Frogger

So I arrived in Vietnam a few days ago...I know I have been falling behind on the blog, but have been incredibly busy, no downtime to write. We left Phnom Penh via boat on the Mekong River to get to Vietnam. It was such a beautiful boat ride and took about five hours. We stayed in a small fishing village off the river for a night and then continued on by bus to Saigon.

Saigon is a huge city in the south of Vietnam as there are about 8 million people almost all of which drive motor bikes. The motorbikes are crazy....going every which way, it's like frogger trying to cross the street. Also the noise from the bikes is so loud and they like to use the horn..they beep at everything, it a constant buzz. But the city has a great energy to it and the people are very nice and friendly (even to Americans). The only bad thing it the heat, it's considered the cool season and it's still so hot and humid..also it rains just about everyday.

Saigon has an incredible market with laquerware, buffalo horn utensils, clothing, good fake watches and handbags and of course an amazing food market. I bought way too much that my extra bag is overflowing with stuff. It's just so hard to resist, b/c it's super cheap and fun to bargain.

We left Saigon yesterday and took a flight to Hoi An which is on the coast. They have had major flooding in the past couple weeks but has receded somewhat in the past couple days. The town is so cute, all french colonial buildings from the seventeenth century. The city is known for workshops that make custom clothing, particularly suits.

Last night my travel companions and I had a fun night at the Karaoke bar...singing Asian pop songs mixed in with Britney, Madonna, Michael Jackson...I of course made an ass of myself, I just couldn't put down the microphone (god help everyone that had to listen, especially my "like a Virgin" performance).

We leave tomorrow for Hue, which is another small town about four hours north!

Still in Cambodia

But will be leaving tomorrow and I have to say I can't wait. This is such a hard country to be in...it's such a contradiction as there are some amazingly beautiful things to see like the Angkor Wat temples and the countryside but also some of the most horrific things as well. I am currently in Phonm Penh, a city of 1 million people. Roughly half the population is under the age of 18 and 30,00 kids are homeless on the street. I have never seen so many young kids barefoot, filthy and begging. Yesterday a baby was sitting in the middle of an ally screaming and not one person came to the baby's aid. The child sex trade is rampant and completely in your face...at the moment I think all men are just utter pigs....I know not all men are, but when you are here and see young children walking down the street with middle aged Westerners going into a hotel it's hard not to have that reaction.
This morning we went to the genocide museum and then on to the killing fields where over 3 million people were tortured and murdered b/t 1975-1979. Half the population of Cambodia was killed and only about three people from the Khmer Rouge have been arrested today. It's truly unbelievable what people do to each other...quite horrific.
The one positive thing about this country are the people's attitude and nature, as they are always smiling and have a great sense of humor...not quite sure how they do it. I guess it's the only way to keep living.

Holiday in Cambodia

So the rest of my time in Bangkok was great, I met up with the group I will be traveling with for the next couple weeks. The group consist of mostly young people from Australia, Ireland and England. My roommate is a ex pro surfer with lots of tattoos and every sentence includes the word "Dude", "Shocking", or "Unreal."....it's quite funny! Also there are three Irish guys, all of which have super strong accents that no one can understand.

Anyways, we traveled by van to Cambodia on Friday. We crossed the border of Cambodia at Poi pet and took a dirt road to Siem Reap (a five hour trip). To say that Cambodia is poor is an understatement. The majority of Cambodians live on 1 dollar a day...I had no idea what that really meant until I crossed the border on Friday. The road is a major road that connects one of the biggest border crossings in Cambodia with the second largest city. So you would think it would have proper pavement, but it doesn't, just huge potholes and lots of mud. There were times when I thought for sure the van would break down or pop a tire. There are rice paddies on both sides of the dirt road, in which people are harvesting rice. Kids are running everywhere, along with chickens, dogs, cats, water Buffalo... the houses are really shacks made out of palm leaves and bamboo with lots of garbage everywhere. The dirt road was so busy the entire time we were on it...tons of motor bikes, beat up cars, bikes...all on the road in some kind of organized chaos.
Kids are everywhere, with no supervision, either trying to sell something or just begging. You have to understand that these kids are the cutest kids I've ever seen! It's no wonder Angelina Jolie adopted Maddox! Anyways, the hard thing is when they beg all the money goes back to their parents or overseer and is not spent on the children at all. They are not educated and most end up in the child sex industry or prostitution once they get a bit older...it's so horrible. So the long story short is if you give them money it makes the problem worse, but it's so hard to see them in poverty and just turn away.

Yesterday we went to the Ankor Wat complex, of which the Ankor Wat temple is one of the seven wonders of the world. We watched the sunrise over the temple this morning which was so breathtaking...It was one of those few perfect moments in life. I took so many pictures and when I find a better computer will share them.
Well gotta go, as internet is a bit expensive and the connection is so slow. Will write more once I get to Pnom Penh.

Airplane Airport Arrival

So my flight to Seoul was long, very long...a total of about 13 1/2 hours. I flew Korean Air, and first of all the flight attendants have the cutest little uniforms I've ever seen in the skies... blue/green silk fitted blouses with french cut skirts..which is so hip right now, Bill Cunningham did an "on the street's" all about this a few weeks ago!
Anyways, I sat next to two Vietnamese boys in their twenties....both from Fort Wayne Ind. The boy sitting next to me spoke English, but his friend, who, by the way was wearing a crushed satin ivory suit, didn't...so I chatted it up with the boy next to me, turns out he does nails...long story short, I have a free mani/pedi waiting for me the next time I'm in Fort Wayne!
One thing about the flight that no one mentioned, the flight path goes through Canada and northern Alaska. According to the map on the plane we flew on the southern edge of the Arctic circle. It was light and clear through this part of the flight so I could see the ice/snow formations-it was so spectacular!
Landing in Seoul was also interesting, from the air the city appears as a huge, dense, sprawling metropolis surrounded by mountains...so different than any city I've flown over in the states, the density was just so unreal!
We landed in the Seoul airport and, wow! What an amazing airport, the Korean air terminal was the nicest terminal I've ever been in! The duty free stores are like walking down 5th ave in NYC...Gucci, vuitton, versace, YSL...not just the typical wine and chocolate like other airports.

By the time I landed in Bangkok, I had been traveling almost 30hours (with all the layovers)..I was extremely tired. I picked up my bag and took one look at the huge line at the cab stand and one look at the ad of the BMW advertising "Limos"....I walked directly to the limo stand. I know...I'm supposedly roughing it, backpacking, hostels etc...but at that moment I just didn't care.
My driver in the pimped out BMW was extremely talkative and the second question from him (the first, "where are you going?") was "did you select Obama? Thai people, we love him."