OWEN AROUND THE WORLD: November 2006

Taking a stroll on the beach

I have almost closed the loop in South East Asia! I am now in Sihanoukville, Cambodia which is a pleasant little beach resort which is not very developed and has some very pleasant beaches and lots of tasty seafood.

Since my last post I made it to the very south of Vietnam before catching a boat from the Mekong Delta up to Phnom Penh. Vietnam was great! Every country on the trip has something intriguing about it, something fascinating to see, but I particularly enjoyed Vietnam. I guess the history is so intense with the Chinese, the French, the Americans all involved in fighting there, yet the people today overall really are so friendly. The population is very young, so most people did not experience the war, but as a whole the country seems to have moved on. Economically there is really a buzz about the place and people talk so positively about how things have changed and poverty has eroded since the Communist government opened the place up to foreign investment. A great example of how globalisation can have a positive impact.

The tourism in Vietnam is generally quite focused - you can get a $20 open bus ticket which spans the 2400km length of the country. It is very cheap but also means the tourists are highly concentrated in specific places, where the annoying money hunting touts also concentrate too! Hanoi where I started was amazing. The city had a great atmosphere and some good sites such as the Hanoi Hilton prison, and the Bia Hoi (fresh beer) stalls covering the pavement in some areas. Hue has some great old buildings and Hoi An is a very pleasant city where you can get clothes tailor made for very little money but my highlights from Vietnam had to be the times I got away from the main bus stops.

My first little experience was in Quang Ngai, a town near Son My, the place where the infamous My Lai massacre took place in 1968. It was a mission sorting out the hotel room as no one spoke English, but then everything changed in front of the Mimosa bar. There were some men inside who spoke some English and shouted "come in". These guys ended up buying me beers, breakfast, taking me on a tour of the town the next day. At first it seemed like it had to be a scam, but they really were genuinely very friendly people who were keen to show their town to tourists. They brought me to see some of their friends, one of whom still had a Bescharelle he had used at school, another who told me about her grandparents being assasinated by the Viet Cong for being too wealthy.

One of the interesting things in Vietnam was how my perspective on the war changed heading from north to south. In the North people did not really challenge the stories in the museums, but as I got further south people had a really different perspective. Some people said that they were sad to see the US pull out, that the Communists had ruined the country for many years and many tour guides were former South Vietnamese army members. In the north they called the Northern Army the South Vietnam Liberation Army, whereas in the south the people definitely call it the Northern Army. It was a complex conflict which does not seem to make any sense today, but I still found it interesting to see people's perspectives change. I do not think you can help but feel moved though as you see the many different war sites, from tunnels where families lived and babies were born, to bomb craters among temples, to the solemn look of veterans back in Vietnam on holiday...

I left Vietnam from the Mekong Delta area which is an incredible maze of canals and branches of the Mekong River which I got a good view of thanks to a little trip I did with a professional photographer who was out picture hunting. There in the backwaters the people would be so friendly. I definitely hope to return to Vietnam and if I do I would like to avoid the open bus trip and any type of organised tour people say you have to do to see some places such as Halong Bay.

Cambodia is surprisingly different for somewhere so close. The people generally look very different compared to the Vietnamese and the landscapes, the cleanliness and the level of development is also very different. I was extremely lucky to be able to stay with an uncle's friend called George in Phnom Penh. It was great to get the lowdown on the place from someone who had lived there for so long and his hospitality was amazing. Cambodia is definitely a shocking place because the people seem so friendly yet a visit to Tuol Sleng prison or the Killing Fields near Phnom Penh make you realise the twisted history this place and population has gone through. Between 1.7 and 3 million people were killed here by Pol Pot and his cronies after 1975, and the Tuol Sleng prison is where many people were held and tortured, before being slaughtered at the mass graves known as the Killing Fields.

The Tuol Sleng prison is the most harrowing place I have ever been. The rooms are unchanged from when the Vietnamese came in to throw Pol Pot out, with instruments of torture lying around and bloody hand prints on the walls. At the Killing Fields you can see bits of bone and clothes lying around. It is hardcore.

The beach and lots of seafood is a pleasant change to all that, and you develop some sort of immunity to the never ending stream of mutilated people walking by asking for money... From here I'll be heading towards Bangkok via the temples of Angkor Wat as I get ready to head to Oceania!