CAMBODIA - VIETNAM 2011
Finally On Our Way
Sitting on an airport bench and trying to sleep .. does not succeed! The airport’s loudspeaker system is constantly calling out new flights with 2-3 minute intervals and considering that we will be here for 8 hours, it will be a long night.
The flight from Stockholm, Arlanda was intresting. The old coupel next to us had “a bit” to much to drink and at the end they were basically crazy. The old lady started to hit her husband (or whatever he was unlucky to be) as she loudly repeated the word “fuck”. But when a passenger, also an old lady, shouted to the the drunk woman that she was embarrassing har native country it actually calmed down. After she had taken a cuple more sips of the drinking she, to Janne unpleasenet, startad to conversating him instead. Hiyaa:)
Now the loudspeaker is relatively quiet, but instead the Vietnamese family next to us has their annual “who-talks-loudest” competition. I have to give them credit for the “give it all in” attidude.
The flight from Stockholm, Arlans was intresting. The old coupel next to us had “a bit” to much to drink and at the end they were basically crazy. The old lady started to hit her husband (or whatever he was unlucky to be) as she loudly repeated the word “fuck”. But when a passenger, also an old lady, shouted to the the drunk woman that she was embarrassing har native country it actually calmed down. After she had taken a cuple more sips of the drinking she, to Janne unpleasenet, startad to conversating him instead. Hiyaa:)
Now the loudspeaker is relatively quiet, but instead the Vietnamese family next to us has their annual “who-talks-loudest” competition. I have to give them credit for the “give it all in” attidude.
First Impression Saigon
We’re back at Hotel Hai Long in District 1, Saigon. Except a minor problem with the visa, the trip from Doha went as planned. After some language difficulties, a generally disinterested visa administrator and 45 minutes of waiting for better times, it turned out that we didn`t need a visa. The uniformed inspector could have said that a little earlier…
Once in Saigon, we were met by a traffic chaos that was like a marathon start … but with motorbikes.
In Saigon, only cowards ride alone on the motorbikes. Ideally, the WHOLE family should ride along. Given the traffic, I understand that they have little else to choose from, but however, I find it strange that 98% of the adults wear helmets while almost 100% of the children doesn´t.
We are quite tired and I´m not in shape for any longer diary entry.
So… Over and out from Saigon.
Ambulances in Saigon
This trip´s first visit to an ambulance service. Unfortunately the staff only spoke vietnamese and my skills in understanding vietnamese are less then nill…
Welcome To Cambodia
Back at the hotel Terrasse des Elephantes. First hotel I have ever stayed in with its own fountain in the room! It is about 2.5 x 1m with a built-in waterfall flanked by a shower and a sink. It`s really nice but I wish it was possible to turn off the dripping …
Otherwise, it is a completely different pace here in Cambodia compared to Saigon, but unfortunately also a more visible downside with beggars and outcasts.
The most fun today was the passport control at the airport. When applying for a visa, you come to a large oval wooden counter, at least 7-8 meters long, and behind there is 15 gentlemen in a row, all with respectable uniforms. After figuring out how the system works, passports with accompanying documentation are submitted to the uniform on the far left. He then sends the passport to the man next door who then in turn forwards it to the man next door who then … When the passport has been inspected and nailed by these fifteen people, it is returned to the far right. Admittedly went pretty fast but still …
The dinner in town went loose at 28 Skr – incl beer :-).
Tomorrow will be Tomb Raider!
A Lot Of Stones In Angkor
Again a little too tired and drunk to write in the diary but I’ll give it a try… Today we’ve seen a hell of a lot of rocks piled on each other. The first place we were at was Angkor Vat. Angkor Vat is not possible to describe with words and photos will never be able to describe the awesome feeling you get when you see it IRL.
On the walls of the temple were several of hinduism’s stories chiselled out. Our guide told us how they in the 12th century had carved out the history of Hanuman and his monkey army on the temple walls. It got a little odd when I told the guide that we also have temples from the same time. Didn’t feel like he thought that or village church from 11th century was the same….
Given that the stairs up to the temples had a step height of half a meter and only 20 cm depth and that the Khmer´s on the reliefs had ears that went deep down their necks, they must have had a strange body constitution with long legs, small feet and large ears:)
Honestly, I was really impressed with Angkor. OK that the ruins are not so incredibly old but the size ….In this case size matters!
We persuaded the driver, for an extra $10, to drive past Western Baray before we started back to the hotel. Western Baray is an excavated basin that the Khmer´s used to replenish their water irrigation system during the dry season. Monstrously big! In addition, there is also an Eastern Baray.
Started the day with more temples, but this time with a tuk tuk (in Siem Reap it means motorbike with a sulky after). The driver was the brother of a fixer (read drug dealer) who we met the night before…
The evening ended with Cambodian beer tasting and pickpockets who looked like joy girls but who according to the tuk-tuk driver were ladyboys!
Almost forgot about Janne’s charity project. He accompanied one of the begging children into a shop to buy the milk substitutes she demanded. Good intentions but poor results. The shopkeeper had doubled the price and the girl’s “mother” resold the can on the black market… The evening’s word of wisdom: Be sober if you’re going to devote yourself to charity. Overall, it’s probably a good idea to be sober.
Ambulances in Siem Reap
The personnel was proud over their vehicles even thou the ambulances mostly looked like something from the Antiques Roadshow and the equipments condition hade “some flaws”.
Respect for the job they do! I wonder if I would manage to work here?
Be Aware Of The Landmines
The museum was a 1.5-hour tuktuk ride from the last stone heap and was not very large. The founder of the museum, Aki Ra, had himself defused 50,000 mines. Respect! If we have a limited amount of luck, maybe he should cut back on business… Over 10 years, the US bombed an average of 1 bomb every four minutes, causing 600,000 deaths in Cambodia. They also left behind scores of mines as the Vietnamese chased them out of the country. There are over 5 million mines left in the ground around the cities.
No wonder Aki Ra is a hero!
No Fish
The other day we talked about the Chinese saying ‘don’t give a fish to a hungry, teach him to fish’. Janne made practice of the theory and bought a fishing rod with associated fishing hauls to our tuktuk driver. In exchange he would show us a place to fish. He took us home to his house 5 kilometers outside SR.
He had arranged for his brother to come and meet us on an extra motorbike so they could take us out into the rice fields. It wasn’t the safest trip I’ve made, but it´s just to take it as it comes… A short distance out in the fields there were a couple of ponds belonging to his family. In these ponds, he and his 75-year-old father had A LOT of fish! At first we thought it was a fish farm but it turned out that the rice fields were part of the large Lake Ton Sap lake which once a year is flooded up to 4 times its normal surface area. When the water then flows back, the fish are caught in these ponds.
Of course the fishing resulted in the same way as it always doesL The fact that I fish in a pond with 50,000 fish on an area of a hockey field didn’t seem to matter. After quite a lot of help, our driver and his brother were able to handle the reel by themself. The “project” was really successful, partly because they appreciated the equipment but at least as much because we took the time to see something outside “the Tourist trail”. Most tourists take either “Little Round”, “Big Round” or at best both. When he left us at the hotel, he was sincerely grateful even though he got a flat tire 1 meter from the entrance. A little special for us, was that the mother (60+) waded around among reeds and other undetectable green things and collected kingsize snails, while the old man lay and trudged in the hammock.
We finished the evening in a slow tempo with grilled crocodile(!) and a visit to the nightmarket.
Common Cambodian evening phrases: Do you want marijuana? opium? Come inside and look! Just one dollar! Special Prize for You, sir!
Tomorrow it’s Pnom Penh. Nighty night:)
On The Road To Pnom Penh
We made a short stop in a small village about 10 minutes west of Kompong Thom. Bought 2 packet of cigarettes, a bunch of bananas, 3 small bags of chips, 3 sodas and 2 freshly squeezed sugar cane drinks. Paid less than 10000 Riel = 16 SEK… (less than 2$).
After an exciting traffic day, we´re finally in Pnom Penh. The taxi ride that would take about 4 hours took almost 6 hours. On the way here we saw a lot of crazy things in the traffic. The number one of craziness was probably when I saw a monkey hanging at the back of a cars roof behind some boxes at about 80 km/h. On the roof of a Toyota Camry! After that, I thought I’d seen most of it, but 10 kilometers later we met a man in a Buddha position on top of the roof of a Toyota Hiace…. The traffic police in Stockholm would have night mares if they knew what the traffic is like here.
Once here in PP, we enter the 4-star hotel that`s full of Asian businessmen, with our military backpacks and more than little dust on our clothes. Felt a bit like redneck camper´s trying to check in on a Chateau De Lux in France and I don´t think my “Angkor beer” T-shirt made it better.
After dumping the bags, we went into the city chaos to eat. Found a place that served amazing shrimp in pepper and garlic. The one-legged old beggar who stood and psycho-glared at me 10 meters from the table did make it a bit less amazing… The beggars are tearing on your conscience. Hard to know when to give and when not to give but I guess there problems are greater than mine..
After this, we met a tuk tuk driver (seems to be by far the best way to meet the “ordinary people”) who drove us to the, according to Lonely Planet, best market in PP. We were there at 4:55 and it closed at 5:00. Funny… not!
After this, the tuk tuk driver wanted to be nice and drive us to some local place instead, resulting in a 20-minute “I-have-never-been-so-pee-nut-tuk-tuk” ride. As the suspicious tourists we are we thought he was going to drive us to some “lady” place or possibly rob us because we didn’t know where we were or where we were going. Once there however, it turned out to be a well-visited khmer restaurant without a single foreigner as far as the eye could reach. The food was great and the atmosphere among the regulars at the top. The evening ended in a pub next to Pnom Penh’s nightmarket. At the bar, after a long period of bargaining with the bartender, I managed to buy off some of the interior. Well… interior maybe an exaggeration for a Angkor Beer bar runner. But it was a f…ing cool bar runnerJ Tomorrow it will be some contemporary dark history.
Good night from Pnom Penh!
The best beer in South East Asia. At least for today:)
A Heavy Day On The Killing Field and Security Office 21 (S-21)
Now we know how to get to Vietnam. It was just to buy a boat ticket in the lobby. We still don’t know what river we’re going to travel on, but the ticket says we’re going to get to Chau Doc, so I’m sure it’ll be all right.
Today we visited the Killing Fields and Security Office 21 (S-21). It wasn’t exactly a merry event. At Killing fields 10,000 people was executed during the Khmer Rouge era. The Khmer’s then dug large pits where they threw down the bodies and to be on the safe side they poured chemicals onto the corpses in case it was anyone who survived. With the monsoon rains, skeletons and old clothes are “pushed” back onto the ground. When you walked between the graves, pieces of fabric stuck up in several places, even teeth lay a little here and there.
But how did it feel to be there? It is, just now immediately afterwards, difficult to sort out the feeling. It´s strange that it has turned out to be like a tourist trap, but I think it is important that everyone, whit their own eyes, can see what happens if you let the madness take root. A sign at the site says:
”…making the crimes of the inhuman regime of Khmer Rouge public plays crucial role in preventing new Pol Pot from emerging in the lands of Angkor or anywhere on Earth.”
S21 was even worse than Killing Fields! S21 was the Khmer Rouge’s largest prison for dissidents and in the less than 4 years it was in operation, 20,000 people were imprisoned. Men, women and children. Only 7 survived!
The Khmer Rouge photographed all the victims at the time of their imprisonment, and in many cases, after they were tortured and killed. These photos are preserved and are now on display in the museum. Row after row of faces of people who after the photograph was taken were tortured to death with tools taken from the Middle Ages. The Khmer Rouge couldn’t afford to waste ammunition, so instead they used alternative methods such as swinging babies with their heads first against a tree or simply hitting iron pipes in the heads of the prisoners. There were images of a variety of alternative torture methods, but what touched us the most, were the photos of the prisoners before they were tortured. Did they know what was going to happen? Some of the prisoners seem to smile, while others have a facial expression as if they understood. There were pictures of children the same age as my own. How could this happen? How could this place that used to be a school turn into a human slaughterhouse?
Being here gives a feeling of guilt. Especially considering that similar monstrosities occurs in other places in the world. Even at the moment I write this…
After the excursion to the Killing Fields and the S21, the mood wasn’t exactly meery, but after a few beers we managed to shake off the worst (Not!) . The evening then ended with a dinner along the sidewalk for 16 SKR (2$) per person, incl beer! Speaking of traffic, I quote the Borgs: ”Surrender! Resistance is futile!”
Down The River
Tonight’s a short diary! We traveled with Delta Adventures from Pnom Penh to Chau Doc, Vietnam and then 4 hours in a Ford Transit van to Can Tho. The Ford Transit was about the same size as one of our ambulances so when they pushed 23 people into the bus it became … eh… crowded! The lack of AC and the clearly suspicious company on my right side did not make the trip any shorter. Not that I have homophobia, but when the guy next to me says that I’m “handsome” and also more or less flaunts himself in the seat, I began to sense trouble.
Halfway through the Mekong River, we had to change boats. This was done on a “Robinson Island” in the middle of the river and we were sent ashore to meet the locals. Didn’t seem like they’ve met a lot of Westerners before and after Janne invited the kids to Swedish liquorice candy, I’m not so sure they wants to meet any more Westerners 🙂 The main job of the population was to make noodles, so now we know where the “Noodle Island” is located.
When we arrive in Chau Doc, a guy with a bike met up to take us to the bus station (incidentally, the bus had been waiting for us for an hour and the passengers didn’t look happy). Me, Janne and our luggage weighed at least 220 kg together and the cyclist had to cycle about 5 km! The bike looked like the Cambodian tuk tuk motorbikes but without an engine…
The evening ended as always with beer, but this time together with the local fast food. Bread with what looked like a cross between jelly pudding and liver paste, as well as a f…ing lot of chili. Not the best food but probably better than “Field Mouse” which was also on the menu.
Tomorrow the wakeup call is at 5:00. Then we’re going to the floating market.
Good night from room 31B
The wake-up call from the lobby failed, but we had been wise enough to set our own alarms before we went to bed. The reason for the missed call was obvious when we came down to the lobby, where the hotel staff were snoring on tent beds. When they were woken up, they were fumbling around the lobby without seeming to grasp anything, so it was sheer luck that the boat owner, who was going to take us out to the floating market, managed to identify us without the help of the hotel staff.
We went on a small boat (really smal) for about 30 minutes before we came out to the market. There were boats in long rows with fruits and flowers of all kinds. Each boat appeared to be loaded with only one product, e.g. 5000 melons or 2 tons of onions, etc.. The smaller boats then zigzagged between tourists, larger boats and the cooling water of passing boats. The cooling water on the larger boats sprayed out directly sideways and at about the same height as the rail on our boat, which Janne gained practical experience of. We believe that the market served as a central point for purchasing, where every “farm” could sell off products to buyers who then resold it to local markets in the city.
After the floating market we thought the boat would return to the hotel, but no such luck. The old lady driving the boat continued for at least 45 minutes in the wrong direction. We thought there would be more markets… But that was not the case! Instead, we ended up on a fruit farm. The woman stopped in the middle of a shrubbery along the river. Not a house visible in any direction and only a clay path up on land from the boat. At the end of this path there was an ordinary Vietnamese house with an elderly gentleman in his 70s. This was apparently a fruit plantation where they grew a fruit they called Brothel (or maybe there was some problem with his pronunciation). They arranged a fruit parties with drinks while his daughter walked around with a basket containing bracelets, postcards, etc that they trudged us to buy. The bill was unreasonable, of course, but what would we do? Then when the lady driving the boat started to lay on us various jewelry that she made in reeds, our patience ran out. This time there was no tip!
Time For Some Rest
The trip to Pooh Quoc went without any problems. When we were sitting at the beach drinking beer, the same Danes we met yesterday showed up at the same hotel. What’s the chance of that? The evening ended at the local billiards (sauna) club. The pool table was in a small room with an open wall in one direction. The fact that it was open didn’t make the heat in there any less bearable so it was really like playing billiards in a Finnish sauna. Which, of course, was the reason why I lost.
Tjingeling from Kim Hoa Resort
Phu Quoc Trail
Tonight we were back in the hotel room as early as 10:30 pm! We’re a little tender after today’s activities. This morning we were up at 9 am, had a pretty lousy breakfast, and then rented two muscle bikes. Well, if we´re honest, it actually was two 80 cc scooters… Janne had to take the one named Yamaha Sirius because I refused. Felt like a bad omen to drive a scooter with the same name as one of our competing companies in Sweden.
Then it carried away. The scooters were easily good for 80-90 km/h which is quite fast on Vietnamese roads! The distance we drove was probably about 100 km all in all. It was mainly a distance of about 10 km that was completely undriveable. The monsoon rains had washed away large parts of the road, which then were repaired with braided bamboo mats. It was OK as long as mats were on solid ground but when even the “bridges” they were on was made of the same material 90 kg Swede began to get worried. In short, it was an enduro track! When we got through the worst and I proudly realized that I had made it through alive, we met an old lady. Heading the other way with her overloaded scooter!
I had company last night… of 2000 thousand mosquitos! When I woke up, my legs were bright red, swollen and warm. Every mosquito bite had become inflamed and itched as hell. Janne suggested amputation which felt like a reasonable option. We already had a suitable knife.
Today we met two Dutchmen who also went on the same boat from Pnom Penh. It’s kind of odd that you run into each other again like that.
Tomorrow it’s Puh Quoc by water
Why You Should Choose A Professional Snorkling Agency...
Tonight we got back to the hotel a bit (!) later than yesterday…
We started the day by renting scooters to drive down to the southern part of the island where the best snorkeling waters should be located. When we got there, we didn’t really know how to fix a boat with snorkeling equipment, but after asking some card-playing dockworkers, we got in touch with an old lady in the area who could fix what we needed. After various “yama, yama” on her part and sign language from ours, we understood that “yama” means “500,000 dong, no problem”! She got her money and then jumped on a scooter and dusted off. We were still standing there and didn’t really understand what we were paying for. After 5-10 minutes she came back with cyclops and snorkels (for information, one cyclops was full of black mold, but what to do). We jumped on a small boat (kind of the same as in Can Tho) and were driven out about 20-30 minutes from the port. The conditions were not completely optimal because it blew some and therefore was quite bumpy, but the jellyfishes was the biggest problem. When we jumped in the water and then got the cyclops on, we discovered he had dumped us in the middle of a jellyfish extravaganza. Not nice! Janne kind of got… panic! He was up in the boat faster than you might say jellyfish. In the next place we stopped, it was all right. We saw a lot of nice fishes, so the trip out was absolutely worth the trouble.
When we got back to the hotel, we understood why so many Vietnamese drive with long-sleeved shirts… Oh, hell, how burned our arms were! A top-notch farmer´s burn! After the scooter ride we needed to cool off and have a beer, so we headed down to the beach. There we met German Marcus which resulted in 4 hours of constant beer drinking… Hence the relatively low quality of this evening’s notes. As a family destination, this island is great because nightlife = zero..
Time for some water… Nighty night!
May or may not be a slipper lobster. If I didn`t now better I would have thought it was a big waterliving woodlouse. It tasted ok though:)
Today is the last day on Phu Quoc Island and it’s been a five-star soft day! In principle, the day could be summed up in two words: ‘beach and beer’ but I will make an attempt to fill out the text a little more than that. Most of the day was spent, as above suggests, in various beach pubs with quick dips in the sea. We were joined by Marcus, but I’m starting to miss the kids. It would really have been fun to roam the beach with them! And, yes, Janne has now officially earned a new nickname. After eating his 15:th meal of prawns he now can be called The Shrimp😊
We didn´t ride to the airport with the island’s best taxi driver… Although we were picked up at the hotel with full packing and repeating the word “airport” 10 times he had some minor (!) problems to understand where we were going. We combined our more an more louder “airport” with hand and arm movements and associated sounds to symbolize an aircraft. When this didn’t work, we tried to draw an airplane. It didn’t help either, so in the end he called someone on his mobile who, with the help of our cries from the back seat, understood where we were going. The worst part, however, was that his driving was worse than his English…
Back in Saigon
In our case, “Happy Ending” means we’re finally back at the hotel. Now we have been in Saigon about 10 hours and it feels like we have walked several miles. I finally found a present, though Janne thought I was “Stupid Tourist” who went for the price, but considering the starting price was $35 and I gave $10, it could have been worse… Even if I gave a overprice for the Ed Hardy shirt, you can’t complain about the prices for glasses here. Prices are a quarter of the prices in Sweden and they are delivered in less than 24 hours. After our “shopaholic”, we walked around the whole of Saigon before we managed to find some nightlife. It became nightlife with a big N! We walked into a place that appeared to be Saigon’s hottest playboy disco. They played techno on a level I haven’t heard since I was 20… We lasted about 3 hours before we raged back to the hotel 😉 It’s 1:54 a.m. and it feels like my diary always conflicts with my need for sleep…
P.S Outside the disco, there were 4-5 kids aged 7-8 trying to sell chewing gum and smoking. It gives you a little perspective on things. D.S
Back at the hotel after a visit to a “meat market”. A place called “Apocalypse now” which according to the guidebooks is one of the oldest nightlife spots in Saigon. From what we could perceive, it was a different variant of the ordinary markets, with the only difference being that it was “services” that were for sale.
Today I have chased thru half of Saigon for gifts to my family and since the list was quite extensive, it was a pretty tough task. Kind of impossible! Firstly, I had to decide whether one of the millions of purses was stylish or not, and secondly, get into something that felt like a part of the haggling world championships. Unfortunately, my “haggle talent” is not so well developed and theoretical knowledge does not seem to be enough. Even Janne made a bad deal. He teased me because I bought an Ed Hardy sweater for $9, even though, according to him, it would only cost $2-3. Guess who came out with two identical sweaters for $8 each.
Sleep well!
After walking even further today, we are finally at the pool! Soon we’ll be able to compete at the power walking Olympics. We’ve been searching up and down the streets for a market that sells old military stuff and after a bit of luck we finally found it. There wasn’t much to buy thou the most of the gadgets were bulky and heavy but we found some cool old US military patches.
P.S
My $7 shoes that I bought in Cambodia have changed shape. Instead of an even and smooth sole, it has become something like the shape of a waffle iron and given the distances we have walked, my feet are starting to long for a pair of good Swedish boots.
D.S
Been to the night market and bought a Patek Phillipe watch for $10. Probably not worth more than $2… Already in the hotel room, the chrome begins to fall off and one of the buttons starts to malfunction 🙁 The seller’s “high quality” and “very expensive” are no longer as convincing.
It was very interesting to watch when they opened up the market. Imagine the biggest flea market you can think of, all the motorcycles you’ve seen in the last 5 years and a rooster being chased around by the staff, then you will be quite close to the reality. In the midst of this chaos they serve shrimp, eels and toads that were available in different aquariums (alive). Today was an all-time high in terms of expensive dinner. The whole dinner went for 1.3 million!
On the way home from the market we saw 4 fat rats, so maybe tomorrow it will be “city mouse” instead…
Claustrophobia In Chi Chu
We have been picked up at the hotel by a guide with a driver and are on our way to the Chi Chu tunnels. A pretty luxurious Toyota, so it feels totally OK. Our female guide Maj is one of a kind! Hard to know what to think, she is quite speedy but nice! They seem to have a different way of talking about things here. In Sweden, people do not like to talk about their finances, but she has already reported on student loans, rent, etc. and that she needs the tip to get by. Besides, we had a sudden singing performance in the car. You can’t help but like her spontaneity:)
Today we have been visiting parts of the 25km long tunnel system in Chu Ci. The system was built between 1948 and 1975 and housed the Viet Cong. There were everything from hospital wings to large kitchens underground. Most of them were copies of these halls, but above ground. According to May (our guide) 1,500 soldiers are still missing. Some of these are likely to remain in the tunnel system.
You can as a tourist, with a guide, crawl around in the tunnels. So when we were asked, “How far into the tunnels do you want to go?”. I said: “How far can we?”. So after marking that this is a piece of a cake for a Swede, it carried down into the system. The guide and Janne squirreled away like little rats. Then I was left behind! I realized it takes more than one beer to get over your mental limits. It felt disturbed impossible to go through, so I crawled out again after half a meter…
After Janne shot with a M16 and hit 5 of 5 possible goals, we made another tunnel attempt. The guide showed me to the beginner tunnel which was only about 10 meters long and a bit wider than the other tunnels and this time it actually went well. So I got to keep at least some of my honor…
Happy New Year And Good Bye
We’ve been celebrating New Year’s with 1 million Vietnamese! They follow the Chinese calendar and celebrate New Year on February 2. They have made gigantic flower arrangements out on the main street, which ALL Saigon residents have to visit, as well as being photographed in front.
Bar hopping in Saigon isn´t like in Sweden. The closest bar is where at the closest portable cooler and if you´re lucky there will be some plastic chairs. Really likable:)
A big thank you to all fantastic Vietnamese and Combodian locals we met during our trip. It was faboulus!
See you again!
