From Saigon we went on to Da Lat, a small city in the Vietnamese Central Highlands. This place felt very laid-back and peaceful. It seemed to be popular amongst Vietnamese tourists but not very much so among international ones. All the kids greeted us on the streets (no, they weren’t stealing nor selling anything). We went hiking/walking with a nice guide and visited the Pongour Falls.
After a few days, we travelled on to Hoi An, a beautiful small city about half way between Ho Chi Minh and Hano

I was relieved when we finally arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon). We had survived the crazy Cambodian highways! Vietnamese traffic was crazy in a whole different way: all the streets, especially in the cities, were packed with motorbikes and scooters. I felt like in the nearby South China Sea where huge swarms of fish swim past you, only the fish were two-wheeled vehicles with men and women (often more than two) sitting on top.

Our next stop on the tourist trail was Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, where we stayed at The Artist Guesthouse, a weird but nice sort of French-American diner and B&B. Phnom Penh was tuk-tuks, scooters, food, museums and massages. Let’s talk about something else though: We had seen and been in quite a bit of scary traffic before, but the long-distance buses in Cambodia were the worst I’ve experienced. While my girlfriend was usually dozing on the seat next to me, I jumped at every bump I felt or honking sound I heard. Reading and hearing about numerous car – especially bus – accidents later on didn’t help very much either. We were glad we hadn’t been involved in one of the seemingly countless accidents. Because we wanted to […]

As Bangkok was our only stop in Thailand, we quickly moved along to Cambodia, more specifically to Siem Reap. We spent a few days in this very touristy city and were surprised by how expensive things were in tourist Cambodia. We hired a tuk tuk driver for a day to take us to the most important temple sites. Just like everyone else who visits Angkor, we started off at Angkor Wat shortly before the sunrise. Despite all the people, it was beautiful.