Vietnam

All of us had our entire own experiences of Vietnam. Myself (Lily) being ill with tonsillitis throughout our time there, so I did hardly anything and only began to feel better on our last day in Vietnam. Holly wasn't feeling too great herself, so we both sat indoors trying to recover the majority of the time. And Josh and Will climbed the tallest mountain in Indochina, splitting off from us and heading up north early. But first things first: Ho Chi Minh City.

The Vietnamese call the city Saigon, and it was a buzzing, lively place which was great after being in Cambodia where everything is closed by 9pm. We weren't here that long, the main reason for our visit was to see the Cu Chi Tunnels from the Vietnam war, which only Will managed to see as the rest of us were feeling a bit worse for wear. He climbed in to the tunnels which he says were very small and humid and afterwards shot a gun, which is something that is very easily done over here - if you pay a large sum of money you can blow up a cow with a grenade, which weirdly enough isn't listed in the guidebook.

We then took a 17 hour train to the town of Hoi An, the journey being one of the most horrific things we have experienced, it seems like every single person out here is ill with something; coughing, spitting and a woman projectile vomiting at 5 in the morning. Every single Vietnamese person spits and make wonderfully disgusting noises whilst they're doing it too, shopping in the markets out here is also an experience. The locals are not afraid to grab your arm tight forcing you in to their shop and demanding that you buy something and if you say no and walk away they hold on to your arm until you pry them off. Generally quite aggressive people really.

In Hoi An Will got himself a suit personally tailored for the fraction of the price you'd pay in London. Holly also got herself a dress tailored for cheap-cheap, the town itself being world famous for it's many cheap tailor shops so we took full advantage.

We then took a bus up to Hue, where we quickly found cheap accommodation and thankfully with a/c as central Vietnam was extremely humid and hot. Will and Josh explored the Imperial City that has been left in Hue, there are only two in the world, one here and one in China. Will and Josh then got a train up to Hanoi where they were then going to go on to Sapa, the town at the base of Fansipan. Again myself and Holly being too ill to even think about leaving the hostel most of the time.

Me and Holly hung out in Hue for a little longer, and by this point I couldn't even talk anymore so we planned to leave for the capital so that I could get to a Doctor's asap. We took a sleeping bus, which was claustrophobic but also met these French girls one of whom was a Doctor and checked out my throat and prescribed me with antibiotics for absolutely free which saved me about $70. Our first day in Hanoi was paired with a huge monsoon which left our entire street flooded, car alarms were going off cars were submerged - felt a bit like the end of the world but within two hours the water had somehow drained away.

On out last day in Hanoi, and Vietnam, I was finally better so we took a day trip to Ha Long Bay, which is a bay bordering China with over a thousand limestone pillars coming out of the sea. We took a boat, and we explored the floating fishing villages and their markets. We also got on a kayak and went off by ourselves, paddling through caves and in to little secluded bays.

We were also taken to a huge cave lit up by all these multicoloured lights, and our guide was basically a massive pervert and kept on saying that every rock was either a penis or a nipple. So we went on ahead to avoid his commentary.

Meanwhile 500km north of us the boys were in Sapa, beginning their trek up Fansipan. The trek took them two days, spending one night in a remote village on the mountain side. Will spent the day with a woman from the Black Mong tribe, Josh being ill, she showed him around her house and showed him the traditions of her tribe and he bought himself some traditional black mong tribal trousers. He then carried on to the top of Fansipan, and sat at the highest point in Indochina.

Cambodia

Cambodia was very different to Thailand considering they share a border. There is a lot more poverty here, one of the first things we were welcomed with were children begging and trying anything to get hold of our money. Our skin now made us stick out like a sore thumb.

Our first stop was Siem Reap which is a small town used purely as a base to see the grand temples of Angkor Wat - one of the wonders of the world. We set off for the temples at 5am, wanting to catch the sunrise though the weather was not on our side and we watched daylight appear behind a grey cloud. The temple though was very grand and absolutely massive. Built in the 8th Century, the stone holding it all together was falling apart and there was scaffolding on many parts of it to keep it all together.

We all explored it in our own time, meeting back outside to travel to the next temple called The Bayan Temple which is famous for it's smiling Buddha statues. The sun came out for us here, and the locals had let this temple age a bit more. Moss was covering most of the stone and many parts were just a crumbled pile. There were also these women dressed in traditional Cambodian wear in the temple, and myself an Holly got several pictures with them - being instructed on how to properly display our hands, twisting them in to strange positions.

Me and William climbed to the top of the Unfinished Temple, which was achieved by climbing up several hundred steps that were tiny and eroded and barely able to house your foot on. Each step had to be very carefully planned unless you wanted to fall very far to the bottom.

The last temple we saw was Ta Phrom. A huge complex that has been completely taken over by these huge bayan trees. Most of the walls and towers being eaten away by a tree, but again we liked that the locals had just let the elements take over the temple. It felt far more real and much prettier.

After a few days in Siem Reap we travelled to the capital of Phnom Penh, which again was not very dissimilar to every other South East Asian city we had been to. Our main reason for coming to the capital was to see the S21 Prison and the Killing Fields.

The S21 Prison was once a school that was taken over by the Khmer Rouge and turned in to a torture house. Anyone who showed any sign of intelligence was arrested and tortured in the prison until their death day where they were transported to the Killing Fields to be killed. The prison was truly horrifying, there was blood still from 40 years ago over the floors and walls and pictures of the state of the bodies the Japanese Army found when they discovered the prison. Out of 20,000 prisoners, only 7 survived and they did not spare women or children either, and the worst part about it all is that the people responsible are still living in Cambodia awaiting trial - no justice at all.

 
The Killing Fields house over 10,000 graves, men, women and children. What was most disturbing is that the rain reveals more of the graves each time, and we stumbled across several bones and pieces of clothing sticking out of the ground not yet retrieved by those in charge. It was a still place, one where you could absorb the horrors inflicted upon these people and one that made you realise how disgusting the entire thing is.

Cambodia will not be leaving our memories anytime soon. It's poverty and horrific history shaping the country, but also it's beauty and wonder easily distracting you from that. It's certainly been an experience, and has been very different from the rest of our time in South East Asia.