain what i mean by "international". After the show we headed down to the bar street and kicked back a few cold ones. A street kid, dressed fairly nice was hawking three books for 5 a piece. he spoke great english, and was very quick on his feet. James bought one of the books and the damn thing was a photocopy, it was quite amusing to tell you the truth, but the kid suckered him bad, and this would be a recurring theme through cambodia of getting taking advantage of.

We had arranged a tuk tuk driver the first evening in Siem Riep for 16 a person for the three of us. come to find out later this was almost double the going rate for the tuk tuks to take to ankwar wat. We started at Ankwar Wat at 8 AM and this place was absolutely massive, the temples were huge, and the intracacy of the carvings and detail where truly overwhelming. After about 5 temples we heard people saying seen one, seen them all, but they all had a different feel, and each had their own unique feel and theme. The coolest one of course was the Jungle Temple that was used in the movie tomb raider, the trees growing through the actual temple were huge, the temble was 1000 years old, and it was estimated that the trees were 600 years old. At 4:00 we called it a day at the temples, after walking through the main temple of Ankwar Wat (each temple had a unique name with the biggest being Ankwar Wat, the area was also known as Ankwar Wat).

After sweating probably 2 pints of water, we headed back to the hotels, meeting up at mine (it had a pool) for a swim, it didn't suprise me that the water was proably 95 degrees, like bath water. we hung out in the pool for close to an hour then headed to the FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club) This i always thought was in Pnom Penh, but it appears that it has franchised out. The orginal FCC was a haunt for British reporters in cambodia through the war and before, now its just a hotel and restaurant.

We caught the early bus to Pnom Penh, and stayed the night their. We saw the Killing Fields, and the Genocide Museum. Pnom Penh, in and of itself was really dirty, and did not feel safe at all. The Killing fields were absolutely the most disturbing thing that I have ever seen, having been through the holacaust museums in DC and LA, this was 100 times worse. The Killing fields in and of themelves are 83 mass graves, the largest site that pol pot created. Their is an estimated 343 mass graves throughout Cambodia that the Khmer Rouge created. As you walk through the Killing fields themselves you follow a dirt path, we hired the tour guide for 10 dollars and it was ore than worth the money. As you walk along the path, he explains how the site of the killing fields was a chinese cemetary, and that was the cover used to hide the smell from the bodies by the KR. As we walked along, the tour guide scuffed some of the ground bent down and pulled a tooth out of the dirt, they are not really sure how much more is left in the actual site, or if their may potentially be more bodies not uncovered. Each time the rain comes or the river rises more is uncovered and shifted around. As you continue along the path, their are clothes in the dirt, and even bone fragments sticking up through the ground. Absolutely mind boggling to wrap your head around as you go through it. Its like being in the middle of the atrocities, which in a way you are. The tour finishes with the actually memorial, a temple building with approximately 30 shelves spaced about 2 feet apart with nothing but skulls that were removed from the ground.

All three of us were sick to our stomachs as we left the killing fields, the atrocities of the KR were just horrendeous, their were 6 million people living in Cambodia when Pol Pot took power, it is estimated that he killed 2 million Cambodians, we then went to the genocide museum. The musem is also known as SO21, its a former high school that was converted into a camp for the KR to torture their victims. One building is open cell areas, and the other two buildings are set up with the cells and photographs of the victims and of the actual results of their tyranny. Again very disturbing.

In the afternoon we caught a bus to Ho Chi Minh City. The bus took 6 hours. On the bus they passed out the Immigration cards for Vietnam, then collected everyones passport. This was quite organized, as we went through the cambodian border, a complete 180 from the Poi Pet border with thailand, it was extemely organized, i am a firm believer that the tour company greases the border agents. The passports that were collected earlier were turned over to the cambodian immigration. Everyone is asked to get off the bus, and then the border agent calls each persons name and they can get back on the bus. At the Vietnam side, same thing, only this time everyone crowds into the immigration building, and when the Vietnamese are done they bring your passport out and you can go through. Vietnam at the border seemed a bit dirty, with trash everywhere, but as we got into HCMC it was much cleaner, and the city doesn't have a coming after you feel like Pnom Penh. I'm currently in HCMC and the city has a very nice feel. Got in late and got a hoel in the backpacker area. If this is what backpacking in asia is like, I like it, one of the better hotel rooms i've had. Took the day on the 11th to relax, all of us have been running ragged for some time so it was a nice relief. Tomorrow the plan is to see the Cu Chi Tunnels outside of HCMC and then to Tra Nang a spectatuclar beach area.