We booked ourselves onto a sleeper-bus for the trip from Cambodia to Vietnam. For anyone who has not seen a sleeper bus before, imagine a normal size coach with the seats stripped out and replaced with bunk beds! (photo below) Perfect for stretching out on longer journeys and it saves you the cost of a night accommodation. The only trouble is though that they're often a bit hit and miss in terms of what you get and in the case of this trip, we ended up with a normal, cramp seated bus! We left at 2am and tried to get some sleep before we crossed the boarder at 7am and then onto HCMC where we arrived at 10am. HCMC is a huge city and was formerly known as Saigon. We found ourselves a decent hotel and caught up on some sleep before venturing out to explore the city.
The next day we booked ourselves on a trip to visit some of the underground tunnels used by the Vietnamese to fight the Americans during the Vietnam War. Our tour bus drove about 3 hours out of town. Our guide was Vietnamese and he spent most of the journey there signing pro-Communist and pro-Vietnam songs on his guitar. We all joined in with the chorus which was 'Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh and so on...!
During the war the Vietcong fighters spent years living underground and only surfacing at night to carry out attacks on the Americans. The tunnels were tiny and too small for 'KFC tourists' as our guide explained! But one of the tunnels had been widened for our benefit and so we were able to crawl down and take a look around.
The trap-door entrances to the tunnels were hidden away to make it harder for the Americans to find. One of the guide's tricks was to ask us where the hidden entrance was. Everyone would look around without any luck and he would then magically lift up a circular piece of earth to reveal the entrance. Everyone was amazed and then took it in turns to lower themselves into the entrance to pose for a photo. Once everyone had posed for a photo the group moved on around the corner to the next point of interest. Jenna at this point decided that she wanted a photo in the hidden hole, so as everyone walked off I told her to hurry up and I got the camera ready. I took a couple of snaps and told her to hurry up and get out otherwise we'd lose the rest of the group. She then said, 'I can't, I'm stuck'. I told her to stop being silly and told her to hurry up. She wiggled some more, before insisting that she really was still stuck. She wasn't exactly wedged in, it was more a case of being too short to reach the ground and pushherself out. Take a look at the photo below and imagine the scene 20 seconds later. Honestly you couldn't make it up! I put the camera down and lent over and tried pulling her up, straining my back in the process, but she was well and truly stuck. A soldier with a gun was standing nearby and looked at us like, 'It's no wonder we beat the Americans you thick Westerners'. We were running out of ideas and I could then hear the next tour group coming round the corner. Crap! Their tour guide would be looking forward to asking them to look for the hidden door, before proudly lifting up the piece of land to reveal the entrance to an impressed audience, only to find that when they walked around the corner, Jenna's head and shoulders sticking out of the ground! Thankfully the soldier had seen enough and came to the rescue. He grabbed one arm, I grabbed the other and together we managed to lift Jenna to freedom! I've never been so embarrassed in all my life, but then I reckon it'll be quite a good story to tell the grandchildren in 50 years time, 'When we went to Vietnam, grandma got stuck in a hole in the ground and had to be pulled out by grandad and a Vietnamese soldier'!!!
On the way back into HCMC we stopped off at the War Museum. The museum displayed photographic evidence of the destruction caused by the Americans to Vietnam and it's people. It was fair to say that it wasn't pretty viewing, particularly the photos displaying the results of the chemical bombs used by the Americans. If you were an American visiting the museum, you definitely wouldn't feel proud of their actions. We wondered whether in 20 years time, there may be similar museums in Baghdad and Kabul portraying British war atrocities?
We went for dinner and a few drinks with the Danish couple we had met in Cambodia and found a road side stall selling beers for about 20p! The next day we went on another trip to the Mekong Delta river which was another 3 hour long drive. We visited a floating market at Cat Bai, floated down the river on a traditional Vietnamese boat and visited a village where they make all sorts of Vietnamese sweets and snacks. It was a good trip, but the journey was so hot and bumpy and the minibus had no working suspension!
That night we boarded another sleeper bus and hoped for better luck! We headed North for about 12 hours to the beach town of Nha Trang. We arrived at 6.30am and spent most of our three days there on the beach. The beaches and sea were perfect for a few days relaxing, but nowhere near as good as the beaches in Thailand. We managed to find a pub showing the Southampton vs Pompey derby that evening. Incredibly there were two Southampton fans in there wearing Southampton shirts. The live internet stream which the game was being shown on went dead with about five minutes to go at 1-1. One of the Southampton fans got his phone out and went on the BBC website to keep an eye on the score and found out that Southampton had scored a late winner and that the game had finished. 'Typical jammy scummers, blah, blah, blah' I mumbled as we walked back to our hotel. When we got back I went on Jenna's phone to check my emails and saw that Pompey had equalised in the 94th minute! I thought about running back to the pub to tell the two Southampton fans the good news, but decided against it!
We had a good time in Nha Trang, with the only negative being that it was full of Russian tourists. We weren't quite sure why, maybe something to do with Vietnam being a communist country? I don't know, but they were the rudest bunch we've seen on our travels. But also the funniest as I think they travelled back into the 1980's to purchase their swimwear! Admittedly I've been wearing bright pink shorts out here, but at least I don't combine them with bandanas, socks and sandals!
For the first time since Christchurch, we have decided to write this blog post together!
We mentioned throughout our Cambodian blogs about how friendly the children are here. Therefore while in Phnom Penh, we decided to research about the possibility of volunteering at either an orphanage or an English speaking school. Jenna had volunteered in a Kenyan school in 2005 and found it to be an amazing and rewarding experience. Whilst searching on the internet, we came across a charity organisation called SCAO (Save Poor Children in Asia). This organisation was located on the outskirts of Phnom Penh and its website made it clear that they welcomed volunteers. The charity offers a home and food for a small number of orphans and also provides free English lessons for children of all ages in the local area.
We emailed the charity and asked if we could be of use for a couple of days. We would have loved to have offered ourselves for longer but we were a bit short on time. They emailed us back explaining that they normally only looked for long term volunteers but they would be happy to have us.
On the Monday morning, we took a tuktuk to the centre. It was located about 10 miles outside Phnom Penh. We arrived there just before 8 am and were greeted by the founder of the charity, Mr Sameth. The centre consisted of a basic large living space on the ground floor and bedrooms upstairs. We were shown to where we would sleep for the night before we made our way to the school.
The school was located just around the corner from the centre and consisted of three outdoor classrooms which were side by side and separated by tarpaulin. We arrived just in time for the start of the first lesson at 8 am. We were introduced to the teacher, a young Cambodian woman, who also taught at a local public school. We were also introduced to a few of the volunteers who come from all over the world and who either teach lessons or assist the local teachers.
We split ourselves up, Jenna sat in with a class taught by one of the volunteers and James sat in with the local teacher's class. Each class had around 15 pupils but there are usually more, the classes were smaller as it was the build up to Khmer New Year. Children in these first classes were between 5 and 8 years old and their level of English was pretty good. We sat towards the back of the classroom and helped them with their work. After the lesson was finished, these children then go on to public school for their usual lessons in Khmer. All the lessons offered by SCAO are free and help the children to develop their English. These classes are voluntary for the children to attend - How many English children would attend voluntary lessons?!
We then joined in with the second set of lessons between 9 and 10am. These children were slightly younger and were learning the phonetic alphabet in one class and how to tell the time in the other. In the phonetic lesson, the volunteer would hold up letter cards and the children would have to shout at the top of their voice what they could see; i.e N - N - Necktie and L - L - Ladder. These children as you can imagine were adorable and I think Jenna's favourite class. There was then a four hour break until the afternoon lessons so we went for a coffee with the other volunteers at a nearby roadside shack!
After our coffee, we returned to the centre and spent some time getting to know the children who actually live at the centre, as well as Mr Sameth himself. It was a very laid back atmosphere with children going and returning from school all day. The children don't attend school for the entire day so there was constantly a stream of children coming in and out. We were then served some rice and vegetables for lunch by the centre's cook, who was also one of the children's mothers. A number of girls live at the centre and help out with the food and chores in between their studies. They often act as mother figures to some of the more energetic, younger children!
We were then told that we could borrow some of the centre's bikes and go for a bike ride around the town. Along with another volunteer, we went off for about an hour exploring parts of the town which we guessed very rarely see foreigners as it was quite off the beaten track. However it was good to see parts of Cambodia which we would otherwise not have seen.
When we got back to the centre it was time for the afternoon lessons. The afternoon classes were attended by children aged between 10 and 14. In the evening there were two more classes for the older children and young adults. They were taught by the older Khmer members of the centre who spoke very good English. One of the teachers was called Lion and he spent the day studying at a nearby university and then teaching English in the evening. These classes were fun to be apart of as the level of English was really good.
The last class of the evening was taught by the same female teacher as the morning class, who asked us both to stand up in front of the class and speak about our lives back home for about half an hour. Jenna was in her element and spoke as if she had prepared a speech! The class were then asked if they had any questions for us. One girl stood up and asked Jenna about Public Relations in England. One 14 year old boy who James had been speaking to earlier about football then stood up and asked, 'What are the advantages and disadvantages of football to the English Government and the community?'. The question threw James a bit but he managed to explain that during big tournaments, football in England brings the community together and that the streets are full of flags etc. It turns out that the classes homework the previous night had been to write about the advantages and disadvantages of the television, which might explain his rather complex question!
We then returned to the centre for a late meal of rice and vegetables and sat watching the TV with some of the children and one of the volunteers. We were then woken the next morning at 7am to the sound of dozens of children playing on the streets on their way to school. The timetable of the classes was the same as the previous day and we found it even more enjoyable as we now knew some of the children. We spent our time between classes typing up some work for Mr Sameth. We stayed until the 8pm class although it was very quiet due to the huge thunder storm. We then made our way back into Phnom Penh as we had a night bus to catch to Vietnam.
All of the children at the centre and school made us feel very welcome and were extremely polite and friendly. However a couple of them stood out for one reason or another. The young boy who asked James about football was so passionate about it, as we left James asked him which team he liked and he replied Man United as Wayne Rooney played for them. James told him that although Man United were probably the best, he should keep an eye out for AFC Bournemouth, as they were on the up. He looked confused so James wrote down the name down on his homework book and he said that he would have a look on the internet. He then asked James if he was on Facebook? To which James replied, 'Yes, why are you?'. He said 'Of course!' as if it was a stupid question! We were just a bit suprised that they had access to Facebook! He told James that he would know it was him as his profile photo was of Wayne Rooney!
The Khmer teacher called Lion, who lived at the centre also stood out to us. His level of English was fantastic and he came across as a role model to some of the younger members of the centre. He said he wanted to go to university to study IT and to then live and work in Australia. We hope that he one day he has the opportunity to do this.
Some of the other children who we will fondly remember include Seyma, Li and Leap. When we were leaving, Jenna said that we would hopefully return one day and see the children again. To which Seyma replied, 'When?'. This made Jenna feel a bit emotional as we hadn't considered how many volunteers must come in and out of their lives all the time and no doubt always promise to return.
The work that we typed up for Mr Sameth included information about the children's pasts. Several of the children had lost their fathers , or other members of their family under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Having visited the Killing Fields and S21 prison, we now understood the devastation that the regime has caused to modern day Cambodia.
We felt extremely privileged to have been given the opportunity to meet all of the wonderful children and it has been one of the highlights of our traveling experience. Many of these children have suffered personal tragedies during their lives, but they still live each day with a huge smile on their face. SCAO provides an incredible service to the local community and will improve the lives of the children who live there, as well as the children who attend the lessons. Mr Sameth has dedicated his life to this project and deserves all of the recognition that he gets. The volunteers who give up their time to help out at the centre were passionate and fundamental to the service that SCAO provides. If you are interested in learning more about the charity, as well as their fundraising ideas or sponsoring a child's education, then you can visit their website at http://www.savechildreninasia.org. and their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com
Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and was our last stop before we reached Vietnam. We got off to a good start as soon as the bus arrived in the city! We jumped off and managed to locate our bags through the usual chaos of tuk tuk drivers.
I found my bag and then spotted that a tuk tuk driver had Jenna's bag and was talking to her. Turns out he'd been pretty forceful in insisting that he should take us to our hotel. I told him that we wanted to go to our hotel, via the Vietnamese embassy, as we needed to apply for a visa. I then asked him how much it would cost. He replied that it was too busy to discuss the price by the bus and that we should discuss the price by his tuk tuk and so off he walked with Jenna's bag (1-0 tuk tuk man). I followed and put my bag on the floor next to his tuk tuk and asked for the price again. He then picked up my bag and put it in his tuk tuk (2-0 tuk tuk man). He came up with some ridiculous price. I didn't like the way he was going on so I went to take my bag out and to get another tuk tuk. He then halved his price (2-1). He then said that he had a friend who could get us a cheap Vietnam visa, I said no thank you. He then said the embassy would be closed for the weekend, so we really should get the visa from him. I knew it wasn't as I'd done my research before we'd got there so I told him to stop with his pitch and to get going (2-2). He got a little ruder and told us that we shouldn't go to our hotel as it was very expensive, we should go to his friend's hotel which was very cheap. We politely declined and set off (3-2 to James & Jenna!) Every time he made a suggestion, I'd say 'no, listen, we want to....' and he'd then reply 'No, YOU listen to me!'. And so it went on....!
We made it to the embassy and thankfully it was open! He said he'd wait outside with our bags while we went in, no chance! I went in first and left Jenna outside. Ten minutes and I was done. Jenna then went in and I waited outside. The driver then said that he'd talked to Jenna while I was inside and that she had agreed for him to be our driver for the entire next day! I knew Jenna wouldn't have and even if she had I wasn't going to spend an entire day with this guy, so I said that it wasn't going to happen. He started sulking again and told me that in Cambodia, this was how it worked, whoever picked the tourist up from the bus station drove them around for their entire stay! I stood firm! (4-2 J&J). Then Jenna came out and we were ready to go the hotel. The driver now decided that he didn't know where the hotel was, in fact he'd never heard of it and did I have an address?! Because if we didn't then he had a friend with a cheap hotel....! Twenty minutes ago you said it was too expensive and now you don't even know where it is?! I didn't have the address and for a moment it looked like he might be evening the scores up, but thankfully we found the street name in our guide book. The driver then said that he didn't think that hotel existed any more! We told him to get driving (5-2 J&J). We managed to find the road but we were unable to see the hotel. The driver told us to get out and we could find it on foot! We told him to carry on driving and eventually we found it! Even as we were unloading our bags he was telling us about his friend's hotel! The final score was in our favour, but he charged us quite a lot in the first place, so it was probably a score draw!
One of the main reasons for our visit to Phnom Penh was to see the S21 prison. This prison had been used by the Khmer Rouge to house political prisoners in the 1970's, before being led to their deaths as we wrote about in our last blog. Visiting the prison was quite an emotional experience, especially as it has been left in the same condition as when it was in use. There was even dry blood on the ceiling in one room which stored various torture equipment - very difficult to imagine. In one other room there were hundreds of photos of the prisoners who were locked up in the prison and who were then taken to nearby killing fields to be executed. The photo's looked like they had been taken yesterday which made it feel even more recent. Many of the children looked identical to the children we had been saying hello to every day on the streets.
The tuk tuk then took us out of the city to the nearby killing fields. We followed the same route which would have been taken by the estimated 17,000 prisoners on their way to their deaths. We were given headphones to listen to an audio tour as we made our way around the fields and it was really informative with some pretty hard hitting first hand accounts. All of the bones of the dead which have been found are stored in a memorial, but it's not uncommon for bones to work their way out of the soil following spells of bad weather and to be added to the imposing collection.
That evening we met up with the same Danish couple we had met in Battembung for dinner. They were really good company and we had a good laugh. Their English was ridiculously good, which always makes me feel about 2 foot tall when they say they only learnt it at school, whereas I lived in France for 4 years and only speak that language a fraction as well as they could speak English! As we were eating, a young Cambodian boy walked into the restaurant selling bracelets. He didn't speak English but we ended up asking him to sit at our table, then we bought him a coke and then he spent about an hour playing different games on Jenna's phone! I don't think the restaurant staff were too impressed. The following day we were sat having lunch in a different restaurant and he walked in. He saw us and just said 'Angry Birds?' - which was one of the games he was playing! So Jenna got her phone out and we ordered another coke!
In the centre of Phnom Penh there was a large park area where many of the locals came to walk, jog, play football etc. It was good to see as we've found that very few people in the Asian cities we've visited do much exercise. I think the preferred national sport is standing around smoking and spitting! But watching the locals here was so funny. First of all they don't really wear suitable clothing! Back home you might wear trainers, shorts and a t-shirt. Here, there were women playing badmington in high heels, office workers going for a jog with just their ties removed! But the funniest was watching the various aerobics classes going on. It's a bit of a free for all and anyone seems to join in. In one class there was a tiny old man wearing a hat who was so out of time that we couldn't help but laugh! But at least he was giving a go!
Battembung was the next place in Cambodia we wanted to visit and we arrived there late in the afternoon. Our bus pulled up in the middle of nowhere and we were greeted by several drivers banging on our bus windows with signs offering tuk tuks, taxis, hotels, trips etc. They were so enthusiastic and just kept banging on our window, smiling and nodding at us whilst pointing at their signs! As we tried to step off the bus, they crowded around the door, still nodding, smiling and pointing. The only concern we had at that point was to keep an eye out for our bags that were being unloaded from the bus!
Jenna spoke to one of the drivers who had a sign that said Apollo Hotel. He'd obviously been sent down there by the hotel to round up some customers. Jenna said 'no thanks' and explained that we wanted to go somewhere called Asia Hotel. He flipped his sign over and displayed a list of about 20 other hotels, including Asia Hotel, 'I go there too!'.
So we jumped on his tuk tuk and checked ourselves into the hotel. The driver was called Ching Ching and was a really nice bloke and offered to be our driver the next day. We agreed and arranged for him to pick us up at 2pm and to take us to the two places we wanted to visit; the Killing Caves and the Bamboo Railway.
We spent the rest of the day having a look around Battembung. It was quite a large town and had a big market in the centre. There was also a large river passing through and it seemed quite an industrial town. Siem Reap had felt quite touristy, but this place didn't. But when you think about, tourists have only been visiting Cambodia for the past 15 years due to various wars. We figured we were fortunate to be visiting now, rather than in ten years time when it will probably have been developed beyond recognition.
Unlike Siem Reap, poverty seemed a little more evident in Battembung. The sad truth is that it's no longer a shock for us to see bare foot kids walking the streets, or an old woman looking for food in a bin, which is an unfortunate reality of travelling in Asia. I think any tourists jetting in on a fortnight holiday might have found Battembung a little bit over-whelming. We saw one boy carrying a cardboard box which looked as though it doubled up as his shelter for the night. If tourism brings extra revenue to Cambodia and can reduce the level of poverty, then I guess it can only be a good thing.
The following day we killed a bit of time before meeting our driver by taking a walk down the river. It was baking! Jenna looked like she'd just run a half marathon (which incidentally she has signed herself up for the Great South run!). We checked online and the temperature was 39 degrees! It seems crazy that we've become accustomed to that heat and are able to go for walks along the river in it!
Our driver picked us up at 2pm and we drove about 10 miles out of town to the Bamboo Railway. The stretch of unused railway line is maybe 5 miles long and the locals have built very basic bamboo platforms which sit on wheels and are powered by a go-kart engine! You zoom along the track at maybe 30 mph. It's difficult to explain, so hopefully the photo will explain it better. If a 'train' is coming in the other direction then the driver comes to a stop and physically lifts his 'train' off the track and allows the concoming train to pass! It was very bumpy but a funny experience!
The cross over from Thailand into Cambodia was actually quite stress free. We only waited around 40 minutes for a visa and to get through passport control, although we were required to pay an extra 100THB. When we asked what the extra money was for they just said for the 'express service''. Right okay, well we wouldn't want a slow service now would we?!
Our first impressions of Cambodia were really good. It is a very flat beautiful country. Apparently we are here in the dry season when all of the crops have just been harvested. It usually looks really green everywhere but the fields look dark as they have just been ploughed. It still looks very pretty though.
We left Phi Phi and continued our Thailand island hopping to Koh Lanta. The small ferry took a couple of hours and we sat out on the top deck enjoying the sun. We didn't really have any plans for when we got there, so we just found the nearest tuk-tuk driver and asked him to take us to the beach with the most accommodation.
Once at the beach, we did the usual, Jenna sat down in a cafe with the bags and I went off in search of somewhere to stay. Usually I'm back in 20 minutes with a couple of options, but this time around it didn't really work out. I walked for maybe an hour and couldn't find a thing. Everywhere was either too expensive or not somewhere we'd really want to stay and it was tô hot for a long walk as it was!
We eventually found somewhere fairly nice and it was only a short walk from the beach. The beach itself was beautiful and almost empty. We spent a couple of days sunbathing on the beach, but other than that, we didn't feel there was much else to do. There weren't too many backpackers there and it didn't really have much of an atmosphere to it as everything felt so spread out without much of a community feel to it.
We rented a moped for the day and drove all around the island. It was a beautiful island, but not as spectacular as some of the other places we had visited. We drove to the lighthouse where you could see the sun go down over the sea, and that was pretty good. We enjoyed ourselves in Lanta but we definitely preferred Phi Phi.
A few people on our travels had recommended a place called Railay on the Thai mainland. So we decided to head there for a couple of days. The only way of arriving into Railay is by long tale boat as there aren't any roads. Due to the tide, the long tails can only go so far, so you have to jump over board and walk to shore in knee deep water - easier said than done with a 13kg bag on your back!
Railay was an amazing place and far better than Koh Lanta in our opinion. The limestone cliffs surrounding the area towered above the beaches. The beaches were crowded but still a good place to chill out during the day. One long tail boat would pull up to shore at lunchtime and sell delicious food cooked from a single frying pan on the boat for next to nothing. There wasn't really much in the way of nightlife or entertainment, but we were happy enough buying a couple of drinks from the shop and sitting out on the beach into the evening.
There were a couple of really good walks through the limestone cliffs and caves. The cliffs overhang by maybe 30 meters and it's difficult to work out how they don't collapse. Rock climbing is a popular activity in Railay, but we didn't give it a go. We did try climbing up to a lagoon and viewing point which was maybe a 15 minute climb up some pretty steep rocks. We made it to the viewing point, but the lagoon was just too steep for us!
When the tide was going out, it was possible to walk 200 meters out to sea in waist high water. Quite a strange feeling being so far out and still touching the floor! Jenna bought some bananas to feed the monkeys that were camped outside our hotel. She'd try to feed the smaller monkeys, but then the largest one would barge past the others and frighten Jenna into dropping the remaining bananas onto the floor! We'd definitely recommend Railay to anyone visiting Thailand.
