In eight days, my eight month-long journey will come to end and I'll be back in the comfort, serenity and familiarity of home. In many ways this trip seems to be closing in way too quickly, knowing I have much more of the world to see, but in other ways I feel fulfilled, grateful and ready to return. I have learned so much in the time I have been away, and have met many wonderful people along the way and have seen many beautiful, challenging, and curious things, all amounting to a fantastic experience.

Pat and I had an eventful experience traveling through Vietnam over the course of two weeks, making our way down the eastern coastline and meeting up with our English friends Luke and Lydia. We left Hanoi, the capital, on a night train and arrived in Hue the next morning: a warmer, friendlier and smaller city. We spent our few days there exploring the former Nguyen dynasty capital, guided around in a cyclo to visit the ancient walls of the fortress and even to politely observe monks in a nearby monastery.

We then travelled south by bus to Hoi An and on our way there, the bus stopped in Lang Co beach for a refreshment break, and we decided to sneak behind the restaurant to snap some photos of the bay and surrounding hills. On our quick jaunt, we came across a handful of local fishermen squatting in a circle on the grass by the sand, enjoying fresh mussels and shots of local whiskey. They called us over and very kindly invited us to join them; and although it was only 11am, it was St. Patrick's Day! A very friendly gesture, we indulged their company for a few minutes and then trekked back to the bus.

In Hoi An - a very touristy but lovely small town - we spent an afternoon fitting Pat for custom suits and touring the bustling riverside market seaking shade from the sun under its tarp roofs and dodging watery, fishy messes on the ground, before reuniting with Luke and Lydia. We spent a day cycling past rice paddies to a nearby beach and swimming in the South China Sea and we couldn't help frequenting the same bar every night for a great dish of fried noodles for dinner. Pat's suits turned out great and I am also happy I survived cycling on those busy roads!

From Hoi An, a smelly night bus drove us to Nha Trang - an urban beach destination for many tourists in southeast Vietnam. We stayed in a new guesthouse run by two American men with southern drawls and when we weren't on the beach dodging waves or sipping Happy Hour beer while playing cards in a pub, the four of us were risking everything on the cablecar, rollercoaster and waterslides of Vinpearl Water Park across the bay. Mostly empty on an overcast day, we certainly got our money's worth in the themepark!

Saying a brief goodbye to L & L we made our way yet further south into Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) for an emotional and educational visit to the Vietnam War Museum and the Cu Chi tunnels. Before we could make it to the museum a motorcyclist grabbed my camera off my arm as I was walking down the sidewalk and drove away with it. Shortly after, as Pat cleaned up my scrapes and cuts, we filed a useless police report. I have my share of regrets from the past eight months and though I consider myself pretty lucky compared to some travellers, this tops the list. We were both really sad, and I am still mourning the loss of my Canon, but thank goodness for Pat, who procured an effective replacement and who has allowed me to continue on with my happy documentation of the trip. After our "swift" visit to the police station, we continued on to the museum, only round the corner!

Truly terrifying and revolting, the uncensored images in the exhibits of the museum are raw and stunning. The collections of photographs are excessively explicit but their presence is honest in nature and their messages important. The only-somewhat slightly propangandistic captions and details of the events of the war are obvious but much of it reflects a true Vietnamese voice in terms of the impact the war (and its long-lasting effects) has had on the people. I'll also point out we even saw the President of Chile and his delegation party while we were there!

The tunnels are very curious and during our visit to Cu Chi we learned about different methods of the guerilla warfare techniques used by the Viet Cong during the war; and while we toured the site we had the luxury of listening to the chattering soundtrack of a shooting range on the property....Perhaps it added authenticity, if nothing else, to the atmosphere. I declined the opportunity to crouch and walk through a section of the tunnel system but Pat went through with it and I doubt he'd want to do it again! Tiny, suffocating...dark....

The rest of HCMC is a blur - it's a very busy and fast-paced city with lots of traffic similar to Hanoi or Bangkok, and we didn't honestly have much time aside from our visits to the war museum and tunnels, though we managed to get in a stop at the main indoor market - an incredible maze of floor-to-ceiling stalls selling everything from diamonds to local artwork to underwear and pots and pans. After my episode with the mean motor man we didn't honestly feel too inclined to stalk its streets much.

Out of HCMC, we took a bus to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, with our travel partners Luke and Lydia. In Phnom Penh, after celebrating Pat's 25th birthday with cake and beer and (for some of us) a late night snack of fried chicken legs, we continued on with the emotional heaviness. In a morning, we toured Choeung Ek, the most well-known of the Killing Fields used by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. A haunting and shockingly untouched site (well, as much as it can be), Choeung Ek is now a memorial to the innocent Cambodian lives taken by the Khmer Rouge during their brutal and inhumane period in power. More than 5,000 human skulls of all ages sit in the glass case of the Buddhist stupa at the pinnacle of the memorial. You can see all too easily where some had been fatally smashed in by hammers, machetes and the butts of rifles. Extremely moving and indescribable and horrifying. Continuing the sadness tour we also visited a former high school that was used by the Khmer Rouge as a prison during their reign, and observed a documentary of one Cambodian family as well as photographs of the prison's inmates, both alive and dead.

We moved on to Siem Reap, a small city in the northern part of Cambodia, for our last few days in Southeast Asia. In Siem Reap we arrived at Angkor Wat to see the sun rise behind the ancient temples and spent the morning climbing through the ruins of many. We spent one morning visiting the art gallery of the region's children's teaching hospital, learning about the education movement following the rule of the Khmer Rouge to ensure access to medical care for the country's children (before the KR came to power there were 4000 doctors in Cambodia; there were only 40 remaining when the KR was defeated). There we both donated blood to the hospital.

Pat and I spent our few remaining days in Asia on Koh Samet island lounging on the beach (judging the old, balding, pot-bellied white men there with young, beautiful women - one man in particular wearing a zebra-print thong as a sad excuse for a bathing suit...gross) before we flew out of Bangkok on April 5.

We spent a few days in London, reuniting with my friends Alex and Hannah, both of whom I know from York, and then we went on a short holiday to Brighton, a small town by the sea, south of London.

From there, Pat took off to visit Simon and Dan in Madrid while I made my way up to Edinburgh - a spontaneous trip to Scotland, which brought me here to Stirling. Stirling is a lovely, happy town with a neat castle and the impressive William Wallace National Monument. I met a new Canadian friend named Brian here in Stirling and the two of us took the train to Thurso, the northern-most town of mainland Scotland, where my paternal grandmother was raised. After a day and a half of searching and speaking to many locals and staff of the registry office there, I was able to find out plenty of information about my grandmother and her father, and his father and many members of that side of my family; it was really heartwarming and intriguing to see where they lived and worked, and for some, where they are buried. I'm really glad I made the long trek up there - it was certainly a highlight of my entire trip.

Tonight I am taking the train to Edinburgh, to take a bus overnight to London, to take another bus to Gatwick Airport and then I'll meet Pat and we'll fly together to Cork for one final visit with my Irish family!

I'm coming home on April 27 and I look forward to catching up and seeing everyone very soon!

Sarah

Ps Please excuse spelling/grammar errors! Not much time to edit! xo