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Hey all,
can't remember when we last wrote- been busy. Arrived in Hoi An 6am yesterday morning after a typically awful 24hr bus ride. They dropped us off in front of a massive hotel but after 24hrs we barely enquired the price (very not like us) before heading to bed. Turned out well, we're only paying 8US (albeit practically in the basement of the place) for a lovely hotel with a 'beauty parlour', gym and a beautiful POOL! So that's nice. Plus Hoi An apparently has a gorgeous beach, which we plan to check out tomorrow. Quite a nice chilled out place to be in after the last two stops.
Phnom Penh, though very smelly, is a brilliant city. We stayed in a GH on the edge of the lake, which is pretty much in the centre of the city, and a nice respite from the chaos (Lakeside, Mike, next to no 9). We caught the tail end of the monsoon in PP, so every afternoon at 2o'clock (very reliable) there would be absolute torrential rain for about four hours- not a lot you can do in the meantime, so lots of DVD watching, hammocks and chicken sandwiches in between visiting the sights of Phnom Penh. The last night there the expected downpour never came, and we sat out on the decking (half the place overhangs the lake) and watched the sunset with a couple of BeerLao, listening to a strange mix of Ben Harper, Jack Johnson..and the Pussycat Dolls. We made complete asses of ourselves on the second night there- sitting by ourselves on the balcony up on the first floor, we were perched on the EDGE of a glass coffee table having a beer, when the thing just smashed beneath us and crashed incredibly loudly onto the marble floor. As we tried to pick ourselves out of remains of the coffee table, the whole staff came running, so feeling very sorry for ourselves we had to try to explain what had happened and then bandage a gash on Ricks arm that was bleeding profusely (don't worry mum moon, very well equipped first aid kit) and worry over all our other scrapes and bumps. Went to Ton Sleung, previously a high school, that the Khmer Rouge turned into an prison and interrogation centre. I think it was over 17,000 that were imprisoned there, and less than a dozen survived. Horrific, and an extremely creepy, creepy place. They took and left behind 'mug shots' of every prisoner and there are rooms full of these enlarged shots- men, women and children.
Saigon was lovely, but we had only two days there which definitely wasn't enough. There's loads of brilliant restaurants and bars and the people just seem generally happier in Vietnam than in Cambodia- it's also possible to browse a shop or market without being consistently hassled (a Cambodian specialty), ooh, plus the food is amazing, and they bake the best baguettes in SE Asia :) We went to a couple of markets in Saigon (more shopping, there's an onslaught of packages winging their way to tamworth rd) and just enjoyed flying round the city on the back of a motorbike really :) There are SO many motorbikes in Saigon, Vietnam in general, at least 30 bikes to every car, and the traffic is completely mad, but because it's not tuk-tuks and cars and stuff, it just seems more manageable. Everyone says it, but there really was nothing better in Saigon then grabbing yourself a beer and a seat outside and just watching the street. Madness. It completely mystified us how a big intersection with no traffic lights actually functioned. No-one seems to really slow down, but they don't seem to run into each other either (not that we saw). It was Vietnamese Independence Day on the Saturday there, and there was a celebration brass band in residence behind our GH, which was down a little alley. The party started Friday night and the band played incredibly loudly just below our window till very late but were somehow able to start up again at about 5am on the Saturday. Great music though. Went to the Cu Chi tunnels, which is one of the tunnel networks the local guerillas built and lived in during the war. Really interesting place, and the M16s firing from the on-site shooting range (1US a bullet) certainly add to the atmosphere. Was NOT impressed with the tunnels though- we only had to go thirty metres but it was twenty-nine too far for me. The first metre was quite high then suddenly it was so low you had to bend over in half or crawl. The walls on either side were very close and there were no lights, only the beam from Ricks litle LED light (thanks Ev and Hatters) behind me and the beam from the Vietnamese guide in front of me who would occasionally swing round to show me the way, saying 'Don't worry, almost there, almost there'. Think he must have sensed my panic. NOT fun.
So, then Hoi An. It's a beautiful town, tiny, with little narrow streets and old French buildings, the people are lovely and the little shops have gorgeous carvings and lanterns and paintings and just very good shopping in general :) They also have over 200 tailor shops, and then there's the shoe makers! (cobblers?) So yesterday, we chose a tailor and spent a while flipping through books full of magazine pics and NEW LOOK catalogues, then choosing fabrics- eventually ordered two suits for Rick, some shirts, plus skirts, shorts, dresses and stuff for me and it only cost us 200US!! They measured us up around lunchtime yesterday, and we picked it all up this afernoon. And after slight apprehension on my part, it was all brilliant. It's very difficult to stop actually. I ordered a trench coat today and bought another dress, but i'm trying to leave it at that :) (Tash and Steph, you would die of happiness here) We also ordered some shoes yesterday, same thing- we chose the style, the leather and they handmade them to our feet (weirdly shaped and all in my case). I love Hoi An. We've lucked out and happen to be here at the full moon (tomorrow) when they have a 'traditional night' and the town goes back a couple of centuries in time. As far as i can tell, they turn off all the electricity in the middle of town and only have the old lanterns on, and there's traditional dancing and food and theatre. So we're staying for that, then heading up to Hue for a quick stop then on to Hanoi.
Oh, as we'd feared, Richard seems as tempting to SE Asian bugs as he is to Roman ants and English mosquitos (yes, apparently there are a few). Something keeps biting him (mosquitos?), and instead of just a little bump, his turned into massive angry red bumps- his feet were covered in them. But he was a good boy, and managed to not scratch, and worried locals directed us to something called Yao which seems to have worked (we tried Tiger Balm, which worked, but left his feet and ankles covered not only in massive red lumps, but massive red lumps surrounded by a yellowy iodiney shade. Lovely.
Mel x
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