Here are some representative shots out of the 200 I’ve taken at Angkor Wat. Elyse and I spent 3 full days exploring the ruins and were barely able to take in all the major sites.

One of the highlights was watching the sun come up over the Bayon, the famous temple complex that has giant faces of buddha all over it. We were the only ones there and were able to explore the eerie morning ruins without running into tourists or monks. It was awesome.

We’re leaving Siem Riep town today for Koh Samui (Thailand) by plane. We’re getting near the end of our trip… We’ll be spending the rest of our time on the islands, taking in some sun, and relaxing before we have to join the real world once again. Elyse plans on taking her open water course and I’ll be doing some diving as well. We’re having fun and are not really ready to come home, but we miss everyone and are excited about sharing our stories.

See you all soon!
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So, after Saigon we headed south and west, into the Mekong delta. We had a few extra days, so we thought we’d take the long way to Phenom Pehn: bus and boat.

A few sidetrips included a visit to the Cao Dai temple and the nearby Cu-Chi tunnels. The tunnels were strictly for military use Jeremy.

The delta itself is densely populated, filled with small towns and agricultural villages clustered around the maze of rivers and canals of the Mekong as it reaches toward the sea. We stopped for one night at a village on a rather large island in the delta called tiger island. We stayed with a family and had an opportunity to see how they lived. It was a memorable experience.

From there we took a series of speed boats up a tributary to Phenom Pehn. Phenom Pehn is an extraordinary place, remarkable because it has come so far in recovering from 30 years of war. The Khmer Rouge pretty much cleaned the place out in 75-76, forcing everyone into the countryside into farming collectives (and slaughtering all artists and intellectuals). So the city was a ghost town between 76 and 79, when the Vietnamese invaded. After that, and prolonged civil war broke out, with the Khmer Rouge being funded by the US and Britain in their war against the Vietnamese puppet government. Nice eh? The history of Cambodia had been turbulent since, with a coup as recent as ’97.

Things are starting to get better here though, with two big influxes of cash: the UN and me! Yes, tourism, especially around Angkor, is getting bigger. The roads are getting better and the tourist buses are making it here all the way from Bangkok.

Anyway, included in this (and the following) post are tons of pictures. Enjoy.
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And now we’re finally in Saigon (HCMC). It’s a much crazier, wackier place compared to Hanoi. Richer, more modern, more populated, more… just more. We were prepared by other travelers for the insanity of it all, and yes, it really is insane here. The traffic here should be the 9th wonder of the world or something. My first inclination is to believe it’s the beginning of a complete collapse of civilization. There really are no rules here. The flowing traffic is almost organic, like colliding schools of fish swerving around each other at the last second (while talking on cell-phones).

We spent all day yesterday cruising the town with our cyclo-driver buddies. We headed over to Cholon, the old Chinese district to check out some pagodas and to marvel at the traffic. Sitting in a cyclo kinda like being in the first car in a roller-coaster. The picture of Elyse in the cyclo effectively demonstrates this. What is she thinking? Is it terror? Dread? Grim acceptance?

Today we traveled west to visit the weird pseudo cult the Cao Dai. They have a big church/temple/mosque out in the middle of nowhere. They worship the Buddha, Jesus and Victor Hugo among others. They have funny costumes and like to chant. It was interesting but we really came to see the Cu-Chi tunnels which were nearby.

Cu-Chi is the Vietnamese equivalent of the Sunni Triangle these days. It was the epicenter of VC activity in the South throughout the war, and was subjected to every kind of bombing and chemical attack you could imagine. The VC survived by basically living underground, building an extensive underground tunnel network that even compromised the perimeters of major US bases in the area. I crawled around in them for a bit. The tunnels were hot, stinky, and filled with colorful spiders and giant centipedes. By big western ass could barely fit. 10 minutes and I had had enough. I couldn’t even comprehend what it took to live down there for weeks at a time. Determination, dedication and stamina I can’t even fathom.

Anyway, we’re off tomorrow morning on a 3 day journey through the Mekong delta back country up to the Cambodian border. We’ll be in Phnom Penh by Mondayish. Wish us luck!

J
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Hoi-An is a beautiful little town that has a long history as an important trade center. Danang has slowly eaten away at Hoi-An’s economy over the last few decades, but now that Vietnam has opened up, tourism promises to revitalize things quite a bit.

Its a picturesque little town with a beautiful old quarter filled with ramshackle 18th century building. Lot’s of Chinese influence here, with several families maintaining temples for ancestor worship. We stayed in Hoi-An for 5 days in all, taking in a lantern festival, and getting a chance to check out some Cham civilization ruins outside town a ways.
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Hue is smack-dab in the middle of Vietnam, sitting just south of the old DMZ dividing north and south. It’s an old imperial city of some significance, being home to the puppet emperors of the French colonial period. Those emperors didn’t have that much to do, being puppets and all, so they built lavish temples and tombs to fill their time. We checked them out and they were neat.

Hue was really a stopping point for us on our way to Hoi-An (see next entry).

-Jeff
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