Lee-Hi Kampuchia

or goodbye Cambodia.

Up at 05.30, bus at 7am. Tuk tuk to wrong place, lovely bus company drove us in bus to right place - phew! (to be fair it was the right company just the wrong place for the bus we needed!) Lovely bus driver even stopped at an ATM for us (which was a relief financially speaking as we were a bit skint cash wise!)

Bus left even more on time by Cambodian standards - 0715. Wow. Much smoother journey. Its amazing what a difference, well, a road, makes quite frankly. Oh and suspension. Did I mention the last bus stank of petrol as well? No? Well it did. This one didn't. Martyn very impressed, we got free cold towel, bottle of water and a croissant and pastry as well. Blimey. And a lovely man gave us the odd bit of running commentary and took great pains to see us through border control correctly bless him.

On board entertainment was brilliant! Started off with a sort of Cambodian Top of the Pops which had some interesting videos of wistful looking couples interspersed with group dance scenes which involved lots of hand waving as they like to do here....all very calm and restrained and quite stylish really. I'm thinking Lady Ga Ga could learn something here. But then the Cambodians have already remixed Lady Ga Ga oh and Bros in quite good ways actually. Yo Yo Yo Ya Ya Ya is the phrase the locals use!

Anyway, I digress. The onboard entertainment got better - we progressed on to a comedy triple act performed by look alikes either of Bobby Ball (remember Canon and Ball? we do, oh dear!) or Harry Enfield et al in the 'Ferry 'Cross the Mersey' sketch. Hilarious. More funny because we hadn't got a clue what was going on but every so often all the other people on the bus would erupt in laughter!

And then the best of all. I got quite addicted to it. No idea what it was called but it was a film. I never knew that the movie genre 'Taoist v Buddhist v Vampire slasher slapstick' existed. I tell you, Media Studies is missing out! It was seriously quite funny but I am gutted. Two lovely Cambodian ladies chose a critical moment to offer us some completely unknown but proudly Khmer sweet which of course we accepted and returned their generosity with dried apricots (which they wolfed down much more enthusiastically than we tentatively managed with their offering!) and somewhere during this lovely exchange I missed the end of the movie!!!!!!! Ah well, wouldn't have missed Martyns 'oh gee thanks so much' moment for the world. I dread to think what it was we ate. It might have been coconut candy which they make in these parts but I really have no idea. Its actually probably best not to think about what it was too much.

And then we arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Sai Gon). Found hotel, dumped stuff, found lunch - expensive BUT the BEST spaghetti bolognaise I have ever had. Yes I know its not local and thats terrible for my first meal in a new country - its my brothers fault, he sent me an email mentioning bacon sandwiches and after reading it I couldn't face noodle soup. Never fear - back on track with local food tomorrow!

Wandered past Reunification Palace and then on to War Museum. Thought we owed it to the country to learn something about what happened. Usually these places are upsetting but we manage to make it all the way through them. Not this one. Only managed one floor of three.

Never underestimate the value of peace.