Feb 24-Mar 30, 2001
Short Version
- Bangkok was excellent & our 3 day trip to the waterfalls of Kanchanaburi was a highlight.
- Cambodia is rather new to the tourist route & is heavily lacking in infrastructure. But it's very
travelable & contains SE Asia's best site: Angkor Wat.
- Vietnam is an excellent tourist destination. Very cheap, lots to see, friendly people & decent travel options (long distances though!).
It's the 1st big country we've been too that doesn't have a McDonalds (since the Americans only recently resumed normal ties with them).
Long Version
Day 0 (Feb 24): Air Canada is a pretty decent airline; our seats were fairly wide with lotsa leg room & our 20 hours to Hong Kong went well. Thai Airways wasn't quite so great, but we eventually did make it to Bangkok (no the stewardesses no longer wear those slinky outfits!).
Day 1: Sucked away from us by the International Date Line.
Thailand
Day 2: "One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble" (Murray Head lyric from the 80's?). Well not anymore it doesn't! All airport taxi's politely offer to use their meters. The new elevated expressway didn't have much traffic. The city isn't that dirty (although it is quite hazy) & the street vendors are completely laid back (the exact opposite of Bali)! We stumble to the tourist ghetto (Khao San Road) & sort out our upcoming travels!
Day 3: Bangkok's Grand Palace is one of the world's great sites! An explosion of gold & glass glittering everywhere + the lovely Emerald Buddha! Next we ignore the 3 separate tuk tuk drivers & gem salesman who tell us Wat (the Thai word for temple) Pho is closed & we go enjoy it's huge Reclining Buddha (I'm pretty sure Buddha's are going to be a recurring theme here!). Then the heat takes it's toll & we water taxi to our hotel & crash for an hour. Four hours later we struggle to dinner then hit the sack!
Day 4: We charter a taxi for the day with a 6am start (we're still a little jet lagged!) to see the famous floating mkt. Tons of ladies paddling dug out canoes, peddling there cabbage & what-not to the locals. By 9am the tour buses arrive & the peddlers change to selling tacky wooden souvenirs! On the way back we check out the worlds highest Buddhist monument then arrive at 10:30am for the 2pm show at the touristy "Rose Garden". We manage to kill an hour walking around trying to actually find a rose garden but upon having no luck, we head back into the city (never quite reaching the 160kph we did on the way out since the traffic has picked up!).
Day 5/6/7: We take a tour to Kanchanaburi; home of the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai. We're on the 3 day/2 nite tour; which is what our group (us & 4 hot babes in bikinis) is called for the next 3 days! We walk across the bridge & see the war museums & the cliffs the POW's had to blast thru, but most of the trip was seeing spectacular waterfalls, floating down the river & riding elephants in the jungle. It was great!
Day 8: We catch a dance at the National Theatre with 2 Canadians we met from the trip. Lovely sets & elaborate costumes, but the dance wasn't quite as interesting as Bali (& was about 1.5 hours too long!). Then off to a few museums & a kite flying festival!
Day 9: Daytrip to the old Imperial city of Ayutthaya with an American we met on the trip. The sites are decent but the trip is a bit scammy (the included boat ride costs extra, water isn't included at lunch . . .) but we enjoy it & upon complaining to our travel agent are refunded the $3 we had to pay for the boat tour! At nite I enjoy a lovely Thai massage, while Louise enjoys a quite hotel room!
Day 10: Day off (we spent 1/2 the day sorting out our internet photo album & the other 1/2 lounging in the hotel). At nite we head to the seedy side of Bangkok but we spend more on the nite market than the sex shows!
Day 11: One last minute photo to scan before we fly to Cambodia.
Cambodia
Walking or driving here means negotiating a sea of mopeds; you just go & hope the sea parts around you! Those still in touch with their western sensibilities would be waiting on the sidewalk all day (no traffic lights)! Lou was put off a little during her chicken dinner when she heard a dog cry in the kitchen (her chicken pieces were very small . . .).Day 12/13/14: Angkor Wat is the reason people come to Cambodia & is one of the world's truly great sites (at $40us it better be!). Dozens of huge rock temples built/carved between 800 & 1400 AD. Many have had their Buddha's changed to Shiva's etc. (then back again) to reflect the prevalent religion at the time. The Khmer Rouge destroyed some but by no means all of Angkor Wat & there's some truly breathtaking bas-reliefs (wall carvings) left. Tonite we dodge the motorbikes as we take in the smells (most restaurants cook by open fire since stoves & fridges are rare) & sites of Siem Reap (the nearby city). Then it's off to the hotel to watch HBO!
Day 15: Up at 5:30 for our 4.5 hour speed boat ride to Phnom Penh. Our driver (who promised to take us all the way to the boat) drops us at a pickup truck already crammed with 8 Japanese in the back & 4 people in the front. We join the front. Soon we are hurtling along in a modern speed boat past villagers in straw & wood huts. They all wave as our wake sends there fishing boats rocking. Our main reason for visiting Phnom Penh was to tour the school ("S21") where the Khmer Rouge imprisoned & tortured thousands of people before sending them off to the Killing Fields. We blow thru the Royal Palace & Natl Museum since Lou is a bit sick. I get out from the hotel at 5:55pm just in time for the dusk flight of thousands of bats from the Natl Museum to the river (the acidic bat dropping are actually eating away at the Museum roof). By 6:45 pm I've been accosted by kids (wanting ice-cream), dads (wanting ice-cream for their kid) & more kids (happy to just request money) and I've seen 2 bats. Time well spent?? Back at the hotel Lou is feeling much better (I always wonder if it's the hotel a/c or me being away!).
Day 16: It's strange going from the killing fields to a range where you can pay to fire an AK47 or Rocket Launcher. I take a pass. But I do go for 10 minutes on the nearby mini-F1 track. Very fast go-karts! Thankfully our flight to Ho Chi Min City is on Vietnam airlines. One of their competitors slogans is: "We may not be the best, but we try our best!" - not a great ad for an airline.
Vietnam
We love Vietnam. Its just like Thailand but everyone smiles.
Day 17: Day tour of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The highlight was the War Museum with it's incredible photos. Our guide fought for the US in the Vietnam war & was therefore "reeducated" for 3 years after it ended. His neighbour fought for the Viet Cong.
Day 18: Day trip: First stop is the "Holy See"; the Vatican of the Cao Dai religion (a weird Vietnamese religion based on Buddhism + 5 other religions!). The "church" is a whacked out design reminiscent of Andy Warhol! The next stop is the "Cu Chi" tunnels where the Viet Cong hid during the war. Our group was freaked out after going thru 100 metres of tunnel that had been expanded to twice the size of the original tunnels. Imagine eating/sleeping/fighting in tunnels so small most American soldiers couldn't even squeeze thru them. Most VC tuneless didn't survive the war. A fascinating glimpse at how the VC defeated the "Imperialist Pigs".
Day 19: 37 degrees & sunny (15 days running). A fine day for Saigon's $5 Water Park!!
Day 20/21/22: 3 day/2 nite (I think that's going to be another recurring theme on this trip) to the Mekong Delta (SE Asia's longest river). Lots of great boat rides past stilt houses & 80 year old ladies paddling produce laden boats. But also lots of long bus rides thru insane traffic. We passed 3 different accidents. Frustratingly slow traffic. One of the tourists is a Vietnam national (living in California). He had to live on a river boat for 18 months after the war to avoid being sent to "reeducation". He eventually managed to sneak across the border into Cambodia. It's only since 1990 (when Vietnam opened it's doors to tourism) that he's been able to return home.
Day 23: Day off. Got some photo's developed, got a few scanned & mailed the rest home. Took forever to upload the scans to the internet (it's insanely slow around here - at least this time I brought a book).
Day 24: We bought 6 of our 12 internal flights in advance just to guarantee a seat with no hassles. But you can't always anticipate how/where you want to travel. So yesterday we changed in our Saigon-Hue ticket to take the bus via the interior instead. Today we head to Dalat in the Vietnam Highlands via a beautiful mountain road with tantalizing glimpses of bare beaches & more shades of green than I knew existed. We stop at a few waterfalls en route & then arrive at Dalat which is lovely & cool!
Side story for those with stamina: Tonite we try to walk to the central market (8 minutes away). Unfortunately we can't seem to find it (there are no straight streets in Dalat). The easiest solution in these circumstances is usually to pay a taxi to take you there (pretending like your not lost) but in Vietnam transport is primarily by motorbike. In Saigon they will put two on a bike but Vietnamese law (followed more in the North than the South) says one passenger only (probably a communist make work project). So off goes a bike carrying my wife . . . . I arrive at the market 2 minutes later but there's no wife! After 10 minutes of debating the next move via a local (my driver speaks no English) we go to where the other driver hangs out. Unfortunately he's not there (has anyone seen the movie Breakdown?). Well the obvious backup plan is the hotel (she always takes a business card since we can't normally say the hotel name in a manner a driver would understand). Luckily Lou is there & guess what . . . She's not well pleased (that's a English expression - I'm practicing). Turns out her driver took her to a spot overlooking the market - live & learn.
Day 25: Day trip around Dalat; more waterfalls, a crazy house (Andy Warhol meets Gaudy) & a mad monk (built his own temple & finances himself by selling art to tourists!). Evening sipping beer by the lakeside.
Day 26: Bus to Nha Trang; Vietnam's best beach resort. We meet a group of Brits on the bus & hear more reasons not to move to London! Tonite we walk the beach, dodging soccer balls (apparently the surf is not out of bounds!).
Day 27: Island Cruise; a day of snorkeling, jet skiing, sun tanning (Lou's in the room recovering from heatstroke as I type this) & floating bars! Lovely.
Day 28: Our 12 hour bus ride to Hoi An takes 14 hours & involves roads more suited to farm tractors than passenger buses (the plane was sold out). But Hoi An is worth it. It's a shoppers paradise (clothes, art & crafts - as good but not as cheap as Bali). And it's breathtakingly quaint. In the 1800's it was an important port & has dozens of grand Chinese, Japanese & Dutch merchant homes. Hoi An was one of the few cities not bombed out of existence in the American war (as they call it over here) so it's become the Vietnamese equivalent of Bath in England & is heavily being maintained/restored. It also has great food. My plateful of roasted shrimp ($3) turns Lou into a shrimp lover & tomorrow's 2 crabs for $3 are equally delicious.
Day 29: On our block there are 12 art shops. The block above us has 8 tailors. I order a 3 button suit ($45) & Lou orders a dress & then another dress. Then a pants, a top & another pants. In our spare time we buy 4 pieces of art!
Day 30: Morning trip to 'My Son' an ancient 'Cham' site (a Vietnamese Hindu group). It must have been lovely once, but it was mostly bombed out during the war (the American's stopped bombing it after a historian wrote a protest letter!). Afternoon spent leisurely admiring Hoi An's architecture. Evening spent mailing our art & clothing purchases home. It was Louise's 1st taste of Communist bureaucracy & she didn't do well. It took an hour, 4 forms & lots of inspecting. Next time I have to go on my own!
Day 31: It's pouring. Our 8am bus arrives at 8:30. Our destination is Hue; 4 hours away via a mountain pass. It's foggy. Our driver looks like a Vietnamese Christopher Walken. Not ideal travel conditions in a country where seatbelts and headlights are luxury items. Our most memorable moment is passing a gasoline truck with zero visibility on a blind corner on a road Grace Kelly would have loved. Eventually the bus dumps us at a hotel where the threat of us leaving gets them to upgrade our $23 room to a lovely balcony suite! Lou's in heaven! Tonite the local bars serenade us with Leonard Cohen, Dire Straits & an assortment of Vietnamese music (politely turned down by 9:30pm - this isn't America you know!).
Day 32: Daytrip to the DMZ (the old border area between the North & the South). It was quite interesting. The after affects of the war are everywhere. Our 1st stop is the shell of a church with hundreds of bullet holes in it! Next we passed a spindly gum tree forest that was a towering jungle before the war. When we stop, we have to stay on the marked trails; so far this year 5 kids in the DMZ area have been killed by old mines/bombs. The highlight is more tunnels. These ones were built in the North for villagers to hide from the bombing. The entire village survived the war (not common since around 2,700,000 civilians died in the war).
Day 33: Many of Hue's sites are accessible by river & we've booked a boat trip to see them. Unfortunately it's pouring. We survive a Pagoda but get soaked to the bone at Royal Tomb #1 & opt to skip Royal Tomb's #2&3. Tonite we (I should say Lou) try our 7th different Vietnamese beer. Most are quite good but the best so far is Cambodia's Tiger beer!
Day 34: After an early nite we opt for a late morning. Then we rent our first motorbike. It's the most scared Lou has been on the whole trip (we just met a girl who wrecked herself on a bike & apparently they're the #1 cause of injury to tourists). We visit the old Royal City & one of the tombs we missed yesterday. It was all excellent but the highlight for Lou was arriving home in one piece!
Bonus Items (for those still reading)
Here's a short list of things you can do in Cambodia that you can't do in Canada:
1) Take a ferry with no life jackets (that has 4 people sitting on the bow) to a speed boat with no lifejackets (that has 20 people sitting on top) where 80 people are crammed into a long thin cabin with only one small exit (come to think of it the boat is about the shape of a coffin . . .)
2) See a moped driven by a 10 yr old (with her younger sister) pass a moped containing an entire family of 5 (all without helmets).
3) Climb 100' up on a 1000 year old monument with no handrail on steps that were only 4" deep to begin with & are now worn down to toe width . . .
4) Fire an AK47 (at least, I don't think you can do that in Canada)
Best compliment: "Pretty young wife; congrats sir"
Weirdest moments: Running into things right out of the war. eg meeting a lady who was on the last helicopter out of Saigon (in Apr '75) or driving on the road where the famous picture of the napalmed naked child running was taken (she now lives in Toronto).
Least appealing scene: Vietnam's public toilets. We mean public. As in everyday we see motorcycles stop at the side of the road, the guy peeing for all to see, then merrily going on his way. We even saw a guy line up behind someone to pee on the same tree on the sidewalk in Saigon. Which reminds me; watch where you step there; we saw 2 kids take an actual dump right on the sidewalk!