Saturday, April 25, 2009
I have some stories that go back to Cambodia. Hopefully they are not repeats.
"You said maybe later."
We took a bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap to go see Angkor Wat and the other temples. The drive was a long 6 or 7 hours and I think that we stopped maybe 2hours into the trip at a bus stop swarming with tourists on other buses bound for Siem Reap and then locals trying to sell anything and everything. Pat and I got off the bus to use the bathroom and as soon as we set foot on the ground we were nearly attacked by small children selling cut pineapples, magoes and bananas. They tried to bargain with us, but bargaining was not necessary because we were not hungry and did not want any fruit. Trying not to be negative or mean while attempting to get the kids to move on Pat said that he would maybe buy something later. As soon as we left the toilets the kids found us again instantly. One girl with a strange British accent says, "But you said maybe later." They tried hard to make their sell, but we were not interested. We talked with them and they claimed it cost $2 a day to go to school and the same girl with the British accent repeats, "But you said maybe later" and continues with "Now I going to cry." She did not end up crying, it was just part of her hard selling act. Now when Pat tries to send off sellers with "Maybe later" we think of the little girl with the British accent.
"But Sir you are not Vietnamese"
After our first night in DaNang, we were set on switching hotels because of the location across the river and the extremely hard and small bed. We took a taxi across the bridge and went into a couple of hotels to see rooms and ask about prices. We went into one hotel and looked at a room and then we were talking about the cost at the reception desk. The woman informed us of the price and pointed at a price list on the counter for the different types of rooms. The price list had two columns, one in Vietnamese Dong and one is US dollars. She told us the price is dollars, but we did not have any USD left so we asked if we could pay in Dong noticing that the Dong prices and USD prices were not equal. Pat asked if we could pay the price listed in Dong and the woman responded, "But Sir you are not Vietnamese." Really? We learned that in Vietnam there are prices for Vietnamese and prices for tourists that are not equal.
Standing in Line in Vietnam and Planes
As Pat mentioned in an earlier post, flights are very cheap in Vietnam, so we have opted to fly from HCMC to DaNang and then Hue to Hanoi (the two longest legs of our trip). When we landed in DaNang as the plane was pulling up to its parking place, not when it stopped, everyone shot out of the seats grabbing their bags and mostly all stood in the isle. It was unbelievable! I usually enjoy taking my time because I know that by rushing to get into the isle does not mean that I will get off the plane first or even get my luggage first at baggage claim. I would save very little time by rushing to stand in the isle and pushing to get off the plane. But sure enough nearly everyone was standing in the isle and pushing to get off the plane. In the States and elsewhere the passengers leave the plane based on where they are sitting. The first row goes then the second and people generally let people who are sitting in front of them get off in front. This was not the case. People did not let you out of your row. Once in the airport if you decide to use the toilet you will run into the same situation in the bathroom. Southeast Asian bathroom lines are individual for each stall there is not just one line where the first person goes to the open stall. So if you happen to choose the wrong stall, you are out of luck. And if you try to form just one line, the local women will push ahead and try to form individual stall lines.
Yesterday we flew from Hue to Hanoi. Hue was a small airport claiming to be international, but I only saw two gates and not much more, so I am not sure where they actually fly other than Hanoi and HCMC that makes it international. Our flight starting boarding at 12:30, so we walked down the stairs to the gate where we loaded (like sardines) an airport bus that drove us probably at most 50 feet. I am not kidding! We could have easily walked and thus saved gas for the two airport buses! The plane was just outside the door of the gate. There was no reason that the airport should have had an airport bus much less two or three and why in the world could we not walk to the plane???
Turning Heads
Soccer/Football is huge in Southeast Asia and they love to follow the European leagues. For Christmas Pat was given a Barcelona jersey with MESSI on the back and a Liverpool TORRES jersey both of which he wears on a regular basis. Every time he wears the jerseys he gets thumbs up with people saying "Barcelona!" "Liverpool!" and then getting excited when they see that it is MESSI or TORRES. Pat can not go anywhere wearing the jerseys without getting some sort of commentary. While we were in Hue, Pat wore his MESSI jersey to dinner one night. We walked across the bridge and as he walked he was turning heads of all the guys sitting on the side of the bridge with friends or their girlfriends. It was as if he were some beautiful, blonde girl with a short skirt. All the guys were staring him down and turning their heads to follow him with their eyes. As we passed they would say something about Barcelona or Messi and continue to stare.
Hue, Vietnam
After several days in Hoi An having clothes made, we took a three hour bus to Hue where we spent three nights. We had reserved the "Penthouse" room at a hotel a couple days before we arrived. The room was great! We had the 6th floor of the hotel to ourselves with a wrap around balcony that overlooked the city where we had our breakfast brought to us the first morning. We had the usual air-con, hot water along with a computer and internet in our room. It was a pretty sweet set-up for only $30 a night. Our first day we visited the Citadel where the Emperor lived in the 1800s. The next day we did a motorbike tour that took us to some sites outside the city including a Japanese covered bridge, an emporer's tomb, some French bunkers with a great view of the river and a Pagoda where we were able to watch a group of monks sing. The tour was really good, the motorbike being the best part. We drove through huge rice paddies and through pine forest. The scenery was beautiful and we have found that motorbikes are a really good way to see a city.
Hanoi, Vietnam
So now we are in Hanoi in the Northern part of Vietnam. (We have a little over a week left before we head to Bangkok for a few days and then fly to California.) We had a hotel booked for last night and the room was good except that the water was not working and the computer was also not working. We switched rooms but the room was not very good, so we ended up switching to a nicer and less expensive hotel down the road. We found a cool restaurant a couple doors down from our new hotel where there is a grill on each table and you cook your own food. We had beef steak and vegetables with a delicious dipping sauce. The food was really good and it was fun to cook it in front of us!
For the next couple of days we will do the touristy things around Hanoi. On Monday we head to Halong Bay for a three-day, two-night tour of the bay, which looks beautiful and like a lot of fun.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Pocahontas Party in Vietnam
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Our two-day, one-night tour of the Mekong Delta was touristy but pretty good. We took a 3-hr boat ride down the Saigon River early the first morning and started the activities off with Unicorn Island where we tasted local honey, banana wine, tropical fruits and listened to traditional Vietnamese music. We enjoyed rowing in row boats down a skinny canal wearing the pointed cone hats that you imagine of when you think about Vietnam. We went to Ben Tre to look at fruit orchards, watch the making of coconut candy and taste it, and ride bikes through the town. We took a few different boats to Can Tho where we stayed for the night, which is the 5th biggest city in Vietnam. The following morning we took a boat to the biggest floating market in the area where they hang the available produce from poles high in the sky. If a boat was selling pineapples, a pineapple would be hanging from a tall pole as advertising. Our final stop was a risk husking factory where we learned about rice and its many forms.
We returned to Ho Chi Minh City in the evening of the second day only to find that our hotel (where we had stayed for 6 days) did not reserve a room that we had asked for. They took us to a different hotel, but the room was smelly and the shower was no good. We walked around and eventually found a place that had really comfortable beds and was perfect for the night. The following day we flew to DaNang in central Vietnam.
We found DaNang to be cute but fairly boring. Our first night in the city as we walked along the river in search of dinner memories of our first weeks in Trang haunted us. Everyone was starring at us and yelling hello with no follow up. A man with a small child in his arms ran up to us to give his kid a closer look. At the restaurant we found, we struggled to order. The waitstaff knew no English and we had no Vietnamese to offer. Overall in DaNang we struggled to find good food. The places that would have the best local food likely did not have a menu and we had no idea what to order.
We met up with a friend at the local bar Seventeen Saloon, which was very much a cowboy and indians kind of place. The band was Filipino and sang some wonderful American hits. We were planning on heading out of DaNang the following day, but after learning there would be a Pocahontas Party the next night we decided we had to stay and check it out. After our first night at Seventeen Saloon, we went out for some late night food, fresh seafood on the beach. We had clams, steamed squid, frog and fish lettuce wraps. The food was incredibly fresh and delicious. We also had some locals with us who knew where to eat and what to order.
The Pocahontas Party was simply stunning. When we arrived there was a bonfire and a teepee at the front door. Inside we found that all the staff were wearing Indian costumes. The men were shirtless with their chests painted and the women where wearing little burlap and pleather outfits with their faces painted. Even the band was decked out with Indian garb. The night included some themed activities and competitions: face painting, fish spearing and a raffle drawing. I was volunteered for the face painting competition, so I painted a 40-year old Vietnamese guy's face. We ended up winning the contest and I now have a black tshirt with a horse on the front and the back! It is quite a terrible shirt. Patrick tried out the fish spearing and we had no luck with the raffle. At one point 4 of the waitresses did a dance routine in their outfits to Shakira (which is not quite Indian music). The whole night was quite amusing! We do have pictures, but I will not be able to post those until we get back to the States.
We are currently in Hoi An, a city 45 minutes South of DaNang. It is a World Heritage Site and it is known for its tailor and shoemaking shops. We are having a few things made. Pat designed a pair of UNC hightop basketball shoes that should be ready this morning and we are also having some clothes made (shorts, pants, and a dress). We will let you know how those turn out. The center part of Hoi An is the "ancient" city and no motorbikes or cars are allowed to drive through, so it is really peaceful to walk through. The ancient city is very quaint and the shops are very cute. I think today we will spend some time at the beach because it is really hot and the beach is only 3 km away.
Our two-day, one-night tour of the Mekong Delta was touristy but pretty good. We took a 3-hr boat ride down the Saigon River early the first morning and started the activities off with Unicorn Island where we tasted local honey, banana wine, tropical fruits and listened to traditional Vietnamese music. We enjoyed rowing in row boats down a skinny canal wearing the pointed cone hats that you imagine of when you think about Vietnam. We went to Ben Tre to look at fruit orchards, watch the making of coconut candy and taste it, and ride bikes through the town. We took a few different boats to Can Tho where we stayed for the night, which is the 5th biggest city in Vietnam. The following morning we took a boat to the biggest floating market in the area where they hang the available produce from poles high in the sky. If a boat was selling pineapples, a pineapple would be hanging from a tall pole as advertising. Our final stop was a risk husking factory where we learned about rice and its many forms.
We returned to Ho Chi Minh City in the evening of the second day only to find that our hotel (where we had stayed for 6 days) did not reserve a room that we had asked for. They took us to a different hotel, but the room was smelly and the shower was no good. We walked around and eventually found a place that had really comfortable beds and was perfect for the night. The following day we flew to DaNang in central Vietnam.
We found DaNang to be cute but fairly boring. Our first night in the city as we walked along the river in search of dinner memories of our first weeks in Trang haunted us. Everyone was starring at us and yelling hello with no follow up. A man with a small child in his arms ran up to us to give his kid a closer look. At the restaurant we found, we struggled to order. The waitstaff knew no English and we had no Vietnamese to offer. Overall in DaNang we struggled to find good food. The places that would have the best local food likely did not have a menu and we had no idea what to order.
We met up with a friend at the local bar Seventeen Saloon, which was very much a cowboy and indians kind of place. The band was Filipino and sang some wonderful American hits. We were planning on heading out of DaNang the following day, but after learning there would be a Pocahontas Party the next night we decided we had to stay and check it out. After our first night at Seventeen Saloon, we went out for some late night food, fresh seafood on the beach. We had clams, steamed squid, frog and fish lettuce wraps. The food was incredibly fresh and delicious. We also had some locals with us who knew where to eat and what to order.
The Pocahontas Party was simply stunning. When we arrived there was a bonfire and a teepee at the front door. Inside we found that all the staff were wearing Indian costumes. The men were shirtless with their chests painted and the women where wearing little burlap and pleather outfits with their faces painted. Even the band was decked out with Indian garb. The night included some themed activities and competitions: face painting, fish spearing and a raffle drawing. I was volunteered for the face painting competition, so I painted a 40-year old Vietnamese guy's face. We ended up winning the contest and I now have a black tshirt with a horse on the front and the back! It is quite a terrible shirt. Patrick tried out the fish spearing and we had no luck with the raffle. At one point 4 of the waitresses did a dance routine in their outfits to Shakira (which is not quite Indian music). The whole night was quite amusing! We do have pictures, but I will not be able to post those until we get back to the States.
We are currently in Hoi An, a city 45 minutes South of DaNang. It is a World Heritage Site and it is known for its tailor and shoemaking shops. We are having a few things made. Pat designed a pair of UNC hightop basketball shoes that should be ready this morning and we are also having some clothes made (shorts, pants, and a dress). We will let you know how those turn out. The center part of Hoi An is the "ancient" city and no motorbikes or cars are allowed to drive through, so it is really peaceful to walk through. The ancient city is very quaint and the shops are very cute. I think today we will spend some time at the beach because it is really hot and the beach is only 3 km away.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Its been a while
So it has been quite a while since I have written anything about my time here in Southeast Asia. I think it has been around 4 months or something like that. In the span of that time a lot of stuff has happened and I feel like I need to write some of it down while it is somewhat fresh in my mind or I'll lose it forever. One of the first things I wanted to talk about was to make a list of things that I will and won't miss about Trang. I think I'll start with the things I won't miss first.
1. Having people just shout hello at me while I ride by on a motorbike. If your gonna yell at someone at least have a follow up to hello.
2. I won't miss the general confusion that comes from a huge language barrier. While that can be kind of interesting sometimes, and it is all part of living in another place, a lot of times it just gets frustrating.
I'm sure I could think of others but it is a lot more fun to think about the things you will miss. So I'll go ahead and list those.
I think I'll ditch the number format for this one and just go off the top of my head.
I'm going to miss seeing the kids that I taught. Its very strange to go from seeing them everyday to knowing that you will never see any of them again. I'll miss some of the staff at Wichienmatu, not many but there are a few people that I will miss. Being able to eat lunch for 50 cents a day will also be dearly missed. I'll miss when my dinner bill is over a dollar and I think that is expensive. I'll miss being able to ride my motor bike around and park it right in front of wherever I want to go. Being able to fill it up for the week and only spend two dollars will also be missed. I'll miss the good food and being able to eat from a street stall. I'll miss the friends I made, especially Joe and Hok those guys were awesome. And especially I will miss being one of the better basketball players in the city that I live in. Its back to being perhaps slightly above average when I get back home. But I digress. I think I will mainly miss the experience of living and working in a foreign place where English is not the main spoken language. I know I was complaining about it earlier but that made the experience challenging and difficult and in the end that was what made it rewarding. It will be strange to go from being a novelty to look at in Thailand to being just another white person in the United States. Its gonna be a tough transition and I'm not sure how I will handle it but we will find out in about a month.
Here I would like to take some time to congratulate the UNC basketball team. I know many on the team are regular readers, so congratulations boys you earned it. Its funny Keats and I were in Phnom Penh, its the capital of Cambodia in case you don't know, and we were hanging out with my buddy Sam who lives and works there. We were walking around just talking and we passed by a sports bar and he told me if I wanted to watch the championship game live there we would be able to. I though he was just being a jackass and messing around with me because he went to Duke. And we all know that people who went to Duke love being jackasses. But lo and behold he was not and I decided we had to stay an extra day in the city to watch the game. It ended up not being very exciting but I'll take a beatdown in the national championship as opposed to a thrilling loss any day. I hope Franklin Street was crazy and I'm sorry I missed it, but I think it was a worthwhile trade.
Our travels so far have been a lot of fun. We had some great times in Bangkok with my brother. Who knew a dirty disgusting city could look so great 57 stories up. Laos was fun, we stayed in one city a bit to long but it was still a good time. Cambodia was a bit of a dump. Angkor Wat was truly amazing but everything else about the country was a bit depressing and very dirty. But that will happen when the smartest people in your country are systematically murdered. But at least they had the championship game for me to watch. You will be remembered fondly for that Cambodia don't you worry. We are in Vietnam now and it has been a really good and interesting place. I have never been in a country that my country was formerly at war with. It is extremely sad to walk around and see a man with no arms or legs or a badly burnt face and know that your country probably had a great deal to do with why his life sucks so bad. I think we view war in the US differently than other countries because we pretty much always get to pack up and leave a war zone, whereas the other country has to stay and rebuild there way of life. The physical damage done to the land that is evidenced here is something that cannot be forgotten quickly because it simply cannot go away. People die or grow up but for the most part bomb craters stay where they are.
Tomorrow Keats and I are heading to the Mekong Delta, an area to the South of Saigon. I am really looking forward to that. After that we are heading to Danang. We found out it was either a 19 hour bus ride there or a 34 dollar flight. The decision pretty much made itself. I will try to write a bit more in the next few weeks just to get my thoughts down somewhere before they get lost. Anyway let me end this the only fitting way I see.
GO HEELS.
1. Having people just shout hello at me while I ride by on a motorbike. If your gonna yell at someone at least have a follow up to hello.
2. I won't miss the general confusion that comes from a huge language barrier. While that can be kind of interesting sometimes, and it is all part of living in another place, a lot of times it just gets frustrating.
I'm sure I could think of others but it is a lot more fun to think about the things you will miss. So I'll go ahead and list those.
I think I'll ditch the number format for this one and just go off the top of my head.
I'm going to miss seeing the kids that I taught. Its very strange to go from seeing them everyday to knowing that you will never see any of them again. I'll miss some of the staff at Wichienmatu, not many but there are a few people that I will miss. Being able to eat lunch for 50 cents a day will also be dearly missed. I'll miss when my dinner bill is over a dollar and I think that is expensive. I'll miss being able to ride my motor bike around and park it right in front of wherever I want to go. Being able to fill it up for the week and only spend two dollars will also be missed. I'll miss the good food and being able to eat from a street stall. I'll miss the friends I made, especially Joe and Hok those guys were awesome. And especially I will miss being one of the better basketball players in the city that I live in. Its back to being perhaps slightly above average when I get back home. But I digress. I think I will mainly miss the experience of living and working in a foreign place where English is not the main spoken language. I know I was complaining about it earlier but that made the experience challenging and difficult and in the end that was what made it rewarding. It will be strange to go from being a novelty to look at in Thailand to being just another white person in the United States. Its gonna be a tough transition and I'm not sure how I will handle it but we will find out in about a month.
Here I would like to take some time to congratulate the UNC basketball team. I know many on the team are regular readers, so congratulations boys you earned it. Its funny Keats and I were in Phnom Penh, its the capital of Cambodia in case you don't know, and we were hanging out with my buddy Sam who lives and works there. We were walking around just talking and we passed by a sports bar and he told me if I wanted to watch the championship game live there we would be able to. I though he was just being a jackass and messing around with me because he went to Duke. And we all know that people who went to Duke love being jackasses. But lo and behold he was not and I decided we had to stay an extra day in the city to watch the game. It ended up not being very exciting but I'll take a beatdown in the national championship as opposed to a thrilling loss any day. I hope Franklin Street was crazy and I'm sorry I missed it, but I think it was a worthwhile trade.
Our travels so far have been a lot of fun. We had some great times in Bangkok with my brother. Who knew a dirty disgusting city could look so great 57 stories up. Laos was fun, we stayed in one city a bit to long but it was still a good time. Cambodia was a bit of a dump. Angkor Wat was truly amazing but everything else about the country was a bit depressing and very dirty. But that will happen when the smartest people in your country are systematically murdered. But at least they had the championship game for me to watch. You will be remembered fondly for that Cambodia don't you worry. We are in Vietnam now and it has been a really good and interesting place. I have never been in a country that my country was formerly at war with. It is extremely sad to walk around and see a man with no arms or legs or a badly burnt face and know that your country probably had a great deal to do with why his life sucks so bad. I think we view war in the US differently than other countries because we pretty much always get to pack up and leave a war zone, whereas the other country has to stay and rebuild there way of life. The physical damage done to the land that is evidenced here is something that cannot be forgotten quickly because it simply cannot go away. People die or grow up but for the most part bomb craters stay where they are.
Tomorrow Keats and I are heading to the Mekong Delta, an area to the South of Saigon. I am really looking forward to that. After that we are heading to Danang. We found out it was either a 19 hour bus ride there or a 34 dollar flight. The decision pretty much made itself. I will try to write a bit more in the next few weeks just to get my thoughts down somewhere before they get lost. Anyway let me end this the only fitting way I see.
GO HEELS.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Ho Chi Minh City--Vietnam
Thursday, April 10, 2009
Since our last post...
We stayed in Luang Prabang a few days too long, but our stay was relaxing and restful. On March 30 we flew to Bangkok and spent one night in the city and then the following day flew to Phnom Penh (PP), Cambodia a city that falls lower than Bangkok on my list of places I would rather not spend much time in. Our plan was to take a taxi to a hotel that we had found in our guidebook and look at a room. If the room was not what we wanted we would walk and check out a couple of other options that I thought were nearby. Well the hotel was not what we wanted and they were asking way more than we wanted to pay, so we walked around the area realizing there was not much else around and that we were likely not in the best part of the city. Directly across from the hotel was S21 the interrogation prison during the Khmer Rouge reign that was previously a secondary school. Something like 20,000 Cambodians passed through the prison before being taken to be murdered at the Killing Fields outside of the city. We were not to keen about spending our days across the street from the prison. We quickly found another option in our guide books, the River View Hotel, and asked a tuk-tuk driver to take us there. As we drove we realized that there were definitely some nicer parts of the city and that the area near the river was significantly nicer than where we started. Strangely our driver turned away from the river and drove us in the opposite direction stopping in front of a hotel. We asked a guy working at the hotel if it was the River View Hotel. He said that it was so we went in checked out a room and agreed to stay for the night. Only later in the evening when I was taking a card with the hotel's name and address did I realize that we were actually staying at Her Royal Highness Hotel. I was extremely angry and ready to move our things in the morning, but in the morning we had too much to accomplish and ended up staying at Her Royal Highness a second night before taking a bus to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat and the other ancient temples. During our full day in PP we found out that we could get our Vietnam Visa in a day, so we tried to accomplish everything that we wanted to in one day so as to minimize our time in the city. We went to the Killing Fields to see the mass graves from the Khmer Rouge. We went to S21 to see the classrooms that had been converted to torture chambers and holding cells and that housed portraits of prisoners that had been murdered. The reign of the Khmer Rouge is terrifying and that it only happened 30 years ago is unbelievable. After the museum we went to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda leaving us exhausted.
A quick complaint about our bathroom set up in two hotels in PP. At Her Royal Highness, we had hot water and even a bath tub. At first sight the bath tub was impressive, but if you looked a bit closer...there was no water fixture for the actual tub and the shower head was placed halfway between the tub and the toilet. So do you shower over the toilet and not have to hold the shower head or do you shower over the tub and hold the shower head? We thought this strange, but did not think too much about it. When we returned to PP and stayed in a different hotel, there was the same set up. Why in the world? I would love any explanation that any one has about this because it simply baffles me.
We took a bus to Siem Reap and bought a three-day pass to see the temples. We spent two full days of wandering the incredible temples. The temples are hard to describe. They were incredible. We went to Angkor Wat first which is the best known temple and it was enormous and beautiful and we were in awe of how it could have been built. The next temple we went to was the Bayon in Angkor Thom and it was our favorite of all the temples that we saw. There were large carved faces all over the structure. The more that you looked at the temple the more faces that you saw. Some of the temples you could climb to the top and walk all around them while others were a bit more restricted. We hired a tuk-tuk driver for both days and he drove us from temple to temple since the entire area is huge. After seeing Angkor Wat and the Bayon, we wanted to know more about the temples and the history, so we talked with our driver about hiring a guide. He said he knew of someone and that his English was good and he was offering a price $5 less than the hotel. We agreed, but the next morning when we picked up the guide, we knew we had made a mistake. The guide struggled to introduce himself and the first thing he pointed out was a souvenir shop. Yes, he pointed to a souvenir shop and said, "That is a souvenir shop." As we drove onto the grounds, we struggled to understand the guide's English, but we decided to give him a chance with Angkor Wat. We were hoping maybe his English would improve and that he would have some interesting facts to offer. We were wrong. He spoke very little and what little he had to offer was usually obvious. He explained that a wall of bas-reliefs was of a war. Well there were definitely soldiers with weapons, so I would have guessed that there was a war being fought. It was painful and would be waste of time for him and for us. Pat and I decided that we would pay him for the morning and then explain that we would continue on without him. We played "rock paper scissors" to see who would have the honors, and I lost and I was the one to fire our guide. At first he did not understand, but we eventually conveyed our point and he headed home. We felt really bad, but we were relieved when we were able to enjoy the rest of our day exploring the temples and reading about them in a guidebook.
After three nights in Siem Reap, we took the bus back to PP and planned on leaving the following day for Vietnam. The bus ride was painful as was the bus to Siem Reap. The roads of Cambodia are not great and the 6-7 hour ride was spent jolting from side to side and bumping up and down. And the road we took between Siem Reap and PP is one of the main highways in the country. I cannot imagine the secondary and tertiary roads.
Back in Phnom Penh we met up with one of Pat's friends, Sam, from Durham and looked forward to heading to Vietnam. As we wandered the streets with Sam, we past a sportsbar where he claimed that he was able to watch the UNC Final Four game. At first we did not believe him because ESPN Asia does not cover basketball especially not college basketball, but sure enough he did get the Final Four game and he was going to get the NCAA Finals. So we postponed our trip to Vietnam for a day so that we could watch the UNC v. Michigan State game. While the game was not too exciting, it was great to watch and the whole thing made Pat especially happy.
We are now in Ho Chi Minh City and have been for the past three nights. We visited the War Remnants Museum from the Vietnam War (which is called the American War here) and we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels where the Viet Cong lived and waged war from an intricate system of underground tunnels. We are really enjoying HCMC and think that it totally trumps PP. The streets are clean here whereas in PP they were littered with trash piles. Some of the main roads in PP branched off to dirt roads (in the city!) while the roads here are well paved. Here in HCMC there are a whole lot of motorbikes!! There are some intersections with traffic lights while others the traffic just goes and pedestrians just walk. As a pedestrian you have to walk across the streets at a constant pace and not stop and then the motorbikes will go around you. If you stop, you confuse the drivers and you are likely to be hit. We have been able to walk around a lot and we have found some really nice parts of town with ice cream shops, little restaurants and boutique shops. Our hotel is simple but comfortable. We get a bagette with jam and coffee in the mornings and pho noodles and spring rolls for dinner, and the staff has been incredible helpful and kind. We will probably stay for a few more nights and do one or two nights in the Mekong Delta before heading to Central Vietnam.
Sorry for the long and somewhat boring blog post. I just felt like I needed to catch everyone up on where we are and what we are up to.
Since our last post...
We stayed in Luang Prabang a few days too long, but our stay was relaxing and restful. On March 30 we flew to Bangkok and spent one night in the city and then the following day flew to Phnom Penh (PP), Cambodia a city that falls lower than Bangkok on my list of places I would rather not spend much time in. Our plan was to take a taxi to a hotel that we had found in our guidebook and look at a room. If the room was not what we wanted we would walk and check out a couple of other options that I thought were nearby. Well the hotel was not what we wanted and they were asking way more than we wanted to pay, so we walked around the area realizing there was not much else around and that we were likely not in the best part of the city. Directly across from the hotel was S21 the interrogation prison during the Khmer Rouge reign that was previously a secondary school. Something like 20,000 Cambodians passed through the prison before being taken to be murdered at the Killing Fields outside of the city. We were not to keen about spending our days across the street from the prison. We quickly found another option in our guide books, the River View Hotel, and asked a tuk-tuk driver to take us there. As we drove we realized that there were definitely some nicer parts of the city and that the area near the river was significantly nicer than where we started. Strangely our driver turned away from the river and drove us in the opposite direction stopping in front of a hotel. We asked a guy working at the hotel if it was the River View Hotel. He said that it was so we went in checked out a room and agreed to stay for the night. Only later in the evening when I was taking a card with the hotel's name and address did I realize that we were actually staying at Her Royal Highness Hotel. I was extremely angry and ready to move our things in the morning, but in the morning we had too much to accomplish and ended up staying at Her Royal Highness a second night before taking a bus to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat and the other ancient temples. During our full day in PP we found out that we could get our Vietnam Visa in a day, so we tried to accomplish everything that we wanted to in one day so as to minimize our time in the city. We went to the Killing Fields to see the mass graves from the Khmer Rouge. We went to S21 to see the classrooms that had been converted to torture chambers and holding cells and that housed portraits of prisoners that had been murdered. The reign of the Khmer Rouge is terrifying and that it only happened 30 years ago is unbelievable. After the museum we went to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda leaving us exhausted.
A quick complaint about our bathroom set up in two hotels in PP. At Her Royal Highness, we had hot water and even a bath tub. At first sight the bath tub was impressive, but if you looked a bit closer...there was no water fixture for the actual tub and the shower head was placed halfway between the tub and the toilet. So do you shower over the toilet and not have to hold the shower head or do you shower over the tub and hold the shower head? We thought this strange, but did not think too much about it. When we returned to PP and stayed in a different hotel, there was the same set up. Why in the world? I would love any explanation that any one has about this because it simply baffles me.
We took a bus to Siem Reap and bought a three-day pass to see the temples. We spent two full days of wandering the incredible temples. The temples are hard to describe. They were incredible. We went to Angkor Wat first which is the best known temple and it was enormous and beautiful and we were in awe of how it could have been built. The next temple we went to was the Bayon in Angkor Thom and it was our favorite of all the temples that we saw. There were large carved faces all over the structure. The more that you looked at the temple the more faces that you saw. Some of the temples you could climb to the top and walk all around them while others were a bit more restricted. We hired a tuk-tuk driver for both days and he drove us from temple to temple since the entire area is huge. After seeing Angkor Wat and the Bayon, we wanted to know more about the temples and the history, so we talked with our driver about hiring a guide. He said he knew of someone and that his English was good and he was offering a price $5 less than the hotel. We agreed, but the next morning when we picked up the guide, we knew we had made a mistake. The guide struggled to introduce himself and the first thing he pointed out was a souvenir shop. Yes, he pointed to a souvenir shop and said, "That is a souvenir shop." As we drove onto the grounds, we struggled to understand the guide's English, but we decided to give him a chance with Angkor Wat. We were hoping maybe his English would improve and that he would have some interesting facts to offer. We were wrong. He spoke very little and what little he had to offer was usually obvious. He explained that a wall of bas-reliefs was of a war. Well there were definitely soldiers with weapons, so I would have guessed that there was a war being fought. It was painful and would be waste of time for him and for us. Pat and I decided that we would pay him for the morning and then explain that we would continue on without him. We played "rock paper scissors" to see who would have the honors, and I lost and I was the one to fire our guide. At first he did not understand, but we eventually conveyed our point and he headed home. We felt really bad, but we were relieved when we were able to enjoy the rest of our day exploring the temples and reading about them in a guidebook.
After three nights in Siem Reap, we took the bus back to PP and planned on leaving the following day for Vietnam. The bus ride was painful as was the bus to Siem Reap. The roads of Cambodia are not great and the 6-7 hour ride was spent jolting from side to side and bumping up and down. And the road we took between Siem Reap and PP is one of the main highways in the country. I cannot imagine the secondary and tertiary roads.
Back in Phnom Penh we met up with one of Pat's friends, Sam, from Durham and looked forward to heading to Vietnam. As we wandered the streets with Sam, we past a sportsbar where he claimed that he was able to watch the UNC Final Four game. At first we did not believe him because ESPN Asia does not cover basketball especially not college basketball, but sure enough he did get the Final Four game and he was going to get the NCAA Finals. So we postponed our trip to Vietnam for a day so that we could watch the UNC v. Michigan State game. While the game was not too exciting, it was great to watch and the whole thing made Pat especially happy.
We are now in Ho Chi Minh City and have been for the past three nights. We visited the War Remnants Museum from the Vietnam War (which is called the American War here) and we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels where the Viet Cong lived and waged war from an intricate system of underground tunnels. We are really enjoying HCMC and think that it totally trumps PP. The streets are clean here whereas in PP they were littered with trash piles. Some of the main roads in PP branched off to dirt roads (in the city!) while the roads here are well paved. Here in HCMC there are a whole lot of motorbikes!! There are some intersections with traffic lights while others the traffic just goes and pedestrians just walk. As a pedestrian you have to walk across the streets at a constant pace and not stop and then the motorbikes will go around you. If you stop, you confuse the drivers and you are likely to be hit. We have been able to walk around a lot and we have found some really nice parts of town with ice cream shops, little restaurants and boutique shops. Our hotel is simple but comfortable. We get a bagette with jam and coffee in the mornings and pho noodles and spring rolls for dinner, and the staff has been incredible helpful and kind. We will probably stay for a few more nights and do one or two nights in the Mekong Delta before heading to Central Vietnam.
Sorry for the long and somewhat boring blog post. I just felt like I needed to catch everyone up on where we are and what we are up to.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)