No, seriously, Where's Mara???

She's in Cambodia! Lauren and I just spent a week in and around Saigon, Vietnam (or Ho Chi Minh City if you want to be official about it). We left Darwin, Aus. on February the 6th, and yesterday we arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Saigon was a nutty city, so busy, with a total population of 8 million people, and 6 million motorbikes. Needless to say, crossing the streets (I think we saw maybe two traffic lights) was a death defying stunt. The locals just walk right across but tourists aren't used to it. They can usually be spotted holding hands, running and dodging and loudly squealing. (Okay, that was me.) We saw some of the main sites, the Reunification Palace which has had several different names, this one marking the reunification of North and South Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh, the main man. My knowledge of the Vietnam War (or, the American war as they call it locally) is shockingly inadequate, so I learned a lot, yet I feel I only scratched the surface of both the history and the country itself. The War Remnants Museum was particularly moving, it had loads of photographs of the war and its victims, and information on people who are still feeling the effects today from the use of chemical defoliants. The museum opened in 1975 as "The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government of South Vietnam". They changed the name once Vietnam and the Us normalized relations, however they don't attempt to be unbiased and it's been really interesting to hear the story of the war told by the other side. Beyond all the learning, mostly we did a lot of eating. Vietnamese food is amazing and cheap. I don't think I ever had a meal that wasn't delicious, and the best part of being in Asia foodwise is fresh fruit smoothies....mmmm.

After a few days in HCMC we hopped a tour to the Mekong Delta, the heart of Vietnam's rice production, and slept in a town along the Mekong. The next morning we saw the floating village nearby, which is made up of wooden and corrugated iron houses out on the lake. Many people live in them because they can't afford to buy property on land and so live on the water and make their living by raising fish. The rest of the day was spent on a series of boats and buses, making our way to the Cambodian border, and then onto Phnom Penh, the capital. Its also very busy here, lots of motorbikes and tuk-tuks, but the architecture is different. Because Vietnam was ruled by China for so long, the aesthetic is very Chinese, in the decorations and traditions. Cambodia was historically more under the influence of India and China, and there are more elaborate Thai-style temples here. So that's the news from here, I'll update again soon and post some photos once I remember to bring my camera cord with me. Today we saw about 5 monkeys hanging out on the telephone lines, then they came down and were eating food off the street. One of them found a half empty soda bottle, unscrewed it and dranak the rest of it! These monkeys were street savvy. And cute. And probably rabid, so I kept my distance, don't worry. I took lots of photos. Anyways, lots of love from Asia!

Mara