This post is originally from February 5, 2012

In the last few days there have been quite a few miles driven. From Sihanoukville we had to drive across the border into Vietnam. It was a brutally hot day (I should not complain) but with a 50lb pack on my back, walking in the smoking heat with no shade and then waiting for the border men to stamp my passport was slightly on the brutal side. We drove further into Vietnam and stopped in a tiny town of Chau Doc. Surprise, surprise…I felt incredibly sick yet again so I spent that night in the hotel getting my beauty sleep among other things. It definitely was not much of beauty as the sickness followed me. Cambodia graced me with health…but it all turned to shit at the border. Literally!! On the way to Ho Chi Minh I literally had to clamp my but cheeks for 6 full hours. It was man’s greatest feat and one that I hope that I shall never have to relive.
Today we spent a full day in Ho Chi Minh, or as it used to be called Saigon. A few of us did our own thing and wandered around the city. We went to the war museum which was just as frightful as Cambodia’s Killing Fields. It is unbelievable what the ‘agent orange’ has done to people here. Literally we have seen disfigured people walking around, with limbs in all directions, or growths the size of a soccer ball…this is all due to the American’s pouring poison off the planes during the Vietnam War. It is heart breaking.

Tonight we will catch the over night train to Na Trang..ahhhhh the beach. I hope that the sleeper train is a step up from India’s over night train experience.
Oh and about getting some dong. That is the local currency…20 000 dong for one dollar. I got myself some major DONG!