Rompingground

Current Location: Savanakhet, Laos

My time here, in Laos, is shorter than I had anticipated due to circumstances out of my control, to some extent. My first impression of this place can simply be put as, relaxed. Crossing the border took something along the lines of 2 hours, something I’m used to taking less than an eighth of that time. Due mostly to the Laos side of the border things move a shade slower than Hawaii. This is something I’ve heard about from all the travelers who had been through already and had been looking forward too after the crazy that is Viet Nam.

My first few days here in Laos has really been nice.  Wandering through the streets you don’t even get touted at, instead you may get a friendly Sabadee (Hello) and a wave.  There isn’t much to see in this particular town, but it’s just nice to walk around and not be shouted at or bothered really.  I’ll head to Vientine and from there hop back into Thailand to collect Homer and run through Cambodia all over again.  Homer having recently quit his job has a few weeks off before starting the new job, is interested in seeing Angkor Wat and since I’ve already been there he enlisted my help.

I added the last of the Viet Nam pictures.

Flying through the Water

Current Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

I’m certainly glad I made it back down for the wedding I was invited to.  There was a fair amount of trepidation towards it seeing as I could have ended up sticking out quite badly and being awkward at the same time.  Fortunately for me I just end up sticking out but without the awkward part of it.  Fatimas mom and her sisters family ended up taking care of me more than I could have rightly asked anyone to have done and even went as far as to include me in the ceremony of the wedding.

Fortunately for me the only job was to carry some gifts from the grooms house to the brides house and give the gifts over.  After that I just stood and sat around looking goofy as people made speeches, brides cried and grooms looked happy.  This ceremony actually took place at 6a when the fortuneteller predicted would be the best time for the wedding to take place.  Luckily for me the drinking didn’t start until 7p that night along with a 7 course dinner. The title of the post is whats chanted before drinking, much like the American ‘cheers’ (there is another word before the ‘Hai’ but I never caught it.)

I got to meet one of my old friends from Regal yesterday and the day before which was pretty neat.  They were here on a cruise from Singapore and stopped here for a day.  Nice running into them, we shared some food and I got caught up on the goings on back home.

I’d like to share my theory on street food and why It’s the best thing to eat in Viet Nam.  First of all it’s the cheapest food around, the fact that they don’t pay rent is a huge bonus; you just have to get used to the fact that you’re eating on the sidewalk on chairs made for kindergarteners.  Second of all, and more importantly, everything is transparent in terms of how things are prepared.  Most people I think are blissfully unaware of kitchen conditions because they can’t see them whereas the food cooked on the sidewalk has nowhere to hide.  Third is the food itself is amazing, usually these people only make one or two dishes meaning they have perfected the food they are serving otherwise no one would visit their stall.  All of the reasons I’ve found have yet to let me down, usually a meal costs less than a dollar and may a little more than a dollar if you throw in a beer.  How can that be wrong???

I can ceartainly see now why many travellers have said one needs to experience Viet Nam to understand it.  And while I don’t claim to understand Viet Nam at all I at least have some ideas of the place.  Besides the food being incredible the people here are really nice, contrary to what I had thought might have happened to an American running around the country.

I’ll post some pictures in the next few days hopefully.

Current Location: Mui Ne, Viet Nam

I’m not so sure that Viet Nam can honestly call itself a communist country anymore.  I find it to be more of a totalitarian government that tries to control information more than anything else.  Doesn’t the fact that people are allowed to own property and businesses discount some of the fundamental basis for communism?  Control of information is evident to most travellers in the form that getting access to Facebook is difficult to impossible depending on what city you are in.  I also know you get into trouble for badmouthing the government so most people are careful what the say, but occasionally you run into someone who gives you an interesting slice of what they see.

Honestly didn’t care for Hanoi very much, the people seem unfriendly as compared to the rest of Viet Nam.  I did the musem thing and walked around the old quarter which does give it a ceartain amount of charm.   Any charm this place had was squashed by a taxi driver that threatened to ‘kill me’ if we didn’t pay 200,000dong after we had already come to a deal that was 50,000dong.  Fortunately for me this was just before I was catching the train south to Nah Trang.

Mui Ne is the kite surfing capital of Viet Nam if not all of SE Asia.  Other than that it’s a peculiar place with lots of Russians roaming around.  I’m not exactly sure how this came to be but most places advertise in English and Cryllic which is somewhat strange to see here.   After that it’s just a typical beach resort town, I can look outside and pretend it’s Kihei (if it wasn’t raining.) 

Had another dinner paid for by random Vietnamese people again last night.  I do enjoy the drinking culture here in Vietnam, the only problem is they drink incredibly fast.  I’ve learned the rules to drinking here and I’ll share them.  On the first drink it’s always bottoms up, every time you cheers ‘YO’ after that it’s half the glass.  And they tend to cheers quite often.  When you clink glasses where you clink matters, below the other guy if you’re younger or less important and even with the other guy if you are same age or about the same importance.  Suffice to say I was throughly pissed after 2 hours of drinking.

One last bus ride to Saigon in time for a wedding, should be really rad I hope.

Current Location: Hanoi, Viet Nam

I went to Hue for two simple reasons.  Fist is that it’s on the backpacker circuit so I figured there must be something there worth seeing.  More importantly Fatty’s mom said I should go see what is there.

In the end I’m really glad I went, more than the citadel the genuineness of the people there are what sold me in the end.  I met up with a couple other backpackers on the bus from Hoi An and we decided to split the cost of a room and hang out for a few days.  On our first night in the city we wandered outside of the backpacker area to look for some food.  We ended up finding a bbq meat stall that smelled amazing, they could sense our hesitation and offered us some meat to sample. After that we were sold, it was probably one of the best dinners to date in Viet Nam.  They were incredibly friendly and kept looking our way.  Luckily I learned to kinda say delicious in Vietnamese which I find comes in handy.

I’ve found that the best experiences come when I get out of the tourist area and into the real city.  I relate it to other people like a bunch of zoo animals escaping from their cage and the natives are mildly amused that the animals have wandered into their area.

On another occasion we wandered further away from the area to find a stall next to the river and sat down.  We were then invited by a bunch of guys to eat and drink with them.  After a minutes hesitation we decided we couldn’t refuse their offer and sat down with them.  We ate some delicious meat and drank heaps of beer with them all the while we had a stilted conversation about ourselves.  Lots of beer and laughing make up a great dinner here in Viet Nam.  They then paid the bill and left, leaving Jergen and I a little dumbfounded.

I kinda skipped through Hanoi on my way north to Sapa figuring I’d be back through on my way back south.  I met up with some guys I met down in Hoi An and we went to pay our respects to Uncle Ho.  Side note, why do communist leaders always put themselves on display after they are dead?  So far I’ve visited Ho Chih Minh and Mao Zedong, I only have to visit Lenin to get a full set of communist leaders on display.

I made it to Sapa only to be enveloped by the clouds for the entire day.  Quite a disappointment after seeing pictures of the area that are absolutely stunning.  The second day was a bit better but still half of the day was spent in the clouds.  Found some other backpackers heading into the hill tribe area on their own and wandered around with them.  The scenery is amazing to see, it must take tremendous amounts of effort to shape the hills into rice paddies and maintain those fields.  The costumes worn by the hill people are very colorful but I still couldn’t bring myself to take pictures of them, though I did see people unabashedly shooting to their hearts content.

We had a few conversations between us on what the area would look like in 10 years.  Construction of homestays is furious in the area and I wonder how focused they are on rice production any more, it seems they are far more interested in selling trinkets and clothes.

Now that I’ve made it all they way to the North of Viet Nam it’s time to go all the way back down to Saigon.  Fatty’s mom will be here in a few weeks time for a wedding which I’ve been invited to in Saigon.  Also coming is Ray and Sonya on a cruise a few days later so it’ll be nice to meet up with people I know.    I expect picture taking will slow down as I’ll have visited most of the areas already.

On that note I posted a few pictures from the last few days.

Cute

Current Location: Hue, Viet Nam

I must say that I didn’t set out to do a six day trip by motorcycle upon entering Da Lat but the one day tour around Da Lat was a lot better than I could have imagined and he gave me a price that was better than I had expected so I figure I’d spend mom and dads Christmas gift on something that would take me off the beaten track.  As I often bemoan the typical backpacker circuit this would be a surefire way to get off the path and see some things authentically Vietnamese.

We left Da Lat promptly at 8:30a and proceeded to hit the countryside stopping as we went along to see what people were up to.  It took me a while to get used to this as I feel like we were intruding but it genuinely seemed like people were happy to sit and talk for a while to the guide and stare at me for a while. I met tons of locals at parks and things who were keen to have their picture taken and share a little rice wine or fruits as I walked along.  Not much else is said besides “Hello, How are you?” by both sides but it’s still fun and they usually get a kick out of saying anything in English.

This experience was very similar to the one day ride I did through the countryside of Battenbong where kids would smile, wave, and shout hello as the bike zoomed by often with me waving back.  It’s quite charming to see them all smiling on the side of the road.  My favorite experiences were those that felt fairly organic, often he would stop the bike and I would walk a kilometer or so just to stretch out my legs and I would often run into people on the side of the road, we’d both motion to each other and ‘converse’ as much as we could… I left each of these encounters smiling.

It’s nice to take a break after 6 days of running around Viet Nam on the back of a motorcycle.

I spent a few days resting in Hoi An and really enjoyed the place.  It’s easy to see why it has UNESCO World Heritage status with all of the old buildings down by the waterfront.  They shut down traffic at night and it becomes walking streets and you can almost pretend that you are back in time at that point, you just have to ignore the hundreds of tailor shops that inhabit Hoi An.  Other than that they have some wonderful regional food there that was extremely cheap and you could always find people to chat with.  I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the back alleys that wind their way past houses and have the occasional well driven in the middle of the path.   Definitely a must if you make it to Vietnam.

Last thing I did before leaving Hoi An is to visit the Marble Mountains, a suggestion given to me before leaving New Zealand by Terry.  It was worth the trip as the area isn’t heavily tourist and it’s basically left out of the Lonely Planet. Huge caves and lots of sculptures in there make it a neat place to visit, that along with being able to climb to the top of the mountain for a great view was awesome.

I’ve posted the first set of Viet Nam pictures

Christmas Decorations, Vietnamese style

Current Location: Unknown, Viet Nam

A quick note to wish everyone a merry christmas, I’m not sure where I’ll be when this posts so I’ll leave it up to your imagination.

I’ll be in the middle of doing a 6 day motorcycle tour from Da Lat to Hoi An through the central highlands of Viet Nam.

Last thing, I posted the remainder of the Cambodia pictures.

Temple Guy

edit: So I thought I could be fancy and schedule when this would post, but that didn’t work as planned… oh well.

Current Location: Saigon, Viet Nam

I’ve been thinking a lot about Cambodia since I left there, it left quite an impression on me in a few different ways. I would say that the most compelling feeling is the sense of hopelessness for the poor there. Every facet of any form of government is influenced by corruption, a frequent topic by Martyn and I. Cambodia is probably one of the greatest examples I’ve ever seen of the have’s and have-not’s, we would often see huge Mercedes or BMW’s cruising around the streets and at the very same time we could see the rest of the people just trying to get by on their bicycles. Because the corruption is so pervasive we couldn’t see a way out of the struggle, I certainly left with a sense of despair for whats to happen to Cambodia.

The second thing I did a lot of reflecting on is the history of Cambodia, namely the figure of Pol Pot and his influence on the history of Cambodia. I’m ashamed to say I had only heard the name Pol Pot before getting to Cambodia, I honestly didn’t know what he was responsible for. On my last day in Phnom Penh I visited S21, the site where he had thousands of educated Cambodians tortured and killed. It was a place that held a lot of gravity and many stories were told that shed a light on what happened there less than 30 years ago. The records kept included pictures of a lot of the inmates killed there, one in particular showed a woman holding her baby with her head slightly tilted, it rocked me to my core. The expression on her face is very powerful, that combined with the rest of S21 made for a very heavy last day in Cambodia.

I then caught a ferry to Chau Doc, a small border crossing on the Mekong river. The crossing was fairly uneventful and Chau Doc turned out to be a nice little intro into Viet Nam. I spent my day and half there walking around just wandering. First thing I noticed is that the women in high school wear the outfits seen in ‘Good Morning Vietnam’ it’s amazing they keep the dresses pure white with all the dirt and grime around, along with the cycling they do. It’s stunning in effect with the white dresses and the black hair. Other than that I got stopped a few times by random people on the street to have conversations about this and that and one guy had me write down a few words and phrases in English.

I now find myself in Saigon for the last few days wandering around once again. It’s pretty unremarkable except for the sheer amount of mopeds running around. One statistic I’ve heard is that there are 4 million people in Saigon and there are 3 million mopeds running around on the streets. The only advice I was given by other travelers is to close your eyes and cross the street, praying as you go. I haven’t tried this tactic yet as the traffic hasn’t been that awful yet, I do think that Hanoi will get worse.

Running around to the different museums in town it’s quite easy to get depressed about being American. The museums are quite well done with lots of photographs and stories told. Otherwise there are more temples or pagodas to visit or just people watch. I’m moving on to Dalat tomorrow, hopefully for a little colder climate.

Pictures to post when I get a chance.

Current Location: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

After spending a few days in Battenbong trying to get a glimpse of rural Cambodia I find myself in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.  Rolling into town on a bus I was caught off guard at how different this place is from Siem Reap and Battenbong.  It could almost be mistaken for Bangkok or a moderately sized asian city.  This mistaken idea comes from the idea that all the other towns I passed through and visited don’t even come close to the modern feel this place has.  I find myself staying the backpacker district which makes life pretty simple, $4usd gets me my own room with a bathroom attached which is quite a luxury from the dorm I was staying in Bangkok.

Battenbong is the second largest city in Cambodia yet it doesn’t get touristy like the rest of Cambodia due to the fact that there is not a whole lot there to see.  I found myself renting a tuktuk for a day to just take me around the country side to see what is out there, probably the most common thing to do in Battenbong.  It was a neat day riding around, quite charming to have kids run to the road to wave and shout hello at the passing tourist.  That was certainly the highlight of the days ride along with seeing yet more temples and completely random things like fruit bats, absolutely massive, and a jars full of snakes.

It’s strange to say that I’m staying in the backpacker quarter of the city, just seeing it seems quite contrary to the idea of backpacking, it almost takes out all of the challenge.  Though I must say that the benefit of staying in a place like that is the ability to meet other backpackers quite easily since we are all grouped together.  It’s certainly one of the joys to be able to meet so many different people, it’s sort of like college again except without the homework.

I spent the last few days running around with the folks I met at the guesthouse, first to an orphanage that an Aussie girl was teaching at for the last month.  The kids are absolutely adorable and really appreciate being taught.  It was fun just chilling out playing with toys with the kids for an hour.  After that I tagged along with a Kiwi who is playing at being a photojournalist.  He was headed to the municipal dump to see if he could visit with a community that lives on the fringes there.  We all spent a few hours wandering around meeting the people.  Not much was said that either could understand but the kids laughed a lot and the parents smiled.  It’s a fairly voyeuristic concept to do something like that but I guess that comes with being a traveler.  Derek admonished me last year for not taking more photos of people and that’s a concept I’m still not fully comfortable with.  It’s the idea that treating these people as if they were part of a human zoo is quite demeaning to them.  I try anyway, treating them as people instead of the background is what I try to focus on.

I’ll not get self-righteous and say that what we have as Americans is shameful compared to what some of the Cambodians live in.  But I will say that it certainly gives you a new perspective with which to look at life and what is important to have.  The kids living in there are quick to smile and laugh with us, an infectious behavior for all those involved.  I can’t say I know how the parents feel about living there, it would be quite presumptuous of me to say that they would want to be elsewhere, for all I know they could be quite content.  For a people who have been downtrodden on as much as the Cambodians they are surprisingly good matured.  They probably have every right to hate the falang but they treat travelers quite well.

I can see why some travelers have a hard time leaving Cambodia, it’s got a lot of charms without the chaos of Thailand and from what I hear Viet Nam can also be a challenge.  I delayed in getting my visa for Viet Nam by a few days and that has almost set me back a week due to a holiday and the weekend sneaking up on me, but I honestly can’t complain.  Phnom Penh is a nice place to get stuck.

Added a couple of pictures of Angkor Wat.

Long Hall

Current Location: Siem Reap, Cambodia

Crossing the border into Cambodia for the second time wasn’t any easier than the first, probably due to the fact that this time I was part of a group and got wrangled into paying an extra fee for getting my visa done with them instead of handling it on my own as I did the first time. Other than that little hiccup it was an uneventful ride through to Siam Reap, although I did see a couple of cycling tourists on the Thailand side which made me miss the cycle again.

Walking around town the first night to get my bearing I was astonished to find the downtown area so flash. I’m staying at the Happy Guesthouse in the backpacker district and it’s still on a dirt road, the guesthouse itself is very nice, 3 story hotel-ish building, while the downtown area could be mistaken for anywhere USA with all the trendy bars and restaurants all packed to the gills with falang tourists. It certainly feels like a tale of two cities because once you leave this district things immediately become evident that this sort of opulence doesn’t belong here.

I knew coming into Cambodia that the economy runs on the greenback but it’s still strange to go to an atm and pull out a wad of Jacksons. Officially the currency is the Rhiel, conversion 1usd = 4000rhiel, which instantly makes me a millionaire! Technically the currency might be the Rheil everything is quoted in USD. Foolish me I was swayed at the border to change what Baht I had left into Rheil after being called unpatriotic, I must learn to trust my instincts. Now I have 300,000 Rhiel to spend somehow.

I spent the entire day yesterday in the Angkor Wat area. I rented a cycle, a very ill-suited one I might add, for $1 and hit the road at 7am. Angkor Wat is as grand as I could have imagined and then some, and it’s not hard to see why it’s considered a wonder of the world. I’m not entirely sure people should have the kind of access they have to the area as lots of people touch the sandstone carvings, the sandstone can’t stand up to being groped all the time.

It did have the level of authenticity I was looking for in the Thailand temples, everything looks and feels untouched for the last 1000 years. I could take 1,000 pictures and still not capture 1% of the grandeur of the area. The level of detail is constantly astounding.

I think I managed to fit in 7 temples yesterday in the 10 hours I was wandering around the area, didn’t even bother stopping for lunch of a bathroom break (it’s so hot I drank 6 litres of water), cycling from temple to temple. I’ll not suffer you but maybe 20 pictures out of the hundreds I took yesterday. It’s something that needs to be experienced, pictures do it little justice.

For the amount of tourists in the area it was still possible to find quiet moments rest at some of the lesser travelled temples. Notably I got a 30 minute siesta at the top of Ta Keo, 50meter vertical climb that many people weren’t keen on doing, listening to the insects thrum and wondering how long it took to construct these temples.

The last temple to visit I heard was at the top of a hill that overlooks Angkor Wat, Angkor Wat is a particular temple, not the area, to catch the sunset. I got there a little bit early and there was already a massive amount of people. After a while I decided it wasn’t worth the chaos of crowds there and decided to hike it back and head into town where I’d treat myself to a pizza and beer after a long day. On the way down I met several more bus loads of people, good luck to them… I hope they got to see something after the long hike and vertical climb up to the top of the tower.

It was a fun day especially since I got to ride again, though it made me miss my saddle and I know now why I spent as much as I did on a Brooks. Lots of climbing vertical steps and walking, fending off touts.

Great day.