Day 6: Cambodia!! Ho chi Minh or Siem Riep

So we arrived at the airport about an hour early and then the plane was late; so there was a lot of waiting around. And that was only the beginning of bad things happening. One of the girls in the tour forgot to renew her passport and it was too close to her expiration date; so they sent her home.  Yeah, that stunk; so for all who are traveling outside of home country; make sure you’re passport has more than a few weeks left in it. Be careful.

So getting our visa took a bit of time, so yet again we were the last out. But there was a sign waiting just for us, or at least for my sister. For some reason they used my sister’s name to represent our whole tour.

Tasha got a kick out of that, but we did have to collect everyone else in the tour,seriously, the actual name of the tour was so small no one else noticed it.

Well, our guide, Narun, was extremely accommodating. And informative; according to him there are 292 temples in Cambodia, and most of the rest of the time I couldn’t understand him…. Oh well, our hotel was awesome; the hotels here were crazy nice. 

Our guide said we had a free afternoon but if we wanted he could set something up for us. So of course we let him.

We had lunch in the lobby: Lok Lak and chicken curry; fruit shake and taro ice cream. Very tasty.

We then jumped on our own four person motorcycle pulled carriage, or tuktuk; and we went on a tour of the town. We got to see more of the hotels which looked like temples themselves. So extravagant! After driving around a bit we hit the Cambodian old market. There were cheap macaroons and fun items only made Cambodia; I got earrings! There was also blue pumpkin ice ream, which tasted like gelato!

Another stop was a shop called Boutique Art, which had really expensive merchandise; no one bought anything..

One of the major points in Cambodian history was the genocide that happened in the 60s or was it the 70s. Anyways, we visited one of the killing fields. It was next to a budhist temple where there were children praying. It was one of those pause for respect moments. Our guide shared that his cousin was in charge of killing people only because if he didn’t he would be killed. If anything it just reminded us how recent that horrible event happened.

They dropped us off at the night market; this was the place to shop! I found my cambodien patch and some fisherman pants! It was awesome!

There were five of us and we needed to find our own way back; so we all jumped in a tuktuk; yeah, those only sits four but we squeezed in and that meant it was only a dollar each. So cheap.

 

We got back to the hotel ok and it was a good end of the day!

Day 5: Vietnam, River Adventures!

Well I started this day out right with another bowl of pho and I got thread from the desk and fixed my shorts. It was pink thread so it stood out like a sore thumb but it fixed the hole so who cares!

  Also, I ran into a group from Bordeaux. They were the liveliest bunch of French people I ever met. When I spoke to them they all got excited and commented that I have a good accent, I like them:)

 

So our actual tour started at 8 am, it had to be that early cause it was a little far away. On the road we passed a few fields that had interesting little sheds or tiny houses in them, then our guide explained that the families buried their dead in the fields so that their ancestors would protect the crops.

Our first stops were the big Buddhas, there were three of them: reclining, standing, and fat.

After another hour of travel we got  to the Macong river; according to our guide, we were on the Dragon island, there were three other islands around the delta, the turtle, the phoenix, and the unicorn.

We got on a boat and drank fresh coconut as we made our way to the turtle island.

The seats were all wicker and once we got into the forest overgrowth we took pictures on the prow.

Once we got to the turtle island, we went to a local farm; they grew crocodiles, fruit, and coconuts.

They housed the crocodiles in a shelter, they seemed fake until the guide brushed them with a palm frond. Then they were all snapping and moving out of the way.

They were making coconut candy and we got to see the process; then we got to enjoy a fruit presentation. We got to try grapefruit, kumquat and honey tea, green guava, dried coconut, some round fruit that was similar to a lichi, and watermelon with salt.

There was a complete crocodile pelt for sale and I really wanted it; but the hide was $500 so I settled with a keychain made up of a crocodile hand, for five bucks. Better choice, till I’m rich.

We took a Vietnamese limosine or a small horse pulled carriage. I felt so bad for the horse, or pony, it was so hot and it was pulling like five people! But we got to the next part of the tour which was a small four person boat.

The small boat was driven by one person in the back with an oar, we were going through a small river through the jungle. It was very cool! But after a while, they turned on the engine and got us to the big boats again.

In the big boats we returned to dragon island, and found another little restaurant and shop to stop for lunch. In the shop I was able to find a Vietnamese patch! That was exciting! I couldn’t find a chinese one so finding a patch in Vietnam.

It took another hour back to the hotel. We were told to just take a taxi to the show we had tickets tonight but it was only a few blocks away so we walked.

We did a bit of shopping and we braved the roads again, and guess what, we didn’t die!

The performance we went to was called AO show; and it was the best show in the whole trip!

 

The main performer and designer used to work for the cirque du soleil peeps; it was amazing.

 

The design was amazing, they kept all the colors to brown, black and tan; the story was focused on Vietnamese life from all ages; and they did that through the use of poles and baskets. The performers were amazing, they did dancing, jumping, pole fighting, jumping, they were able to balance on a spinning basket. The lighting was really well done too; there was one part of the play where they were representing frogs and the lights were super dim… I leaned over to tasha at that moment and asked if they were naked, it’s possible it was too dark to tell. 

After the show we stopped at the most recommended restaurant by our guide; it was amazingly cheap, I got pho, a drink and a desert only for $3. It was really tasty but I wouldn’t say that it stood out, seemed like any other fast food chain. Then we left the restaurant and discovered that we had stopped one door short and that the recommended restaurant was right next door. Whoops.

We called it a day and headed back to the hotel; I had to take a shower practically every night because of the humidity. So crazy!

Day 4: Vietnam and Saigon!!!

We flew into Saigon, Vietnam at 2am and then woke up at 6am because jetlag is mean.

 

Not the best start of the day going off like three hours of sleep but we’ll work with it. No, the worst part is the heat and the humidity, I really should have been more prepared, but no; I forgot shorts and it was like in the 90s with like 80% humidity. I packed my bag in Canada where I thought everything was nice and chilly. This is why you don’t wait till the night before to pack your luggage.

But you know what is good, I had Pho for breakfast and it was glorious!

Our guide, Kai, took us to the Imperial palace, which was built during the Vietnam war. The whole place was very 60-70s vibe. The place was pretty but very retro.

I think the coolest part was the bunker down in the basement.

We hit up a cathedral, which interesting, and a post office, mainly to pull out money. I needed to get shorts so yes money for me please.

   
Our next destination was a lacquer factory where the make pictures and such with lacquer. They use duck eggshells to create images, the crack the shells and burn then to make them a cool brown color. Then they arrange the cracked and burned shells on a black lacquered background into images and shapes. Each piece is painted fifteen times with lacquer each layer taking a few days to dry then it has to be sanded down and added a new layer. So basically each piece takes about two month to make. Everyone was able to find a few treasures. I got a couple of bowls 

Thankfully we hit the market after the factory and as crazy as that place was (also hot and humid) I was able to find some shorts. These sellers were very pushy, and at times would grab onto you. Still I got my shorts.

We had lunch at this little oasis place, there were butterflies everywhere and the river bubbled like it was raining but really the disturbances were from schools of fish eating from the surface. We ate some spring rolls and just enjoyed the area.

They gave us a bit of time between activities at the hotel and I wanted to put on my shorts and get out of the skirt I had on; well they fit which was a blessing; even though the lady at the market told me I had a big butt. Then as I was putting my hand in my pockets, the freakin’ pockets ripped! The lining on the sides didn’t hold but just split. And I had to continue wearing a skirt the rest of the day!

After that little reprieve we headed to the Cu chi tunnels. This was one of the areas they have made safe to show off their gorilla warfare they used in the Vietnam war.

They showcase what traps were used and where they would hide the air vents for the tunnels they had created to avoid, well, us the Americans.

Tasha and I got to try out how to enter the tunnel, which would blend into the surrounds so you wouldn’t know where the entrances were, also we got to walk through the tunnels themselves; which would be a nightmare for anyone with issues with tight spaces.

The whole are was decked out with underground hospital, kitchen, a place to take bombs apart and barracks.

They had a shooting range next to the site so you would hear gun fire going on in the background and yeah it was a bit unnerving.

Our guide described way they would try to keep the dogs off them and that many of the fighters were only 15-20 year olds, both men and women, they even had a few marriages.

 

Yeah, the place was  a bit unnerving, that and we had to constantly lather ourselves in bug spray cause this was the place you might get typhoid fever. We had a couple of older people in our group who couldn’t keep up with the trial either so we had to leave some of them behind.  It was like we were really there… ok not really but everything was really interesting and yes unnerving; kinda like when we visited Dachau and while taking pictures we were told to smile and you really didn’t want to because you know what happened where you were standing and you really can’t smile for that. Anyways, yeah interesting.

 

We were returned to our hotel and given free time; so my sister and her friend Christie and I went and visited the night market. I wanted to get some of those bull horn spoons. I did, the guy gave them to me for a couple bucks but I didn’t have time to fully inspect them.

After shopping for a bit we stopped at a quick restaurant and I just got a coconut, sour sop and kumquat smoothie, we also shared a green pumpkin soup and a spring roll.

This is when I inspected my spoons and found they both had a crack right through the middle of them. I had the worst luck with these markets! First those shorts then the spoons. What the heck!

Whatever, it was still fun walking around in the city; there are so many moped drivers! And we even passed a huge group of people whom I correctly guessed were all playing Pokémon go! It was awesome seeing that; made me chuckle :D

Also, trying to cross the street, it’s like human frogger! Our guide told us that if we needed to cross the street we just start walking, don’t back up and if your scared just stop, they’ll drive around you. Crazy huh?