Asian Adventure

We had a hot bus journey to Siem Reap which ended in a disastrous tuk tuk journey to the centre of town. The driver kept trying to take us to hotels and refused to leave until he knew where we were staying because he needed us to use him as our tuk tuk for Angkor. When he finally dropped us in the centre of town, he followed us down the street and when we told him we wouldn’t be requiring any more of his services, he started shouting and swearing at us, calling us names and telling us to “watch out if we saw him at the temples”. Not the nicest introduction to Siem Reap! We got a nice hotel right beside the main streets and although I was nervous of running into the tuk tuk man plus friends that evening, we spent the evening on bar street without incident.

We spent the next day doing Angkor research and mapping out a route for the big day tomorrow. I also bought a below knee length skirt in order to have something respectful and relatively cool to wear; it’s absolutely boiling here during the day. We got up at 4:45am and were on the road to Angkor by 5am with a really nice, pleasant tuk tuk driver called Map at the helm. There was lots of traffic as we approached Angkor and we realized that most of the people were locals, here to celebrate a religious holiday. We reached Ankor Wat just as the sun was rising and were suitably impressed with the sight that greeted us. It’s the largest religious building in the world at 1km squared, has a huge moat surrounding it and a long stone path leading from the gate to the entrance. We explored the whole ground level of the temple but couldn’t climb up to the 3rd level tower because it was closed for the day. The other side of the temple is surrounded by forest and is really peaceful. The same couldn’t be said for the area at the front of Angkor Wat, where the ceremony was in full swing and the monks were receiving alms from white-clad Cambodians. We eventually made our way through the crowds to find Map and set off for our next stop.

It took over an hour to reach Ta Promh, the Lara Croft temple, because of the traffic. But it was definitely worth it as it’s probably the most visually impressive temple in Angkor. This is where nature and civilization entwine, with huge trees intertwined with the 12th century temple. It’s been almost totally reclaimed by the jungle and looks so like a fairytale that the guardians of Angkor have refrained from restoring it. The only negative is the fact that you have to share it with the crowds.

Outside all the temples we were surrounded by young local kids selling everything from slingshots to flutes and pretty persistent. We had a quick snack and then Map swung us round to the next temple; Banteay Kdei, which I was looking forward to as it’s noted to be a similar temple to Ta Promh. It was a lot quieter but much less impressive than Ta Promh and isn’t as abandoned to nature.

Pre Rup was the next temple and a complete surprise. It was constructed in the 10th century, 2 centuries earlier than the first 3 temple we’d seen and is described as a temple-mountain. It lovely and symmetrical and incredibly steep, with fantastic views of the surrounding countryside from the top.

After that we drove to Preah Kahn, a huge former monastic complex surrounded by a moat. The walkway over to the complex is lined with headless statues, evidence of the Khmer Rouge’s attack on Angko.r In fact, statues in almost all the temples we visited were headless. It’s a nice, quiet place to explore and although some of it is falling down, the central passageways are still standing.

Our final stop of the day was the former royal city of Angkor Thom. It’s a huge walled and moated city 3km squared and was the last capital of the Angkor empire. This was the place the festivities had moved after the initial ceremony at Angkor Wat, and the city was full of the faithful. We entered via the north gate and walked along the terrace of the leper king and into the royal palace area where Phimeanakas temple is located. It was the King’s private temple and is the tallest temple at Angkor, and the steepest to climb. We had a tough time climbing back down!

From there we walked past Baphuon temple which was closed for the day, to Bayon, another resounding highlight of the day. It’s an impressive building from far away, but once you get close to it, you start to see all the faces on the 37 towers. There are 216 of them still visible, as well as a number of bass reliefs on the lower walls. It’s a really cool place and an awesome finale to a full day of temple viewing.

We were literally templed out at that stage, and the 40 degree heat had taken it’s toll so we got Map to bring us back to the guest house for a well needed shower and a rest and to process the amazing things we’d seen. It’s definitely the highlight of Asia for me so far and a place I would recommend anybody to visit. Awesome!

It took 7 hours to travel from Saigon to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, but a significant amount of time was spent at the Thai and Cambodian borders. The Thai side was extremely dodgy, as we were the only foreigners on the bus and we watched everybody else sail through while our bus driver took our passports and disappeared for 45 minutes. Thankfully, we were called through and the bus was waiting for us. At the Cambodian border we kept a firm hold of our passports and were granted visas without any problems. As soon as we entered the country, we could see that it’s very obviously less developed than Vietnam or Thailand but we were very happy to hear that they beep less! We were dropped off in central Phnom Penh, a fairly hectic place, and found a guest house nearby. We had untold trouble finding a place to eat that evening and eventually ended up in a garden restaurant eating a chicken dish (or so they said) with small bones in every piece of chicken; making it completely inedible. We made sure to get ourselves across the city to the riverfront the next morning (about a 30 minute walk from our hotel) where the main tourist area is. It’s a really lovely area with wide streets, parks, the royal palace, temples and the river itself. After fortifying ourselves, we set off on a tough day of tourism, visiting the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng museum. The first tuk tuk we hired to take us out to Choeung Ek took us on a ride through the back streets to meet with a group of his friends for a renegotiation. We got out of there, fast, and got another tuk tuk who promptly headed out of the city. It took about 30 minutes to reach the Killing Fields. It’s really only about a square mile of grass with a monument in the centre and a couple of buildings off to the side housing the exhibitions but it’s a very chilling place. This is where the Khmer Rouge executed over 17,000 people between 1975-78, mostly transported from Tuol Sleng prison, and buried them in 129 mass graves, 89 of which have been excavated. We spent some time at the exhibitions and then watched a documentary about Khmer Rouge history and how the Khmer Rouge evacuated the people of Phnomh Penh to the country, leaving behind a ghost town, and set about ‘reeducating’ them and murdering them. They abolished money, religion, education and set everyone to work at rice production which they then exported, not leaving enough to feed the workers.

There were 380 killing fields in Cambodia; Choeung Ek is just one of them. As a Buddhist country, Cambodians believe that the remains of the dead should be housed and honoured and so they built stupas at a number of the killing fields to house the remains and to act as memorials. The stupa at Choeung Ek has 17 levels, with skulls on the lower levels and other bones higher up. We walked the path around the perimeter and saw the excavated graves, now with grass regrown. We could hear children singing in the school next door which was pretty eerie.

Our next stop was back in the city at the Tuol Sleng museum where we arrived in time to catch the 3pm documentary. Tuol Sleng is a former school which, in 1975, Pol Pot’s security forces turned into Security Prison 21 (S21), the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. It consists of 4 three story buildings and all rooms are open to viewing and house exhibitions. It’s a truly horrible place and the evidence of the atrocities committed there by the Khmer Rouge is everywhere, from photographs on the walls to blood on the floor and calls still intact in the condition they were found. It was all very harrowing to see, and hard to believe that this happened so recently that any Cambodian over 40 years old lived through it.

The next two days we spent wandering the city and visiting the various sights. It was punishingly hot during the day, over 40 degrees, and so it was pretty sweaty work. We walked over to the central market which is one of the fanciest markets I’ve ever seen! We also saw the impressive Independence monument, built in 1958 and did a tour of the various bookshops in the city. Evenings were spent at the riverfront eating and drinking and people watching. It’s a totally different place at night, all lit up, with people absolutely everywhere. There’s a really festive atmosphere with music blaring, locals dancing and eating on the streets. We did heed the warnings about the safety of the city, and were very careful especially at night, Mum ;-)

We were dropped right in the centre of the backpacking area, Pham Ngu Lao, at 7am on Tuesday morning, found a nice hotel down an alley and crashed out until 12pm. Then we headed out into the streets of Saigon (officially called Ho Chi Minh city) to do some serious sightseeing. I was really impressed with the city and was surprised how much I like it, despite my worries based on the Hanoi experience. We navigated through the traffic (pros at this stage) and made our way to the war museum. The museum foreground is filled with old U.S. planes and tanks and we had a look round them before visiting the ‘tiger caves’ where Viet Cong prisoners were locked up and tortured by the U.S. Inside the museum is a pretty extensive exhibition of the effects of the U.S. war in Vietnam, complete with graphic photographs, physical evidence and documents and damning indictments of U.S. conduct which continually violated the Geneva convention. The most shocking thing I learned about was Agent Orange, a chemical campaign carried out by the U.S. which continues to affect the Vietnamese today.

After absorbing the exhibitions, we walked around the corner to visit the Reunification Palace, where the communist tank crashed through the gate on 30th April 1975, effecting the fall of Saigon. The palace has been preserved exactly as it was left by the U.S. and South Vietnamese forces on that day, apart from the tank itself. It’s a big 1960s building, built by the French. We walked around the 3 floors and saw the presidential office, the map room, the library, the gambling room, the bedroom and the private presidential rooms. On the 3rd floor was an exhibition about the war and the fall of Saigon, complete with photographs and documents. Outside, we saw some Viet Cong vets posing by the tanks on the grass, which was cool.

The next day was also war-themed and I went on a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels, an hour and a half outside central Saigon. Our guide Cong took us into the initial briefing room and showed us diagrams of the area, the 200km of tunnels where the Viet Cong lived for 21 years. A model showed us the 3 levels of tunnels in the network, the first level ¾ meters deep and the third 7/8 meters deep. The tunnels had a drainage system that flowed directly into the river and had lots of clever facilities such as a filter system to distribute the smoke from cooking so that it was invisible. This meant that the Americans’ attempts to flood the tunnels failed, as did the bombs, which didn’t reach the first level of tunnels. We watched an incredible documentary about the tunnels – how they were constructed with hand tools and baskets, how the Viet Cong stashed weapons there and staged ambushes from the tunnels, and how the people of the area lived underground for 21 years, emerging only at night and sometimes getting married and having babies in the tunnels. The documentary was also narrated by a fervent communist who described the U.S. army as “a crazy bunch of devils” and “evil American soldiers” and glorified the Viet Cong who killed numerous Americans. This was all a bit much for the elderly Aussie guy who walked out! After the documentary, we were taken outside to the forest where the original tunnels have been widened and touristed up. A Vietnamese actor demonstrated how the Viet Cong would squeeze into holes in the ground, cleverly disguised, in order to ambush U.S. soldiers. We saw all the traps they planted and how they disguised ventilation holes as termite mounds. We also explored some tunnels for ourselves, squat-walking through the dark for 40 meters and emerging hot and sweaty. The bomb craters from the war were evident all around, although they are now filled with vegetation. The whole experience was a bit too touristy for me but it was interesting to see nonetheless.

After all the war tourism, it was a nice change of pace that evening when I went to see a water puppet show, a truly Vietnamese experience. It was an absolutely bizarre performance, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There were 6 Vietnamese traditional musicians, 3 on either side of the stage, which was a large pool, filled with water, as the name suggests. The were puppets of people, dragons, fish, boats, butterflies and they were hugely energetic, splashing water, spitting fire and dancing all over the place. It was all in Vietnamese and I didn’t know what was going on but it didn’t matter. It took me a while to figure out they are operated on sticks because they were somersaulting out of the water! It was a fantastic finale to my Vietnamese experience.

We arrived at Nha Trang at 6am on Tuesday and, as usual, were dropped outside a hotel. We decided to stay there after sleepily ascertaining from the Lonely Planet that it was located in the centre of town. After a sleep, we woke up and realized that we were in fact slap bang in the centre of the local area, far from the tourist masses and the infrastructure. While it was nice to stay somewhere a bit more authentically located, breakfast options nearby were severely limited and so breakfast was a 30 minute walk away, along the esplanade. We were able to find some real gems for dinner though and had some fantastic and cheap local meals most evenings. We became regulars at a fantastic place which served clay pot dishes by a lovely girl who didn’t speak or read English and so just brought us what she thought we’d want!

Nha Trang is a seaside town, Vietnamese style, and became popular with foreigners when U.S. soldiers began to take their leave here during the war. Since then it’s gone from strength to strength, and no wonder as it’s the proud owner of 6km of pure white sand and clear blue water. I was surprised at how big the town is; the central point being the wide, sophisticated esplanade which runs alongside the sea and the interior a labyrinth of streets which change dramatically in character and purpose the further north or south you travel. In certain areas it feels like an upscale resort with Sheraton hotels and expensive bars and restaurants whereas in others, the poor condition of local housing and the dirt and disrepair of the streets reminds you where you are.

The local end of the beach, where we were, is a bit dirtier and was often littered with rubbish but is also almost deserted apart from the few hawkers who spot the white skin from the esplanade. One morning while walking along in the surf, I came across a dead piglet. The tourist end of the beach is packed with sun loungers, water sports and millions of hawkers selling absolutely everything. One couple were served lobster on their loungers while we looked on! We divided our time between the two and put in some good hours sunbathing and cooling off in the sea. Scott discovered a new favourite hobby of dunking me at every opportunity; I must have swallowed a couple of liters of sea water during the week. It was very hot every day and sunny in the mornings but tended to get cloudy in the afternoons.

On the day we were due to take a boat out to visit some of the islands in the bay, there was a horrendous thunder storm with tropical rain like I’ve never heard before. It lasted for 2 nights and into 2 days and, although it was still hot, forced us indoors and away from the beach. We did some shopping at the local market and also went to visit the Long Son pagoda and giant white Buddha nearby.

The weather cleared up again for our final day in Nha Trang and we took full advantage of the sunshine on the beach. I toyed with the idea of parasailing but after watching another girl go for literally 3 minutes, I decided to wait until Thailand when I could hopefully spend a bit more time in the air. We left on a sleeping bus at 8pm that night towards Saigon and along the way met the most beautiful monkey I’ve ever seen, sadly incarcerated in a cage at a roadside café.

The bus from Hue took 4 hours and arrived in Hoi An at 12:30. We popped on our bags and walked to the riverfront, followed the whole way by a girl desperate to get us into her shop. The lady in the guest house was lovely and gave us loads of tips about the town. It’s a really lovely, quaint place absolutely full of tailors, shoe shops, fabric markets and is the quintessential girls’ paradise! We had a fantastic lunch and emerged to find the girl from earlier waiting to whisk us off to her shop. We humoured her and came along for our first tailor experience of Hoio An. They all have piles of catalogues, mostly from Next, and can make just about anything you desire with whatever fabric you choose. We spent the afternoon shopping around and I eventually ordered and suit from one of the fancier places. We did get a bit tired of constantly being shouted at “You!” “You buy something” etc and so relaxed in the guest house for a few hours before having another wonderful meal on the riverfront that evening.

The next couple of days were bookended by fitting for my suit and the two pairs of trousers I’d ordered elsewhere. On Tuesday we walked across the bridge to the other, much quieter side of the city and spent a few hours browsing in a bookshop and having a drink by the river. The English owner joined us there and it was really interesting to hear his thoughts on Vietnam and being an ex-pat. He’s lived in Hoi An for 15 years! On Sunday, we rented a moped and drove out to the gorgeous beach. It had lovely white sand but crazy waves (literally knocked me off my feet) and was populated by a mixture of locals and tourists. After lunch we drov up and down the coast and found huge stretches of deserted beaches but no rocks to fish off, which was the real purpose of the trip.

On my final day in Hoi An I picked up all my finished items of clothing, including the shoes I’d ordered the night before which were totally perfect! I had a final wander through the city and along the river front to take some photos. It was punishingly hot so we spent the afternoon hiding out in the guest house before catching our night bus at 6pm. It was going to be a long journey to Nha Trang.