We spent about a week, mainly doing nothing, in Sihnoukville on the South Coast of Cambodia. At $8 a night between us we found it pretty hard to leave; it's surprisingly easy to adapt to a bed with no mattress and a toilet that doesn't flush (don't worry, there's a nice bucket that you fill with water and chuck down the toilet). In Sihnoukville we found the most backpackers we'd seen in Cambodia - an incredible amount of gap yah types. You know the breed: ridiculous voices, salmon pink trousers, Aladdin waist coats, pastel pink RayBan's, and a constantly affected cigarette in hand. One girl was literally called Lucius. We actually heard someone outside our room, drunkenly SHOUTING to her friend: "it's just SO weird, I'm used to being the posh one at home, and here I'm just so normal. It's just so weird. I thought I was posh". No joke. There not all bad though, and its not as though we're really any better - we're pretty much following the same route, and at this point we too are relying heavily on "Mummy and Daddy".

WATCH ME

SIHNOUKVILLE -------> SAIGON

So after days and days of the beach we finally booked a bus to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam (if you're super cool like me you call it "Saigon". The first 4 hours of the journey went rather smoothly, though not literally as the Cambodian roads are ridiculous, and also my seat wasn't really attached to anything, but we were happy listening to music we'd had added to our ipods (Now 75 - who is this Justin Beiber???). After 4 hours we reached Phomn Pehn, and we got off, assuming that we were changing buses. It soon became apparent, however, that there was no bus. The manager had double-booked the bus, and said he had no way to take us any further. BRILLIANT. There were about 15 of us altogether and we all started kicking up quite a fuss. He began saying that he could get us another bus, but we'd all have to give him a load more money. We were having none of that. The Brits in particular got very principled, everyone started talking about trading standards and customer service - the Cambodians blatantly didn't have a clue what we were talking about. Negotiations really took a turn for the worse, and we were told that he would only take us as far as the Viet border, and we would have to make our way from there. All of a sudden the (so far) quiet, and quite enigmatic, small Argentenian man, violently kicked the man's desk. Scared the shit out of the rest of us - the Cambodian manager said he was calling the Police, and went to hide in his office. While all this was going on I absent-mindedly looked down to my right, and saw what I initially though was a very strange dog. Milliseconds later I realised it was, in fact, the biggest monkey I'd ever seen. I pretty much screamed - drawing attention away from the angry Argentinian - and then the Russian hippy (who's food the monkey was eating) came towards me with a huge bag, and (in Mark the teacher's words) "fucking TWATTED the monkey"). It snarled and ran towards a very scared Abi before jumping into a building and scampering away. I've got pretty used to seeing monkeys about, but this one was mental, though I think the Russian was more scary. At this point we realised that we had really burnt our bridges with the bus company; manager guy was indignantly arguing that he knew English, and why didn't we speak Cambodian. Russian hippy and his French girlfriend abandoned the fellowship and went their own way, while the rest of us started panicking that the border would close before we got there. A tuk-tuk driver chipped in (there'd been a whole gang watching the saga for the last hour-and-a-half), saying he knew someone with a minibus who would take us as far as the border. HURRAY!. Just before the bus turned up we gained a very quiet, calm, and remarkably tall, Japanese man, who we took under our wing. We all managed to get a good proportion of our money back from the angry Cambodian - he seemed extremely happy to be rid of us. When the mini bus turned up we were short by two seats, but no one considered this a problem as we were all used to seeing Cambodian cars crammed full (normally they have the boot open and 3 people sit cross-legged in the boot), and we were very happy to be on our way!

4 hours later we reached the border, and our team marched out of Cambodia and into Vietnam. There were 12 of us: Mark and Jade a young teacher couple who live and work in Saigon (for all intents and purposes our leaders), 3 British backpacker girls (one of which was from REDDITCH), Martina (a Swiss choclatier), Jan (enigmatic chap), angry Argentinian, and quiet Japanese guy. The Cambodian departure official was very amused to see a gang of Westerners with no bus. We were out of Cambodia relatively fast. Principled as ever, however, it took us forever to get into Vietnam, as we refused to grease the palm of the immigration guy. We waited 45 minutes while those who knew better just pushed past us with wads of cash slipped in their passports. Eventually we got to the other side, and found another minibus, with, obviously, not enough seats. We spent the last hour and a half chatting jubilantly all the way. We arrived in Saigon, Mark and Jade helped us all find places to stay, and we ate a delicious victory meal, and had a beer.

Yesterday we had a great day exploring the city. Started off at the War Remnants museum - originally named the American atrocities museum, and you can see why - the main theme was "we hate America". Endless harrowing photos - the pictures of those whose mothers had been contaminated with Agent Orange were perhaps the worst. Next we headed to Notre-Dame, and the old colonial post office, before wandering around the shops. Mostly we just enjoyed seeing the city: people in Vietnam literally wear those wooden cone-shaped hats! I've never ever ever seen so many motorbikes. I get an adrenaline rush every time I cross the road (not in a good way); there's no way to cross but to walk very slowly so that the motorbikes can whizz past and avoid you. Its like moving through a school of fish. This afternoon we're catching a bus up to Mui Ne on the coast - hopefully more successful than our last bus trip.

This time in 3 weeks I'll be home! Its pretty ridiculous that we're no longer going to Thailand, but the adults at home are terribly worried, plus we've kind of run out of money anyway.

LOVE xxxxxxx