Vietnam and Cambodia

The ship was in Vietnam for 5 day and we had the option to sign up for a Semester at Sea tour to Cambodia. I decided to go to Cambodia so I was only in Vietnam for 2 days. I really enjoyed my time in Vietnam though and I basically shopped the whole time. There was a market pretty close to the ship and everything was ridiculously cheap. I got some polos for $4 and DVDs for $1. I bought tons of stuff. I also got a pedicure and a massage. The pedicure was $5 and the massage was $10. The traffic in Vietnam was insane though. Everyone drives motor bikes and the roads are filled with them. To cross the street, you have to walk slowly and steadily and just keep going and the bikes will go around you. It’s very scary and you can’t stop because then it will confuse them and you could get hurt.

My trip to Cambodia was awesome. The flight to Phnom Penh was 40 minutes and then we went from the airport to a museum. The architecture was amazing but the museum was a little boring. Then we went on a boat ride on the Mekong River and after that we visited an orphanage. The next day we got up at 6 am and went to the Royal Palace, which was beautiful. Later, we visited a genocide museum and the killing fields. In 1975 (I think), there was a genocide in Cambodia in which the Khmer Rouge killed around 2 million people. It was really sad and our guide actually lived through it and he told us about his experience with it. The museum had pictures of all the victims tortured and killed at that particular place.

Next, we took a flight to Siem Reap and checked into our hotel before going to dinner and watching a cultural dance. We got up at 4:30 the following morning and went to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise. It was really pretty. After sunrise, we ate breakfast at the hotel and went Ta Prohm Temple, which is where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed. I’ve never seen the movie but it reminded me of Indiana Jones or something. It was awesome old temple where there were overgrown trees and stuff. It was incredible. We went back to Angkor Wat later to finish touring it. Angkor Wat is the biggest temple in the world. We ate lunch and then went to some more temples before taking a flight back to Vietnam.