Vietnam update

Well it's been quite some time since I've had more of a substantial blog post. The Intrepid trip I've been on has been quite packed with travel and activities. I'm going to try to do a few separate blog posts on a few of the cities we visited.

Places visited:
Hanoi
Ha long bay
Cat ba island
Hue (imperial city)
Hoi An
My Lai Massacre site
Na trang
Ho Chi Min City (Saigon)

My overall impression of Vietnam is completely different from what I was thinking before I got here. It is a fascinating place with extreme mixtures of eastern & western cultures. It's fascinating seeing the balance between communism and capitalism.

Today we are on a public bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We have about two more weeks to explore Cambodia with or new tour leader, SKY. He's Cambodian and speaks English with an australian accent. It's quite fun as he uses the word "mate" more than many Aussies I know.

So we head to Phnom Penh today.
Tomorrow we see the killing field and Toul Sleng followed by a bus trip to Sihanouk ville.
Tues we chill at the beach
Wed we repeat beach day but add margaritas
Thursday we have a homestay in Cham Bok
Friday back to phnom penh
Saturday to kampong Cham for a bicycle tour
Sunday we get to Siem Reap
We then have three days to explore Siem Ream to see Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm (where they filmed tomb raider)
Finally we'll make our way to Bangkok, Thailand!!

Interesting note, in Cambodia all of the ATMs only give out US Dollars. Yup, that's right, the entire country runs on American money! Sky says it's because the Cambodian Rehl is a bit unstable so the USD helps keep currency from inflating or deflating too much. How much American cash must be sitting in ATMs in Cambodia!? Don't we pay to have that cash produced?

That's all for now! I got some killer Tex-Mex a few days ago. Wayne runs a killer rib restaurant in Na Trang!