Hello all, thank you for the comments. Yes, Jan, it’s definitely better to experience a place than to only read about it. This is my last post. Friday I start the odyssey of flying home. I leave Saigon at midnight on Jan 16 and I arrive in vancouver at 7:00 am Jan  17 but I’m underway for a day and a half. It’ll be like travelling back in time! Can’t wait to see you in Tokyo, Hiroko!

I’m now in Nha Trang, Vietnam’s only real beachside town (so I’ve read). It’s lovely here except for the 4-metre high waves. The weather isn’t great which explains the choppy sea but I’m enjoying my stay here. My room has a view of the ocean. Nice eh? It’s the best hotel I’ve stayed in so far.

I’ve stayed in some interesting places. Dripping taps, all night karaoke bars, pungent bathrooms, a cockroach or two. My favourite was the room with no windows.

I went on a boat trip today to some islands not far from the town. Enjoyed a fabulous lunch and read for a bit on a beach. Tomorrow I go back to Saigon and then, home. I’m ready for it now. I would however like to come back here again someday.

I’ll upload some photos as soon as I get home.

Li hai (”good-bye” in Cambodian). My Vietnamese isn’t so hot.

Vietnam! Here I am. Ho chi Minh City is not as I expected at all. I thought I’d be in a place like Pnom Penh only multiplied times ten but that isn’t a case at all. It’s modern and clean and commercial. It feels almost western compared to what I’ve seen. It’s busy and everything’ s true about people say about crossing the streets here — you do it at your own peril.

Hordes of motorbikes and the occasional car do not stop if they see you. They dodge you. To cross, you need to do as the locals – walk out on the street without hesitating. Don’t look left or right and don’t hesitate — ever. It’s counter-intuitive for me (and most westerners) but it’s the only way to get across safely. I won’t miss this when I’m home. Tonight I took another ride on a motorbike taxi so I could avoid crossing the streets!

I forgot to mention one of the biggest highlights I had in my last day in Pnom Penh: I went to Wat Lang Ka, a Buddhist pagoda where the monks offer free meditation sessions to anyone interested. I went and received a how-to on Buddhist meditation. After the how-to, the monk invited me to sit inside the temple and meditate for 30 minutes.

It was hard. I don’t think I ever got to the right state of mind but apparently with practise you do get there. The monk gave me some literature too which I intend to read when I’m home.

Today I went to a small town in the Mekong River Delta, called My Tho. The river is huge. It makes the Fraser look piddly. I saw only one arm too. It’s hard to imagine scale until you actually see it with your own eyes. If the Mekong is one of the great rivers of the world, I believe it. My tour took me through endless channels lined with coconut trees and other palm-like trees. The main arms of the river are tremendous, beyond words I think.

Food, food, where do I start? Breakfast: sticky rice with coconut and peanuts. Lunch: pork, mini bananas, and spring rolls. Dinner: prawns with chili paste (of some sort), eggs and spring onions, fried rice, shrimp rice cakes, something wrapped a stringy potato batter and deep fried. It’s all so good. I’ve also had soursop shakes everynight I’ve been here, my new favourite drink.

Tomorrow I go to Nha Trang.

Eduardo — Ed — yes this year is the 30th anniversary since the fall of the Khmer Rouge on Jan 7, 1979. I visited the killing fields today as well as the highschool (S21) where many people were tortured. Vietnam occupied Cambodia for ten years afterwards, until 1989. Pol Pot died only in 1998.

I’ve enjoyed Pnom Penh — it’s a wonderful city although chaotic at times. Here are the highlights of my time here:

• Talking to monks (one invited me to his family’s farm in Battambang if I ever come back to Cambodia)
• More blessings in the main pagoda at the same place I met the monks (this involved getting water splashed on my face)
• Riding a moto (motorbike taxi) in peak-hour traffic — there were three of us on it!
• Eating rice gruel with salty egg and sweet pickled onion for breakfast (ok not a highlight but memorable)
• Buying pirated Chinese CDs (hope I can take these out of the country into Vietnam)
• Watching people eat fried crickets and other insects
• At a night market today, watching a Çambodian kid’s variety show — one 4 to 5 year-old knew his rock-star moves, complete with head-banging and encouraging audience involvement. It was super cute.

I’m sad to leave this country. It’s a very special place. I hope to come back someday. Tomorrow I go to Saigon.

I’ve spent two days in Sihanoukville, a town I don’t care to see again. The setting is beautiful: kilometre long white-sand beaches, off-shore islands with coral reefs, cicadas and palm trees everywhere. Development for tourism is rampant and ad hoc which i think is killing the appeal of this place. I did enjoy the best parts: snorkeling off “deer”island (my first-time ever snorkeling and it was amazing!). Later on, my group enjoyed a fabulous beach-side picnic including kebabs, several dips (more on this below), and soursop juice (it’s yummier than it sounds). I’m going to miss this food when I’m home.

Today, I enjoyed a grilled chicken with my group leader and than hung out – literally – in a hammock next to the sea for about two hours afterwards. It was heaven. I had to keep reminding myself that I was in fact in Cambodia. After my extended lunch, I went to another pagoda close to a national park (called Ream) and received a blessing from a nun. She wrapped a small red bracelet around my left wrist and dabbed it with an essential oil (i think sandalwood). I’ll try to wear this bracelet until it falls off my arm.

Here are some other things I’ve learned from the Khmer:

• you can run a small TV and one lightbulb on a car battery for a couple hours a day
• freshly ground pepper, coarse sea salt, and lime juice is an uber yummy dip for meat on a kebab (this is one of the dips I had at the beach side picnic)
• rice mixed with peanuts and dried shrimp and turmeric is also very very tasty
• you can drive a car/bike/moto into the ground and then still keep it running for many years
• never say “no” if someone asks something from you
• people have auras
• it’s hard to move around much mid-day because it’s too hot so why bother

Cést tout. Tomorrow I go to Pnom Penh. Until then!

Yesterday was a trip highlight. My group stayed in a rural village, sleeping upstairs in a traditional Khmer house: wooden, on stilts. The rice mill is at the back of the house. The rice lay in piles on palm-frond mats near the house. Chickens and cows walked in the yard. The family was very gracious. We ate at the communal kitchen where the women prepared chicken curry, beef with thick rice noodles, and local rice.

I had the best sleep there I’ve had since I’ve been here despite the roosters and the cicadas. We drank locally made rice wine around the fire and I learned how to count to ten in Khmer. I also learned how to say hello, how are you, good bye, dear, delicious, thank you (and “no thank you” which is important because there are always people trying to sell you stuff in the cities)

I also met Cham who showed us the local swimming hole. I also learned that Cham use to a monk but not anymore. Apparently lots of boys stop being monks in their twenties because they’d prefer to get married and have children. In Cambodia there are about 30,000 monks. I see them everywhere, in their beautiful saffron-coloured robes and (at times) yellow umbrellas. They’re very striking to see. I hope to take a picture of one soon without seeming too invasive.