The Word

 You know digital cameras are a great invention and I love them. They do present a problem when you return from holiday though. You take so many pictures that you have to sift through them all to find the good ones and the ones you want to keep. I suppose I could be more judicious about when to take a picture in the first place as I did in the days of film but that’s unlikely to happen.  So here I sit trying to figure out the best pictures to tell the rest of the story.

We arrived in Siem Reap Cambodia in the afternoon of Feb 10. It was warm in Hoi An and Da Nang but it was nothing compared to Cambodia. While not that much further south in latitude the temperature and humidity were quite a bit higher. Our stay in Siem Reap was very enjoyable and very sweaty. A word of advice, try to relax in A/C between 11 am and 3 pm. These are the hottest hours of the day and the locals seem to spend it sleeping. Except for the ones trying to sell us trinkets and books. We didn’t do this, but we were short on time and there was a lot to see.

Tourism has exploded here like in Vietnam, largely due to a somewhat stable government, although corruption is a big problem. As a result there are many new and nice hotels that have been built in the last few years. The town looks a lot different than 10 years ago according to my parents. The town itself is not particularly speacial but it is 6 km south of the Angkor park area and it is thus the jumping off point to Angkor Wat and the other temples.

If you don’t know much about Angkor Wat it is important to point out that the temple at Ankor Wat is not the only thing here. There are many other temples around the area that are very impressive. Angkor Wat happens to be the biggest of the bunch. It is also the temple the appears in the middle of the Cambodian Flag.  These temples, while close, are not really within walking distance if you want to see many of them. Wheels are required, and hiring a car, a tuck-tuck, motorbike or bicycle is recommended.

We hired a car and English speaking guide for our first day there and it really makes the visit to the temples good. Without a guide or guidebook, the temples might appear as simply a bunch of rocks.

Guides are available for 11 different languages and they all are certified by the government. Our guide did an excellent job of explaining the history of the sites we were seeing, their importance and most importantly explained the many carvings found all over the temples. I’m not going to recite the history here as there are big long books on the subject. Kids sell you copies of these (not publisher copies but copy copies) at every temple . You have to negotiate though as their starting price is the suggested retail price. OK if it was the real deal but I negotiated a book easily down form $30 to $10.

In brief, the area grew in prominence from 800 – 1400 A.D. After this point the King of the time moved the capital to Phenom Penh. Speculation is this had something to do with war with groups in what is now Thailand. Anyway after this time period it seemed to decline and disappear. For much of the time it was powerful the state religion was Hinduism. A breif interval of Buddhism occured when a large number of temples were constructed but the coutrny returned to Hinduism for a stretch and then back to Buddhism which is the dominant regilion to this day. The switching back and forth resulted in most of the Buddhist images being removed from the temples constructed in the relatively short period of Buddhism between two periods of Hinduism. You can see the areas at the temples where the images have been chiselled off. Interestingly the final return to Buddhism didn’t seem to affect the Hindu images.

We saw Angkor Thom as our first site of the day and it is quite famous for all the faces that are carved into it. It is quite beautiful and the history interesting. It is hard to pick one picture that well represents beauty of Angkor Thom  but here are a couple choice pictures.

We of visited Angkor Wat which was intended not as a temple per se but a mausolium for the King Suryavarman II.

We spent a few hours there looking at all the bas-relief on the walls that surround the main temple and learning the Hindu stories that they depict. The carvings took decades to do and did get interupted when buddhism took over as the state religion for a while.

They were eventually finished by a buddhist King who ensured that they remained Hindu stories but the earlier carvings when the temple was first being constructed are the best. I particularly enjoyed the wall depicting heaven and hell. The artists quite graphically illustrate the various punishments received in Hindu’s many levels of Hell.

The stories on the walls were, of course, to educate the illiterate public about their faith and like the Chistrian bible use stories to describe the correct ways to behave. Like fairy tales in from the west they have a moral to them. The stories are really intersting and you don’t need to subscribe to Hinduism to enjoy the stories or appreciate the messages they send. Worth exploring further.

Our second full day we rented bicycles which turned out to be an excellent way to see things. the ground is flat and well paved everywhere so riding is easy and it allows you to stop and explore things quickly. We stopped for monkeys, elephants (real and carved) and more. Since the temple area is park, you are also riding through forest which is very nice.

Both with the guide and by ourselves we also visited Ta Prohm temple. This temple is overgrown with trees and conservationist do not want to remove some of the biggest trees as they are now the only thing holding parts of the temple together. This temple was used in the movie Laura Croft Tomb Raider as a result of its look. It was dedicated to the mother of King of Jayavarman VII who also built a temple for his father. “He was a good son” said our guide.

Most of the temples are being partially restored or have had some work done on them. All the temples are constructed of sandstone which weathers quite easily and no grout was used to join blocks together. Thus the temples were in quite a bad state when a frenchman “discovered” them in the late 1800’s. The French began most of the work in restoring the temples in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. This involved taking piles of rock that had collapsed or fallen over and piecing them back together again. This time grout was added to keep the blocks from sliding off. Since then various efforts and countries have or are currently work on restoring the temples. The work has been interupted several times over the last 100 years because of various conflicts but the French, for obvious reasons, have been the largest contributer to the work. More recentyly the Japanese, Indians, Germans, and even Canada have worked on them. It’s good work as they are brining these temples back from the crumbling piles of rocks that they were before they just disappear forever. 

On our last day we had to take a flight in the evening back to Hanoi, Vietnam so that we could make our connection for our flight home the following day. Before we left we met up with my parents who arrived that day for their one week stay in Siem Reap.

 I really enjoyed our stay in Siem Reap and would liked to have stayed longer. Alas work beckoned (mostly Mika was beckoned but I was as well).

Our return voyage was mostly uneventful except for our transfer in Bangkok. When we landed to change planes, there wer probably 15 gates free with no planes. I know this because we drove by all of them and then parked on the tarmac. The passengers were loaded onto busses and drive back past the whole airport again to the opposite side of the terminal from where we parked. Then we had to walk the length of the terminal to go through security again. Walk back the length of the terminal a second time only to board busses again 30 minutes later where we had gotten off of the buses earlier. Then we were driven half way down the airport to our plane. I can now tell you from experience walking through it, Bangkok is not a small airport.

So that was our two week trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. Now we start to plan for our return to Canada in July. When in July I don’t know yet. All I know is there is a lot to do between now and then.

On Friday we traveled to Hue (pronounced Huway) which is a city in the middle of Vietnam and used to be a capital city. On our way to the airport we continued to see the importance of motorbikes to Vietnam and saw this one fellow carrying a very fragile load.

We travel to Hue by way of a Vietnam airlines flight. We flew business because that was the only fare available and it wasn’t that expensive. Plus we had lunch in the VIP lounge for free and some nice refreshments on board. Within about 40 minutes of landing in Hue we had checked in at the Asia hotel and were off to see the Citadel. I can recommend this hotel as the rooms were very generous, the breakfast buffet was great, but the pool on the 7^th floor is cold so not a place to stay if you wanted to lounge poolside.

Hue is a neat little town. In the city centre is the Citadel which is like China’s Forbidden City in the sense that the emperor used to live there. It wasn’t on the same scale, nor did it last that long (from 1803 to the early 1900’s) but it housed the emperor’s of the Nguyen dynasty, the last emperor’s of Vietnam. Some of the buildings are still standing and others are under refurbishment and have new coats of paint. The architecture is very Chinese looking which isn’t that surprising since it was under Chinese rule for hundreds of years. No doubt that is the source of the Tet (or New Year) holiday that everyone is preparing for (same as Chinese New Year).

There aren’t nearly as many restrictions to moving around as there often are in western country historical sites. This is great because pictures don’t have annoying “no-access” ropes in the way and you can get a good look at the things that interest you.

 The citadel is surrounded by a wall built on a French military design. The French later went on to destroy large parts of the wall trying to keep Vietnam under their rule. The front has a giant flag pole that used to have the royal banner. It is quite convenient for communist countries who like to fly giant versions of their flags and now it has the Vietnam red flag with yellow star.

Further in one of the impressive buildings for me was the reading building with it’s front garden.

On our return from the citadel we ran into our friends (American in Shanghai and her friend from LA) from the Halong Bay trip who were in town as well. They had booked a car to see the Vinh Moc Tunnels and the Tomb of Minh Mang. Car trips and tours are an important part of visiting Hue because many of the interesting sites are scattered around the town. We hadn’t yet planned our tour and when they invited us to join them in their car, it sped up the planning considerably and cut the cost down too.

We met up this morning for our tour by private car and the first stop was the Vinh Moc Tunnels around what was the DMZ (demilitarized zone). It is quite a trip (about 2 hours) to get there and you need a driver to navigate the mad roads (think India but a little less so) and you would never find the tunnels on your own. Of course I suppose though that was the idea. Anyway now its open for tourists. Short ones anyway.

The Vietnamese people are not know for their height and that is reflected in the size of the tunnels.

 The tunnel network is massive and spreads out all over the area. It was dug over a period of 2 years from the mud soil and is quite impressive. It has several levels and includes bomb shelters, a maternity ward where at least 17 kids were born, meetings rooms, wells etc. We had a guide with good English show us around the tunnels. Interestingly he was a teenager in south Vietnam during the war.

After running the gauntlet of drink sellers going in we had a beer on our way out. Each of us buying from a different seller in the hopes of spreading the wealth. I realize that they depend on us for income but it can get exhausting when they are so persistent. But I guess that’s one of the reasons they won the war against the American’s and earlier the French.

After another 2 hours we arrived at the Tomb of Minh Mang who was one of the most popular of the Nguyen emperors. The Tomb complex was a lot bigger than I imagined. Think Egypt but not in a pyramid. There was an entrance way with stone statues guarding another building with a giant tablet on which was written an essay by the emperor. Further in were three temples, one for the emperor and empress, one for the “Civil Mandarins” which I gather were the bureaucrats or everyday folk, and one for the “Military Mandarins”.

Behind the temples were more houses for the emperor’s eunuchs and concubines. It appears that they lived there after the emperor’s death. Then after crossing a pond you read a circular wall in which housed a mound of dirt with trees under which is the tomb. The gate is only opened once a year on the emperor’s birthday so not much to see there. It was far more extravagant that I would have thought considering that it was only built in 1843 and the French were already in the country. Well worth the visit though as the ruins are quite impressive.

We returned to Hue for supper and arranged our train tickets for tomorrow. We are off to Hoi An but the train only goes to Danang (about 2-3 hours) and then we arranged for a car from the hotel to pick us up. The train crosses over the Hai Van Pass which is supposed to be quite beautiful so I’m looking forward to that.

Our two day trip to Halong Bay was very nice. Although the weather was not quite sunny and clear, the mist and fog did not diminish the spectacular sight of all of the islands protruding out of the bay. Halong bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site for a reason and as a result it attracts a large number of foreign and domestic tourists, including our tour group of 10.

The first day we met up with our tour group at 08:00 and our guide Thanh and boarded a bus for the 3 hour drive to Halong City where the port is. Having a small group and our guide made the trip very pleasant as Thanh introduced us to Vietnam and the people and we were able to easily ask questions about anything we had seen. To my question of why the craziness on the motorbikes, he said that the motorbike has only become popular since the 1990’s when the country opened up to the world market systems. It has now become the work horse of the country and the most popular motorbike introduced was the Honda Dream 2 (it baisically looks like a Super Cub). Thanh has a great sense of humour and told us that Martin Luther King came to Vietnam and met with the president and told him “I have a dream” and the President replied “I have a dream too”. If you don’t get the joke say it out loud.

The other fun part of the trip was to meet the other 8 people we were traveling with. All of them seemed to have done their fair share of traveling. An American woman who teaches history at a school in Shanghai and a friend of hers who works as a grip in LA. A couple traveling with the wife’s mother. They were all from Portland Oregon. The man works as a producer on film and commercials and his wife is a former flight attendant and now real estate agent. A couple from the UK who are on a 4 month trip around the region and your first impression is “hippies”. One works as a graphic designer for Amnesty International and the other is a bicycle mechanic. Finally a young woman from Ottawa who works for Health Canada. Quite an interesting mix and all very friendly. There’s something about boat tours that brings people together.

Arriving at Halong Bay we discovered, as we read in our guide book, that while our boat or Junk had only the 10 of us, we would be sharing the bay with quite a number of other Junks. Thankfully, that turned out to not take away from the experience at all. Our first day the sun worked very hard at trying to come out and did for a few brief moments but hid away and didn’t appear at all on the second day. Still there was a lot to see of the rock formations as the Junk passed between the many small islands and lots of pictures were taken by all. Really a breath taking sight.

After a nice seafood lunch on board we had the opportunity to kayak to a lagoon that was utterly quite. This reminded us of Canada and the cottage because we cannot get that kind of quite in Japan and certainly not in Hanoi with their horn honking.

Also on our journey by Kayak we saw some monkey’s eating fruit that the fishermen had left them. Very cute.

After our kayak we parked in a bay with a large number of other Junk’s. This leads me to suspect that the government restricts tourism to certain parts of the bay . Anyway, with the fog, the boat lights and the style of the boats it looked like, as another person put it, “a pirate convention”.

We passed a mostly quite evening despite the best efforts of Thanh and the crew to get people involved in Karaoke. What is it about Asian countries and singing (often not too well) into microphones? The Japanese are obviously crazy about it and so are the Phillippinos, the Chinese, Malaysians and also, it turns out, the Vietnamese.

This morning we woke up, had breakfast and went to explore one of the many caves open to tourists in the bay. An enormous cavern with various legends associated with the stalactites and stalagmites and all very impressive. The Junk then made its way back to join the 500 other Junks parked in the harbour.

Our return journey to Hanoi, as with our journey to the bay, passed a lot of rice paddies and agriculture. We learned that 70% of Vietnam still makes a living by agriculture but the region outside of Hanoi is changing quickly as factories are being built on the rice paddies. Presently, Vietnam exports rice to many other countries but there is some concern that with all the new factories, the country may soon not be able to feed itself. The new factories also do not provide as many jobs as the number of farmers they displace. Those new jobs also do not go to the low skilled farmers. Thus the average Vietnamese still leads a hard and low income life. There is quite a bit a bitterness towards the government as well as it is seen as corrupt and unhelpful.

We passed through a coal mining town and it is clear the environmental regulation or action is non-existent. The trees, roads, windows, people are all covered in a black grime. It looks quite un-pleasant to be out on the streets there. The people seem determined to make the best of it though in spite of the government.

We enjoyed our trip to Halong bay and it is well worth the trip. Get a tour that isn’t too big and you’ll enjoy it more.

Tomorrow we are off to Hue for a few days and then Hoi An. We’ll see what the internet connections are like down there.

We are finally in Vietnam after a long day of travelling on Feb 1 from Tokyo to Bangkok to Hanoi. One of things I noticed was the number of motorcyles. Not that surprising after being in Bali. Same kind of environment. But the motorcycle thing is really on a whole other level. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that there is probably one motorcycle for every person in this city of 3.2 million. There are so many motorcyles that you cannot walk the sidewalks of Hanoi because they are all parked there.

 The next thing you notice is the complete anarchy on the street. For a country that is supposed to be living up to the ideal of socialism, the roads are anything but social.  Its all for oneself and get where you want to go regardless. Traffic signals and such are only a suggestion. We encountered cars and motobikes driving through redlights without stopping, squeezing between each other, trying to find any way to get forward on the road. When you cross the street, you just step out and start walking and let everyone whiz around you because no one will give you the chance. Motorcycles drive on the sidewalk, or even go counter the traffic flow. It’s completely mad!

Still there is a system of sorts which involves using your horn a lot. As far as I can determine, the horn is used to let people know that you are coming up behind them, passing them, are annoyed that they are not driving fast enough, that you are squeezing by them, that pedestrians on the sidewalk should watch out because your driving there too. Pretty much all  the time. It makes for a really noisey road. So much for patience.

This is a real market town too with a million stores selling everything and countless touts trying to get you to buy T-shirts, pirated DVDs and CDs, pirated books, food, hats etc. To be expected but tiring as well.

We have seen most of the touristy things here. Uncle Ho ( Ho Chi Minh) who, like Lenin (there is a statue of him here too), lies in a mausolium so that everyone can visit him (no pictures allowed). Apparently he goes to Russia every year for beaty treatments and I must say he looks pretty good for being dead 30 + years. The museum erected beside the enormous mausolium is also interesting as it is more of a blend of museum and art gallery. The rhetoric is laid on thick and the displays are more like artists representations of the meaning of the vietnamese struggle against imperialists etc. Ho Chi Minh from his very birth was working to find salvation for the Vietnamese people. Apparently.

There is much more to tell you but its late and I have an early boat to catch tomorrow. We are going on an overnight boat trip in the famous Halong Bay and then on Saturday flying to Hue (an old capital of Vietnam). We were planning to go by train but couldn’t get tickets for the sleeper car and I was not about to spend 13 hours on a train overnight in a hard seat. Before I go, I should mention that we have eaten well and concluded that the taste of Vietnamese food in Canada is being faithfully replicated as it tastes exactly the same here.