Ok, I'm very much behind the schedule with my posts. I've been a bit lazy writer lately, sorry for that. Anyway we had a recess week in the middle of the semester right after the Formula 1 GP (check the previous post). As we didn't have any midterm exams, Ryan, Essi, Maiju, Jaana, Holly and I decided to go for a trip. In my part the trip lasted from 24th September until the 1st of October. We visited Vietnam and Cambodia.
Vietnam
I was the last one to arrive in Vietnam. All the others arrived on different days and Holly and Ryan were waiting for me in Ho Cho Minh City. In the same night we had booked a bus to
Mui Ne that is a coastal resort in southeastern Vietnam. It is pretty much one country road that goes along the coast and there are small hotels and restaurants all the way. Jaana, Maiju and Essi wanted to make a short tour in Vietnam so they left HCMC before I arrived. We met in Mui Ne later on.
So my first three nights in Vietnam we spent in Mui Ne. The first guesthouse was okay, but quite far from all the action and I think we were the only guests. Ryan, Holly and I shared a room with several
gekkos but it's alright as they are harmless and eat all the bugs.
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| Mui Ne |
I lost one of my sandals in the bus when we arrived so very first thing to do in the morning was to find flipflops for me (as the the ground was burning hot with bare feet). The days in Mui Ne were pretty much about laying on a beach, throwing frisbee, eating in different restaurants and enjoying the cheap prices in a nice bar called Joe's. (I can fully recommand that place if you ever go to Mui Ne. Good food, nice prices, live music and very great atmosphere. Slightly Western tho...) We also rented a motorbikes for 24 hours and spent some time to drive along the coast. Rental was 5 USD for a bike.
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| My first one which got broken |
On the 3rd day in Mui Ne we met the Finnish ladies finally. At the same time it was Ryan's last day before going back to Singapore because of some studying he had to do. Holly and I wanted to level up our accommodation and therefore we changed to a pretty nice beach house with a private beach, pool etc. We wanted to have some peace of a luxury and it all costed only for 70 USD a night in total.
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| The terrace of our beach house in Mui Ne |
As it was Ryan's last night and the girls finished their tour and joined us, we decided to have a pool party at our place. Girls brought some Vietnamese wine they had found on their trip. Ryan took a bus to HCMC at 1 am. We also left Mui Ne next day and headed back to HCMC for one night. Yet again me and Holly met plenty of new friends on District 1. Very good place to meet backpackers. One of them was Edvin with whom we shared a bus next day to Cambodia (and actually we met later again in Singapore with three of us).
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| The last night in Mui Ne |
Cambodia
The bus trip from HCMC lasted from the early morning to the latenight. The only place I really visited in Cambodia, despite having a two-hour-long break in the capital
Phnom Penh, was
Siem Reap. There I had practically two full days to stay. The Finnish girls arrived before me and Holly. We tried to book a room from the same hotel with them but it was full. Therefore we had to find another one and ended up in a really nice hotel with great service and a pool. We paid together 20 USD a night that included typical Asian breakfast (= rice with something). We also had a personal tuk-tuk driver who drove us anywhere anytime with a ridiculously cheap price (after the first day we paid 5 USD + 1 USD tip for 3-4 rides.)
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| Enjoying the Tuk-Tuk ride |
The first day we spent mostly walking around the town and did some shopping. We also spent a couple of hours at the pool and in the evening we wanted to see a sunset on a temple but unfortunately it started to rain - we climbed anyway and saw the temple without the sun. It was quite funny anyway. After that we met the girls for a dinner and some drinks. Beer costed 50 US cents for a bottle in a bar. Siem Reap is quite touristic but yet cheap and it was off season. Therefore we enjoyed space and free prices.
The second day we spent totally seeing the temples. We saw temples everywhere and visited four or five. The most notable ones were the most known temple in the area called
Angkor Wat and the one that was used in the movie Tomb Raider (2001) called
Ta Prohm. These were some of the most amazing constructions I have ever seen in my life. In
Angkor region there are hundreds of temples in total and it's protected by UNESCO.
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| Me at Angkor Wat |
After the tour I headed back to the hotel and said by to the girls who stayed a couple of more days. I took a sleeping bus back to Phnom Penh. In the sleeping bus I met three backpacker girls from USA and had some good talks before fell asleep for a couple of hours. In Phnom Penh I caught a flight in the morning and returned in Singapore in the afternoon. Cambodia was the best place I had visited so far in Asia.
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| Jaana at a temple |
