A SCREAMING: NOW! - that's the word being used when we want to cross a street - wow nothing comparable so far - the motorcycles even have an own lane and some of them don't care about a red light here either... cars and motos are driving from all directions at the same time - according to Lonely Planet 11000 deaths each year occur on the roads. We didn't see an accident yet - probably we were just lucky.



the bustling but wonderful town is worth a travel - the traces left by the French and us coming back to civilization is just great - we stay in a great 2 star hotel with whirlpool (and hot water!) in every room but just for 35 bucks: Mai Hotel. Centrally located we walked around to find the main shopping street like the 5th Av in NY or Kaerntnerstr in VIenna with great art shops.

We saw the cathedral which was built as a (bad =( ) copy of Notre Dame and the gorgeous city hall and the main post office. At dawn we walked through the park which is place for lots of sculptures and also the free Aerobics classes. We were by that time too tired to join =). The Highlands coffee shops chain seems to be the copy of Starbucks - just nice and relaxing the prices can compete with ours though. Another Franchise PHo24 is the place to eat soups which is PHO - excellent.
We went and sat at the rooftop bar of the Rex Hotel - (Thanks to Jakob's hint!- yes and we have pictures of proof)



to end the night after having strolled through the market bargaining but not buying so far.
Another day having gotten tired by lots of impressions and an early flight out of Phu Quoc. Since the weather won't be so terrible after all - the daily rain fall is durable and expected - we will continue going north as planned.

After having 3 days of rain the sun comes out ---- yipppeah!!!

There is a lot of relaxing time and not a lot to do other than reading, eating, lying in the hammok and reading again. We visited the fish sauce factory and the market and we still discover new weird things.

We are trying almost everything but eating insects. This is definitly too much of what can take. Sticky rice and mango pancake with spring rolls and any kind of fried noodles or rice or tom yam soup and lots of shrimp make our days. Robin caught a cold and is running a fever which is not so nice - I bought him Pringles and chocolate chip cookies with coconut which should cheer him up.


Our newly painted toe nails are just gorgeous - see...



Tomorrow e will take of to Ho Chi Min City by plane at 7:30 am...

Today we drove with a speed boat to Phuo Quoc Island! We almost didn´t drive because it rained heavy all day. The boatride took us 1 1/2 hours. We only had 2 seats so I had to sit on mommys lap.
When we arrived it was raining really hard. A man gave mommy an umbrella and said :" You come with my bus !?!?" Then we drove with 3 other couples (American,New Zearlander and Holland ) in the bus to find a guesthouse on Long Beach. We found a nice bungalow just 40m from on the beach. There Robin and I already built sandcastles but they got destroyed by the big waves.
This computer is only 10 meters away from the water! Tomorrow we will have breakfast right here.....

Yesterday we got up at 8 o'clock to eat breakfast!(Chocolate pancake Mmmh...!) Then we had to check out of our not so nice hotelroom but the deck over the water (with pooltable and music) was very nice! Together we drove with an tuk-tuk to our bus. After 3 1/2 hours we were at the border. Our bus could not drive to the other side to Vietnam.According to Lonely planet guide book this border crossing is known as the obscure border crossing &&& At the end we walked through (700 m about) and a nice lady (from the tourist office) brought us to our new hotel in Ha Tiem! it is very clean and comfortable. In this town the people are very nice and here are not a lot tourists.
Mommy made pictures of her and my new coulerd toe nails (my:green with glitter. mommy:red with flowers.)
For tomorrow we have boat tickets to go on Phu Quoc island - unfortunately there is quite some rain right now. But we will see. Ha Tiem has a lot of friendly people and somehow we feel nicer here than in Cambodia. People there are very poor and everything costs minimum one dollar - we tourists must be all soooo rich even when it is not true.

Alright - two days already here in a very typical backpackers area. Lots of nice people and fun nights with playing "Maexchen".

We also visited the prison S21 and the Killing Fields, which is quite a saddening story though. It's only 30 yrs ago when history kinda repeated itself but the whole world was just watching ... Khmer Rouge invaded the country on April 17th 1975 and killed millions after torturing and trying to set up a communist state supported by China. One amazing fact is that after they marched into Phnom Peng the city was evacuated within 3 days into a ghost town - all people had to leave town in order to work on the fields in the counry side. One bowl of rice was the daily ration of food which turned the people soon into poor workers. Children were taken away from the families to get brainwashed and put months/yrs later back to their families so they could call on their own people if they were against the regime. Then theyall would get shot instantly. Also walking on the mass graves (Killing fields) where clothes are still get washed out by the rain and knowing that you are walking on dead bodies gave us the creeps.
At night the movie "Killing Fields" can be seen in restaurants - quite depressing.

We also had a fun shopping day at the Russian market: Abercrombie and Fitch, GAP, H&M, Hollister, Ralph Loren and Calvin Klein - to name just a few of them - can be seen here because they produce here in Cambodia.
Tomorrow we are supposed to travel on - Phu Quoc seems because of weather forecasts out of question. But nothing is for sure. So it might go directly to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon).

Today it was the day: getting on the bamboo train ourselves not like the bike and the people on the pic - WE All and it was fun!
Riding through the country side at maybe 30 km/h or more?
3 times we had to unload the platform from the tracks because people came towards us - the rule is the heavier ones can stay the other ones need to move. ??? Did'nt really make always sense.... I suggested rock, paper, scissors to make it more fair but they had their own way to figure it out.



Also we went to see Wat Banan which made us climb 353 steps at lunch time which was very hot. Then we drove with our tuk-tuk on to Phnom Sampeu where we saw the skeletons of quite a few killed by Khmer Rouge in a cave. Monkeys, bats and flying dogs were the animals we spotted with bright red dragon flies and some strange birds. The climb in the cave was spooky and the descend another 1500 stairs. The whole trip was about 6 hours amids rice fields and country side. It's amazing how many different shades of green there are - - -

Yesterday we had a new Tuk-Tuk driver since the old one didn't show up =(. A half day temples with monkeys (they were eating mommys backpack) and elefants with a crazy Spanish girl who got wiped of the picture by the elefant's ears =). Robin and I had to take breaks by staying in the tuk-tuk since we were 'templed out' and mommy decided not to take a job as an archeologist. The temples at sunset were great and we heard the loudest and weirdest crickets (zicades) on our way back down the big hill through the jungle. Their sounds were like electronic signals. Our ears were ringing.

This morning we got up early again to reach the 7 o'clock boat. Our guide book mislead us regarding the length of the boat ride. Instead of 3.5 hours it took 8.5 and we ran out of food. The trip was great though, through the biggest lake in SE Asia (Tonle Sap)and then along a river. We could see the floating villages that means people living on the water away from the banks. A boat with 2 boys and their daddy approached us, the 3 yr old jumped into our boat and sold cokes while the other one - maybe 5 yrs old - played with a big snake (1.5 m long). It was quite a little performance. We reached Cambodia's 2nd biggest town , Battambang, hungry when at least 20 sellers awaited us at the boat station to lead us to a hotel with tuk-tuks. The mom of the French family from the boat (12 and 16 yrs old boys) was completely shocked by that crowd and started to cry. This was strange. So overall the countryside and scenery was gorgeous but strenous. After check-in we hurried to eat in a small place that supports street children to give them a better future off the streets. This is really good because lots of the kids do not have the chance of going to school . This is sad!

Quite busy we are - leaving at 4:45 for sunrise (pronounced Cambodian SUNLI) without lovely breakfast which includes lovely fresh pineapple juice, lovely croissant and baguettes, lovely tea or hot chocolate, most lovely fresh fruit bowl - Robin wanted his missed breakfast at our return at 1 pm and rescued himself with a croissant. Afternoon spent relaxing after heavy rain for one hour. Then we walked up to our little friend's place Sochertta (see pic) to have Tom Yam soup before we will see the Apsara dancing show at night with dinner.
Tomorrow one more day temples (also temple at sunset) then we will be templed out =)

There are pictures online now go to NAVIGATION +ankor pics
Also check out Robin's new haircut.