This little doggy went to market… August 31, 2008

20.Aug.08

Arriving at 5am is never fun, especially compiled with the stress of finding a place to stay, having only mediocre sleep on a bus, and being almost completely cashless. The bus dropped us off at one of the only hotels in town. Thankfully it was budget and clean, so instead of running around, we just stayed put and caught a few more Zzz’s before deciding to awaken for the day.

Our first priority for the day was refilling the wallet with some cash. Jessica spent an hour on the phone with Wells Fargo and managed to get money wired direct from her account free of charge to any Western Union bank in the city. Thanks Wells Fargo! Holding our new Dong and Dollars was a relief from the fiasco a day before.

In the last blog I complained about the heat, which somehow increased to ever more unearthly degrees and humidity. Completely burnt out and having no desire to face the sun again, we spent the rest of the day doing almost nothing. We did eat at a nice restaurant down the street where I ordered the weirdest thing we have ever eaten. It consisted of very rare goat meat with rinds of tough inedible flesh attached complete with hair follicles, then rice paper to wrap them in with slices of green banana flower, pineapple, and some sort of bitter tree leaves. The meat was spiced with lime, lemongrass, sesame seed, and then it was all dipped in a sweet white curry-like sauce; I must say, it was quite delicious! Jess tried it, but understandably preferred her meal. Cheap 3,000 Dong beers washed the food down well. That was the highlight of the day.

21.Aug.08

Ninh Binh is a hideous city along a stretch of hwy 1 connecting Saigon to Hanoi. We took a left turn on our motorbike, however, and the city instantly cleared away within a blocks distance, and what left were miles of stunning scenery. The massive limestone blocks and sprawling fields of rice were reminiscent of Laos, spotted with tiny villages and many intricate and beautiful graveyards. After about 10km’s we arrived at our destination, the Trang An caves, and found it empty of tourists and only a handful of attendants by a lake floating dozens of empty boats along the shore. We paid the $7 for a boat ride through caves, which seemed like a lot of money, until we realized the unbelievable adventure which awaited us.

In all we traveled through eight caves and stopped three times at different temples. Some caves were more exquisite than others, but all were beautiful. We were always surrounded by huge limestone cliffs covered in greenery.  It was a stunning journey which took over 3 hours with us being among the very few tourists on the water that day. Even when we stopped we were greeted with an unusual peace and quite. Most often on trips like this the moment we stop we get swarmed with people trying to sell cold drinks and souvenirs. Not once did this happen, which seemed great at first, until we realized that it also meant there was no water to be found anywhere. Having stupidly not brought any we suffered from thirst until the journey was over.

We motorbiked back to the city and sat down at a restaurant filled with noisy locals (usually a sign of good food). Quenched our thirst, had a tasty meal, then headed off to explore the local market. People always go on about how the Vietnamese eat dog, yet we have never seen it advertised on the menu, nor have we seen it in markets, this was the first.

The locals laughed as I took these pics, I don’t think many tourists wander through this random market area. After the rows of dog head we headed out again determined to get the most use out of our rented motorbike. We wandered around the outskirts of the city, seeing the entrance to another set of more touristy caves we heard were not as good as the ones we saw. Drove around some small villages, saw more dramatic scenery, and then called it a day.  It was a short, fun stay in Ninh Binh.

Ninh Binh Flickr Photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606873756113/

Shitibank! August 30, 2008

17.Aug.08

The imperial city of Hue was an easy bus trip from Hoi An, which we grudgingly said goodbye to. The further north we go, the hotter it seems to become and Hue just about crushed our will to do anything. Once settled in a very nice hotel with air/con and free wifi for ten bucks a night, we did not want to leave. Eventually the hunger pangs became worse than the anticipation of the heat so we headed to a nearby Com Chay stand. After some delicious “fake meat” vegetarian food, we crossed a massive bridge to the main part of the city, once a island imperial palace; Beer gardens now line the rivers edge.  Exhausted by heat after only a 15 minute walk we settled into plastic chairs on the river to sample some of the local beers, which were no Beerlao, but decent enough. We wandered a bit through some markets and, though we are by no means sick of Vietnamese food yet, we couldn’t help ourselves and were tempted to get some KFC for dinner. Our comfy bed welcomed us after our walk back.

18.Aug.08

Biking around in stifling heat is far better than walking, not just because you move faster, but because the wind feels delicious. We soon found ourselves forced to dismount however once at the grand imperial purple palace, not as purple as one would imagine, and also not as grand since it got the shit bombed out of it the US/Vietnam war. We explored the grounds for over an hour, unfortunately on foot because only locals could bike around while foreigners suffer in the furnace heat, and get charged to park bikes, bummer. Many sections of the palace were under construction or being completely rebuilt, but some of what was left was very pretty, especially the entry gateway. Statues and lakes covered the grounds as did many construction workers napping in hammocks. It was worth a visit.

We ate lunch a place recommended by Lonely Planet that served us a barely edible seafood hotpot. Being so excited about seafood hotpots from the unbelievable one in Mui Ne, our spirits were crushed, as was our faith in Lonely Planet. Afterwards we biked more around the city discovering scenic lakes and quaint homes, and buying some fragrant local-made incense. Soon we found ourselves back home as the sun felt determined to drench every ounce of moisture from our bodies. We waited out the peak heat of the day reading and computing in our air/con room.

Realizing we were very low on funds we forced ourselves back into the furnace to find a bank and withdraw money from our last remaining piece of plastic after slowly losing all else over the last few months. Unfortunately it is a Citibank MasterCard which takes 3% for each withdrawal (which our others didn’t) and it is our last resort emergency card. Of course the card didn’t work at either of the two banks we tried, which is frustrating because just a couple days ago on the phone with them they said I should have no problems withdrawing now. I called them back, and they said I’d nearly reached some limit I didn’t know existed and now could only withdraw $150, get the limit heightened, or pay of the balance. So I determined to do all three as precaution; called parents to help pay it off, put in request for limit increase, and determined to just take out $150 (which goes a LONG way here anyway) next time at the bank, which was closed now. (Sorry if that seemed boring and irrelevant, but it comes into play later).

We had some delicious tempura and Pork at a Japanese restaurant with the truly clever name: Japanese Restaurant. Then we followed the sandman to dreamland. (We are really running out of ways to say “then went to bed,” which is getting really old to type).

19.Aug.08

Flanked by two yellow, orange, and red aluminum dragons, we entered our boxy dragon boat filled with about 20 other tourists for a bargain $2 cruise of the perfume river. For two bucks a person, the tour absolutely rocked and even included a tasty free lunch! We thought there would be some catch along the way which we kept preparing for, but we simply had had great service all around, and only had to pay extra to enter the three mausoleums which were $3 per person (no matter how you get there). Drinks of course were extra, but they didn’t overcharge too much so we were surprised they could make such a worthy trip so affordable!

I could go into every mausoleum in detail, but as usual, pictures give a better impression. They were all dedicated to royal family members and thankfully untouched during the wars. Each was a large complex of incense filled temples and stone graves, but more interesting were the surroundings with lotus filled lakes, rolling hills, towering pagodas, and beautiful jungle. It made for a terrific day and all within even a paupers budget.

Our boat was supposed to get back at 3pm, but landed instead at 4:15. Having only 45 minutes until our night bus to Ninh Binh left, we had limited time to get desperately needed money from the bank, and eat a quick dinner. I sprinted to the bank and my head fell in despair as the attendant shook her head to my credit card after it failed to withdraw the $150 I was promised I could withdraw, or even $100. The next bank had the same results, and with only $20 worth in Dong in my pocket, and owing the hotel at least $35 for bus tickets, bed, and cruise tickets, I sprinted back to Jessica in panic. I caught her sitting down to another meal of Com Chay which brought our hotel debt even greater and I stuffed my mouth with the food and ran to the hotel to see what could be done. We had no extra cash and our only plastic left was not withdrawing it. During an attempt to call Citibank before the banks closed in 5 minutes when our bus also came, the hotel manager said we could run to another hotel and try their credit card machine (since our hotels wasn’t working). Earlier on the phone I remembered hearing that there was only a limit on withdrawals, but not charges for some reason, so I hopped on the back of one of their motorbikes and zoomed across town to another random hotel owned by the same people. The heart-pounding credit swipe was accepted by the cheerful little black box to my utmost excitement! Citibank; it sort of works when you need it most! (I later learned by checking my account balance that the most critical error was made by someone I talked to saying I had $150 instead of the actual $50 which I had left to withdraw; I guess basic math isn’t a prerequisite of Citibank employment).

Our bus was there shortly after I returned and we were stunned to find a very unique bus full of actual beds with cute and colorful sheets and pillows. For being on a bus it was a good night’s sleep.  Kind of like the Harry Potter night bus from the third book.  Except no teleportation, hanging chandelier, or pimply attendant.

Hue Flickr Pics:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606867657968/

2008 Olympic Puppy Pillows? August 26, 2008

12.Aug.08

The train up to Hoi An (technically Da Nang, then bus to Hoi An) was a pleasant sleep in very comfy beds. Jessica especially looked forward to sleeping in, which was ruined by an inconsiderate woman coming in our room super early and chatting on her cell phone. Jessica shut her up, but the damage was done, we were awake. It reminded us of all the rude awakenings in India (double meaning?). We spent the morning performing usual train antics and also trying to understand the deeper meaning of our pillows?

Jessica held the bags as usual when we got off the bus from Danang to Hoi An and I ran around to like 10 hotels trying to find the best for us; cheap, with wireless internet (or nearby which we can steal), and moderately clean. Of course I found something even better than all that, though it is the most we’ve paid for a hotel in Asia, a whopping $12 per night. For such a relative little amount of money we got a massive, beautiful, and spotless room with mini-fridge, cable TV, fans, hot water, and room cleaning everyday. Right near the center of town, with a pool, huge lobby, free internet, and wifi! Unbelievable value for one of the best hotels we’ve stayed at on this trip; Hoa Binh. The trick is, everything else is more expensive, laundry, food, motorbike rental, but we didn’t feel bad giving the local people outside some business for fractions of the cost. Speaking of, one of the first things I did was take the laundry out to get done when the ladies at the hotel kept trying to convince me to have the hotel do it for more than twice the cost, saying the kind old man across the street would ruin our clothes. We had no problem trusting him for 50 cents per kilo, and also enjoyed his 50 cent bike rentals! We biked around the street getting a feel for the city and instantly discovering how unbelievably stunning Hoi An is. The city itself is a UNESCO world heritage site for its well preserved ancient buildings along a beautiful river. Every turn down each cute little alley is filled with exquisite historical nooks and crannies.

Also lining the streets are a plethora of shops which Hoi An is extremely well known for; tailor shops! We had some advice from online of places to look at, and ideas in our heads of some things we wanted tailored. We were extremely impressed by one shop called La Na with an incredibly friendly, competent, knowledgeable, and hard-working head tailor and likewise friendly staff. We instantly dove in, me getting fit for a suit, and Jess getting measured for a dress and skirt, both to be made by tomorrow afternoon and for unbelievably reasonable prices; now we’ll wait and see if it is worth the low price. We then ate at Café 96, which became an instant favorite for its succulent pork and eggplant, and White Rose, a local dumpling-like dish.

13.Aug.08

We spent the majority of today baking in the sun walking around the old streets of Hoi An on a self guided tour of sorts. Our tickets allowed entry to select ancient buildings in the city. Four of the points of interest were homes still lived in today built and maintained for hundreds of years. We could only enter one of four, but heard all were similar and the one we explored was filled with beautiful relics, heirlooms, and a guide serving tea and telling the story of the house. Every minute we are in Hoi An we love it more and more! We ate lunch at Thanh Phuong, a place offering the local beer Hoi on draught for 3,000 Dong a glass. 3,000 Dong is like ten cents, for a glass of beer!!! We got a set menu of Hoi An specialties, as well as a pork hot pot and learned that Hoi An is a cornucopia of culinary delights (Dave takes no credit for the last sentence). Every morsel was delicious, and the 10 cent beers extremely refreshing after a long, hot day of wandering. We got back into the city for a few more architectural delights, topped off by a traditional music and dance show in an old workshop.

Then came the exciting part of the day, (as if it hasn’t been enough), clothes fitting! The skirt fit perfect and is gorgeous, the dress needed work, but showed promise, and my suit…was…AWESOME! I had an idea in my head of how this suit should look, and the tailor blew me away. Grey silk lining on the inside, sweat guard on the armpits, perfect fit, not a stitch out of place, comfortable, and gorgeous, I mean just look at me! (I know, I epitomize modesty).

So excited and satisfied with our first set of articles, we had to order some more including another six piece suit for Jess (skirt, pants, jacket, 2 shirts), investing in that one day we’ll both get jobs. A winter jacket for Jess and a new pair of shorts and one more collared shirt for me were also measured, fabrics and colors chosen, sketches drawn out, the works. Normally I hate shopping, but at prices and quality so amazing…we couldn’t resist, and shopping became fun when anything possible was at our fingertips! (For people planning on getting suits tailored here, which is highly recommended; both suits were just a little over one hundred dollars altogether. You can get full suits for $40 to $300, but we felt the difference between our suits and a $300 suit was minimal to none, though a $40 suit is usually of worse material, ours were imported Italian cloth and Asian silks). We headed then to another tailor shop which was clearly not as professional as La Na to get some super cheap ($10 per) cotton dresses made for Jess. We figured if they didn’t turn out perfect, we’d only be losing ten bucks, and hey maybe they could make pretty towels?

Exhausted and sweaty after walking in the extreme heat and humidity all day, the first thing we did was hop in the chilly pool at the hotel. We then watched some Olympics and went to bed.

14.Aug.08

We rented a motorbike for the cheapest yet, only $3 for the whole day, then picked up Jessica’s dresses and left one for some fixing. She tried them on, and for what we paid, they were seriously beautiful. Hoi An changed my whole perspective on clothes shopping, if only someone would get this started in Tiajuana people would flock from San Diego and LA for something other than getting piss drunk and waking in a bath of ice with your kidney missing.

We filled up on gas down the road a bit, which is the first thing we always have to do because they siphon the gas leaving only enough to get you to a gas station; hey it is three dollars for rental, petrol not included. The petrol only costs like two dollar more to go the 30 km’s to My Son (Pronounced Me Sohn), yet another World Heritage site built in the same style and era as the Angkorian ruins. The ride there was beautiful and the local people very helpful when we got a bit lost finding the way. We parked at the base of a huge hill which, after buying tickets, we took a jeep up because they didn’t allow motor bikes any further. You can’t really compare My Son to Angkor, because Angkor is such a massive complex of temples, but when compared to individual sites, it was a very beautiful set of ruins surrounded by gorgeous mountains. As usual it was painfully hot and humid, so with sweat drenched clothes we hiked back to the Jeep meeting point and joined a queue of like 15 Spaniards, who as we’ve found, love traveling in big groups. We were soon on a Jeep and the back on the motorbike getting maddeningly lost on the way back to paradise. The situation was made worse when some jerk pointed us in the completely opposite direction in which we wanted to go. He was probably drunk off Beer Hoi already…they get started early in Vietnam.

Finally we found our way back to our favorite restaurant Café 96 for the best guacamole we’ve had in Asia, pretty close to back home. Then into our favorite tailor shop to try on our new clothes. Once again, perfectly made articles, so perfect I had to get one more pair of shorts in a different color (since the ones I am wearing have been with me for 5 years and contain three holes around the crotch which I have sewn over and over again) and a new autumn jacket. That’s it NO MORE SHOPPING… Damn it is addicting though! The money we saved on stuff we’d have to buy back home anyway for five times the cost! We headed back home and hopped in the chilly pool, then headed out again at night and discovered that a huge festival was to take place tonight which the entire city was buzzing for. It was the monthly lunar festival where people from all over come and light multicolored tea-light boats and float them down the river. Truly a stunning sight! The city was lit up with bright, multicolored lanterns making it even more enchanting (we wouldn’t have dreamed it possible).

After much wandering we headed back, fully satisfied with such a terrific day!

15.Aug.08

We spent another day wandering, seeing what we missed of the old city the first time around, and exploring the local markets, which sold nearly everything, where we bought some delicious smelling spices. We tied up all the loose ends of our tailored clothes and simply chilled all day. At some point we met a group of four people from UK and OZ and took them to our other favorite restaurant Thanh Phuong for cheap beer and yummy food. Nothing extraordinary today, just taking a break…it’s a tough life.

16.Aug.08

The “Marble Mountain” 10km outside Hoi An was much more than we expected! We pulled up on the motorbike to the main entrance where people wanted extortionate bribes to park our bikes. We laughed at them and drove past to, sure enough, find a side entrance taking a much more reasonable payment of 2,000 Dong and a “look at my shop mister.” We bought tickets for the massive marble caves formed by millions of years of tides, weather, and minerals (or just a little poke by the big grey bearded dude in the sky in about a second if you don’t believe all that fancy “science” baloney). What weren’t formed naturally were the killer carvings of dragons, Chinese deities, and characters all along the white marble walls. The cave is multi-layered with stairs going deep down and another making a steep climb up. The main chamber contained altars with statues and food and incense offerings to the spirits, and one huge main altar with heavenly light shining through a hole in the ceiling where Jess snapped a scary picture of me being a creeper. We descended downstairs which lead to a series of statues and paintings depicting the brutal Buddhist depictions of hell which were, needless to say, awesome!

Climbing the marble stairs up was supposed to be the climb to heaven, but felt a lot more like hell in the unbearable heat. It was filled with marble carvings of Buddha, Dragons, Spirits, and Chinese deities; not as cool as demons impaling humans on stakes, but quite beautiful nonetheless.

We left the awesome cave, thinking things couldn’t get any better, which they didn’t, but they remained almost equally amazing. The second method of exploring the mountain was a climb to high pagodas, temples, more caves, and the peak of the mountain. Everything on the hike was gorgeous, described best in photos as usual. Each cave of the five more had little and big carved statues of Buddha and other deities, the last being most impressive with a huge statue of Buddha in a gargantuan chamber.

All the temples were quaint and pretty, in fact the only absolutely miserable part of the journey was the climb to the very top through tight squeezes, up a slippery marble path, in the unearthly heat, surrounded by painful cacti. The view was nice, but not worth the pain. Overall, marble mountain was great, a bit touristy, but mostly Vietnamese tourists and only some parts were a bit kitschy.

We got back and did the usual jump into the refreshingly cold pool and a great lunch at a new western place. The rest of the day was just hanging at the hotel and picking up the last pieces of tailoring around town.

Hoi An Flickr Photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606762916555/

Ho Chi Minh’s Floating Bar. August 26, 2008

09.Aug.08

Out of the freezer and into the frying pan…again. Our first impression of Nha Trang is a very touristy beach town; our impression didn’t change much over the next few days. For a tourist destination which claimed to be one of the best snorkeling and diving spots in Vietnam, there sure didn’t seem to be a great variety of tours available, and snorkeling being the only substantial thing we wanted to do, we were left wondering how fun Nha Trang was going to be. After settling into a very nice room at Mai Huy Guesthouse, we hit the beach for the rest of the sunlight. We were quite surprised to find tons of Vietnamese tourists among the lesser quantity of westerners along this very plain, wave-less beach. People were parasailing, jet-skiing, windsurfing, and just playing in the water all around. We thought it would be a place to parasail, something we’ve never done before, but we were disappointed with how expensive a six minute ride was, especially for being in Asia. In hindsight $35 isn’t that much, and probably way cheaper than in California, but we just felt like relaxing on the beach and playing in the tiny surf. At night we ate at a mediocre German restaurant (Rotkraut just wasn’t quite right), and went to bed.

10.Aug.08

Pho Cali, just downstairs from our Hostel, served some of the best, most reasonably priced Pho in Vietnam yet. It was a place we knew we’d be coming back to. We rented a motorbike for the day and weaved through the traffic to Ponagar towers, a set of three very nice temples. Inside the main temple were those in silent prayer surrounded by lots of incense smoke, brass relics, flowers, and little wooden statues of Chinese deities. Originally Hindu, these converted temples lacked the tacky bright, colorful electric lights that many others have adopted; the candle light, smoke, and slow gong ringing made for a very peaceful, authentic experience. Lovely!

Next we biked to a place and paid to get covered in mud. I don’t know exactly how it differs from regular mud, but the mineral mud was really hot, smelled a bit like sulfur, and felt really good on the skin. We had our own private bath where we got nice and relaxed before our time was up after twenty minutes.

Then we washed up and dipped into an unbelievably hot mineral water bath. We found ourselves questioning why humans were originally so drawn to hot mineral water. Is it just because it’s unique and people are naturally curious about the unknown, is it all shaman bullshit, or it is genuinely good for you to soak in the mineral rich liquid? Either way we determined that it makes sense in places where it is cold, because it feels good, but it is so ridiculously hot here, why would you want to be hotter? It was still quite relaxing, and when our time was up in the piping hot pool we got all the time we wanted in a nice big communal cold pool. Unfortunately we just assumed it was cold, but expecting a nice escape from the heat on our skin, we dove in and were simply boiled alive again…more hot mineral water.

We motor biked around a bit more, saw some more temples, none as impressive as the first, but we saw big white Buddha which was pretty neat. We got back, had some pizza dinner and then found a shop with a beer keg for 4,000 Dong (20 cents) a glass. We had a few jugs of beer and chatted with a couple German guys. The beer was pretty much worth what we paid, I thought it tasted a big like raw egg.

11.Aug.08

One of the hosts on our boat tour today looked very much like Ho Chi Minh, and another guy called himself crazy monkey, though he wasn’t that crazy. About 20 tourists; Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, a bunch of Irish, and other westerners were packed on the boat touring around the archipelago islands, doing a bit of snorkeling, drinking, and singing. It was only $6 per person, so it was worth what we paid, though we expected a lot more snorkeling and what we got were cheap foggy masks, water filled with tiny jellyfish which stung everyone, and unspectacular sea life. The few highlights of the trip were: the meal, which was a full buffet of delicious seafood, followed by local fruits, a floating bar, where Ho Chi Minh 2 served free pineapple liquor to everyone swimming in the water, and the crew played garage band style accompanied by volunteer karaoke, with Ho Chi 2 on drums, and singing.

We made good friends with the four Irish and took them to our favorite place Cali Pho. Though our third time eating there, you can’t beat the value for such great food! We followed them to a bar playing 70’s and 80’s rock where we chatted for a bit until Jess and I ran away to catch our train.

Nha Trang Flickr photos:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606756996407/

What’s that sensation on my skin? August 17, 2008

06.Aug.08

Again we arrived in our new city to a torrential downpour. After climbing through winding mountain switchbacks surrounded by lush green forest we found ourselves in Da Lat. As I’m sure we’ve made clear throughout all these blogs, finding a guesthouse is often the more annoying part of the stay in any city. Usually whatever guesthouse the bus stops at is not one we stay at, as they rely on people being lazy and staying no matter how crappy or overpriced it is as opposed to searching for something better. This guesthouse however was surprisingly nice, very clean reasonably priced rooms with TV’s fridge, big comfy beds, and free internet with wireless in the rooms. We figured it was about the most we could hope for so we just stayed put and skipped the stress of trying to find a better place in the rain.

We settled in and the rain stopped near dusk so we left our new place to explore the city a little, once outside we noticed a very odd, foreign sensation upon our skin…is it? Could it be? COLD? The same cold we haven’t experienced for months since the Himalayas?! YES, finally an escape from scorching, sweat drenching heat! We went back to the room to dust off our warm clothes and happily jump in them. We wandered about the city in a very surprised state; it is simply nothing at all like any of the Asia we have experienced so far. We determined it was far more like San Francisco, or even Boston than anywhere we would have imagined in Vietnam. About the only difference were the usual masses of motorbikes, but the city is more or less like any other western mountain town, oh we’ve missed that cold air smell. We walked up and down the city hills and had a tasty candle-lit dinner with the local Da Lat wine (more like grape juice, but can’t complain about the price). We got back to the room and thoroughly enjoyed sleeping under thick warm covers again!

07.Aug.08

After our free breakfast baguettes and overly sweet strawberry jam, we hopped on our rented motorbike and hit the town. First stop was the presidential summer palace. On the way up we got a full view of the city and were stunned by how similar it looked to somewhere right in the San Francisco Bay Area:

The palace was simple and had a very 1960’s feel. It wasn’t anything more than visiting a large mansion on top of a hill. We learned that Vietnamese have no clue how to obey rules (also common throughout all of Asia). Each room was roped off by yellow rope, which, group after group, were more than happy to step over to get photos on the furniture. They would even hide those pesky “Do not sit” signs off the furniture so they could get the perfect shot sitting on madly expensive antique furniture, only to politely replace the signs so others knew to obey the rules as well. It was completely hysterical to us, and one of our favorite moments was in the formal living room where a whole family of eight had made themselves comfortable, not even bothering to reprimand their kid for standing and jumping between the antique furniture pieces. They snapped a plethora of photos at their unique family sitting experience.

Definitely our favorite part of the house was the end, where, for less than a buck per person you could dress up and take pictures in traditional royal regalia on antique settings. We had way to much fun doing this, and one of the professional photographers got really excited at us two honkeys dressed up, that we let him have our camera and he guided us into fun poses. The most amazing part was when I tried to give him a tip and he flat out refused!!! Any other country we’ve been to and they would have taken the money and still asked for more, but this guy was just being nice?! What a concept!

After wandering the outer gardens for a bit we hopped aboard the motorbike and headed to some weird treehouse/guesthouse thing.  Wondering what that is?  Well we still are as well, and we went there!  Anyhow it was a pretty neat art/hotel project which tried to incorporate nature elements into a modern hotel.  Lot’s of cute and kitschy rooms, not in use yet so at this point it’s just some weird tourist attraction.  Great idea though; build something weird, then charge people to come see it while it is still under construction to fund its construction, genius!

Stomachs grumbling we went to city center and discovered the massive central market.  Four story behemoth structure with any manufactured goods you could ask for, a massive farmers market, and terrific food court in which we found what we’ve been looking for since coming to Vietnam; COM CHAY!!!  In San Jose we have a favorite Vietnamese restaurant called Tofoo Com Chay.  It serves fake meats made out of soy with delicious sauces and fresh veggies.  We thought Com Chay was just a name, but now we learned it simply means vegetarian food.  It was just as terrific as back home and fractions less.  Another thing we discovered at the market were strawberries and avocados, something we haven’t seen for a long time.  Over the next couple days however we kept trying the avocados and they were nowhere near as good as in California, but the strawberries were delicious.

The whole day rained intermittently, but we didn’t let that stop us so we headed out again on the bike in our blue and green rain ponchos to the flower garden.  It was a very pretty and we were the only ones crazy enough to visit in the rain so it was very peaceful.  We motorbiked back along the gorgeous lake and took in how extraordinary beautiful the city is, then found ourselves home after a long day.  Only to go back out again for a tasty dinner and back for a wonderful cold night snuggled under the thick covers, oh the simple things we’ve missed doing!

08.Aug.08

We made a long stressful journey of 50km’s on a motorbike to a couple of waterfalls.  The first of which was more like an amusement park than a natural attraction.  One could either hike down to the falls, OR get drunk and take a small roller coaster down, which many did.  The place was packed with Vietnamese tourists having a grand old time around a waterfall which wasn’t actually that great.  So we came, we saw, and we left to go many many more kilometers down a nearly empty super highway in the sprinkling rain.  We got lost a number of times and I yelled a lot while Jessica tried to calm me down, but finally we found ourselves a lot farther than planned to the most grand of all the waterfalls, Pongeur.  Much less touristy and far more impressive than the last, we stayed down quite a while enjoying the view when a group of three incredibly drunk Vietnamese guys kept asking us to take random pictures with us; strange.

On the road back out we realized we had a flat tire.  Normally not a problem, unless the nearest building of any sorts is 6km away, which it was.  So we spent the next hour or so pushing the bike through a road flanked by rice fields and past herds of water buffalo.  Not too fun, but not too stressful as we had only one option…push.

We got back to some small civilization and had the bike repaired for 30,000 Dong ($1.50) then made the long journey home passing by a couple more falls along the way.  Once back in Dalat we bought sandwiches and pastries from our favorite deli and went to the room to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Vietnamese, which was done well with little commentary.  Beautiful ceremony and beautiful sleep.

Flickr pictures of Da Lat:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606641566545/

The Best Fish Paste in Vietnam… August 16, 2008

It may be the best in Vietnam, but I stand by the last Blog’s review of fish paste; it smells like dirty diapers and fish guts.  Luckily for us, this next city Mui Ne manufactures this crap everywhere so though it is a cool place, occasionaly you can’t help but start choking from the horrific smell which tends to permeate at random moments in different parts of the city.

04.Aug.08

We took a short bus to the beach city of Mui Ne with the two German girls we met in Saigon.  Jess and I got really lucky because we showed up last minute and booked the last two seats.  We arrived to a torrential downpour and spent a good amount of time waiting out the rain then finding a place to stay.  We got a great bungalow on the beach and headed out for some dinner.  Mui Ne is simply one massive road flanked by restaurants and beach resorts, so mostly all there is to do it relax on the beach, eat, and drink, which is exactly what we did.  Nothing exciting to report about today.

05.Aug.08

Today was more exciting.  First we woke up early and jumped in the terrificaly refreshing ocean.  The ocean and beach are the most similar to California as we have been yet.  That really salty ocean smell was very welcoming, though, unfortunately the waves are too small to bodysurf; great for Jess, bad for me.  We then rented a motorbike and headed for a set of sand dunes quite a few kilometers away.  When we first saw the red sand dunes and the vendors outside hawking their wares we began to pull over when about a dozen young children came screaming at us trying to sell some sort of blue slide?  Freaked out and instantly aggravated by their horribly obnoxious sales pitch we sped through them and away to a spot a bit down the dune where we could park and hike up.  Sure enough however once they saw us way down the sand, about six more of these blue mat carrying monsters came running and screaming at us.  “YOU WANT TO SLIDE?  YOU WANT TO SLIDE?”  They shouted again and again.  Not that we cared to make a slide attempt on the still mildly damp sand anyway, we asked a price and got slapped in the face by some ridiculous numbers which quickly shot down the more we laughed at them.  Getting covered in sand still didn’t sound like a good time to us and though we were persistent in our NO answer, they became increasingly annoying and pushy.  What should have been a pleasant hike up gorgeous red dunes was fast turning into an awfully stressful experience.  As if the kids couldn’t get worse following us everywhere we went, one kid got fed up and started walking away and shouting profanities at us; “Fuck you, you bad people, fuck you” he shouted back to us over and over again.  Who teaches them that shit anyway we wondered?  Considering his English seemed good I tried to explain to him that he certainly wasn’t going to get us to rent his slide like that, but he only replied with another “fuck you;” good comeback kid! The rest of the time there was spent trying to enjoy the dunes and get good pictures, while trying in vain to explain to one extremely persistent slide salesman why, even if we wanted to slide, he had no chance of us ever renting a slide from him because they are being to completely insane.  “Please rent slide” he again responded and with a roll of the eyes we kept wandering the dunes.

We left those dunes as some drizzle started pelting us from above.  Riding in the light rain for about 20 minutes we came to what looked like a town for really really little dwarves sprawled in bright colors over rolling green hills.  A peaceful setting for a dwarf/leprauchan village which turned out to be a vietnamese nazi graveyard, er, buddhist graveyard, the swastikas threw us off…

We kept going a LONG way through the gorgeous countryside, in the nice cooling drizzle and eventually came to a completely deserted and beautiful set of yellowish dunes.  Not one slide seller or tourist anywhere in sight, we had the entire place to ourselves and wandered for the next half hour through these perfect sand dunes.  Somehow, as usual, we got incredibly lucky and the sun even came out to say hello for most of the hike, then after 30 minutes the evil dark clouds started forming and Zeus began to urinate heavily on our heads.  Thankfully he spared the thunderbolts, but the ride back felt like millions of tiny spears hitting my flesh, shirtless on the bike. Jess wore a rain tarp because she is smart, but I felt it necessary to prove my manliness to the elements, plus I was already in a bathing suit, so nothing got soaked.

We arrived back to a city completely flooded with water.  It became quite an unbelieveable feat to ford the motorbike through the now rivered (made up word?) street.  Even the sidewalks were covered in water!  It was really kind of fun, and the locals got a kick out of Jess and I trying to follow their examples and work our way through the flood.  We ducked out of the rain and rivers to fill our bellies at a very local looking seafood bar.  One of those places where all the seafood are kept in massive tanks, so we knew it should be good and fresh.  We got a flaming pot of boiling water placed in front of us with raw prawns, squid, muscles, shrimp, fish, noddles, veggies, and spices dumped in to cook.  It was DELICIOUS!!!  Even Jessica who is not the biggest fan of seafood, loved every bite of the unbelievably fresh meal.

We headed back to our hotel, met with the German girls and went to another restaurant where they ate, and we just hung out and chatted.  Headed back, hung out and went to bed.

06.Aug.08

I woke up at 4:45am to catch a pretty terrific blue dawn and sunrise.  Jessica didn’t feel well so she slept in.  The beach was very peaceful, the silence only broken by the play of the neighborhood dog gang waking each other up to roam their turf and play around in the sand.  The local fishermen in their little half-sphere boats started coming in after the nights catch.  It was nice to be up for sunrise for once, though it didn’t come over the ocean to my disappointment.  Then I was woken up again a few hours later by Jess and we jumped in the ocean and had a light jog along the beach.  We spent the little of the day sunbathing and relaxing on the fine sand to the crash of the teeny waves, then hopped on a bus to our next destination; Dalat.

Flickr pictures of Mui Ne:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606591356268/

Designer Helmets. August 14, 2008

01.August.08

It was a very comfortable bus ride to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), clearly a Vietnamese company and bus. We passed through a normal, pretty border crossing for once which didn’t try to extort us for a “stamp fee.” We arrived in Saigon and were amazed to for once not receive the cacophony of “Mr, Madame, Tuk Tuk,” instead there were a few guys who politely offered us a taxi ride. When we asked if they’d use the meter we were shocked by the “yes” as an answer! So we had him take us to our couchsurfers place which was about a 12 minutes drive.

By the time we arrived it was pouring rain. To make matters worse the house we were looking for was in an alley described as “across from a hospital, between a pink clothing store and a shoe store.” It took a bit to find, and when we did we got out, unloaded our stuff under the awning of the “pink clothing store,” where the criminal asshole of a taxi driver slapped us with a 350,000 Dong bill…I instantly smelled bullshit considered that equals $20, a price we wouldn’t pay in the US! His fake meter said the price he quoted, but we thought the price was 35,000 and the decimal in the wrong place, 35,000 Dong is more around the price we were E-Mailed it should be. Still the thief was insistent and started getting very angry with me as I waited for Jessica to find our CS hosts so they could help. I tried explaining the situation to the lady in the “pink clothing store,” who was amazing and brought our bags inside for us, but she spoke no English. With the monsoon rains pouring, our hosts not wanting to come out in the rain, my shoes soaking wet, and now surrounded by four Vietnamese people trying to figure out why the white person looks so concerned and upset, I used my best charades and finally got through to them the extortion the taxi driver was trying to pull on us. Their faces lit up with anger and understanding, then one of the men instantly started yelling at the driver making life a whole lot easier for us, we grabbed the bags, headed down the flooded alley with a waterfall dumping on us, and looked back to the taxi driver pulling away in haste…though still with the exorbitant 100,000 Dong I gave him initially in attempt to make him go away. So far not bad odds; four awesomely sweet and helpful Vietnamese to only one asshole.

The rains didn’t let up, which ended up being fine because our new home and hosts are awesome. Not only is there a TV, but they have a collection of hundreds of movies, many new ones from the last year we hadn’t seen!!! The house has four people living in it, three who teach English, one working at a hotel; two Canadian, one American, and one Englishman. Moreover they make no limit to Couchsurfers so tonight they planned to have six Couchsurfers over, awesome! Though for now it was only three of us waiting out the rain by playing chess, ordering and eating pizza, and watching Arrested Development, Be Kind Rewind, and the new Sweeny Todd.

Later, when people started trickling in we all went out to a local bar nearby (we are nowhere near a tourist area, so the locals are always interested when we walk by). The nine of us sat down and the delicious and madly cheap Vietnamese beer just kept flowing from the jugs for the next two hours. Lots of laughs later we moved the party back to the house where more surfers kept piling in until finally we all found our places on the floor and couches in this four story building and slept. It was like a super social, free hostel, with endless entertainment; they are all getting good CS references, that’s for sure.

02.August.08

Waking up late we headed downtown and slurped a typical Vietnamese breakfast of Pho noodles; really delicious. Jess and I wandered around the super lively city brimming with people, parks, monuments, and crazy amounts of energy (speaking of energy there is an overwhelming number of electrical cables everywhere). We thought Thailand and Cambodia had a lot of motorbikes, but Saigon blows everything else away. The roads are flowing rivers of motorbikes with the riders all wearing terrific “designer helmets” made to look like hats with Gucci and Prada labels on them.

So we hopped around the streets like frogs from Frogger letting the bikes swerve around us and entered the independence palace. The place where the president used to reside; a stylish, fancy, & beautiful palace with furnishings and architecture right out of the 1960’s. It was fun to explore and gave some good views of the city.

We then headed to the revolutionary museum which wasn’t too interesting, but had some decent exhibits about the rise of communism and the war. Getting hungry we wandered around and bumped into a local version of KFC meets McDonalds. Figuring we had to give it a try being a local chain we went in and ate some decent fast food; nothing special. Then later we found out it is a chain from Korea, so we didn’t really eat local after all. Before going back we went in to what would seem from the outside to be a nightclub with fancy lights, ushers in fancy suits and dresses, and booming techno music. As it turns out it was (obviously) an electronics center. For the last month I have been researching a terrific little computer (and I mean little weighing less than 2lbs). We have seen two other travelers using it, and have been thoroughly pleased when testing it. Thankfully I found this little gem at the store, and it was the exact same price as offered online only $500 and totally worth it. After much thought, weighing pros and cons, I bought it (consider it a X-mas/B-day gift family, I don’t need anything else). It is an Acer Aspire One, 1gb Ram 8gb HD, 8.9” monitor, wireless card, the works. What an awesome computer for the price, just incredible and so perfect for traveling, life would have been so much easier this whole trip with this little guy.

We headed back and soon after arriving the seven of us hopped on three motorbikes and a bicycle to a German style Vietnamese restaurant with terrific home brewed beer. We drank more beer, ate fried frog, and had the opportunity to try a Vietnamese “delicacy;” fish paste. I would have gladly tried something new, but nearly vomited after a simple whiff of this foul purple, lumpy liquid. Now, I am not over-exaggerating, and I am not simply saying it was as bad smelling as baby diapers, no, it smelled exactly like used baby diapers, with a hint of sewage, rotten fish, and maybe a pinch of that smell you get removing a cast from a broken limb for the first time. It was so bad I couldn’t stop smelling it because when I put it down my mind couldn’t comprehend that such a foul smell could possibly be deemed fit for human consumption. Not even Pol Pot himself would deserve as cruel a punishment as eating this stuff, but apparently the Vietnamese feel they have wronged the world in some way and, like some crazy Religious fanatic, resort to self torture for atonement.

We headed to a club with lame music and Jess and I left early in a taxi because we didn’t feel like buying overpriced drinks and didn’t want to ride on motorbikes with our drivers who started drinking a bit. Back at the place we hung out with the two cool German girls who just arrived, and I played around with my new toy.

03.August.08

After eating more Pho noodles for breakfast we headed downtown again and went first to a really amazing Chinese temple, the Jade Emperor. It reminded us of a Hindu temple filled with incense smoke, great deity statues, beautiful colors, and filled with the prayers of the devout. An awesome place!

We then walked quite a ways and ended up at our first sushi restaurant since Australia. It was ultra chic, which means the prices were nearly the same as home, but with the same (if not better) quality! Our stomachs more than welcomed the delicious raw and cooked fish, seaweed, rice, wasabi, veggies, and ginger! One more painful craving fulfilled! We then went to the War Remnants museum. It was a huge museum documenting the French war and American war in Vietnam (mostly US). Complete with tanks, jets, and artillery in the courtyard, horrifying pictures depicting the sickening effects of agent orange and napalm, tiger cages where POW’s were kept, protest photos, children’s paintings of peace, and tons of more documentation of the war including great propaganda posters. It was one of the better museums we have been to in a long while.

Some more walking and “Frogger” later we were at a huge central market where we bought a rolly bag to carry our accumulating souvenirs. Inside the behemoth, and perfectly organized market, filled with thousands of people, all the power went out, sending a murmur of excitement through the crowd. The pouring rain outside made it a crazy experience fighting through the labyrinth towards light to the outside. The first taxi driver we asked to take us was another asshole thief like before trying to horribly rip us off and, having no tolerance for such scum at this point, I dug into him a bit and said I should report him to the police for being a scam artist. The tourists around were impressed and other drivers were laughing at him. We had no problem after that finding a legitimate taxi driver using a functioning meter (the real cost each time ended up being 50,000 Dong or about $3, not 200,000 or 350,000 Dong like the other schmucks try to charge!!!)

We ate more Pho and arrived to a home filled with Steve’s high school English students. They were all really cool kids and spoke great English already. So we hung out with them, ate pizza, watched Kingdom with Jet Lee and Jackie Chan, and after a bunch of pictures they left. Then a friend of the house came over with a huge bucket of steamed snails which the brave ones snacked on. More fun and conversation and then sleep.

Flickr pictures of Saigon:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606577084411/

Happy Happy Joy Joy Happy Happy Joy Joy!!! August 9, 2008

28.July.08

And then we left Battambang via bus to Phnom Penh, the capitol, where excitement awaited. Hailed by another cacophony of “Lady, Mister, Tuk Tuk?” and the drivers pointing at themselves like apes “me, me, you ride with me!” We picked one driver who seemed chill and willing to give a fair price (because the hostel we let him bring us to gave commission!) It was a nice hostel, but the cheaper rooms all taken or smelly. So, we splurged a whopping $7/night for a surprisingly nice room…with a big comfy bed, hot water, and an even better TV! Oh the small things… We dropped our stuff and walked up to the quay where Phnom Penh first started to impress us. Huge flags of every country (many we didn’t know) ran along the Tonle Sap River and behind a long line of fancy hotels and clean, nice looking restaurants. We decided to take a chance and try Mexican food again; good, but just not California good, and the excitement of guacamole was diminished by the very conservative use of avocado. I don’t know why we even try anymore. After lunch we stumbled on a miracle, FAST INTERNET. We used for a bit, then headed back to our room for some TV and early sleep.

29.July.08

We walked a long way trying to find bicycles to rent, the Tuk Tuk drivers have the backpacker districts by the balls so no motos or bicycles are for rent anywhere. It was hot and miserable and the city and traffic were wild. It was great seeing some of the city, but we walked way farther than hoped not finding any rental places. Finally after asking around we found a huge market where thousands of bicycles made their home, and all of course, only for purchase!!! Seriously annoyed after spending 20 minutes trying to find one place to rent us bikes we almost admitted defeat until finding an awesome place called Lucky Lucky who took care of everything. They gave us a good price to get our Vietnamese visas ($32) and an awesome price to rent a really great Honda motorbike, $4 a day! Of course Jessica posed a problem; renting a motorbike meant actually motor biking in this unbelievably insane city. I assured her of my awesome driving skills and promised to be painfully slow and safe, and soon thereafter we were driving through chaos. Imagine every driving law you know being not only broken, but almost treated as if it was the correct way to drive. I’m not kidding here, one of the worst things we saw, which is actual quite a normal thing to witness, was an SUV driving on the opposite side to bypass the queue at the red light and turn across all lanes of traffic, while motorbikes just swerved around him as he sped through . Red lights and stops signs are suggestions, helmets an inconvenience (not for us), roundabouts a conundrum with no rules or direction, etc. In other words; it was AWESOME. We saw many close calls, but we always stayed super slow and off to the right, not a problem whatsoever and a really crazy experience to be in the thick of it all.

Anyways then we biked to S-21 detention center, ate lunch at a great café outside during heavy monsoonal rains, and then entered the horrifyingly depressing compound. S-21 was a high school turned by the Kmer Rouge into a prison/re-education center (AKA; torture, rape, starve, & slaughter center). Haunting pictures and testimonials from both victims and guards alike, room after room of tight-quartered brick walls, victim mug shots, post-torture pictures, chains, knives, blood stained tile floors, and a gut-wrenching set of rooms with a picture in each of how the prisoner was found when the center was liberated by the Vietnamese…it all sort of felt like visiting Disneyland…without “It’s a Small World.”

After getting pummeled in the face by the cruel realites of the world, we used internet for awhile at an even cheaper and faster internet center where only locals go. Go figure, tourists pay more for less. We then biked to the original restaurant of our favorite in Siem Riep “Tell.” We sat in it’s even greater ambiance and had a delicious 5 star German meal. Oh how we’ve missed you sauerkraut!

30.July.08

We found a breakfast place with unbelievable bagels and cream cheese, thereby curbing a painful craving we’ve had. Delicious pastrami sandwich; I can still taste it. Then we decided to make the day a bit more fun than yesterday and headed to the Kmer Rouge Killing Fields…maybe it’s not the normal idea of fun, but what is normal? The drive there was probably the most insane experience we have ever had on asphalt. First we went the wrong way and ended up over a traffic packed bridge into a dodgy slum which we quickly turned out of and got back on path. Then the other bridge we needed to take outside of the city was under repair, so we went to a little dirt road thrown together over the river where all the traffic bottle-necked down a scary narrow trail. Fun times. Then we took another wrong turn and discovered where all our products “made in Cambodia” are manufactured; in a MASSIVE factory the size of a small city with thousands of people marching the roads like lambs to the slaughter, wearing little plastic tags. As if that wasn’t depressing enough we finally ended up at the Killing Fields and were instantly faced with a tower of thousands of human skulls.

So much for NOT being depressed today.  The walk around the Killing Fields consisted of human bones protruding from the ground along the trails, a bin where you are asked to place any teeth/bones you find, massive craters which used to be mass graves, and lots of useful history on the genocide, one particularly good synopsis comparing it to the Nazis. The atrocities of the Kmer Rouge are completely insane, and I’ll skip the more gruesome details for the feint of heart.  Lets just say take everything you know about the horrors of the Nazi regime and the Kmer Rouge did the same and often worse (just not to as many people (Pol Pot killed over 2 million people or 1/4 of the entire population of Cambodia, namely the educated, city dwelling, and wealthy citizens, all in the name of flipping the social order for a more agrarian communist utopia).

Now questioning why we subject ourselves to such madness, (probably our curiosity and insatiable thirst for knowledge and understanding), we left the fields and finally on to something happier; a pretty lake lined with more hostels and villages. We had lunch along the river, and enjoyed some reading (Jessica now reading “First They Killed my Father” after I finished, an incredible book by a survivor of the Kmer Rouge).

Then we headed to a quaint Wat on a hill surrounded by a nice park right on the middle of the city. The Wat was mediocre on the outside, but quite gorgeous within and in the park we found monkeys, dogs, children, and an elephant. After that we went to the hotel for a bit and off to dinner in another district where we completely randomly met Darren, the friend we made in Battambang who lives there and works in Phnom Penh. He had work with his theatre workshop early so he didn’t hang out for long, but it was cool chatting with him. We also met a married couple of Peace Corps workers nearing the end of their 2 ½ year shift. We learned some pretty interesting stuff from them about rural Cambodia.

31.July.08

We had another excellent breakfast at a French restaurant frequented by ex-pats and foreign dignitaries. Terrific pastries! Then we said goodbye to our wonderful motorbike and made an offering of thanks to the motorbike deity for our safe return through two days of utter bedlam! We walked to the Grand Royal Palace which really wasn’t that grand in comparison to all the other royal palaces we’ve seen.

We headed then to the National Museum which was surprisingly astounding. The artifacts are mostly priceless relics from the Ankgor temples, lots of gold and jewelry which used to adorn statues of gods, and many perfectly preserved statues, carvings, and frescoes. Moreover it was all enclosed in a gorgeous structure with a very pleasant courtyard filled with ponds and pleasant flora. Kind of a diamond in the rough, though Phnom Penh is not all that ugly of a city.  When satisfied with the museums, temples, and palaces, we walked again to Lucky Lucky and got out passports back with our beautiful Vietnamese visas, whoo hoo! We booked a bus to Vietnam for tomorrow and met Darren at a restaurant for some beers and conversation. Later took a Tuk Tuk back home and slept.

Photos of Phnom Penh:

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606565239768/

We Miss Laos… August 7, 2008

25.July.08

Our bus ride from Siem Reap to Battambang was dusty, bumpy, cramped, and long. We got stuck behind a political parade for some party paying thousands of people for their vote with blue T-Shirts and White hats. It took an hour longer than necessary driving on a very bumpy dirt road behind the mass of politically brainwashed. We passed the beginnings of some very nice concrete bridges over the little flowing monsoon streams, and the first lays of asphalt. A work in progress which as we later found should have been finished years ago, but for a bribe put in the right place by a Thai airline company not wanting the smooth road to compete with flights!!! Yay corruption! But alas we arrived, and to the usual cacophony of “Mister, Lady, Tuk Tuk?” No misters, we replied and walked around in the drizzling rain to find a hotel. The room we settled on was mediocre, except it is the first time in months we have had a TELEVISION!!! Whoo hoo, HBO, Showtime, BBC News, Animal Planet, now we can just become vegetables again after the last four days of insanity…and that we did, for the rest of the day, aside from some tasty dinner at a Kmer restaurant comically named “Smokin’ Pot” where we randomly bumped in to this English guy Darren who we met on the bus. He works in Cambodia with a theatre workshop so we had a lot to talk about.

26.July.08

We wanted to make today our big sightseeing day, but we guessed a storm was a brewin’ and we were right, it poured all day. So we read, used crazy slow internet (read two blogs back for reason it is slow…Yay corruption!) and watched TV really loud trying to drown out the sounds of constant political parade (voting is tomorrow which is the day we wanted to leave, but got stuck as all buses stop). The rallies are insane, consisting of thousands of people packed into trucks, and riding around crazily on motorbikes, all with matching hats, and blue shirts. The main party is “The People’s Party,” and is lead by a man who used to be a high ranking Kmer Rouge official who “defected,” YAY corruption! Every slightly educated person we speak with hates the People’s Party because they are awful, and basically pay and intimidate for votes…scary shit; so why are we in Cambodia for elections? We asked that question many times. A true day of absolutely nothing, but the food is good and Jess drank a delicious fruit smoothie or two. The following picture perfectly sums up our day:

27.July.08

THE BIG DAY…or not. We got on our motorbike we rented the night before, and drove out of town hoping it would get less boring…it didn’t really. Some green fields, people walking around the villages flanking the road, most with dye on their fingers (showing they voted), nothing too gorgeous. We got to our destination; a small hill of caves where the Kmer Rouge had a base and brutally murdered a bunch of people, there is now a temple on top. We biked through the restaurants and souvenir stands and up the steep hill where we met our unofficial “guide.” Felling like we’re in India again this guy followed us around “practicing his English” by telling us about the caves; we acted indifferent and prepared ourselves for the “Tip, please sir,” as we left. We wandered the caves and glimpsed the pagoda of human bones and skulls, eerie shit. We saw the cave they just dropped children in to starve and die, complete insanity, we learn more and more the atrocities of the Kmer Rouge just in the 1970’s, and it is unbelievable. Anyway I won’t go in to too much detail. We went to the temple on top, got a nice view, and on the way back were stopped by a “tourist police” guard who tried to force us to pay a two dollar “entrance” fee; of course this would have been nice upon entering! So we left very annoyed, and told them if they wanted to scam people at least make a sign. YAY Corruption!

That was it; we were both completely fed up with this country. We miss Laos; where sanity, cleanliness, beauty, and friendliness reigned supreme. We rode around a bit more, seeing some small sights and more people with purple dyed fingers, then headed back to book our bus tickets tomorrow to leave blahtambang (I know, it’s not that funny wordplay). We found out that the “People’s Party” won the election again (to the disappointment of the educated) and the ex -Kmer Rouge leader’s 30 some odd year reign continues. YAY CORRUPTION!!!

Here are just seven lame pictures of this city. Sorry this blog sucked everyone…we’ll make a more fun one next time.

http://flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606550061987/

“YOU BUY COLD DRINK LADY!!!!!!!” August 6, 2008

19.7.2008

We wake up around 7am to catch our 8am bus a short walk from the hotel. The bus ride is quite comfortable and a big relief after the past couple of not so transport experiences. Assigned seating so we don’t have to worry about overcrowding or getting a seat…good good. So we board the bus and it leaves on time no problems…it does stop a few more times then necessary but this is all normal in Asia. Around noon we stop at a random town to switch buses and the food vendors are a little extra aggressive, reminding us a bit of India…and they were selling a few crispy creatures as well…worth a picture.

About an hour after arrival we were on another bus and on our way to Siem Reap, after having a little lunch and fresh fruit at the stopover. The rest of the ride took about 4 hours and a fairly easy trip aside from the t.v. up front blasting badly done local music videos and movies. When we arrived in Siem Reap the bus became surrounded by tuk tuk drivers ready to give us a ride into town for the bargain price of $1 but of course they want to take you to their friends place…luckily his friends place had been recommended to me by a fellow traveler so we agreed to take a look. The prices of the rooms kept changing but with a little haggling and help from our tuk tuk driver we got a huge room (talking studio apartment) for $5 a night. So we threw our stuff down and headed out to look for a place to eat dinner…but on the way out bumped into a group of American University students who are currently studying in Bangkok, so we talked with them for a while and then followed them to a place that has a special today…dollar margaritas and tacos. We were far from convinced that it would be anything near real Mexican food but it has been so long its worth a shot and while the food wasn’t exactly authentic it sure whet our appetites and the margaritas were spot on. After a few margaritas we headed to the night market and had a look around…lots of beautiful silk scarves, cheesy t-shirts, opium pipes and cheap DVD’s.

20.7.2008

Today was a very uneventful day just as we planned it to be. Woke up late and walked into town for some breakfast and then headed back to our guesthouse to hangout. We talked with the American crew some more and one of them lent Dave this tiny little laptop for the afternoon as they explored the city and we bummed around. Dave spent the rest of the afternoon falling in love and playing around on the new gadget. In the the late afternoon the crew came back from their cycle ride and Dave had to say goodbye to his new best friend….he was very sad. We had a late lunch/early dinner with them at the hotel and then they took off to catch a flight back to Bangkok…it rained hard for the rest of the evening

21.7.2008

Today we started our 3 day tour of the Angkor Wat Ruins and hoping that we wouldn’t be absolutely sick of temples by the end. We woke up a bit early and had breakfast at the hotel and today I fell in love….with an adorable kitten that mews constantly….not out of fear but sheer excitement.

After breakfast we had to head out and find ourselves a decent tuk tuk driver and arrange a fair price…we walked through myraid of drivers and headed for town hoping to find a better deal away from our hostel and we didn’t have to walk too far before we met our man and agreed on a price of $12 for a “Grand Tour” of Angkor Wat, Angkor Tom and some surrounding temples.   And as a  bonus he spoke  some English and  seemed to know some history of the Wats…think he is practicing to be a guide.

It took about 15 minutes to get to the main entrance and we then had to hop out to get tickets, which includes a picture of you so other people can’t use the ticket later…felt a bit more like Disneyland than ancient ruins.  Our first stop was Angkor Wat, which is the most famous of all the Wats in the area.  As we were dropped off at the temple we were accosted by a tag team of young girls selling cold drinks, scarves, books and other random souvenirs and even before the tuk tuk stops we are being yelled at, “YOU BUY DRINK MISTER/LADY” ….not the most pleasant experience.

It is already like a sauna outside but we trudge through the heat and are greatly rewarded…the details of the carvings of Angkor Wat are amazing!  It is truly a behemoth structure and takes at least an hour just to do a brief walk around all the different rooms. We take longer, taking lots of pictures and admiring every little detail. Anyway we could go into a description of each individual temple we saw, but the pictures will do justice, especially with how many pictures we put up! Each Flickr picture is named by the structure it was taken at. So I’ll just write about the highlights.

First we passed under a massive archway flanked by like a hundred huge statues of demons and gods pulling the snakes to churn the milk sea thus making the divine Amrita (this is a common theme and from the Hindu holy books). We drove through some pretty jungle swamps to the next temple The Bayon, a personal court and library for some king who was really into himself, so much so that he had his face put N,S,E,&W on 30 some pillars. Truly an incredible sight, and over all the temples we saw in three days probably our second favorite.

After wandering to some nearby structures and having a quick lunch we drove around to some lesser Wats.  All day we have people, mainly kids, trying to sell scarves, books, cold drinks, bracelets, etc, but at some point we heard a really funny line, “Lady, you want buy history,” she was of course referring to a book about the Angkor civilization; we got a big kick out of that line.  Although it’s not always fun, these vendor can get extremely pushy and very angry at you sometimes for stupid reasons.  We have hundreds of stories, but I’ll give one example.  Jess wanted to buy postcards so she was inquiring from one little girl, then another little girl came and started pushing her cards on us, and they kept saying “you buy from me, I was first” and quabbling amongst themselves making it all the more annoying.  Then a third little girl came trying to sell scarves and tell us which of the two girls to buy from; what should have been a pleasant purchase ended in us getting stressed and annoyed and driving away without buying anything to them screaming “Fuck you, you’re bad” and other filth.  We don’t know where they learn such shit, but similar events happened all three days, not fun, and certainly doesn’t make us want to buy their souvenirs. Anyway, everywhere we drive is filled with jungle and temple remains, in this small area alone, Angkor Thom, one million people lived 1,000 years ago, and built these massive stone buildings. After some smaller Wats we hit Ta Phrom, a massive stone labyrinth being choked by a dense jungle of trees. It was seriously incredible wandering the dense humid jungle seeing these ruins consumed by roots and branches.

We then went to the “Sunset Temple” Wat Phnom Bakaeng where tons of automobiles from Tuk Tuks, Motorbikes, Bicycles, Busses, Vans, etc, sat parked with a flow of hundreds of tourists filing out and up the hill along a forest path to a small Wat atop which gave a pretty great view of the surroundings, and Angkor Wat in the distance. After awhile the place was packed every inch with tourists ready for the sunset. We got bored however and didn’t anticipate the sunset to be that great, so descended before the crowds and got a great golden reflection off the Wat and statues.

Upon our return we were exhausted and read in our guide book about a good German restaurant, Tell, down the street. We headed there and were completely blown away by the food. It wasn’t just good German food for Cambodia, it was simply good German food! The Sauerkraut was spot on, my schweinebraten was unbelievable and the brown gravy and potato dumplings just mouthwatering. Jessica’s Thuringer sausage was extraordinary and came complete with real German mustard. This may not sound exciting you all reading this, but try going 7 months without your favorite food! We fell asleep exhausted and fully satisfied after a terrific day!

22.July.08

We woke up around 7am again for round two, met our driver after a great breakfast with our new favorite kitten and headed for a very dusty and bumpy hour and a half ride to the outskirts of the Angkor area. We arrived at a path heading uphill for about an hour where we reached a mildly disappointing set of carvings and shrines carved in the river rocks called Kbal Spean. We gave points for uniqueness, but it wasn’t really worth the hike.

Then we headed to Bateay Srei. It was significantly smaller than most temples, but made of gorgeous blood red stone, with the most stunningly intricate carvings we have ever seen. It became instantly our favorite and remained so for the whole tour of temples. It could take just 20 minutes to briskly walk around the temple grounds, but we spent well over an hour truly admiring the glory of this flawlessly preserved temple. Enjoy the photos, but none of them could truly capture how awesome each detail of this place was.

We went next to Banteay Samre which was most amazing for its architecture. It wasn’t extraordinary, but its layout was really neat. Then we ended near sunset at high temple, Pre Rup, with great views over the jungle. We got back a little earlier than yesterday and I convinced Jessica to eat again at my new favorite restaurant, Tell. The schweinebraten was just as good the second time around, and a mouthwatering schnitzel with another liter of Anchor Draught (local pilsner) and a decanter of wine…heavenly.

23.July.08

Same routine. Woke up early, played with kitten, ate, met Mr. Bean and rode the Tuk Tuk to a TON of ruins today. The first Preah Ko was a nice blood red temple with some interesting carvings, but the second was really monumental. Bakong probably takes third place on our favorite temples list. It is a massive structure and very simple with lots of elephant and lion statues. We luckily got a terrific shot void of people as we came just between massive Japanese/Chinese/Korean tour groups. The rest of our time there was packed with people so we really cherish the shots we got of it.

The third one Lolei was boring, and then we stopped at the Leper King’s platform. This was another of our favorites as it was a series of curvy little mazes with unparalleled carvings and statues along the labyrinth of walls. It was wonderful just wandering through the passages and the lighting was perfect for pictures.

The next, Preah Khan, used to be a Buddhist university. It was massive, but other than that not particularly amazing. It was difficult to decide where to walk because there we so many little passageways and they all kind of looked the same. One little courtyard was very nice, and upon exit I saw the freakiest little neon yellow spider thing. No one had any idea what it was. I think the ruins may have been a genetic or nuclear facility a thousand years ago.

The next two were Neak Phan and Ta Som. Neak Phom would have been even better with water in the lake because the temple was just in a big crater with no water. I’m sure it was nicer long ago. Ta Som was a quick walk through with a nice tree at the end consuming the entryway. We got back and unfortunately didn’t eat at Tell, but instead had delicious pizza at Café on the main “Bar Street.” I used internet for a bit and Jessica went to the room for a shower. We met back nearby at a terrific massage parlor where we had awesome Swedish massage which was very relaxing after a hectic three days. We slept like babies.

24.July.08

We had a full day of relaxation today. The most exciting thing was give blood at a local hospital for children hemorrhaging from Dengue fever who need it more than us. It seems to be something that a lot of tourists do and they advertise for it throughout the city. Jess is a veteran, but it was my first time giving blood, but it was great and easy and I learned my blood type for the first time; A negative. We got free Coca Cola, Cookies, and Free T-Shirts, whoo hoo! We then wandered about the extensive market area looking at trinkets and going on a small souvenir shopping spree. We had dinner at a delicious burger joint, used some internet, and just hung out.

Here is the link to the massive collection of the best of the best of Angkor Ruins.  Like I said before each picture is named for the ruin it was taken at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/flufflebuns/sets/72157606463750368/