Sin Jao (Hello in Vietnamese)!

One last post from me as I enjoy the fastest and most modern computers I have encountered so far!

The bus ride from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh was stunning. Lush, green rice fields tended to by farmers in their pointy hats, palm roofed huts of wood on stilts, cows, pigs, water buffalo, goats, patches of water lillies more notable perhaps than those that inspired the works of Monet (I actually realize now those water lillies were actually lotus). All so interesting and fun to see a day in the life of people in small town Cambodia. I would take a video clip and shortly thereafter think, "ooh, this is pretty" or "wow, look at that" and the videoing resumed. And so it went for a good portion of our 6 hour ride, all from the window of a bus moving much too quickly to allow video of any quality other than dizzying! It's a good thing I was on a bus, confined, otherwise it would have been the old stop and go show to snap some quality photos. And while I would have returned home with some stellar pics, patience may have worn thin and I may have been travelling solo for the remainder of the trip!!

My favorite attractions along the way, other than the various wooden contraptions pulled or pushed or toted by horse, cow or person (there are pigs in those baskets in the photo), were the gas stations. Get some old coke or beer bottles, fill 'em with oil and gasoline, a few funnels on hand and bob's your uncle, you've got a gas station.

We arrived mid afternoon for our short stint in Phnom Penh. Phnom Phenh, the land of happy and funny pizzas...use your imagination and you can guess the special ingredients. Luckily I need no help being happy or funny so I can pass these by ;) We experienced our most primitive stay so far in Phnom Penh, staying in a room with thin wooden slatted floors and walls...teetering above an arm of a lake that is seemingly more of a wasteland than a lake. The structure had no windows, just shutters of slatted wood. Still dirty water and no windows=mosquito mania. So we enjoyed a night within the confines of a mosquito net (though with a good imagination one could equate it to a fancy canopy bed), trying to ignore each and every footstep, bass beat and voice blaring through the paper thin walls.

Another long bus ride (8 hours) the following day landed us in Ho Chi Minh City, otherwise known as Saigon, Vietnam. It was obvious the difference as we crossed into Vietnam with gas stations, toilets (no need for signs explaining how to use the throne like we saw in Cambodia), paved roads, brick buildings, road signs, the works. After 2-3 days exploring Saigon we will be zooming up the coast towards Hanoi with a stop or two along the way. We are debating whether to brave the bus (20 hours to the first stop and another 20 + hours from there) or take the more expensive, but more comfortable train. I think Jij is going to write about our time spent here in Saigon so I'll leave that to him. So that's it from me until we find our way up the coast!!

Leaving you with a picture of Jij and I, clad in orange watching the Bengals!

Bon Tid Teek Juab K'Neer (Kmer or Cambodian for See You Later)