HCMC to Dalat

We arrived in Dalat last night, a mountain city about a 7 hour bus ride from HCMC. We're staying in the rather posh Dalat Novotel. Rather by necessity than choice as most of the local accommodation is booked out. Tomorrow is a national holiday to celebrate the liberation of Saigon so everyone has come up here as it's a bit of a destination for locals. Not that we really knew that on the way here. Fun and games. So we have a place to stay tonight but we need to secure something for the holiday tomorrow, hopefully we'll hear something soon. We've pretty much had enough of bus rides for the time being, it took a really long time to get out of the city and for the bulk of the journey the driver was on the horn every thirty seconds for for the whole time whilst simultaneously trying to break some kind of land speed record. Why beep once when 8-10 times might do? Combined with mountain roads, buckets of trucks and scooters we were pretty glad to get off! I should point out that we did see some interesting stuff while we were on the bus, such as a whole region that seemed to be full of Christian churches, and a lot of statues on peoples balconies of either Jesus or Mary. Or both, sometimes with neon halos. Business sign of the day: Hung Phat Computers. We also saw a miniature Eiffel Tower at one of the towns on the way up to Dalat - Dalat has their own Eiffel Tower too, a bit of a nod to the French colonial history. We will have one more bus ride to get from here to another city a few hours away, after that we can catch the Reunification Express (train) all the way to Hanoi and stop where we like on the way.

HCMC - 27/4

We had a cyclo ride today, on our way to visit the War Remnants Museum. Pretty disconcerting being pedaled through insane amounts of traffic but you just have to go with it. It certainly beat walking in the heat and humidity. We went via the HCMC version of Notre Dame Cathedral, pretty similar in shape but minus a lot of the features that make the Paris version such a land mark. One lesson we've learned today is that you just pay for the cyclo rider for the journey, you don't get them to wait for you despite their protests to the contrary. Unfortunately they charge a lot per hour - D'oh! The War Remnants Museum is worth a visit, it houses a lot of evidence of war crimes against the Vietnamese people as well as propaganda posters, photos (some quite famous ones), weapons and art work. Its also a pretty damning indictment against American foreign policy. Following the museum, we had a bit of a walk around - past the Reunification Hall and through a bit of an up-market suburb on our way to HCMC's local Hindu Temple. It's got some pretty interesting architecture and statues inside, it was also quite busy. Following the temple we had dinner near our hotel at one of the hundreds of side street restaurants and organised some travel to Dalat.

Ho Chi Minh City

We've been in HCMC for a couple of days now and are getting into the swing of things. It's pretty much a swarming mass of scooters, cars, beeping horns, touts and people ALL the time. We've been wandering around our local neighbourhood to to get a feel for it, checking out some shops, there's some great shopping here. As for restaurants, there's a huge range of cuisine from street stalls, western bistros and local back alley joints. We've not done much touristy stuff apart from looking at a couple of markets. One is massive, full of food, clothes, and pretty much everything. We were at another yesterday which had more army surplus and industrial supplies so a real mixture. Kirsten got a hat pretty cheaply so that was good. We had walked a fair way over to a gallery yesterday only to find they would have been closing in 15 minutes - we did get to see a lot of street life though, including a group of kids playing soccer on a crowded footpath and occasionally out into the busy street! We're on a bit of a slower start today, all the walking is taking it out of us a bit but we intend to go to a couple of museums and the local version of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

Angkor Spirit Hotel

We've spent today at the hotel, catching up on some rest, recovering from the massive day yesterday. It's been a good chance to do some reading, swim in the pool and generally chill out. We met a couple at the hotel, had a bit of a chat about travel and found out the girl was from Adelaide - they're everywhere. Also we've caught up on the blog a bit, hence why there's so many posts on the same day... Tomorrow we fly to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) having really enjoyed our brief stay in Cambodia.

Siem Reap and Angkor Archeological Park

Thursday 23/4 saw us up pretty early for breakfast at the hotel, followed by a trip into town. We had a look around the old market, which had some excellent handicrafts, carvings, tons of fruit and veg and lots of fish (some still wriggling). We also had a bit of a look around some of the local stores. Kris picked us up from a restaurant called the Red Piano and we were on our way to to the temple sites. Our first stop was at the ticket office, it was only $20US for admission. Most transactions over here are in US Dollars, it's only if you get some small change that you get local currency. The first feature we stopped for a photo at was the south gate, one of five entrances to the Angkor Thom temple complex. The main temple in Angkor Thom is named Bayon and it's one of the most spectacular. Fairly free from vegetation and in quite good order, it's one of the most visually interesting of the temples as it contains so many wall inscriptions, bas-reliefs and carvings. Some of the main features are the huge stone faces atop some of Bayon's main pillars or towers. Passing through the Victory Gate, we then headed to Ta Prohm which has been left partially overgrown by massive trees and foliage. It's preserved this way to show tourists how the site looked upon it's discovery and to allow some pretty spectacular shots of tree roots pushing their way over and through the stonework. Unfortunately not all of this site was accessible as they are undertaking further restoration at the site. We then visited Angkor Wat. It was getting pretty hot by this stage so we had a bit of time out sitting at the edge of a huge moat which surrounds this temple. A massive stone bridge leads across to the complex, it is built on such a huge scale, I'm hoping our photos will do it justice when we manage to post some. We spent the most time here due to the scale of the building as well as some much needed rest along the way due to the heat. However, it was well worth it and I'm glad we persevered and saw as much of it as we could. Kris (our driver) had in mind for us to stay out until sunset which would have been great to see but we were pretty exhausted by then so we returned to the hotel in the late afternoon. We were revived somewhat by a shower and a foot massage and so we gathered strength to head out to diner in Siem Reap that night as we wanted to see some traditional Khmer dancing. We only lasted a couple of hours in the city before returning to collapse at the hotel but we were both glad we got to see a couple of dances over dinner at Temple Bar. Slept very well that night.

Bus Hell

I suppose it wasn't quite hell but the novelty wore off when the air-con gave out for the second time. It could have been worse, we had air-con for most of the first three hours, it was the second three hours that were the trouble... We arrived in Siem Reap Thursday 23/4 hot and disheveled. One good thing, our driver in Phnom Penh had arranged for someone to met us at the bus station. I mean bus paddock with shed. I am happy to report that the bus paddock is not a reflection on the rest of Siem Reap, the town is quite nice and a lot more relaxed than the four million strong scooter derby we just left. We had a hotel in mind but our driver Kris made an an alternate suggestion, one that we are very happy with as the hotel is fantastic - nice rooms, lovely staff and in picturesque surroundings. We had a quiet afternoon and then dinner at the hotel to recover from the bus, ready for a full on day of exploring the city and then it's temples.

Phnom Penh

On Wed 22/4, we'd arranged a tour around Phnom Penh. We took our driver's suggestion on the itinerary and so firstly we ended up in the Killing Fields as it was the furthest away. The site is where thousands of Cambodian people were executed by Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. There is a large memorial and shrine at the centre of the site which is surrounded by shallow pits which once housed mass graves. It's a pretty sobering experience but one that should be undertaken. Trials for war crimes of former Khmer Rouge members are happening in Cambodia at the moment so it was pretty chilling to see what they're on trial for in person. Our next visit was to the Russian Market, a large sprawling undercover market that houses all manner of Cambodian handicrafts, jewellery, t-shirts and all the usual copyright infringing dvd's. After lunch we went to S21, which is a former school in the heart of Phnom Penh which was converted to a prison and torture facility during the time of the Khmer Rouge. Again, pretty full on as they house some of the original beds and implements used by the captors. The saddest part is the hundreds of photos taken by the guards and interrogators before and after torture. A visit to the city museum was well worth it as we saw some amazing artifacts from throughout Cambodia's history (photos of our day will be up soon). Not that were allowed to take any shots of the exhibits, but we did get some excellent ones of the museum building and interior garden. The ponds in the middle garden are stocked with hundreds of carp that follow you about looking for a feed. Last visit of the day was to the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda. Half of the Royal Palace is the residence of the King, the other half is available for tourists to visit. All of the sites we visited had pretty reasonable admission fees which was good and the Royal Palace was well worth a visit. There is some fantastic traditional architecture there and some lovely gardens. As we'd pretty much seen everything we wanted to in Phnom Penh, we arranged a bus to take us to Siem Reap, home to the temple complex Angkor Wat and then had pretty quiet night in.
Check out this album: Phnom Penh

Hong Kong to Cambodia

We arrived in Hong Kong pretty weary after the 10 hour flight from Auckland. Highlights of the flight were the food which was pretty good and the fact they stocked JW Black Label. Lowlights included grumpy Europeans in front of us generally being annoying. We had a reservation at the Marriott at the airport in Hong Kong and it was pretty easy to get there via the shuttle bus. The room was pretty nice, poshest one we've stayed in for a while. As we were stuffed from the flight we had room service for dinner - is good. Jet lag played a bit of havoc - Kirsten woke up at 4am, couldn't get back to sleep and so went to the gym for an hour. Our flight to Phnom Penh left early the next morning and was over pretty quickly - we arrived about 10.30 local time. We had booked a room in advance and they sent a driver to meet us at the airport. We were pretty glad we didn't have to deal with the inevitable crush of touts trying to secure our business. We stayed at the Walkabout (thanks Nick!) which was pretty cheap, albeit a bit sleazy with a 24 hour bar. We didn't do a great deal on the first day, it was good to settle into the hotel and get a feel for being on the road in a more exotic location. We did go out in the evening to the Foreign Correspondents Club (thanks Jules!) which had great food and some interesting photos from Cambodia's turbulent past.

Catching up - Auckland

Fair bit to catch up on since we left Melbourne on the 10th of April. We landed in Auckland and were picked up by Tahlia and whisked off to Kirsty and Kelly's house to surprise Mike and Jane - and to meet baby Oliver! He is very cute and we are glad we got the chance to meet him at last! Thanks to Joe and Kirsty's devious cunning our surprise was a complete success. Most of our time in Auckland was spent hanging out with friends. We arrived over the Easter long weekend which was handy. The rest of the time we did a little sight seeing, had some awesome food at Jane and Mike's or at home with Kirsty and Kelly or or sampling some of Auckland's restaurants. So a pretty relaxed visit really, but a good way to start our travels. A big thanks to everyone in NZ who welcomed and looked after us. x
Check out some Auckland photos here.