Emma's Adventures

Hi Every1

Well i am currently in Vietnam, enjoying the buzz of 10000's of motorbikes wizzing down the street as i write this, now i can see why SE Asia all ride motorbikes.  My story continued after leaving Thailand i headed onwards towards Cambodia :) Headed through the border at Poipet which was more like going through a road closure, as no bags were checked or health checks completed made it nice and quick and even gave the guard a passport control a little laugh by looking at my passport picture.   First stop on the list was Angkor (Siem reap) to visit the great buddhist temples, including the very temple Tomb Raider was filmed ( Ta Phrohm)!!!   Got a great start at 4.30am to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat which i have to say is definately worth a visit if you get chance!!  Went up the Bayon temple for sunrise which was awesome if you could get through the thousands of other tourists visiting at the same time :(.   

Learnt some Cambodian history about the French Colonial period and about the Pol Pot regime which saddened me alot to learn that over 50% of the population of the country is 19 years and under due to the Khymer Rouge regime that Pol Pot started!! Definately worth visiting the killing fields at Phnom Penh if your heading through Cambodia thats for sure.  Great cheap shopping in Cambodia to there is the Russian Market in Phnon Penh thats worth a visit for sure :) Talk about small world when i was in Angkor Wat and then later in my trip in Sihanoukville i meet two Irish guys Paddy and Colin who i used to live with in the hostel in New Zealand,crazy right!! Had a good session with those guys at the lovely beach resort of Sihanoukville but beware of the mosquitos they are every where.  From there i headed over to Vietnam to where i currently write from my fist stop therre was at the border town of Chao Doc a small town where i got a chance to go on a motorbike tour up a mountain overlooking the town at sunset!! Also got a chance to see the floating villages on the Meekong River which was amazing to see i saw fish farms, homemade clothing and also pigs that were kept on a boat, really a sight to be seen with your own eyes, unbelievable. Was still a great experience even it was terrential rain for most of my days in Vietnam.

 I then made a swift move over to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) a huge cosmopolitan place with huge street markets and thousands of street sellers  i would say it was to be more or on par with Bangkok, but the sellers in Vietnam seem that lttle more desperate to make that sale to you.  Unfortunately Saigon seems to be rife with petty thieves as one of my friends had a bag snatched on the street and this appears to a common  occurence.  Highlights of Saigon has to be the Cu Chi tunnels that begun in the 1940's whic was used in the war in Vietnam between North and South the tunnels were used by the Viet Cong to control a large area just outside the city even had a veteran from the war take me around the sight giving his personal encounters of his time there.  Really an amzing but sad place. 

Now i am getting ready to head back to Bangkok where i will take my onward flight over to China first stop Ghanzou.  Until then....