28.06.2004

Fine dining

If there's one thing we'd like to share with our international audience of sensible readers, it's this common-sense travel tip: do not under any circumstances eat on the streets. Our travel insurance travel tips card authoritatively advises that you should avoid eating on the street lest you get sick. I imagined the office worker who spent July last year working on the travel-tips card and knew she was probably a very sensible person too.

26.06.2004

On the road

With around 70 million people inhabiting a country of two poles joined by a sliver of coastline and serviced by a single-lane national highway it is only obvious that overtaking is an 'interesting', and often-occuring experience.

25.06.2004

Mui Ne

We caught a 'T & M brothers' bus from HCMC to Mui Ne - a little seaside resort six hours north-east. I can thoroughly recommend taking a trip with any other company. The trip was just so slow, which definitely doesn't make it any safer with all the overtaking traffic, and the immovable plastic seats are spaced apart just far enough for the seat installer to install the seat back at the bus-making factory.

24.06.2004

Talk about the war

The sun spent today beating down on us wandering the streets of HCMC taking in the various war museums and the re-unification palace. This ornate building housed the South-Vietnamese Government and President Diem's family sometime before Viet Cong tanks crashed through the wrought-iron gates out the front.

23.06.2004

Ho Chi Minh City

Ah, well here we are - theatre of forgettable political theories when the Domino Theory was all the rage. If one poor, asian country fell to communism they all would. A five hundred metre tall bust of Stalin would now be in place of the Statue of Liberty.

17.06.2004

By the river

After an afternoon visit to the Royal Palace we decided to retire to the Foreign Correspondants Club, where old journo hacks gather round the bar overlooking the river to discuss unfolding events in Phnom Penh.

14.06.2004

Phnom Penh

I would pick up my Lonely Planet now to write as an pre-eminent expert on Khmer and French Colonial Phnom Penh architecture, but my attorney has advised me to act normal. Or at least less serious.

Regardless, I'm too lazy. Suffice to say the French had some construction input here while they played their empire games. Not that I'm caring too much right now - it's the gastronomical legacy that has me sold. Hot breads and pastries were eagerly devoured - almost had me whistling "la Marseillaise" but for the fact I don't know how it goes.

After some long walks around the city we've also given a double-thumbs-up review to the rice/coconut encrusted bananas cooked in the street woks.

13.06.2004

Sihanoukville

We made the 8am, four hour speedboat journey to Sihanoukville for 500 baht. The speedboat is really more a rivercat than anything else. In fact it was not designed to be operated at speed across the high seas.

12.06.2004

Koh Kong

A few days ago. Monsoon. Showers and the like. Restless, we were.

Today. We decided to leave Koh Chang. A transportational hop-skip-and-jump found us at Trat -> Hat Lek -> the border with Cambodia.

The 100 baht mini-bus journey from Trat led down an ever-narrowing strip of Thai land - the Cambodian border reaching hungrily down to the sea until the Thai side barely had enough room to squeeze a road through. Hat Lek is the final border town on the south east of Thailand.

08.06.2004

Jungle cleansing

Who would have ever thought that squat toilets and bathing from a tub of water, in the midst of a jungle, would ever contribute to an enjoyable bathing experience. However... the open air, sub-tropical 'bathrooms' are definitely the type of enclosure we're after post-office existance.

There are even palms planted throughout to ensure natural exfoliation if need be - now there's a whole new use for palm fronds!

05.06.2004

Treehouse

A magical circular expanse of island-traveller chatter resting atop a comfortably uneven floor of buckling wood planks. Mismatched mats of odd patterns and colour mark out the territory for each table. Hung from the ceiling of the wide thatched roof are colourful cloth lanterns.

03.06.2004

Ko Chang

After a taxi-taxi-ferry-taxi we've arrived at Lonely Beach which is near the southern tip of the island.

01.06.2004

Trat

Neatly sorted and cooked insects on a barrow attracted more digital snaps than customers in Bangkok last night. At least from the traveller crowd. The converted red combi van serving spirits attracted more. Of course.