,m Sean´s Shenanigans: February 2006

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Horse Racing

Went to Saigon Race track today. Had to pay 30c to get in and 7c for a race card. Out normal bet was 10,000D (60c) and the most I won was 50,000D. I have a gamblers anonomous meeting later this week to sort my problem out.
The horses seem to be a cross between a normal horse and a Shetland pony - they're tiny! The jockeys are only kids, the age limit is 14 but some of them look 10.

posted by Sean at 1:35 pm 0 comments

Australia Day

Went to Saigon Waterpark yesterday for Australia Day (Don't know why its called that as Australia day falls in January). You pay $30 at the gate and can drink (Fosters, Smirnoff Ice ..) and eat (burgers, sausages ..) and much as you want the whole day. We arrived there at 1pm and left at closing time (11pm), a little tipsy. Great craic.

posted by Sean at 1:25 pm 0 comments

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Nam

Currently here in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam. Arrived here yesterday from Cambodia. Took a bus for $14, a bit expensive but it was express and had great air con.
This city is just full of motorbikes (100 - 150cc). Whereas Phnom Penh had alot crammed onto each bike (usually 2-4, but seen up to 6), Ho Chi Minh has alot of single rider bikes whizzing around. There are no "green man" crossings, you just have to walk slowly across the road and hope they avoid you!

posted by Sean at 2:20 pm 0 comments

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Vietnam

Capital: Hanoi
Currency: Dong
Exchange Rate: €1 = 19,030 VND
Time Zone: GMT + 7
Population: 81m


posted by Sean at 7:36 am 0 comments

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Off the Rails in Phnom Penh

Arrived back here from Siem Reap yesterday. Arrived too late to get an ordinary Vietnam visa and had to pay $40 to get an express one - we didn't want to stay here for an extra day. Hopefully will get the visa today and we can leave for Saigon, Vietnam tomorrow.

posted by Sean at 8:50 am 0 comments

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Angkor Wat

Here in Siem Reap in northern Cambodia at the moment. The temples of Angkor are just 5km out of town. We bought a 3 day pass yesterday for $40. Their tuc-tucs here consist of a 100cc motorcycle with a trailer pulled behind, which seats two people comfortably. The hired a guy yesterday for 6 hours to bring us around some of the temples for $6 and gave the guy today $7.
The big thing here is seeing the sunrise over Angkor. To do this you have to rise aboout 4:30am, get a tuc-tuc to the temples for around 5 and wait - we arose at 1pm today after a heavy night so no sunrise! Best news we had all day was that it was cloudy this morning and no one could see the sun :)
We went out today and met an Irish guy at one of the temples, we talked for two hours, looked at another temple and went home. Tomorrow is our last day here, so we better try and see some more stuff.

posted by Sean at 2:02 pm 0 comments

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Sihanoukville

Arrived back here in Phnom Penh today, after spending 3 nights in Sihanoukville - a beach town down on the coast. The beach was ok and we had a good day yesterday where we went out on a boat to some islands which had terrific beaches, also got a bit sun burned - typical Irish! The place was a bit quite at night so we came back up here and are off to Siem Reap to see the temples of Angkor tomorrow (6 hour bus trip).

posted by Sean at 12:52 pm 0 comments

Friday, February 10, 2006

AK-47

Went to the shooting range this morning. Upon entry you were presented with a menu of guns that you could fire a magazine from. We both picked a Colt 45 hand gun and an AK-47 rifle for a combined cost of $43. Quite alot by backpacker standards, but when would we get the chance again?
We were brought into a long building and fired on a target from about 20m with the pistol. Didn't have great accuracy, but hit the button with my only target hit. After that, it was back to 30m for the rifle. There were 25 rounds in the magazine. I shot about 12 semi-automatic and the rest on automatic. You really get a feeling of the power of the weapon. I hit the target 14 times, which was pretty good with the shake in my hands!

posted by Sean at 1:50 pm 0 comments

The Killing Fields

We visited the one of the killing fields at Choeung Ek, 17km outside Phnom Penh today. The mass graves there contain the bodies of over 17,000 men, women, and children. 5000 of the bodies have been exhumed and placed in an eleven level Buddhist stupa. The rest of the bodies are still buried there and bones are visible on the surface of the paths as you walk around. It was a pretty erie place. Very few prisoners were killed by the bullet, mostly they were killed with a hammer or bamboo branch to the head.
After that we went to S-21 camp where prisoners were tortured before being sent to the killing fields. Some of the torture methods were pretty gruesome. I'll say no more.

posted by Sean at 1:38 pm 0 comments

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Phnom Penh

Got up this morning at 2pm after a 14hr sleep, its was more that we had the 4 or 5 previous nights combined on Koh Chang. The city is pretty poor and has alot of beggars. The streets are awash with every kind motorbike variation you can imagine - little ones, big ones, ones pulling trailers, tuc-tucs, ones cut in half and attached to rigid trailer. Seen one motorbike carry 4 adults and 2 childred!
Bought a very good forged copy of the lonely planet Cambodia for 2 euros in the market! A new fashion i've seen some of the women wareing is pyjamas which seems very odd at first sight.
Off to do some touring tomorrow, have arranged with some tuc-tuc driver (danger) to bring us around 4 different sights for $7 (the dollar is the unofficial second currency here). One is a shooting range, which should be interesting.

posted by Sean at 4:15 pm 0 comments

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

The Trip from Hell

Arrived here in Phnom Penh tonite from Koh Chang having had to spend an extra nite there. We missed our minibus and had to make our own way here. We took 2 trucks, a sea ferry, 2 minibuses, a taxi, 4 river ferrys, a shared taxi and a motorbike to get here - it took 14 hours. The trip also included over 100 km on a dirt road. This country is so much more poorer that Thailand.
We're got an air-con room and intend to catch up on some badly needed sleep tonite.

posted by Sean at 4:30 pm 0 comments

Cambodia

Capital: Phnom Penh
Currency: Riel
Exchange Rate: €1 = 48 CR
Time Zone: GMT + 7
Population: 14m

posted by Sean at 4:49 am 0 comments

Monday, February 06, 2006

Koh Chang

Here on the island of Koh Chang at the moment, have been here for the last 6 days. Off to Cambodia tomorrow. Have been suffering a bit here with all them Whiskey buckets.

posted by Sean at 2:34 pm 0 comments

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Samsung

Down here on the island of Koh Chang at the moment. Had a big night last nite with alot of booze. We went on to buckets of samsung whiskey (a sand castle bucket with a nagan of whiskey, red bull and 2 cokes ) and got walloped, it was too much for some!
Its quite humid here at the moment with temps in the low 30s.

posted by Sean at 11:24 am 0 comments