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This is probably the last blog update before we get home on 28th January.Since our last blog we have finished the majority of our sightseeing (apart from Hong Kong on the way home) and have returned to Thailand for some chill out time on the beaches.
Hoi An - we left Hoi An with our very full bags of newly made clothes and flew to Ho Chi Minh City. We were hoping it would not be as manic as Hanoi and luckily we were correct! Checked into our hotel, stayed one night then checked out into a nicer one for Christmas.
Spent a couple of days sightseeing, seeing the worst things our eyes will ever want to see. They said the War Remnants museum (Vietnam war) was not for the faint hearted and they were correct, the images on display were horrific and brought tears to our eyes.They had images of the war that looked like those out of a Hollywood movie and images that showed the effects of the Agent Orange toxic chemical that was sprayed over Vietnam. This has affected 4 million people to this day.Also visited the Cu Chi tunnels out of town where a community of Vietnamese lived, worked, fought during the War.The size of the tunnels was tiny and we would not have fit down them, so they have made a new 'tourist' size tunnel which is still very tight!
On a lighter note, Christmas Eve and we were not feeling very festive - until we found Fannys icecream parlour (that is its real name) and treated ourselves to overpriced ice cream snowman and santa.Pleased with ourselves we headed out that night, buying Xmas hats from street sellers and drinking way too many 'local' draught beers.At 40p a drink, who could refuse! Unfortunately there was no where to go for a traditional Christmas dinner so we had a falafel kebab for our meal and some cakes from the bakery!
Moving on to Cambodia, we got the bus across the border which was not as bad as we thought it would be.The only strange bit is at the border the bus driver takes all yours passports, gets them stamped and then individual calls out everyones names.This doesn't sound that strange apart from when there are about 50 people, you can imagine this is not the quickest process!
Arrived in Phnom Penh which we were already not expecting a lot from, having had recommendations not to go there from others.We saw a lot of poverty on our way into the city but stayed as we wanted to visit the Killing Fields and S21 prison, from the era of Pol Pot. Again our 'sight seeing' day was extremely depressing, but makes you appreciate everything that little bit more! To see what a country can do to its own people during the Khmer Rouge in our lifetimes is crazy.
Left a day early and went to Siem Reap where all the famous temples including Angkor Wat are.We loved it here so were happy this was where we had chosen to spend new year.Hired our own tuk tuk driver for a couple of days and visited a lot of temples! The further out ones we preferred as there were not as many tourists and it was nice wandering around seeing all the carvings and size of these ancient buildings.New Years Eve day we went to Angkor Wat but seemed to arrive when all the tour buses did which was a bit of shame, along with the scaffolding on the main buildings! I suppose they do have to preserve them though.
New Years Eve we had a Mexican meal, and did not leave our seats until 2.30 a.m when we staggered into a tuk tuk after way to many cocktails (me frozen margaritas and Mark Mojitos).In total the night cost us the equivalent of 30 quid with dinner so can't complain really!
Flew back to Bangkok and then flew to Phuket.The beach is a bit like Brighton beach on a sunny day … so we are going to Koh Lanta tomorrow a smaller island to live in a wooden hut on the beach.It has been a little cloudy but hopefully the sun will come out so we can get our winter tans ready for when we return home on 28th January.
Hope all is well at home, Happy New Year to everyone. See you all soon!
Julia and Mark xx
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