Cambodia-Siem Reap

The bus ride to Siem Reap wasn't that bad, and took about 5 hours.  Once there we found a nice guest house for a decent price, organized a tuk-tuk driver to tour us around Angkor Wat the next day, and went to sleep.  

Angkor Wat, for those who are unfamiliar, is a massive temple complex constructed at the height of the Khmer empires power in the 12th century.  They controlled most of what is now Laos, Thailand, and central Vietnam (and of course Cambodia).  The size of the temple complex is impressive, but what is much more impressive is the detail of every bit of the stone.  All of it, and I mean damn near ALL of it, is etched with reliefs of scenes from the Rama Yana, historical battles, devas (gods), nagas(river serpent spirit guardians), ghandarvas(angels), heros, asuras(demon/giants), women with gravity defying breasts, and other hindu or buddhist  images.  It must have taken a lot of manpower.  Here is just a sample:

 

There are also numerous other temple and structure sites around Angkor Wat, many people taking as much as three days to check them all out.  We did it in an afternoon because we have powers of perception greater than those people.  

Other than Angkor Wat, Siem Reap is just an awesome town to hang out in.  GREAT restaurants and bars here.  Everything is cheap, there's great variety, and of high quality.  We went to a silk-farm one day and got to see the whole process of how silk is made and the woven, which was a good afternoon trip.  I had a very pleasant foot massage the next day, and we ate at a restaurant that has live crocodiles and ducks inside of it, its called the "Dead Fish" restaurant. I ate ostrich, snake, and crocodile meat here.  I could have had kangaroo, but was full.  It was all pretty good, but I'm a bovine meat kind of guy in the end.

After Siem Reap, we were back to Thailand, to the beaches of Hua Hin. 

Cambodia - Phnom Penh

We crossed the Vietnam border by land on a bus, and the border crossing was pretty chaotic.  We all handed over our passports to the official, and waited in a big mob.   From across the room another official started handing the visa processed passports back, calling out the names.  Anita and I were in the back of the mob, so we didn't hear the faint voiced and heavily accented callings very well; Did he just say "swan boar"?  Hmmm... thats not my name.  Anita claimed to hear my name called once, but I heard "Crom Fred".  At the end the mob thinned a bit and we got our passports back. Phnom Penh is  an okay city, but nothing to write home about. 

We saw Tuol Sleng genocide museum there even more disturbing than the Vietnam one.  Formerly a highschool, it was turned into S-21, a prison for torture and execution for the infamous Khmer Rouge, and finally a museum left mostly unchanged since its prison days.  The rusty bed frames they had the prisoners to remained, as did the shells of car batteries, sharp farming tools, twisted ropes, clubs, and other torture devices.  They elicited confessions from the prisoners about their misdeeds using these and other methods (water boarding being very common).  One thing I was surprised by was how many of the ruling parties own members were sent there.  Near the end of the regime it seemed like most of the prisoners were people that helped bring the party into power in the first place.   

 The most impressive feature was the multitude of cafe/bars that line the riverbank with very comfy chairs.   Comfy chairs are a highly desired sight when you are traveling for 6 months, since there are many days you spend entirely seated in one of those chairs reading a book.  Vietnam had them in short supply, making for some very long search missions, but Phnom Penh had dozens.  For a couple of days we read books and enjoyed 50 cent draft beer in those seats.   Then, we were off to see Angkor Wat in Siem Reap.

Ho Chi Minh City (AKA Saigon)

After the intensity of Hanoi, we were scared to enter Saigon a bit, but it turned out to be less hectic than the more Northern metropolis. We spent a lot of time walking around touring the various sites, the most impressive of which was the Vietnam war museum. They had relics of war machines, like a Huey with a tri-barrel gatling and a few others. They also had all the personal weapons people carried on both sides, as well as the ammo. Then they followed up with pictures and first hand accounts of what those weapons can do. Being the first war that had such intensive coverage by journalists there was no shortage of graphic photos. A special section lists all the war journalists who died, and it numbers in the dozens, I was quite suprised. Another section that I enjoyed was an account of the "Thanh Phong Massacre" from one of the people actually involved in it, senator Bob Kerry. It was a "minor" event in the war, only 14 died, but they were all the elderly, women, and children, and had no weapons, and the first few were killed with knives (since they had no weapons and weren't a danger, no need to waste ammo). The left one girl as a survivor. Kerry admits his squad was told to kill ANYONE they came across, no matter who. He received a bronze star for this mission, for the kills of 14 "viet kong", and feels pretty shitty about it, so he came out publicly in 2001 to tell the truth. He must have lots of courage to do that. Anyway, I really appreciate when people tell the truth about things like this, since no one would believe things like this unless the people saying it were the guilty ones. After this we saw the agent orange (another little gem from Monsanto company) and napalm section of the museum, obviously the stuff of nightmares with the photos to prove it. As far as the allied forces go, South Koreans got it the worst, being stationed in areas heavily dosed with dioxin. War really is hell, for everyone involved. Im not sure I'd have the courage or state of mind to fight in a war unless the stakes were REALLY high. WWII style. After that museum trip we really wanted to go to a Happy Rainbow Puppy museum, but none were to be found. I think theres a business niche there, one should open across the street.

Hue/Hoi An/Nha Trang

After checking out Hanoi area we went over to Hue. It used to be the capital, but shifted to Hanoi once geographically strategic defense took a second seat to being a center of economy. What makes the city cool are the tombs of the former monarchs, and the old royal Citadel. The citadel was impressively large and the grounds were huge, but many of the structures appeared to be in disrepair and crumbling. I guess the structure isn't old enough to get the funding it needs to be properly maintained and restored, but in a few hundred years Im sure it will look pristine. :) It has the classic city wall lined with watchtowers, cannons, and a moat, and looked quite difficult to invade without modern artillary and airpower.

We also checked out the three most impressive tombs. They are palaces unto themselves, two of them spanning areas over a km. The first one was the largest, comprised of several buildings seperated by scenic gardens and algae filled pools. It had the feel of a park. The second one was the most architecturally brilliant, a single building with three terraced levels, the walls lined with reliefs and the grounds filled with statues of dragons and soldiers. At the top of the tomb was a room even more impressive room with beautiful mosaics made up of broken pottery being cemented in the wall to create some impressive scenes. It must have taken forever. I really enjoyed the irony of one part of a mosaic, an image of a pot made of of pieces of a broken pot. The third tomb looked like it was an amazing place to live at one time, but had fallen into a state of cracked stones and moss covered dissaray, which lent it a still pleasing aesthetic. With a little imagination you could picture the old aristocrats and courtesans walking around the pathways.

After Hue, we went to Hoi An. This was a very laid back city, a huge change from the madness that was Hanoi. The food here was fantastic, and they had excellent bakeries, a rarity in Asia. We spent a couple of days here walking around being propositioned by tailors who wanted to make us things. I probably should have got something made, but carrying a backpack makes me want to be even more minimalist than usual.

After Hoi An we checked out Nha Trang, a beach city. It rained the whole time. It was dissapointing, and the book read there, "Cities in Flight" was equally dissapointing. Apparently Miss Universe comes from there, but we didn't see her, she is probably off with the Silver Surfer saving the galaxy.

Next, off to Ho Chi Min city!

Vietnam - Hanoi area

Entering Hanoi and seeing the roads, I learned the true nature of bad driving and how Nash's Equilibrium theory does not always hold up when applied to traffic. They are crazy drivers in Vietnam. More crazy than any other country in the world I have visited (which is about 30). It is a mad house out there, and walking in the street can be quite harrowing. As my friend Janel described it, you don't just observe Vietnam, it actually comes out at you. In between being incessantly propositioned by tuk tuk drivers, and walking between densely packed crowds of people on a road filled with speeding scooters, it really drains you.

We spent a coupe of days in Hanoi, and walking around the lake in the old city is the nicest part of it, and feels like Vietnamese/French colonial fusion. Its the only place we saw that didn't put us in traffic fight-or-flight, and had some decent eateries and coffee shops. We saw a mediocre water puppet show, and checked out a couple of historical sights.

From Hanoi we checked out Halong bay and Thamkok, which were pretty awesome. In Thamkok we saw a couple of impressive historical buildings and went on a 2 hour boat ride, powered by 2 old ladies who paddled. The tranquil water was nice and we paddled under some impressive caves an past some cool looking karsts. In Halong bay we went on a two-day junk ride to check out some more natural cave formations and just enjoy the amazing scenery of the sea with hundreds of beautiful karsts rizing from them. There were about 10 other people on the junk with us, and it was nice to talk to some other people for a change. One of them was a geek from Austrailia, so that was nice. We both had books written by Greg Bear in our bags, which was a pretty cool coincidence. Geeks are the same the world over. Even though our mini-van played chicken several times with heavy trucks on the way back to town, after some relaxation breathing techniques we were mostly fine.

Laos

We entered Laos, Vientiane, in good spirits and our first night was spent in a wonderful hotel. My stomach was still a bit off, but we had a tastey meal comprised of local fare, and spent the rest of the evening reading books, as we were exhausted. Laos is very much like Thailand on valium, similar cultural feel but much less hectic, I would even describe it as sleepy. The next day we obtained visas for our forthcoming entry into Vietnam, and then found a wicked awesome bakery/coffee shop and enjoyed the delight of true european pastries for the first time in what seemed like forever, and Anita read 1984 while I read metaphysics. A subdued day to match the atmosphere. Theres really not much to do other than that in Vientiane.

After the Vientiane experience we were off on a 5 hour ride to Veng Viang on a cramped tour bus, not fun, but have honed our zen travel meditation to an art in the previous months, making this an easyish trip.

Wow, this town was something out of the twilight zone, but in a good way. It had the same laid back feeling of Vientiane, but WAY more restaurants, cafes, bars and other places. There was one common thread that tied all these tourist venues together; Friends. I don't mean people you have bonded with and love, I mean the t.v. show. Thats right, pretty much every place in Veng Viang had episodes of friends blaring at maximum volume from multiple tv screens. Scores of tourists were layed out on cushions sipping beer or coffee and silently taking in the 90s sitcom. No idea how this started, or caught on, but it sure enough it is the norm there.

One extremely fun thing to do in this town is to go tubing. There is a calm river that runs along side the town that had beautiful views of a mountain coming out of a forest on the otherside. Tourists started taking an inner-tube from 7km upstream and float calmly back into the town over the next 2 hours, usually drinking from beer cans kept cold from being in a net in the river. At some point a local came up with the great idea of building an open roof bamboo bar on the riverside with a platform and zip line that extended into the river, to people could get boozed up and jump into the river from up high. Then another bar was built further down the river with another zipline jump. Then another. And another, etc...

So we went tubing and had a great time. We had a few beer, but we didn't do any of the zip line jumps, even though the river was deep, because we had heard of accidental deaths from previous years. So we floated sublimely down the river, carried by the current, occassionally becoming clustered with a few other tubers for short conversations but largely it was just the two of us. It was an excellent way to spend the afternoon once we had learned how to relieve ourselves in the river by dipping slightly lower in the tube. One of the highlights of our vacation so far (the tubing, not the urinating in the river specifically). After some Friends watching from a hammock in a bamboo hut, we hit the sack and prepared for the following day's travels to Luang Prabang (a 5 hour bus ride).

Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage sight, so there are a few special qualities in this town. One of them is a 12:00 curfew, which is fine by me, since I have regularly been getting up at around 8:30 am for the first time in my life anyway. It makes it a wonderful sleep experience when there are no noisy vehicles and honking which is so characteristic in other parts of Asia. Again, in true Laos fashion, Luang Prabang is a relaxed, slow pace kind of town. Once in the city, no transportation is need beyond your own two feet. One of the cool things about the temples here is that they all have gleeming carvings of Nagas (river spirits, serpents) as hand rails for the staircases. The temple landscaping was beautiful and the silver and gold nagas just added to it.

One night we had a wonderful meal of water buffalo BBQ. It is similar to the Japanese/Korean Shabu-Shabu with a few quirks. A gently sloped conical metal "hat" is placed over some open flames. The edges of the cone flatten out for a few inches and then raise to house a moat of broth that surrounds the rest of the sloped cone. Chili, garlic, noodles, and various vegetables are placed in the broth and the water buffalo meat (very lean, chewy, and delicious) is placed on the slopes of the cone itself. There was a tamarind sauce to dip the BBQed meat in. It was delicious and probably the healthiest meal we had eaten on our whole trip. Other than relaxing and enjoying food and literature, we did very little in Luang Prabang.

One unusual thing that happened was waking up at 4:00 am to a man singing "I just called to say I love you" over and over again. Not the whole song mind you, just that one line. Over and over again. It sounded like it was coming from the floor above us. He may have been drunk, heart sick, or just crazy. It lasted for about 5 minutes, perhaps longer thant he song itself.