My last hours in Ho Chi Minh City

I am sitting at Highlands Coffee with Jason. It's very similar to Starbucks, but much cheaper. There are several people "deep cleaning" Jason and Rachel's apartment, so we went out for breakfast. There is free WIFI, which is wireless Internet, so now we are just chilling out in the cafe.

Yesterday I was watching the Travel and Living television channel when a travel show about Vietnam came on. I was excited to see it since I am here and curious to see which parts of Ho Chi Minh City they would highlight. After less than a couple of minutes, the entire show cut out for its duration. I assumed it was censored, and when I questioned Rachel about it later, she agreed. They censor all travel shows about Vietnam. I would think they would want to promote tourism in their country. It's weird to be somewhere where there is so much censorship. There are censored newspapers, television shows, and it's against the law to speak out against the government. Imagine if no one could oppose or disagree with George Bush! Or other politicians... There are also propaganda posters all over the country. They are stuck to the sides of buildings, on large billboard signs, etc.; they are even in the countryside. Most of them are anti-American, pro-independence, and celebrating a liberated, communist government. I can't really read most of them, but Rachel and Jason can usually get the gist. Most are accompanied by large, colorful pictures of planes being shot down, Uncle Ho hugging children, or other images. Some are funny. They have to do with elderly people doing exercise and traffic. There are a few propaganda stores that sell the posters with the English translations at the bottom of them. I visited a couple out of curiosity but didn't purchase anything.

I have about 6 hours before I need to start heading to the airport. Unfortunately Rachel can't meet us for lunch because she is in charge of hosting someone special today and can't get away. She said goodbye to me early this morning before she left for work. I was still not really awake...

Last night for my last night in Ho Chi Minh City, Rachel and I went to the V Spa near their apartment for one last massage. We got a 75 minute aromatherapy massage, which was nice and relaxing. When we returned home, Jason heated up a spinach and mozzarella pizza the cook had made; Rachel got some wine; and we all played more of American Idol karaoke. Jason and Rachel asked if I wanted to go out, but I was really tired, and everyone was getting up early today.

I'm certainly not looking forward to the long flights ahead, but it will be nice to be back in the states. I am also looking forward to visiting my sister in Los Angeles for a couple of nights on the way back.

The Mekong Delta

Yesterday Jason and I took our second and final day-trip to the Mekong Delta. After a couple hours of driving in a bus, we arrived at My Tho in the Ben Tre province. I was gagging when we descended the bus because the smell from the nearby fish sauce factory was really potent. They have large vats of rotting fish fermenting or something like that. But after walking about 100 feet, the smell began to fade.

From the tourist office, we boarded a boat that took us around parts of the delta. I could observe many of the houses and shacks up on stilts, boats, local fishing traps, and a lot of banana and cork trees. The water as a shade of milk chocolate, and the shores were lined with jungle. It was really pretty. There were four main islands we went around: Phoenix Island, Unicorn Island, Tortoise Island, and Dragon Island. Those are four important animals to the Vietnamese people. We actually stopped at Phoenix Island.

The tour was pretty well organized. At Phoenix Island, we got off the boat and walked down a small, narrow, bridge that looked like it didn't have many years left standing. We walked though the jungle and observed a rice paper making hut. At first Jason and I thought they meant stationary paper, but we soon learned that it was the rice paper wraps for cooking. They baked some of them into a mild tasting snack, which was for sale of course. We made many of these cultural "pit stops," where we had a brief introduction and then conveniently 10-15 minutes of "free time" to shop. From there, we had lunch. The lunch was included, but it was terrible. They recommended trying the Mekong's famous elephant ear fish, which was not included and, of course, the most expensive thing on the menu.

After lunch we taken to a bee farm. By this point it was raining pretty hard, so we weren't able to observe many of the bees before they descended upon the tables where we were sitting. The locals made us some honey, citrus tea and allowed us to try some honeycomb and a strong coconut wine. The wine was really strong and not very good. Our guide told us it was 35% alcohol. It tasted like straight vodka. Next we took an "ox cart" through the village. We expected a yak or water buffalo, but instead there were tiny ponies with feathers and fake flowers tied into their manes.

We arrived at another thatched hut with tables. Outside there were a couple of cages. Inside one was a huge python, and the other housed a small squirrel. Our guide called us over to the tables. We sat down and were given some fruit while we listened to traditional music played by some of the local people. A couple of the women sang, and three men sat on stools, each playing a different instrument. Our guide kept reinforcing that they were not professionals, but he hoped that we enjoyed listening. The fruit plate was filled with different fruits: watermelon, pineapple, dragon fruit, rambutan, longan, etc. I ate some pineapple and dragon fruit before biting into my rambutan and finding a white worming crawling around in the shell. I quickly spit it out and that was the end of the fruit plate.

Two local woman in the traditional hats took us back to our boat in small wooden boats, paddling us down a small stream in the estuary. Our final stop was the coconut candy factory. We observed the local people making the candy, drying and cutting it, wrapping it, and packaging it all by hand! It was pretty amazing, and the wrapping looked like a boring, monotonous job. There were about five women sitting in chairs around a larger table. They grabbed one of the tiny cut candies that were constantly tossed into the center of the table. They then wrapped them in tiny rice paper and then regular paper. When Jason asked, our guide said they probably made about 700,000 dong (42-45 US dollars) a month. I can't imagine!

Cao Dai Temple & the Cu Chi Tunnels

It’s a little before 7 a.m., and in about 30-45 minutes, Jason and I will leave for our second day-trip to the Mekong Delta. Yesterday we went to Cao Dai Temple and the Cu Chi Tunnels. Caodaism, which is a unique religion that began in the 1920s combining the teachings of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam and other religions into one religion to promote peace, is the religion practiced at the temple. Imagine that! We were able to observe a mass at 12 noon, which was beautiful. Upon removing our shoes and leaving them outside, we entered the colorful temple. At the front, in the center, is the main alter, which has a large painted eye in the center of a ball. The people come to worship the eye of god, looking down upon them.

The religion is a mix of the east and the west. The organizational structure roughly follows that of the Roman Catholic Church with a pope, cardinals, bishops, and priests. There are several colors present in the temple. The common people, who come to worship, wear white. Women use one hallway/stairway, and the men use the other. Some of the worshippers had white scarves on their heads, others had black, and there were others who didn’t use any scarves at all. There are three main colors (other than white) represented by members. Red robes signify Catholicism, Christianity, and Islam. Yellow robes are worn by Buddhists, and Taoists and Confusionists wear blue robes. French writer, Victor Hugo, is one of their famous saints. At least that is what I got out of our guide’s information. It was sometimes a little hard to understand his English. We were able to walk around the temple about 15 minutes before the mass began and then observed about 20 minutes of their rituals, which consisted of a lot of chanting.

The next stop after lunch was the Cu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels were essentially an underground village used by the Viet Cong and one of the most famous battlegrounds during the Vietnam War. The Cu Chi Tunnels were an underground city with living areas, kitchens, storage, weapons factories, field hospitals, and command centres. In places, it was even three stories deep and housed up to 10,000 people who virtually lived underground for years.... getting married, giving birth, going to school. They only came out at night to tend their crops. Parts of the tunnels have been renovated and restored; it’s a major tourist attraction today. We arrived and watched a 15 minute black and white propaganda video. It was of very poor quality and difficult to hear any of the narration or dialogue, but the sounds of the bombs were amplified. It was more anti-American sentiment, and by the end, you got the point. The guide then showed us a map of the grounds and a model of the tunnels, which went down several levels into the ground, consisting of short, narrow hallways, weaving underground, connecting bedrooms, kitchens, and even a complicated chimney system to release the smoke slowly into the air to avoid bombing by the Americans.

We observed several of the pit traps, booby traps, gruesome bamboo spike door traps, and window traps the Viet Cong set throughout the jungles. The American soldiers fell through beds of nails. These traps were usually covered by leaves. It was even hard to find the entrances of the tunnels without our guide pointing them out. I really can’t imagine how horrifying it must have been to have been here during the 1960s and 70s. Today there are thatched roofs so tourists can see the structure of the kitchens, hospitals, and bomb/ landmine making rooms (which are all underground), but during the war, all the soldiers would have been able to see was dense jungle. The Viet Cong had camouflaged the air holes in large termite mounds. There were also ditches all along the path today where Viet Cong soldiers hid to fire at the enemy. There are rooms holding four soldiers, one at each corner, where there were small holes in the ground. The soldiers would fire at the enemy from there.

You could see a couple large holes where bombs were dropped. As we continued the tour, the experience became even more horrifying as we neared the shooting range. For a little more than a dollar a bullet, tourists can fire M 16s and AK 47s. The guns themselves appeared to be bolted down, but the sounds were deafening. I had to hold my ears even near the range. Most tourists, who chose to participate, fired a bullet at a time, but every once in a while, we’d hear a string of 5-10 bullets. It was one of the scariest feelings I have ever felt.

Toward the end of the tour, we were able to go through a part of the Cu Chi Tunnels with one of the guards working at the site. There are now steps to help people down, and at first it was hard to really see how small the actual tunnels are. But soon enough, I was on my feet, crouched as low as I could possibly go, waddling through 3 or 3 ½ by 2 foot tunnels. Parts had a small light on the floor, but most of them were pitch black. It was terrifying. It was hard to see the person in front of my and parts came to a Y. About halfway through, a little claustrophobia set in, and I was ready to be out. I can’t imagine how the families lived in these tunnels. They were so hot and tiny. The Viet Cong stayed in them all day and only came out at night when the Americans were sleeping.

After exiting the tunnels, we were fed some tapioca. Because a bowl of rice can only sustain a person for a couple of hours, the Viet Cong primarily ate boiled tapioca, dipped in chopped peanut. It was pretty good. The tapioca didn’t have much of a taste; it was much like eating a boiled, peeled potato. I’m sure the peanut helped give it some flavor.

A Farewell to Ted, and We're Back in Saigon

Ted left last night from Hanoi, and Rachel, Jason, and I have returned to Ho Chi Minh City on a long, noisy two hour domestic flight. Our last day in Hanoi was as hot as all of the other days in the north. We woke up early to have breakfast before taking a taxi to view Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum, which is supposed to be free.

The Vietnamese take great pride in their “Uncle Ho,” who helped reunite them against the Americans and reunify the country into the communist, I mean “socialist” republic it is today. People from the countryside make the pilgrimage regularly. There are thousands of Vietnamese, and even a few tourists here and there, in a long line, winding around the streets. Luckily it moves continuously. Once you reach the front entrance, everyone is supposed to check their purses, bags, cameras, etc. There is counter for Vietnamese, though I think these rules weren’t really enforced with the locals. It is strictly enforced with the tourists; there is even a separate counter to leave behind all of your things. One woman at the counter tried to sell Jason brochures. He was confused and pointed to the sign that said the mausoleum and luggage/ bag check was free. She then proceeded to tell him that those were free, but he should buy the brochure. She seemed offended when he told her we didn’t want the brochures. But, we were in…

There are a lot of strict rules. For starters, there are armed guards in bright white attire everywhere watching the crowd. The public must follow a strict dress code, no shorts or short skirts and no tank tops. You aren’t allowed to take any pictures, talk, or even put your hands in your pocket. There can be no disrespect for Uncle Ho. After walking sometime on concrete, under blue tented walkways, we approached the rubbery red carpet that led up to the mausoleum. We were still moving at a pretty steady pace, and we finally entered. We continued around a couple corners and up a few steps until we had finally reached the room where his embalmed corpse lay in a glass box lit up in the center of the room. Uncle Ho is surrounded by 4 motionless bodyguards at all times. He looked almost too perfect with his wispy, white beard and arms crossed. Apparently his body is returned to Russia a few months each year for touch-ups, but there is also some discussion and doubt as to whether it is really him or some wax figure. The old, Vietnamese woman in front of me couldn’t get enough. She stopped dead in her tracks, staring at Ho Chi Minh. One of the guards on our level had to eventually shuffle her along in the line.

Upon leaving, we were ushered to a yellow house, fishing pond, the house on stilts that Ho Chi Minh supposedly spent some time in, and a one-column pagoda. This was free for all Vietnamese, but 10,000 dong (about 70 cents) for tourists. We were irritated to pay -- not because it was super expensive, but because the visit was supposed to be free. And we were getting nickel and dimed to continue the tour to get out. It was just another of many scams. After that we went into the Ho Chi Minh Museum, which was another 5,000 dong (about 35 cents). The museum was strange. It had more anti-American, pro-Communism sentiment, and weird lighting. There were some paintings of Ho Chi Minh on the wall, and Ted and I saw other old, Vietnamese ladies rubbing the hands and touching one of the paintings of Uncle Ho.

We spent the rest of the morning relaxing at the air-conditioned hotel before we had to check-out. After lunch, we did some shopping and met some of Rachel’s friends at a nearby café.

It’s nice to be back in Ho Chi Minh City. It’s been an exciting and tiring two weeks. We did a bit of American Idol karaoke on Playstation 2 last night, and I hope to return a bit to the spas. Tomorrow and Tuesday Jason and I will take some day trips if the weather holds up. It’s sunny today!

Friday Night in Hanoi...A True Cultural Experience!

Our last full day in Hanoi has come to an end. We met Rachel and Jason this morning in the hotel for breakfast before heading out for the day. Breakfast is included with our rooms, but seems rather unimpressive after 3 days of being spoiled on our cruise. Our first stop after breakfast was the Memorial House, which conveniently is located right next door to our hotel. The Memorial House is supposed to be a renovated traditional home used by merchants at the turn of the 20th century. You wouldn't know it though, because as soon as we paid our admission and moved past the French and Vietnamese informational posters, we were greeted by all of the trinkets for sale in each of the rooms of the house. A woman followed us from room to room trying to sell us the goods and occasionally pointing out the obvious, like "This is the bedroom." Our visit may of lasted 10 minutes, and when we left, we joked about how we were all swindled to pay to enter one of the many crap stores we could of visited on any of the other streets for free.

We headed for the lake that resides in the middle of the Old Quarter. This is where the famous red bridge is. Well I keep hearing the bridge referred to as the famous red bridge, but I've never seen it before. It didn't keep me from photographing it from every angle, though, as we approached it. We crossed the bridge and visited a temple on the other side. It was pretty unspectacular, though it had a nice central room with a big Buddha and other gold accessories. Around the side of the building, there was another room that housed a dead giant water turtle in a glass box. The turtles are rumored to be living in the lake and seem to be something like the local Loch Ness Monster.

Our next stop of the morning was the Hoa Lo Prison, which was originally built by the French and used to hold Vietnamese prisoners during their fight for independence. It's perhaps better known in the US as the prison used to hold all of the American POWs during the Vietnam War. The prison itself appears to be rather nice as far as prisons go, and touring it, you wonder how much of it has been cleaned up to be turned it into a museum. There was very little information posted about the structure as you moved from room to room, but they had the usual prison stuff. A main room for prisoners, a pit toilet used by the inmates, and a number of solitary cells used to hold prisoners before they were executed by guillotine, which is on display. The most interesting rooms to me were the displays they had dedicated to the internment of the US pilots. They had a number of pictures displayed depicting how well the US troops were treated. They showed them with captions like "US Prisoner receiving gifts from his family," "US pilot playing guitar and singing a song of his hometown," "US pilot receiving the proper medical care when they were sick." There is another display case containing Senator John McCain's flight suit and other articles that he was wearing when he was shot down during the war. The other articles on display included other objects to portray the Americans' stay in the prison as a nice vacation. There were playing cards, billiard balls, volleyball nets, and few other objects. The whole thing was pretty ridiculous. Upstairs, the entire floor was dedicated to the martyrs that had been executed or escaped to join the revolution for independence. Outside there was also a huge monument to the cause.

When we left the prison, our next stop was the Temple of Literature. We decided to take a taxi conveniently waiting outside. The taxi driver ripped us off. He had rigged the meter to increase the fare every 20 seconds or so. We knew we were getting ripped off and let the driver know it, in English, Vietnamese, and sign language as we exited the cab. We put the experience behind us though and headed in to enjoy the Temple of Literature. The Temple of Literature is Vietnam's oldest university and is quite beautiful. The complex consisted of a series of manicured courtyards, some with ponds, others with bonsai, and of course there was a pagoda mixed in here and there. Towards the rear of the complex, there was a building with a traditional band playing music. We sat down to listen and as soon as they finished the song, they all stood up and starting walking around selling their CD or pointing to a basket for tips. We just stood up and left. The final building of the complex appeared to be like some of the Buddhist temples we have visited on other parts of our trip. The bottom floor had the usual big Buddha sitting in the middle of the room surrounded by other statues of people and animals. From the other visits we've learned that the surrounding statues represent some of the other gods and spirits important to the religious legends. Upstairs there were 3 or 4 different alters setup with what seemed to be the same statue in each one, though I'm sure each one represented something else.



After we finished touring the Temple of Literature, we headed off to lunch at the highly recommended KOTO. KOTO stands for "Know One, Teach One" and is a restaurant/school that helps street kids learn the trade of cooking and hospitality. In addition, the school trains them in English and places them in jobs when they complete the program. To date, they have a 100% success rate with the program. So, it's dining for a good cause, and the food was excellent! We all got fresh fruit smoothies to drink and ordered a main from the menu. I had the gnocchi, which was great. Courtney ordered a falafel pita, Rachel a traditional Vietnamese dish, and Jason had the lasagna. Courtney and I even split a piece of carrot cake for dessert! Really good.

Following lunch we thought it would be fun to take a cyclo ride around town for an hour and end at the market. Unfortunately our experience trying to hire the cyclo drivers rivaled our earlier experience with the taxi driver. We were all prepared to pay what we knew to be the going rate and thought the drivers were agreeing to the same amount, when all of a sudden they started asking for double when they realized we were going to share the cyclos. We told them to forget it, walked away from them, and just walked to the market. One of the drivers continued to follow us for a few blocks continuing to shout ever lowering prices at us as we ignored him. His final offer was 4 times less then what we had originally agreed to pay him at the start. I guess everyone just wants to rip off the foreigners because they think they can afford it. Our walk to the market took about 20 minutes, and we were all soaked with sweat when we arrived. I think we all just wanted to head back to the hotel for a shower at this point, but we headed inside to take a look around. It was three floors of the same trinkets and junk we've seen for sale in every other store, so we were in and out in 18 seconds.

We walked back to our hotel, but before heading in, we stopped for a much needed cold beer at one of the local breweries. It was just what we needed to wind down from our afternoon adventure. We took a mini siesta before meeting up again to head out for a light dinner and our exciting evening on the town. Tonight was a real cultural experience. We saw two movies at an international film festival and visited the local circus. The films were quite good and were being shown as this cute little theater at the back of an alley. You would never even know it was there unless someone told you it was back there. Both of the films were documentaries. The first one, Looking for Love, was about the "Love Market" of the Hmong people, an ethnic group spread out over the northern highlands of Vietnam, parts of Laos, and Thailand. Once every year the Hmong people gather for the "Love Market" in one of their local villages. Girls that are of age show up in hopes of finding a boyfriend and falling in love. The movie was well done and showed some of the ritual involved in their cultural dating scene. It also included some humorous interviews with some of the older members of Hmong tribes that used to just kidnap the women they wanted to become their wives. The second movie, Mai's America, was about a girl from a well to do family in Vietnam that goes to America for her senior year of high school and plans to attend an American university to further her education. She was sent to rural Mississippi to live with a family of self proclaimed "rednecks," so needless to say she didn't get the American experience she was hoping for. She does end up getting a accepted to Tulane University, but sadly, with only a half scholarship, her family runs out of money before they are able to pay for her to finish school. She ends up moving to Detroit and trying to make her way by painting nails with the help of the local of a local Vietnamese community. After six months in Detroit, she returns to Vietnam without having finished her education.

To cap the night off, we went to the local circus. This was a real local event, and we didn't really know what to expect. It started off kind of slow with singing, but by the end, we were entertained and saddened at some of the sites on display. There were acrobats walking on tight ropes, balancing huge clay flowerpots on their heads, swinging around by their necks, and balancing on ladders. The most disturbing of the sites though were the scenes with the live animals. There were bears dressed in tutus and muzzles running around on two legs jumping hurdles, putting balls through basketball hoops, and riding bicycles. One of the bears seemed to be having a problem with the routine and was tied up to the wall and whipped by one of the handlers. Later they brought out monkeys in dresses and had them lifting dumbbells and riding bicycles as well. The monkeys seemed terrified of the handlers, and it was both sad and amusing at the same time to watch the handler chase them around the circus ring when they weren't pedaling fast enough. Finally the circus ended with two elephants doing various poses and balancing on one leg while lifting women dressed in sequenced dresses. You could clearly see the shackle marks dug into the front feet of the elephants. The kids were having a blast though, so it was kind of nice to see them having a good time. Most of the kids I've seen during the trip were either infants or old enough to get out and beg or work, so it was nice to see them with their families running around having some fun. The circus let out sometime after 10 pm, so we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Back from our 3 Day Cruise on Ha Long Bay :-)

We've just checked back into our hotel in Hanoi after a 3-day cruise of Ha Long Bay, which is about 3-3 1/2 hours by bus from Hanoi. The cruise was amazing. It was my first cruise, so I went in with few expectations. The boat, a junk, was an old wooden ship that looked like a pirate ship. The boat holds eight passengers, but we were the only people on it. We had our own private cruise!

Our guide was a little cheesy. His English was sometimes hard to understand, and he tried to crack a lot of jokes. But it often took us a long time to figure out what he was saying, and then we all had a good chuckle. After introducing himself, he said, "I'm sorry. We don't have any nice rooms; we only have beautiful rooms." It took us about 5 minutes to even figure out what he was saying, but then we all laughed, and he showed us around the cabin.

The food was amazing! Han, our cook, was superb. We began with a fruity welcome drink, and then we were served lunch on the deck as we began cruising through the limestone karsks. We began with spicy seafood soup, followed by a tomato and cucumber salad. The Tropical Sails Company was very accommodating with all of my dietary restrictions, which was wonderful. We then had prawns, steamed crabs, squid with mixed vegetables, beef with lemongrass and peanuts, steamed clams with chili pepper and lemongrass, fish, steamed white rice, a green (spinach-like) vegetable, and fruit (cantaloupe, banana, pineapple, and watermelon) for dessert. We were stuffed by the end of lunch!

We continued cruising around the bay and then took a small boat through the bay to a peaceful, hidden lagoon. We saw tourists kayaking everywhere. After that our boat guide took us to one of the karsts, where we climbed over 425 steps up to a spectacular view. We were exhausted by the end of that! When we returned to our boat, the guide convinced us to jump 6 meters off the top of the boat and into the bay, which he told us was 20 meters deep. Jason went first, followed by Ted. Rachel and I almost couldn't do it, but we finally plunged into the warm waters. It wasn't too dirty near the boat that day. There is quite a bit of trash and motor oil near the coast, and garbage seems to come in with the tides. It's kind of sad because the bay itself is incredibly beautiful. The guide, the jokester that he was, tried to scare Jason. He told us, "We have a lot of sharks. No small sharks; only big sharks." Jason swam out of the water as fast as he could, while Ted swam a lap or two around the boat.


We hung out on the deck of the boat playing cards that we borrowed from the boat crew until dinner. Our guide came up to get us and told us they had a big surprise for us. He had us close our eyes when we went back down into the cabin. They had the lights turned off, and then had us open our eyes and turned on the lights. It was such a beautiful presentation. They had cut animals and flowers out of the fruits and vegetables and laid out much of the food on the table. There was a glowing carved pumpkin with a candle in it, a hollowed out boat made of fruit with a carved traditional person sitting in it, etc. The cook was preparing "hot pot." We had steamed fish, squid, more prawns, tofu, a different type of clams, chicken, beef, stir fried cashews and onions in a sauce, pork and noodle soup, and vegetable noodle soup. They also gave me a full plate of vegetables on the side. We ended with some more fruit, Asian pear, pineapple, dragon fruit, and cantaloupe. I think I've probably gained 15 pounds!

The second day we woke up a little later and had breakfast. Breakfast was less spectacular, but still very good. We were served toast, rolls, danishes, butter, jam, ham, and fruit (guava, papaya, banana, and dragon fruit). The cook also made Rachel and Jason eggs by request.

The first part of the morning was spent kayaking in two person kayaks. It was kind of hard core. My arms were tired after the first 10 minutes, and we went kayaking for about an hour and a half. I can't say I love kayaking, but maybe if it was a little more relaxing, I may try it again. Our guide never gave us a rest. We just kept paddling. Ted was in the back of the kayak and controlling the rudder.

We finally ended up at this small cave in the rock, where the guide was having us hike up slippery stones in sandals. Jason had also noticed he lost his glasses, and we all spent some time looking. By pure luck, I finally discovered them buried in the sand. Yay! When we returned to the boat, the guide gave me a free beer for finding the glasses, which I gave to Jason since I don't drink beer.

We took the small boat in the afternoon to a deserted beach, where the cook barbecued our lunch. It was awesome! The crew set up a table in the sand on the beach. We started with a peanut and vegetable salad. Then we had grilled prawns on skewers, grilled squid, grilled pork kabobs (and I had another grilled prawn), grilled fish, chicken wings, and fried rice. The cook even prepared two different fried rice dishes, one with eggs for Ted, Jason, and Rachel and one without egg for me. We had fresh fruit (banana, pineapple, and cantaloupe) for dessert. Unfortunately this was our last meal with the cook, but we didn't know it at the time.

After eating, we spent about an hour on the beach swimming, lounging, and Ted and I collected quite a few seashells. The trash and glass eventually began to roll in with the tide, and Ted even a saw a needle on one part of the beach. There were also bubbles all over the water, and it looked like foam from oil or something. After Rachel cut her foot on a rock, we were ready to leave.

The guide said that we would have to wait because the big boat was gone and wouldn't be back yet. They had brought some kayaks for us, but after walking around the beach a bit more, they agreed to take us back to our big boat by the smaller one. We seemed to be going for quite some time when it appeared that we were lost. The guide was looking around for our boat, which was nowhere in sight. He finally saw another boat by the same company and flagged them down. We temporarily boarded that ship with some other Americans we met while our guide called our boat with his cell phone. It appeared that the cook was hurt. There was some miscommunication, and at the time we thought he had been burned during lunch. We later found out the cook had an appendicitis and had to return to the mainland for surgery.

The crew returned with a new cook, who was much less impressive. His food was really oily and often undercooked. I thought the fish was undercooked and in weird sauces. He made a "fruit salad" with dragon fruit, pineapple, cashews, and mayonnaise; I couldn't bear to even try it.

Rachel and Jason had smuggled a 5 liter jug of boxed wine on the boat, so we had some wine after dinner in our rooms. All of our food was included but drinks were not, and they were really expensive!

This morning I felt really sick after breakfast, so unfortunately I missed seeing the cave that Rachel, Jason, and Ted explored with our guide. Ted took some great pictures, though, and after laying down, I felt much better. Today we checked out early and then had one last lunch, with beautifully cut fruit and vegetables and mediocre (at best) food.

I'm really glad we went on the cruise. It was really relaxing and beautiful! Tonight we'll see water puppets after dinner. :-)

Hanoi: an Evening in the Old Quarter

We're back in Vietnam, which, strangely enough, feels kind of relaxing. We took a Vietnam Airlines flight from Phnom Penh that made one stop-over in Vientiane, Laos for about 15 minutes. We had to deplane, which gave us just enough time to use the bathroom, to peruse the cheesy, airport, tourist shops and the Duty Free store, as well as to buy a snack and get some of the local currency. From Laos we were on our way to Hanoi. I was 1 for 2 on the veggie meals. I really lucked out on the first flight. I had some nice tomato stewed vegetables with rice and fruit. Ted had some beef dish that even smelled awful. But, on the second flight, I wasn't so lucky. I had a triple-decker tomato and relish sandwich on white bread with the crusts cut off. Even the bread was soggy. I took one bite and then stopped abruptly.

Our hotel, the Hanoi Elegance, has internet in our room, which is certainly an added bonus. It is situated in the famous Old Quarter, which we will most likely explore in a few days when we return from our cruise of Ha Long Bay. We arrived kind of late tonight, so we will probably skip dinner and wait for breakfast tomorrow morning, which is also included in the price of our hotel.

Our final morning in Phnom Penh wasn't all that exciting. We began with a visit to Psah Toul Tom Poung, a Russian market that is one of several famous markets in Phnom Penh, but I had had enough of the hot, crowded, smelly markets for a while. It was chaos! And I was losing my patience, overheated, and exhausted. We spent less than 30 minutes total there; I refused to even look at one of the other markets.

That brought us to the National Museum, which is one of the world's most impressive museums of Khmer art. They had a lot of the carvings, Buddhas, and artifacts from the same time frame as Angor Wat. If we were able to travel back in time to the 13th century, the city of Angkor must have been amazing!

Tomorrow morning, we will meet Rachel and Jason early, and then we'll all head out together to Ha Long Bay for our 3-day boat cruise. I'm sure we'll have a lot to report when we return after living on a boat for 3 days! I better get to bed...

The Heat is On, the Heat is On-On, the Heat is... ON in Phnom Penh!

Here we are here in Phnom Penh on an extremely hot day. Holy cow! It’s so hot I’ve been sweating through all of my clothing. Ted and I may have to take a shower before dinner. We arrived yesterday in Cambodia’s capital city, Phnom Penh, via Siem Reap Airways, which was an adventure in and of itself. The airport was tiny and the aircraft tinier. We were in an A-27 (Ted thinks), which just two seats on each side. As it pulled in front of our departure gate, only one engine was on. We were hoping both were working, though we didn’t really know until the pilot turned the second one on after driving all the way down the runway, and just minutes before take-off. Other passengers were also cheering as both engines began running. The 40-50 minute flight was short and relatively uneventful, which is a good thing. I got a veggie meal, which consisted of small lettuce, cucumber, and butter sandwiches with the crusts cut off. Ted had a veggie samosa. I think I ought to opt for the non-veg meals in Asia. I’m 0 for 2.

Our taxi driver was waiting with a big sign with my name on it and the FCC logo. We’re staying at the famous Foreign Correspondents Club of Cambodia, or FCC, which is quite a bit nicer than I’m used to from my backpacking and Peace Corps days. I kind of like the upgrade! We arrived around 6:30 p.m. and were accosted by tuk-tuk drivers everywhere on our way into the hotel. We checked in and then were led to our beautiful room. A little bit of peace and quiet in crazy Cambodia. When we got into our room, all of my clothing was soaked in the backpack because water leaked out of something in my pack. I had to hang my clothes all over the room to dry out, but luckily everything was dry by this morning.

Phnom Penh seems quite a bit richer than Siem Reap and the countryside. The civil war ended only 20-25 years ago, and under Khmer Rouge regime, all educated people were massacred – doctors, lawyers, intellectuals, monks, teachers, students, professors, speakers of French, English, and other languages, etc. The ultra-communist regime created a two-class society, a working class and peasants. There are only two factories in the entire country, and they are both in Phnom Penh. That is where most of the clothing from the Gap and other stores in the US most likely comes from. There are still a lot of beggars and people who are deformed or missing limbs from the war or the landmines that are still all over the countryside. I think I read somewhere it would take more than 200 years, or some crazy number, to completely de-mine the entire country.

We had dinner at the FCC last night, which is super touristy and full of ex-pats and travelers. The food was expensive but excellent. I had my 4th or 5th dinner of amok fish since arriving in Cambodia. I absolutely LOVE Khmer cuisine. We turned in early because we had an early start on today, our only full-day in Phnom Penh.

We began this morning on a self-guided tour of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Parts of it reminded me of my visit to Auschwitz Concentration Camp near Krakow, Poland almost 10 years ago. Tuol Sleng, known as the S-21 Prison, was a high school that the Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot, converted into an interrogation headquarters and torture chamber from 1975-1979. More than 20,000 people passed through the prison before the Vietnamese liberated it. We were able to view several of the detention cells and torture rooms, with blood-stained floors and pictures of the victims being tortured, as well as watch a one-hour video at the end. There were several rooms with thousands of pictures of the victims of the massacres and very graphic paintings by Vann Nath, one of only seven survivors, in the museum. The museum is intense; some of the photos and pictures made me sick. Kaing Khek Iev, known as Duch, the chief director of the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, is currently on trial in Phnom Penh; he is the first person who has ever been tried. He was a math teacher (I think) before joining the Khmer Rouge, and because of his profession, he kept meticulous notes and pictures.

After spending almost 4 hours at the museum, we were on our way to Choeung Ek, the Killing Fields. Only about half of the mass graves have been excavated to date. There were overgrown ditches everywhere, where the bodies, teeth, and bones of more than two million people were tortured and killed. The shallow graves surround the memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa, that the Cambodians have recently erected to remember those who perished.

Our driver kept trying to tempt us to go to the shooting range, where for $30 US, you can buy a magazine of bullets and fire AK 47s, M 16s, rocket launchers, and hand grenades, but we opted to return to the hotel for lunch. After eating, we spent the afternoon touring the grand Royal Palace of the king and the Silver Pagoda and walking along the river front. Our hotel is right of the river, where the Tonle Sap and the Mekong Rivers meet. We saw several carts full of fried spiders and bugs. I started taking pictures before I was yelled at. I hope some of them turned out! It was my first time seeing a mobile bug snack bar.

Tomorrow we may try and hit up some of the markets and hopefully tour the National Museum, which is famous for Khmer art, before flying to Hanoi, Vietnam. From Hanoi, we’ll be on a 3-day boat cruise of Ha Long Bay, so there will most likely not be as much internet access and posting, but we’ll do our best. We’re having a great adventure but ready to head out of Cambodia and back to Vietnam.

We've reached the capitol...Phnom Penh!

We arrived in Phnom Penh last night after a short plane ride on Siem Reap/Bangkok Airways. We're still not actually sure which airline we flew on, and I don't think the ticket agents did either. One thing we did notice, though, was the plane taxing up to our gate with only one of the turbo prop engines running. I was thinking to myself, that doesn't look right, but what do I know, maybe they just use one to steer the plane on the ground. When we boarded the plane, we were seated right next to one of the engines. I started to get a little nervous when I realized we were heading out to take off, and the pilots had still not started the second engine. I figured the plane might be designed to land with only one engine in the event of an emergency, but surely they wouldn't head off on another flight with only one engine working. After we had gone all the way to the end of the runway and turned around, the engine finally started, and there was a sigh of relief from a group of Japanese travelers sitting behind us. We turned around and smiled, and they laughed as they seemed just as concerned that we were about to take off with only one engine running.

After a 35 minute flight, we were greeted at the airport by our taxi driver from the FCC. He was standing there ready to go with Courtney's name on the sign this time. We gave him our bags and hopped in for the 15 minute or so ride to the hotel. It was about 6:30 when we arrived at the hotel, and it was already starting to get dark in the city. As soon as we got out of the car, there was a security guard helping us with our bags and leading us through a crowd of tuk tuk drivers eager to earn our business for the evening or the following day. It was a little overwhelming, but we managed to get past them and make our way into the lobby of the FCC. The FCC, or Foregin Correspondents Club, is famous in Phnom Penh as the place journalists would meet during the war for information. It was rehabbed in the late 1990's by a company in Hong Kong. The interior is decorated with pictures from the war, and they have a great two level restaurant and bar that overlooks the Mekong River. There are only six rooms in the hotel, and each one is named after one of the famous temples we just left in Siem Reap. We are staying in the Mebon and have a great view of the Mekong River from our second story window.

After checking in at the front desk, we were led to our room by a member of the hotel staff, who carried Courtney's bag up to the room for her, turned on our air conditioner, opened our blinds, and pointed out some of the features in the room. Courtney, being the avid traveler that she is, quickly recognized the opportunity to provide a tip for good service. She reached into her purse and handed the guy 1000 riels, or the equivalent of 25 cents. We laughed about it later and planned to just play dumb and pretend that we didn't understand the exchange rate. After relaxing for a few minutes, we decided our plan for today would be to rent a taxi for the day and head out to see Toul Sleng, the genocide museum; Cheong Ek, the killing fields; the Royal Palace; and the Silver Pagoda. We requested our same taxi driver that picked us up from the airport. He told us that night that we could rent the taxi for the whole day for $20. With the arrangements made for the taxi, we thought we'd venture out and see a little bit of the nightlife along the riverfront. I think we made it about two blocks before we decided to turn back and eat at the hotel. It was just so exhausting being accosted by beggers and vendors every five seconds while walking down the street. There are certainly way more beggers on the streets of Phnom Penh then we have seen in either Ho Chi Minh City or Siem Reap. We headed upstairs to the restaurant in the FCC and sat down to a nice meal. We ordered a jug of sangria, and each enjoyed another Khmer curry dish before heading off to bed.

This morning we met our driver, Mom Sandy, at 7:30 am. When we climbed in the car and started telling him our agenda for the day, he told us that yesterday he had only agreed to take us to the Toul Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields for $20, not be our driver for the whole day. He told we could just walk to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda from our hotel, which we knew we could, but we decided to use the taxi anyways. Mom told us that he was heading back to his village 2 and half hours away in the afternoon to see his family so he wouldn't be able to remain with us throughout the day. We were the first people to arrive at Toul Sleng.

Toul Sleng, now the Genocide Museum, was originally a high school and converted into a prison to torture and kill almost 20,000 innocent people during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. The victims included men and women of all ages, as well as those from countries other than Cambodia. The buildings are poorly maintained, and without proper funding, I don't see them standing for too much longer before the roofs cave in. What remains, though, is a pretty powerful testimony to the atrocities committed here. From the outside of two of the buildings, it looks just like a three-level schoolhouse with classrooms along the front. One of the buildings, however, was left as it was during the days it was used as a prison. Razor wire ran across the entire facade of the building to prevent people from committing suicide by jumping off the top floors. When you actually walk through the buildings, you can see remanents of the cells constructed within the walls of the classrooms, and there are still traces of blood all over the floors. People were held in either single cells or with iron shackles on their ankles in mass holding cells. They were systamatically tortured and made to confess that they were working for the CIA or that they had contacted the Vietnamese army to undermine the Khmer Rouge regime. In all it is estimated that over 2 million people were exterminated during their reign.

We walked through the exhibits in about 2 hours when Courtney noticed there was a movie starting in about 40 minutes. We decided to wait for it, partly because we wanted to see it, and partly because we wanted to make our driver wait for us longer after he told us he wasn't going to take us around for the entire day. The movie started and lasted for another hour. We were glad we waited. It was fairly informative, and it followed the story of two cousins that were married and seperated by the regime. The wife was forced to work in one of the work camps, and her husband was a member of the Khmer Rouge army. The story was being told by the mother of the daughter, who was almost 70 years old. It ended with them both being sent to Toul Sleng, though they probably didn't know they were there together. They both were eventually sent off to Cheong Ek to be executed.

When the movie ended, we met our driver and headed off to Cheong Ek. It was about a 25 minute drive from the genocide museum, and you really get a sense of how terrifying it must of been for the prisoners to be loaded into a truck, blindfolded, and driven that distance to the fields. When we arrived at the site, we saw the huge pagoda that has been constructed to house the remains of the almost 9000 people they have exhumed so far.

Much of the fields still have not been touched. When you near the Pagoda, you can see the piles and piles of human skulls stacked on top of one another all the way to the top of the structure. It must of been at least 10 stories tall. We walked around and took it all in before meeting our driver again and heading back to the hotel.

On the drive home, our driver asked us what time we were heading to the airport for our flight tomorrow. Courtney immediately answered, "You'll be at your village. You won't be able to take us." She was happy that she called him out on his lie about needing to be somewhere in the afternoon. After he dropped us off, we saw Mom hanging out in front of the hotel looking for new passengers. I guess they're all just trying to make a buck in this country, and you can't blame them, but you don't like feeling like you've been ripped off either. We were both happy to pay for the taxi today though, if just for the fact that we were't breathing all of the dust and exhaust fumes, and we even got a little bit of AC during the ride. I didn't have to break out my SARS face mask, which I've been using during some of the dusty tuk-tuk rides.

We headed up to the hotel to relax for a bit and have a bite to eat. We ate lunch at the FCC again, but only after sitting down at a local place and being hounded by children selling sunglasses and books. There didn't seem to be anyone in site at the restaurant to help us, so we just walked back to the hotel to get away from the vendors. After a brief power nap in the comforting AC of the hotel, we headed back out again to tackle the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda.

You would think they were giving something away at this place. There were more people here than probably the whole town of Siem Reap. Well maybe not, but it was certainly really crowded. We paid the $6.25 (everyone pretty much uses US dollars here) for our tickets and headed in to see what we could see. There wasn't much actually. There were some nice looking buildings, the throne room, some artifacts, and some more Buddhas. I think I'm "Buddha'd out" by this point. The highlight for me, anyways, was the three monkeys running around outside of one of the buildings. I took some video of them and entertained the children nearby, who were fascinated watching the monkeys on the screen of my camera.

When we left the Royal Palace, we crossed the street and decided to check out the locals, who were hanging out all along the river front. We were happy we did. We came across a number of carts selling insects! Grasshoppers, beatles, big spiders, and others we didn't recognize. I was shooting video, and Courtney was taking pictures when I heard one of the ladies yelling "NO PICTURE!" We smiled, put our cameras away, and moved on to the next one to sneak a few more shots. How can you resist taking pictures of the bug carts?! With that, we called it a day.

Tonight I think we are going to take a tuk-tuk to dinner and venture to a Korean place Courtney had seen in one of the guide books. It should be interesting. It's either going to be really good or really bad. We'll see...

"Templed Out": An Afternoon through the Cambodian Countryside and along the Tonle Sap Lake

Day three of Siem Reap, and we’re still at it. We had bought a 3-day temple pass, and today was the final day. By the end of the morning, after seeing five more temples, we were all “templed out.”

Ted and I began our morning on the back of an elephant; we rode the elephant from the South Gate to Bayon through Angkor Thom. Rachel and Jason opted for some more sight seeing. Ted was thrilled because this was his first elephant ride. Our ride was a little bouncy but relaxing. We even saw some monkeys grooming themselves on the side of the road. After carting us around, we fed the elephant some bananas. I think he or she enjoyed the tasty treat!

The first of the next set of temples was Prasat Preah Khan. I wish I had more to say about it, but after 2 ½ days of walking up hundreds of steps in the extreme, exhausting heat, visiting temple after temple, it’s getting hard to distinguish between some of the smaller ones and keep up our enthusiasm. After Prasat Preah Khan, we visited Neak Pean and Prasat Ta Som. Prasat Ta Som had huge centipedes and some rather large spiders within the crevices and in the corners of the large, moss-covered stones.

Our final destination before lunch, and the last temple of our days at Angkor Wat (at least this visit), was East Mibon, which had 8 rather large stone elephants around it. We took a ton of photos, and we’ve been enjoying taking it all in.

After lunch at a nearby touristy restaurant, Ted and I veered paths from Rachel and Jason. They went to an artisan shop, and we went to the floating villages along the Tonle Sap lake. I’ve never really been anywhere quite like it. Some of the houses are built on stilts and many of the others are built of bamboo and float along the river. The houses move at least 3 times a year. We even saw some being tugged by a boat, and some of the floating market boats passing from house to house selling groceries. If it’s at all possible, I think it was even more impoverished along the river and lake than in the countryside. It’s devastating to see the conditions that the majority of the people live in here. Ted has been shooting a lot of video. I hope it turns out. Still shots will surely not do justice.

We’ve observed quite a bit of wildlife, especially driving in the countryside and through the small villages on the way to different ruins and the floating village. Cows, yaks, chickens, roosters, dogs, and cats have free rein in the streets. There are also horses and water buffalo along the roadside. We have seen a lot of crocodiles on farms and elephants and monkeys while touring some of the ruins. In addition to all of the wildlife we have been able to listen to the live music of disabled, landmine victims. These people got tired of begging for money, so they have learned to play instruments and formed bands playing traditional Khmer music. The bands are at many of the temples. They accept donations and sell CDs. Ted, Rachel, and I all bought CDs from various groups.

Tomorrow we plan to do a bit of shopping before heading to the airport. Ted and I will fly to Phnom Penh, and Rachel and Jason are heading to Hanoi to stay with one of their friends. We’ll all meet back up together in Hanoi to head to Ha Long Bay early next week.

We've arrived in Cambodia!

We arrived in Cambodia two days ago, after a short flight from Ho Chi Minh City, and have been having a great time. Everyone here is so friendly and the sites are unbelievable, but this is certainly the poorest country I've ever been to. Siem Reap is a bit more touristy and as a Westerner, I think it’s a bit easier to adjust to. I’ve been having a hard time adjusting to all of the pollution and the artic temperatures that Courtney keeps setting the room air conditioner to, so I’ve developed a bit of a persistent cough. When we arrived at the airport, we were met by two tuk tuk drivers from our hotel. It was kind of fun, I think it’s the first time I’ve stepped out of an airport and found a man standing there with my name on a sign. We were able to get Mr. Loeun as our driver, the same one Caitlin had when she visited back in November, and he has been really nice. He took us back to our hotel, the Villa at Siem Reap, and we dropped off our stuff and headed out to explore a bit of the city and grab some dinner.

We found a great place called The Red Piano and we each had our first taste of the traditional Khmer food. Jason and I ordered a Chicken Curry dish, Courtney ordered Amok Fish, and Rachel had a pork dish. All of the food looked great and mine was outstanding. After dinner we wandered around the shops a little bit and there seems to be a few nice markets in town to look for trinkets in on our last day. We called it a pretty early night though so we could get ready for our 5 am pickup to see the sunrise over Ankor Wat.

Our drivers arrived at 5 am sharp and we headed off with them to Angkor Wat. We arrived at the park and we all had to hop out of the van to pay the $40 for the three day pass and have our picture taken. Once we all had our passes, we drove in the 5 miles or so until we reached Ankor Wat. The site is incredible. I don’t think any picture or video can really do it justice. From a far you are taken in by the overall size of the structure and once you cross the moat over the main bridge, you really see how spread out the structure is inside the walls. Our tour guide was outstanding the entire day. He spoke very good English and was really easy to understand. The sunrise was acutally quite overcast, but it didn't really matter. We all enjoyed the experience and got some wonderful pictures.

After a short breakfast, we headed to the South Gate of Angkor Thom the last capital of Angkor, which was active during the 12th centurie I think our guide said. This structure is equally impressive. The road leading up to the gate is lined by the ruins of over 30 Buddahs pulling on a snake as if they were playing tug of war. Again the scale is just impressive, each one is easily two times taller then me. The gate itself was decorated with a giant Buddah head with four faces pointing north, south, east and west. The lips on each face were over 10 feet across. I can't even imagine how people during this time period were able to move the rocks to build these temples. The rest of the day we spent at Bayon and Ta Prohm before returning back to Ankor Wat in the afternoon to see all of the intricate carvings in great detail with our guide. While we were at Bayon, the King of Laos showed up for a visit and we were ushered aside by the Cambodian Police while photographers and his entourage passed us. We were only about 5 or 10 feet away from them when they passed us. Certainly not the same kind of security you would see in the US had some random dignitary showed up to view a tourist attraction.

Ta Prohm is known as the jungle temple and is the location where they filmed the Tomb Raider movie. This temple like the others was spectacular. The walls of the temple here are overgrown with the roots of 1000 year old fig trees. Its incredible to see the power of nature as the trees literally tear the walls of the temple apart as their roots grow between the blocks of stone. After viewing Ta Prohm, we headed back to the hotel to enjoy some lunch and take a break from the heat and stairs of the temples.

At 2:00 pm our driver and guide returned to pick us up again. We headed back to Angkor Wat, the most popular of the temples, and saw all of the intricate carvings in great detail. Our guide seemed to know everything about the carvings. We found out later that they send them off to a 7 month training school in order to become tour guides. The carvings though for the most part depict different stories from the hindu scriptures. Our guide told us it took over 37 years to construct Angkor Wat and after seeing all of the detail work I can't believe they finished it so quickly. Aside from seeing all of the intricate carvings on the interior, I saw my first group of wild monkies! As we were entering the temple Courtney spotted one in the grass and pointed it out. She immediately told me to be careful because they try to steal all of your stuff. I of course ignored her and went straight for the video camera. Well as soon as I opened the bag and starting rustling the zip lock bag I was keeping it in, the Monkey immediately looked up at me and started running towards me. Needless to say, I ran up the stairs of the temple behind Courtney to get away from it. It followed me all the way up into the temple though before it became scared by other tourists heading out of the temple. As soon as the monkey retreated a bit, I did manage to get my video camera out and get some video of them. There were probably a group of about 6 or 7 or them hanging out on the wall of the temple eating some kind of big friut.

After a long first day in the park we headed back to our hotel, said goodbye to our guide and driver, and enjoyed a couple drinks for happy hour at the hotel before heading back into town to find some dinner. Beers are only 70 cents at the hotel! We had dinner at a nice little place called Temple Bar and we were able to see some Cambodian traditional dancers perform while we were eating our meals.

This morning we left the hotel at 6:30 am with our tuk tuk drivers and headed out to Bantay Srei which is about an hour or so from Siem Reap. The country side was beautiful and it was nice ride with the open air of the tuk tuk….

Well this internet café is about to close, so I’ll have to pick this up when we have more time.

We’re having a blast though….Tomorrow we’ll be riding elephants!

Cambodia: Temples, Temples, and more Temples!

Today is our second day in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We arrived after a short flight 45-50 minute flight from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. It’s funny on the plane because I ordered our tickets on expedia.com, and my account automatically requests vegetarian meals. So on the flight these two stewardesses came over to me to confirm that I had ordered vegetarian meals. They were really official and even had me show them my boarding pass. When they brought our meals, mine was marked with a special label. So Ted opened his (non-veg) meal, which was a cup of mixed fruit, water, and a kitkat. He was immediately intrigued as to what my meal would consist of since his was already non-veg. Mine was the same, minus the kitkat bar! We both had a laugh, and then he gave me his candy bar. I guess when you special order meals, you never know what you’re going to get!

Rachel, Jason, and I already had our visas, but Ted went to the visa line at the airport. I was waiting behind Rachel and Jason, which seemed to be taking forever. Rachel told me that the passport stamping lady kept asking for a $1 bribe, when Rachel finally snapped at her! Mr. Loeun, our tuk-tuk driver, met us at the airport to bring us into town.

Cambodia is truly an experience. The people are incredibly nice and the scenery is gorgeous. The poverty can be overwhelming, though. I have experienced significantly less culture shock on this trip than when I came alone 4 years ago. I think it was nice to fly (last time I traveled by land on the poorly conditioned roads). We checked immediately into our hotel, the Villa Siem Reap, which is fantastic, and then we walked downtown to dinner. The downtown, “touristy” area is adorable. It caters to westerners and reminds me of Bali. I had my first Khmer meal, the amok fish, at the Red Piano. Yum! The evening ended with a one hour foot massage for less than $5.

Wednesday morning, we woke up early and left the hotel by 5 a.m. to try and catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat with a guided tour and private car that Jason had previously arranged. I guess we were there for the sunrise, but it was pretty overcast. The five magnificent, soaring towers of Angkor Wat would impress anyone. We didn’t end up touring the temples of Angkor Wat until later in the afternoon.



After sunrise, we visited the Angkor Thom complex. We entered through the South Gate and continued on into the Bayon temple area. There the king of Laos was also visiting, so there were security guards everywhere, and parts of the tour were postponed. We walked along the stone paths and climbed the temples. We also passed the Terrace of the Elephants on our way out by taxi.

We then toured Ta Prohm, which is known as the “jungle temple.” This is where Tomb Raider was filmed, and the roots of trees thousands of years old seemed to have taken over and conquered the stone ruins. We ate some lunch at the hotel, and gave our feet a break.

The afternoon ended at a second visit to the famous Angkor Wat. The temples are filled with intricate carvings in depicting many of the Hindu myths and epics. It was beautiful and very impressive, even for my second visit. Angkor’s earliest monuments date from 802, under Jayavarman II. Jayavarman VII, the greatest temple-builder of them all, finished building the temples by the end of 1219. Angkor Wat is famous for “The Churning of the Ocean of Milk,”a popular theme in Khmer art. It depicts the creation myth of a famous Hindu epic.

We ended the day with dinner at The Temple Bar, where we were able to see the ancient art of Apsara dance free upstairs.

Today we were able to sleep in a little later. We left the hotel by 6:30 a.m. and traveled by tuk-tuk about 45 minutes to an hour. After an authentic tour through the rural, underdeveloped countryside, we arrived to Banteay Srei. This unique mini-temple had intricately carved reddish stone also depicting many Hindu myths. We continued our Angkor Wat tour with a visit to Banteay Samre, which was much less touristy and a little more in tact. Our final stop before lunch was Pre Rup, which was a smaller temple along the road but with spectacular views. From the highest tier, I could even view Angkor Wat through the trees.

We had lunch at a nearby tourist restaurant, which was a little odd because we had previously ordered a pack lunch from the hotel. Our tuk-tuk drivers feared rain and convinced us to eat at a table in a restaurant rather than take our chances at a picnic lunch under the open sky. It’s been really hot, too, so we went to the restaurant. They asked us to buy a drink, but we were able to take all of our food into the restaurant to eat, which felt kind of strange.

After eating lunch, we toured two more sights, Srah Srang and Banteay Kdei, before the rain hit. We have one more day on the temple pass tomorrow, so hopefully we can catch any of the sights we may have missed.

We took advantage of our hotel’s happy hour and then went to dinner at the eclectic Deadfish restaurant. I ordered more Khmer food (which is awesome, by the way), and Rachel and I were able to feed almost 15 crocodiles for 50 cents each.

Good Morning Vietnam!

I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City last night after traveling for over 24 hours. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. My Thai Airlines flight from New York to Bangkok had an on demand entertainment system on the back of the seat in front of you. You could select from about 25 different movies, watch episodes of popular television shows, play video games, or listen to music. I watched 4 movies on the way over and played a little video blackjack to pass the time. With all the entertainment and the food they kept bringing, the flight really didn’t seem that long. When I finally arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, I made my way through customs and headed outside of the airport to find Courtney, Rachel, and Jason waiting for me. We all climbed into a taxi and headed off for Rachel and Jason’s apartment.

The cab ride provided my first look at all the moterbikes on the streets. They’re everywhere, and they seem to be coming from all directions. The cab we were in was being passed by bikes on both sides and the driver seemed to just be constantly honking the horn so the motercycle drivers knew he was there. There were bikes even coming at us down the “wrong” side of the road. I guess in Vietnam there is no wrong side of the road though.

Within about 10 to 15 minutes, we arrived at Rachel and Jason’s apartment building. I had to check in at the front desk and let them make a copy of my passport. Then we stepped into the convenience store located in the lobby of their building, and Courtney and Rachel bought three bottles of red wine. I guess the store was having a special – buy two bottles get one free. They had a hard time finding three bottles of red because they had taken advantage of the same deal the day before. Rachel managed to find one hidden behind one of the other bottles, and we headed upstairs. We spent the night enjoying some of the wine, and much to Courtney’s delight, playing a Karaoke game on their Playstation 2. I had my first taste of Dragon fruit. Its pink on the outside and shaped somewhat like an oversized pear with parts curving off of the sides of it. Inside it’s white with black seeds running throughout and looks somewhat like Cookies n’ Cream ice cream. It was good. It sort of tasted like a less sweet version of watermelon. At some point I actually went to bed.

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM! This morning I was the last one to wake up. I probably could of slept all day if Courtney hadn’t woken me up. The plan for the day was to see the Reunification Palace and the War Remnants Museum. We got ready and headed off for breakfast. Before we left the apartment building I exchanged some US money for the local currency. I changed out $60 and thought I had won the lottery when she gave me the Vietnamese money. It was over 900000 Dong!

For breakfast we went to a nice little restaurant that served crepes. It was quite good. I had one stuffed with mozzerella, tomatoes, spinich, and mushrooms in a cream sauce with my morning dose of caffiene. After breakfast we decided to take a taxi over to the Jade Emperor Pagoda.



I’m still not sure what this place was. I’ll have to look it up in one of the guide books when I have a free moment. From what I can gather though it was some sort of Buddhist temple. I was feeling kind of sick, though, as we made our way through it. It was filled with the smoke from incense that was burning in every one of the rooms. We went through it fairly quickly and snapped off a bunch of pictures along the way. Outside there was a pond filled with turtles some of which were dead and floating on the surface. We had seen a lady outside selling baby turtles and figured that people bought the turtles and tossed them into the pond as some kind of offering.

After the Jade Emperor Pagoda, we took a taxi to one of the markets to get a little shopping in before the Reunification Palace reopened after lunch. The market was huge. It reminded me of the ones I saw in Sydney and Melbourne. Vendors were setup selling anything you could imagine and some things you could never imagine. I’m not even sure what many of the food items for sale were, but I can assure you they wouldn’t ever be entering my mouth.

From the market we walked over to the Reunification Palace. Over the years, the building was occupied by the French, South Vietnamese, the French again, then again by South Vietnamese with the US, and in 1975 it was taken over by the North. I think that’s how it all happened. I was having trouble following our guide. Now it stands as a tourist attraction. On the lawn of the palace they have the two tanks the North used to break down the gates in 1975. Inside it was a bunch of rooms with chairs and tables in them. One room was a conference room, another a dining hall, upstairs there were more of the same. There was a movie theater, a library, and the President’s office. It felt a little like going to Graceland. The President’s office was decorated with stuffed Cheetahs and Jaguars or other such animals. They give you pretty much free regin of the place though, and we wandered around all four floors and the basement.

The next stop was the War Remnants Museum. I didn’t really know what to expect here. I had read the short blurb about the place in one of the guide books and knew that it was fairly anti-American, but I wasn’t sure how it would be depicted. The museum consisted primarily of photographs and military vehicles. There were six different areas filled with photographs, and by the end, I had seen enough. It was kind of hard to follow as well because all of the information written in English was printed in small type below the larger Vietnamese information. I think I stopped reading about halfway through and just looked at the photos, many of which were very graphic scenes from the war.
After the museum, we went back to Rachel and Jason’s apartment and took a little break before heading out again to dinner. Rachel and Jason took us to an all you can eat Brazilian barbeque restaurant called Au Lac do Brazil. They advertised 17 meats or some ridiculous number like that. The food was really good. The wait staff just kept coming up to our table with giant hunks of meat on skewers and cutting it off on to our plates. I ate at least 5 different animals tonight, but I think my favorite was actually the fried bananas and some green leafy vegetable sauteed with garlic. Following dinner we stopped for a drink at I-Box, one of the bars nearby Rachel and Jason’s apartment. It was the perfect ending to a great first day in Vietnam!

2 Days at the Spa, and Ted has arrived!

The big news is that Ted arrived last night. Yay! He hasn't really had much of a chance to see a lot of Ho Chi Minh City, but he observed all of the motorbikes from the taxi on our way home from the airport. Last night we played some “American Idol Karaoke” on Jason’s Playstation 2. It was so fun! I think Rachel and Jason are getting a little sick of karaoke; they said they played more in the past two days than they have since they got the game. But I LOVE karaoke, so I have been pleading with everyone to bust of the mics.

Rachel and I have been testing out more of the spas for the past 2 days. On Saturday, we decided to try the Regency Health & Leisure Club Luxury Spa recommended from her Asia Life magazine. It was advertised as “everything you could ever want in jacuzzis, saunas, Chinese back rub, face masks, haircuts, ear cleaning and massage… They’ve taken service to a new level. For $14.95, you get sauna, steambath, gym access, Chinese back scrub, jacuzzi, hair wash, face mask, face massage, ear cleaning, haircut, foot massage, a free light meal, free cigarettes and iced tea, and an all over body massage,” all in one sitting of about 4-5 hours. Believe me, it was NOT luxurious. Jason was laughing when we told him about it. What did we expect; it was a 5 hour spa treatment for less than $15?!

After the taxi got lost and drove the wrong way down a 4-lane road, we made it to the Regency Health & Leisure Club. It was really hard to find because the hotel it is in has a different name and is under some major construction. After climbing through boards and sawhorses to the half renovated elevator, we were taken to the spa. We tried to confirm the price with the ladies at the counter, but no one really spoke English. They grabbed their brochure, which had pictures of many of the services, and it listed the $14.95 price. We were on our way. The beginning of the experience felt a little similar to the Korean mogyoktang (bathhouse) , which I desperately miss. You enter a small room with lockers where you changed out of your clothes and into a towel. We were first taken into the sauna. It looked like a small plastic space station, with built-in seventies looking seats, a lot like the furniture in the dorms from our freshmen year of college. There were two small, plastic baskets of lemongrass, and I immediately saw a huge live cockroach in one of them. I pointed to it and told the lady when we were all inside. She came in and started spraying it, chasing it all of the floor. Finally it managed to crawl back in the crack of one of the seats, and she said in her meek, light-pitched voice, “It’s okay now. Don’t worry. He die.” We were underway. We climbed onto the chairs and waited for the steam to fill the room. It smelled wonderful and very invigorating with the lemongrass. Luckily the cockroach never made a second appearance.

After that, we were taken over to these interesting looking, shallow bathtubs with built-in blue foam, where we were told to take the towel off and lie there naked. Two women then wrapped their hands with washcloths, and rubbed as hard as they could to exfoliate our skin. It hurt so bad! It was similar to the exfoliating rubs at the Korean bathhouse, but without the specialized cloth, and much, much more painful. My skin was turning red and hurting everywhere. After they rubbed both sides of us, front and back, we were led to the showers to wash off all of the dead skin. We sat a while in the “steambath” and watched MTV Rewind to the 80s, which was probably one of the highlights of the spa. The steambath was more like a hot tub, and the water smelled a little off, but it was okay. Some time later, one of the ladies asked if we were ready for our facial. We looked at each other and decided why not? So we were given some light clothing (like Korean jimjjilbang), and taken through the first of many dingy staircases to the next level. On the second floor, no one spoke any English. They seemed really confused but finally took us to lie down. They rubbed some cream into our faces for a while and then laid long, thin cucumbers slices on our face. It was freezing! We were laying there a long time when Rachel suspected they forgot about us, so she removed a section of the cucumber and motioned one of the ladies over to us. They had forgotten about us, but finally they took off the cucumber slices and sent us on our way. It wasn’t much of a facial, but what could we have expected? Everyone expected a tip after we left each station, and the face ladies were screaming at us as we walked to the shampooing ladies.

Next we were shuffled across the hair salon to get our hair washed. This lady was pretty good, but I felt like she was never going to stop washing my hair. Not to mention I had already washed it that morning at Rachel and Jason’s apartment. After what felt like 30 minutes of shampooing, she dried my hair, and then she showed me to another hidden staircase to the next level. This one had lighted strips along the floor like in the movie theaters. I met Rachel in the foot massage chairs.

Two men brought us tea and gave us a foot massage. That was probably the highlight of the spa treatment. It actually felt pretty good. There you could order the free light meal, which was ramen noodles. We skipped it. The lounge was terribly smoky, though, because it was also where you were given all of the free cigarettes. Jason was laughing when he heard that the spa was giving out free cigarettes. It does seem a little ironic.

The final part of the experience was the full body massage, which we could rename “Hell on Earth.” It was awful. As we were taken back through more scary, hidden staircases, we were brought into an old, wooden paneled 70’s looking room. The air conditioner was so loud Rachel asked them to turn it off. No one understood, so they turned it up louder and positioned us on the tables. One women climbed on my butt and started kneeing me everywhere. It really felt like she was doing the splits or some dance routine on my back. There were bars on the ceiling, and sometimes she was standing up, doing ballet or something across my back. Rachel asked her lady to lighten it up, but no one really understood. They were pinching, twisting, bending, and slapping us everywhere as they moved about the tables. The final treat was getting my hair pulled over and over and over. There was nothing relaxing about it. Rachel described it as if these women made no adjustments than if we were 300 pound men. After about an hour, the torture ended. At the end of each service, we had to sign a slip of paper, and these women were really pissed off we weren’t giving them an automatic tip. Rachel tried to explain to everyone that we were tipping downstairs at the end of everything, but these women we pulling our arms, and shouting, “TIP! Madam, TIP!” and pointing to the paper. We ran out and somehow found our way through the maze of staircases back to the front desk. We paid a full $18.75 each, including tip, and then left. I would agree with Asia Life; the Regency was taking the service to a different level, a painful one!

Yesterday, we went to a much better, up-scale, French spa that Rachel and Jason had previously been to. We are no longer trusting the Asia Life magazine and only returning to the spas Rachel has tried out previously. If the Regency was “Hell on Earth,” the L’Apothiquaire was as close to a slice of Heaven that we may find in Vietnam. We got the Half Day Relaxation package, which lasted about 4 hours, all $82.50, including tax. We were taken to a station to fill out a skin questionnaire for the facial. Then we changed into the robes, and the relaxation began. We had a one hour foot massage, one hour full-body massage, and then a 45 minute to one hour facial. It was amazing! I never wanted it to end. When it finally did, we had lunch (included) and tea in the garden. The day was incredible, and although there were some customer service issues when we paid (we were supposed to receive a 15% promotional discount but no one spoke enough English to fully understand what was going on, and there was a huge communication breakdown), it was worth every penny.

Other than going to the different spas, we have been trying out some of the restaurants, doing a bit of shopping, and playing a lot of Playstation 2 karaoke. Woo hoo! Well, now that Ted is here, I image we’ll be sight-seeing a lot more.

Oh, the other big, exciting news! I’ve moved to a new level. I crossed the street by myself 4 times! At first I was terrified. It was raining, so Rachel and Jason didn’t want to walk across the street to the ATM. I looked at them with the sad eyes of a child, “You won’t help me cross the street?” But then I did it! And I feel so proud. It’s a very liberating feeling.