Would you not like to be, sitting on top of the world with your legs hanging free...

I arrived in Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City as it's called now) last night. I'm sort of wishing I would have stayed longer in Cambodia; I think I probably could have spent a few more days walking around looking at those amazing temples. I find that sometimes I feel like I've put myself on a schedule, and have this sense that I need to move on even when it's not really necessary. Live and learn I suppose, and this way I have more time in Vietnam. And maybe a reason to return to Cambodia someday? Did I tell you about the guy I met from Germany that purposely skips one important landmark/temple/museum in every place that he visits so that he will have a reason to go back?

Feeling a little sick today which I think is a combination of not getting enough sleep and the ridiculous amount of dust I have been breathing in lately. Cambodia was dirty and dusty like no place I have ever been. It's another of the places that I feel like I was completely unable to capture in photos, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to adequately describe my experience there. So many contrasts there... the awful history of the Khmer Rouge, the incredible temples near Siem Reap, the friendly people, the poor children carrying huge baskets of photocopied books to sell to tourists, or begging for money along the tourist strip along the river in Phnom Penh. There are so many people with so little there... it's truly overwhelming. And I don't think I've mentioned the traffic. I'm not sure how to describe it. "Organized chaos" maybe. There are cars and buses and motorcycles and tuk-tuks moving in what seems every direction at once. Traffic lights seem to be a suggestion at best, as do the lane lines painted in the road. One of the scarier experiences in my life has to be riding on the back of a motorcycle through the streets of PP. Forget about helmets, the drivers don't wear them and they don't have them for their passengers either. And yet the traffic doesn't move at the frantic pace that it does in say Shanghai. You rarely see anyone get angry and despite people driving the wrong way down the road to merge into traffic, pedestrians wading through lanes and lanes of traffic, things seem to move pretty smoothly. I can't imagine having to drive there! The traffic situation in HCMC actually seems a little worse. The guidebooks, fellow travelers, and hotel clerks all advise you that in order to cross the street, you should just start walking slowly and the myriad motorbike riders will just weave around you. It sounds crazy, and it's pretty scary, but it does seem to work.

OK, just wanted to write a quick update. Not able to upload pictures yet, but hopefully soon!

Updated to add: New pictures up on Flickr!