After getting over my illness I spent a few days exploring Phnom Penh, including the Royal Palace, Russian Market, Tuol Sleng torture museum and the Killing Fields. Aside from those last couple gruesome and depressing places it’s a really nice city.
When I arrived in Phnom Penh I was all fired up and ready to explore Cambodia and Laos, but shortly after arriving I caught some kind of bug that sapped all my energy and took away my momentum. But I’m over it now.
I spent a week scuba diving at Mabul, Sipadan, and other islands nearby, some of the best sites in Malaysia. Sipadan is frequently rated one of the top three dive sites in the world, and I can’t disagree with that. Mabul was really cool too.
(pictures are from Sibuan Island, where I went diving yesterday)
I came to Semporna expecting to dive a few days at Sipadan then continue on to Indonesia or somewhere, but it has turned out to be a great place to work, so I worked most of the week and will spend the next 4 days diving at Sipadan and nearby.
A couple days ago I went to the annual Thaipusam festival at Batu Caves, just outside Kuala Lumpur. Hindu devotees pierce their tongues, faces and bodies with metal skewers and hooks, and carry milk pots, coconuts, fruit and portable altars called kavadi along a 10 km route from the city and finally up 272 steps to the temple inside the cave complex.
(warning: some of these pictures are not for the squeamish)
After our dive trip Jeremy and I flew to Kuala Lumpur for a couple days en route to Malaysian Borneo for more diving. Both of us had developed some trouble with our ears after the last trip, so we hung out in KL for a while waiting for our ears to get better; I took the opportunity to get some work done.
I met my friend Jeremy in Phuket, Thailand for a 6-day liveaboard scuba diving trip around the Similan Islands, one of the world’s best dive sites. My daily expenses were about ten times what they were in Vietnam, but it was well worth it.
In spite of spending over three weeks in Vietnam I can’t say I saw much of it, because most of my time was spent in a couple very touristy areas: Hoi An and the backpacker area of Saigon. So it wasn’t until I did a couple day trips outside of Saigon that I caught a glimpse of the real Vietnam, which I loved.
Since most of my time in Saigon was spent working (or trying to) I don’t have much to write about, but did have a bit of fun here and there.
After taking a couple weeks off from work in December, I planned to spend the first week or two in January getting caught up on work in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I found a hotel in the backpacker district for only $12 USD/night including TV, a/c, wireless internet and breakfast. That’s less than half my rent at home.