ILU, Davids. OMG, why is Archuleta not legal??? Precious face ♥

SO. When I wasn't exploring the city, I was watching American Idol. There was a marathon the whole day and my sister and I stayed in to watch it. We only got up to get food. Actually, I made her go get me food while I watched.

Guys, I also loved Jason Castro. This was a really cool season of Idol~

It's really early in the morning but the bus isn't here yet. It's a 5-6 hour drive into Ho Chih Mihn City, Vietnam, also known as Saigon.

It's raining hard but yesterday was worse. Still, I managed to squeeze in a trip to the National Museum, walk around the city, Wat Phnom and go to the post office. We ended the day at the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda and then dressed up to have dessert and drinks at a semi-fancy place after our SUPER CHEAP STREET-SIDE dinner. Vietnam is the last leg of the trip but I'm so worried if the weather will be bad thanks to the earthquake in China and all.

The Philippines doesn't seem to be doing well weather-wise either. Sad, because I thought perhaps I could squeeze in a trip to the beach before going back to work.

HCMC has a beautiful post office in a French-colonial style building. If you want a postcard, comment here! I will doodle something quick and write something. Julie, this means you, especially. I will screen comments.

I've been to Vietnam before, during the Korea-Japan World Cup. During that time, the city seemed to be on standstill. Now we will see how China and the Earthquake and the Beijing Olympics are treating it.

I cannot wait to eat in Vietnam. The food there is delicious!

Last day in Phnom Pehn. The Royal Palace was closed in the morning but in the afternoon, they open it to public. It'll be fitting to visit today, maybe there is like a party or something, hahaha!

Tomorrow, we head to Ho Chih Mihn City, aka SAIGON. Last leg of the trip. I hope my money holds out. We shopped like crazy today, it was ridiculous. We had to buy an extra bag.

FIRST OFF: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER!!! She is lucky enough to celebrate her birthday today while we are on our trip. Abbi is 21 today, that means she is legal to drink now all over the world, instead of just in selected areas. Not that that has ever stopped either of us before.

To celebrate her birthday, we took her to the Killing Fields! To remind her about the mortality of life. Seriously though, the Killing Fields is a very integral and serious part of Cambodian history. It was really chilling to stand in front of a 5-story pile of skull and bones. Historians estimate that 1.8 mil to 3 mil people were executed without reason during that time.

After that, we went to S-21, which was a school converted into an interrogation/execution and prison center. Unlike the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge were very meticulous about recording all the people who they detained and died so mugshots of all these people who lost their lives are lines against the walls. Classrooms were converted into torture chambers and solitary confinement areas. The playground was turned into a lynching area. Now a museum, skulls and torture devices are on display. Unlike a museum, you are allowed to touch, scrutinize and take pictures as a reminder of this time.

And then we took my sister to lunch! :D

They wouldn't let us into the Palace because she was wearing a dress with her shoulders exposed so I will try again tomorrow morning. The weather has taken a little turn for the worst but I am a good little Girl Scout and I brought an umbrella with me.

I'm trying to upload pictures soon. There are some interesting ones, including a picture of the pizza menu of this delightful place we ate at the highlight of which was the Pineapple Porn Moan.

Again, I do not lie to you, my friends.

It's our last night in Siem Reap, Cambodia and tomorrow we are hopping on the bus for the Cambodian capital of Phnom Pehn. The two days here have been pretty intense. First, there was the 10 hour hurtle across Thailand to the Cambodian border, the 2 hour wait for everyone's visas to get through. Abbi and myself didn't need a visa because we're from an ASEAN country but everyone else on our bus did. Then 4-5 more hours in a car to Siem Reap.

The road in Cambodia was terrible. Completely undeveloped and just a mess. I can't believe I slept through most of that rollercoaster. We learned a bunch of stuff from that first evening we were there. One was that the currency is all fucked. They have their own money but prefer dollars which makes for some over-spending without knowing it. I've been trying to be careful about my money.

The first day, we went to the Landmine museum which is such an intense place. The backstory of that place is really interesting. Basically, this former child soldier who used to plant these mines felt so guilty about them he spends all his time uprooting them and defusing them with the aid of a Canadian NGO and he put together a museum to raise awareness. It also houses an orphanage and a school of children who have been injured in landmine explosions.

Then at night we had dinner out at a Khmer place (delicious) and we went to this place called Angkor What?! and drank, hahahaha.

Today we went to the real Angkor Wat and it was just amazing to behold. The compound is massive and the area is inspiring. We walked through most of it, through Angkor Wat, Bayon, and NEARLY made it to Ta Phrom, which was were Tomb Raider was filmed but it was really far and we were so tired because we wanted to save money so we rented bikes.

Let me tell you, the bike thing was hilarious, terrifying and challenging. I'm scared of oncoming traffic, despite being a pretty good biker but I mean, it was like choosing between saving a few bucks and possible death. I figured, if I lived through this, I can say I biked through Angkor Wat....

AND I DID!!! I LIIIIIVED!!! I seriously thought I was going to die a few times though.

It's Day Two of our backpacking trip. It's been real so far. We arrived really early in the morning and headed straight to the hostel. It was 2 am when we settled down on Khao San Road but were too tired to join the drunked revellers on the street (not that I intended to do any of that). So far, it's been pretty much The Beach, sans Leonardo DiCaprio. We spent the whole of yesterday idling around and being pretty damn lazy as well as power-shopping.

Time seems to go real slow here. We sleep in and get up late and walk around and then pause and be like, fuck, it's only been an hour!? I bought a fair amout of stuff and am seiously worried that I could run out of cash or have to haul so much back. But the first rule about going over the check-in limit is you don't talk about check-in limit

I'm in an internet cafe right now, sadly, not the coin-powered one that our lovely hostel provides. I'm not even kidding about the coin-powered one. I tried to upload photos here to show everyone but the computer won't recognize USB. Which sucks.

Earlier wandered through Chinatown and I bought iPod speakers for 200 Baht or 5 US$1! They are also bright red.

Anyway, we have one last day here and tomorrow at buttfuck o'clock in the morning, we are heading to Siem Reap in lovely Cambodia. The trip is by land and will take about 10 hours, plenty of time to snooze. All-in-aoll, Bangkok is as vivid as I remember it, one of my favorite cities in the world and a pleasure to visit from all perspectives.

I can't wait to get to Cambodia and Vietnamm particularly the former, as I have never been there before. Hopefully the internet over there will be as accessible as it is here and I can update a little.

Sountrack so far has been Panic at the Disco's Pretty. Odd., Chris Brown's With You and various David Cook covers.

Been almost too busy to go online but will be offline for the next 2 weeks.

Little sister and I are backpacking through Asia, concentrating on Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Leave me messages!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!