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In the next part of our journey we arrived in Saigon at the ridiculous time of 4.30am but we wandered around the opening markets seeing all the meat being cut and live fish which was exactly what we needed at that time in the morning. We also saw half of Saigon doing their morning exercises in the middle of a park before heading to the Cu Chi tunnels; a network of tunnels from the war which were tiny and we got to climb down and walk along one. These were really small for us, the shortest people there! We spent the rest of the day looking incredibly out of place in the Dong Khoi area (the posh bit of Saigon) before heading to supper sat amongst the locals at the night market. The next day we set off for our two day stay at the Mekong Delta. We boated around visiting brick factories, coconut factories, bonzai gardens and floating markets but our highlights were getting to wear a hat, millie holding a python, drinking snake wine and watching some locals perform a music show including their attempt of rapping about fruits! Back in Saigon we visited the Reunification Palace and War Remnants Museum before saying goodbye to part of our group who werent coming to Cambodia. After a 7 hour local bus trip full of live fish in bags and some interesting snorting locals we arrived in Phnom Penh for supper. We had an action packed following day visiting the beautiful Royal Palace where we saw the Silver Pagoda, inside theres a Buddha with 2085 diamonds! The King was home but we didnt get to see him and went to visit the National Museum beofre lunch opposite S21. We then went inside and saw cells and images from when Tuol Sleng was a toture centre of the Khmer Rouge. It hasnt been changed since the day it was abandoned so it was shocking to see the blood splatters on the ceilings and walls. To top off our afternoon we were taken to the Killing Fields where we saw the tower of skulls and walked around the mass graves stepping on the occassional bone. We bused up to Siem Reap where we instantly began to shop in the Old Market after cycling round the city amongst the crazy traffic. An early rise the next morning at 4.30, we headed to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise. We sat waiting with coffees for an hour but sadly the sun never came! We visited many Angkor sights including Tomb Raider's Ta Prohm, The Terrace of the Leper King, The Terrace of Elephants (where we actually saw our first live one!), Bayon and finally Angkor Wat itself. The next day was another early start to yet again more temples, but well worth it as Beng Mealea was remote and we got to climb over the ruins! We went to Banteay Srei and a landmine museum before our last night in Cambodia. We tried many restaurants before finally finding nutella pancakes as it was pancake day! The next day was hideous. Our pickup trucks were dodgy and two hours late so we finally left Cambodia in a minibus. We were sad to leave, especially because of the good food! Our first day in Bangkok has so far been great - we shopped down Khao San road ending up in a spa for our first Thai massage as well as a load of other things. A sudden huge downpour of rain meant we had to wade home damaging our new pedicures. As it was Chinese New Year we headed to Chinatown for supper. Weve now got 3 more days in Bangkok before we head up to Northern Thailand with new tour people to start trekking!
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