Cambodia

Our Cambodian adventure started in Siem Reap, the home of Angkor Wat. We watched the sun come up behind the main temple and then spent the rest of the day exploring the various sites. This place is HUGE- you have to drive around and could easily spend a couple of days and not see it all. We started at the most infamous site, locally known as the "Tomb Raider" temple, where the large trees have grown over the ruins of the temple. So named from the filming site of Tomb Raider movie with Angelina Jolie. From there, we moved on to countless others (Bayon temple with the giant faces carved in stone, Angkor Thom) and definitely had our fill by the end of the day.

Next stop was onto to the capital city, Phnom Penh. Here we had a very different experience as we visited Choeng Ek Genocide Centre, the killing fields and S21 prison from the Khmer Rouge era. It was a difficult day but well-worth the experience. To end the day on a lighter note, we were the local entertainment at a street-side restaurant: we were the only non-locals, no one spoke English and we had no idea what we were ordering. We got quite a few laughs throughout our supper trying to communicate (pointing to other people's plates, charades, etc) and figure out how to eat whatever arrived on our plates.

Then we headed to the beach town of Sihanoukville, the coastal resort mecca for Khmer people (Cambodians) and tourists alike. We bobbed in the warm waters of the Gulf of Thailand for most of the day and dined on fresh seafood on the beach- not too shabby. The fact that this sejour coincided with the Water Festival, Full Moon Party and Indepedence Day festivities was great. You could buy sticks of fireworks to let off on the (crowded) beach- public safety seemed to take a back-seat to a good lights show :)

Our border crossing into Vietnam was a different experience. Firstly, the flooding made the road to the border seem like it just appeared in the middle of a lake that had been rice paddies only a month earlier (Thailand isn't the only area experiencing pretty severe flooding this year). We stamped out of Cambodia and then walked an eerie strip of no-man's land between borders to get to Vietnam immigration. At this point, it was pouring rain- where the water keeps coming from is a mystery. The Vietnamese border patrol had a good look at François' passport but I was just waved through without having to take my passport out of my pocket. Hopefully I'll be allowed to leave the country later on.... ;)

We had a quick overnight last night in Chau Doc, a small town on the Mekong Delta. We made a quick visit to the local market (lively with both people and creatures) and tried some mystery fruits which were mostly good :) Today, we arrived to Vietnam's capital, Ho Chi Min City (formerly Saigon). Tomorrow, we'll visit the Cu Chi Tunnels used in the Vietnam war and try our hand at ordering something exotic for lunch at the local market. Should be fun as there is very little English spoken here, despite that all signs used English characters, but none of the words are recognizable. More charades will be in order....

PS- I never thought I'd see the day when I found icecream I didn't like. Durian fruit (banned in several hotels because of its stink) should NOT be an icecream flavour. Believe me :(