Christmas Time

I had booked a guesthouse in Mui Ne in Siagon because i was assured, by the travel agent, that all of the guesthouses would be full for the holiday. So i booked a room for 5 days and paid in advance for the whole amout. When i arrived there was no rooms available and the travel agant did not know what i was talking about. However, after some frustration that turned into a gaint(me) getting a little "upset" with the people that had skewed me, i got a very nice room and many apologies that made the holiday worth it.

I went out with a group of 9 people for a christmas eve dinner that turned into a vietnamese christmas party. The free drinks were flowing and the music was pumping and the limbo was getting lower and lower. I got second place in the contest which got me a stuffed animal and a sprained knee. After that long night i thought that i would take it easy on christmas and have a mellow dinner at the guest house with the family that owned it. After many "yo's", the vietnamese word for cheers, i was right back where i was the night before, dancing on a knee that needed more rest than spankin the planks. All in all, it was a great christmas with strangers that felt like my best friends.

Siagon, Vietnam

Siagon had a really cool atmosphere to it especially because it was just before christmas. I ventured out of the city a bit to see the Chu-Chi tunnels which were the underground tunnels that the Viet Con used in the "American" war. They were very small and dark tunnels with many levels to them. The guide that i had was vietnamese and had no problem walking through the tunnels. I had a bit more difficult time and had to crawl on all-fours most of the time. The guide was average vietnamese hieght of 5'7" and I am 6'4", you do the math. Afterwards there was a shooting range where i was able to shoot an AK 47, M 16, and a big ass M60. F*#&ing awesome.

After that i went to the war remnants museum, Which was called until 5 years ago the American war crimes museum. It was very anti-American and i went by my altar ego of Mason from Canada for most of the day.

I figured that was enough of the city and went north to the city of Mui Ne for Christmas.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

This place was a breath of fresh air. On the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, it was my first time seeing the ocean in 2 months. It was a great place to lose track of time. My day went as fallows. I would wake up and have breakfast at my guest house and then head down to the beach foe the rest of the day where I would get at least one massage a day, multiple games of pool, and fresh lobster in the afternoon. Then to rap the day up i would go to the cinema and watch a movie or two and have a couple beers. The total days expenses were about $10. Talk about having a tough life. I did mix it up a little bit and went scuba diving one day about 2 hours of the coast in some amazing coral reefs.

Phnom Penh, The Capital

Phnom Penh was different. I had to go to see the historical importance, but then had to get out. Here's a little info about its history. In 1975 a man named Pol Pot became the leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. He had this idea was to kill off all the "intelligent" people to have a society that was very simplistic. These "intelligent" people were anyone that wore glasses and asked questions. He starved his people to death and killed them if they un-lawfully ate food that wasn't given to them by the the Khmer army. How would the Khmer army know if you have been sneaking food, with daily feces checks of course. Between 1975 and 1979 there was somewhere between 2 million and 3 million people killed. The army would often kill and buried these people in mass shallow graves known as the killing fields. It was definitely an eye opener. You can understand why i say that it was different. i got out of there the very next day to a more relaxing setting.

Ankor What?

I arrived in Siem Reap to see the mother of all wat's(temples), Ankor Wat. That consisted of a 4 a.m. wake-up call to be able to hit the road by 4:30 on our bikes to see the sunrise at these amazing temples. To our advantage, the owner of the guesthouse gave us some insider tips on where to go first to avoid the 500 plus tourists that go to see the biggest temple every morning. Myself and a Canadian fellow, Blair, that I had been traveling with for the past three weeks or so were real go-getters and busted out most of the temples on the first day which consisted of about 45km of riding. As a side note, the bikes we had were ok, but lacked in the comfort zone.

Needless to say the second day we hired a tuk-tuk or a motor-bike taxi to all of you at home, to literally save our asses for the second day of the temples. At the temple where tomb raider was filmed was the most touristy and was impacted with Japanese and Chinese tourist that all wear a neon green, pink, green, etc. hats to stay with the tour group. Blair and I tried to fit in with a couple groups but the jig was easily up when we stood a foot taller than the rest without hats.

That night we decided to giv'er and hit the night life at a bar called none other than Ankor What? There was much fun and meet a halarious Brit and we paint6ed the town.

First of all. . .

I would like to apoligies for the lack of blog posts in the last month. what can i say . . . . . vietnam does not like google blogger. I couldn't post or even look at other blogs (i.e. Brandon and Kirsten's or my parents) which really sucked because that is the best way to see what is going on back home and in South American. I am now back in Thailand, but lets not get ahead of ourselves, let me fill in the last month.

Cambodia

From the islands I went into Cambodia to a town off of the beaten path called Ban Lung. The first day there a Canadian and I rented moto bikes for the day and we both had some trouble with them. I was on a 125cc dirt bike and he was on a 100cc scooter. In that late afternoon my bike stalled and I couldn't get it started again. Being about 15 Km outside of town, I pushed it to a grease monkey 300 meters down the road. He checked it out and could not figure out what was wrong with it. I had my friend go back to town to get the owner to help us out. He laid his bike down going about 30km/h and got some abrasions on his leg and arm but was ok. Meanwhile, I started to push the bike back to town. After an hour of pushing I ran into the owner and he informs me that his bike stalls sometimes and is really easy to get started if you know the secret touch.


The next day I went to a really cool volcanic lake that was in the top of an inactive volcano and stayed there until sunset. When I get back to my room I noticed that some things had been moved and $20, my cell phone and ipod were missing. After an hour of arguing with the owner and manager trying to convince them that those items were had been stolen, I use one of their phones to call my phone. I looked on every floor and ended up hearing it ring in a room on the floor above me. The owner and manager open the room, which belonged to 6 of the employees of the hotel, and my phone was hidden in the dresser and was still on. So one down, one to go. Since I now proved that things had been taken the police came to question the 6 residents of the room. They didn't say a thing. At that point I could have them all arrested or not and all i really wanted was my ipod back and no one going to jail for 1 to 2 months. After some scare tactics by yours truely and 3 hours later, the ipod shows up out of no where. The owner of the hotel then made it up to me by buying dinner and drinks for the night for myself and 2 other guest that were helping out. I also didn't have to pay for my hotel room or any other meals as long as I was there. I only spent three nights there, but it felt like a life time.

Now on to Siem Reap.