Froggin' Delish Man

After having beers by the lake we headed back to the river side to get some food, we planned for a traditional Cambodian bbq in which you cook your meal yourself over some hot coals in the middle of the table. After a little bit of searching we were unable to find the restaurant so we stopped off at a nearby bar and had a few more beers – feeling in the festive mood we had our pictures taken with santa. We then stumbled (literally) across a shop selling santa outfits and decided to get our outfits for Christmas full moon party. With outfits bagged up we headed to the nearest restaurant. I (liam) decided to go for the frogs legs – I can honestly say they were lovely, like chicken wings but with more meat on – I will definitely be getting them again!

Whilst eating, one of the young staff saw my santa mask and asked about it as I got it out to show him the outfit came out and he got VERY excited – this led to both outfits being pulled out and tried on by all 15 of the waiters in the restaurant, bearing in mind Aileen’s outfit was a dress this was one of the funniest things on the trip so far! Pictures are on Flickr.

Phnom Penh - 7th December 2009

Woke up to a lovely bright day and we set out to the river. After sorting the intricate plans of our onward journey we decided to follow the lonely planet city walking tour. We missed the royal palace and the tour seemed to be a walk around the busy dusty streets – with absolutely nothing to see!! It did give an insight into how busy the roads get though – scooters up on our path and all at some points.

Managed to make it to the lake where most of the backpackers stay – we found it was nice and laid back which was very different to the rest of the city – if we had of stayed in Phnom Penh longer it would have been nice to stay there.

Saigon to Phnom Penh - 6th December 2009

Woke up with a pumping headache and had to get packing for a bus to Cambodia. Thankfully checkout was at 11 – the other couple we had been drinking with had a tour planned and had to get up at 7am - don’t think we would have been able to make it!

Bus to Cambodia was 6 hours - which was not too bad as we had to stop at the border and get our visa’s – which worked out to be hassle free which was a relief as we had heard some horror stories.

We arrived in Phnom Penh just as it was getting dark and just at rush hour - we got a tuk tuk straight away and it was easily the scariest ride yet with the craziest driver. This is saying a lot as most of the time on a tuk tuk you take your life in your hands. We’d also read about bag snatching in Cambodia but when the driver tells you repeatedly to watch your bag (as tuk tuk can’t follow moto!) we were extra cautious. We got a room in a hotel on the 6^th floor – after taking our bags up we were knackered – we went to the nearest place to eat and then headed back to the hotel for a well earned sleep.

Ho Chi Minh City - 5th December 2009

Set out today to see the past of Saigon and its recent communist incarnation – Ho Chi Minh City. We had a guided tour of independence/reunification palace. This was first built by the French as their base in indo china and taken over by Vietnamese during their independence, then to be taken over after the Vietnamese/American war by the communists. Lots of cool things in the building - tanks, a helicopter and an airplane, and the guide was very helpful. We then went to the war museum after that, which was very sad and very emotive.

After all the walking of the day we headed off for a KFC which was absolutely lovely – first proper western fast food since Malaysia. Ordered the whole menu!

Whilst heading out that night to the food festival to work our way around the missed stalls from the previous night we ran into a couple from Cork who we had met in Laos and whom we had then bumped into here and there throughout Vietnam. Needless to say the food festival was cancelled again and we sat down in the small chairs on the street and indulged in many 16p beers. We ran them out of beer in the first place and had to move on, ended up in a small Irish bar til very late that night.

Saigon - 4th December 2009

Landed in the hustle and bustle of Saigon at 6.00 in the morning – was so tired it was hard to walk the streets and so we walked with caution so we would not get run over. Had the worst sleeper bus ride yet as we were forced to the back of the bus where you can feel every bump of the road. We got cozy with 3 other people in the back (spooning) and the sleeping tablets did not work so it was a long ride. (That was Liam’s perspective…Aileen had the best of her sleeper bus experiences as could actually lie out straight and got nearly 5 hours sleep!!).

Got an ok room for that time of day and after some rest managed to go and have a look around. We were right in the heart of the city and in the local park nearby was a world food festival. We set out to taste the world and started off well when we got a lovely samosa – next stall was a Russian beer tent where we ran into some people we had met in Nha Trang – so the tour of the world pretty much stopped there! But had a good day with them and we managed to go to another stall where Aileen got a nice Vietnamese pancake – finally figured out how to eat them properly too!!

Planned to meet the crew we had been drinking with that day at their hostel later as they had a bar – while walking up the stairs a rat ran down and over Aileens feet- GROSS! Told a girl we met on the stairs and she was not perturbed “well at least he was running out”! Glad we are ‘flashpacking’ and not slumming it.