Saigon

Saigon is a jungle of motorcylces, cables, lanes and people, with spots of green squeezing out of any crack. The rains have started and and there is the occasional freshness to the air, just before the steamy swamp underneath the city begins to burp and fart from its latest storm water feed. And it is the beginning of mosquito hunting season.

Vung Tau-Ho Coc

The deck chairs at the Vung Tau Back Beach. The beach here is a fairly long stretch with a statue of Jesus at one headland. It is the closest beach to HCMC. Not that attractive but very crowded. The tide was up and strolling along the beach was near impossible. There is supposed to be a large Russian community here who work on oil rigs. The town has a bad reputation as a grotty little place that serves oil riggers needs and incarcerates Gary Glitter, but is actually fairly pleasant. Unlike other Sth East Asian nations, you have to really go looking for the seedy side. There is also a strong Australian presence as many soldiers were stationed here during the American war and there is a battlefield and memorial site in the region.







Further up the road towards Ho Coc, we finally left the hurly burly of Vietnamese road hugging towns and drove through some sparse sand dune country to reach what we thought was a beautiful beach. It is named an Eco Resort, but I think that just means there is some ecology present. The area was devastated by a typhoon only a few months ago and the "primeval forests" that are brochured to surround it, was a scattering of broken sheoaks. Our first day in the little faux tree house was very peaceful until a storm came in from the sea and gave it a good shake, showering us with the debris from the palm frond roof. The next day was nothing short of a glorious beach day.



The final day saw the grey clouds crawl in from sea and threaten. This however did not stop the throngs of beachgoers who flooded in on their motorbikes from somewhere, to feast on crabs and beer and take only their helmet off for a swim. Kate went for a dip with the presence of a movie star. One thousand eyes staring at the foriegner and her immodest bathing outfit. A lovely weekend away from HCMC!

Photos from Angkor

Chau Doc to Siem Reap

Some photos from our recent travels.

We travelled down to Chau Doc which is near the boarder of Viet Nam and Cambodia on the Mekong River. Travelling by road in the south of Viet Nam always seems to go on for ever, as if you have never left the outer suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City. Houses and businesses hug the road for the majority of the journey, even when there are ferry crossings across giant rivers. The postcard lush green rice fields of the Mekong are not really there at this time of the year. The whole area was blanketed in a smoke haze from burning of the old rice tufts to prepare for the next planting.

From Chau Doc we caught a speed boat up to Phnom Penh. The water boarder crossing was a first experience for us. The Vietnamese side was fairly run down. We waited in a wooden shelter while the local kids tried to sell us drinks and snack or offer foriegn currency exchange. A few stamps and scanning of the luggage and we were back on the boat to travel 500 metres up stream to the Cambodian Boarder Control. More stamps and back in the boat.

Phnom Penh is an interesting place. Very hard to understand what is going on there. From what we saw, there are proportionately more wealthy and more extremely poor people than central HCMC, and from what we read it is a kind of perverse NGO dream town. Wandered around a little in the heat to Wat Phnom and through the market. We only had a short time there and look forward to going back (maybe to set up a NGO).

The next 4-5 days we spent in Siem Reap and looking at the Angkor temples. Amazing place. The number of tourist was also amazing, particularly the number of Cambodian visitors. Not much tto write about the temples, hopefully the pictures will explain.

Hello From Viet Nam

Hello,

I thought I might have a go at this blogging thing. Funny that the title has nothing to do with the photos.

We have just returned from Cambodia, having spent a few nights in Phnom Penh and then visiting Siem Reap and the Angkor ruins.


I will add more old photos from around Viet Nam and some of our other trips along with more words.