Empty airports...and other quirks of travel

This has got to be one of the strangest travel experiences we have ever had. Arrived at the brand new, modern Can Tho airport at 11:30 for a 1:00 pm flight to the resort island of Phu Quok. Gorgeous building just opened. Looks a lot like Ottawa airport. Turns out our flight was delayed until 2:30. 

The airport is completely and absolutely empty. Only about 5 employees and NOONE else except us. It's so empty there's an echo when you talk. Even the clicks my phone is making while typing this are echoing. Creepy. 

Only one place to sit waiting to check in is a coffee shop by the front doors. Oh...and because no one is here there is no air conditioning on. We are stifling. 

Only 2 hours to go. ..... Breaking news....8 more people have arrived......more breaking news.....just checked in and sitting in the departure lounge.  It's air conditioned!!!!

Can't believe this is the last week of our trip. It has been absolutely amazing. 4 days of relaxing at the ocean, then hong kong for 3 days and home next Sunday. Incredible memories

Apocalypse Now

There is a bar in HCMC called Apocalypse Now that is described as a throwback to the good old days of sin city Saigon. It comes with a warning that sobriety is not recommended. Then there is a river called the Mekong that is called the River of Nine Dragons here. On that river today early in the morning on a small wooden boat powered by a 5hp motor connected to a 10 foot long shaft with a propeller on it there were times as we wound through narrow channels with overhanging palms and ferns almost hugging the boat that you feel like you're in the movie Apocalypse Now. 

We rolled into Can Tho yesterday afternoon after making the four hour drive by private car from HCMC. Getting out of the congestion and density of HCMC took a while but soon we were in the Mekong Delta. Lush and green and watery, the Delta is the rice belt of the country. The rice was tall and green still, ripening but not yet that golden yellow color which signifies it is ready to be harvested. It was like an ocean of rice and when the wind moved through it looked like waves. An interesting tidbit I picked up from some book I read was that in 1975 Uncle Ho ordered all the farmers in the Delta to work for collectives rather than for themselves. The result was rice production went down and people went hungry in the cities. A few years later he ordered the collectives to be dismantled and let the farmers go back to their old ways. Rice production went up and supply become plentiful again. 

Can Tho is an interesting town of 1.1 million. It seems small compared to HCMC. Life takes place along the river. The river traffic is incessant with boats of every size and shape ferrying people, moving goods, hauling freight, barges laden with heavy machinery, acting as construction platforms, floating gas stations with convenience stores and of course tourist boats. It's like a page from a Richard Scarry book. 

We hired a small two person wooden boat with a green and white stripped bimini to take us for a four hour tour to the floating markets, a noodle factory and up some back alleys. We started out at 6am. The river was teeming with activity. Our driver, a lovely woman who spoke no English but had no trouble communicating with us, steered with one foot while weaving flowers, animals and jewelery out of grass for us. Every ten minutes or so she'd hand us something new. We ended up with quite a collection, which we gave to the kids at the wharf along with the breakfasts the hotel made for us earlier to take with us on the boat. They were quite excited to be having croissants and baguettes for breakfast.

We didn't eat the breakfasts we were made because we had soup at the noodle factory. We are going native and getting used to having Pho for breakfast. There's something to having that savory, spicy taste in the morning and from a waistline standpoint it's better than having buttery croissants and bread every morning. Although I do love a good almond croissant now and then. 

Can Tho

I

Our hotel in Can Tho, Vietnam. Second floor corner balcony overlooking Mekong river. 

Having a drink at the hotel bar/restaurant overlooking the Mekong river. That's a ginormous statue of Ho Chi Minh on the riverfront 

War

Some of the weapons used by the US on display at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh city

The Problem Is Expectations

I came expecting Ho Chi Minh City to bare some resemblance to the Saigon of Graham Green and to at least have retained some of its colonial past and charm. I wanted to sit in the cafe across from the Continental Hotel and try to imagine what it must have been like when the French were running the place. The Continental is still there but the cafe is gone. 

Unlike Hanoi, the part of HCMC we were in has all but rid itself of much of its old Vietnamese street life. The market is still here and there still is street food but it's transformed itself. it's been brought inside of old villas where the cooking is still done in open kitchens but the ambiance is gentrified and has an upscale feel to it. Vietnamese women in designer jeans and glasses sipping bubble tea and munching on rice paper rolls that cost twice the price they would in Hanoi. HCMC is the what the future for Vietnam looks like. 

We encountered our first scam of the trip. We were at the morning market and wanted to get a cup of ca phe. A couple of Tuk drivers each pedaling a single seat Tuk, offered to take us to a coffee shop we like nearby. After seemingly negotiating the price we hopped in and were pedaled away. When we got to the coffee shop the driver pulled out a piece of paper and said we owed them the equivalent of $75 for a three block ride. I gave him $3 bucks in Dong and walked away. He didn't put up much of a protest or come after us. Several other Tuk drivers tried to engage with us that day but we were onto their scam and just laughed at them.

Since arriving in SE Asia we have been confronting our perception and understanding of the War In Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia - the second Indochina War or the American War - as it is referred to here. The first was with the French. Hanoi gave us our first insight into the Vietnamese view of it. In Laos we were confronted by the unbelievable amount of unexploded ordinance and landmines still killing people today. The same in Cambodia where we crossed paths with a real minefield being cleared not far from where we were going. So in going to the War Remnants Museum in HCMC we expected to see lots of captured weapons and read lots of propaganda. And we did. But what we also saw was the effects of Agent Orange on the country and the population exposed to it. It brought the horror of chemical weapons home like a kick to the groin. It's painful and brings tears to your eyes. 

The other exhibit there that was extremely moving was an exhibition of photos by photojournalists who covered the war. This included both north and south journalists. It was an amazing collection. Sadly, the majority of these brave men and women were killed or are still missing and presumed dead. Their photos are brilliant and bring the war to life. Their stories are told in the exhibit. I was very moved. 

We ate French the first night and Italian the second night in HCMC. Expectations before the trip was that I was going to pig out on Vietnamese food. Reality is that after a while you crave food you really like and can order without always trying to guess what you ordered. Besides who doesn't like a good salmon tartar or a burrata with tomato dish. For me these are comfort foods and it was nice to be able to get them here. Benita had salmon and caesar salad in case you were wondering. 

Do it while you can

I often use the line "do it while you can" to support my reasons for traveling to exotic places where a fair amount of physical exertion is necessary to make the visit worthwhile. Angkor Wat meets that prerequisite. Add to this the fact that the current number of visitors per day is currently unlimited and reaching dangerous volumes. Dangerous to the Temples that is. So much so that UNESCO and the organization that manages the entire Angkor Area will be instituting quotas on daily visits in the near future. That will make it more difficult to come here. So double the reason to do it while you can. 

The Angkor Wat Temple complex exceeded all my expectations. I was expecting to be blown away but it was better than that. I was fucking blown away. The combination of what was created by man from 850 - 1200 combined with the effects of being left to the jungle forces from 1200 - 1880 are so amazing that you have to see it with your own eyes to believe it.  The architecture, the grandeur, the scope, the construction, the beauty of the sites, the magnificence of the details, the legends inscribed in the stone, the destruction by man and the forces of nature. I can only imagine what it must have been like when it was first found in the late 1800's. 

What pisses me off is that until the early 70's the Angkor complex was pretty much as it was found in the 1880 s. Some restoration work had been done by the French while they were here until the mid 50's so it was more accessible. That would have been the time to come here. But it all changed when Nixon decided to carpet bomb Cambodia and when the Khmer Rouge decided to use the Temples as forts for their rebel armies. B52 payloads are not kind to 50 meter high towers made out of sandstone. So many temples were damaged or destroyed during the years 1970-1990 which corresponds to the period of the Cambodian Civil War. Land mines laid by the Khmer Rouge remain to this day. We saw a land mine removal team at work on our way to one of the Temples this morning. 

The Temples were built by Kings. The labour was voluntary. People came to build them out of devotion.    The early Temples were devoted to Hinduism. A later King converted to Buddhism and the symbols in the Temple carvings changed accordingly. Then came a king that went back to Hinduism and had all the Buddah's removed from the earlier Temples. Kind of like cutting you first wife out of the wedding pictures so you could still look at them without getting aggravated. Same thing at the Temples, where there used to be Buddah's there was nothing or they replaced it with a poorly carved Vishnu or Rama. If the walls could talk. 

We worked hard seeing all the Temples we went to. It was hiking boots and socks, lots of sunscreen and mosquito repellant, we were in the jungle. It was alternately dripping hot or raining which provided a cooling effect before and after. We drank gallons of water. Sweated out the same. We climbed a million extremely steep steps - coming down was harder, walked many kilometers, went into pitch dark galleries, crossed rickety catwalks, hiked up to a waterfall to see the carvings on the riverbed, and we only saw 25% of the complex. But we saw the best ones. The ones that blow you away. 

I was trying to think of somewhere else that I've been that compares to Angkor. Rome comes to mind as does Athens but I'm going to say that Angkor surpasses them both. Even if they were combined Angkor still surpasses them. 

The town of Siem Reap is where you live when you come to visit Angkor. It's six km from the complex. A bustling Cambodia city by day it's at night when the neon signs come on over the central area that the city turns into sort of Cambodian version of New Orleans (this analogy was a Benita observation). Tuk drivers are constantly asking if you need a ride, hawkers are constantly calling out "Madame you buy scarf", people are walking around with beers in hand, others are sitting with their feet in fish tanks ($2 for 20 minutes and you get a free beer) having little fish giving them pedicures while they indulge in a free beer. Restaurants compete for tourist business with drink offers, free wifi, trip advisor rating posters, comfy bed or bench seating. Not so much on food quality. My favorite place is the gelato shop we found called Blue Pumpkin where you order your gelato and find a place on the all white beds in the cool lounge and relax with your shoes off sitting in bed eating your gelato. 

The food scene here is all over the map. Italian, French, Japanese, international fusion is all available but the greatest concentration is Khmer food. I would describe it like Thai food but with less flavour. I found  that If I ask for it spicy it tastes better. The best Khmer food we ate wasn't in the city at tourist restaurants but in the country at places where local eat. Also at roadside stands where they sell a snack made from rice, coconut milk, lime juice, sugar and peanuts that comes in a 12 inch bamboo tube that has been lying by the side of an open fire for several hours so that it is burnt on the outside. Inside the rice has been perfectly cooked into a sticky concoction you eat by peeling back the bamboo like a banana and biting off the rice tube that is revealed. It's delicious. Costs 50 cents.

It's Tuesday morning at 7 o'clock and the day begins. After our masagges last night and the worst Khmer food so far we are lying in bed having decided to take the day off from Temple tramping. Instead we are going to go sit in a fish tank and have our feet nibbled while drinking cheap beer watching the tourists go by. Tomorrow we head to Ho Chi Minh City. 

Bathroom rules

Posted in the bathroom stall - no smoking, no squatting on the seat (!), no taking a shower in the toilet (yuck!!!!), no ???

Siem Reap, Camodia

Umbrellas are probably the most important things to carry here - more for the sun than for the rain....although in Siem Reap you can use them for both within 10 minutes of each other..

The temples are amazing ruins - 100s of them, some enormous, like castles, and others much smaller..  Mostly built in the 11th century by kings, they are adorned with intricate carvings of Buddhas, demons, gods, goddesses, lions, elephants and  demon monkeys that look exactly like the evil monkeys from The Wizard of Oz.  The walls of some depict long, almost rambling, portrayals of daily life. I did my best Angelina Jolie impersonation at the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed. No one asked for my autograph. 

The temples, especially the larger ones, are packed with tourists, and this is not even high season.. The Japanese tourist groups are especially fun to watch. They travel in large groups, are very loud and love to pose for the camera. They will stop anywhere, anytime to pose for a photo op. It's almost as is they want the photo more than then seeing the site.

The roots of the tree are growing in and on the temple walls

Watching the sunrise at Angkor Wat, the largest and most famous temple, is especially popular so of course we had to see it.  Up at 4:30, and packing a breakfast from the hotel as well as our flashlights, we arrived to discover we were not the only crazy ones, for sure. Unbelievable how many people were there.  Like lemmings to the sea, hundreds of flashlight-toting people filed down the long pathway leading to the temple entrance and jostled for position on the shores of the moat in front of the temple.  

The sun comes up behind the temple in shades of pink and blue, and then reflects the temple on the water.  Spectacular for sure...

Like Sapa, people are always trying to sell you something.  Also, like Sapa they follow you, walk with you, constantly pushing you to buy.  And the more you ignore them or say no, the lower the prices get. 

The little kids are especially aggressive. They sell $1 trinkets, usually postcards - 10 for $1.  They all do and say the same thing.  "you buy postcards from me," they say with extolling eyes while flashing the cards at you. "look.  All photos of Cambodia. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10." One little girl counted to ten in 5 languages, rambling off 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10 in German, Spanish, English, Italian and Spanish in lightening speed. They are all so cute and so deserving.  It's just not possible to buy from all of them. And you can tell how well they are trained to beg. Today, we parked the car beside 2 little boys who were just hanging out, not selling anything. The minute they saw me get out of the car, they said, "$1.00".   Talk about cause and effect - see tourist...ask for money 

Another sight that is sadly too common is land mine victim buskers. They sit on mats playing traditional music in the busy tourist spots. A sign in front of them tells who they are and explains that they are asking for money because they have no other source of income.. Sadly, we learned that the government does not take care of them.

Even more of a reality check is today, when we were driving to a temple on the outskirts of town, we passed a land mine clearing crew on the side of the road, not 10 feet from the highway or a local's home. When you get to the temple, a big sign announces that the area has been cleared of land mines..  Phew!! On the way back, our driver pointed to another road that is a short cut but said that it's not safe to use..still land mines there. 

Look closely.  The red sign says ''danger landmines'

Ok..time for some self-indulgence. I decided to have a massage at the hotel. I probably overpaid - $14 for a one hour full body massage, no oil, meaning fully clothed. The night markets only charge $5....but I'm worth it! Thus woman was unbelievable. She used every part of her body to massage, stretch and manipulate my body. Lying on a double-round couch poolside, the breeze blowing, I could feel her climbing over and around me, sitting on me, pulling, stretching and managing me, turning me, kneeding me.  There was not a part of my body, including my fingers, toes and the bottom of my feet, that she did not work her magic on.  Did I overpay? I would have paid her. 

I grabbed steven to her table. He's there now. I have anther appointment booked for tomorrow. 

benita

Tuk-Tuk ride

Imagine! This is common and necessary when on an open-air vehicle. Only difference is that ours are surgical instead of fancy fabric!

In Khmer Country

I'm having difficulty describing Phnom Penh. My first reaction after landing and being driven from the airport to the hotel, the former US Ambasador's residence in PP, is that it is overcrowded and dirty. The streets are like one bazaar after another. Roads are partially paved, dust hangs in the air. Trucks, cars, motor scooters, tuks, bicycles, even a man In a wheelchair clogged ever artery into the city centre. We spent what seemed like eternity at grid locked major intersections. Motor scooters with three sometimes four people on them, weaved their way around us filling in every inch of space, making it impossible to move. Even from the inside of the air conditioned car it felt claustrophobic.

We checked in and headed back out, this time walking, umbrellas in hand. It was hot, sticky and an afternoon thunder storm was brewing. Tuk Tuk drivers, so many of them, always asking if we wanted a ride. High walls enclose the houses on the street. You can see only the second and third stories. Small shops along the street selling handmade women clothing, you can see them sewing in the back room. Small restaurants with Khmer food Thai food French food and an American bar called Freebird line the street we walk down towards the Royal palace and the riverfront. Here the roads are all paved, sidewalks are wide but packed with parked scooters. Old growth trees two and three feet in circumference grow in the middle of sidewalks. A woman cooking soup in a pot in a cardboard box squats on a corner in front of a government building near the Palace.

Cambodia is still a monarchy with an elected government. Recent elections have left the two sides deeply divided with accusations of voter irregularities and the vote was close enough to draw street protests. Luckily we saw no signs of the unrest. People seem poorer here than in Vietnam or Laos for some reason. The US dollar is the street currency. Everything is priced in dollars. An indication that the local currency - the Riel - is probably not stable. At the ANZ Bank ATM I am not offered Riel only US dollars from the ATM unlike in Vietnam or Laos where only the local currency is dispensed. 

We accomplished one of two objectives the first afternoon here. We saw the national museum with its unique collection of Khmer antiquities. Excellent prep for Angkor Wat. Although we tried to see the Royal Palace and the Silver pagoda housing the jade budda and the solid silver floor we were turned away because Benita's sleeves were not covering her arms far enough. Even her shawl was unacceptable. We will come back tomorrow with longer sleeves. We stop in at the Foreign Correspondants Club, a bar and restaurant on the riverfront made famous by the movie the Killing Fields. It was where the media hung out while covering the events leading up to April, 17, 1975. Al Rockoff (played by John Malkovitch in the movie) photographs cover the walls. Now it's a tourist trap. 

In the morning we hire a Tuk to go to S21 the high school in PP that was converted into a prison and torture facility by the Khmer Rouge. Our guide was a young woman who's mother was likely raped and tortured by the KR. When we ask about her family she never mentions having a father. Photos taken by the Vietnamese army when they liberated the city in 79 and paintings made by a survivor depict the horrific events which took place inside the walls. 

After seeing S21 our Tuk drives us 7.5 excruciating km to visit the Killing Fields, now a historical site. Excruciating because of the heat, the dust, the smells and the slow slow pace. Our driver stops to get us surgical masks to protect us from the dust. It doesn't stop the smells. We reach the Genocide memorial that was the Killing Fields. 

It's a rural area, not far from the main road that was once a Chinese cemetery. An excellent audio tour is provided. I won't go into the details of what we heard or saw. Suffice it to say this is a place where horrible horrible things were done. The evidence is everywhere of the inhumanity of the Khmer Rouge. Interestingly, other than the leadership of the KR, like the commander of S21 who was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison (no death penalty in Cambodia) and the trio still on trial, most surviving KM, and there are many, are living in the country, forgiven for the most part. 

Pol Pot, the leader of the KM was never arrested, lived until he was in his 80's he died of heart failure or poison. Most of the KR soldiers were young girls or boys recruited from poor rural areas and promised food and money if they followed orders. They also knew they would be killed if they didn't. This all happened from 75-79. Three million killed. I was aware but unaware at the same time when it happened. The war in Vietnam was winding down, I was in university, sex drugs and rock and roll were top of mind. Didn't think much about genocide in Cambodia then, when it happened. 

Back in PP Benita's sleeves passed muster and we visited the silver pagoda, saw the diamond encrusted Buddah's, the jade Buddha and the silver floor. My mind was elsewhere though. 

In the plane to Siem Reap right now. Angkor Wat on the horizon. 

Vientiane, Laos

Vientiane is not a very pretty city. There's really nothing charming or picturesque about it except for several gignatic and remarkedly ornate temples. An arch modeled after the Arc de Triumph was never fully completed and a sign on the wall there says "From a closer distance it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete."

There is an enormous night market along the Mekong waterfront, but unlike the night market in Luang Prabang which is all crafts, this is all retail and knock off luggage and handbags. It is very cool however, that just across the river, like looking across at Hulll from Ottawa, is Thailand. That close..

For some reason, the hotel upgraded us to a suite. It could be an apartment.  French provincial furniture, hard food floors, marble bathroom....so big there's an echo! We feel like royalty. 

Living room in the palatial suite. 

Living room and bathroom.

Today we went to the COPE centre, an organization that makes prosthetics for land mine victims.  We learned some very sobering things. Laos was never officially in the Vietnam War but the munitIons route used by the north Vietnamese (Ho Chi Minh Trail) ran through here and the US bombed the shit out of it - 260 million cluster bombs dropped over Laos between 1964 and 1973. 80 million of them failed to explode and continue to threaten farmers and their families who have no idea where they might be. 

Curiously, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird visited the centre just a few hours before us. I sure hope Canada will be contributing to the work of this group and to the organizations that are going into the countryside to find and detonate the land mines.

The red areas show where bombs were dropped and still remain. 

Executive chef Steven

Our hotel offers the opportunity to cook a meal with the chef, so Steven jumped at the chance.. I tagged along as the official photographer and food tester.

 At 7:00 a.m. we strolled down the street to the morning market. Wow! It was packed with locals buying their fresh food for the day. Block after block of vendors selling produce, fresh fish, meat, poultry, spices, rice, noodles, lots of things I didn't recognize and other things like live crickets, live frogs, bees, snakes and other slimy things that I didn't even want to look at, let alone think about eating..

Steven and the chef check out the noodle selection

A section of the market

I hung back taking photos as Steven and the chef made their selections and the chef explained to Steven what things were and what you do with them. Among the things Steven bought for our dinner was bees - yes bees- dead ones pulled from the honey combs before they morph into full grown bees that buzz around and sting you.  these were white and look like slugs. You steam these before eating them, as opposed to deep frying the bigger ones (in case you were wondering)!

A selection of spices and water buffalo skin...yummmm

Live crabs wrapped in bamboo and packed in a basket ready to carry home

Fresh fish anyone?!?

The white slimy things are bees, plucked out of the combs.

Live crickets for eating. 

Pink eggs.  Apparently inside the yoke is black.

Grubs (from inside bamboo trees), snakes and frogs.

See you at dinner..

At 6:00 p.m. Chef Steve donned his apron and funny hat and began to cook. With the chef guiding him, me filming and the staff looking on, he made pad Thai, red chicken curry, Laotion salad and Asian noodle soup (pho).  

Nice hat!

Chef and chef

Every once in a while, they would stop, take a sip of wine and pop a steamed bee into their mouth. The chef said the bees give you stamina.  Yuck! I'm sure the faces I made were priceless.  I know the look on Steven's face was. He loved the novelty and outrageousness of it! He said they gave him a buzz!!!! Groan....

About to pop a bee in his mouth

It was obvious that Steven was having a great time and so was everyone else.  Once the meal was complete, the bartender showed Steven how to make a mojhito...except here Steven has lots of experience! He kept telling the bartender that it needed more rum..more rum!

Then we sat down to eat.. It was delicious! Be sure that we will be eating lots of Asian food when we get home...but no bees!

Thank you Steven!

Steven has done an absolute,y amazing job organizing and planning this trip.  For months, he was hunched over his computer reading, comparing, thinking, combing through travel forums...deciding where we should go, where we should stay,how long we should stay, arranging flights.  I would wake up in the middle of the night and see the glow from his computer screen. I would go back to sleep.  He would keep on reading..

Me....I did very little in the planning except for the occasional opinion when asked if I liked this or that.  So here we are experiencing the results of all his efforts......and everything has been fabulous, fascinating and flawless..(except for a minor glitch on our arrival in Hanoi). Drivers always there to meet is at the airport or train stations; accommodations that were thoughtfully chosen so as to not look like cookie-cutter hotel rooms that could be anywhere, are just that - rooms that reflect the local character; and the places we have visited so far, as well as the length of time we spent in each place, have been a great introduction to this stunning, war-torn, poor, welcoming and exotic part do the world. 

Our stateroom on 12 cabin boat on Halong Bay

Halong Bay. Stunning. 

More Halong Bay. 

Royal palace temple

Snakes fermenting in water - people drink this!

A typical lunch - spring rolls and beer!