JUST arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Looks pretty much as chaotic as Bangkok so far, Bikes everywhere like bees!

It's a shame i wasn't able to catch up with this during my last few days in Cambodia. Have truly fallen in love with the country, and pretty gutted to leave so soon. Theres some obvious differences in Vietnam; the roads are actually worse, it's much richer, no one speaks english and people don't smile at us as much. We've also been warned quite a bit about petty crime and generally being ripped off.

My favourite/most exciting day so far has been my journey to Sihanoukville in southern Cambodia - the location of white beaches, palms, turquoise water, fresh seafood and massages on the beach. Unfortunately we didn't get to see most of this thanks to some pretty heavy monsoon weather that swept over us. Our 3 hour journey there turned into 11 hours, after getting stuck in the middle of nowhere (with about 200 locals) when the river burst the banks and flooded tha main road.

Cambodian optimism does have its faults, as after 3 hours of constant the rain the locals finally accepted the water was probably going up and not down. so thyey fetched a local boat. i have never been so terrified. 30 people including myself launched forward to get into a 15-man boat with a hole in it to venture across the flood. despite the water in the boat starting to reach my ankle the guy who owned the boat still demanded payment before moving (1 dollar for locals, 2.5 dollar for english).

the long boats are really thin, and no one could mopve or we'd have been capsized. water was 1cm away from the edge of the boat (and my backpack) and as two men desperately tried to get water out of the boat the water went well above my ankle.

(meanwhile, i got chatting to an auzzie bloke called Cain who tried to reassure me that the snake that swam past us in the water was really a giant worm...)

finally land. and a 1km walk to the bus. safety at last. that night i ate BBQ barracuda on the beach, and made up for my adrenaline kick with sunbathing a day later. good times.

As for vietnam, i'm just about to go for a walk around the city, maybe get some food. i tried Pho last night (pronounced 'fur' which is the vietnemese national dish, it's noodle soup). Tomorrow i'm going to the war museum and the reunification palace, then i need to do some shopping before the overnight train.

no more drinks for a while. lost track of the measure here and still recovering...

Caz xx