Discovering Saigon

It's been quite a time since I actually returned safely to Switzerland, and to me that epic South East Asia trip still seems so unrealistic in hindsight. Sometimes it's hard to believe what I've been through my 6 months odyssey, and I've been thinking about it a lot recently. That's why I finally decided to finish my travel blog about my Vietnam trip. Let's do this!

After my explorations in the Mekong Delta (check out my previous post) I head north-east to my next major destination, the former capital of South Vietnam. Saigon, nowadays called Ho Chi Minh City due to political reasons, is pretty much the most westernized, developed and pretty much most preferred Vietnamese city by westerners. Over 8 million people (!) live in the city center and the outskirts, making it de facto the biggest city in the country. With a cheap travel coach I finally arrived in the probably largest concrete jungle of South East Asia.

Welcome to Saigon. Note the city's highest building in the background, the Bitexco Financial Tower

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Stalking around in the Mekong Delta, Việt Nam

As soon as I came back from Sen Monorom, I immediately booked a minivan in Phnom Penh - I had to leave the country within one day! So with my ever-trusty backpack, my new visa and much enthusiasm I moved toward the Cambodian-Vietnamese border crossing of Ha Tien, southern Vietnam.

A few steps away from Vietnam  - the border crossing in Ha Tien.

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Tears of grief and joy in Phnom Penh - and again some elephants!

I promised you to tell you more about the fateful reign of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge that seemed so much to affect the country - and actually still affects the country. As I wrote before, nowadays there are the remaining landmines, the rotting infrastructure, hell, even the widespread corruption in almost every public branches. But during their short political reign of only 4 years the Khmer Rouge did so incredibly much harm to the country and its people, that they leave other infamous dictatorships of the 20th century look like bloody amateurs.

Khmer Rouge soldiers - squinting eyes of political terror and genocide

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Bamboo trains, a deserted island and a touristic ghost town...

After a couple of days I was somehow glad to escape the tourist masses of Siem Reap - I honestly haven't expected the town to be that busy. But at least travelling from here would be easy, as I was on the tourist-beaten track again. Almost every guesthouse and hotel in town offered a bus or minivan service to all major cities in Cambodia.

My next target was therefore Battambang, Cambodia's second biggest city. Although it first doesn't seem to be too far from Siem Reap, it still took me like 4 to 5 hours to get there by bus. Welcome to Cambodia - a country where time travels as fast as a slug on methylphenidate. I was surprised that the Khmers are actually quite fond of watching music videos and complete movies in those rugged buses, so during the whole ride several Cambodian singers and a gun-wielding Chow Yun Fat were flickering on a small flatscreen. Yeah, that's right, a «heroic bloodshed» movie like God of Gamblers Returns was shown in front of the passengers, also including a couple of small kids!

Chow Yun Fat kicking ass with a shotgun - a perfect film for an audience including 5 years old kids!

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