Ending Cambodia

We're now in the former 'Saigon' now called 'Ho Chi Minh' after the war...whatever you prefer. Me the former, not for any deep reason just the beauty of of the word. I'm surprised to hear most people calling it Saigon still, mainly tourists mind you, not sure of what the locals think of that carry on. Already I miss that local perspective we were blessed with in Cambodia from Rach here. It's hard to know what's really going and how people really feel as we skate along the tourist surface. In our first Communist country.

It's our last night in Saigon tonight and our last with Rach. Tomorrow we head north and she heads back to Cambodia. Sad. We have had an excellent time and will miss our third amigo lots.

Now, before I get into this I must admit that I've been blog slack of late so will try and catch you up the best I can. It's a deadly cycle not updating, the longer I leave it, the more experiences we have, and the harder it is to accurately tell the tale of our adventures, as my mind and literally body has moved on. I shall do my best. Hurrah!

Essentially the highlights are as follows....

1. Fairy bread for the orphans!

We wanted our last visit to the kiddies in Cambodia to be special and somehow kiwi so decided on spoiling them with fairy bread! Who would've thought all the neccesary ingredients would be at a Phnom Penh supermarket!?

When we arrived at the orphanage we were warmly greeted by the one Brett named 'hip hop', due to his sweet hip hop branded top in our first photos. Hip Hop ran up to and proceeded to leap up on Andy when he saw him. Aww..... I was second best but also got a giant hug. He is so warm and affectionate compared to the other kids, and also so young. Jokes about adoption were flying that afternoon for both Hip Hop and 'Calvin' (I named after Calvin from Calvin and Hobbs as he is such mischief and in his own admirable world half the time).

I now understand Angelina...

As for the fairy bread we had to make it with the kids spoons and serve it in their personal bowls as that was all we had available. They had never seen anything like it. Logically the kiddies proceeded to eat the strange rainbow bread goodness like soup with their spoons out of their bowls instead of picking it up. He he. This was only however after everyone had a piece in front of them as these tiddlywinks have great manners.

After spoiling their dinner we played volleyball with the older kids (Cambodia's unofficial national sport). Great fun and totally friendly, they were just happy to play. No competition or scoring at all, like a weekend at the summer bach.

We were sad to go but so glad to meet them and experience what we did. Truly unique. I'd love to go back in the future and see how they are getting on. Return journeys with Rach have been discussed!

A few photos but not many as the connection here is crapola. Will update them later on.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37213&l=b2e7f&id=694561720

2. Leaving Cambodia - local style

We agreed to give local transport a go instead of the comfy buses or cars the standard traveler use for a true Cambodian travel experience.

This comes in first equal for me as far as the local transport experience, with the 'taxi' ride we experienced to Svey Rieng. This is where they fit 4 in the back and 4 in the front. Impossible you say....not if you put 4 in the back, two in the passenger seat and one under the driver! He sits on their lap, and proceeds to drive for several hours over some pretty crazy roads. Wacko but cost efficient.

But I digress, back to the border trip.

We walked laden in the heat to the market where we asked the locals in broken Khmer where their goods trucks were going and when. We found one heading to the VN border at 10am. It was only just over an hour away so we agreed to go for it and settled into some cards at a drinks stand.

We soon had about ten spectators watching our game and giggling away at us, trying to suss the game and get the odd chat in. It was the highlight for me, just all hanging out trying to communicate. Unfortunately 10am turned to 10.30 to 11.00 to 11.30 and we were off near to noon. That's the downside, you're in the hands of the driver who needs to fill the truck to make the journey worthwhile. He did his best but it was a long, hot wait.

We sat in the back of the truck which we shared with shared several other khmer, 2 scooters, massive bags of bags of oozing produce, and three body bag sized bunches of lotus flowers. Nothing goes to waste with those plants, the flowers for decoration, the seed heads for chewing (yummy nutty goodness), the stems used in noodle soup like a celery of sorts, and the roots for chewing. Again with the digressing. It was a cool experience and a fitting farewell to Cambodia, traveling with the locals in their mode of transport.

We soon hit the border hot and ready, and after some time in the lines and some bribary observed we were in Vietnam!!

The first thing I noticed was the lush green fields. They have irrigation. The second was the lack of roadside rubbish. They have a organised rubbish system. Cambodia lacks both of these.

The next thing was the bikes and masses of power cables. I thought I had seen some pretty amazing masses of both of these in Thailand but Nam takes the cake. The power cables threaten to choke out the sun on some corners.

....I have way more to say but I am running low on brain juice and desperately need 'lunner'....my new phrase for lunch and dinner combined. A naughty habit we've picked up with the lack of structured days and lunch times and late rises.

Oh the life.

Keep those comments going - love hearing from you all!

Rach - the coffee is even better here! strong and fresh! I see why you rave about it now.

xxx