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Hello from Koh Samui!!
Apologies for the delay! Weve been on the road non-stop over the past few weeks travelling through Vietnam into Cambodia, so it's been pretty crazy but lots of fun at the same time! We last wrote to you when we were just about to leave for Hue in Vietnam from the Capital (Hanoi). That turned out to be one crazy 26 hour trip, involving our train coming to a stand-still on the tracks about 1 hour from our destination where a cargo needed to be de-railed! So that turned into one BIG delay and we eventually arrived in Hue at 8.30pm at night instead of 7.30am in the morning! Anyway...we really loved Hue, it was still another city but way more relaxed and not so mental! We spent one day exploring the city by foot which was great, and the second day we took a boat trip to visit the famous Mausoleums. We then left Hue to go to Hoi An which again was very lovely, a french colonial town with lovely buildings! The majority of visitors there were mainly purchasing tailored suits/dresses etc as there are TONS of Tailor's all waiting to measure you up and take your money! We did'nt even step foot into any of them, instead we just hired bikes out one day and cycled to one of the beaches, the weather was gorgeous so we had a nice time chilling! From there we then went to Nha Trang which is well-known for it's beaches. Again we just spent a few days there before moving onto Ho Chi Minh City where we were welcomed with more motorists! ha! We only spent a couple of day's in Ho Chi Minh where we visited the War Remnant's Musuem which was brilliant (very sad and slightly biased but very interesting) and the famous Cu Chi tunnels which are the original tunnels used by the Vietnamese in the War. We then left Vietnam and took a bus trip over the border crossing into Cambodia.
We began our trip in Phenom Penh (the capital) and stayed there for 3 nights. We both really liked Phenom Penh, the people were very friendly and accomodating and we just found the motorists absolutely hilarious! What some of them (actually most of them) carry on the back of their motobikes is just crazy, im talking LIVE pigs and chickens, mattresses, and even the whole family (mum, dad and 3 kids, ha!). I even had to buy a photography book just so we could show you all what we were seeing daily as it was just incredible! During our stay we visited the Toul Sleng Museum which was really good. It was a former secondary school before the Khmer Rouge took over and turned it into a prison where they murdered and tortured innocent Cambodians, about 16,000 with only 14 survivors. We even met one of the survivors there who was 80 years old called 'Bou Meng' and we bought his book for $10 which is a biography on his time in the prison. He even signed our book and we had a photo with him, he was so lovely. The secondary school/prison was a very disturbing and upsetting place as they had kept it exactly how it was left, you walk into the classrooms where there are these metal beds which they used to torture them on and the instruments they used are there in cabinets with photographs, it really is horrific. After that we then visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda which was incredible, very beautiful buildings set in these lovely gardens! The following day we visited the 'Killing Fields' where prisioners from the 'S-21' camp were brought to and murdered by the Khmer Rouge. There bodies were just thrown into these huge graves with the largest mave grave holding up to 450 bodies! As you enter the premises there is this huge glass cabit filled with tons of skulls which were found at the site. You walk around the huge graves and in some you can still see lose teeth and rotten clothing as it was practically left as it was found. Very disturbing and upsetting but something that you need to see and learn about! We also took a visit to the 'Shooting Range', in a way it did feel slightly inappropriate after visiting the Museum and Killing Fields but Dal really wanted to shoot an AK47, so i thought i would have a go too! Dal shot 25 bullets with an AK47 and i shot a M16 with 15 bullets! It was good fun and the Cambodian guy was very impressed as i managed to blow up these coconuts after my third shot, Dal only hit them on his seventh, ha! We then left Phenom Penh and travelled up to Siem Reap and spent a couple of days there as we mainly just wanted to visit the temples around Angkor. We spent one full day in a tuk-tuk visiting the famous temples such as Angkor Wat, The Bayon and Ta Phrom which were all very beautiful and unique! After our time in Siem Reap we then went on a travelling expedition all the way to Ko Samui!
So.....me and Dal are now safe and sound in Ko Samui after a 32 HOUR TRAVELLING MISSION!!!! Im not joking we began our trip at 6am in Cambodia where we took a bus back to Phenom Pehn, then took a tuk-tuk to a cafe so we could eat, then a tuk-tuk to the airport, then we got on a plane, then had to take the subway metro train to another train station, then a taxi, then another subway to the correct train station, then we got on a sleeper train at Bangkok, then on a bus to the Pier, then a boat to Ko Samui and then a Songthaw (pick-up truck) to our guesthouse and we arrived at 2pm on tuesday! It was'nt actually that bad but we both had'nt slept properly for two days and we had'nt showered for two days so we both absolutely stuck, ha! So we are now just having 2 weeks here on the beach chilling before going to bangkok for the weekend before flying home on Wednesday 31st! Looking forward to seeing all of you, take care love us xxxxx
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