more pictures
Big tree taking root on the temple wall!
The Agincourt crew: Geoff, Kersti, and Dave at the Temples of Angkor
So ya, blah blah, we went to Phnom Penh, really nice, sights fairly depressing, enjoyed the last of Cambodia, not too many spectacular pictures but we had a nice relaxing time. We then took a fastboat to Chau Doc, Vietnam. As soon as you cross the border there are like 80 gazillion more people lining the riverbanks and they all wear those conical hats.
Our plan: to get to Phu Quoc Islands, the undiscovered (relatively) beach paradise of Vietnam.
To do that: Take a bus to Rach Gia, and a ferry to the islands.
On the bus to Rach Gia, there was this man who, before the bus left, stood up and started talking to the people on the minibus. To us it looked like he was trying to sell these little packaged peppers, kind of infomercial-style. He was also telling people what to do in a commanding voice. As the bus left, he sat down, and we couldn't help but notice that it looked like he had a miniature lobster trap under his pants, one on each leg, really weird. As the bus drives, about once a minute he would shout out the window, "dai dai dai doy!", starting in a loud Canadian voice, perhaps normal by Vietnamese standards, and ending in a sort of ... (dave says it was a loud sort of piercing, like an arrow to the eardrum over and over again, now he thinks maybe like a needle). Anyhow, for the first time, we put on our earplugs on the bus. After a few hours, he was was finally quiet. But wait, the adventure isn't over. He now starts to pull cigarette packages from under his pants, like LOTS of cigarettes, some squished because he'd been sitting on them, some not, and carefully unwraps them from plastic baggies, saves the elastics and dumps them in a white rice sac. We knew we were going to a smuggling town, but didn't realize we'd witness it first hand!
Anyhow, after a long ferry ride in which the staff carried buckets and mops around... yes it was a tad choppy, we arrived in Phu Quoc. We're staying on Long Beach, which is a 20 km stretch of mostly undeveloped beach - the only downfall is that the rainy season has finally caught up with us!
The Agincourt crew: Geoff, Kersti, and Dave at the Temples of Angkor
So ya, blah blah, we went to Phnom Penh, really nice, sights fairly depressing, enjoyed the last of Cambodia, not too many spectacular pictures but we had a nice relaxing time. We then took a fastboat to Chau Doc, Vietnam. As soon as you cross the border there are like 80 gazillion more people lining the riverbanks and they all wear those conical hats.
Our plan: to get to Phu Quoc Islands, the undiscovered (relatively) beach paradise of Vietnam.
To do that: Take a bus to Rach Gia, and a ferry to the islands.
On the bus to Rach Gia, there was this man who, before the bus left, stood up and started talking to the people on the minibus. To us it looked like he was trying to sell these little packaged peppers, kind of infomercial-style. He was also telling people what to do in a commanding voice. As the bus left, he sat down, and we couldn't help but notice that it looked like he had a miniature lobster trap under his pants, one on each leg, really weird. As the bus drives, about once a minute he would shout out the window, "dai dai dai doy!", starting in a loud Canadian voice, perhaps normal by Vietnamese standards, and ending in a sort of ... (dave says it was a loud sort of piercing, like an arrow to the eardrum over and over again, now he thinks maybe like a needle). Anyhow, for the first time, we put on our earplugs on the bus. After a few hours, he was was finally quiet. But wait, the adventure isn't over. He now starts to pull cigarette packages from under his pants, like LOTS of cigarettes, some squished because he'd been sitting on them, some not, and carefully unwraps them from plastic baggies, saves the elastics and dumps them in a white rice sac. We knew we were going to a smuggling town, but didn't realize we'd witness it first hand!
Anyhow, after a long ferry ride in which the staff carried buckets and mops around... yes it was a tad choppy, we arrived in Phu Quoc. We're staying on Long Beach, which is a 20 km stretch of mostly undeveloped beach - the only downfall is that the rainy season has finally caught up with us!
posted by Sara and Dave at 6/28/2006 03:25:00 a.m.
2 Comments:
I have pointed out to Denise the brave tree surviving amid the building. She is a fan of such specimens and that is a fine example of the genus.
Dad Y
I couldn't help but notice... Dave you're wearing a McMaster Intramural champion T-Shirt. Way to show southeast asia...I love ur blog!!...I especially love all the animal pics!
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