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So the beach experience in cambodia is slightly different to elsewhere..... still gorgeous beaches, clear blue water and white sand, sun loungers right up to the waters edge but the big difference is that there are people begging with no legs hauling themselves along the sand until they reach you.... women offering manicures and massages every two seconds... yes even when your sleeping and you suddenly feel hands on you... oh yes and then there are the children selling braclets... sweet little things like to speak to you, get up close, crowd round you, and if you don't buy anything look out.... my best encouter was a 3 year old who even turned on the tears to try and get me to buy saying "please help me".... "I'm sorry i can't buy from you all", given i'd already bought from her sister i thought i had helped the family.... but she obviously didn't agree.... after 10 minutes i said "no i am not buying please try someone else".... to my delight she screamed "Feck you lady!!!".... Teach them young here!!!
The night before moving onto vietnam we decided to go and see sunset from the top of Sam Mountain.... ah lets all get motorbikes.... in a country with no road rules and just horns to let everyone know you are there and they are about to run you over it wasn't top of the 101 things to do list.... I'm pretty sure I'm having better results on working my way through the 101 ways to die.... especially as the road up to the mountain viewpoint has the most twists and turns in it i've ever bloody seen on a road and also the most drivers heading straight towards you..... anyway loved to tell the tale and even managed a race on the way home.... bloody brilliant fun!!!
We have now travelled into Vietnam.... I do think I am now carrying the equivalent weight of myself in my backpack so border crossings and travel are getting increasingly strenuous for my little leggies... we spent our first day in Siagon which as a city has over 6 million bikes flying around... crossing the road is like taking your life in your hands although the locals seem to find it very funny when they are heading straight for me and i squeel.... personally i'm not laughing quite as much!!!! Best one was when one of the guys at a main junction that did have lights and had about 100 sitting waiting to go said "yeh fine to cross"... as a bloody fool i follow and three steps out hear the revs of 100 bikes starting.... feck leg it!!!!
We visited the Cu Chi Tunnels which made me feel like a sweaty rat in a hole.... the tunnels were made during the war for little vietnameese people and i only managed one 10m section crouced down with no light and unbearable heat before escaping.... don't know how they managed days on end in them but its an amazing place to visit and see how they faught the war.... Our guide was a veteran that faught in the war so it was a brilliant insight into the tactics and what it was like for the people on the front line... The poison the viet cong used was s*** as they knew it would infect wounds much worse when the american soldiers fell on their booby trapps.... nice eh!!! The war museum itself was another hard hitting account in pictures of how the war affected vietnam, the horendous tactics used by the americans and the devastating effects the agent orange chemicals had on people....
Overnight trains are the new experience to tick off the list, the first one we went in we travelled first class so cabins were very nice and pretty good experince aside from me forgetting there was a light above my head and just about blinding myself in one eye during the night when I sat up and got a corner clean off my head.... next one wasn't quite so luxurious and as i'm squatting above one of the worst public transport toilets in history i just about get knocked unconcious as the train breaks suddenly.... knocking my squatting balance out and sends my head flying off the metal door.... ah another day in the life of a backpacker.... thankfully i didn't piss on myself..... see there is always a positive side!!!
Today i go to vietnameese cooking class and get to eat what i make so i only have myself to blame if i have another dose o the skitters later on!!!!
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