Mekong Delta, 23-25 Nov

Mighty Mekong and its many channels was up next during a three-day trip of the delta. The scenic region is a wonderful green and fertile land with lots of people. While the second largest city in Cambodia is home to 140k people, it looks like every town in the delta has at least 200k citizens. First stop was the pagoda at My Tho with its smiling, happy Buddha. Might be nice for tourists who are on a two week holiday in Vietnam but unfortunately I am spoilt already and so it was nothing special.

Happy Buddha. Look at the people for comparison.

 

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam 19-22 Nov

The 7-hour bus journey to HCMC, including a Mekong crossing, was a bit too long but manageable with a scenic countryside just outside your window. Departure and immigration procedure at the two borders was a bit annoying, but what you gonna do?

Without a valid visa for Vietnam (there is no visa on arrival) you were not even allowed to board the bus. I guess they had some bad experiences in the past. Anyway, all the passports were collected beforehand and all of us had to alight at the Cambodian border to receive your passport in person before handing it back to the tour guide. At the Vietnamese border you had to take your luggage thru the usual x-ray scanner in a building. I bet they wouldn’t have found anything even if someone had any illegal substances with them. Once again you retrieved your passport only to show it to another official five minutes later. After these intricate procedures, that took us the better part of an hour, we continued on to our destination.

You might remember me being fascinated with the traffic in PP but Saigon definitely tops that easily. While there were about 10 motos to 1 car it is now 50 bikes to 1 four-wheeler. Reason for that is the fact that the government adds 20% of import tax on each car but none to Chinese motos which are quite affordable ($300-$500). I probably haven’t seen the town’s main intersections but what is going on at the smaller streets is also worth mentioning. All motos and vehicles honk unceasingly in order to announce their coming. Frustrated bus drivers basically steer with their hand on the horn but at least they don’t have such a screaming noise but rather a wah-wah sound. Also, you always have some pedestrians interfering as well as your usual hawker stalls and street vendors. Just like marvelling at the waves on a beach or staring into a fire, I could watch the traffic here for hours. When it comes to crossing the street yourself it is quite scary at first. I usually looked for a local and just followed him. The trick is to move slowly but consistently and the motos will simply move to avoid you. When you hear a beep you might consider stopping to let someone in a hurry pass. On the other hand, it seems everybody is in a rush.

Apart from the Independence Palace and the War Remnants Museum, HCMC doesn’t offer many more sights if you have seen some temples and pagodas already, and so I dedicated some time to update this blog. Having been lazy in the last 6 weeks it was about time for a decent make over. Most of the time it rained quite heaviliy and so I looked up some markets or other places of interest.

candy at the Ben Tanh Market

Phnom Penh 16-18 Sep

Back to PP on a sort of a local bus as I was the only Westerner. I had a nice talk with an English teacher who visited a friend in Sihanoukville and he told me the fare is $2 for the locals. I paid $5 and I wonder if the bus company or the travel agent pockets the difference. Anyway, $5 for a 5 hour bus ride is still a good deal.

I went back to the same place that I had stayed before and even my tuk-tuk driver who took me to the Killing fields, recognized me immediately and was happy to see me again (probably because I tipped him before).

Just before you get to the Killing Fields, I noticed some quads in front of a shop and asked my driver to take me there. Unfortunately there were no tours on that day but I scheduled a trip for the following. Asking my driver what is around here to see he answered there is a shooting range nearby. Having not been drafted to the military service, I was curious how it would feel but I am not gonna elaborate on this.

The next day I should have been picked up by a tuk-tuk from the quad-shop but the driver never showed and so I eventually called them. The owner said the driver had gone to a similar sounding guest house but he (the owner) could pick me up on his motorbike.

The ride to the quad shop takes about 45 minutes by tuk-tuk but we managed to get there in 15. So you get an idea how fast the guy was driving. Evading traffic by taking shortcuts on the side-walk, squeezing thru two busses with 20 cm to each side at 50 kph and overtaking trucks on the dirty, unpaved side of the road. It was literally like in a video game but also great fun and scary to death at the same time.

my quad

Sihanoukville 13-15 November

It was $6 for the ticket to Sihanoukville and to watch how a small boy throws up several times on the seat next to me, probably motion sickness. Anyway those bus journeys are slowly annoying me as they always take ages. This one took me another 6 hours and I have to go the entire way back to PP. On the other hand it was a two-level bus and I got a seat at the window. Travelling overland I realize that Cambodia is not as lush as for example Malaysia or Bali with lots of palm and banana trees and but rather bushy.

Accommodation-wise it was “back to basic” without air-conditioning or hot water but my guest house is clean and big enough for me. Also, it is conveniently located next to the dive shop.

lots of activities at the beach