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Published: October 26th 2008
The beginning of Siem Reap
First temple of the day, our guide started us small and worked up to Angkor Wat. It was a hot day!!We’ve been visiting Wats (temples) in Cambodia, dodging motos in Hanoi, breaking even in the Macau casinos, living the Hong Kong nightlife, and eating our way through Singapore. But let’s just recap Cambodia and Vietnam.
Days 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, and 54 - Siem Reap and Hanoi
We had to depart Koh Phi Phi of the western Thai islands very early on day 48 in order to catch our flight from Phuket. The plans worked out well as our flight from Phuket to Bangkok was on time and very smooth. Once in Bangkok, we noticed an earlier flight to Siem Reap and therefore changed our original flight. Of course, and possibly a sign of things to come, that flight was canceled. We were able to get back on our original flight, and with some short delays, we had a late arrival into Siem Reap, our only stop in Cambodia.
Arriving in the evening did not allow us to really discover the city. Our cab ride from the airport, which the driver intentionally drove slowly to promote himself as a travel guide, indicated a very quiet city. There were not many other cars and certainly not a
lot of people out around our hotel. Once to our hotel we found very few people and the restaurants and bars emptied. We knew we had a big day ahead with some major heat and lots of walking, so we took advantage of the quiet city and called it an evening. We booked a guide and a tuk tuk for early the next morning (a tuk tuk is a motorcycle that pulls a two-seater carriage - plans are set to start this as a business in DC…called “Timmy’s Tuk Tuk”).
It was good thing we started early the next day. We met our guide Hong in the lobby and told him our plan. We wanted to visit two main Wats (temples) and have the next day to visit the famous Angkor Wat the next day. Hong agreed, and said he would fill in the rest of the day with visits to other interesting smaller wats. Or at least, that’s what we figured out he said when we got done with the day! He waved over our tuk tuk driver, Mr. Lev, to the hotel for pick up. We piled in and off we were to visit temples. It was
Tarantula nest
We walked quickly away afterwards early, but already very warm.
Our first stop was a very small temple called Prasat Kraven. We were a little concerned the tour guide was going to lead us astray as we arrived to this small temple. However, he explained the historical significance as a build up to the other temples we were interested in visiting. This Hindu temple from the early 10th century and was originally constructed by noblemen rather than a king. It was nice to learn about the history and purpose of the temples.
We continued on the tuk tuk to other sites. Each stop we were hounded by young Cambodian children (none of which looked like Soth) selling books, flutes, water, and many other items. They were very aggressive, so we needed to learn to say “Ah te Awk koun” or “no thank you” in Cambodian relatively fast. The next stop was to visit Banteay Kdei, which functioned as a Buddhist monastery in the late 12th century. Most of the temples were unrestored, allowing visitors to move within the ruins. A similar but more famous temple, Ta Prohm, was our next visit. This temple had massive fig and silk-cotton trees growing from the towers
and corridors offering a jungle atmosphere. Because of the amazing ‘tree-in-temple’ atmosphere, we spent extensive time here. Also, of less importance, it was the filming sight of the movie “Tomb Raider” staring Angelina Jolie. Of course neither of us have seen its, but now we may watch it!
A visit to the towering temple Ta Keo was a short stop before going to the massive Angkor Thom. The massive walled and moated royal city was the last capital of the Angkorian empire. There were five gates, each crowned with four giant faces. We visited two temples (Bayon and Baphoun) and the famous terrace of the elephants. The highlight on this very hot day, however, was a frozen fruit drink from China. We had one in the shade with our guide. It was Cambodia hot!
We wrapped up the day with some cocktails at the pool and dinner. We stayed in and did room service, as Tim unfortunately was short the market on one of its biggest positive days in history. Fortunately the three stooges (Bush, Paulson, and Bernake) each spoke and the market turned down, allowing Tim to cover some losses that evening.
We decided to get
a little out of our sleep pattern on Day 50, waking up at 4:30 in the morning to go Angkor Wat. We hired Mr. Lev once again as our tuk tuk driver. We opted out of a tour guide, however, knowing there was a lot of information available for Angkor Wat. We got going early to catch the sunrise, something very common for all the visitors to Angkor. Mr. Lev was waiting for us and we traveled to Angkor Wat in the dark. The dawn was a neat experience, with a lot of tourists making their way into the temple and trying to find the optimal spot for photos. Unfortunately the sunrise was not great. We did spend another two hours going around the temple and we kept running into monkeys running around which was fun. The day was still (very) young but we did not have much left on our agenda. We did a hot-air balloon which provided a nice glimpse of the countryside. We then moved on to the city of Siem Reap for breakfast.
Mr. Lev dropped us near the market and we agreed to meet up in two hours. The market was not great, although
there were some native musical instruments which we knew Vic’s Dad would love. Unfortunately there was no way to ship them. We moved on to the farmers market. This was a truly local Cambodian market, we were the only foreigners around and kept getting in everyone’s way. But its hard to know where to step when everyone around is either cutting heads off fish, chopping up turtles, and trying not to step on children running around! This was amazing with butchers in the middle of the market cutting up anything and everything. The smell at times was overpowering, but the sights made for a good experience. We were able to barter a lonely planet guide for Hong Kong down to only $6 buck—o nly to realize when we opened it that it all had been photocopied!! We didn’t know it had all been photocopied!! After wandering around the market and the historic area we called it a day, heading back to the hotel. We thought we would get a little time at the pool, but turned out we were able to experience a Cambodian afternoon rain storm. If Soth could make it rain like this in DC there certainly would
not be a water shortage. It was an impressive storm, went on for a couple hours- so we were stuck at the pool bar!! What to do?
That evening we went into the city and visited the different restaurants and bars. Our favorite was a bar called “Angkor What?”. Frequented by backpackers, the six dollar pitchers of gin and tonic was certainly enough to quench our thirst. Heading out the next day, we were a little slow to go after a few of those. We actually had a tough day 51, as our afternoon flight from Siem Reap to Hanoi was cancelled (I sense a spell of bad flights to come…) We had to take an evening flight (through a thunderstorm!! Vic was not happy). Fortunately we were able to hang out in the airport club with free food, drinks, and access to the internet. Here we were able to catch up on some e-mails and had time to book some things for our future stops.
We got into Hanoi late in the evening. The cab ride from the airport to our hotel was about an hour. We were instantly amazed by the motorbikes very bizarre traffic behaviors
Ta Prohm
Amazing trees growing on temple...tomb raider was filmed here. and rules (we eventually figured out, you just drive fast unless someone is directly in front of you, and you honk and flash your lights all the time). The streets were eighty to ninety percent motos (scooters and motorcycles). We certainly knew it would be interesting to see and battle it come daylight.
After checking into our hotel, we decide to venture out. This was interesting, as Tim was certain we never be able to find the hotel again. It was about 10 pm at night, but the streets were full of motos, people walking and sidewalk markets open. Interesting as everyone parked their motos on the sidewalk, so people walk in the streets with the crazy traffic buzzing around them. The restaurants though shut down early, so with no chance to stop anywhere we took in a thirty minute walk, hopefully getting our bearings for some sightseeing in Hanoi.
The next day we only had a few sights on the agenda. Looking out our hotel window before heading out mid-morning, we knew we were in for a challenge as thousands of motos buzzed through the streets of Hanoi. After breakfast, we started to venture off to the
Temple of Literature, the first Vietnam University. The students were taught using Confucius’ writings. On our walk to the college, we had to cross many busy streets. Now you will need to take note as there are no traffic rules and there are only a handful of street signs and crosswalks. As some of you know, traffic in Vietnam looks crazy, but its actually a well-oiled machine. All you do is wait for a slight break (meaning only 10 motos coming towards you, not 40) walk out onto the street, and keep walking at a slow and steady pace. You are not supposed to break your stride, speed up or down, and the motos will drive around you, kind of like parting a sea made of scooters. Early on we were fortunate to get help from an older Vietnamese woman. She was a short lady, about Teresa Dardis height, who probably did not speak English. She actually saw us starting our venture around an eight lane road in front of the main train station. It was going to be an adventure. Fortunately the lady grabbed Victoria’s arm and guided us across. Once to the other side, she looked at Victoria,
smiled, laughed and went on her way. We were now familiar with the process, and felt we have a nice time in Vietnam as the people were very nice, just like all of our previous stops.
After the college, we moved on to visit and look at the sights associated with Ho Chi Minh including the HCM museum and HCM mausoleum. Apparently Uncle Ho was not around, as he was on his annual trip to Russia to be cleaned up. We walked around the government buildings and made our way to the old quarter area. This is a large area, in which it used to be the main market area, so all the streets are organized by what the stores sell. We walked our way past the shoe and suitcase street, around the makeup and jewelry area and through the carnival stuffed animal street. It was busy, again with scooters and stores on the sidewalks, and scooters, pedicycles (bicycles with one-person carriages) and people in the streets. Hanoi is Busy. They do have a good number of lakes though, which really helps to break up the hecticness, and all around the lakes are Vietnamese couples, kids hanging out, and
men playing cards. We ended up not seeing too many sights, but preferred to just walk around and take in the different street scenes. On the same street block you would pass men in circles squatting and playing cards, tons of games of badminton on the larger sidewalks, and different food stalls and side-walk kitchens. I think the food here is probably the most fascinating we have seen. Besides the few upscale restaurants catered to tourists, all the restaurants here seem to be just kitchens on the streets serving up fish and noodle soups, and other things we couldn’t recognize. We both realized quickly that we aren’t huge fans of fish sauce—which was too bad because it permeates through Hanoi. We ended the day with a trip to the Hanoi prison which different countries ran at different times of Vietnam’s history. This is better known to Americans as the Hanoi Hilton during the Vietnam War. Later that night we ate in a French-Vietnamese restaurant which was quite delicious, and then called it a day as we had a morning pick-up for our trip to Halong Bay.
In the morning, we got picked up, and soon we on our way
Trees overtake the temples
Sad really, as they are destroying the temples, but on the other hand, really interesting looking. out of town through the Vietnamese countryside to the coast where Halong Bay is located. Halong Bay is a picturesque area filled with towering limestone rock formations. The weather was not great, in fact its been hazy through most of asia, but the mist added to the allure (or at least that’s what we told ourselves). Halong Bay is now a UNESCO world heritage site, and so of course its packed with tourists, but it was still pretty amazing. There are over 3,000 of these limestone rock formations, so a lot to look at, kayak around and climb up. We also had some great food on our boat, lots of fresh seafood—prawns, squid, clams, fish, etc. Tim had rice. We stayed overnight, our boat had 5 cabins, and we were with a group from Australia, Canada, and another couple from Rockville! Too funny.
In the morning we got up, went into a cave in one of these formations and headed back to port, and then back to the city. We got back to the city in the late afternoon and headed back to the old quarter to get some souveniers and gifts. This evening we went to the Hanoi
Water Puppet Show. We weren’t sure what to expect and were very impressed. It’s hard to explain, but people behind a curtain moved puppets on stickes under the water and the puppets came out of the water. I’ll try to post a video, or at least a you tube clip. It was really neat.
That was the end of Vietnam, as we left the next morning for Hong Kong. On the way out of town, we saw what happens when the traffic doesn’t quite work as seamlessly as it looks. At one point in the road, traffic was merging and a truck kept trying to merge into a taxi, to the point that the truck scraped the taxi and dented its side in about 4 inches. We were able to get around the accident luckily, but felt bad as I’m sure the other taxi was carrying people to the airport!!
On a somber note, Vic found out from her mom that her cat back home, Veda, had passed away (hit by a car probably). Sad couple of days, but we had an Irish wake for her in Macau. We'll miss you you silly cat!!!
Anyways, Part II
to come soon... Hong Kong and Singapore (aka Asia's America!!)
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Jenn
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From the John-Chins
Thanks for keeping the updates coming - I'm enjoying reading about all your adventures and seeing the incredible pictures! Looks like you are getting to some amazing places. I'm sorry to hear that you didn't see Soth's twin in Cambodia - he would have been a good tour guide. How's the rice diet working out for you Tim?