good mornign Vietnam!!!

After enduring a painful bus journey in which Dan had to put up with some old Cambodians bum stuck right in his face the whole way and i had taken some advice from Ed to take some tablets to stop a vomiting spell i had, which made me so fidgety and restless that there was not a hope in hell of falling to sleep and my legs were in a constant twitch. We made it to Siam reap 7 hours later, all a little flustered but ready to see some temples! we found a really good hotel with two double beds, an on suit and a TV for only $6 so that was.......$3 per couple (bargain!) i think we spent our first night watching tele and laughing at rubbish American film called "direct contact?" i don't recommend it!

The next morning it was up and out early for some serious temple tours! angkor wat is so amazing it looks like old Aztec ruins but about 30 times the size! We went to big temples, little temples, 200 year old temples, and 600 year old temples, temples with trees growing from them.......... and so on. By the end we were templed out and ready for some beers! The town in Siam reap is great! and the beer only cost 13p so we had lots to compensate. At about 1 o'clock we found ourselves boogying in some seedy nightclub surrounded by Cambodians watching and mimicking our stupid dancing to the YMCA and other tasteful tunes including the spice girls etc.......

We spent the next day feeling sorry for ourselves hung over drinking coffee and mooching round markets, i bought the most adorable antique wooden elephant puppet which i am currently trying my hardest not to break in my tightly compact back pack. Then we said our good byes to Claire and Ed who had decided to stay for a week or so to do some volunteer work. We, on the other hand were off to Vietnam!!!

We....(i) decided it was a good plan to go by public transport to the nearest border crossing rather then the usual tourist route going back through Phnom Penn on a 12 hour long bus. Our plan was flawless until we got to the crossing and it became obvious that they had never dealt with a foreign passport and kept us waiting for ages till they figured it out! Then when on the other side there were no busses only one lonely man offering us a ride to the nearest town for $25!!!! We had no choice as this was all there was apart from walking. When at the bus station it took 6 changes of busses (where nobody spoke a word of English and we only knew 2 words hello and thank you) finally we made it to Saigon which was buzzing with thousands of motor bikes... literally coating the streets and the pavements. Luckily we got off the bus in the right place despite being completely oblivious and overwhelmed by it all. We found a guest house and explored the streets.

Saigon is a great place (really busy) but there is a good atmosphere about it and we were able to spend hours window shopping, eating weird and wonderful foods and wondering around markets and museums. after a couple of days we booked an open ticket where you basically have a month to get up to Hanoi with as many stops and as much time as you like, our first stop was nha trang which is nice but it has been rainy and cloudy since we got here and with it being a beach side city there isn't much to do. Tonight we leave for Hoian then Hue then Hanoi and Haylong bay before leaving for Singapore on the 27th.