Really good read,look forward to reading more of your trip reports.

Great report and pics BKL. Enjoyed reading that.

yes, very interesting. Nice country. Not sure I'd ever go, I've heard too much about the ppl and non LOS feel. Mostly I've been curious about the south and Mekong Delta area. MAYBE some day. Wish you got a pic of that "pipe" thing, sounds odd. Can't imagine it.

phuketrichard wrote:nice report;

I have tried using google maps on trips in Malaysia and Thailand and always find them worthless
Cambodia an BUrma I have used regular maps and just always asked info as to the next towns name

Yeah, buddy had a map which we increasingly used. The issue is getting a map that shows you how to efficiently get in/out of cities. There aren't that many main roads, and once you're on these it's impossible to get lost. I have a bunch of provincial Cambodian maps which are superior to google in that all the accurate town names are there. But overall, I find googlemaps very efficient in Cambodia. It's easy to predict what will be white, yellow etc. It's was totally different in Vietnam (white=most often a single track in Cambodia, but it was sometimes a highway in Vietnam).

Mr Curious wrote:yes, very interesting. Nice country. Not sure I'd ever go, I've heard too much about the ppl and non LOS feel. Mostly I've been curious about the south and Mekong Delta area. MAYBE some day. Wish you got a pic of that "pipe" thing, sounds odd. Can't imagine it.

It's this:


Every coffee shop has one. Before leaving you have some tea (which is placed right next to the pipe). You then put some tobacco in, inhale a bit (to keep the smoke in the tube?), then shake out the tobacco and deeply inhale and hold. Or something like that. It's a killer, and I just found out why: it has 9 times the amount of nicotine as normal tobacco!!! Even my buddy (a smoker) had a lot of trouble handling it. Gives you a big buzz and if I had too much of it I felt slightly sick.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotiana_rustica

Google Maps is not current for Boeung Tompun, especially for roads that run across or near the drain (or not, as it turns out).

^^ Street View works in that area.

Username Taken wrote:^^ Street View works in that area.

Was that to me, UT? We found our driveway on Street View the other day and were really impressed! Any idea if the used the self-driving cars? That would have messed with the locals...

Great TR really enjoyed it

A few of us are organising a trip in May - hoping to take our bikes into Nam but if not either buy or rent in Saigon.

PP / HCMC / DALAT / NHA TRANG / HOI AN / HUE & back to home

Fly back or drive back?

thanks so much, this kind of insight is earned.
very meaningful and gives me pause in my future plans of visiting the region. think i will try Laos first.

but looks a fantastic journey- the conniving by locals is very off putting.