Mitchell’s on Tour – Thailand, Vietnam, India & Nepal

We arrived in Kolkata 4 days ago to a human cesspool of waste. Although we found it completely confronting and couldn’t wait to get out, we had been booked a tour into a game reserve outside of the city and were looking forward to going.

Less 24 hours after we landed I (stephanie) started to feel sick. I spent the day with diarrhea and the night vomiting. I was completely beside myself and just wanted to fly home. I woke David to let him know and soon I was sobbing and the boys were awake. Things didnt get any better the next day and we moved to a cleaner hotel.

Around dinner time I called the doctor (36 hours was all I was giving this thing to pass before I needed help!). He came and gave me some antibiotics and other medications but advised that if it continued (I was up to the toilet every 10- 20 mins and once the vomiting passed -about 12 hours – the nausea was so terrible that I wished I was vomiting) I would need to go to hospital.

The nausea did impove a little by the 3rd morning but the diarrhea continued and we were taking a 17hour train ride to Dehli the following day. I was really worried that wouldnt I do very well in the state I was in. So I decided to go to hospital.

It was easy making the decision to go but once I got there, I suddenly felt terrified. I had my trusty bag of needles, gloves, alcahol wipes, but I didnt have an IV canula and the place was not particularly clean! I asked the doctor about the re-use of needles. He was very polite and assured me that everything was disposable in the hospital, so I bucked up my courage and was admitted to the ward.

I spent the night (an experience that deserves a blog entry all of its own) on a glucose drip and seemed to take never ending amounts of medication. It was a very frightening experience and I didnt really start to feel better until just before I was discharged the next day.

I was a difficult patient and called the doctor several times to check my (lack of) progress as the nurses didnt speak very much English and kept trying to feed me!! I felt like dying so food was not high on the list of my things to consider. I cried A LOT! Which the nurses found bewildering.

Finally, after a midnight visit from the doctor my diahrea cleared up (not sure what he changed) and the next day I was on the train still feeling seedy but happy to continue our journey.

The comedic phrase “I want my mummy” rang true for me in the last 2 days, and I caused poor David and the boys a lot of turmoil talking about going home on the next available flight.

Tonight we are in Delhi, and Jordan is taking his turn to be sick. Both boys and David have been unwell over the past few days but dont seem to have the extreme reaction I had. We spoke to a traveller at dinner that assured us that it is “normal”  to be sick in the first week in India.

I have become the germ nazi and and purchased some chux cloths and disinfectant and cleaned all the nobs and handles in the hotel room, as well as insisting on the frequent washing and sanitising of hands for all the family (much to their chargrin).

Tomorrow we are keen to see the red fort and book our airfares to Nepal but we will just have to see how Jordan is feeling.

Just a quick post to tell you how grose it is here in Culcutta (it is like living in a gutter). Our room is only $20 per night and does have running water if you harrass the landlord about it, but it has very little else that is going for it.

The walls are covered in mould, the bathroom is grimy, the stair well smells of rubbish (because that is where they store it until garbage day) the halway is covered in grim…. like the Sydney harbour tunnel (if you can imagine that).

The city is full of smog – the kind that sticks in your throat. It really is an assault on the senses and I will be glad to be out of here. Jordan has said that he never wants to come back here, and is hoping that the rest of India is not like this (as we all are!!). Luke is taking it all in his stride, surprisingly.

So we are all feeling sorry for ourselves and just wanted you to know! Will write again when we are in a happier place!

Stephanie

I am running behind on my blog entries for Ho Chi Minh, so you will have to excuse this post being in the India section of our blog. We have been helped so often by folks that have recommended tours or accomodation on their blogs, so I am adding this post so others might also enjoy the wonderful place we stayed in, in Ho Chi Minh.

 I love our guest house! It is a little oasis tucked into a back lane one street back from the bustling Pham Ngu Lao street and in the centre of the back packer district! It is suprisingly quiet for its location.

The building is 4 floors high but that is the norm here and we are getting quite used to scaling stairs. We stayed on the 3 floor in a room for 3 but the manager gave us a mattress for the floor so we could all fit.

We paid $US28 per night for the four of us and that included eggs and coffee and baguettes (with real butter!) for breakfast, free internet, and the most wonderful hosts. The linen was changed daily and the room cleaned. The whole place is spotless and the whole family is involved in the business. We chatted to the kids, the parents and even the grandparents during our time there, although not all of them spoke English so we all just nodded and giggled at each other.

 The address for travellers that are interested is: 283/29 Pham Ngu Lao St, District 1, Ho chi Minh City. Ph: (84-8) 38377709  Email: linphuonghotelvn@yahoo.com . It is near the Canada hotel, down a small driveway/lane. Good luck finding it – Just ask one of the locals they can show you the lane.

Our first 24 hours in India have been mixed, ranging from awe as we flew over the Ganges Delta region of Bangladesh and India and over rural plains and waterways near Kolkata international airport to the chaotic traffic and never ceasing horns on the streets as we made our way to the ‘Back-packer’ accommodation area.

The Lonely Planet guide speaks of Kolkata as simultaneously noble & squalid, Cultured and desperate and ‘a festival of human existence played out before your very eyes on teeming streets where not an inch of space is wasted. While we’ve seen hints of the culture in buildings from the 1800’s now almost derelict (even though still fully occupied) and our visit to the Victoria Monument, a huge white marble building similar in shape to the US capitol building which was started as a monument to the then Queen Victoria and finished after her death as a memorial showed aspects of the nobility of Kolkata we have seen far more of the (every inch) packed, squalid and desperate in our short time here so far.

Kolkata is known as the City of Joy but for us there has not been any joy so far in this city. We have read numerous travellers accounts of Kolkata (and Delhi where we’ll head to next) as a place to not spend any time in due to the pollution, traffic chaos, touts and constant attempts to get more (even hostel owners, shop keepers and taxi drivers will subsequently ask for more than they have already advised is the cost just to see if they can get it!), and general difficulty in getting from A to B and I think we’ll be glad to move on. Our accommodation in Thailand and Vietnam was good but our first pick here was not great although there wasn’t a lot better within our price range but we’ll try and better this one in future days.

We have seen a few things that we were expecting (sort of)….
– I remember a couple of years ago seeing a commercial on TV (I don’t remember what it was for so it obviously wasn’t very effective!) which featured Adam Gilchrist from the Australian Cricket team in an old yellow taxi in India…..I had also heard that India had a number of old English cars as taxi’s but I was amazed on our arrival to see that there are hundreds of them…..in fact the only taxi’s in Kolkata are old yellow cars from about 1950 in various levels of disrepair and semi-repaired damage. We’ve also seen quite a few broken down on the sides of the road so their insides most likely match their rough outsides.

– We love Indian food and now we have it cheaply! It’s not so clean on the streets and some of the places road side stalls are operating are distinctly disgustingly dirty it’s great to see the vast array of foods we love all around us. We ate indoors last night but plan to eat from the stalls tonight, moving from stall to stall and sampling different Indian food ranging from about 3 to 18 rupees each (9 cents to 56 cents).

Tomorrow we head to Sunderban Tiger Camp in the Ganges Delta region where we’ll spend time on the canals and waterways of the national park. While we’re staying in a tent there (yes, in a Tiger reserve!!) it is part of a resort so we expect the standard to be pretty good. The likelihood that we’ll actually see Royal Bengal Tigers is not high (there are approx 280 of them in the reserve which is very large (the largest mangrove forest in the world) but we’re sure to see many other animals and if nothing else we’ll get out of the clog and smog of Kolkata for a couple of days. On Sunday night when we return from Sunderban we’ll be staying at a hostel right next to the Kolkata railway station where we’ll catch our overnight train to Delhi on Monday afternoon (17 hours). It’s a run down mansion built in 1890 but the proximity to the railway helps.

While travelling we have found that it is all the small things that make us laugh, gasp, or want to cry. Here is a list of a few of the things that have struck me (Stephanie) in Vietnam.

• Pampering products – I decided before we left that I would bring along my organic face cream and rose water misting spray. Every morning after my shower I spray the mist over my face and feel an amazing peacefulness for a moment. At home I dont even think about my facial routine, but here it has become wonderfully luxurious.
• Garbage – People have a different relationship to rubbish over here. There is no collective community pride, so garbage is just someone elses responsibility to clean up. I have seen hair dressers sweep great lumps of hair into the streets, stall owners discard the refuse from preparing food into the gutter (and when you are peeling 50 pineapples in a night that is a lot of peelings), boat drivers throw bottles and plastic bags and food stuffs into the rivers. In restaurants people throw their serviettes and bones from their meat onto the floor under the table. The funny thing is however that each family keeps their own home spotless. They sweep and mop the floor several times a day, usually on their hands and knees!
• Road sense- It is hard to convey just how crazy it is here. It is beyond comprehension, but the funny thing is that there is little fear of the road. Children are allowed to play right next to the street, even as motorbikes mount the pavement to take a short cut. People drive much more defensively and slowly here so they are always looking out for pedestrians and other vehicles. Never-the-less it is scary to see a motor bike approaching a small child and not see their parents jump up to grab them!
• Customer service? – We have been through markets where the sellers grab our arms and drag us in to sell us their wears, and have been completely ignored by others that we have nearly had to tackle in order to purchase something from. We have had sales people shout at us for taking to long to decide what we want and then packing away their goods and giving us the Vietnamese equivalent of the “finger”  (I assume they thought we were  just wasting their time and had no intention of buying anything, but we are just very indecisive!). We been in restaurants where the waitress stood and watched us eat, grabbing our plates as soon as we were done. As I write this there is a toddler (the store owners I think) who is terrorising everyone one in the internet cafe. He is climbing on chairs, shouting and squealing, sliding out the keyboards and then banging them shut again. A moment ago he came and rub something he was eating onto my back. I thought it was snot at first!! But David assured me it was food. The owner seems in no rush to reign in the little rascal even though people keep turning around and frowning?? (PS He just came up and pinched David because he wanted to sit in his chair!!).
• Sweat – I am trying to befriend the moisture that constantly covers my skin, but no matter how I try I just cant be at peace with it. My afternoon shower has become another luxury!
• My organised husband – David is the Mr Universe of organisation. He thinks of things that would never even enter my head. He works out the money and the visa’s and airport check-in times before I have even considered them. Every time I turn around and say “we need to ….”  he says, “yeah, Ive done it”. He is my hero. 
• Traffic jams in the foyer -Cars, motorbikes and buses travel and park in the strangest places. I have seen motor bikes riding down shop corridors, mini buses parked in hotel lobbies, and cars driving the wrong way through a round-a-bout.
•  Pushing and shoving – It is nothing to shove another person here in Ho Chi Minh City. There are no pleasantries around it either. No need to say “excuse me” or “sorry”. Just shove your way through. In fact there are very few courtesies at all. There is very little acknowledgement of our “thankyou” ‘s whenever we eat or take buses etc. The only folks that are keen to say thankyou are the stall owners at the market when we buy something.
• Old folks – My image of Asia was alway one where the elderly are cared for and protected by the younger family and community  members, but we have seen so many old folks that are not treated with this respect. Many we have seen have been carrying heavy baskets on poles over their shoulders, or peddling with younger family members on  the back their push bikes, or being shoved out of the way by people carrying heavy bundles (at the chinese market). It is not what I expected at all.
• Conflicting values – I live very much in the moment and what suits me right now at this moment is what I want to do, regardless of what I said I would do at breakfast time. David feels much more comfortable with a planned day. This has lead to some tension and made our holiday a relationship adventure as well as a cultural one.

When preparing to take our first Backpacking adventure three years ago when we had the opportunity to spend 2 days going down the Mekong from Chiang Khong in Northern Thailand to Luang Prabang in Laos we came across a number of images of the Mekong Delta, in Vietnam near where the river joins the South China Sea.

This week we had the opportunity to spend three days in the Delta region as we travelled from Ho Chi Minh City to My Tho, Ben Tre and Can Tho. We progressively travelled further and further from the city so it took about 5 hours for us to get back on our final day. (Even though the guide assured us it would only take 4. Another one of our travelling companions, a french man, assured us that we had still made good time as the bus didnt break down at all!! He had initially told us to expect the trip to take 7 hours!)

During our time in the Mekong region we did some of the typical tourist things like visiting a place where they grind coconut to make ‘Coconut Candy’. (They make and package this on rows of tables laid out under a thatched roof with no walls – that they call it a ‘factory’ but it looked more like a cake drive for the local netball club, to me!!). 

Another interesting place we visited was a rural house where they make rice noodles from the cheap/rejected ‘broken rice’. They do not leave one ounce of waste in the process as the discarded rice husks are used to fire the the stoves that make the noodles and the ash is used as a fertiliser for local farmers. Unfortunately the rice noodle business does not pay very well, so they also keep pigs (feeding them the rice husks) as pork fetches a very good price in Vietnam.

We also spent some time on the river Delta itself.

The Mekong Delta was bigger than I expected with open harbours far wider than the river upstream in Laos and Thailand but it was the tributaries and small canals surrounding villages amidst the coconut palms that enthralled me.

Having the opportunity to go down a palm covered tributary in a row boat was a highlight for me and some of our photo’s resemble the idyllic ones I have seen on the web.

Here is a photo from that day – Floating down the Mekong

We also had a one night ‘Home Stay’ which, while different to what we initially expected was still a great night.

Our home stay started when our tour guide announced that the motorbikes had arrived to take us to our host families house.  We had no idea that we were to be riding on motor bikes and if I have been able to convey how chaotic the traffic is here (even just a little!) you will understand how surprised (code for terrified) I was. However I took it in my stride turning to the guide and saying loudly “REALLY”, to which he just smiled and said, “Yes!”.

I didnt feel I could make a fuss so I climbed on the back of a bike. The rider was middle aged and so I figured he was the best bet. Sensible enough to know that when I said it was my first time on a motor bike he would take pity on me, not give me the ride of my life (as Jordans young driver did!)

I placed my helmet on my head and strapped it on tightly. Not that I was convinced it would make any difference if we fell, since it was wobbling as we rode along. Each of the boys climbed onto the back of their bikes and David and I balanced a bag in our arms too.

The ride took 25 mins and all I could think of was “If we crash, my knees are going to be completely smashed!!”. Ive never broken a bone before so I was imagining the excrutiating pain. My driver politely tried to make conversation (Im sure it was to distract me, as I was threatening to break his ribs with my grip), and he kept reassuring me that he was “an excellent driver!!”

Just when I was starting to relax Jordan zoomed past me with his hands by his side. There was nothing I could do except imagine the torture I was going to inflict on that young Vietnamese driver when I got my hands on him, and wonder where the closest hospital was!!!

Of course we all arrived safely and the boys were so excited to tell me how they ” didnt even need to hold on”. I just sighed. David grinned. The homestay hosts and the rest of my family had a good laugh at my expense.

The next morning David and I were taken down the river for 50 minutes to a market where we would meet our group while the boys had a shorter (15 min) motorbike trip and met us there. It was nerve wracking leaving my boys behind in  a foreign land, but they had our phone number and the host had assured us they would not be left alone until we arrived.

We joined the rest of our tour group and  headed off to a traditional floating market on the river which has been running for a couple of hundred years.

We did visit the tourist floating market outside of Bangkok, however this one was much more authentic. Large boats were laden with fruit taken from the rural areas with samples of their stock hanging from the mast, so that smaller boats could come and buy their produce. These smaller boats then transport the fruit to markets that then sell them to the locals. Only a few boats approached ours to sell us snacks. I had my eyes on all those watermelons, but a boat with pineapples was the only one on-selling to tourists that day. Below is a photo of JM and his ‘snack’ bought from the floating market.

Jordan devours his ‘Pineapple’ Snack

Our one disappointment was that we were also meant to see and cross a ‘Monkey Bridge’ during our trip. A Monkey bridge is a single piece of bamboo suspended across a canal which the locals use to transport all manner of things, from caged chickens to bicycles. However these are slowing being fazed out as motor bikes become more and more popular and the govt replaces the bamboo with concrete bridges so the people can take their scooters across.

We had crossed a Monkey bridge when in Laos and the boys were really looking forward to it again. Maybe next time. .

Having only a short time in Vietnam I’m glad we were able to get to the Mekong Delta for part two of our Mekong journey that started back in 2006.

A couple of days ago we took a day trip to a fascinating Vietnamese specific religious temple for a group known as Cao Đài which means Great Religion of The Third Period of Revelation and Salvation.

What is amazing about this religion in which all it’s followers wear robes, the majority being white but others (with higher rank) wearing different colours including Blue & Yellow representing different elements of Cao Dai.

Put simply, Cao Dai is a combination of a number of other religions including Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and even a bit of  scientifiic theory…..

The core beliefs of Cao Dai are that before God existed, there was the Tao, that nameless, formless, unchanging, eternal source referenced in the Tao Te Ching. Then, a Big Bang occurred, out of which God was born. The universe could not yet be formed and to do so, God created yin and yang. He took control of yang and shed a part of himself, creating the Goddess (Mother Buddha) to preside over yin. In the presence of yin and yang, the universe was materialized. Caodaiists worship not only God, the father, but also the Goddess.

There are 36 levels of heaven and 72 planets harboring intelligent life, with number one being the closest to heaven and 72 nearest to Hell. Earth is number 68. It is said that even the lowest citizen on planet 67 would not trade place with a king on 68 and so forth.

If you can work all of that out then you deserve to be Number 1 in my book (of life).

Anyway, we visited the noon prayer session in their amazing temple a couple of hours outside of Ho Chi Minh city. It has eyes everywhere and pillars with dragons and a globe of the world and all the followers file in and sing the prayers in ranks to the accompaniment of a traditional Vietnamese ensemble.

Here is a photo of the prayer session underway – Cao Dai prayer session

Apart from the amazing temple and whole scene the other thing I found interesting was that there were as many tourists in the upstairs viewing area watching and taking photo’s (like me). How weird it must be for Cao Dai followers to be practicing what they believe is right yet to have so many onlookers watching them…

Footnote: We’ve found the food in Ho Chi Minh City to be a little more expensive than we expected and each night have looked around for better and cheaper options. On our last night in Vietnam (we leave tomorrow evening for Bangkok then onto Calcutta) we found the best and cheapest place of our visit and it’s vegetarian and run by the Cao Dai group….Unfortunately we had a bit of miscommunication and ended up with 8 dishes for the 4 of us but it was yummy and cheap and we ate it all (and it still came out cheaper than a number of other place we have eaten at). You go Cao Dai chefs!

A perspective from David’s eyes…. 

In the lead up to America (and Australia) entering the Vietnam War (known as the American war in Vietnam and surrounding countries) the the then US Secretary of state publicly stated that (in his words) that if North Vietnam  ‘did not step back’ that America would ‘Blast them into Oblivion’!

 The rest is history so they say but being in Vietnam you certainly get a different version of history than the one I’ve heard all of my life.

 Up front I need to say that it would be hard to convince me of any good reason to go to war and I find the attitude even today of the militarily ‘stronger’ nations of the world including America (with Australia sadly as its back-up), Britain and Israel as standouts to be arrogant and destructive to world peace (irrespective of what they say) and the effects of this live on in Vietnam 24 years after the war ended.

 Part one of our war history lesson started on our first day in Vietnam when we did a walking tour of Ho Chi Minh City. Especially interesting was the war remnants museum (Originally called “The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government of South Vietnam”) which consisted largely of photo’s of the war itself as well as the media’s reflection of the war from around the world. It’s fair to say that the museum was strongly angled from the Communist Vietnamese Government perspective but a picture tells a thousand words so hundreds of pictures of torture, burned villages, maimed and destroyed bodies (more civilians than soldiers) plus more stories about the atrocities and results of the war on the Vietnamese people left me shocked and bemused that any nation could impose such brutality on another…..sadly when reading about the Vietnam war there were too many similarities to the present Iraq war so not only have we done it once, but now again and again!

The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, including 3 to 4 million Vietnamese from both sides (about three quarters civilians), 1.5 to 2 million Laotians and Cambodians (all civilians), and 58,159 U.S. soldiers (plus 500 Australians).

Our war re-education wasn’t complete there however and the next day we headed towards the Cambodian border to the Cu Chi Tunnels.

The Cu Chi district is located 50km from Ho Chi Minh City and is now considered a heroic district for its role in the anti-American war. It is legendary for its tunnels system of approx 250km which was once a ‘Free Target Zone’ (anything that moves is considered enemy and can be killed).

At the Tunnels site we were able to walk around (and through) the original tunnels (40 cm wide by 100cm high) which were built in three layers and operated often right below American troops stationed in the area.

Here are a couple of photo’s from our Visit to Cu Chi:

Luke heads down the tunnel

JM inside the tunnel Viet Cong

While America had the military dominance over the North Vietnamese, the North Vietnamese Army and Navy carried out a somewhat conventional war whilst the Viet Cong waged Guerrilla war using anything at their disposal to protect their land and their nation. They built crude but effective ‘traps’ to catch out roaming American units, they dismantled unexploded bombs and ‘re-made’ them into smaller grenades and bombs to use and they recruited everyone they could (they even had women in the tunnels who sewed uniforms). We saw the ability of the Vietcong and North Vietnamese to defend themselves and their values and in doing that to unite Vietnam into one nation (rather than North and South) and while not everyone may agree with the communist ideology, their dedication to the cause was clear and the result was that in April 1975, North Vietnam captured Saigon. North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year.

Vietnam is a different place….people have a different outlook on life, maybe from knowing and experiencing that it can all be blasted to oblivion so easily but it is clear that the ‘American’ war is still and probably always will be an indelible scar and yet also a badge of honour on the psyche and spirit of the Vietnamese.

Before we left Australia we found an interesting article on the web, about a walking tour of Ho Chi Minh City. It sounded fascinating and since taxi’s and even cyclo’s are relatively expensive we decided to venture out into the traffic and mayhem of the side walks (yes i do mean traffic ON side walk as well) and burn off some of the calories we had for breakfast.

It was a warm morning but not too prohibitive, and the guide book assured us it was an easy stroll.

Fighting the sea of traffic at every crossing, especially navigating the round-about where cars and bikes just mingle into each other from every direction, we headed off to see the sights.

We braved walking into the middle of the mass of bikes and cars, several times, embracing the constant horn honking and smog and intrusion of touts to visit the markets and the War museum.

We still had several sites to visit, but in the end I was too exhausted (and so were the boys) so we headed back to the hostel, defeated by the city!!! Wondering how we will go in India??

Tomorrow we take a deep beath and do it all again. (Stephanie)

One of the things we’re always fascinated by in our travels are the electrical power lines in different places. We’ve seen the ones in Bangkok a few times and wondered how it is that they keep working but Ho Chi Minh City tops even Bangkok with hundreds of power lines mingled together and strung from one pole to the next and to the next.

It’s a strange thing to take photo’s of power lines while you’re on holidays but we couldn’t pass these ones up so click on the links below to take a look and if you’re a keen electrician then we’ll call you next time there’s a fault on ‘the’ line!!

Looking along the line: Click here -> Down the (Power) line

Here’s the junction at the power pole: Click here -> Which wire do I cut?

If you’re in the mood for some other tricky power lines then take a look at these other ones, some which I’ve seen and some I haven’t…Now, which wire do I cut???

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