Cambodia/South Vietnam: The Impetuous Journey to Angkor

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Have to apologize for my ridiculously lackadaisical behavior over the last 4 months.

I have about 4-5 blog posts that will be up shortly.

Got into Ho Chi Minh and headed towards my hostel. The man at reception invited me outside for beer, cigarettes, and food upon arrival. Strangely nice compared to most of my other experiences in Vietnam, and the language barrier seemed to not be a problem for him, so it wasn’t a problem for me. I met two brothers from Holland who had been corralled by my fellow gentleman and struck up pretty good conversation. Their father is Indonesian and they were in absolutely infatuated with Vietnam. One of them was pretty funny, outgoing, and very worldly. The other was just quiet and polite. We went out for some food and then ended by drinking some bia hoi (freshly made beer) out on the street at a pretty busy intersection.

The talker was an army weapons maintainer/dealer for Holland. Surprisingly liberal and open minded for military. Talked about Japan’s lack of strong army presence, the world cup, how we’ve destroyed our earth and can’t save it, wind turbines, hydroelectric, space exploration, and Amsterdam drug policy.

Got up the next today to run around Ho Chi Minh, exploring some street markets first. The food I had there was impeccable, but perhaps the most unsanitary meal I may ever have in my life. If I get worms, I know where it was from. The first ingredient was of course grease, then some kind of dirt mixed with oil, maybe burnt rat guts, I really couldn’t tell, and then there was the addition of broken up spring rolls, nuts, cilantro, lime, basil, sweet thick pork strips, fresh greens and rice noodles. I finished it off with some ice cold flan and iced Vietnamese coffee. For your information, Vietnamese coffee is extremely strong, viscous, and super saturated with sugar. You can almost feel the coffee grounds fuse with your teeth. The meal had deliciousness tantamount to a 5 star meal, with a -2 star hygienic rating.

I had such an odd feeling of compunction following the meal for the next two hours.

I then headed downtown and found what people refer to as the backpacker haven of Saigon. Intermingling architechture from the French and Chinese surrounded rivers of mopeds and seas of patio tourist restaurants.

I’m pretty sure it’s a Vietnamese human right (if they have any…) to own a moped. The average Vietnamese citizen’s life can be mapped out by the position they’re riding on the moped. In the lap of any living thing with hair… that’s infancy. In front of the driver standing while using rear view mirrors as handle bars… that’s childhood, adolescence. In the back - teenage/young adult, driving - adult, boss of the family, and last but certainly not least, your cane thwacking the muffler to avoid the “Saigon kiss” – old age.

Ho Chi Minh city seemed sort of bland after walking around a whole day.

I got up the next day pretty early to bus out to Chau Doc. Chau Doc is a major departure city on the Mekong Delta near the border of Cambodia. My plan was to take the express boat to Phnom Penh, the following day.

Woke up and rode the express boat from Chau Doc to Phnom Penh. The scenes started with mostly floating villages coalesced with spotty motor boats, then middle-africa-seeming tropic countryside, finishing with Phnom Penh’s developed shoreline. The border crossing was such a fucking joke. Driver takes all our passports, scuffles us through and then scurries us back on the boat.

I met a Kiwi and talked about China and Japan for a little while. Pretty much every time I mentioned to a traveler that I was teaching in China, I had a pretty extensive conversation with them. I would’ve been ready to go back after visiting Taiwan.

Got into Phnom Penh and had the most amazing lunch. Curried spicy beef, green curry chicken soup and some rice.

Explored while absorbing a diverse and interesting architectural integrity of the city. French and Thai influence mostly, with Cambodian flair to an untrained eye. Stopped by a barber for a clean shave and received a face massage??? Yeah, I guess that’s what I would call it. Made my way to the royal palace but they had really odd hours of the day that they were open. So I took some pictures of the outside structures, which were still pretty cool.

By sunset, I cruised along the Tonle Sap River and people watched. An Aussie approached me asking for financial help, looking delusional and having some loopholes in his story. It appeared like he was scamming tourists. He said he had lost his bag last night, which had his money in it and then later claimed that he hadn’t eaten for three days. I offered him some bread that I had been carrying around for the past few days and he refused it…

Little did I know there are more clever ways to con people into buying them food, but I’ll get to that next post…

The next morning I took the Siem Reap express boat. Undeniably incredible. Tonle Sap River, then through the Tonle Sap lake, then to a small branch off river the color of a milk addict’s coffee. They allowed the passengers to climb onto the roof of the boat (which was a pretty sketchy thing to allow). We passed by Cambodian jungles, countryside, farmlands, plains, floating villages and the near finish was on the largest lake in SE Asia. For about an hour of the ride, during the portion of the Tonle Sap Lake, you couldn’t see any land.

When we docked, I hired a tuk-tuk driver for the next four days for $45 total. He agreed to take me anywhere in the Siem Reap/Angkor Area whenever I wanted during that time. A tuk-tuk is a motorcycle attached to a trailer with seats, essentially.

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