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Gday friends and family peeps,
Before leaving Vietnam we vissited the War Museum in Saigon which was as expected very upsetting and disturbing. It did however shine a new light on our journey across Vietnam realising that the terrible pictures of torture we had just seen were not of time centuries ago - in fact many of the people that we had met along the way , my age and older whom had welcomed us with smiles would have experienced and witnessed these horrific things first hand - many of them still wearing the wounds, many of them missing multiple limbs not to mention the emotional scarring that hopefully none of us will ever be able to comprehend - enough said on this topic..
Saigon itself is manic with motorcyles and every other shop is a moped shop, tyre sales or moped mechanic - from which a nice lady who worked there very kindly fixed the flapping sole of my sandals and wanted for nothing more than a smile as payment.
After leaving the crazy city of Saigon we headed south-west to spend time with our brothers and sisters of Cambodia.... the Bodians.
We had a very short pit-stop on Phnom Phen which we had been told to avoid by other travellers as it's just another city so onwards to Siam Reap we headed - home of the eighth ancient wonder of the world - Angkor Wat.
What immediately hit us about Cambodia was the calm , the natural beauty and surprisingly how clean the place is - mainly due to the very obvious pride the bodians have for thier country, itself not escaping toil and trouble with the very recent control of the Khrmer Rouge, mass genocide and the killing fields. Another really pleasant surprise for me was the food - having very vivid memories of the Cambodian Famine Appeals from school I am astounded by the quality and range of produce and the unique flavours of Cambodia - if I had to choose a single dish to eat for the rest of my life the Khrmer Curry would definately be a contender.
Whilst vissiting the amazing temples of Angkor we got talking to a group of local children whom after finding out that we do not yet have children of our own offered to be our adopted family and to leave Cambodia with us to start a new life on the moon... you just gotta love kids.
Today I write to you finding my legs aching from yesterday's full day of climbing up the pyramid like temples that tower the rural countryside. As a result of this I am quietly pleased that today is terrential with rain bouncing several inches off the floor which is preventing us from hiring mountain bikes.... my legs can have a day off while I drink very strong but cheap cocktails, write this blog and ponder the world.
Tonight is the full-moon and there is a party in town - I'm sure this will be in no way the scale of the full-moon parties of the southern Thai islands but should be fun all the same.
Until next time take care and go and get yourselves some bodian adoptees for good measure.
Love and all that stuff
Stuart and Bernie
:@)
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