Vietnam - Cambodia

August 24th-27th, days 129-132, cross into Vietnam, Hue City

My first impression of Vietnam was the fair city of Hue (does not rhyme with Hugh), and I was once again reminded that we are no longer intrepid travellers, boldly going where few westerners have gone before. In Hue, it's easy to find a bite to eat and a beer or 6 in a little bar or restaurant where they don't try and talk to you in their language, then look confused when you shrug your shoulders and babble incoherently back at them. In other words, everything's just so easy. They speak English (like pretty much all of their customers). Just like Laos, welcome to Backpacker Land. I think it'll be like this for the rest of the trip.

Hue is full of bars, restaurants, backpacker hostels, and tailors. If I make it sound like the hell-hole Vang Vieng I certainly don't mean to, because it's a lovely place - despite a booming backpacker industry, it still feels like a real town, not just a tacky resort.

The main historical site is the Citadel - Hue was the capital of Vietnam a few hundred years ago, and the Citadel was the royal palace. It was heavily damaged during the Vietnam War, but now there are signs of restoration.

The Perfume River flows through Hue. One guide said that if all Chinese piss into river, Vietnam would flood. I can believe it.

August 27th-30th, days 132-135, Hoi An

Now we are nearing the coast. The beach is anything from 2km to 7km away, depending on who you ask. It's been a long time since I've seen the sea - not since 15th May (day 28) and a long way - a whole continent ago. The whole of Asia. That's not counting the Caspian, of course, because it's just a big salty lake.

But it's very hot, so it's still too far away. The hotel has a swimming pool, and relaxing in the pool with a beer in my hand while a huge thunderstorm is in progress really is rather fun. It's a great way to shelter from the rain.


Close to Hoi An is the My Son Temple Ruin. Built by the Champa people about 1000 years ago it was lost and undiscovered in the jungle until the 19th century and then bombed by the Americans in the Vietnam war because of an alleged Viet Cong encampment. Luckily the damage is confined to just one part, so much of it is still visible, with only the ravages of time showing.

August 30th-September 2nd, days 135-138, Jungle Beach

The trip is 3/4 of the way through! Sometimes I wondered if I'd make it this far. Glad I have.

As we enter the final quarter of the trip, we finally reach the sea at the other end of Asia. Asia's big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may thing it's a long way down the street to the chemist but that's just peanuts to Asia...



Jungle Beach is a backbacker resort run by a Candadian, where the accommodation consists of bamboo huts set amongst palm trees just yards from the beach. A standard day's activities involve swimming, reading, relaxing, swimming, turning up for meals, swimming, relaxing, and more swimming. The only thing you have to worry about is turning up for meals on time.

Swimming here at night is extra special. You can look around you, see the countless stars in the night sky above and countless more stars in the sea below, the phosphorescent plankton. The water glows with it's own eery light whenever you move through it. It is beautiful and unforgettable.

September 2nd-5th, days 138-141, Saigon

Saigon couldn't be any more different from Jungle Beach. After a painfully long bus journey we are now in a huge city, far from the relaxing serenity of the beach. We are now surrounded by millions of people, tuk tuks, cars, trucks, and more motorbikes than there are atoms in the universe.

The most memorable experiences here are the War Museum (in Vietnam, the war in which the Americans were so soundly thrashed is called "The American War"), where one can see exhibits of original US war machinery such as tanks, giant flame throwers, delivery systems for nasty chemicals and various other unpleasant things. With all this lethal hardware it's staggering how they managed to lose. The main body of the museum, however, is taken up with photographs and explanations of alleged atrocities and war-crimes perpetrated by the Americans during the war - destroying whole villages, murdering unarmed villagers including the women and children, torture, destroying the jungle and arable land with chemical and biological agents, the list goes on, and the mind boggles. I cannot help wondering how much of this is purely Vietnamese propaganda and how much is really true. In another part of the museum, however, there were pictures of the global protests over the unjust war, including, I'm pleased to say, the protests in America, including deserting soldiers and the man who burned himself in front of the White House.

The following day there was a trip out to nearby jungle where the main attraction is the tunnel system used by the Viet Cong when hiding from the US troops. There are 3 distinct layers of tunnels, but only the top level is open to tourists. The top layer is about 60-80cm (2'-3') and about 40cm (18") wide, the lower levels are an even tighter squeeze. Some of us crawled along in the tunnel for 100m. I wouldn't have liked to have hidden down there for extended periods, one could easily become very claustrophobic. Some people took one look at the start of the tunnel and backed out there and then. What makes it even trickier to negotiate was how, at certain intervals, there'd be a hole in the floor you need to lower yourself through and then the tunnel continues at a lower level, before rising again.

September 5th-8th, days 141-145, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Another day, another border crossing, into a country working hard to rebuild itself after Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge tried their very best to destroy it in the 1970's. Where Vietnam is very established now on the backpacker trail, Cambodia is rather less so, but catching up fast.

Our first stop is the captital city, Phnom Penh. The most memorable sight here is what once was a school. The Khmer Rouge (KR) had no use for schools so they converted it into a prison. They converted to the classrooms into cell-blocks by buiding extra walls inside, converted the physical education apparatus into torture implements, and added liberal helpings of barbed wire. On display were many hundreds (a very small number really) of victims of S.21 as it was called. There were a total of 20,000 people imprisoned here over the years. Seven survived.

After this somewhat harrowing visit, there was a trip out to the Killing Fields. When Vietnam invaded and liberated the Cambodian People from the KR in 1979, they discovered a site of mass graves some 15km out from the city. Now many of the victims remains have been moved to more dignified housing in the form of a memorial monument housing countless skulls and various other bones, as well as remains of clothing. The final resting place of countless people executed for crimes such as being teachers, doctors, lawyers, monks, and pretty much anyone who isn't a peasant.

In some ways the most tragic thing of all is that Pol Pot himself lived to a ripe old age and eventually died of natural causes in the 1990s. He got away with it scott free, one of the most evil people to have ever lived.

On a happier note, we also saw the Royal Palace (Cambodia once again became a Kingdom in the intervening years since the KR was banished) which is very beautiful, and had a happy evening celebrating Simon's birthday in the Foreign Correspondents Club.

September 8th-10th, days 145-147, Battambang

A fairly quick journey later and we leave Phnom Penh and arrive in Battambang. Everyone wants to call it Battenburg. It's more of a local town, not so much a tourist town, although backpackers are starting to find it, and the usual crop of hotels and restaurants is starting to sprout. Didn't do much here, it was time to relax and celebrate Simon's other birthday.