Vietnam Singapore and Malaysia

For the last day of our tour (if you remember we left off in Siem Reap) we headed out towards some older ruins on the bikes. Along the way, we stopped at a little roadside stand, and learned how they make palm sugar. If you've never tried palm sugar before, it has a nice flavor.






David also finally got a chance to see some water buffalo out in the "wild."

After all the biking David decided to catch the bus back, while Jenni road back. Since David got back before her, he had some time to kill and went to the central tourist part of town. He took a tuktuk and literally got taken for a ride.

Before we all split ways the next day we went out for dinner at a "local" restaurant. We believe our guide phrased it like this: "Ladies and Gentleman further information please. For dinner tonight, would you like to eat where local people eat." "Oh yeah sure, yeah we're knowledgeable sturdy travelers." Well the food was quite questionable, and the largest dog in the world was running around the kitchen, and might have been the cook. The different soups were clearly just sitting in large pots, for however many days. Now, there is nothing wrong with this, except if your stomachs aren't used to it. Luckily no one got sick that night or the next day. This is probably because of the large amount of alcohol that was consumed due to it being New Years Eve. A few of us headed down to the tourist strip to have a few drinks. They basically cordoned off the whole area to contain all westerners and turned it into a giant rave. He managed to get a spot on the second floor of a restaurant and look down at the masses. It was good fun.

The next day we were free from schedules and routines, left to the our own devices...unfortunately, without that rigid structure we didn't really know what to do with ourselves. So David watched movies in Cambodian and Jenni took a nap. Actually, we went out to the very new, very modern museum. It was actually a really nice museum, but the way they broke it up into themes, it became quite repetitive. They talked about the Hindu influence in one room and discuss the kings and then talk about the kings in another room.

The next morning we packed up and headed to the airport via tuktuk, with our packs barely strapped to the seats. About halfway there, Jenni realized that she had left her wedding ring in the hotel room (we were shocked, it is very unlike Jenni to forget things). We decided to just get to the airport and get the flight settled and see how much time we had. We got there and the security guard asked which flight we were on, "Siem Reap airlines to Ho Chi Minh City." Never heard of it...So we go inside to the terminal. No Siem Reap airlines. We then decided Jenni would go back to the hotel, and David would figure out how we were going to leave the country. Here's Jenni's harrowing tale:

"I hurried out the airport, assuming I had little time to get back to the hotel. The taxi, tuk tuk and motobike kiosk advertised fares back to the city: $10 taxi, $8 tuk tuk and $4 motobike. The choice was obvious, not only were motobikes cheapest, they could easily weave in and out of stalled traffic. And the teenage boy driving the bike was more than happy to turn a tourist ride into the city into a grand high speed adventure. He was obviously very concerned I lost my ring as he dodged cars, sped through red lights and took a back alley full of pot holes to avoid a traffic jam. I laughed the entire way to the hotel -- mostly out of fear. But we made it safely and I ran back up to the room and the ring was right where I knew I'd left it... on the floor next to the bed... where I always leave my ring... ahem. I ran back out and popped back on the young Cambodian's bike. The trip back was equally thrilling. What probably should have taken 40 minutes round trip took my young friend only 20 minutes. He dropped me off at the airport and, with a gesture of triumph, said, "Yes! We made it!" I am not sure whether he was celebrating the time or that we had, indeed, made it alive. So that's how losing my wedding ring became the highlight of my trip to Cambodia. David, however, had less fun waiting for me at the airport."

While Jenni was speeding down the highway, clinging to the back of the motobike, David drug our two backpacks to the domestic terminal on a miscommunication (read, David doesn't speak Khmer) where he was turned around, "You're on an international flight, not a domestic flight." He returned to the international terminal hoping our airline and flight had somehow materialized in his absence. No such luck. By this point Jenni had come back and after a lot of pleading we finally got somebody to listen to us. Turns out our flight had been canceled for over a month, and we had, luckily, been moved to a later flight. Our idiot travel agents at Flight Centre didn't notify us of this. Notification of changed flights is pretty standard, at least we thought it was. So we lounged around the terminal for a little while, sorely tempted by the Dairy Queen.


Once we were on the Vietnam Airlines flight, we were greeted by the pilot "Hallo there folks..ahhhh...we'll be taking off shortly...ahhh...we should have you in Ho Chi Minh City in about an hour and a half...ahhhh...the weather is..." and so on, in a perfect Midwestern American accent. We were back in Ho Chi Minh City, and it had lost its allure and mystery. Now it was just a big city with a lot of people.


We had a free day the next day, and then we were headed to Singapore. We walked around the city some more and went to the art museum. While a lot of the paintings/sculptures were contemporary, they really didn't challenge the current system/government. A lot of times in western museums it is common to see some sort of social critique. Actually, there were even heroic looking sculptures and paintings from the Vietnam war. From there we went to the history museum where we learned many things. For example, "In 1930, the Indochinese Communist party was founded, it proposed the correct revolution platform." Then, "Everywhere, peasants rose up against the oppression of monarchy system." Finally, "After 1975, developing socio-economic requirements resulted in the movement of members of Northern ethnic groups to Southern Vietnam." Every museum is certainly nationalistic, but we just liked the wording.

From Ho Chi Minh we flew to Singapore. We just were using Singapore as a jumping off point to go to Malaysia, but we planned to stay a night to catch up with some old friends - the food. Luckily neither of us were packing durian (for those of you who don't know, durian is a fruit that apparently tastes good... if you can get paste the odor of blue cheese that's been sitting in the sun for 3 weeks).

You can see our earlier post on Singapore for some different info. For the evening, we just went out to eat and then back to the tiny hostel. The next morning we got up early to catch the train to Kuala Lumpur. The stomach bug that David had been fighting off quite successfully finally won, and it made for a rough train ride and couple of days. It was long too, almost 7 hours.

Kuala Lumpur is a modern beautiful city. Anyone interested in an easy introduction to Southeast Asia would really enjoy it. The public transport was easy to use, and we just hopped on the monorail to our hostel. We wandered around for a bit and grabbed something to eat (David could hardly touch it), then back to the hostel. At some point in the night the main water pipe for the whole street was shut off for some reason we never really knew. This meant there was no running water at the hostel so we thought it best to leave, rather than brush our teeth with the toilet water. David was still not feeling well, so we really didn't want to go too far. Our first stop was to get tickets to visit the Petronas (pronounced pet row nass) Towers. They are the second tallest buildings in the world, but the tallest twin towers. It's free to visit, but they only allow a certain amount of people a day. Then we went across town to perhaps the best made museum (Malaysian history museum) either of us had been. Really top notch exhibits that kept our interest the whole time. Then back across town to visit the skybridge that connected the two towers. After a short propaganda film about Petronas (en brief it is a Malaysian Oil company) we and twenty of our closest friends crammed into a freight elevator to visit the bridge. It is actually a double decker bridge, one floor is for tourists, the other floor is for people who work in the building. It makes things easier so that people do not have to go to the ground floor to access a floor in the opposite building. You can get a good view of the city, as well as inside the offices.

The towers are actually built on a giant mall. Which is where we spent most of our time, because of the "facilities" we were lacking in our hostel. We spent our evening at the movie theater, and came out shivering. It reminded us of the Antarctica simulation exhibit at the Antarctica museum in New Zealand. But it was a dry cold...

David was still sick the next day as we clamored onto the train for another 7 hour ride. We were nearing the end of the trip when they began to hand out the custom cards. Jenni woke David up, and he incoherently mumbled "I don't have your passport." This triggered something in Jenni's brain that said "I don't have my passport either." Thus began the final leg of our trip. It was determined that the passport was probably still at the hostel, so we checked with the train personnel and they told us we could catch a train back to Kuala Lumpur at the next station. We disembarked there and made a call to make sure it was back at the hostel then waited around for the next train. Luckily there was also a train the next day early in the morning, and our flight back to Darwin didn't leave till that evening.

Wanting to preserve the moment for posterity, David caught it on video.

Twice...

Amazingly everything went very smoothly and we got back to Singapore in plenty of time. So ended our trip through Southeast Asia.

Vietnam and Cambodia and then Vietnam Again Part 3

We arose at the home stay at about 6:30 in the morning to the sounds of roosters greeting the morning sun. It sounds so pleasant when phrased like that...Having arrived at night, we didn't have any real sense of where we were, so Jenni and David went for a quick walk along the path before breakfast. We were just in time to see the school kids dressed in their uniforms and off for their morning session. If you are thinking of doing a home stay in Vietnam, we recommend this place. The contact info is in the photo.


After breakfast we got back on the boat, and they took us across the river again to a brick factory. Again they use the rice husk to fuel the kilns' fire.
Then we hopped on our bikes for another 50-60km ride to a ferry that took us across the Mekong one last time. Then it was a few hour bus ride to Chau Doc near the Cambodia/Vietnam border. This was our last stop in Vietnam, and it was Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, during that day's ride one of the members of the group was cut off by a motorbike and she fell over. Thankfully she was not seriously injured, suffering bruises, scrapes and achy bones, and a pretty good fright. After checking into the hotel in Chau Doc, we all went out for Christmas Eve dinner at a floating restaurant out on the river. It was definitely sitting on pontoons and rocked up and down whenever a boat passed. Not David's idea of an evening out...but it was unique.

Highlights of the ride from the Mekong to Chau Doc:

The next day we started riding directly from the hotel, and it was about 30km to the border.

Sunrise Chau Doc

The day's riding was really good. We rode along rice paddies almost the whole way. It also included our first uphill ride, which had a nice long downhill. We arrived at the Vietnamese border and left the bus driver, truck driver, and "The Mechanic" in Vietnam. Linh came through with us all the way to the end. As we later found out, Linh left a few well-placed tips to ease the transition. We weren't allowed to photograph on the Vietnamese side, but as soon as we crossed over, "No problem." That really points to the differences between the countries.

Rice Paddies in Vietnam

Cambodian Border

We had purchased our visas before leaving Australia, but some members of the group had to buy them on the spot. The visas themselves only cost 20$, but in reality they were 25$. Part of the 5$ went to the guards, and then the rest went to the bigger fish so that the guards could keep their lucrative positions...We rode for about an hour to an hour and half along some very beautiful scenery even if it was along the highway. The rice paddies seemed to defy the border, running up against the mountains in the distance. David noticed while riding that the pedal felt like it was coming loose, and then about 20 minutes into the ride the whole pedal came flying off. Luckily nothing serious happened.

Welcome to Cambodia. You can hear the pedal squeaking in the background.

After riding we took the bus to a place called Sihanoukville. We stopped for lunch on the way at a dingy little restaurant in Ta Keo. The food was questionable but they did serve us free desert. It was sweet but the presentation was lacking. They tried to keep us entertained on the very long, very bumpy bus ride by at times playing 3rd generation copies of DVDs that skipped a lot and at other times playing the local radio (which was mostly European Christmas songs). There was even a music video that was possibly in Khmer (language spoken in Cambodia) and possibly filmed in Spain (a country in Europe).

Mmmmmm, may I have some more sir?

Sing along if you know the words!

To be continued....

Vietnam and Cambodia and then Vietnam Again Part 2

The 22nd we set out on the bus to the outskirts of Saigon. Our crooner (video later) of a guide, Linh, shared a little about his history. Apparently, his father was a captain in the South Vietnamese army. When then North took control, they sent all members of the South Vietnamese army (and probably police) to "reeducation" camps. The higher up in rank, the more time in the camps. Linh's father spent 8 years doing manual labor. Linh also told us that because his father was a captain, Linh is not able to join the communist party. If Linh has children, they too will not be able to join the communist party -- three generations removed is the rule. So in spite of his university degree he isn't able to easily get a government job (as most are in Vietnam). Hence why he is a tour operator and not a chemist.

When the bus stopped we met our bikes as well as the truck driver, and a man who would only be known mysteriously as "The Mechanic" like in some sort of Sergio Leone spaghetti western. We would ride for about 20km to the Cu Chi tunnels and get to short tour of that area. The short ride was mostly to get fitted for our bikes. Despite being on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, there was still an abundance of traffic, mostly motorbikes, but the occasional person on a bicycle. Our first and only break on the ride was at a rubber tree farm. They basically shave off a piece of the bark and the rubber (white in colour) slowly oozes out of the tree filling up a cup.

We arrived on our bikes at what looked like a theme park with many large air conditioned buses parked out front. These were the Cu Chi Tunnels, at least those open to the public. There are over a hundred kilometers of tunnels in the area, consisting of three levels, each going deeper. The Americans tried to bomb and destroy the tunnels, but they were extremely difficult to find. After a brief indoctrination video that looked like it was produced in the 1960s with a camera from the 1920s, we were taken to the different exhibits. Some demonstrated the boobytraps that were set up by the Viet Cong, others the entrances to the tunnels. In true Disney-fashion they even had exhibits with animatronic Vietnamese soldiers working as blacksmiths extracting gun powder from unexploded bombs. The coup de grace of course were the tunnels that have been reinforced for the tourists to enter. The first stage has been enlarged for westerners, the second stage, only slightly enlarged, and the third stage was just the way it was. Jenni went through all three, but David dropped out after the first stage. Even though they had been enlarged, it was all on hands and knees for David. One cannot help but admire the ingenuity and tenacity that went into buidling and maintaining the tunnels.

For ventilation they used termite mounds, simply punching a whole in them.

Trap door with spikes at the bottom.

Jenni getting into the tunnel.


You could pay to go fire an M-16 at the "National Defence Sports Shooting Range."



Video inside the tunnels.



After a fast-paced 10km ride after the tunnels, suggested by none other than Jenni :), we headed back to Saigon. The rest of the evening/afternoon was free for everyone. We went to a dingy little Indian Restaurant that had dingy Indian food that wasn't too bad.

Last view of Saigon traffic:


The 23rd we left Saigon for the Mekong Delta. We drove for about two hours before biking, stopping at a Cao Dai temple. Cao Dai is a religion that was established in 1926 in South Vietnam. It is a mixture of a number of different religions including Christianity and Buddhism, and Victor Hugo is considered a saint. So there you go...We're sure Caodaiists appreciate the detailed summary we have just given their religion. Don't be alarmed by the Swastikas. You see them all over Buddhist countries, and were an important symbol long before the Nazis ruined it.

While the roadside duck was a tempting offer, we had a schedule to keep and 50-60 km to cover on the bikes. This was perhaps the busiest day of the tour. Our biking crossed terrains that varied as widely as busy paved roads to roads made entirely of sand. We crossed many tributaries of the Mekong either by bridge our little ferry boats. Eventually, we loaded our bikes onto a diesel powered boat that took us along the Mekong for lunch.

"The Mechanic"
Lunch was a 4 course meal that included Elephant Ear fish.

After lunch we got back on the boat, and did a short tour along the Mekong to a small stretch of land where they make coconut candies, and poprice. Poprice is just like popcorn, only with rice. When the rice has been "popped" they mix it with caramel, and it is sort of like a rice crispy treat. They use the rice husk to fuel the fires for both the coconut candies and poprice. We then took the boats past the floating market, which was a cluster of various sized boats. Each boat had a particular item hanging on the outside which designated what they sold.

Poprice popping...

Along the Mekong and the floating markets.

Each house had a TV Antenna sticking out of it.

At the end of the floating market we met three row boats that took us through the narrower and shallower channels of the Mekong. There are thousands of little islands in the mouth of the Mekong. As we boarded these tiny rafts, we were give the traditional Vietnamese conical shaped hat to wear and keep the sun out of our eyes (at least that's what we were told). The we were taken along the little channel past people's homes. Our guide, Linh, serenaded us with traditional Vietnamese songs about the Mekong as we jerkily navigated the river. It lasted a bit too long for David, given his aversion to boats of all sizes, but he survived. And as we got back into our larger boat next to the bikes, the friendly rowboaters pulled out their engines and sped back through the channel.





Much to David's relief we finally left the boats behind and took our bikes on to one of the islands. This was probably the best biking we did on the whole trip as we navigated through the back roads of these little houses, barely wide enough for a person let alone 7 bikes, crossing small arched bridges. In a shocking turn of events, David was cycling in front of Jenni (a rarity) when we hit a steep slope where Jenni came off her bike. David turned to see Jenni standing there having nearly been dunked in the Mekong. We eventually reached our Homestay in one piece as the light had just faded away. It was a lovely little place with one big communal room. Dinner was excellent and well-received, and slowly we all left the table at different times and fell asleep on our cots.

Vietnam and Cambodia and then Vietnam Again Part 1

For our summer holidays we decided to take a trip around Southeast Asia. We signed up with Peregrine tours for a cycling trip from Saigon, Vietnam to Siem Reap, Cambodia. The cycling lasted 12 days, and from there we went to Singapore took the train up to Kuala Lumpur and then back to Singapore for our flight home.


We arrived in Hồ Chí Minh City (Sài Gòn) on December 19th, 2008, a couple of days before the tour started. We were greeted at the airport by someone we presumed worked for Peregrine. "Hey he has our names on a piece of paper, let's go with him!" He spoke English we couldn't understand and giggled a lot, to which we responded by giggling also, but got us to the right hotel and was very nice. The night time drive through the streets was an adventure. As we found out later, Saigon has 8 million people with 3.5 million motorbikes/scooters. While most countries drive on either the left or the right side, Vietnam has developed a Mostly Right side system where, regardless of oncoming traffic, you are allowed to leave your side of the road to pass. Since it was late by the time we got in, we went straight to bed.

The 20th we ventured out to the buffet style breakfast and navigated the noodles and Froot Loops in order to fuel ourselves for the adventure. Jenni tried to console David when the ran out of American-style bacon before he got there, "There's always tomorrow." Our first test was to learn how to cross the streets. The traffic doesn't stop unless there is a red light (and these are a rarity), and really then it's just the majority of the traffic that stops. A delicate balance between pedestrians and scooters has been worked out where if the pedestrian moves at a constant slow rate across the street the scooters and cars will try to avoid them. The key is to keep moving. Our first stop was a food market that was just down the street from the Vien Dong hotel on Ph. Ngu Lao. You could find a whole range of Vietnamese items, from frogs to noodles.

From there we made our way through the streets to the Reunification palace. This was the former "white house" of the South Vietnamese dictator/prime minister and since has turned into a symbol of the unification of North and South Vietnam after 1975. It is used for official business still, but probably mostly a tourist destination. There are two basement levels with at least 4 foot thick concrete walls that served as a bomb shelter. The prime minister lived and worked there throughout the war.

This Excitation Meter must have been broken, because we were way more excited than 0.

After the palace, we went to the Binh Tanh market, which is a big mass of tiny little shops that sold everything from novelty t-shirts, knock off watches, to fish. It was like a maze that would be the envy of any casino designer in the world. Across the street from the market was some weird Heineken Christmas display. In fact, almost every store and hotel had some sort of christmas display. All of them with a snow theme...Seems odd for a country that is 80% Budhist.


Back at the hotel, Jenni went to the hotel "spa" for a simple foot message. Here's her account: After some nasty looks from the male patrons sipping tea in the waiting area, I was ushered down a corridor of candlelit private rooms and into a large, also dimly lit room with several recliner chairs. Some men were sitting and drinking the water and tea already provided, their feet being massaged by young women. While the Lonely Planet had described SE Asia as a conservatively dressed country, these women all had on short shorts and tank tops. I was then given a pair of silk shorts to change into by probably the only male masseuse on duty that evening and ushered to the "female" changing room - a storage closet. The "foot" part of the massage description was misleading and challenged my knowledge of human anatomy. I hadn't realized the foot extends all the way to the upper thigh. When the massage ended the masseur said, "Are you sure all you want is a massage." To which I quickly responded, "Yes..." despite my curiosity as to what else he would offer. Apparently my experience wasn't unique. Another woman on the tour also had a foot massage, which she described as a bit more intimate than she had anticipated. And another man in our group, when he went in for a late night massage, was asked if he wanted one girl or two. He made it clear he just wanted a massage, which apparently was a waste of time because they talked him into a facial instead. As we came to learn, massage parlors are everywhere in SE Asia and mostly frequented by Asian businessmen. It helps to specify that you want a "tourist massage," meaning a massage without "perks" or "happy endings."

For our first dinner in Vietnam, we did what every tourist does and went out for Mexican. The salsa was quite good, although the dishes were a little plain. It was interesting to see the take on Mexican with Vietnamese ingredients.

The 21st was the official start of the tour, but we weren't meeting the group till that evening. So we walked to the War Remnants Museum. This museum is interesting on many different levels, from the many photographs of the war to visiting a museum from the perspective of the (North) Vietnamese. It provided a lot of information, and was really no more biased than any country would be regarding its own wars. Many sections were very graphic, especially the Agent Orange area (which not only showed the impact on the multiple generations of Vietnamese but also U.S. / Australian Service Men/Women after 1975). They also had replicas of the prisons where political prisoners were held by the South Vietnamese government. Most of the blame seem to be directed towards the ex South Vietnamese Government, the Americans, and to a lesser extent the French, leaving one with the impression everything was hunky-dory when North, Central, and South were reunited. Regardless, this was a powerful museum to see and was akin to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.. It was difficult not to draw comparisons between the current Iraq war and the Vietnam War - determined entrenched soldiers, bombing supply lines in neighboring countries, or a lack of a clear justifications...

After the Museum, Jenni decided she wanted to see the U.S. Embassy which wasn't too far away. We stopped in front of the U.S. Seal and Jenni pulled out her camera. Immediately the armed Vietnamese guard blew his whistle and indicated that we weren't allowed to take pictures. Jenni decided she would attempt to look sad and "argue" with the guard, David said "Probably shouldn't argue with an 18 year old carrying a semi-automatic rifle."

We meandered our way through the more upscale neighborhoods closer to the Saigon river where the Continental Hotel (from Greene's "Quiet American") is, and then back to our Hotel for a group dinner with the other 7 members of the trip with our intrepid leader, Linh.

Here's a video of crossing a Saigon street: