Remember don't stand on the toilet

Traffic in Saigon

There are approximately 7 million people in Saigon and more half of them own motorbikes. This combined with the fact that there does not appear to be any rules for driving makes for an interesting city to navigate on foot.

Traffic in Saigon

At first it looks like complete chaos and trying to cross the road can be very difficult but you soon get used to it. You walk across the road in front of traffic and the traffic avoids you. After a few days in Saigon I decided to hire a motorbike to explore the city further and also to get out of the city and see some of the countryside. I thought it was going to be very difficult but it was not so bad, in fact I found it easier than driving in Dublin or London. There does not appear to be any rules, red lights are ignored constantly, taking a left turn usually involves driving into oncoming traffic, roundabouts and junctions are worse and finally you have the constant threat of pedestrians walking out in front of you.

I did not record this video myself but I think it gives a good insight into traffic in Saigon.

Tết Nguyên Đán, the Vietnamese new year

I arrived in Saigon just in time for the new year celebrations. It was great to experience Tết in Saigon but the downside was that the majority of businesses were closed for the holidays or those that were open had Tết prices.

Tết in Saigon

New years eve reminded me of Christmas Eve in Dublin, there were people everywhere. On a normal day walking around Saigon is very difficult due to the large volume of people, cars and motorbikes but it was considerably worse on new years eve.

Saigon at night

Siagon during Tết

Saigon on New Years Eve

As part of the Tết celebrations one of the main streets in Saigon was pedestrianised and decorated with flowers. On new years eve everyone gathered here to watch the fireworks display which was fairly impressive. Although I enjoyed listening to peoples reactions to the fireworks more so then the fireworks themselves.

Yellow Flowers Everywhere

More Flowers

Cambodia to Vietnam on the Mekong

I took a bus from Phnom Penh to Neak Luong and then a slow boat from there to the border with Vietnam. This border crossing was considerably smoother than the Thailand/Cambodia border crossing at Poi Pet. No bribes were needed this time around.

Cambodia from the Mekong

Cambodia - Vietnam Border on the Mekong

Once we were through the border we changed boat and continued to Chau Doc. We visited some floating villages on the way. There were not only people living on the house boats but they had animals too. We passed one boat where they were raising pigs and most of the boats had dogs. Everyone was busy preparing for the Chinese New Year known as Tet in Vietnam.

Dog in the floating village

Flowers for Tet

After a night in Chau Doc we took another boat to visit some of the floating markets in the mekong delta and finally finishing up in Can Tho.

Floating Market

Can Tho

Phnom Penh

The day after visiting Angkor I decided it was time to leave Siem Reap. I took a bus to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Phnom Penh is a big city with lots of people, lots of tourists and lots of motorbikes, that said it was more what I was expecting Cambodia to be like. It was full of regular people going about their everyday lives, unlike Siem Reap (or at least that parts I saw) where everyones sole concern seemed to be tourists and getting money from them. Maybe I'm a bit harsh on Siem Reap but that was myimpression.

I watched the movie "The Killing Fields" in the guesthouse and the following day went on a tour organised by the guesthouse to Choeung Ek (the killing fields) and to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.

The Killing Fields

At the entrance to the killing fields there is a Buddhist memorial filled with more than 5,000 skulls of the victims. Throughout the site you can see the various mass graves that were uncovered and bones from the victims. In some areas as you are walking around you can see the fragments of bones on the ground mixed in with the soil. Many people took photos of this but I didn't feel it was something that I wanted to photograph. If you want to find out more you can see the Chonung Ek page on wikipedia.

Buddhist Memorial at Choeung Ek

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was a high school that was used by the Khmer Rouge as a prison and interrogation center. Today the buildings are as they were left when the Khmer Rouge were driven out in 1979. Some of the rooms contain photos of victims and others contain a rusting iron bedframe and a photo of how the room was when it was found by the Vietnamese and other contain the instruments of torture that were used at the site.

Rusting bed frame in Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Cambodia - Siem Reap and Angkor Wat

After a 5 hour bus journey from Bangkok I made to the the Thai-Cambodia border crossing. The border crossing is as bad as the Lonelyplanet describes. We had to content with moto drivers, tuk tuk drivers, tour guides and tourist "officials" all telling us that we couldn't get our visa at the border and that they could bring us to somewhere we could get one. Eventually we get half way through the border and find the official desk for buying your visa and then we have to bribe the official to get our visa. The scams, bribes, requests for tips and begging continued up until we got to our guesthouse. I even had to lie to the tuk tuk driver to say that I had already booked and paid for the guesthouse as he did not want to take us there instead wanted to take us to his friends guesthouse!

The next day we hired bicycles from the guesthouse and cycled to Angkor. We got there at 8am and it was already very busy mostly with people traveling by tuk tuk. It opens at 5am so we actually got there late.

Entrance to Angkor

We spent the day exploring the various temples. The temples were as I expected but what I was not expecting was the extend to which tourism has taken over. Walking around Siem Reap you are constantly hassled by moto drivers, tuk tuk drivers, various stall owners all trying to sell you something or take you somewhere. For some reason I thought Angkor would be different, maybe because it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site but it was worse. You had all of the above fighting for your attention but you also had children, lots of them either begging or trying to sell you something or convince you to come to a particular restaurant.

View of the moat surrounding Angkor Wat

View from inside the temple

No more negative numbers

The weather in Bangkok makes a big change from the rest of my trip. Its warm, very warm, the temperature is over 30 degrees during the day and around 25 at night. I spent a few days exploring Bangkok doing the common tourist activities such as visiting the many temples throughout the city, the various night markets, eating Pad Thai and seeing Avatar in 3D at the IMAX.

One of the many temples in Bangkok

Inside the temple grounds

Pad Thai

Night Market

After a few days in Bangkok I got a bus and ferry to Koh Chang. I stayed here for 5 nights in a bungalow on a remote beach. My main tasks for the day were putting on sun cream in the morning and putting on mosquito repellent in the evening.

K.K. Beach

One of the many swings on K.K. Beach

Sunset on K.K. Beach

K.K. Beach

Bang Bao Beach

Leaving China

The bus and train stations in China started to get very busy. I queued for 1 hour to buy a bus ticket one day then queued for the bus for 1.5 hours and didn't manage to get a seat on the bus. People I spoke to explained that 1/2 a million people will be traveling in China over the next month.

I decided it was time to leave China so I took a train from Shanghai to Shenzhen which took about 20 hours. I would arrive in Shenzhen at 8am and then fly from Shenzhen to Bangkok at 11:30pm. I did not have any plans for how I would spent my day in Shenzhen...

Luckily I ended up sharing a compartment with Adam Wong and his daughter Sayo who were returning to Hong Kong.

Sayo, Adam and me.

Adam invited me to spend the day with them in Shenzhen before taking my flight. We had breakfast in a Hong Kong restaurant, then went to a massage house for a 3 hour chinese massage then it was time for lunch where we had Dim Sum. Lunch lasted for about 3 hours and we ate a wide variety of dishes. During my time in China experienced the Chinese custom of the guest not paying and this custom was rigidly enforced by Adam during my time in Shenzhen.

That evening I took the bus to Shenzhen Airport giving myself plenty of time to find the correct terminal and get through security.

Shenzhen Airport

Why is there meat hanging from that tree?

I was waiting for a bus from Tong Li to Suzhou with some friends that I had spent the day with. Across the road I noticed some meat hanging from a tree outside a China mobile shop.

Meat hanging from a tree.. Click on the image to get a better quality photo.

The conversation with my Chinese friends went as follows..

Me: Why is there meat tied to that tree?

Them: What?

Me: Why is there meat tied to that tree?

Them: What? (One of them starts looking up words in the dictionary to figure out what I am asking them.)

Me: Look across the road... See the moped?

Them: Yes

Me: Do you see the tree beside it?

Them: Yes

Me: Is that meat tied to the tree?

Them: Yes its pork.

Me: Why is it tied to the tree?

Them: What? What you mean why?

At this point the girl has figured out what I was asking originally and she starts laughing. Eventually we are all laughing.

Them: They are preparing the meat for the spring festival in a few weeks.

Me: Are people actually going to eat that?

At this point they are laughing so much that people are staring at us as they walk by on the street. Well people are been staring all day but they even more so now.

Them: Of course they are going to, why would they not. You ate it last night at dinner.

Me: What?

Them: Remember the word we translated for you last night

Me: Cured Meat?

Them: Yes. It's cured meat.  I thought you said you had cured meat in Ireland...


Me: Yes we do....


Them: So why do you think it is so strange that it is hanging from a tree. This is normal in China.

Me: Yes we have cured meat in Ireland but we don't hang it from a tree.

Them: How do you make it if you don't hang it from a tree?

Me: I don't know but I'm pretty sure we don't hang it from a tree.....

Related Blog Posts:

• Head up a tree
• The Miracle Safari - Part 1
• The Miracle Safari - Part 2
• The Miracle Safari - Part 3
• The Miracle Safari - Part 4