Friday, February 27, 2004

Loving Cambodia - only 8hrs in


We have safely crossed the border - Yippee, and have arrived in the vibrant city of Phnom Penh.

We had a fabulous dinner tonight at the Friends restarant. The restaurant is part of a non-profit organization to help street children, their families and the community. The food was absolutely mouth watering, and the service amazing (all the kids working there are very proffessional). A good cause for a big splurge (expensive for us at $13), of 6 tapas dishes, a passionfruit/watermelon ice smoothie and a strawberry lassi (yoghurt drink) and dessert!! delicious food!

Tomorrow we plan to head into remote north eastern cambodia (Ratanakiri province.) We will stay in luxury for a few days (for our wedding anniversary - seeing as we were on a crappy tour for the real date) at the Terre Rouge Lodge
(sorry the website is in french!)

People here are so friendly. Today we were looking into how to get north (at the local bus station) and multiple people tried to help us, they all speak pretty good english and all were giving us REAL information!!! I'm so happy to be in Cambodia!

The weather here is hot, hot, hot. It must be 90 (35) and 99% humidity. Hopefully it'll be cooler in the north east (mountainous) - it really is way too hot here - unbearable.

Thoughts on Vietnam (read at your own risk)


We were absolutely fed up with the Vietnamese people (well, to be fair - the ones who are in contact with tourists, as I think the general public are actually quite friendly). We feel that we are constantly being lied to, and no one will ever give you information or even converse with you unless they are planning on selling to you. They are aggressive and rude. People who like it here defend them by saying 2 things:

1. The reason they are so pushy is because they're poor.
2. The reason they are so pushy is because their country is being over-run with package tourism.

After travelling through Thailand and Laos we can rebutt both of these points. The people in Thailand are still friendly even though they have the most package tourism in all of SE asia, and in Laos the people are so incredibly poor, but they don't try to sell all the time, they are incredibly warm friendly people.

Of course another reason for the Vietnamese behavior could be that they secretly still hate all Westerners because of the past couple of centuries of colonialism, imperialism, and war. So we can't blame them entirely.

To summarize, the good things about travelling in Vietnam:
1. Halong Bay (amazing kayaking)
2. Shopping in Hoi Ann
3. The war museum in Saigon

The rest can be skipped, as there are way too many countries in the world to visit with welcoming, friendly people. There is no need to waste your time in Vietnam.

Mekong Delta


After trying to be independent and get away from the tourist trap, we decided to opt for the package tour in order to get the hell out of this country asap! The 3 day tour was rush rush rush, but we did get to see some cool things; how they make rice noodles, dehusking, polishing and drying of rice (I never realised that white rice is simply polished brown rice!), a floating vegetable market, a tropical fruit orchard, a coconut candy making factory (yum yum), a crocodile farm and then finally an interesting temple almost at the border, and a fish farm. Yes, our days were rather full!

We were kind of dissappointed finding that the Mekong Delta is so heavily populated and developed. In fact the city of Can Tho (which we thought was a town) has a population of 2.5million people!! That's about 2/3d's that of NZ!!

We would not recommend our tour company (Buffalo Tours), but after talking to people who did the same tour with other companies, I don't think we'd recommend any of them. They're all pretty crap! Guides in this country don't really understand the concept of service, and nothing in the tour was as it was promised when we booked it.

Some photos from the Mekong Trip:


One of the narrow canals we were in (the only "real mekong"):



Showing what they have to sell at the floating vege/fruit market, by hanging samples from a pole above the boat:



Selling watermelons:



Tomato seller:



Our english friends Jenny & Graham



Making Rice Paper:



Vietnamese Mandrew:



The crocodile farm:



Incense sticks production (extremely manual):



Mandy having her last harassement by Vietnamese people at the border!:

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Miss Saigon?


I don't think so. We're pretty happy to be leaving this country and look forward to experiencing another culture in Cambodia (assuming that it is different from Vietnam). We found our experience here to be of people looking at us as nothing but a giant $ sign, which gets very tiring after awhile. No one gives you a straight answer, and like Thailand, it seems difficult to get off the beaten path.

We spent today at the War museum, which was very well done, and although a little biased, really brought home the extent of atrocities that were committed by the US during the "american war".

After that we spent about 3hrs trying to figure out a way of travelling by boat to the Cambodian border. It seems that unless we spend $350 each, we cannot do it! Only bus, boat, bus and crappy tour in between (although we do get to go to a coconut candy making factory!). I kept asking "so how do local people travel the river", the reply was "they don't"!! I feel like I'm constantly being lied to and it drives me nuts!!!

So, we're taking a 2 day mekong river tour (with Buffalo Tours) - probably with 50 of our soon-to-be closest friends, we have a homestay tomorrow night, and then we're planning on staying in Can To and finding our own way up to the border (hopefully by local boat).

Will let you know how it goes!

Hoi An


Well, what can you say about this town. It's impossible not to go crazy over the shopping/tailoring. After 3 days of ordering, trying on, fixing, trying on, negotiating, then yelling, we left (almost missing the bus in order to ship the stuff home)!

The town itself is very cute, and one day we rented bikes and wandered about - even had some time at the beach (which was beautiful). We also managed to stay at fabulous hotel (Thanh Binh III ?) with swimming pool, a/c, two person bathroom, clean sheets, breakfast etc... Fabulous for only $10 !!! So it was really hard for us to leave this town!

Here is a new pair of mandy's shoes, please excuse the hairy legs ;)

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Hue


An overnight bus-ride brought us to Hue this morning, the old capital of Vietnam. There is a "Forbidden Purple City" which was mostly destroyed by the US in 1968, but some of it has been reconstructed, and today we saw some traditional song and dance. And our last night in Hanoi we saw the traditional "water puppet" show which was pretty cool too.

At the Forbidden Purple City:



Some traditional dancing at the Forbidden Purple City:






Tomorrow we head to the clothes shopping capital of SE Asia, Hoi An, so look forward to our fashion show coming to a web-page near you soon. ;)

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Tam Coc


Yesterday we visited Tam Coc just south of Hanoi which is billed as Halong Bay on rice fields. Though it was foggy, it was another day of stunning scenery. The limestone cliffs are just as stunning as Halong Bay, but instead of our own kayak, we were on a row boat being paddled by a local woman, sometimes with her hands, sometimes with her feet on the oars.






The coolest part for us was seeing people planting rice in the water. It's tough work, as they have to pile earth just below the surface of the water, and then plant little shoots in the resulting slushy mud. The little shoots actually come from piles of what looks like ready-made lawn. This "lawn" is grown in people's front yards, on the sidewalk, or even on concrete pavement, right alongside phone-booths, until it's ready to be transplanted in the fields.










A cute boy walking down the street (he liked the candy bribe for the pic!):


After a climb up through a cave temple, looking out over the Tam Coc area:



Ready made rice grass - on the pavement:

Sunday, February 15, 2004

Paradise in Halong Bay


Clearly these Vietnamese don't know what "camping" is. We were expecting cold, basic food, no shower, no shelter and using the great big toilet bowl in the sea.

Instead our "base camp", came fully equiped with kitchen (3 chefs), another random helper, and a guide all for just the two of us! We had flush toilet (w/ paper), solar heater shower, and a generator at night to provide us with a reading light in our comfortable huts fully equiped with clean sheets/blankets/matress and pillow! What luxury!

The best part was that we had perfect weather we had the entire place to ourselves, and could kayak at our own speed - often even leaving the guide behind :)

I'd have to say this was one of the absolute highlights of our trip: three days of kayaking through tranquil waters, amazing scenery, and exploring places that could only be seen by kayak. We paddled to several lagoons whose only connection to the bay was under a short archway or through a dark tunnel.

Here are some pics from the most fantastic place for kayaking around, Halong Bay:

Taking the boat from Cat Ba Island to base camp, with one of the drivers (and one of the chefs:



Our first afternoon:



One of the many arches that we travelled under on our second perfect day:



A local fisherboy on his styrafoam raft (his dad in the boat behind). He'd been pulling cockles off the rocks:



Andrew relaxing at our lunch stop, after a refreshing icy swim to that beach:



How exhausting having to paddle through these huge swells ;)



Our guide in front of one of the many cool Karsts in the national park:



Our guide, Quang, coming out of a 70metre cave/tunnel that we paddled through - complete darkness - andrew held the flashlight, while mandy steered - we still managed to crash!:



The end of the second day with Quang, our guide:



Andrew relaxing with Sam (the lucky non-edible guard dog) at base camp:



The floating houses where all the local fishermen live:



Some local fisherman:



Sunset from basecamp:

Thursday, February 12, 2004

In Hanoi


If you are reading this now, we are probably kayaking in beautiful Halong Bay....

We survived 3 days in Hanoi, despite multiple bad & overpriced meals (though no chicken or eggs), many near-misses with motorbikes crossing the street, and pesty postcard vendors, and one very unscrupulous taxi driver. But it does have some charm, and we got to see the embalmed body of Ho Chi Minh today fresh from 3 months of cleaning in Russia.

Outside Ho Chi Minh's tomb:



But we have an early 5am start tomorrow, so we'll fill you in on the details later. Oh yeah, if you want to buy a cool VW camper-van, look here: http://www.craigslist.org/eby/car/24101495.html

Sunday, February 08, 2004

Vientienne, Laos


Today the rain has stopped! We head to the dead-chicken capital of Hanoi tomorrow! and look forward to a few weeks in Vietnam. We have loved our time in Laos - I highly recommend it for anyone travelling to Thailand. The food in the main cities is really good, french, very tasty and of course super cheap! - last night we had a delicious pasta, pizza, and an amazing mushroom appetizer with french bread, fresh pinneaple shake and beer for $7. And that is the most expensive meal we've had in the last 10 days!

We decided to check ourselves into an "upscale" guest house ($16), a brand new place that just opened 5 days ago. Everything is so nice, clean, and new, and Andrew enjoyed his first night of sleep without his feet hanging over the edge of the bed, as it was a king-size bed. But he still hit his head on the bathroom doorway, as it is built, like most doorways, for Asians.

Now we'll go check out the Wats (temples) and monuments, and find some yummy french pastries!

The Victory Monument (a Laos version of the Arc du Triumph):

Friday, February 06, 2004

Luang Prabang - back to civilization (sort of)


I guess we have the French to thank for something. Finally we're back in a place where electricity and shower heads (instead of buckets) are the norm. Here we can eat food other than "flied lice" and "flied noodles", and have been scoffing ourselves with crepes, pastries and Indian food!

Our new friends Wendy and Dominic rented a boat and driver (which we shared) to take us down river to Luang Prabang, a nicer form of travel than public transport on pick-up trucks on windy & bumpy roads. Though we regretted leaving Muang Ngoi too early, in retrospect it was the perfect day for river travel, as it has been cold and rainy ever since. At one point we got totally soaked from a river rapid. Mandy, at the front of the boat, would have won first prize at a wet t-shirt competition, and actually had to take her pants off to let them dry in the sun!!!

We stopped at the Pak Ou caves on the way down, which the Lonely Planet raves about, but we found them only passingly interesting, and were glad we didn't make a special trip from Luang Prabang to see them.

Luang Prabang is the second largest city in Laos, and was the capital for hundreds of years before the French took over, so it is rich in history and architecture, with many Buddhist temples in town. It is actually a UNESCO World Heritage City, so this is a major tourist destination, even for packaged tourists, and we had a hard time finding accomodation, and ended up having to spend an outrageous $5 for a room without attached bath. This is over double of what we've been spending in the rest of Lao.

We rented bicycles one day and explored the town, from the biggest temple to the local market where we bought a big papaya and watermelon, sat by the Mekong river, and gourged ourselves on them:



Mandrew in front of the "tree of life" mosiac at the Wat Xieng Thong:



Later that night we were invited to a Buddhist ceremony which celebrated the first full moon of the new year. We brought incense, flowers, and candles, and sat on the floor while the orange-clad monks read stories and prayed, and our legs fell asleep. After an hour of pain (although it was very interesting), we lit our candles and walked around the outside of the temple three times while making wishes.

New Moon Service (1st of the New Year):



The next day we got up early to beat the crowds to the waterfalls, about an hour's dusty-road drive out of town. First we encounterred Phet, a full-grown tiger who was rescued from poachers, and now lives comfortably in a large jungle enclosure. We also saw some black bear cubs in a separate enclosure.

When we got to a nice small waterfall, we were content but decided to keep following the trail uphill. In a few more minutes, we came upon the next waterfall, at least a 100-feet high. And when we turned the corner we realized it was twice as high as we initially thought. At the bottom were some beautiful pools which would have made for some good swimming if it hadn't been so cold. The whole place was just stunning and we were rewarded for the early start by having it all to ourselves.

Phet:



At the lowest waterfall, with Dennis, Wendy & Dominic (from Boulder, CO):



The big waterfall, Mandrew & Dominic and Wendy:



Looking down from the top of the falls - this place was gorgeous:

Thursday, February 05, 2004

Muang Ngoi -- chillout mountain village


We headed up river for an hour with 20 other back packers, to the quiet village of Muang Ngoi. Although there are quite a few backpackers and guest houses, it hasn't yet changed the way the village works. Most of the locals go about their business without paying us much heed: fishing from hand-made wooden canoes, hand-casting metal propellors, or tending the rice fields, vegetable gardens, chickens, and water buffalo.

Although the number of fellow travellers reminded us that we were on somewhat of a main tourist route, a number of things reminded us that this was not a typical tourist destination. First, you can only get here by boat, and there aren't any roads so there are no vehicles in sight -- even our mountain biking friends (Wendy & Dominic from Boulder, CO) found the walking trails too poorly maintained to cycle. Next, the electricity is by generator, between the hours of 6pm and 10pm, and of course there are no luxuries in town like hot water, flush toilets, or private bathrooms. Finally, if you want to take a cold shower, you have to wait until after 5pm when there is water pressure in the tap. And despite all this, or more likely because of this simple lifestyle, the locals are super friendly and content with life.

A typical village scene in Muang Ngoi - a villager continuing their work, with backpackers wandering aimlessly on the street behind:



Sunset at Muang Ngoi:



The main activities for travellers in the village are eating, waiting for meals, lying in the hammock, enjoying the view of the river and surrounding mountains, and drinking Lao Lao (the local rice whiskey which is cheaper than beer and almost as cheap as water).

Lao Lao drinking in Muang Ngoi with Bruno, Chris, Alex & Dennis:



Our second day we ventured out to the caves and the nearby village of Ban Nan. The caves have large pools of spring water that you have to wade and swim through to explore them further. With only a few flashlights and candles, it was a bit of an adventure, as there were some fish swimming with us, and who knows what else!!!

Mandy exiting after exploring (and swimming - very brave) in the nearby caves:



We walked through rice fields under the strong midday sun (even now in winter), passing many water buffalo, and admiring the cliff-like mountains surrounding the fields. We stopped for lunch at a guest house in Ban Nan, where we had spicy green papaya salads, fried noodles, and baguette sandwiches.

A Water Buffalo eyeing Andrew on the way to the Ban Nan village:



Our cave & village exploration team, Mandrew + Bruno, Dennis, Chris (Sydney) & Alex:



Andrew making himself comfortable before lunch at the Ban Nan village (lunch can take 1-2 hrs to receive only a simple sandwich):