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Well, its been a pretty crazy last few days. Somehow I ended up in Cambodia. Me and some other teachers I know randomly decided to go there for a night. I didn't know that Phnom Penh (capital of Cambodia) was so close to Saigon - about 6 hours. It's closer to Saigon than most other places in Vietnam!
Anyway, so we just grabbed our passports and some cash, piled into a cab, and off we went. I don't think any of us even brought a bag. I just brought the clothes I was wearing, my passport, and some cash. I didn't even bring a toothbrush: something that I would come to sincerely regret.
There were 6 of us in total. The cab ride up was pretty squashy. When we got to the border, I realised that my visa was only a single entry. But it was too late, they had already stamped the damn thing. So I was locked out of Vietnam and stuck in Cambodia until I could get a new visa. I only had like $50 USD on me and not even a credit card. Oh, and I didn't even bring my glasses, so I could hardly see a thing. Not one of my brighter ideas.
Right, so we get to Cambodia near to sunset. First impressions - pretty similar to Vietnam. But a lot poorer, hotter, smellier and dirtier. We got to Phnom Penh about 8pm, and we stayed at a place called Lakeside. It's like the backpacker part of the city. There's this big smelly lake in the city (more like a swamp actually), and it's stinking hot. All I did the whole time in Cambodia was sweat and stink. I found it to be quite an uncomfortable place. But then again, our room had no air con, I was stuck with the same clothes for the time I was there, and the guesthouse we were in smelled.
Phnom Penh is a pretty seedy place. Well, Lakeside is at least. And I was stuck there for 3 nights. As soon as you leave your guesthouse, you get people trying to sell you drugs. They're not even subtle about it - they shove the stuff right in your face. Crazy. It seemed that Lakeside was full of pothead backpackers...
Still, it was kinda fun. We went tut tutting (its like a horse-and-cart, but replace the horse with a motorbike) around the city, met some interesting people and got annihilated at connect-four by some Cambodian girls.
In the day, it was way too stinking hot to do anything. I thought about seeing the killing fields, or blowing up a cow with a rocket launcher (no joke, you can do it in Thailand too). But that stinking heat...it was intense.
So we pretty much stayed around Lakeside for the whole time, waiting for our visas so we could go home. Actually, most of the other guys had multi-entry visas, it was just me and my housemate, Dean, who had to get new ones. The others left the next day.
After 3 nights, I was dying to get back to Saigon. I couldn't handle it any more. I needed a proper shower and to get rid of my disgusting clothes that I had been sweating in non-stop for 3 days....I wasn't a pretty sight, let me tell you.
We got our visas back on the afternoon of the third day, but there was no bus that went back to Saigon until the following morning. So we had to stay for another night.
Alright, so it wasn't all so bad. I had a good laugh hanging out with some opther backpackers, watching a whole bunch of funny movies at the guesthouse bar/kick-back-and-relax area, which was like a little wharf thingy with a roof, that went out onto the lake. Wish I had brought the camera, the sunset was quite nice.
Saigon has never felt so much like home, that next day, coming back. I was so glad to finally chuck those clothes in the wash. I don't think I can ever bring myself to wear that shirt again!
Anyway, my next adventure is tomorrow. I am going up to a place called Tuy Hoa, on the central coast of Vietnam. It's my first gig, interviewing a bunch of students who want to go study in America. I'm supposed to be testing their English. It's essentially a paid holiday. The compnay are paying for me to go up there, my food and acc., and coming back. I'll try and take a few happy snaps this time!
Taynos out.
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