Where’s it all gone?
hmmm, it seems that all the last lot of entries for Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand have gone… seems the naughty people at bootsnall.com didn’t back up properly, and when they’re servers crashed they lost everyone’s journals, and it aint coming back…
The missing text is all below:
Dalat: it’s a bit chilly
============
In the central highlands is the hill town of Dalat. At about 1500m high it’s
supposed to be a pleasant change from the heat and humidity of the coast.
However, as it’s rainy, it’s pretty cold, the fleece even makes it first
appearance. This weather could be British! Still it’s nice not to be hot all
the time.
The town itself doesn’t contain many attractions, so a few of us hire a car
and driver for the day to take us around the surrounding areas. Many of the
people who live in the valley were tempted from Hanoi after the war to have
some land and become wealthier. There are many farms: from coffee to
silkworms. We see bamboo basket weaving and rice wine fermenting (including
some very angry, hungover pigs who are fed the leftover mash. Having just
read Hannibal I steer well clear). There’s a small factory where silworm
cocoons are taken, unravelled and woven into clothes (looks like a bit of a
sweatshop). As it has rained so much, the Elephant Falls are impressive,
though treacherous to reach. A bizarre sight is a giant concrete chicken
which was given by a man to a woman in a local village as a present to show
his undying love. I bet she was thrilled, “wow, a giant concrete chicken,
what I’ve always wanted.” Things get slightly stranger at the “Crazy House”.
This is a weird place, half constructed, by an eccentric local woman. It’s
all concrete trees, windy staircases, huge animals, and even bigger spider
webs. Crazy it might be, but it’s also a deathtrap, as I slip down the wet
steps taking a few chunks out of my arm. You can even stay in the slightly
creepy rooms if you have the money.. The “Crazy Monk” is not at home
though. This guy paints odd pictures (modern art you might call it), the
idea being that he will sell enough so he can go on holiday one day. It was
a interesting day!
Dalat is described as kitsch, which is certainly true. It’s also miserable
shrouded in permanent clouds, so we move on, back to the coast.
Misty Mui Ne
========
Agh. It’s raining here too..
Mui Ne is a beach side town on the southern coast of Vietnam, about 4 hours
by road from Saigon. Here is supposed to be a nice beach, lots of people
going kite surfing and sand dune boarding. However it doesn’t quite turn out
like that.
For a start, the beach is just a continuous strip of big resort hotels, or
construction sites. The town is pretty dead, so has a ghost town feel to it:
no atmosphere. You can’t go kite surfing because it’s too windy, and the
dune boarding isn’t the snowboarding equivalent we did in Namibia, just
sliding down some fairly tame lumps of sand. There are some pretty vicious
mosquitoes here too. The people I was supposed to meet didn’t get picked up
for their bus, and so have gone to Saigon instead. And it’s still raining.
Not a particularly good start!!!
I decide to spend a day here, to try and give it a chance. The next morning
is a bit brighter. So I rent a bike and go for a ride out of town, east
along the coast. I cover some miles, riding through the red and yellow
dunes, past the Fairy Stream and through a fishing village that, judging by
peoples looks, doesn’t see many foreigners. There’s even a bit of sun. I’m a
lot happier today, though tired and sore, and spend the twilight hours in a
hammock watching the sea.
And of course, on the day I leave, the sun comes out!
Ho Chi Minh City
==========
Welcome to Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh city as it is now formally know. More
frantic than Hanoi, but much more modern, to me it has less character.
After 5 weeks in the country, I encounter the most unfriendly person yet.
Some woman, who despite what her badge says, is a tout, is following us
around and generally being no help. We thank her for her help, but tell her
we can find somewhere to stay ourselves. She explodes, and tells us she can
walk wherever she likes, and tells us to leave her country! Charming.
Waking up early is unavoidable as everyone starts their days early here.
Crossing the roads is even more dangerous than Hanoi: the bikes have nowhere
to swerve to as it’s just a continuous stream of traffic. Traffic lights are
obviously only for decoration! On a couple of occasions I am dragged across
the road by some pitying locals.!
There’s only a few things I want to see in the city. Reunification Palace is
preserved the way it was on the day of the ceasefire in 1975. It’s a 60s
style building with meeting rooms and many ornate reception rooms. More
interesting is the bunkers below with the war rooms.
Dong Khoi is the “posh” part of town, with high rise hotels and pricey
international boutiques. The Notre Dam cathedral is what you’d expect,
although the neon trimmed crypts make it seem like something not too far
removed from a Father Ted episode.
The Cu Chi tunnels are about 30km from the city, and are the closest the
tunnelling of the Viet Cong got to Saigon. Similar to those we saw at Vinh
Moc, but much narrower and harder to fit through. From 100m crawling in the
pitch dark, we are sweating and out of breath. The Viet Cong used to do 5km
a night! There are an array of the weapons and traps used in the jungle,
bunkers and a firing range where you can pay by the bullet should you want
to.
All very interesting, however the day is spoilt by the guide. Mr Bin is a
war veteran so should have been very interesting. He starts well, but then
degenerates into repetition, cliches and contradictions. A crazy old man,
bitter and twisted, and very insulting. He spends a long time complaining
about the Americans. This would be justified had he not served under John
Kerry for the US in the war against his own people! Most of the return
journey is filled with him complaing about how bad a job being a tour guide
is, how he hates us all because we are arrogant (“sorry, but that’s the way
it is” seems to be his favourite phrase) and how he always get complaints.
Then he has the nerve to ask for a tip as we leave, complaining when one
doesn’t materialise. It got us all quite worked up!
The War Remnants museum isn’t somewhere you’d want to go after eating. It’s
mainly pictorial exhibits, horrific striking images of combat, torture, and
particularly the problems caused by, at the time, “new” weaponry such as the
defoliations (Agent Orange) and napalm. Many of the chemicals used are still
present in the remote areas of the country, and are affecting current
generations, producing children who look like, to be frank, Hollywood style
aliens. And all this for no gain, those clever Yanks.
This short time in Saigon is enough, and tomorrow I’m off to the Mekong
Delta for a few days.
Mekong Delta
=========
A bunch of people, myself included, get taken down to Saigon docks early in
the morning, for a “mostly by boat” trip through the Mekong Delta. I paid a
little bit extra to avoid buses as much as possible!
Leaving the skyscrapers in Dong Koi behind, the speedboat takes us along the
Saigon and Mekong Rivers to Mytho. It takes a few hours, and we pass though
many communities of wooden and tin buildings, initially nestled around high
rise buildings, but later on out in the countryside.
We go to a small island near Mytho where they make tasty coconut candy,
which we sample. Bravely I put my hand into a bee hive to collect honey, and
then have some local rice wine cocktails made with honey and various fruit.
The snake wine you see everywhere is here. A huge jar with coiled snakes,
and a cobra sticking it’s head out, it tastes what you’d imagine, for liquor
pickling snakes!
Then I’m handed a huge python.
There’s another rowing boat ride along narrow channels under dense bamboo
jungle, before a bike ride and a long bus and ferry ride to Cantho where we
spend the night.
Although it rained a lot today, we managed to dodge the worst of the shower,
and even got a little sunshine.
The next day we leave Cantho on a longboat and mingle with the traders
barges at Cai Rang floating vegetable market. Each boat has a pole at the
front, with examples of all the available produce tied onto it.
We stop off at a pineapple boat where a mother, and her knife happy young
daughter, cut us fresh pineapple for a bargain price.
On another island we see rice paper and rice noodles being made, drink
copious amounts of coconut milk, and wander through various markets.
These are very “local”, and sell things such as skinned frogs, various
fishes and amongst other things eye-balls, apparently a local delicacy.
We see living eels being slit open and gutted. This pleases a couple of
vegetarians no end!! On a slightly more pleasant note, there are banana
fritters, rice pancakes, and potato cakes to eat hot off the stalls. Cantho
is home to the tin-man staute of Ho Chi Minh, not a particularly good
likeness.
After a ride with a driver who sufferred terrible road rage, we all board a
nice little cruising boat for sunset. Unfortunately the clouds obscure most
of it, but there’s a nice dinner before we arrive in Chau Doc exhausted late
that evening.
The final day starts with a walk up Sam mountain to see the ancient cave
pagoda, with the (concrete) snakes you are supposed to stroke to make a wish
come true, and the view across into Cambodia.
Then another rowing boat ride through some floating fishing villages (with
the fish cages underneath the houses, and very smelly) and finally a stop at
a Cham weaving village. We’re supposed to see a mosque and school, but
people spend too long buying things at the shops so it’s closed by the time
we arrive. Then it’s a long ride back to HCMC by boat and bus. Exhausting,
but a very good trip.
Phu Quoc Island: peace and quiet, and a change of plan
==================================
My final destination in Vietnam, having spent twice as long as I expected to
here, is Phu Quoc Island, about 60 miles west of the mainland.
They say this is off the beaten track, and especially so in the wet season!
My plan is to fly in, and take the boat out and cross into Cambodia without
having to go back to HCMC.
It’s warm and sunny as flight VN481 takes off. I dislike little propellor
planes, reminding me of both dodgy flights in West Africa, and flights upto
Aberdeen, neither of which are good memories! Come on, buy something with
jet engines!
Unfortunately, as we come into land, it’s raining. I was supposed to be
meeting some people here. However two couldn’t make it because the ferries
weren’t running, and one arrived a few days ago, it rained and she left. I
can see why!
The island is about 50miles long, with jungle in the north and beaches in
the south. The plane lands in the main town, and from here dirt tracks
connect the coasts to a central paved road. I get a taxi with a couple of
people off the plane, and after looking round what seem to be deserted
bungalows, we pick one. Just as we do, the sun comes out and so do all the
people.
The island is very relaxed. Foreigners are either staying in the high class
resorts near town, or further down the beach in the cheaper accomodation
(where we were).
I spent two full days here contemplating the differences between the eastern
and western near shore environment. Basically, this means I spent a day on
the beach on the east, and a day on the west. Since you ask, the eastern
beaches were whiter and cleaner (sadly plastic rubbish from the sea marks
the high tide line everywhere), and the sea calmer. My bit of exploring came
from the back of a motorbike, on a drive around the southern parts of the
island.
Apart from that, there was lots of lazing in hammocks and watching of
sunsets; and eating lots of seafood. Wonderful (but expensive, don’t tell
the budget)
The change of plan. Well I didn’t want to go back to HCMC, but, I’m told,
the ferries are unreliable at this time of year. And as flights to the port
were full because of this, I had to fly back to Saigon. This means I have to
take the bus to the border and on into Cambodia: not more buses!
So 24 hours ago I was dipping my feet in the warm sea, and today I’m
twiddling my thumbs bored in hot and sticky Saigon. There’s nothing left
that I want to see so I’m at a bit of a loose end. Although I have found the
most budget accomodation possible (3 dollars, but on the 7th floor)!
Vietnam has been very enjoyable, lots of interesting places, and good food.
And for the wet season, the weather has been pretty good.
Still this time tomorrow, another city, another country. Until next time!
Vietnam to Cambodia 23 August The bus left Saigon early this morning, mainly full of locals and some returning Cambodians. The border crossing went relatively smoothly, if not very slowly. Leaving Vietnam took ages, though unlike the locals we didn’t have to pay a departure fee. Entering Cambodia at Moc Bavet is a supposed to cost a little more than it should due to corruption. However we got our visas for the $20 price tag, and not the $25+ most people seemed to have paid (haha), and only had to pay one small dollar fine for not having some bogus vaccination certificate (though I did try to fox him with the yellow fever cert I had for Africa). We arrived in Phnom Penh about six hours later, after a very slow drive through lots of flat rural areas. Phnom Penh 24th August Myself and a girl off the bus head down to Boeng Kak lake and stay in one of the floating guesthouses. It’s definitely back to budget travel, and the trips down to a stinky bathroom down the hall! Though I prefer this than $10 a night as it was in Vietnam. The area round the lake has lots of backpacker bars and restaurants, and is pleasant to wander around. The rest of this city is unattractive, though fairly easy going and more relaxed than Vietnam. The major sights here are related to the Khmer Rouge regime, and don’t make for an unlifting introduction to the country. Following the war, the Khmer Rouge formed a party called “Anka” who wanted to take the country back to year 0. To do this, anyone who was intelligent, held professional jobs, wore glasses, or had smooth skin was considered a threat to the greater good, and was sent to prison to confess to crimes they never committed before being killed. Peasants and the unintelligent that “survived” were worked to death building and tending the land. The “Killing Fields” at Choeung Elk (now bizarrely privately owned by the Japanese and renamed “Choeung Ek Genocidal Center”) are a long bumpy drive out of the town, followed by a kilometre or so slog through the mud (where I lose a flipflop). It’s sunny and peaceful when we arrive, and seems at odd with the signs describing the attrocities that happened here. 130 of these fields have been discovered around the country; many more are suspected. The centrepiece is a blinding white stupa filled with some 8000 skulls disinterred from the 129 mass graves (43 are still unexcavated). Everywhere are bones, teeth and clothes poking from the ground. 17,000 men, women and children were killed here from 1975-1978. Today, in Cambodia, from a population of 13.5 million, over 40% are under 15… Things don’t get any better at the Tuol Sleng “S-21” prison. This was originally the Tuol Svay Prey high school, and was commandeered by Pol Pot for group and individual torture cells. It’s grey and does have an eerie feeling depsite the blossoming trees. Individual rooms are furnished with the cleaned, but original, metal beds, restraints and torture devices. This in itself is disturbing, but worse so are the galleries of those sent here to forcibly confess to phantom crimes (some wrote 1000s of pages), and photographs recording the forced confessions. There were even rules of what you should and shouldn’t say during your “interviews”. No-one was spared- there are smiling faces of children and babies posing for what they think are normal photographs, unaware of the fate that awaited them. All but 7 of the 14,000 that passed through this prison died, most at Choeung Ek. It seems, from a video documentary, that many former guards from the prison (in the English subtitles at least) are proud of their “achievements”. Since Pol Pot died in 1998, we interpret from this that no-one has been tried for War Crimes. After all that, any other museums and palaces seem irrelevant. Some Templey Type Things 28th August Six hours north is Siem Reap, home to the Angkor Temples, you may have heard about this. We spent three days (and $40) exploring just a handful of the temples in the area. Luckily Siem Reap is a pleasant little riverside town with good food and places to relax after a long day of culture. 10s of minutes before leaving Phnom Penh, I have a run in with a spontaneously crumbling glass, and as a result a pint of banana yoghurt drink empties itself all over my shorts and t-shirt. Lovely. Armed with out laminated Access All Areas passes, we ride out to the first temple, which has to be Angkor Wat. The heart and capital of the ancient Khmer empire and symbol of the country. It’s pretty spectacular too, a result of building competition between the God kings. The worlds largest religious building, the centre tower is said to represent the mythical Hindu Mt Meru, the outer towers are small peaks, the lower courtyards are continents and the moat is the ocean. The 7 headed serprets are “a rainbow bridge to reach the Gods”. Or so I’m told… All the stone is covered in intricate carvings, and the outer walls are covered in 100s of metres of bas reliefs. Angkor Thom is surrounded by 12km of walls and was old city. Bayon is covered in 216 (we didn’t count) faces of the king looking down; it’s also full of Japanese tourists. Baphuon is in the process of being rebuilt. Archaeoligists were restoring it before the Khmer Rouge annoyingly destroyed their records. Admittedly, one of the least gruesome things they did….! The Terrace of the Leper King is decorated in cobweb covered evil faces, and the Terrace of Elephants is covered in… three headed elephants. Outside Angkor Thom is Preah Khan. This is huge, and you could pretend to be Indiana Jones poking around in the piles of bricks, and walls split apart by huge tree roots. The name means Sacred Sword and is thought to have been a Buddhist university. It rains very heavily at Preah Neak Pean (temples in the middle of 5 pools). Ta Prohm was used in Tomb Raider, and is again full of tourists. Again it’s very overgrown, with tree roots devouring the stone walls. The final temple on our list, Ta Keo. This is basically a giant pyramid, and was never finished at the king who started it died. It’s now the hottest it’s been, and as it’s our final afternoon, we spend it in the shady trees next to Angkor Wat. 3 days was long enough, and more and it’d have stopped being enjoyable, and been back to Temple Fatigue! I think we got lucky in avoiding the biggest of the tour groups too. Battambang 31st August After saying goodbyes, I get up and go for the boat to Battambang early in the morning. It’s a long, but beautiful ride through lakes, along rivers and through little fishing villages; houses on land, on stilts and floating on the water. Everyone waves as you pass. The weather is good until right at the end, and I spent most of the time on the roof. Battambang isn’t quite what anyone expects, not the quaint little old French town it’s billed to be. It’s a bit rundown, but on the plus side more real (ie. not very touristy). The first day I take a motorbike and guide round some of the countryside. The roads are attrocious- really just potholed mud tracks. I know when we have just avoided falling over, as the driver laughs nervously. I specify that we see NO TEMPLES whatsover! First we go to the bamboo train. As it says “on the can”, this is a train. Made from bamboo. (Imagine a rewrite of Peter Kay’s “garlic? bread? sketch”) Basically a wooden frame with bamboo platform is placed on to two axels and an engine is connected via a large fan belt. The track is very wonky, and the gaps between the sections of tracks are huge: something Railtrack would have been proud of! So you sit on this, and go at 60km/hr through paddy fields and little villages: there was only something coming the other way once…. Lethal, and great fun! Kam Ping reservoir is an irrigation system, and began life as one of the labour projects for those not sent to prison by the Khmer Rouge. They reckon 10,000 died here. Now it’s a peaceful lake filled with lotus flowers, with the hills in the distance. Here we have frog for lunch. It DOES taste like chicken, though it’s so bony I don’t think I’ll bother again. Finally we go to Phnom Sampeau. 700 steps lead up to some Killing Caves. One each for men, women and children, like in Phnom Penh there are piles of bones from some of the mass graves. Enough said, really. As Khmer food is excellent, I decide I should add it to my spicey foods repertoire, having done Thai already. So a bunch of us did a curry, a stir fry and a (very) spicy salad. And if anyone happens to be passing the “Smokin’ Pot”, our polaroids are on the display board outside. The rest of the country is very rural, and off the beaten track. The mud roads make it impossible really in the wet season, and besides, time is ticking on. So tomorrow, I’m going back to Thailand. Back to Bangkok 3 September An early morning share taxi (with two people in the drivers seat for a short time) to Poipet (a dodgy town) on the border. A quick walk through no mans land to Aranya Prathet to get the 30 day stamp for Thailand, and then after a tuk tuk to the bus station I’m on a bus to Bangkok, arriving around 4.30pm. I spent a couple of days here, it’s too easy to waste time! I got lost in the labyrinth that is the weekend market, saw a huge reclining Buddha at Wat Po and the broken-pottery covered temple of Wat Arun. To escape the heat, I had a few rides on the river taxi, and the air conditioned Skytrain to Siam Square. Bumped into a few people from the past few months, and had a few evenings out as a result. Trains, tigers and elephants: Kanchanaburi 9 september The last place I’ll see before heading south is a few hours west of Bangkok. Famous for the Bridge over the River Kwai, it’s also a nice place to hang out for a few days. Someone at some point had recommended staying at the Jolly Frog (as I had a big cross next to it in the guidebook), and luckily the bus dropped off here. There’s a huge coconut palm shaded garden by the river, and that’s where I spent my first afternoon. The second day I went to the strangely titled “New Death Railway Museum”, which is actually very interesting. Some 10,000 POWs (mainly British, Austrlian and Dutch) died building the 415km Thailand to Burma railway for the Japanese in WW2. It should have taken 5 years, but was rushed in 16 months. A key section was the Bridge here (imported from Indonesia), destroyed after many attempts by new guided bombs. In the afternoon we go to the Tiger Temple. In 1999 a monastery took in an orphaned cub, and now there are 10 or so tigers living with the monks; some were born here. Every afternoon you can go and visit the tigers in Tiger Canyon, and get up close to stroke them and have your photos taken (as longas you aren’t wearing red, yellow, orange or pink; otherwise you’re dinner). They are so placid, lying and dozing in the sun. It’s mainly because of the heat, and that they are used to humans: they aren’t drugged. Even so, sometimes people had to be pulled away from an errant paw! It’s not just tigers, there’s a whole menagerie of animals, including a baby black bear who was brought here by soldiers from near the Myanmar border. Now I never thought I’d ever sit with tigers! There are 7 tiered waterfalls in Erawan NP which are beautiful and very peaceful. Nice to swim in, except for the fish that nibble at any exposed flesh! After this we went elephant riding (I have now overcome my fear of Asian elephants after we got charged 3 times in India), and even washed them in the river. Mine did like to spray water over me… And then an unwanted “kiss” on the cheek with a very smelly elephant trunk! Again great fun (well, not the kiss). We finished the day with a ride back to town on the railway. That evening we had a few (too many?) drinks, and somehow it got to 3am… blame those damned buckets again. The journey back to Bangkok the next day was, as a result, pretty hard going!! I’d definitely recommend Kanch. as a place to go for a few days, really relaxing, and everyone there was really good fun. Tonight, after one day in Bangkok, I’m heading off down to Ko Phi Phi, before Malaysia.
Tags: Travel
Nick