This morning we left our hotel at 10am and were driven to the airport along a road that everybody else in Phnom Penh seemed to be using at the same time. After paying the $25 US each departure tax (what happens if you can't pay?) we took a flight from Phnom Penh International Airport to Saigon - lasting all of 30 minutes.
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| Street food seller |
We were met at the airport by our next guide, Lam, and set off into the city. We were having a half day city tour and it was already after 2pm so, rather than go directly to our hotel we did the tour first. The first thing we noticed is that the traffic is even worse than in Phnom Penh; there are no tuk tuks, but almost everybody has a moped and the road looks like a sea of them. It is slightly more organised in the sense that road users tend to stick to the correct side of the road most of the time, but the sheer numbers are hard to take in. Our guide tells us that when we are in Hanoi it will be even more chaotic!
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| Thien Hau Temple |
The tour started in Chinatown where we visited Thien Hau temple, dedicated to 'The Lady of the Sea'; it was interesting, but smoky (due to the amount of incense burned) and quite dark. Nowhere near as impressive as some of the buddhist temples we've seen.
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| Pots & Pans section of Binh Tay Market |
We then went to Binh Tay market, which is a large wholesale market that where you can buy almost everything. It is truly an amazing site, but after the travelling and the constant pushing through crowds we were starting to get a bit tired.
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| Tank & Chinook left behind when Americans left Vietnam |
This was followed by a stop at the War Remnants Museum which is full of harrowing photos, accounts and remnants of the American phase of the Vietnam War (or the American War as they call it here). It does give a different perspective on the war than I had from growing up with western TV reports, and the suffering inflicted on the people of Vietnam, mainly by the Americans, was awful - but it didn't have quite the same impact on us as S-21 and the killing fields of Phnom Penh. I think this was because the brutality was inflicted in a the context of a war, rather than being inflicted on their own people - but it could be we are just getting 'atrocity fatigue'.
On the way to the hotel we visited Notre Dame Cathedral. By now we were so tired that we were both glad that it was closed for some catholic religious ritual, and the Post Office (which looks like a station) just across the road was interesting, but slightly underwhelming.
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| Sally at our evening meal |
The hotel, on the other hand, is not disappointing, the staff are friendly and helpful and the room is great. We finished the day with an excellent meal at a restaurant just around the corner from the hotel, two high quality courses with drinks for 441,000 Vietnam dong including service (that's just under £15).
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