We've done quite a lot since our last post in Phuket, Thailand in rather a short amount of time too.
Right after we left you, we embarked on a 12 hour bus journey to Bangkok, largely uneventful really, except for the small matter of the air-con not functioning when we first got on the bus, even the Thais were complaining so it must have been bad! After about an hour sweltering in the heat, we pulled into another bus depot to change to a bus that had functioning A/C. The driver then (revenge for us complaining of the heat) set the A/C to Arctic mode for the remaining 11 hours of the journey.
In Bangkok, our main aim was to secure a Vietnamese visa, and just have a look round. We took a tuk-tuk round the main temple sights - below is the giant Buddha:
for 20 baht, we got taken to 3 temples (2 tailor's shops!) and then dropped off at the water taxi for our trip to the Vietnamese embassy.
We also visited Bangkok's state of the art malls where on the 3rd floor, I found this:
Not one of those cars available in a prize draw, but a full showroom! Answers on a postcard as to how they got them upstairs.
From Bangkok, we took a bus to the Cambodian border, and from there a taxi to Siem Reap, the launch point for our trip to the world famous Angkor temples. Also the home of Angkor beer. A snip at 30p!
From Siem Reap, we had our own tuk-tuk to take us round the temples for the day. We started from our hotel at 5am in order to catch sunrise over one of the impressive man-made lakes. This particular one was 900 years old!
After the sunrise, the temples beckoned! We went round four main temples, some housed within walls the size of cities, so as you'll imagine, there was a lot to see. The highlights were the trees of the Ta Prohm temple, made famous from the Tomb Raider movie, it really is an awesome sight to see 40ft trees growing straight out of buildings, and the roots are just as impressive:
From Ta Prohm, we went to the huge city of Angkor Tom, some of which was completely collapsed, and some of which was really well preserved such as the carved faces from stone:
Our last stop of the day was the main attraction of Angkor Wat itself. This is the largest religious monument in the world, with big towers, and minute inscriptions and bas-relifs (pictures carved in stone to you and me!) all around. It was a truely magnificent sight.
After a full day at the temples, we returned to Siem Reap and booked our journey to Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh.
Phnom Penh is, to put it mildly, not the nicest city in the world, and the people aren't the kindest either. However, when you consider what the nation went through 35 years ago, it is more than understandable.
Here we went to the S.21 museum, a former school turned concentration camp for enemies of the Khmer Rouge where the harsh reality of Cambodia's history was brought to light.
The next day we took another bus to Ho Chi Minh City - formerly Saigon. What a difference! This is a city that has had its own share of problems in the past, but still manages to convey a friendly, lively atmosphere. The first thing you notice is bikes, millions of them! As I'm sure you all learned from Top Gear, cars are very expensive in Vietnam, and therefore most people choose to get around by motorbike/moped or pedal bike. This makes for a real spectacle as the riders weave dangerously in and out of one another, dice with death on the wrong way down one way streets to save riding another block, and generally tear-up the rule book on safe driving!
And by night, it's the same:
This all makes crossing the road like running the gauntlet, as there is never a break in the traffic. Ever. You simply have to walk out, keep a steady pace and let them weave around you. The only thing you/they stop for are buses and taxis, the rule here seems to be that the bigger vehicle has right of way. Whenever.
Thankfully, we survived several road crossings, and even two near misses caused by people riding mopeds down the pavement simply because the road was a little congested!
While we were in Ho Chi Minh City, we took a trip to the Meekong delta, where we traveled through the mud canals using the locals' mode of transport, saw handicrafts being made and I tried a shot of Snake Wine!
Yesterday, we went to the Cu Chi tunnels where the Viet Cong hid out whilst fighting the Americans. We had an enthusiastic veteran as a tour guide, who fought with the US Army, and he told us the whole story of the tunnels and how they were used against the American forces.
We also got the chance to go through the tunnels, which, even though they have been widened to fit westerners in (103cm tall by 80cm wide) were still a really tight squeeze. We managed 30m crawling before enough was enough!
We also saw the sniper holes that were used, and these were tiny:
We really enjoyed our brief time in Saigon, but last night headed for the station to catch the 11pm train to Nha Trang, a beach resort 6 1/2 hours north of Ho Chi Minh, where we plan to do more diving - can you see a theme occuring here??
We did 4 dives around Phuket and 2 around Koh Phi Phi. They were amazing and we saw tons of great stuff. We have gone a bit overboard on the photos below, but it was so fab. 
We were also shown all the best eating spots. Richard's reputation for eating spicy food was tested as we tried delicious laksa, indian curries, malaysian curries and thai curries - and albeit it, red faced and with sweat pouring off him, he passed!! :) It was great to see family that I had not seen for many many years, and we really enjoyed our time there. (Thanks to everyone for your hospitality)
