Phnom Penh

After our time was up in Saigon it was off to Cambodia. The hotel was very helpful in getting us bus tickets for Phnom Penh and arranging a pick up to another place where we boarded the bus. On the way to the border the agents on the bus collected our passports and arranged Cambodian visas. It took around 2 hours at the border to get through before lunch nearby. Then is was another hour on the bus to Phnom Penh. Plenty of tuk tuk drivers there to negotiate with for the ride to our hotel.

We allowed 2 nights in Phnom Penh before heading to Siem Reap.

The Mekong from the Foreign Correspondence Club in Phnom Penh

A recommendation for a good place for dinner is the Foreign Correspondence Club. Well worth a visit, good food, fantastic location and a must do place when in Phnom Penh.

Next day was full on to see the Royal Palace, S21 and the National Museum in Phnom Penh.

Spectacular Royal Palace in Phnom Penh



Not sure what these structures are but there are
four of them in the Palace grounds

Wall paintings in need of restoration.



Not sure what flower is but one of many in trees near
the exit to Royal pavilions.

After the Royal Palace we moved on to see another, very dark chapter in the history of Cambodia. Namely the S21 museum. You may remember Cambodia changing its name to Kampuchea. The Khymer Rouge regime under Pol Pot massacred millions in the 1970s until it was overthrown by the Vietnamese army on 7th January 1979.

A secondary school was turned in to prison / concentration camp and should be on your list of places to see in Phnom Penh.

One of four such buildings in the complex known as S21.

Inside the main gate is the following notice board.


S21-  Security Regulations

An English transcript sets out what was expected!

1.       You must answer according to my questions. Don’t turn them away.

2.       Don’t try to hide the facts by making pretexts this and that. You are strictly prohibited to contest me.

3.       Don’t be fool for you are a chap who dare to thwart the revolution.

4.       You must immediately answer my questions without wasting time to reflect.

5.       Don’t tell me about your immoralities or the essence of the revolution.

6.       While getting lashes or electrification you must not cry out at all.

7.       Do nothing, sit still and wait my orders. If there is no order, keep quiet, when I ask you to do something, you must do it right away without protesting.

8.       Don’t make pretext about Kampuchea Krom in order to hide your secret or traitor.

9.       If you don’t follow all the above rules, you shall get ten lashes of electric wire.

10.   If you disobey any point of my regulations you shall get either ten lashes or five shocks of electric discharge.

The gallows notice board is easier to read.



Dunking pots and gallows.

We declined to got out to the Killing Fields after seeing what happened at S21. Instead we visited the National Museum. Plenty of relics here which had been rescued from some of the wats we were to visit around Siem Reap in a few days time.

Courtyard garden at the National Museum.





Traditional Cambodian style architectural skyline.



After a big day out it in Phnom Penh, it was time to move on to Siem Reap the next day- a rather hair raising bus trip!

Vietnam - Saigon

Leaving Hoi An we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) around the middle of the day after a one hour flight. The locals still call it Saigon and the baggage labels still carry the SAG code. I will opt to use the names the locals give to the city.

It was New Years Day ( First day of the TET calendar) when we arrived and the opening of the New Year Festival. Two of the main streets were closed off with all sorts of displays and entertainment providing plenty to see. The locals were out in their tens of thousands, mostly dressed up in their traditional clothes for photos.



Dragon in the main street, Nguyen Hue.

These girls were only too pleased to have their photos taken.

The floral displays down Nguyen Hue stretched around 1.5 km down to the river and contained all sorts of arrangements. A couple of photos here to give you an idea. Wheel-barrows, butterflies and dragonflies being easily recognisable  arrangements. There were many orchids too but I wasn't pleased with any of my photos.

The balloon lady

Returning to our hotel one day we came across this young lad who was putting on a show for everyone. He had obviously done this before.



Drummer boy

This statue of Uncle Ho was very popular and I had to cut out the throngs lining up to have their photos. I'm not too keen on photographs full of posers!



Uncle Ho

The central square in Saigon has the Catholic Cathedral and the post office across the street.



Notre Dame Cathedral, Saigon

The Saigon Post Office is a remnant from French colonial days. It is very worthwhile going in there and posting something. Post cards sent from here take around 3 weeks to get to their destination. Also a good place to post gifts to lighten the baggage load on the way home. We posted boxes, which you buy and get help to pack and seal, which again took around 3 weeks to get to New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. We spent nearly an hour doing this.



Saigon Post Office



Saigon Opera House

Outside our hotel one afternoon we found a street theatre group warming up for a performance later on in the festival

Keen spectator - one of the family

There are good day trips to be had from Saigon.  These are easily arranged at the hotel and are quite cheap. We went on a trip out to the Mekong Delta and a boat trip from My Tho. Not sure if I would put it on a "must do" list though. The War Remnants Museum in Saigon is a must see though.

We enjoyed a day trip out to Tay Ninh to visit the Cao Temple. The devotees pray 6 times a day with midday being the one where everyone dresses for the occasion - a tourist spectacle as well which we arrived in time to see.

Cao Dai Temple

The interior of the temple is very richly decorated as this photo shows.

Prayer time

Deep in meditation

On the way back to Saigon after lunch we stopped off at the tunnels at Cu Chi. There was an extensive network of around 250km of tunnels used by the Viet Cong. The entrances to the tunnels were designed small so that larger Americans could not fit in!

Tunnel entrance disguised under a layer of leaves would be difficult to find.



The man disappeared down the tunnel and was gone in a few seconds.

Tunnel entrance

The Vietcong kept their tunnel entrance small. This was to make access by larger American troops more difficult.

Inside the tunnel

One part of the tunnel system of around 100m is still open and one can get through with some difficulty. There are emergency escapes for those who get claustrophobic. There was even an entrance into the waters of the Mekong which was not easy to find as it was underwater for most of the time.

Jungle warfare in the 1960s and 70s was full of booby traps with bamboo traps and many other horrible examples on display as well. A big exhibit of different kinds of booby traps made me feel too sick to photo so the man trap will have to do here.

Bamboo spears for  unwary GIs

Underground kitchens had an ingenious system of ducting the smoke away and dispersing it so that there was little sign of the fires from aerial observers. Helps keep the B52s at bay!

Underground kitchen

Kitchen chimney

An ingenious system of pipes was used to disperse smoke from the kitchens away from it. The idea was that if smoke was spotted from the air, bombs dropped would miss the actual target.

The Viet Cong made use of bomb casings, shrapnel and downed planes after the B52s and helicopters had paid them a visit. Underground weapons factories in the tunnels supplied the materials for booby traps etc.

Working model in the weapons factory exhibit.

Back in Saigon that night it was pizzas for dinner at the Italian restaurant on Le Loi Street. The "best pizzas outside Italy" could possibly be true.

Next day it was time to check out and get the bus for Phnom Penh.