Brett and Bernii

This update comes to you from the Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport where we are awaiting our flight to Bangkok.

We spent four nights at Nha Trang. The beach was great, however the waves were very rough, causing the beach to be closed to swimming on some days. This didn’t prevent us from spending time at the Bluesea Beach Bar, a hut on the beach that served cold beer and cocktails.

It was our second time in Nha Trang, so we skipped the usual tourist things and spent our days relaxing by the beach and exploring the local bars and restaurants.

We flew from Nha Trang to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), where we spent four nights in an amazing Airbnb penthouse apartment (AU$150/night) near the Ben Thanh Market, before moving to the Express by M Village hotel (AU$80/night) at Pham Ngu Lao – a small hotel closer to Bui Vien walking street. Both locations were superb with everything we needed right at our fingertips and things to explore only short walks away.

We found a bar that charged 170,000VND (about AU$10.50) for all you can drink draft beef from 3:00pm until 8:30pm. Needless to say, we went back there a few times during our stay.

A highlight of our time in Saigon was dining in the dark at a restaurant called Noir. While enjoying a welcome drink, we were tasked with completing a puzzle while blindfolded – a mission that one of us found especially challenging. After that we removed our watches and phones and were introduced to our waitress – a blind girl who led us to our table in a completely dark room. We could hear other diners but had no idea of how many people, or even the size of the room. We were fed a 4 course mystery feast – we were not given a menu and none of the dishes were explained to us beforehand. We had to rely on our sense of touch to find our drinks, cutlery and food. It was difficult to determine what each of the dishes was when relying on smell, taste and feel. After we finished dining, our waitress led us out of the room, navigating other tables perfectly. We were then shown what each of the dishes were – some we had been able to identify, others we were way off. It was a truly amazing experience and something we would recommend if you are in Saigon (just remember to book ahead as they are very busy).

Before we left Saigon, we went on a boat tour on the Saigon River which gave us a different view of the city, and we spent some time in the bars and restaurants on Bui Vien Walking Street.

From Saigon we caught a Giant Ibis bus to Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. We had done this same journey back in 2017 in the other direction, and found it a great way to get between the two cities. It cost AU$59 each and the trip took about 7.5 hours (it was supposed to take 6 hours). It involved the border crossing between Vietnam and Cambodia where we passed through immigration.

In Phnom Penh we stayed at the Ohana Phnom Penh Palace Hotel (AU$83.80/night). On the first night we had dinner and drinks at the River Quay restaurant and our waitress Sreypov was amazing. She taught us some words in the Khmer language and really made our night. We returned there the following two nights.

One afternoon we went on an 80 minute sunset cruise of the Tonle Sap and Mekhong Rivers on Kanika boat. It was US$18 each (about AU$28.50), and included free flow beer and soda. We really enjoyed the boat and headed back to River Quay after disembarking.

On Friday and Saturday evenings, the riverside street Preah Sisowath Quay is closed to traffic and it becomes a walking street filled with market stalls, rollerskaters and street performers giving a really nice vibe to the area.

We had been to Phnom Penh twice before, so this time we skipped the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Genocide museum (both are highly recommended to understand some of the difficult and confronting recent history of Cambodia). After four nights in Phnom Penh, we again caught a Giant Ibis bus to Siem Reap – a trip that took about 6 hours and cost AU$30 each.

We checked into the Ibis Styles Siem Reap (AU$65/night) and went out to Pub Street. It was a bit more developed than it was when we were there in 2015. The beers were US$0.75 at most bars, and cocktails were US$2-3. The Goal Sports Bar was streaming the opening round of the NRL and we watched the Wests Tigers lose to the Knights.

On our third morning in Siem Reap we woke at 4:45am to catch a Tuk Tuk to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise at the temple. We then spent time exploring the Angkor Wat temple before heading to Ta Phrom temple (featured in the Tomb Raider movie), and then to Bayon temple. It was nice to explore the temples in the cooler morning before the temperature reached the expected high of 38 degrees. By that time we were back at Pub Street enjoying some ice cold beers. The Tuk Tuk driver provided cold towels and cold water and a personalised itinerary for the morning. He was asking for US$20, but we gave him US$30 and he was very happy.

That evening we went on a mission to find fried spiders. We had seen them on a previous trip to Siem Reap but didn’t try them. This time we were determined to rectify our error. Eventually we found a lady selling all sorts of fried goodies just near the pedestrian bridge at the night market. We had a fried snake, tarantula, scorpions and crickets. It was actually quite nice. I returned the following night for another fried snake.

That takes us to today where we are flying back to Bangkok and heading to the Bangcockney bar. We are looking forward to having some of our favourite thai dishes that we’d missed while travelling through Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.