This month I've been wandering around Vietnam - well up and down actually...
The road from Phnom Penh was very bad but once we crossed in Vietnam they were a lot better. Spent a couple of days in the Mekong Delta, a couple in Saigon (no-one there calls it Ho Chi Minh City) followed by a few days in the hills at Dalat, then bus to Nha-trang (next-the-sea), then Hoi-An (a quaint and sleepy french village [well it was 'til we arrived]), then Hue a large town with some wicked banana pancakes, a long overnight bus ride (16 hours) to Hanoi, 3 days out in the mountains of Halong Bay - I hope you are following all this - and then a train !!! (nearly as bumpy as the bus - but not quite) to Sapa in the far north for a wonderful week and now back in Hanoi. Incidentally, the North may have won the war in 1975 but you would never know it - the South is still much better off.
The Best Bits
I hardly know where to start.....
- Sapa - Originally built as a hill station and still no bigger than a village [and not many tourists !!]. High enough in the mountains (1650m) o have fantastic views of the valley and mountains beyond - the main features here are the rice terraces thousands of them carved from the hilside and the minority people (the name the locals give to the hill tribes; though yes they are very small in height as well) in their traditional dress (which most of them wear all the time - they have no other clothes). And what views from the hotel (see later). I spent 3 days trekking in the steep sided valley where the tribes live and farm those rice terraces - still ploughing the terraces with water buffalo (Oxen). Visted 5 tribes and stayed with 2 of them overnight. But don't drink the rice spirit - especially the sort that has had dead snakes and dead birds in it for a few months/years........ The other few days I just wandered around and sat on my balcony admiring the view.....Incidentally, due to microclimates created by the mountains the warmest and coldest places in Vietnam are up here and just a mountain ridge apart - it is just a little windy over that ridge ....
Halong Bay - Basically rocks sticking up out of the water - very beautiful especially in the mist. What can I say - you just had to be there..........
Mekong Delta - Stayed with a family for 1 night on a small island near Long Xuyen (I can't pronounce it either) where they have not allowed tourists to go before (communist countries and all that) so as soon as we walked / cycled down the street we were surrounded by 20 or thirty locals asking us questions - mostly in Vietnamese (and not asking for money!). The lack of tourism had a helping hand that evening when we wandered into a bar (it was basic but there was a tv on, a few people watching it and a few spare chairs and tables) and after some pointing eventually managed to get across to the owner that we wanted 7 beers (wouldn't have though it would be that difficult to order a drink !). He promptly got on his bike and cycled down the road and bought back some beers! Apparently it wasn't a bar after all - maybe just his front terrace ....... And we went to a real floating market where we were the only tourists (a change from Bangkok).
Dalat - A really offbeat french style chill out spot with a mad monk (who made us paint pictues (mine were awful - but he seem pleased!!)); a crazy lady who has built a small 'hotel' with the rooms inside concrete trees and surrounded by a couple of giraffe and giant spiders; a charming french poet who invited us into his cafe (it really was his front room) and insisted showing us all the articles that had been written about him in the international press (there were many)... And we trekked for 2 days in the jungle......fantastic !
Hoi-An - Delightful little place. It's sooooooooo french - but apart from that it's OK !
My Son - Not a genetic reference (I am more careful than that) but the centree of the Cham empire for 900 years. A very importtant site although thanks to the Americans during the war it is now not as impressive as it once was. When compared to Angkor, it bears some resemblence to a pile of bricks......
Beer - not a place but a drink. The local stuff (drinkable) here costs US10cents (UK 7p)for half a pint. It really is cheaper than the drinking water !!!!!! but you have to drink it in the street ..... not that it matters where you start, you will probably end up in the gutter....
The bad bits...
- Crossing the road in Saigon. Ther are 2 million motos (motorbikes) in Saigon and they are all out to get you (I mean me)!!!!! Actually the best way to cross the road is simply to not look and just walk slowly across and they will all drive round you and each other (in theory). Actually I didn't see any accidents in the south of Vietnam although in the north (where there are less motos) I have seen loads - several requiring an ambulance....
- Cheap CDs - Including all your favorites - they cost about US$0.8 each (less than 60p). Unfortunately they have tracks missing and those that are there often get stuck. They look pretty though ! (Someone told me thay might be pirates.....surely not..)
- Loudspeakers - If you thought that Government broadcasts across the whole country getting people to work harder, only have a max. of 2 children etc. only happened in '1984' then think again !!! 1 hour twice a day they blare out the good communism message. Fortunately the loadspeakers have been removed from most of the areas populated by tourists (so we won't know anything about it....)
- The one pillar pogoda - Possibly the most dissapointing tourist attraction since Copenhagen's little mermaid and that peeing boy in Brussels. 'Rabbit hutch on a stick' it should be called..... but then again it was built about 1000 years ago....Oh... no .. it was completely destroyed by the French (!)and they actually rebuilt it in concrete about 20 years ago....delightful!
- Getting dragged down some rapids (unintentionally) near Sapa and then dragged under by the current just as I was abut to hit a huge rock. It's like white water rafting all over again, but without the safety boats! Not recommended !
- Saying 'Hello' - (This represents half my Vietnamese volcabulary). I had been using this phrase for a couple of weeks, much to the amusment of some Vietnamese, when I was told that tones are very important in Vietnamese and that the 2nd half of the phrase (sin jhow) needs to be pronouned with a falling tone. I think that I was pronouncing it with a rising tone .... meaning 'rice soup '!!!!! No wonder they laughed!
That's enough of Vietnam for me, now I'm off on a 24 hour bus ride from Hanoi to Vientiane in Lao (where the roads are worse (?) than Cambodia's).However, I will remember the views of Sapa from my hotel balcony for a long time....(like Swizerland only with rice terraces)...'...below me the rugged hills are covered with pine forests and dotted with 'chalets', supported by stacks of almost endless layers of rice terraces carved into the landscape in sweeping geometric patterns. Opposite a thin layer of cloud slides silently down the valley gently dusting each hilltop. Above the cloud a dark mountain ridge dominates the valley silhouetted against a blue sky sprinkled with white and black clouds calmly reddening in the setting sun and yet cooled by the chill of the mountain air.....Well that's enough of that poetic stuff .. I'm off to read Homer's 'Odyssey' and 'The Iliad'...........
By the way Vietnam was great !
LuvPete
Saturday 31 March 2001
Monday 5 March 2001
Where 5 Phnom Penh, Cambodia --OR-- Wat No Angkor
Hi Everyone,
Since last email (Hong Kong) I have moved to hotter and much cheaper
countries - both good news - however there are some downsides..... I spent
a couple of weeks in Bangkok (which was far too long but I had to sort out
visas for Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos) and then travelled by bus to Cambodia,
first to Siem Reap to see the temples at Angkor and then by boat to Phnom
Penh......
The good bits
- The temples at Angkor are incredible, of excellent quality and varied in style. Built by the
Khmer people as their capital city from 9th - 14th century only the temples
remain (only gods could live in stone buildings (temples) so all other
buildings were wooden and have long gone).
The crowning glory is Angkor Wat (the outline of the central towers appears
on the Cambodian flag [with which you are all no doubt familiar : )) ]which
is an incredible building (built 1113 - 1150 AD). It is surronded by a moat
200m wide and 5.5km long; the central building contains 3 levels and 1200sq
metres of stone carvings depicting legends and stories of the time. It is
in almost perfect condition despite the years and wars which have ravaged
the coutry. Said by some to be the greatest building ever conceived by the
human mind - the scale is awesome and the balance is perfect - it flows with the surrounding jungle... inspirational.
Definitely worth 3 days of my time and undoubtedly a highlight of the whole
trip.
- The Royal Palace in Bangkok - choc full of ornate and colourful temples,
chedis and monsters (guarding it all).
- Lying down buddha 46m long with feet 3m by 5m - and it was probably solid
gold .... or maybe it was painted gold .... or maybe you see so many gold
buddhas that after a while it doesn't really matter..... interestingly the
most sacred buddah in the whole of Thailand (in Royal Palace) in only about
1m tall - Even in Bangkok size isn't everything !!
- Talking to some monks at a temple in Bangkok about how they live their
life and ending up talking about Premiership football - thankfully none of
them supported ManU...
- The other travellers I have met - sometimes insane but always interesting
....... (like the Irish farmer who has been travelling for 4.5 years in an
effort to take a picture of his son's rabbit outside each of the famous
sights in the world before his son graduates from college ..... he claims to
have visited over 150 countries..)
The bad bits
- traffic in Bangkok is simply a nightmare - just trying to cross the main
roads is enough to have you certified insane and takes 10 mins - it's
quicker to take a taxi just to cross !! And Phnom Penh is nearly as bad -
few cars but an incredible no. of scooters/motorbikes. Incidentally
Cambodia is the 12th country I have been to this trip but the first place
where they drive on the right ..... not that you would notice !!
- Bangkok is just not a nice place!
- The number of cockroaches in my room. The Thai's get there own back by
frying and eating them.... no I didn't !
- The seedy side is alive and kicking - well I had to make sure it was still
there - girls wandering around in their 'night attire' entertaining the guys
(you really can do that with a string of razor blades)...and on a personal
level...No I didn't !
- Cock fighting - actually I meant the animals - possibly legal and
certainly common - but not very pleasant.
- The roads in Cambodia - they have no roads just dirt tracks with huge
holes in them - it took over 7 hours to go 152km - and it was not
comfortable !!!
The other bits
- The Killing Fields - A mass grave and a monument to the 1 million Cambodians murdered by Khmer Rouge (their own people) 1975-9 made of human skulls (they had a lot of them lying around...)
- S-21 A former school where the Khmer Rouge tortured thousands of people
before killing all but about 7 of them. Perfectly preserved (down to the 'tools' used) it
looks like it could have been used the day before I visited - a disturbing
place made worse by the pictures on the walls of each of the (short term)
occupants - men, women and children....
Next ... Out of here (on a terrible road) to Vietnam and HoChiMin City
(Saigon) ....
For those in UK, I hope the weather isn't getting you down in the foot and mouth too much.
Best Wishes
LuvPete
Since last email (Hong Kong) I have moved to hotter and much cheaper
countries - both good news - however there are some downsides..... I spent
a couple of weeks in Bangkok (which was far too long but I had to sort out
visas for Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos) and then travelled by bus to Cambodia,
first to Siem Reap to see the temples at Angkor and then by boat to Phnom
Penh......
The good bits
- The temples at Angkor are incredible, of excellent quality and varied in style. Built by the
Khmer people as their capital city from 9th - 14th century only the temples
remain (only gods could live in stone buildings (temples) so all other
buildings were wooden and have long gone).
The crowning glory is Angkor Wat (the outline of the central towers appears
on the Cambodian flag [with which you are all no doubt familiar : )) ]which
is an incredible building (built 1113 - 1150 AD). It is surronded by a moat
200m wide and 5.5km long; the central building contains 3 levels and 1200sq
metres of stone carvings depicting legends and stories of the time. It is
in almost perfect condition despite the years and wars which have ravaged
the coutry. Said by some to be the greatest building ever conceived by the
human mind - the scale is awesome and the balance is perfect - it flows with the surrounding jungle... inspirational.
Definitely worth 3 days of my time and undoubtedly a highlight of the whole
trip.
- The Royal Palace in Bangkok - choc full of ornate and colourful temples,
chedis and monsters (guarding it all).
- Lying down buddha 46m long with feet 3m by 5m - and it was probably solid
gold .... or maybe it was painted gold .... or maybe you see so many gold
buddhas that after a while it doesn't really matter..... interestingly the
most sacred buddah in the whole of Thailand (in Royal Palace) in only about
1m tall - Even in Bangkok size isn't everything !!
- Talking to some monks at a temple in Bangkok about how they live their
life and ending up talking about Premiership football - thankfully none of
them supported ManU...
- The other travellers I have met - sometimes insane but always interesting
....... (like the Irish farmer who has been travelling for 4.5 years in an
effort to take a picture of his son's rabbit outside each of the famous
sights in the world before his son graduates from college ..... he claims to
have visited over 150 countries..)
The bad bits
- traffic in Bangkok is simply a nightmare - just trying to cross the main
roads is enough to have you certified insane and takes 10 mins - it's
quicker to take a taxi just to cross !! And Phnom Penh is nearly as bad -
few cars but an incredible no. of scooters/motorbikes. Incidentally
Cambodia is the 12th country I have been to this trip but the first place
where they drive on the right ..... not that you would notice !!
- Bangkok is just not a nice place!
- The number of cockroaches in my room. The Thai's get there own back by
frying and eating them.... no I didn't !
- The seedy side is alive and kicking - well I had to make sure it was still
there - girls wandering around in their 'night attire' entertaining the guys
(you really can do that with a string of razor blades)...and on a personal
level...No I didn't !
- Cock fighting - actually I meant the animals - possibly legal and
certainly common - but not very pleasant.
- The roads in Cambodia - they have no roads just dirt tracks with huge
holes in them - it took over 7 hours to go 152km - and it was not
comfortable !!!
The other bits
- The Killing Fields - A mass grave and a monument to the 1 million Cambodians murdered by Khmer Rouge (their own people) 1975-9 made of human skulls (they had a lot of them lying around...)
- S-21 A former school where the Khmer Rouge tortured thousands of people
before killing all but about 7 of them. Perfectly preserved (down to the 'tools' used) it
looks like it could have been used the day before I visited - a disturbing
place made worse by the pictures on the walls of each of the (short term)
occupants - men, women and children....
Next ... Out of here (on a terrible road) to Vietnam and HoChiMin City
(Saigon) ....
For those in UK, I hope the weather isn't getting you down in the foot and mouth too much.
Best Wishes
LuvPete
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