Vietnam and Cambodia - Shopping, Tunnels and Temples


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Asia » Cambodia » North » Angkor
November 16th 2005
Published: December 1st 2005
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Leanne's new jobLeanne's new jobLeanne's new job

Funds were running low
Howdy all,
Today, we're taking an express journey through Vietnam and Cambodia...two very different places and totally different to Smarmore, Bellewstown, Drogheda, Shannonbridge, Ballycumber or Louisburgh...After deciding not to take a 24 hours bus journey from Vientiane (Laos) to Hanoi, we caught a plane instead (not literally)...Imp not messing when I say that Scotch Hall shopping centre in Drogheda is about 10 times bigger than Laos international airport in Vientiane. Security is very lax and we were walking through corridors that we'd have probably done time for if we walked through them in Dublin airport!!!! We booked the tickets at around 10.30 in the morning and flew at about 4 in the evening...

Security tightened up a fair bit in Hanoi airport...On arrival you had to walk by some sort of camera which monitored your body temperature and you could see yourself on the camera in different colours....Its was obviously to see if there was anyone entering the country with some sort of bird flu....The only bird I entered the country with was Leanne and when we walked by the camera she came up as red which I assume means she had some sort of fever...It didn’t go down well
Blair Witch DonkeyBlair Witch DonkeyBlair Witch Donkey

Donkey in the caves in Halong Bay!!!
when I started saying out load (loader than I meant to) that she had SARS...I kept my mouth shut from then on until I made sure I was let into the country!!!

We checked into a guesthouse in Hanoi along with Kirsty and Robert and went for dinner in the centre of the city around the Lake...Hanoi is mad enough and crossing the road isn’t like crossing West Street, Drogheda...You take your life in your own hands, just keep going and hope that the thousands of motos (mopeds) avoid you...In fairness to them, everyone works on the same level i.e. look after numero uno and if everyone does that they're shouldn’t be an accident. I only saw one accident (miracle) and I’m writing this, so you can figure I wasn’t in it!!!

The night we arrived was particularly mad and I’ve never seen so many mopeds in my life...Vietnam were after beating Japan and winning some soccer tournament...It was kind of like the streets of Dublin in 1990 when Jacks Army arrived back from Italy...We found out later that it was the Vietnamese U-23's and they'd only beaten the Japanese U-17's... It was a bit over the top
Jenga, Beer and PringlesJenga, Beer and PringlesJenga, Beer and Pringles

Leanne, Kirsty and Donkey enjoy the jenga, beer and pringles!!!
but I suppose its a bit rich coming from an Irishman because they did win something, unlike Jack's Army!!!

The following day we just relaxed, did a bit of sightseeing and a bit of mooching around the shops in Hanoi...a lot cheaper than Scotch Hall I reckon!! The next day the four of us went on a 3-day boat trip to Halong Bay...or should I say Halong Grey!! The bay is full of Limestone rock outcrops (about 3000) and fairly spectacular in its own right...However, as many a person has said about Ireland -"It'd be a great place if only you could roof it".....It rained for most of the three days we were there!!! This however, did not dampen the craic....we still managed to jump off the boat, kayak, swim in the bay everyday, play jenga, visit caves (with Donkey), eat like pigs, do a bit of trekking in the rain and climb a mountain in flip flops again!!! The first night we slept on the boat. We played jenga that night....not as easy as you think with a few drinks on you, a boat swaying and a penalty of a shot of beer every time you were the
Pressure's for tyres !!!Pressure's for tyres !!!Pressure's for tyres !!!

Ronan laughs off the pressure!!!
unfortunate one to break the camels back (Thought id throw in a bit of an auld metaphor there, I know ye're all impressed!!!). Unfortunately for Kirtsy, she was the biggest loser by the end of the night, a title well deserved!!! The next morning, it was up early, walk out the door and jump off the side of the boat....not a bad way to start the day....We visited some caves...very impressive....loads of local mythology of how they were formed....something about a dragon swinging his tail but I think that’s just a bit of a porky!!! That night, we stayed in a really nice hotel (all included in the package)...Leanne got a massage, we ate dinner and then went to local hotspot...a karaoke bar where locals including our guide, practiced the art of choking a cat (You'd have loved it there Duggan and you'd have fitted right in - You cant sing and your only 4ft 9 inches like most of the Vietnamese).. The next day we went to some island in the bay and trekked about 5km in the lashing rain from the port to a tiny village with a restaurant at the foot of a mountain. We’d a few casualties at that point....Leanne and Kirsty being two of them...After a few minutes of a break we started to our journey to see the view from an old army look out point from the days of the war... It was like a scene from Good Morning Vietnam as we made our way through the jungle to the start of our climb....The rain was bucketing down at this stage and I was wearing a pair of tongs (Flip flops Ken.....I know what your thinking.....I only wear the other ones on Friday nights!!!)... As we started the climb a few words came to mind - "Pissing............Against.............The.............Wind"...............These words stuck in my mind as I tried to climb the side of the mountain. Eventually we made it to the top where you couldn’t see anything with the mist at which point the words - "Waste................Of.....................Time" came to mind and I realised that we had definitely "Pissed Into The Wind" and we still had to make it down....(As an aside, for those of you who don’t know what tongs look like, they're the ones where the strap goes between your big toe and the one beside it).....Its important that you understand this because on the
Sleeping BeautySleeping BeautySleeping Beauty

Leanne takes a nap on her hardsleeper!!!
way down, the straps dug into the flesh between my toes......It was at this point I realised how clever Leanne is!!!

After making it down we still had to trek the 5km back to the port......Obviously the effects of sitting in a restaurant playing cards took a toll on Leanne and Kirtsy and they got a lift on a motorbike back to the port while myself and Roberts walked in the lashing rain!!! It was actually worth seeing Leanne stuck in the middle of two people on the back of a motorbike, screaming and squeezing the life out of the driver!!!! We then did a bit of kayaking and more jumping of the boat....It was actually warmer in the water than standing on the boat.....the water was like a luke warm bath.......something I doubt either of us will see in the next year ....Leanne smells already!!!! We eventually made it back to Hanoi where we had a bit of a row with a fella in our hotel who hadn’t kept us a room which he had promised he'd do....We moved to a different place and had a relatively early night...Leanne needed it because she had to be wide awake
Tunnel Rat Tunnel Rat Tunnel Rat

Climbing out of the 'Luxury' tunnel at Chu Chi
and ready for all the shopping she had to do in Hoi An in the upcoming days!!!

The following day, after a bit of walking around Hanoi, we caught an overnight train to Danang and a bus onto Hoi An.... The train journey was an experience....We tried to get a soft sleeper (a cushioned bed to lie on with four people to a room). However, all foreigners have the same idea and snap them up fairly lively... It meant we had to take a hard sleeper with no cushion. Basically only Vietnamese get them because they're cheaper....We ended up in a room the size of a small bathroom with six sleepers, four of which were occupied by middle to old age Vietnamese men who couldn’t speak a word of English.....They were actually sound enough despite the language barrier (We think!!!).. We threw out a few wooden puzzle games we picked up in Thailand (they're brilliant and pass the hours.....Leanne is a bit obsessed with them!!!)... Innanyways, the boys loved them and it kind of broke the ice....After fourteen hours confined to a carriage packed with Vietnamese, various smells and a hole in the ground for relieving yourself and, we
G.I. LeanneG.I. LeanneG.I. Leanne

Leanne checks out the guns used in the Vietnam war!!!
eventually made it to Danang... It was good craic and the boys kept us entertained with a few songs!!! We got a bus taxi from Danang to Hoi An and I immediately knew we'd have to buy another backpack before we arrived in Oz.....

Hoi An has about 500 tailors and you'd get a full wardrobe (as Leanne did) for less than 200 euro...Basically, they have all the catalogues you can think of from all the designers, you pick out what you want in whatever material you want, they measure you up, you head off to work on the auld Jackie Chan (tan) on the beach, they make up whatever you ordered, you come back, try it on, take it if you like it or get them to alter it if you don’t, until you're happy with it!!! I knew before id left that I was going to get a suit (for interviews and all that....obviously as ye all know its very rare id be caught dead in a suit)... I got a tailored Italian cashmere wool suit, two tailored shirts, two tailored silk ties and a Jackie for about 75 euros.....not bad!!! Hoi An really is a woman’s
Hope its the closest I ever get to a tank!!!Hope its the closest I ever get to a tank!!!Hope its the closest I ever get to a tank!!!

A bombed out tank at the Chu Chi tunnels
dream and for all ye getting married it'd pay you to take a two week holiday in Vietnam, work on your Jackie Chan and get your perfect dress made for next to nothing and it'd still all work out cheaper than the price of your dress at home and you'd save on fake tan as well!!!! (Obviously I wouldn’t know what the price of a dress is....Jay just told me he's working day and night to pay off Sinead’s!!!!).. Getting back to the story and possibly the happiest three days of Leanne’s 23, nearly 24 years on this earth... I've never seen someone so happy!!! After three days, Leanne managed to buy a wardrobe...well not actually a wardrobe but enough clothes to fill one and it felt like I was carrying a wardrobe on my back!!!! She bought 7 tailored skirts (approx 7 euro each and I’m informed they'd cost 50 or 60 if you bought them at home), 3 dresses (approx 12 euro each...don’t know how much a dress costs...prefer wearing skirts meself!!), 1 tailored suit, and four tailored tops including one in Vietnamese silk which I reckon you wouldn’t get change out of a 100 euro note for!!!
Angkhor Wow !!!!Angkhor Wow !!!!Angkhor Wow !!!!

Sunrise at Angkhor Wat
We bought so much in one place that they invited us back on the last day to have lunch with the family when we were picking up the stuff.......Overall it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience for Leanne and an enjoyable/stressful time for me (trying to figure out how we'd lug all our extra stuff about did stress me a bit!!!)

After the pressures of Hoi An, I needed a bit of beach time to relax and stop worrying about our new found luggage problems.....we took another overnight bus journey (pays for the cost of travel and saves you on the cost of accommodation..........up stairs for thinking, downstairs for dancing!!!!!) to Mui Ne... Mui Ne is basically a quiet really chilled beach strip....The area is surrounded by sand dunes and lonely planet informed us that this helps to protect the area from inclement weather.... The beach is 11km long and really nice...There’s plenty to do there as well and if we had a bit more time to spare we'd have definitely did a course in windsurfing.....The place is full of windsurfers and kite borders and its a impressive sight seeing them all out on the sea when the wind picks
Angkhor Wow - Part Deux !!Angkhor Wow - Part Deux !!Angkhor Wow - Part Deux !!

The sun rises behind Leanne and Angkhor !!
up!!!

After a few days chillaxing there (chilling + relaxing = chillaxing!!!), we packed our wardrobe and headed down to Ho Chi Minh City or as many of you would know it as.......Saigon!!! Saigon is just as made as Hanoi....There’s a lot of history there which makes it a fairly interesting place though... On the first day we visited the Chu Chi tunnels near Saigon... There was a couple of hundred km's of underground tunnels where the Vietcong defeated the Americans......The tunnels are tiny and most of the web of the tunnels collapsed when the American indiscriminately bombed the area.....The openings into the tunnels are so small that an average sized American soldier wouldn’t have been able to go down into them (The Vietnamese are generally short and of a small frame and only they and probably Duggan would've been able to fit down into them). Basically the Americans didn’t know where the Vietcong were and they'd scurry around underground and pop up behind the Americans!!! The tunnels were dug by hand and fairly complex with first aid areas and kitchens etc.........They actually used bamboo poles to channel out the smoke from the kitchen to different areas so as
Happy faces!!!Happy faces!!!Happy faces!!!

Leanne, Donkey and Ronan at Angkhor Wat
all the smoke wouldn’t come out in one area, which would've given the Americans a target....very impressive indeed!!! There was still some of the tunnel you could crawl through....It had been widened to cater for tourists but you were basically crawling on you knees in the pitch black dark feeling your way to the end.....You could get out after 30m amd 60m but i managed to do the hundred.....It'd be a fairly nervous experience if someone either side of you decided to panic because once your down there, there's nowhere to go only forward!!!

We also visited the Royal Palace where the Southern Vietnamese government fell in 1975.....It was really interesting walking through the gates of the Palace where the first tank first broke through and seeing and standing in the spots where the government surrendered!!! Anyway, if any of ye do actually make it to Saigon I’m sure you'll see these things and they're well worth the visit....Also, if your interested in firing machine guns and any sort of weapon used in the war, you can also do this at the Chu Chi tunnels....It'd be something to say that you fired a machine gun in Vietnam!!!

After
Tombraider !!!!Tombraider !!!!Tombraider !!!!

Is it Angelina Farrelly or Leanne Jolie?
Saigon, we traveled to Phnom Penh in Cambodia....We met an American couple on the bus journey who were living in Cambodia with their young kids and working for some Christian NGO doing aid work in Cambodia.....They were very nice and helped us out a lot in what to do and what to see in Phnom Penh although there choice of place to live with their kids was a bit strange and wouldn’t be a choice I’d make...Cambodia is different and there are many examples of the troubles the country went through thirty years ago and the problems left in the aftermath of the Pol Pot regime...... a lot of landmine victims missing limbs and begging on the street.....Its a tad disturbing but not as disturbing as the Killing Fields...Pol Pot ruled in Cambodia for about four years in the mid-70's and basically wanted to revert back to a peasant society for whatever reason, known only to himself probably.....2,000,000 people - men women and children were murdered during his regime!!! Many of those killed were educated people and were murdered for no reason....Bullets were deemed to expensive to use during the executions so people were starved, information extracted from them by
Tombraider 4 !!!Tombraider 4 !!!Tombraider 4 !!!

"Donkey saves Angkhor Wat"...Is that Shrek behind him?
means unimaginable and then they were basically driven on the back of trucks to the killing fields, they dug their own graves and were then bet to death with bamboo sticks or killed by various other means....The S-21 museum in the city is an old secondary school which was converted into a concentration camp and now to a war museum....Its highly disturbing...Pictures of every person killed in that area were taken as soon as they entered S-21 and these pictures are now shown in the rooms where many of them were tortured...there’s even pictures of them being tortured..........By the end of the Pol Pot regime there was only one secondary school in Cambodia.....That basically tells you the turmoil the place was in and why the country is still only breaking free of the regime.....Well that’s enough about that side of things but its just a reminder that when you think you have problems, think of what the people in Cambodia have gone through!!!!


After Phnom Penh, we traveled up to Siem Reap, a small city near Angkor Wat.....definitely an amazing place to visit!!! Angkor was the Capital of the Ancient Khmer Empire and was built between the 9th
Air conditioned bus - Cambodian styleAir conditioned bus - Cambodian styleAir conditioned bus - Cambodian style

Wonder would it pass health and safety regulations!!!!!
and 13th Century AD by King Jayavarman II. The Temple of Angkor Wat was dedicated to the Hindu God Vishnu. You don’t really need to know the history of it only that it’s the biggest sacred site in the world and very spectacular....We arrived in time for sunset at Angkor Wat the first day and it's well worth seeing... The following morning it was up at 5am for sunrise at Angkor Wat and it was equally impressive... The temple is a work of art on a massive scale and its unreal how they built it that long ago....it pains me to look at some of the buildings being built in Ireland now at the moment (wont mention any names) when you see what they were able to design and build back then, although we probably would have refused permission for it anyway!!!! It's very difficult to describe in writing ...I think the best thing to do is let you visit yourself and I’d be fairly sure you'll be in awe of it!!! There are loads of other temples around the area built by the Jayavarman's (I think their people came from beside Gavin's Pub in Ballycumber but I couldn’t be
Leanne makes a few friendsLeanne makes a few friendsLeanne makes a few friends

Buying fruit at a bus stop in Cambodia
sure!!!)... You could spend a lifetime going around all the temples but we only had the day....they're all amazing and we took loads of photos... Angelina Jolie filmed Tombraider in one of them......for any of ye who've seen the film, its the bits where the temple is falling to ruin and there is trees growing out over walls and through buildings......It was my favourite of the other temples...unfortunately Angelina wasn't there at the time but Donkey did do a screen test to see if he could get in the next Tombraider!!!

After Siem Reap, it was back to Bangkok, but not without a story... We were warned not to do the bus journey but made a joint economical decision to chance it. We'd heard horror stories of the journey taking 24 hours in wet weather and people having to walk in the dark for hours because of broken down buses and collapsed bridges... Thankfully it only took us 15 or 16 hours but lets just say the expression on Leanne’s face was the total opposite to what was seen on the shopping spree in Hoi An!!! Actually, you could only see the expression on her face when we weren't covered in Dust.....we were promised an air conditioned bus... We actually got a mid size bus and there were about 30 people wedged into it, rucksacks all over the place and no air-conditioning....Just before I start describing the road I should say that Cambodia has officially got the worst roads in the world.....yes even worse than parts of Meath and Cavan!!!! Close your eyes and think of a quarry (Actually, keep your eyes open so you can read this and then you can go close your eyes and think about it!!)....think of the road through a quarry, multiply it by 100 and you have the road from Siem Reap to the Thailand border.......Add this to the fact the there was savage heat, no air conditioning and a dirt track dusty road.....you can see why we were in bits after it!!! It was a good experience and sure we survived to tell the tale and saw some beautiful scenery and some very funny sights...health and safety would have a field day in Cambodia.....We were fairly packed into our bus but nothing compared to the locals.....Pick up trucks and mini buses were flying passed us with people packed into the back (I think they were all trying to get in the Guinness Book of World Records), there were more sitting on the luggage on top of the roof as well...Hilarious... One pick up truck had people wedged into the back, sitting on the roof and a motorbike tied onto the back (like you'd tie a bike onto the back of a car)........That’s fair enough and fairly standard for Cambodia but the hilarious thing about it was that there was two lads sitting on the motorbike...Unfortunately we didn’t get a photo but it's well imprinted on the back of my eyelids!!!

Anyway folks, I hope you enjoy the read....keep the emails and messages coming

Be good and if you can’t be good, be careful

Ronan and Leanne


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1st December 2005

have just read latest.Absolutely brilliant.V entertaining. Am impressed by your writing style....it must be your good start in laytown ns.!With metaphors and all. mom

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