Vietnam & Cambodia | FindPenguins

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Trip start
October 4, 2022
Vietnam & Cambodia Traveler
Siem reap
October 4, 2022 in Cambodia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
Stayed in Siem Reap for 3 days mainly to explore Angkor Wat.
The temples are one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen, it’s incredible to think that humans built such creations nearly a 1000 years ago. My favourite temple would probably have to be the ladies temple due to the insane level of detail in the wall carvings and inner towers. It’s also very pretty as the temple fits into the surrounding jungle whereas most of the other temples really stand out.
Siem Reap itself was also great, everyone was so friendly and the food was amazing. Pub street was particularly fun, if you want a fun night then I recommend going there :)
Also went to the locals market on Charles de Gaulle street which was a very good way to see how the local population live, where they buy they food and just escape from the touristy areas in general (even though I will say that we have been very lucky as there are hardly any tourists at the moment).
If you come here, definitely use toot toots to travel everywhere as they’re super cheap and cost the same for pretty much every journey up to an hour (plus they’re really fun).Read more
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Kampong Cham
October 8, 2022 in Cambodia ⋅ 🌧 30 °C
Spent this day travelling to Kampong Cham to board the boat I’m staying on for the next 8 days.
We stopped off at a really pretty restaurant next to a lake and had lunch before setting off again through the countryside. Really interesting to see the Cambodian countryside while our guide told us about the Khmer Rouge, different Cambodian provinces and general information on the country’s history/current situation.
Relaxed in the evening before setting sail up-river for the next days activities.Read more
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Mekong island
October 9, 2022 in Cambodia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
Today we started off by going dolphin watching on the Mekong river. The local area has been set back by various issues and so the company im travelling with promote eco-tourism in order to help the locals to earn a living. In particular they organise dolphin watching trips and employ ex-fishermen (who can no longer fish in the area due to environmental reasons) to guide the trips. I really enjoyed this and our guide actually managed to get us within 10 metres of the dolphins which is apparently very rare.
In the afternoon we took a local ferry over to an island in the Mekong river. Here we firstly took ox carts to a local fruit farm where we planted trees and met the island’s chef. To be honest, I felt very uncomfortable on the ox cart as you can see the animals physically suffering and I don’t think I’ll ever be going on one again. I understand that they are used for farming anyways and using them for transport gives the locals another form of income, but I don’t think they should be used for the enjoyment of tourists…
After this the chief then took us to various rice paddies where he explained how the crop is planted, cultivated and harvested every year before heading back to the boat.
I really enjoyed these activities (minus the ox cart) and the local adults and children on the island were so friendly and welcoming. Not only on this island but pretty much everywhere I’ve been in Cambodia all the local people wave and say hello which is really nice to experience.Read more
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Silk Island
October 10, 2022 in Cambodia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
This morning we went to Angkor Ban, a little riverside village along the Mekong. We walked through the village, stopping along at roadside markets in order to look at classic Cambodian street food. Besides all the exotic fruits, our guide showed us one of the most well known Cambodian delicacies: boiled fertilised eggs. These look so so disgusting, you can literally see the baby chicken when you crack the shell. Our guide showed us how they are prepared with different spices and lime and then ate one in front of us, it was revolting.
We then continued on to a local school where we were showed around the library that has mostly been developed by the ship company. We then walked down the classroom corridors and joined an English lesson, each of us being paired up with a student.
It was a funny experience because some of the teenage girls started screaming when i smiled at them hahahahahah and this guy asked for a selfie with me. The girl I got paired up with was really sweet, her English was very good and she seemed genuinely happy to share her learning with me. The class then sang us a song (if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands….) before we left to go back to the ship.
In the afternoon we went to Silk island just above Phnom Penh where artisans craft various silk clothes and accessories. It was very interesting to learn about and there was also a shop where we bought some scarves. We then watched a performance (spectacle, I don’t really know what to call it) of Cambodian martial arts (I can’t remember it’s name). All the performers seemed very engaged and it was cute to see lots of their parents watching and filming them.
Oh we also visited the islands pagoda before heading back to the ship and learned a bit more about local Buddhist practices.Read more
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Phnom Penh
October 11, 2022 in Cambodia ⋅ 🌧 29 °C
We sent off from Phnom Penh port in the morning into the inner city on Cyclos. I’d never been on one of these before and it was quite a weird experience but I enjoyed it. The driving throughout Cambodia had been quite shocking but this was a whole new level. The streets in this city are literally lawless, there’s no traffic coordination, everyone just tries to go forward without considering others around them and pretty much all you can see is a wave of motorbikes going around cars and toot toots. Crossroads are just pure chaos because everyone is trying to get across the same time and I saw about 20 extremely close situations where motorbikes avoided crashing into another vehicle or someone on the street at the very last second. Although being on a cyclo your literally hanging off the front of a bike and motorbikes come within about an inch of you, the chaos was actually quite fun in the end. We first stopped at the royal palace and national museum (which was basically just stolen artefacts from Angkor Wat) before heading to the city’s first pagoda.
In the afternoon we started by going to the Killing fields just outside the city. I don’t really know what to say about this as the whole experience was just quite eerie (as you would expect) and I think it’s just something that you acknowledge and respect, but is obviously not an enjoyable experience. We then went to the genocide museum at the remaining prison in the city. This was really harrowing as there are pictures of the victims (men, women and children) everywhere and it’s crazy to think that these little 5 year old kids could have been the subjects of something as awful as that. Despite it being unpleasant, it was still interesting to learn about the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge and also meet some former child victims of the regime.
In the evening we watched a classic Cambodian dance routine (the way the girls hands curl is so cool to see) and puppet show before heading to the city’s night market (got some more elephant pants…) and then just asked a toot toot driver to take us to a lively street. Perhaps unsurprisingly, we ended up on the street where the all the strip clubs are lmao.Read more
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Vietnamese border
October 12, 2022 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C
Today we started the morning by the crossing the border into Vietnam and sorting out passport/visa formalities. We then took a ferry to the mainland where we were shown around local villages. All the villagers were really friendly, and the kids look so surprised to see us. I think it was the first time they’ve seen westerners in two years, and maybe even for the first time. They all came to the dock and waved us off when we left 🥺🥺🥺
We also visited a Taoist temple (which was much more extravagant than Buddhist temples in terms of electronics, there were a lot of lights, but the same amount of statues and candles etc) and were shown around local fields used for farming lots of different vegetables.
Before going back to the ship we stopped off at a boat farm to see how the Vietnamese fishing industry works. They have these floating buildings everywhere with holes in the floor where they pour fish food into. There’s nets beneath the holes where all the fish are so the fish all just gather at the surface immediately when the food is dropped in, it stank….
Oh we also got transported round the villages and fields in these little open roof truck things which were rlly fun as you see a lot more and you can easily wave to the locals when driving by.Read more
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Gao Giong.
October 13, 2022 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
Today we started off with a presentation about Vietnamese history, particularly focusing on where it’s name historically came from, the Vietnamese war and its current situation.
After lunch we were taken on a boat through the local canals to see the floating houses and other parts of the riverside village. We then headed to Gao Giong (green oasis) which is an 1000 acre national park mainly for bird wildlife. Here we took small Sampans down the rivers to see all the nesting grounds of the birds. It was an amazing experience to see hundreds of birds flying through the flooded forest (literally looks like a floating forest), making their nests on the top of the trees and just generally flying around. On the way back through the canal there was a little monkey above us who started peeing into the river as we got closer bahahahah. Sadly I didn’t get a picture as I was too busy laughing at the peeing monkey, he was very very cute….
We then drove through the capital city of the province (very colonial) before boarding the ship again.
Oh we also got to try lotus tea (I liked it but no else did ://) and lotus nuts, apparently eating their hearts (little green things in the middle) is very good for your health.Read more
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My Tho
October 14, 2022 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
Today we firstly went through mangroves on a small boat before arriving at a little riverside village. We then walked through the village to a coconut factory where we were shown how locals craft coconut products (e.g tea pots, cutlery, sweets) by using different machinery and pieces of equipment. They gave us snake infused whiskey (literally had the snake in the bottle) which was FOUL. Don’t want to touch whiskey again.
The workers then set us up lots of fresh fruit and some special honey tea, which was a lot better than the whiskey…
We were then shown the Bee hives which they use for the honey before being sailed back to our boat in these little sampan boats through a tiny canal.Read more
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Saigon/Ho Chi Minh
October 15, 2022 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
We stayed in Saigon from the 15-17th October.
On the 15th we travelled from our boat in the Mekong delta to Saigon so we just relaxed at the hotel pool in the afternoon before exploring the main city market and then going out for dinner. I may have over ordered….I asked for a fish which I thought would just be a normal sized portion but it was a massive fish with a whole plate of vegetables, rice papers and rice noodles along with like 5 pots of sauces. Was really good though.
On the 16th we started the day by travelling to the Chi Chi tunnels. This was really interesting as we got to see the tunnels and go in them (conquered my clostraphobia, the tunnels are TINY) as well as being shown all the different traps used and how the local people lived during the war. We then travelled back to Saigon where we explored both the Independence Palace and the War reunification museum. I enjoyed the independence palace but i much preferred the museum. If you have any doubts about the US being evil, go here…. very heartbreaking what the Vietnamese people had to suffer due to their actions. We then just looked around the french quarter (the notre dame was under renovation 😭) which was very pretty. In the evening we went to a cool rooftop restaurant with great views of the city skyline.
Looked around the city a bit more on the morning of the 17th (there was a massive fire next to the market) before heading to the airport to fly to Hanoi 🤩🤩.Read more
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Hanoi
October 17, 2022 in Vietnam ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
Hanoi from the 17-19th.
On the 17th we just checked into the hotel, walked around the city a bit and then went out for dinner. Went to a really nice rooftop restaurant (I found it 😌) with amazing views of the lake and skyline.
On the 18th we started the day by visiting the Temple of literature and then the Ethnology museum. It was really interesting to learn about the exams that Vietnamese students had to take many centuries ago and all the different ethnic groups in Vietnam and how their languages and way of living have developed over time. The temple of literature was very very pretty. There were also loads of nursery kids who kept waving at us, it was really cute. We then went to Hao Lo prison where Vietnamese prisoners were held under french colonisation and then were American soldiers were held under the Vietnamese government. We also visited train street which was a really cool place.
In the afternoon I just wondered around some more and found this really chill cafe with about 5 floors. The food was really good, very cool interior and an amazing french jazz playlist 🤩🤩also cute to see loads of local students studying in there together.
In the evening we went to a rooftop restaurant and had dinner before heading to a bar and then going back to the hotel.
On the 19th we left in the morning for Halong bay.Read more
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Trip end
November 24, 2022