Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
So we finally made it to Cambodia and after alot of messing around getting through customs and visa's etc we jumped into a taxi and randomly picked a hotel from the lonely planet. The drive to the hotel was a weird one with hte driver telling me he had just got his boy into school at the age of 14! I soon noticed that Cambodia was a very poor country and all i noticed was lots of people on the streets and a hell of alot of Mopeds nearly crashing into each other! The few days we spent here were pretty relaxed just chilling out and Nick nursing he's foot better. Alan and i went out and visited some of the sites and they really hit home to what this country and its people went through. We went to the killing fields and the old prisoner camps and learnt about what happened during the pol pot era. Some of this was very disturbing and the was a memorial at the killing fields with all the sculls of the people that were killed put into a big glass building! There were hundreds apon hundreds. When leaving these places on our Tuk tuks we got surounded by people begging us for money many of them children and many with limbs missing. This country was by far the poorest ive been to and it was a little surprising at times.
On one of the days however we had a bit of a laugh as our tuk tuk driver told us about a place where we can fire some guns. So as you would we got him to take us there! It took about forty minute down many dusty roads then through a army camp where i swear our driver gave the guard some money... possibly a bribe.. then on up to an area where we were greeted by some cambodians and shown lots of guns which we could shoot at targets. This place had everything, from hand guns to sub machine guns to a rocket launcher!! There was no health and sadety forms or anything like that, it was basically pick your gun, pay the guy and aim and fire! I decided to go for a hand gun the an AK47. I had a few shots then the guy asked if i wanted to shoot a chicken... oh dear!! So boys being boys we said we would.. it was only gonna cost an extra 5 dollars! So a kid around the age of 8 run and got us a chicken... which turned out to be a duck!! I said to the guy it was a duck and all he said was, "chicken, we call everything chicken!" what the hell!! So then we had a go at that, rather barbaric but also quite amusing!! Then another guy came up to me saying i could throw a hand grenade for 40 dollars, obviously i was like, "no thanks!" nxt thing i noticed was that he only had half an arm! Guess he had thrown one before and wanted someone else to have one arm! Jesus Christ!! That werent the worst of it, next i found out you could fire a rocket launcher and if you wanted you could fire it at a cow!?!? No thanks i said yet again, think that was taking it a little too far plus it would have cost about 500 dollars! Still i saw some american guy come and go off to do it, apparently they had to take you to the mountains!
After a few days we had arranged a bus to take us to vietnam, it would take 8 hours across the border and into Ho Chi Ming City all for the grand total of 7 pound! Not bad eh! So off we go hoping that vietnam wouldnt be as poor and remote as it was in Cambodia. We arrived late and it was raining but it was alot more civilised with actual buildings and shops and people wearing cleen clothes so we were reasonably happy. We found a good hotel with a legend of an owner for a cheap price and then headed into the town bit for a look around. We soon found a bar and the people were really friendly as i had noticed already with everyone smiling and saying hello and not just trying to sell you stuff. The next few days we just went to a few bars and didnt do much site seeing and a vietnamese girl who worked at one of them fell in love with me, very strange! We also booked a flight to take us to Phu Quoc just off Vietnam so we could do our diving. Oh and we also got taken to some dodgy massage parlour which ended with a little incident involving Alan and a few women...!! And no i didnt get any extras!!!
Flight there was only an hour and once we landed it was like being in a third world country as there was nothing around and the weather was pants. All we wanted to do was our Padi's though so werent to bad. We done 4 open water dives in the end and a pool dive and all qualified. It was really good even though the visabvility wasnt great. Our instructor was a French guy called Willy and he even passed Alan, who managed to get 20 out of 50 questions wrong on our final exam!! After doing our diving there wasnt much else to do and we couldnt even get off the island untill 5 days later. So as per usual we found the local bar and just got drunk with the locals. One day we did see the sun we went up to the roof of our hotel and managed to get locked out there for 5 hours!! We also hired mopeds to get us around the place which helpoed cause there werent really roads just mud. We finally got off there on the wednesday and flew to Ho Ching Minh then out to Bangkok.
Now the flight to Bangkok was by far the worst journey ive ever been on. We hit some really bad turbulance and the people behind me managed to throw coffee over me and Nick! People even screamed, me and Nick just sort of nervously laughed where as Alan was cacking it!! I was actually aswell but thought i hid it well. It got really bad when the announced again where our life vests were and Alan nearly got his out and was gonna wear it! Luckly we finally landed and people clapped and cheered... i hate that, you know it was probably americans!! Cant explain though how happy i was to get off that flight!
So i had 2 days in Bangkok before as most of you may or may not no i come home a week early! We were planning on visiting tiger temple and im gutted i couldnt case ive run out of money completely and am even borrowing some to go to the airport. And i cant borrow anymore cause ive seriously taken the pee already! We had a night out on the Koh San Road and just had a look around and bought a few presents.
A rather quiet few days and the realisation that im coming home after 6 months, 6 countries and 16 flights!! Ive had the best 6 months ever travelling though and wouldnt change a thing, im gutted to be heading home but also looking forward to it. All i can say is if you have ever thought about doing it then just save up and do it.. dont even think twice!
Guess ill be seeing some of you pretty soon...!! Excited or what! haha x
- comments