May 2008

When we arrived in Hoi An at 6 am, the regular touts were there, ready and eager to take us to their hotels. These guys were more aggressive than others however, as they actually boarded the bus trying to get us to go with them. They seem to get crazier the further we get into Vietnam. After a bit of a struggle, we found a decent guesthouse and head out for the day. Hoi An is famous for its cloth shops. Over 200 different shops try to get you to come in and get clothes tailor made for cheap. We were starving from the bus ride and found it difficult to walk from our hotel to a restaurant without literally getting accosted by the different shop owners. Eventually we did find food however, I sampled one of Hoi An's specialties, Cao Lao. A noodle dish authentic only in Hoi An, it was delicious, along with the Lemon Juice (actually Lime, but they call it Lemon) for 1 USD total I was very satisfied. After lunch we decided to look in a few shops. This turned out to be our first mistake. 3 shops and 2 days later we had 13 dresses, 3 pants, 3 shirts and one belt. Oh yeah, and no money. I think the main reason I spent so much money was the first day was slightly overcast but the second day it just poured. So OBVIOUSLY, there was nothing to do except go in the cloth shops and spend money... that is my excuse anyway...

Hoi An Market

Attempting to escape the rain in Hoi An

Because we had spent so much time (and money) in Hoi An) we opted to skip Hue completely and booked ourselves bus tickets straight through to Hanoi (not before we mailed home all of our purchases however... my pack is so little, there is no way they would have fit even if I had wanted to carry them around...). Again, the bus was mostly uneventful, aside from the crazy drivers, but that is to be expected by now. 5:30 am brought us, tired, dirty and sore to Hanoi. Our plan was to see Halong Bay and then return to Hanoi for our flight out to Laos. In the travel agency we met a girl from the UK who was also looking into a trip to Halong Bay. Because the tour agent would not sell us a ticket for the trip leaving that morning the 3 of us decided instead to head out to Halong City ourselves and book a tour on our own.

This trip turned out to be very exciting. First, when we arrived at the bus station, everyone was yelling and we got pushed inside some random bus. Our saving grace was a boy who spoke decent English in front of us. He served as our translator and told us we were on the right bus to Halong City. We did have a brief dispute about fare once we were already on the bus, but eventually it all worked out alright. Since we were on a gov't bus, the driver was very determined to pick up as many passengers as possible. Apparently he got more money the more people he had? I don't know... What I do know was that half way through the drive we came up on another minibus to Halong City and the craziest (read insanely terrifying) game of car chase ensued. We actually ran through 2 different toll booths, and on one occasion the driver drove through a lane that was closed, having another guy jump out and move a large iron fence to plow through and pass the other bus. It was hysterical, albeit scary; watching the buses scream through the cities, with the guys hanging out yelling at people to get on there bus to Halong City. Needless to say, we arrived to our destination earlier than we had thought.

Driving in Vietnam at it's prime, We are trying to pass the other white gov't bus, with that big yellow truck in the on coming lane...

Again, trying to pass, while the guy is yelling out the door trying to get more passengers... A bit further, after blowing through a toll booth, we passed the other bus.

Once at the dock, we went about trying to get a tour. This turned out to be harder than we had anticipated. There was only one guy selling tours, and he was more expensive than had we just booked from Hanoi. Though slightly annoyed, we were able to eventually get him down to the price in Hanoi and got on a boat heading to Cat Ba Island.

On my moto en route to Halong bay

The all inclusive tour included a visit to a cave and stay over in a hotel at Cat Ba Island for the first night and a night on the boat with kayaking on the second day. The caves were cool, though a bit dramatized with colored lights, and I enjoyed the walk through. I don't know how they were formed (our English speaking guide spoke pretty poor English), but the caves were discovered less than 15 years ago, so they are still in pretty good condition.

After the caves, we docked and disembarked for Cat Ba Island. Looking to save money and gas, one minibus showed up to transport 15 passengers and all of there bags. It was so crazy squished, and the 30 km drive to our hotel was less than enjoyable.

When we finally did arrive at our hotel we found that it was the only hotel outside of the city. It was 2 km from anything, a bit of a drag if you want to do anything. Another added 'bonus' was that Cat Ba Island is run by a generator and therefore has no electricity between the hours of 5 am and 6:30 pm. This translated into no internet, and no messages back to home, yielding in apparent terror from the Beijing earthquake (which I don't really understand as I am in Vietnam and no where near Beijing... China is a huge country...). Anyways, the next day we trekked up a mountain... Literally. We actually climbed up rocks for a bit. Slightly ridiculous, but it resulted in a decent view of the Island (I would have been fine without it, but I didn't know that until AFTER I had completed the trek...).

After the trek, we returned to our hotel for lunch, a nap (me)/beach time (Brooke and Allie) and were picked up to be taken to the boat.

Nice to see some things never change and I am still a blanket hog

The van took us back to the same dock, but when the tour guy said, "I'm sorry, there is no more room on the boat," we were not so happy. The whole reason we had come on this tour in the first place was to sleep on a boat, and dang it, we were going to sleep on a boat. We calmly told the agent this, he went away talked on his phone and came back and said we could all (the 3 of us) share one bed. Again, we explained to the man, that while we knew it was not his fault that the boat was overbooked we were not going to pay full price to all share a bed. We said we would consider this option if we were refunded part of our tickets, since we had paid to each get our own beds on the boat. The magical thing about Vietnam and booking tours is that, all you have to do is say you want your money back, and, as if by magic, things appear. After we asked for a refund, magically 2 full rooms opened up and we were able to stay the night in our own beds (Allie actually had 2).

After the bed fiasco we immediately went out Kayaking. Brooke and I kayaked around a big island thing, which from far away looked smaller... it was fun though, and we returned to the boat, had dinner and played cards with some girls from the Netherlands, and France. Allover an enjoyable time. The next morning found us cruising back to Halong City where we had lunch and then returned to Hanoi. As a side note, our driver went SO SLOW! Well, maybe just normal speed, but having grown accustomed to crazy drivers, it made the trip seem to take forever... just a side note...

The sleeper bus arrived from HCMC at 6 am, and, after an unfortunate episode involving me forgetting a bag on the bus, and having to pay nearly half of its worth to get it back (don't worry, it wasn't worth that much), we had a hotel, all our belongings, and a map of a new city to explore.

Our splurge of the trip, a 2 star hotel.

We set out on foot, exploring the beach, finding food and overall having an enjoyable time in Nha Trang. The weather was beautiful, and the smaller city was a welcome relief from the craze that was HCMC. Nha Trang, apparently a big area for Vietnamese holidays, was very tourist friendly, with lots of little shops and food choices. Dinner found us at an awesome Indian restaurant where we gorged ourselves on tasty Nan, curry and rice. Needless to say, I practically had to be rolled back to our hotel I was so stuffed.

Beach down the street from our hotel

Since we were only spending one night in Nha Trang, we wanted to get an early start on our next day and started out the next morning at 7 am. We rented our first motorbike, from a man on the side of the street named Mr. Lam. It never ceases to amaze me how trusting these people are with tourists. We showed up, wrote down our names, told him our hotel name, paid him 6 USD and were given a shiny black bike with 2 helmets. We didn't show any ID, give him our passports or anything. For all he knows we could drive the bike to Hanoi and never return... lucky for him we are honest...

It was funny though, when we got our bike, both Brooke and I looked at it, a bit apprehensive, Mr. Lam asked, "You drive before?" Brooke confidently said yes (she had driven one twice, more than my once), and after he showed us how to start and brake we were off to a fabulous, albeit wobbly, start.

Our days itinerary consisted of Monkey Island (which, after searching the Internet in vain for directions, I eventually got the hotel to write down what it was called in Vietnamese) followed by waterfalls. Mind you, we had not researched the waterfalls, but Mr. Lam, when we rented the bike said, after "Monkey Island you see waterfalls, just go 3 km more." With those stellar directions we headed out. To be fair, we had a map with an arrow in the direction/road to initially drive and the receptionist, though surprised we were going to go on our own, did say you stay on HWY 1 the whole time. Once we did stop to ask directions... well ask may be a stretch, as we stopped at a fork in the road where at a small shack, turned make shift convenience store I was able to beckon to a woman, who though she spoke no English, when I showed her the Vietnamese words and looked confused (something I have perfected) she pointed to go right... Eventually we made it to the boat dock (18 km outside of town, 17 km off the map... go us huh?). Since we can't have all the luck, we had just missed the boat, and 15 minutes later, after staying off the package deal offers and eating a distasteful pistachio popsicle (green, I thought lime, not so much... I don't recommend it), we took the short boat ride that brought us to Monkey Island.

At the pier, waiting for the boat to take us out to the island

Monkey Island is a small island that is less a Monkey sanctuary as it is a commercialized establishment, home to tons of monkeys that, due to all the tourists constantly feeding them, are mostly tame. The island boasts showing monkeys in their 'natural habitat', which is a stretch for sure, but was pretty cool. The monkeys are really smart though, and right after they sold the 'monkey food' the monkeys jumped up on the tourists, scaring them and causing them to drop their bags of food, resulting in the monkeys getting all the food. I, stupidly, was eating an orange, and had a hungry entourage of monkeys, begging and jumping up on me trying to get my fruit. Selfishly, I slurped up the entire orange, faster than I would have liked, to avoid getting attacked by all of the crazy monkeys.

Completing the commercial extortion of the monkeys was a 'Dog and Monkey Show'. Dogs walking on 2 legs, monkeys riding the backs of dogs and racing, goats walking on balance beams and monkeys doing all sorts of tricks (my fav was the bicycle riding, complete with a Tuk Tuk driver and passenger). In the end though, the whole thing was pretty inhumane. All of the monkeys were wearing collars with leashes and when they came out they would hold the leash so their handlers wouldn't pull so hard and hurt their necks. I can't imagine the trainers are that kind to them, 2 animals tried to escape, and the man did not yell happy sounding words at them... oh gosh; my PETA is showing, sorry...

Leashes aside, this was my fav: Tuk Tuk driver with passenger, notice how the monkey is crossing 'her' legs??

Having had enough of animal cruelty we caught the boat back to the dock and set off in hopes of finding waterfalls. Much to my shock, we did eventually find the falls, whether they were the ones Mr. Lam had spoke of is debatable, but it was an enjoyable adventure finding it anyway so all was well. (To actually find the turn off we had to ask 3 different people, and got our point across by drawing a picture of a waterfall... I am quite a gifted artist... pointing to our water bottle and making ridiculous hand motions... regardless we got there in the end).

Ba Ho, the waterfall area, was a forest area with 3 different waterfalls you can visit by trekking up to them. After paying the entrance fee we set off on the trail. Apparently we looked like we may drown, as a young Vietnamese forest ranger followed us and helped us find our way their and back from the waterfalls (which turned out to be nice, as we may not have found the falls on our own.)

Though not overly spectacular, the falls were pretty, and the best part was being able to swim below the falls in the natural pools. After the falls, we returned to Nha Trang, almost crashed into a parked bike (don't worry, all was well in the end), and prepared for yet another 12 hour bus ride to Hoi An...

For more pictures CLICK HERE

Following our bus ride from Hades (i.e. Siem Reap to PP), we were determined to enjoy our ride from PP to HCMC. With this in mind, we booked our tickets in advance, requested the front row and hoped for the best. 7 am came and we were picked up for the bus, driven less than a block and told to wait. A major irritant I have with this area is that they pick you up and force you to sit and wait for at least an hour every time you catch any sort of public transport. Also, generally no one speaks any English so it is hard to know which bus you should actually be getting on! After waiting for 15 minutes or so with no idea of what to do (people kept looking at us and saying 'wait here'), we talked to the guy with the megaphone (megaphone = importance, he must be in charge of something right?) and he said to wait here (shocking) and that the bus would be the next one. After waiting another 20 minutes, another bus pulled out, Mr. Megaphone waved at us and we got on the bus, in hopes we would arrive in HCMC later that day. Conclusion, I've said it a thousand times, but being patient, looking confused and asking loads of questions will get you far. I for one am shocked I have not gotten on the wrong bus by mistake through my different travels. I think my only saving grace is the fact that I ask so many people questions that I eventually get turned back around into the right direction.

Finally on our bus, our ride turned out to be fabulous. There were only 6 people on our bus, which was a bit ridiculous, especially when we took a ferry across a river, parked right next to another bus going to HCMC that was also quite empty. You think they could have coordinated and put us all on one bus... It would definitely save a lot of gasoline that is for sure, but who cares about conservation. The rest of the ride however went over without much of a hitch, with good seats, good music volume, and slightly cold... but much better than any other ride we have had. Ironically, with nearly the entire bus open, Brooke and I stayed in the front seats. We could have each had 4 seats, but whatever. All the books had warned of corrupt Vietnamese officials scamming money at the border crossing, and after the fiasco in Cambodia, we were prepared for the worst. In actuality however, it turned out to be fine, easy actually, well all except the part when the bus almost left me at the border of Vietnam when the guard could not find my entry stamp. I walked out of the building just as the bus was pulling away. Flashbacks of Florence ensued; this time however, Brooke was able to convince the driver to stop. (You would think he would have noticed though; there were only 6 of us on the bus in the first place! Again, whatever.)

Safely on the bus, we arrived in HCMC around 3 pm, got a hostel (after bargaining, and climbing many sets of stairs to see different rooms), and set off to see the War Remnants museum and Reunification palace. Because we didn't have much time, we opted to just look at the Reunification palace and not go through it. Before the war, it was the seat of the South Vietnamese govt, and it was here that the North Vietnamese tank broke through the gate, taking Saigon and officially ending the war. After looking at the tank for a bit through the gate (fixed to my dismay... it would have been way cooler if it was still broken... not practical mind you, but cooler) we went to the War Remnants museum.

The War Remnants museum was very interesting as it was information on the Vietnam War from the perspective of the North Vietnamese. It was very different to how I had learned about the war, as the 'enemy' talked about in the displays, was actually America. One of the areas of the museum was completely dedicated to the atrocities of war, focusing heavily on Agent Orange and napalm. The thing that was the most horrible about these was the lasting effects they had on the people of Vietnam. Birth defects, disfiguring burns, the signs from these weapons are everywhere. I would like to hope the USA did not understand the lasting effects these weapons would have... I hope. One thing I learned from the museum was that, of the 3 mil casualties from the war, 2 mil were civilians... I don't know, devastation of war is awful to say the least.

After the museum, we walked by HCMC's version of Notre Dame Cathedral, apparently a smaller version of the original? I wouldn't know as I've never been. We also walked by the Opera House, which, just as in America, is surrounded by all of the uppity shops like LV, Burberry and other ridiculously priced labels. Dinner was a fabulous experience, as HCMC has many veg restaurants. Zen, was just that: delicious veg food with no more mystery meat.

Our posh veg place, so fancy, but still cheap.

The next morning, after booking air tickets to Laos and making our tour bus wait for us, we went to Cu Chi tunnels. As is standard with nearly all set tours, we had a stop over at a handicapped artisan factory, where again, the driver almost left some people... A simple act of counting how many passengers are in the van before you speed off would save a lot of heartaches.

The Cu Chi tunnels were an extensive system built 3 levels deep, very tiny and dirty and showed how the Vietcong got around and lived underground in Cu Chi near Saigon. The tour guide for the other group was really good and I think he may have fought in the war, as he was very knowledgeable and anti-American (not in a mean way, but you could definitely tell his side).

The tour guide explained that the Vietcong men women and children all fought against Americans, setting traps, shooting from fox holes underground etc. The most interesting thing was that they used anything we left behind to fight us: tires for shoes, old bombs to make new ones and land mines, any can (tuna, soda etc) they could find they converted into land mines etc. Children and people to old or young to fight would help by laboring in the fields to get food to feed the soldiers. There was definitely a community wide effort in this area to rid out the Americans.

Notice I am getting out of the hole by myself. The tour guide definitely doubted my strength and abilities to do so... I am so buff though and easily got out of the hole.

At the end of the tour, we were to walk/crawl through about 40 m of tunnels. The first section of the tunnels was greatly enlarged for tourists, while the latter half not as much. 2 large American men could only fit through the first section, and for some parts of the later sections I had to crawl it was so narrow. For the tourists, they had installed lights in parts of the tunnels, but in some parts there were no lights and it was SO dark. It would have been so scary during war going through these tunnels, especially since the VC planted traps within the tunnels ("welcome to Vietnam" as the tour guide laughed), and since it is pitch black (you cannot even see your hand in front of your face) it would have been near impossible to be able to miss the traps.

After the tunnels, we tasted tapioca root, a staple for VC troops during the war... It actually wasn't that bad, bland, but ok. But then again, I like some pretty weird things, I am sure it got old day after day though.

Another thing they had us try was Rice Whiskey with snakes and other vile creatures in it. I passed, but others in the group tried it... mostly I thought it just looked really disgusting.

After our tour, we returned to the city, did some shopping in the crazy busy market, picked up some snacks for the bus, ate dinner at another (more classy) veg place, got our plane tickets to Laos and got on the sleeper bus. Next up, Nha Trang...

For more pictures CLICK HERE

At 8 am, when no one had shown up for our 7 am bus departure, we began to think we had been scammed. Why did we buy tickets from a random lady in a shop under construction to save 20 Baht!! (50 cents) Around 7:45 we met another girl with similar looking tickets who had also booked through the same lady, and her bus too was late. She was lucky, as within 5 minutes, someone came to get her, and told us to still wait, our bus was coming. So we waited (something traveling on the cheap will make you good at) We were very relieved, when around 8:05 a little Thai man came and told us to walk to the end of the street to get the bus. Apparently a family of four was an hour late, delaying our departure. Seriously? Come on; let’s get this show on the road.

Holding umbrellas for money

Once on the bus, the actual ride turned out to be not so bad. It was a bit hot, but the bus was mostly empty, so we were able to spread out a lot. Getting through to Cambodia turned out to be another story however. Getting out of Thailand was no problem, but the bus we came on wouldn't let Brooke and I go ahead of the group and forced us to go with them, turning out to be the beginning of the scam. Once we reached the Cambodian border, the scamming officials would only accept 1000 Thai Baht instead of the listed 20 USD fee. Determined to not pay 30 USD to get into Cambodia when it is listed at 20 USD we tried, (in vain) to argue with the officials. It turns out the Cambodian mob (who knows who they are really, but I will call them the mob...) wouldn't let any white person through with using USD and would only take 100 Baht. After trying other ways for about 45 min we broke down, paid the 1000 Baht charge, vowed to hate the Cambodian mob, and entered, hot and slightly irritated into Cambodia.

Mafia run Cambodian border

Being smart (er, crazy) travelers, Brooke and I had only booked the bus to the border, with the plan to find 2 people to share a cab to Siem Reap once across the border. As luck would have it, we met 2 American girls from Seattle while in the Cambodia Visa line and we shared a taxi for the rest of the trip through Cambodia to Siem Reap for 48 USD (8 USD over the actual fare; again corrupt Govt mob). The taxi was definitely worth it, as a govt mob bus (read in, probably a scam, and would get you into Siem Reap super late...) would have been awful, as the roads were absolutely horrendous: words do not adequately describe the bumps, detours, and general disarray. This area would definitely be an off-roading boys dream, personally, the 7 hour bumpy ride was less than enjoyable... but that's just me...

I wish you could see all of the pot holes in this picture

Another bonus with the cab was that we did not have to stop at random, unscheduled stops and could go much faster, we actually passed the bus we would have been on had we booked tickets straight from Bangkok to Siem Reap, which made us dislike Cambodia a little less, though our backs were getting a beating from the roads so it may have been a toss up. When we finally arrived in Siem Reap, we easily got a hostel and a driver and friend to join us for an early morning exploration of the temples.

DAY 1:

5 am Sunrise on Angkor Wat

Angor Wat... with no tourists... some kind of miracle truly

Gate at Angkor Thom

All of the stairs we climbed all day long

Bayon

Ta Prom: the temple from Tomb Raider with Jolie

More trees growing out of temples

A monk looking on at Pre Rup

Looking down from one of the smaller temples in the 'grand tour'

Our tour ended with watching the sunset at Baphun and then returning to Siem Reap, exhausted, around 7:30 pm. Starving, we found cheap street food for dinner, then returned to our hostel, took cold showers (no hot water in our budget accommodation) and collapsed into bed.

DAY 2:
Because the previous day had been so exhausting, we chose to start around 9 am the second day, to give us a bit of a sleep in hopes it would rejuvenate us and make us excited once again to see the temples.

Day 2 had us begin with the smaller temples of the Rolous group, and then finished with the far out temple of Bataray Sarie. It started raining when we were at the last temple of the day, but because I had already seen loads of temples, it was more of a welcome relief to the beating heat than anything else.

After another long day of temples, we finished evening with dinner and some shopping at the night market.

Conclusion: Siem Reap is a must see for trips to SE Asia. Even with the crappy roads and corrupt officials, it was amazing. As far as time lines, it is doable to see all the major temples of Angor in one day (from 5 am to 6:30 pm). It is however not advisable as we were absolutely exhausted and worn out of temples by the time the day was through... My recommendation? Buy a 3 day pass; see the Rolous group and the Batary Sarie temple on the first day. Day 2 do the grand tour with sunset at Bayon. Day 3 finish with Sunrise at Angor Wat and finish the rest of the small loop. You will definitely appreciate it all more, and you won't be to tired to take it all in.

A Cambodian woman patching my cheapo Bangkok bag.

From Siem Reap we booked bus tickets to Phnom Penh. While the roads were much better, the bus ride was awful: our 2nd to last row gems of seats yielded a 7 hour, smelly, hot, overcrowded (a few people on the bus actually stood the whole time), and extremely loud bad Cambodian bubble gum pop karaoke ride... What irritated me the most was the girl in the next row up opened her window, killing what little amount of A/C was trickling out of the vents and making the back of the bus even hotter... not so fun. We will definitely be sure to book near the front of the bus in the future. As a side note, on our ride into Phnom Pehn we stopped for the usual food and WC break, what found us here however was not the usual foods for sale. Crickets, spiders and frogs were just a few of the delicacies to be had at our rest stop. Of course, people were also sporting pineapples and mangos, but after seeing all of the fried bugs, I couldn't get myself to eat a thing.

Fried frogs, can you see their eyes and legs?

This woman was picking through her wares and would occasionally grab one and eat it. She was selling crickets, roaches and spiders. Praise veg.

Having arrived in Phnom Penh around 2 pm, we had already scoped out a hotel in my guide book that was close enough to walk from the bus station. A quick orientation and we were able to avoid the moto touts and head off in the right direction on foot and made it to the Royale Guesthouse within 10 minutes. Because they didn't have any budget rooms available (sometimes I wonder if they are lying, just to fill up the expensive ones first... most likely), we took a grand room with 2 double beds, A/C, TV, fridge, private bath and it was only up ONE flight of stairs. After a much needed shower, we set off to see some of the city before it got dark. We walked up to Wat Phnom, the highest point in the city, don't get to excited though, it's only up like 50 steps or something, not all that impressive as it is the highest point. The ride there was more impressive, as we experienced our first motor bike ride, with me riding side saddle in a skirt. The visit to Wat Phnom wasn't a complete bust however though, as walking up the steps however, I did see my first monkey up close. It was just chilling on the steps, eating a cucumber, minding its own business.

One unfortunate thing about SE Asia is everywhere you go you are constantly hounded by people begging for money, or trying to sell you some photo copied book or ripped off sunglasses. It gets quite annoying when people won't leave you alone. The kids are cute, but eventually it all gets old.

This guy wasn't begging, just enjoying his cucumber at Wat Phnom

After Wat Phnom, we head out on foot to find the post office. A confusing twisting journey had us eventually to the post office, but not before it had started to rain. Since we were traveling light, neither of us had packed rain jackets and we opted for the cheap 50 cent ponchos instead. Dashing fashion aside, they were a cheap alternative to getting soaked.

A less than appetizing meal of spring rolls later, which involved mystery innards (hopefully it was veg, but after the bus stops with all of the fried bugs and frogs for sale to eat, you can never really know), along with seeing a rat in the restaurant that was as big as a cat (no lie, seriously, I wanted to see a rat like that the whole time I was in NYC, but instead, got it at a meal in Cambodia... be careful what you wish for) finished my first day in PP. So far, not my favorite city, but ok...

Day 2 in PP started with a trip to the Nat'l Museum to see the Silver Pagoda, which we passed on, because we didn't want to pay the 6+ USD entrance fee. Instead, we made our way to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21). During the Khmer Rouge, the school was converted into a prison. The school/prison consisted of 4 buildings, used for cells and to torture more than 14,000 people before taking them to the Killing Fields south of Phnom Penh, where they were killed.

The museum was very disturbing, with pictures of many of the tortured people. What was most interesting t me about the whole thing was the amount of young people in the KR. Over 50% of the members were 15 years or younger. They would take small children and indoctrinate them with the KR mind set, raising monsters with no remorse or common decency towards other people.

They were planning to empty all of the cities and create an agrarian society. They worked to completely empty the cities and forced everyone to work in the rice fields all day in hopes to triple the countries rice production. They focused most on killing people with education, anyone with skills. They only wanted citizens who would not think, but would be willing to work and not complain. Obviously, the plan did not work, but in the 10 years or so that they were in power, 1/3 of the countries population was killed.

The most disturbing part of the museum was the skulls stacked in cabinets, showing how the KR killed many of their victims by beating them with the blunt end of the gun, to save 'precious bullets'. It is awful how war can make you so evil. Even freakier is that if over 50% of the KR was under 15 while they were in power, which would put the surviving members at around 50 years old... just old enough to start coming in power again... something to think about anyway.

We had planned to see the Killing Fields following the museum, however, we were both so disturbed with the museum that we felt we had seen enough and instead opted for the Russian Market. Window shopping and a delicious and very cheap meal later found us on another moto, this time headed for the main shopping mall of PP. Brooke had to get her nails filled, and I planned to get a pedicure. Our hostel had said this would be the best bet for finding a decent nail place so we tried it out. 3 hours later, we each had a mani/pedi (Brooke with a fill as well) and for 2 USD (Brooke paid more...) I was quite satisfied. For dinner, we ate at a restaurant on top of the mall. The circular shaped restaurant looked out over PP and was a neat atmosphere (I unfortunately could eat nothing on the menu and instead had rice... ah well, the life). During dinner, the rain had returned, this time being more of a downpour however. When we got down to the street, we found that it had been raining for a long time and the streets were beginning to flood. Not to be outdone, we donned our rain jackets and set out to trudge through the nearly knee deep water.

Do not misunderstand, this was possibly the grossest thing I have done so far in SE Asia. As we were walking through the nasty water, all I could think of was all of the garbage and putrid mud that had lined the streets that morning. All of it was now washing away, and all around my legs. I finally broke down and paid for a Tuk Tuk, only to find that within 1/2 a block the water had mostly cleared and that we were only 4 blocks from our place. All the same, the shower I took that evening scrubbing my legs was much needed.

As for pictures, I have still yet to post since Turkey... because I haven't been able to upload the pics. Maybe soon? But definitely not until I can find a decent internet connection, as uploading over dial-up is crazy slow.

For more pictures CLICK HERE

Arrived from Macau, ahead of schedule and met the McPhie's at the airport after a quick and painless stop through customs and immigration. 20 minutes later we were at the Hotel de McPhie, which, while they insisted was meager, was absolutely amazing compared to where we had been staying. A big bed, clean bath WITH hot water, A/C, great company, what more could you want? I dare to say not much.

Since Brooke and I had not eaten much (if anything) solid all day (we had no more HK dollars, and did not want to get out Macau money as you cannot change it into anything), we immediately set out to feed ourselves. One amazing Thai dinner and a discussion on how Thai's eat (fork in left eat with spoon right: Elder McPhie, eat with fork in right use spoon left: Sister McPhie), we were full and happy. A showing of Vantage Point ended the evening nicely.

A meal the following day... Pad Thai from a street vendor for 25 cents...

The next morning we set out to see the sights of Bangkok. With help from some people the McPhie's work with, we were able to conjur a cab into the city, headed for the Grand Palace.
The Grand Palace was marvelous, with beautifully ornate carvings and decorations adorning every inch of wall space.

A shrubbery! On the Grand Palace grounds.

Offerings at the Grand Palace.

After the Grand Palace we walked to KhaoSan street, say it with me AUGH... but we had to book bus tickets to get to Cambodia the next day and felt like this was our best bet. ANYWAY, while here we were shuffled through a miriad of shops and made a Napali man very happy when we decided to buy suits (at 98 USD for a jacket, skirt and shirt, its not to bad!).

With our suits initially purchased, we shared a 50 Baht lunch of Watermelon and papaya salad and set out to explore more of the city. A scamming Tuk Tuk driver took us to 2 sights, the Golden Buddha and the black Buddha (not really a Buddha, but a black statue of a Rama), along with 2 tailor shops, which we didn't buy anything from, since we had already got our suits (and for like 1/4 of what these shops wanted). Needless to say it was slightly annoying, but for 5 Baht (about 15 cents) and the crazy game of Tuk Tuk frogger our driver played across intersections, it was worth it.

After being abandoned at the Rama statue (not a big deal as we had a map, and it was near where we wanted to go next), we walked to the Golden Mount. A big yellow Mountain Fortress in the middle of Bangkok, we climbed around the structure to get to the top and see around Bangkok, which was interesting, but mostly just a big crowded mess of buildings, with the occasional Wat.

Following our golden trek, we set out to see the Victory monument, our attempts were thwarted however, as we were sidetracked by groceries and finding a ATM for cash to purchase bus tickets to Cambodia. We got all but 1 block away, when we had to grab a Tuk Tuk back to Khaosan and buy the tickets and have our first suit fittings. Alas.

With all of the crazy drivers in these countries it is a wonder there are not more accidents. As we were driving back to buy the tickets, a woman on a scooter was cut off behind us and crashed. Luckily she escaped with a still working bike and some pretty nasty road rash. Crazy happenings in this city though...

Our day ended with a slightly chaotic cab ride back to the McPhie's, as neither we, nor our driver, could understand where they lived. Eventually we made our way however, ending a fabulous first day in Bangkok.... tomorrow Cambodia.