One of the many remarkable things about Adelaide is its accessibility. To exquisite wine regions such as the Barossa Valley, McLaren Vale and the Clare Valley, remarkable wildlife areas, e.g Kangaroo Island and to glorious golden beaches. You are never too far from where you want to go… One minute you are in a vibrant, exciting city; 20 minutes later, you are relaxing on a gorgeous beach with a distinctive holiday atmosphere.
Our first year cruising outside of Australian waters has included Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Some countries we sailed to and others we flew to; we even rode into one and caught a bus into another. This blog is a recap of our journey in 2015….. Thank you to all our followers. I hope you will continue to cruise with us in 2016, and that I will be able to carry on entertaining and informing you about the wonderful, exciting and sometimes bewildering places we visit.
Vietnam was on my bucket list of places to visit and it didn’t disappoint. My favourite part of Vietnam?… Easy, the people. I found the Vietnamese people to be very welcoming and friendly. Second favourite thing… the food! Delicious noodle soups, meat filled baguettes and fresh wrap-it-yourself spring rolls. During our travels, we spent a lot of time eating where the locals eat, thus we engineered plenty of opportunities in which meeting, and interacting with, the local Vietnamese people was a forgone conclusion. What was not a forgone conclusion however, was how much we enjoyed their company and them ours.
As we crossed the Cambodian – Vietnamese border we were tired from our long ride, however the anticipation of new adventures kept our spirits up. Exploring Vietnam on a Motorbike was, undoubtedly, going to be as exciting, and as colourful, as our exploration of Cambodia. We were looking forward to every new experience…. and then we reached the outskirts of Ho Chi Ming City! Our excitement flagged a little as we hit the horrendous traffic. In Vietnam there are 37 million motorbikes…. Ho Chi Ming City must have 36 million of them! Seriously! The traffic in HCMC was horrendous. We were exhausted and we hadn’t booked accommodation ahead of time. We needed a bar with free wifi!
Riding a motorbike around Cambodia was an exhilarating and hair-raising experience. It wasn’t always smooth sailing…. or in this instance trouble-free touring! Near death experiences were never far away! Such as the time, on a two lane narrow road, we had, coming straight for us, a van overtaking a bus that was overtaking a truck. So… two lanes, three vehicles and no room for us. Just managed to slow down enough before leaving the road and hitting the dirt! And then there were the breakdowns… and there were a few of those, but they were all part of the adventure…
As Exploring Cambodia on a Motorbike continues, so to do the adventures and dramas… including being taken to the wrong island and the near death of our beloved motorbike! Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh were the last two places we could visit before our time constraints compelled us to cross the border into Vietnam. For me, the highlight of this part of our journey was Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city. The eclectic array of buildings – including French colonial and Khmer architecture made riding around Phnom Penh very colourful and interesting.
Travelling around Cambodia on a motorbike for near on three weeks was an adventure in itself… eating some seriously crazy food, added yet another dimension to our adventure! We love to travel, we love to eat, and we love to try different foods! We didn’t get to try all the different foods that we wanted to, while in Cambodia, but the following five, I think, are the craziest we did eat. I’ll start with my favourite!
Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre (The killing Fields) – Pol Pot’s slaughter of millions of innocent people. Visit – pay your respects at this historic site of tragedy.
Sobering, confronting and depressing, are only a few words that come to mind when experiencing the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Horrific, evil, heinous, nauseating, unspeakable and harrowing are just some that can be used to describe what went on there between 1975 and 1979; a 3 year, 8 month, and 20 day period in Cambodia’s history that decimated the population. Before Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge were driven out of Cambodia by their own defectors and the Vietnamese Army, Pol Pot’s regime had killed an approximately 2 – 3,000000 people… more than 25% of the Cambodian population.
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