End of Vietnam trip / Cambodia

I'm writing this from Siem Reap in Cambodia. Cambodia is... different. It is much poorer than Vietnam and other countries, and I was dismayed for the first day and a half because it seemed like every interaction I had with another person was them asking for either money, or offering services I didn't want or need. I'll go into that more later - I need to wake up early tomorrow to head to Angkor Wat.


Our last two days in Vietnam involved spending time at a beach north of Da Nang, and driving the Hai Van pass. I didn't get many pictures, and I didn't take my camera to the beach. But, here is a shot of Van and Truc at the Hai Van pass.


My Son is a series of ruins that were inhabited by the Cham kings from the 4th to the 14th centuries AD. The Cham were later conquered by the Vietnamese.


Van at My Son.


Took this shot on the boatride back from My Son.


The end of the longest cable car system in the world. Riding this thing back down in near-complete darkness is even creepier.


This is a shot of Zane and Truc from where we had lunch at the highest restaurant in the Ba Na hills resort. Van was cold from the strong winds, so she was probably hiding behind a wall or inside by this point.


Monkey! It isn't a real vacation until a see a monkey. This one was climbing on one of the hotels in Ba Na.


Barbed wire at the Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh (here is a wiki link to the history of the place). During the rule of the Khmer Rogue, many political prisoners, and, well, anyone someone important enough didn't like, were sent to this former school to be tortured. After extracting "confessions," they were sent outside of the city to the killing fields.

It is a chilling place - they have many pictures of victims and guards (who sometimes ended up being prisoners as well), and pictures and descriptions of the various tortures involved. It's heartwrenching. Often, whole families were killed - they have a display of a man, his wife, and their six children.


One of the buildings at the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh.


A naga at the royal palace in Phnom Penh.


I went to try to see the sunset at Angkor Wat. Unfortunately, a storm got in the way of this (and in the way of me taking many photos). By ducking inside a little outbuilding to escape the rain, I did manage to freak out some japanese tourists who were progressively looking into each outbuilding.

Alright, I need to head off to sleep now. The next two days will involve exploring Angkor Wat. After that, back to Saigon to have a farewell dinner with Zane, Khanh, Van, and Truc. I'll try to get in another entry before I leave.