Cu Chi Tunnels

Cu Chi is considered a suburb type district of Ho Chi Minh City. It's a 65km drive from the center and our hotel and yen and I thought we'd splurge and spend the $4 for transportation there including a guide for the day. We rose bright and early and were picked up by the bus and en route to the tunnels by 8:30am. About 15 minutes into the ride, we pulled into a back alley and were asked to go in and check out an art factory (for lack of a better term) full of artists somehow physically affected by the war. Their afflictions ranged from actual fighting wounds to mine injuries to post war birth defects caused by agent orange used during the war. They were creating everything (really -- a very impressive array of items) from wood and eggshells or mother of pearl. It was an impressive sight to see with rows and rows of people meticulously arranging the tiniest fragments of eggshell into impressive and sometimes huge works of art. When we got through the production lines, we hit the gallery, picked up some chopstick holders, and got back on the bus -- this time right to the tunnels.

Our guide gave us a bit of background en route and we arrived into a 20 minute propaganda video about the Cu Chi people. It was interesting to see propaganda from the other side of the coin -- the peasant girl who fought with the guerrillas against the devil Americans and still managed to prepare the meals and get the house sorted out before bed. She was awarded special status as an American killing hero. There were a few others as well. Interesting as it was, it was still propaganda. We were ready to see some real stuff.

We headed into the forest, where we first encountered huge craters caused by American bombs dropped during the war. Then we saw our first of many "secret" tunnel entrances. These secret entrances were extremely small and rectangular with wooden covers that were camoflaged by leaves and branches back in the day. I don't remember the exact size, but 34 waist and above could forget about even trying to get in. These secret entrances were used to sneak up amongst the enemy American soldiers or disappear quickly in case they were under fire. There were some not so secret entrances as well, but most American soldiers wouldn't fit in the tunnels anyway -- even without their equipment.

Next we saw a "bamboo trap." It's basically a rectangular hole a few meters deep with sharpened bamboo stakes sticking up from the bottom. Covering the hole was a rotating board made of dried palm leaves and sticks. An unlucky American would fall in and, well... it looked painful. There were many similar very evil looking traps on display and apparently quite a few were set in the forests. The story goes that the Cu Chi people remembered exactly where they were all set and none of them ever stepped in one by accident. There traps were set in the tunnels as well, just in case there was ever a skinny American soldier brave enough to enter the network of over 250km of underground tunnels.

Other things of note in our trek through the forest included an American tank disabled by Cu Chi guerrillas still in its original location, tunnel air holes hidden in rocks, an armoury where the people would take used American bombs and other weapons to retro-fit for their own uses, a mess hall and an infirmary. All of these low hut-like places were dug into the ground a bit and had tiny holes in the floor for a quick escape into the tunnels if necessary. We got to try a bit of the Cu Chi guerrillas' snack food too -- boiled tapioca plant, otherwise known as casava. Not bad.

Finally, we got to enter the tunnels. The section we got to go in was a bit bigger than the majority of them; let's face it, us fat westerners just can't fit. A few people bypassed the tunnel bit while the rest of us descended. I have to admit: it certainly wasn't a comfortable experience. I didn't have to crawl, but i was really crumpled and waddling. When I took a deep breath I could feel the walls pressing in against lungs. It was creepy. I was last in the line and was near panic when the couple in front of us stopped for a few minutes to line up a picture. I guess I've got a claustrophobic streak in me.

We also got a chance to shoot some of the weapons used in the war. We opted out, but the blasts of others were deafening.

After the tunnels we reboarded the bus and asked to get dropped off at the "War Remnance Museum", formerly known as the "American War Crimes Museum." I'm assuming the name change was something of a compromise when diplomatic relations were re-established with the States in 1995.

The museum had some American planes and tanks outside on display. Inside was mostly a photo tour of different aspects of the war with photo journalist photos and quotes. Again, there was a lot propoganda, but a lot of graphic photos and press statements that were supposedly independent. Not the kind of stuff you learn on our side of the world. An interesting and very depressing wander it was.

We took a cab from the museum to a nearby market where we were overwhelmed by rude and aggressive sales people. We wanted to leave almost immediately, but the pouring rain prevented such desires from coming to fruition. We did happen to stumble across a very pushy durian shake lady though. No need to twist my rubber arm. It was the best durian shake I'd ever had. WooooHooooo!!! I love that shit. I also love that it let me sit down amongst the craziness of the market.

We found a local street that evening and found a very big and popular looking restaurant. It wasn't stellar but it filled us up. I had the 5 spice deer and Yen had boiled pork with raw veggies. All in all, nothing special. Then we headed out for a few drinks with Josh, one of the guys on our Cambodia trip who is still in town. It was a weird bar playing mostly western music and having very few people in it. We watched the street go by from the second floor -- watching countless dried squid vendors pedal by, a sandwich stand lady peddling her Vietnamese hoagies, and a random guy asleep on his parked motor bike. Good times.

Them back to the hotel for a good night sleep before our final day in Vietnam :-(

Mekong Delta

After a (free) breakfast of Vietnamese coffee and french bread with jam/butter and eggs, our tour guide picked us up for our overnight trip to the Mekong Delta. We were told that this tour company was better than others because they kept their groups small -- about 10 people -- but were disappointed to see that there appeared to be closer to 20 people on the bus :( At least it was an air conditioned bus with lots of extra seats... or so we thought. Half way on our journey, they moved all of us to a much smaller minibus with just enough seats, but we did have AC, as weak as it was.

When we arrived at the Mekong, we boarded a small boat and headed towards a fruit market. As we were motoring along the waterways, children would hang on the the bumpers (old tires) on the sides of the vessel and go for the free ride, and sometimes they would somehow avoid the motor and just climb on the back of the boat! We only had about 15 minutes to browse the fruit market, so it was just enough time for Eric to buy a durian and a pineapple on a stick and me to pick up a guava. The durian wasn't bad, but the pineapple was overripe and my guava was underripe. This explains the cheap price we paid for them.

Next we stopped at a fish farm and fruit orchard where we didn't get to eat the fish or the fruit... instead they fed us a lunch of stir fried pork and veggies over instant noodles and a dessert of fresh fruit not from the orchard. Poor Eric again found himself surrounded by rows and rows of unripened fruits he could not eat (longans).

After lunch we visited a coconut candy making factory. It smelled soooo good! Basically, they would take fresh coconuts, scrape the pulp out of them, squeeze the juice out of the pulp to get coconut milk, and they boil the coconut milk until it becomes a caramel like consistency. They would let this cool and then cut it up into little squares and pack each one by hand. Crazy! It was a very simple but efficient factory. We tried some of the candy while it was still warm and it is addictively tasty! Some were flavored with pandan leaves or chocolate.

Our next stop was a small village where we were loaded into rowboats and rowed down the river by two strong little ladies. I think it was supposed to be a quiet drift down the river taking in the sights and sounds of the simple rural Mekong Delta life. In actuality, it was ridiculous and totally touristy. For starters, we were given rice paddy hats to wear (on top of our Tilley hats). The lady steering the boat kept yelling in Vietnamese to the other rower and to the people on shore. At one point, we were reminded by someone on shore that we should tip the rowers for their hard work. We felt like such stupid foreigners wearing funny hats. It was more angering than relaxing.

The best part of the trip was when we finally checked into our hotel in Can Tho and headed out for dinner. We were starving at this point and filled up on Vietnamese goat curry, deep fried spring rolls and a some noodle soup medley. Can Tho is one of the largest cities in Vietnam, and man does it have a shite night market. We were right on the waterfront and it seemed pretty dead. What made it fun were some kids who played with us on the walk back to the hotel -- they kept pretending they had fangs made out of their hands or something.

We rose early the next day to get herded to the floating market. It's nothing like what you see in the pictures. The motors on the boats made it loud and stinky, and it looked like people were just loading piles of stuff from the large wholesale boats to the smaller retail ones. Mostly, it was potatoes, cabbages, watermelon, pineapple, and mangoes. Oh, one guy sold overpriced drinks. This Chinese lady on our trip bought 15 kilos of mangoes since they were $0.50 a kilo. We just sat there and wondered why people spent so much energy loading fruit and veggies from land onto large boats, only to load them onto smaller boats and bring them back to land.

By this point, we were pretty tired of getting herded from place to place, but the next few stops were kind of interesting. We went to a rice noodle making factory where they take rice flour to make round sheets of thick rice paper that is cut into strips for "pho noodles". There was an old lady selling little rice cakes that were pretty tasty and only $0.35 each. We also stopped at a small island to cross a monkey bridge, a type of bridge traditionally used by the Vietnamese to cross small rivers. It was made of unsturdy looking logs and we were reminded to cross one at a time since several people from a previous tour group fell into the river since they were all one at the same time. Our last stop was at a rice factory where they shell, polish, and sort the rice. There were big shaking things and unprotected belts and gears all over the place, yet not a hard hat in sight! The workers didn't even wear shoes.

After a nice pho lunch back in Can Tho, we headed back to Ho Chi Minh City. The tour was hectic and more touristy than we wanted or were expecting (even though we are tourists). However, I'm glad we got to see the Mekong Delta, and we wouldn't have been able to see all the different things we saw otherwise. Instead of having sauteed beef penis with green pepper as was offered in a nearby restaurant, I had a pork rice soup for dinner and Eric had goat in coconut sauce and corn with dried shrimps. It was an early night as we prepared for another early morning to the Cu Chi tunnels!

Saigon

Our tour ended when we arrived in Saigon yesterday, where we were dropped off on a street with lots of cheap hotels. We ended up getting a place kind of tucked away in a shady looking alley, but it is actually quite nice and only $10 a night! After a quick shower, we headed off into the streets in search of pho. At first, we were disappointed since we were near backpackers row full of overpriced Tex-Mex, Italian, and other western food. Finally we ventured far enough and found a dumpy looking restaurant with great pho and Vietnamese coffee. Very cheap and very tasty!

We walked around the 'hood for a while before meeting our group for dinner one last time at a night market full of street vendors. There were tanks full of live seafood where you could choose your dinner - crabs, soft shell crabs, fish, shrimp, etc. Unfortunately, the one that we chose didn't have such goodness. Fortunately, they did have tasty shakes and dinner was still quite pleasant. We had fresh spring rolls with shrimp, bbq'd lemongrass pork over vermicelli noodles and bbq'd squid. After dinner, we hooked up with the Aussie couple who were on our China tour and had a couple of drinks at an annoying bar catering to westerners. The company was good though and it was nice to catch up with them!

Today we dropped off our laundry for about $0.50 a kilo and met up with the Aussie couple for lunch one last time before they headed back home. The restaurant is packed to the brim at night but we were the only customers there for lunch. Eric had something he didn't order (coke and chicken instead of pork on rice), and I had luc lac (not as good as in Cambodia!) and some overbattered soft shell crab. Oh well. Now we're paying $0.40 an hour for internet and sweating buckets despite the fan right above our heads! We are planning to do an overnight trip to the Mekong Delta tomorrow, and then to the Cu Chi tunnels and the War Museum when we get back. I hate thinking about the impending 24 hr flight back home...

Phnom Penh

After an uneventful (thank goodness) 5 hr air conditioned bus ride to Phnom Penh, we arrived at our hotel in the centre of the city, right by the Central Market. First order of business was to have lunch, so we ventured to a nearby restaurant and I had Cambodian pork noodle soup (keem tuk guay deow) and Eric had a seafood stir-fry and some delicious iced coffee with sweetened condensed milk. Nothing too special, but for under $3, we were quite satisfied.

We headed back to the hotel where I prepared myself to call my cousin, whom I have never met (or was too young to remember). I was excited to meet my Dad’s younger sister and her family, but for some reason, I was very nervous. First of all, there was going to be a huge language barrier, but most of all, I just didn’t know what to expect. Would they treat me differently because I had the luxury of growing up in Canada? Would they feel strange around the white guy? Only one way to find out, so I picked up the phone in our hotel room called my cousin Kheang.

It didn’t take long for the fears to melt away. We were able to communicate in English and arranged for a pick up after he finished work. Eric and I went to the Central Market to pick up some fresh fruits for my Aunt – oranges, mangosteens, lychees, and rambutans. In the evening, we were greeted in the lobby by a warm and smiling Kheang and his sister. My female cousin can only speak Khmer (the language of the Cambodian people) so there was a lot of smiling and nodding between us. They drove us to their parent’s home, about 15 minutes away and just down the street from the Russian Market. As we pulled up by their house, a female version of my Dad appeared and gave us a big excited hug. My Aunt is the cutest little woman who hides her age well and is most definitely my father's sister... down to the way she purses her lips.

We chatted and laughed and somehow managed to communicate quite well! My Aunt knows Khmer, Mandarin and Cheow Jow, I know English, Cantonese, and very broken Cheow Jow, and my cousin Kheang knows Khmer and some English. Between the 3 of us, we were able to get our points across but there was no way to verify whether they were interpreted correctly. It was quite funny really. Then my Aunt gave me a precious gift – the only surviving picture of her mother. The picture is of 5 people: my grandmother, her sister, and her 3 brothers. It was taken at my Aunt’s wedding in 1966. I protested about taking the original photo since we could easily have had it scanned but she assured me that I should take it since she has several copies, including a huge framed one. Unfortunately, there are no surviving pictures of my grandfather for me to see.

That evening, we went to a lovely Cambodian restaurant that overlooked the river. It was the best food we had in Cambodia: fresh fried whole fish from the river, crispy stir-fried corn (I didn’t know corn could taste so good), stir-fried morning glory with chicken livers, luc lac (cubes of medium rare beef over a bed of fresh veggies with a side of frites – French influence), and a Cambodian fish stew called mjoo keung. Fantastic!

The next morning, our tour group visited the Grand Palace (king lives there), Silver Pagoda, National Museum (lots of buddhas and lotus statues), and Wat Phnom (temple). It would have been much more interesting if we didn't have 3 different tour leaders who told us the same stories again and again for 4 hours. The best part of the morning were the monkeys hanging around Wat Phnom. We watched in awe as one monkey intently groomed another monkey's behind, including its scrotum. The Russian Market was also very cool. You know all that stuff that we get in Canada that's made in Cambodia? Well, they sell it here for a fraction of the price. Eric bought Columbia pants for $5 and I bought 2 Gap shirts for $5.

We had lunch at a really pretty garden restaurant full of blooming flowers and trees. It was fresh and mostly organic, but really, the atmosphere was better than the food. Across the street, we went to the Tuol Sleng Museum. It used to be a high school, but during the war, the Khmer Rouge turned it to a interrogation and torture centre during the Pol Pot regime. There was no sugar coating for our virgin western eyes here. There were photos of the tortured victims in the very rooms where it occurred, along with the orginal torture devices as seen in the photos. Next we went to the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek, where the 17,000 prisoners from Tuol Sleng were executed in mass graves, which were really just pits dug by the prisoners themselves. There was a large tree on the property that the soldiers used to swing and kill babies against. It was hard to get our heads around the enormity of the crimes committed here, but we were constantly reminded since everywhere we walked, packed dirt beneath us were full of bone fragments and pieces of clothing. To think that this was one of hundreds of killing fields across the country was mind boggling.

Our next stop was at an orphanage where they taught traditional Cambodian dance, similar to the dancing at our Philly wedding. There were about 50 children who did a few shows for the 5 of us (it kind of felt like we were the ones on stage). When the show was over, they invited us to dance with them on stage. It was fun and we sucked in comparison, but they were really nice and so cute! My dance partner was a 9 yr old girl who was attached to me the whole time. Even as we were getting ready to leave and all the other children were sitting on stage, she held onto me. Her teacher tried to tell her several times to let go but she just smiled shyly and held me even tighter. It was difficult to have to leave her there. I wish I could have taken her home! She was really sweet.

After a long day, we had a great dinner at a place called Friends, which take in, train, and employ street children. They had a tapas style menu with a great selection of tasty dishes. The best was a Cambodian fish soup served in a coconut shell.

After dinner, Eric and I met up with my family again. They told me about life under the Pol Pot regime and they were happy to answer my questions. Even though the stories were awful, I really appreciated that they were willing to share it with us. That was one of the most fascinating things about the Cambodian people. Every single person we talked to who lived in Cambodia around 1975 was effected, from the tour guides to the tuk tuk drivers, yet they all seemed happy to share their story. Yet, the Cambodians in general seem very gentle and you don't get a sense of bitterness from them as you might expect -- I think they just don't want to fight anymore and have moved on, even though they suffered and are still suffering so much injustice.

I am so glad that we were able to finally meet my father's side of the family and I get the feeling it won't be the last time we see them :) They expressed how nice it was to meet us and how much they liked Eric. Besides being respectful, they appreciated how he tried to be involved in the conversation (by smiling and nodding) but I suspect they were also pleased with the way he could eat anything and everything. Early the next morning, we left Phnom Penh for a 7 hour bus ride to Saigon. Of course, we had problems leaving since the bus left 1/2 and hour earlier than expected, despite 3 confirmations and tickets stating otherwise. Oh Cambodia. As we got closer to Vietnam, the roads were paved and smooth. Weird! My family had given us some fruit so altogether we had 2 kilograms of mangosteens and 6 mangos, of which Eric ate 95%. This may have resulted in a bowel movement. Not weird!

Angkor Wat

Up at 4am.

4am.

Somehow, the sunrise at Angkor Wat has become a tourist attraction. As though it doesnt rise anywhere else in the world. Well at least that was our feeling when the alarm when off. When we arrived in the darkness of predawn, it was quite pleasant. We sat by a pond in front of the temple and waited for the sun to peek over. A nice woman from a nearby hut came over and offered us coffee. Obviously there was only one possible reaction to this and she was back momentarily with a coffee for Yen and I. It was steaming and black. She offered a can of sweetened condensed milk as well and we greedily took the can and started pouring it in. After I had poured mine and Yen was pouring hers, I was noting that it was quite lumpy. Generally, they don't make it with ants in Canada. We told her, but decided wed cut our losses and just drink what we had. It actually wasn't bad. It was 4am.

It was a bit cloudy so the sunrise wasn't what I imagine it became famous for. Dawn is always somewhat special though since its a rare event to witness. Our bitterness was fogotten and we snapped some photos and embarked on the first of the three temples we'd see.

There are many enourmous temples in the area, referred to as Angkor. Some date back to the 9th century. However, one temple is actually called Angkor Wat (Wat means temple) and that was the first temple we went in. It was the most well preserved and restored of the three we saw. Really quite incredible. When we left that temple, we were bombarded by the kids selling everything from books to flutes to postcards. They're well trained in the art of heart string pulling. We didn't fall for it but they were quite persistant. We were stopping for breakfast at the time so they informed me that I should go and eat a delicious breakfast because I feel tired and afterwards, I'll probably feel like buying postcards. A good hearty breakfast often does that... I guess. One of the girls, Jenny, gave me a post card on which she'd drawn a flower and written a lovely note in English. We were besties.

The other two temples in the afternoon were also fantastic. One of them was the one where Tomb Raider was filmed and also that tiger movie with the two brother tigers. It's got jungle
bits growing all through the ruins and looks surreal.

After the temples, we stopped in at sort of an orphanage for land mine victims with a museum dedicated to the cause. The 19 year old guide that took us through the museum showed us all the different types of land mines from anti-personnel single and double leg (yep, thats what they're meant to destroy) mines to anti-tank mines. He even set one up for me to test out -- minus the TNT. It was a Russian double leg mine. It was a gut wrenching pop. They showed us how people set them up and a lot of different ways they can be planted with booby traps etc... These things must've taken a lot of brains to create -- if only all this energy could've been put to something useful. They even had some sample mine fields so we could see what it looks like in the fields or jungles. Then our guide told us his story and revealed his plastic leg. He stepped on the same kind of mine that I had just tried and lost his leg. His only two siblings were walking behind him and weren't so "lucky". Apparently, two people each day in Cambodia are hospitalised due to a landmine. There are still several million landmines left, planted by the Khmer Rouge during the seventies. The founder of the center is actually the guy who started the major movement, originally without any government funding, out in the fields with his bare hands de-mining. He still does it and trains others to help. It was a very moving place.

When we were done we'd had a long day, but it was all quite amazing. We bussed back into the city and made sure to check out the local market and diner ;-)

We met again for dinner and Yen had a cool looking fermented fish dish and I had some fantastic seafood thing.

We had a free day the next day and Yen and I planned to go to the Tonle Sap. It's the biggest fresh water lake around and there are complete villages that live on it in rafts and boats. It's now the end of the dry season when the water level is at its lowest, but in the height of rainy season it can grow up to 10 times its current size! At those times it's more of a sea and the people who live on it move up to the mountains. So we took a tuk-tuk (motorbike with a carriage on the back) to the lake and then hopped in a long boat to check out the rest. There was a school at the docks where we boarded the boat and kids were just leaving when we arrived. They paddle little wooden boats with paddles that looked more like little sticks back to their floating village. It was quite an amazing site.

When we arrived at the village it was really nothing like I expected. They had raft gardens, a floating pig farm, little fenced off "yards". We even stopped in at a crocodile and catfish farm!

We don't know quite where or under which circumstances, but Yen's parents actually lived on this lake at one point! That was amazing to imagine! Our guide on the boat lived there as well and it was really amazing to hear his stories.

When we got back to town we picked up some fruit in the market, I got my glasses fixed (a screw was lost and the lens was dangling) and we then headed back to the hotel to catch up on a bit of sleep. Well, Yen did anyway. You may not believe this, but I actually read a book... yep, a book. It even had chapters and no pictures! It was called First They Killed My Father. It was a good but difficult (subject matter, not reading grade level -- I know what you were thinking) book about a young girl's real life story during the Khmer Rouge time in Cambodia. It sure set the scene for the next few days.

Dinner was uneventful and after dinner we had a few drinks at "The Red Piano." It's the bar where Angelina Jolie had drinks during the Tomb Raider filming. The bar across the street had some live lounge singer doing everything from Sinatra's "My Way" to "La Bamba" to "Hava Nagila!" I've never been in a more bizarre place.

The next morning we hopped on a bus bright and early to Phenom Pehn.

Welcome to Cambodia

We woke up early, forced the hotel to get the breakfast out before their standard hours and hopped in a taxi to head to the bus station. Nothing too exciting, which is good.

We got on our bus and managed to doze a bit before arriving at the little town about 10 minutes from the Cambodian border. Then we had to get a tuk-tuk to the border. A tuk-tuk is a motorbike with a little trolley hanging off the back to sit in. Pretty comfortable and nice and breezy.

We got to the border and did the customs bits, before boarding the government bus that takes people to the little town bus station on the other side of the border. At this bus station, we learned that our bus to Siem Reap wouldn't be ready for another hour or so -- we got through the border pretty quickly. Then about 2 minutes later, they said our bus was just over there -- pointing to a little 22 seater minibus -- for the 5 of us. Nice -- or so we thought. We loaded up and hopped in and started our journey to Siem Reap. It was somewhere around 1pm at the time I think. A few people we'd spoken to had warned that the road to Siem Reap was quite possibly the bumpiest road in the world. This couldn't be further from the truth. The mere earth is hardly a sufficient quantifier -- I believe the universe and beyond might be more fitting.

It was BUMPY with huge craters and bridges that looked like they might be strong enough to withstand a small bird landing on it. Maybe even two. Apparently, the government owns shares in the only airline that flies between Bangkok and Siem Reap (quite a pricey route, too) and hence doesn't have a vested interest in the connecting road. After about an hour, the bus pulled over to the side of the dusty road in the middle of nowhere. He looked under the bus -- apparently something wrong with the transmission. He looked in the trunk and then disappeared. We didn't see him leave, but he was nowhere to be found. A bit confused, but really kind of helpless, we sat under a tree in the shade and watched a man fishing in a nearby pond. About an hour later, he appeared on the horizon on the back of a motorbike with two wrenches and a bag of bottled water for us. It was hot. Damn hot. Still wearing long sleeves, he crawled under the bus and in about 45-60 minutes, came out and the bus started. Only at this point did the driver remove his long sleave shirt to reveal another tshirt layer below. I think I nearly died at the thought of layers. On the road (if you can call it that) again.

After about another half hour or so, we started driving a bit slow and saw the steam coming out of the front panel of the bus. Again we pulled over. Blew a tire. We exited the baking bus and tried to find whatever breeze we could on the red dirt road. Some kids came running out when they saw us. Quite possibly the cutest kids in the universe. After the obligatory request for a few baht, we talked for a bit, I juggled some rocks and taught a few lessons, Yen braided the girls' hair, and I learned their version of high five (it involves hands, feet, and asses.)

With the tire finally changed, we were on the road again. But no sooner than we headed out , we pulled into a hut on the side of the road, which was a mechanic of sorts. We were there for a while, as more tires were changed, fixed, reattached, etc... Through the whole ride, the bumps were slowly taking their toll on the screws holding the ceiling panels on -- by this time, there was one screw left and the whole back portion of the ceiling was on the verge of collapse. On one bump, part of the A/C duct systemflew out and nearly landed on one of our fellow riders. We all moved to the front.

Finally arriving in the "city" of Siem Reap, we were grateful for the smoother roads. Almost at the guest house. We turned down one street, and then... stopped again. This time because there were two policemen standing in front of us. The driver and our tour leader got out to see what was up. Apparently, they'd decided that this street was off limits to minibuses. As we watched many zoomed by as they argued outside, we later learned that they were about to impound the bus and all of us. $5 US changed a few things and we were back on track. Finally arriving at about 8 or 9pm, we cleaned up a bit and headed out to grab a Khmer (Cambodian) bite to eat.

We went straight back to the hotel and crashed... hard.

Farewell Bangkok

With camera in hand, we set off back to the heart of the city, to see what culinary delights awaited. First we found some street crepes with egg and banana inside, smothered with sweetened condensed milk. Think about that for a moment -- utter tastiness. We then went for some street booth noodles and rice before picking up some fruit mangos and fruit shakes for the road (mangoes, guavas and coconut shake -- in a bag with a straw!) We went to bed that night happily and fruitaciously satiated.

The next day we had to meet up with our group at the hotel for the trip to Cambodia. We were meeting up with them in the evening for dinner, so we had to maximise our final day in the markets. This was a challenge we were certainly up for. We started off with some fresh wrapped spring rolls from a cart on the way to the markets. Perfect way to start the day (and by start I mean set off from the hotel after a free and hence clearly obligatory buffet breakfast.) Quite nice and the perfect appetite whetter. We found a street cafe, which was a bit of a change for us from the street food we'd been used to. In any case, it was a bit more expensive (like $8-10 for the two of us!) so we were a bit hesitant, but they loaded on the squid and strimps for my pad thai! And Yenji's Laab (ground pork with fresh herbs) was no ordinary plate of pig.

After that, we walked around checking out the vendors in the market and I thought I'd get my hair shorn down again and see if someone would shave me for the trip to Cambodia. The shave hurt a bit but she was very thorough and it was nice and close. I'd do it again -- not sure if it's because it's so good or because I just hate doing it myself. In any case, the few bucks was well worth it. We celebrated the removal of my facial hair with a fantastic Thai desert in a bag. Pandan leaf jelly shiza in coconut milk in a bag. SWEET!

We met up with the tour group for dinner just to get the lo down on our departure for the following morning and then headed out for one last taste of Bangkok nightlife. We past the Buddist Ronald McDonald and had one last taste of egg and banana crepes. I went for one final Thai massage too -- I got the old lady with fingers as thick as my arm(ish) and as much as it hurt, it felt fantastic! Then it was back to our hotel to pack and get ready for an early morning.

See ya Thailand!

Khao Sok and a Zippers Nightmare

At Khao Sok, we stayed at a place called "Our Jungle House" where Penny stayed when she visited Thailand a few years ago. What a great recommendation! It was the off season so most of the places around were empty and much cheaper, but this place had a lot of privacy since each hut was surrounded by lush jungle. Our treehouse had a rooftop deck and it overlooked the river that backed onto huge limestone cliffs which was an ancient coral reef back in the day. Cool! We bathed in the river and washed our clothes (without using soap) and then walked around the town. It was pretty small and most places were closed since there were very few tourists -- it was kind of nice this way! It was a little odd to see that the reggae bar was still happenin' though (the Thais love their Bob Marley).

We signed up for a two day one night excursion at Khao Sok National Park. There were 4 of us plus a guide. This included a journey across the lake in a long boat, trekking up to a viewpoint, a night safari, an overnight stay in a floating raft, and hiking through a cave filled with bats, spiders, and water. The best part of the trip was our guide, a jolly Thai local who called himself "Big Man". Big Man grew up in the area and was a former park ranger so he really knew the ins and outs of Khao Sok. He, along with almost everyone else we met, thought I was "same same Thai people" until I spoke. This was handy at times since I was able to get local price entrance into the park! I guess I say it best when I say nothing at all.

Khao Sok is really amazing. Apparently, the mountains are comparable to those seen in Guilin, China and the rainforest is larger than that of the Amazon. We took the long boat to the base of one of the mountains and hiked about an hour to the top. The brochure for this tour was in broken English so we were not prepared for this in the least! Within 10 minutes of trekking in the jungle, everyone was soaking wet with sweat. The trail was quite rugged at times and it required us to climb up very sharp jagged rocks using both hands. Big Man was doing all this in bare feet! He said he used to hunt for wild boars as a child with his father and bare feet was required so that the animals couldn't hear them coming. Half way up the mountain, we stopped for lunch -- it was sliced fresh cucumbers and steamed chicken breast over rice with a soy ginger sauce. Delicious, especially since we were so tired!

Along the way, Big Man would point out monkeys (who looked like they were having a lot of fun chasing eachother around), rattan used to make furniture, birds, old communist bunkers, etc. The most amazing animal we saw was the hornbill -- a large black and white bird with a huge yellow beak and something that looked like a horn on top of its beak. The view from the peak of the mountain was breathtaking -- as far as the eye could see, we were surrounded by lakes, mountains, dense jungle, and bright blue sky, and all around us there was a constant chorus of birds, animals, and insects.

After that we took the long boat to the floating river huts, which were nestled on the lake between some mountains. Everything was simple and made out of bamboo, and underneath our hut we could see fish swimming and hear fish jumping. From the back door of our hut, we jumped into the water for a much needed rinse off and cool down. It was fantastic! For dinner the hosts prepared us a feast of fish caught from the lake, sweet and sour vegetables, vegetable stir fry, green chicken curry, and fresh fruit. Delicious! It was pitch dark after dinner when we all boarded the long boat for the night safari. Big Man would drive the boat and shine his floodlight in the trees and on the shore somewhat erratically. We were all skeptical at first that this method would enable us to see any animals of the night, but Big Man proved himself as he spotted an owl from far away. It took the rest of us a long time to spot the camouflaged animal, and it wasn't until we were only a few meters away from it. Our guide's eyes were truly amazing -- he'd see a glimmer and know it was the eyes of a fishing cat, or some tail-less monkey. At one point, his floodlight caught a large water snake not far from our boat, and Big Man yelled a bit and cranked up the motor and booted us out of the area! When our guide is scared, it makes us a little more than nervous! Apparently, snakes like to follow the light that is shining on them so we had to get out of there quickly.

On day 2 of the safari, after a nice breakfast of Thai pork congee and fried rice, we headed to the caves. The trek took us into the jungle and across many small rivers and streams. At one point, there was a large tree with a naturally formed swing made out of thick strong vines. It was so cool that this naturally occurring vine was able to hold anyone's weight!

Now this is where things went horribly wrong. Our camera stopped working just as we reached the entrance to the cave -- probably a result of it getting wet from Eric's profusely sweating arm dripping down the cord into the camera. It simply wouldn't turn on. No sign of life, despite the fresh battery :( The cave, however, was great! Since it is now just the end of the dry season, the water level was quite low, but during rainy season, it could be several meters higher. There were stalagmites, stalactites, little waterfalls, spiders as big as my palm, and bats everywhere! It was so cute to see the baby bats hanging on to the mommy bats stomachs. We had to wade through a lot of water, and at some points, the guide took our bags as we swam (or in my case, dragged myself across with a rope) through narrow and deep crevices. The water was very cool and refreshing and it didn't even matter at that point that we were soaking wet.

We went back to the raft houses and packed up for our trip back to Our Jungle House... but not before stopping at a local market for some fresh fruit! Big Man was quite excited to find out that Eric loves durian so he made a special stop at the market to help Eric get some. For about $2.50, Eric picked up two durians! They were much smaller than the ones we usually see at home, but they were extra tasty... even I liked them! They were super fragrant and sweet. Big Man also bought us some of his favourite fruit which we pretended to enjoy because it was so nice of him, but really, they tasted like overripe pears. They were good, but not that special. He also shared some deep fried bananas with us. Addictively tasty!

Back at Our Jungle House, we stayed in a different treehouse with a veranda. It was lovely! A few trees over, there were several monkeys messing around. So cute.

Now for the Zippers nightmare...

It was very exciting to see so many fruit trees all around us. Almost every path we walked down had some sort of fruit tree just growing randomly. There were fields and fields of edible goodness -- limes, pineapples, bananas, rambutans, jackfruit, mangoes, papayas, guavas, and mangosteens. Mangosteens for god's sake! It was everything we hoped and dreamed of in Thailand. For months we salivated at the thought of eating fresh tropical fruits in Thailand. The lady at the place where we booked our tour said we could help ourselves and eat as much as we wanted for free and we were happy to... BUT NOTHING WAS RIPE YET. The picture is of Eric with a rambutan tree on his right and a mangosteen tree on his left! The fruits in northern Thailand ripen in May, but in the south, they ripen in August. She said we should come back in a few months when everything ripens. DAMMIT!!! We timed our trip for the fruit season, only to find out that there was a gross miscalculation since we didn't know where we were going, north or south. Oh well, at least we could buy fruits back in Bangkok, but it just isn't the same as picking it off a tree and eating to your hearts content. Boo.

We took several overnight trains in China and they were reasonably comfortable so we decided to take an overnight train back to Bangkok. In comparison, this was luxury! We ordered dinner and someone set up a table for us and put our dinner on it -- I had a seaweed tofu noodle soup (not what I ordered but still tasty) and Eric had some sort of seafood stirfry with rice and a soup and a beer. We each got an air conditioned bunk. Actually, they were just seats facing each other at first, but when you're ready for bed, someone comes and folds out the seats so it is a bed and then folds down another bunk from above. He then makes the bed with a mattress and clean sheets and puts up privacy curtains. It was amazing! The washrooms were well stocked with TP and there was no smoking and minimal horking. The best part was that Eric even fit in these ones -- tieing his arm to the guard rail was unnecessary! We could even sit up on the upper bunk.

The highest priority task we had upon arrival in Bangkok was to try to get our camera fixed. It hurt us to know that there were many sights and meals that we missed! We ended up at the Sony Service Centre, conveniently enough. After 1/2 an hour of intense waiting to hear the diagnosis, we were called up to the desk and discovered that it would cost us about 15000 baht, working out to about $95 US less than what we paid for it to begin with. To rub a bit of salt in the wound, the parts that were damaged need to be shipped in from Singapore, which would take an additional week give or take. ApparentlyEric's sweat is corrosive. So clearly, the next step on the agenda was to find a new camera. We sat in the Sony lobby in silence for a few moments, completely deflated. Before packing up and heading out again, I decided one last desperate time to put in our freshly charged battery and slowly press the power button... IT WORKED! We were speechless! It was one of those moments that can never be described nor even remembered in all its detailed glory. So we're back in the game camera-wise... for now... know on every piece of wood we see from now until we get home and try the US warranty dept. Apparently the oxidisation from the damage isn't really all that great in the long term. We're hoping that long term means something after the month of May. This smiley pic is in the Sony lobby. First pic back in the game!

Koh Samui

When we landed at the island's airport we were full (of delicious Thai plane food) and eager to see what this place was all about. When we got out of the plane, we found the airport to be more like a little tropical oasis. There was a tiny little luggage belt in the arrivals hall, which was really just a palm leaf roof with open sides. We got our bags and with a bit of difficulty and found a semi cheap ride to our hotel.

We arrived at the "Samui Beach Resort" after a scenic ride and found it to be a very quaint and pretty little family run place. It was a bit off the beaten track which was nice because we'd heard the island was quite the tourist destination. It was quiet and the restaurants and shops nearby were geared mostly toward the locals.

After settling in a bit, we thought we'd walk up to the nearby touristy town, Lamai Beach, and see what all the fuss was about. Apparently, Lamai Beach is the second biggest tourist strip on the island. It wasn't too hopping -- apparently this isn't high season. That suited us just fine. We found a little restaurant booth and had a delicious meal before walking around a bit checking out the shops. We ran into some guys handing out leaflets for some big fighting event and discovered that one of them was a Muai Thai (Thai kick-boxing) fighter! The big event which was going to have 9 fights in total was starting in about a half hour and this fighter was the main attraction, fighting in the title bout! Clearly we had to get a picture with him. Yen even challenged him to a quick fight to the death and when they were posing for the pre-match photo, she swiped him with a cheap shot... 10 points for style.

After that stroke of fate, we absolutely had to go watch the fights. After all, Yen's nemesis was going to be the main event. We got there just in time -- there was absolutely nobody in the entire arena! By the time it actually started there were a few dozen -- by no means full. However, by the 5th or 6th fight, more people, especially the locals, had come in and the crowd was starting to get excited. The fights were going in order of weight, lightest to heaviest. It started at 90 pounds. These guys were just kids pounding each other. The first four fights didn't get past round 3 and ended with one guy on the floor and helped out of the ring. After the first four though, none of the fights ended with a knock-out. This is kind of a mixed blessing, since on the one hand nobody is losing brain cells -- or at least not so quickly; on the other hand, it's REALLY boring to watch an entire 5 rounds of people blocking the odd punch or kick. Finally the main even came on and that too was a 5 rounder; and Yen's besty didn't even win on judges decision. Disappointing all round. Especially for him -- 2 losses in one night. The most bizarre part was that the last fight of the night, after the main event was the 70 pound category. These kids couldn't have been more than 9 or 10. Shocking and kinda cute, all at the same time.

It was a late night when the fights were over so we walked back to our hotel. It was a 25-30 minute walk and we weren't feeling too well so we thought we'd cab it back. We got in the "meter cab" and were told that there was no meter and it would cost three times (or more) the price it should be. We got out. We walked.

The next day we got up bright and early for a "Jungle Tour." A pickup with a canopy and benches along the sides picked us up at 8:30 from our hotel. Our first stop was an elephant trek. Yen and I got on the bench on the back of the elephant and the driver sat up front on its head. We roamed about 5 minutes into the jungle before the guide hopped down and told me to move down to sit on its head. SCARY! The elephant's ears were really fun to play with though. It was very difficult to balance though... especially since our elephant was more interested in eating palm leaves than following instructions on what to do next from the guide who was now walking up ahead and taking pictures for us. Our ride only lasted about 20 minutes or so before we headed back to where we started and got to feed the elephants. Their trunks are so cool and gentle and have quite amazing motor control. I want one.

After the elephants, we walked up a pathway to where there was a guy with a monkey on an extremely long rope. After a few words, the monkey took off up a huge coconut tree and with a bit of coaxing, started picking the cocnuts and tossing them down to the trainer. Awesome. Afterwards we got to see how they train them by hanging coconuts on some branches and having the monkeys twist them off until the stems break. We even got to hold the coconut while the monkey jumped up on our arms and twisted the coconut out of our hands! It was fantastic! Apparently they don't do much training there -- they send most of the monkeys to a coconut picking course on the mainland. That just sounds funny.

We then had a Thai curry cooking demonstration in a hut in the jungle. Cool. Got to smell the fresh ingredients of all the things I'd heard of or seen in powder form before. Very tasty indeed! Surprisingly, I was the only one who had seconds. The then cut up some different coconuts for us to show us the difference between coconut milk and coconut juice. This left a lot of coconut to eat and we couldn't let it go to waste now, could we? Right beside where the cooking demo was was a little baby monkey playing on a rope. Apparently it stunk and screamed as one of the workers bathed it under a hose. It was so cute!

We jumped back in the pickup truck and headed for a hill where there was a beautiful place to look out over the island. Nice photo op. Then off to a rubber plantation. This was very cool. Like a maple syrup farm, there were rows and rows of trees with little buckets attached. Except the buckets were collecting white sticky sap that dried into what looked like and was kind of the consistency of bococcini cheese. The farmer then collects all the buckets, blends in a few additives and then rolls them and presses them into sheets that look and feel like (and basically are) bath mats. Each is sold for about 8 baht (25-30 cents CDN?) depending on the market and used to make tires and shoes and all that good stuff. Pretty cool.

Back in the truck for a few minutes and we landed at a little pathway leading into the jungle. A couple steps in and we were at the most picturesque movie style waterfall with a perfect little swimming hole among the trees and rocks. Just gorgeous and so refreshing! We jumped in for a bit of a swim before heading back to the hotel. It had been a long day! We went and checked out the beach and pool. Nice, but nothing spectacular. In any case, this wasn't why we were there. We ate dinner at a nice local joint and headed back to our room. Yen wasn't feeling well so she had a lay down while I went out to have a Thai massage. I wanted to get a one hour massage but the lady said that I was too big and that I'd need one and a half hours :-( The people here are so small, but have such powerful hands. NICE!

The next day was going to be our arranging day. We needed to figure out what we wanted to do next. We hit a local travel joint and figured it out surprisingly fast, and it wasn't even noon yet!

One of the attractions of the island was apparently right near our hotel, called the Grandfather and Grandmother Rocks. We set out to find them. We didn't see the main street that takes you there and we ended up getting there through a strange jungle pathway requiring the use of ropes to climb down some rocks. Interesting. Once we arrived, the grandfather rock was easy to spot -- a big erection, coronal ridge and all sticking straight out of the rocks by the shore. Kind of fun, but it took a while to find the grandmother. In the end I ended up following a tour group to the end of a rock platform and voila! There it was... uncanny!

Then with the rest of the afternoon to kill, we worked up the guts to rent a motorcycle and go cruising around the island. When we asked about the rental, everything was good. Then when the girl brought the bike over and learned that I'd never ridden one before, everything wasn't so good. Something to the effect of "I'm not so sure about this" was all I heard before she started talking to her friend in Thai. She showed me the basics and I barely idled across the lawn. Being too embarrassed about the situation to say otherwise, she asked if I was ok and I said yes. So I rolled the bike to the driveway, Yen hopped on the back and off we were! We had to get gas before we set off, which was just across the street. It was a cool old fashioned pump. Then we were off to circumnavigate the island. We stopped to check out a market on the way and then it started pouring! We rode in the rain and stopped in the main tourist strip for dinner. It was alright but nothing special. Then back on the road in the dark night. It was really a lot of fun once we got the hang of it. Nowhere near as bad as learning standard on the left side of the road like in England! This was just a bike on the left side. In any case, we returned to the hotel in one piece, which seemed to relieve the staff big time. We had a nice dip in the pool and hit the sack.

The next morning we got up for our pickup to head to the ferries back to the mainland. What we thought was a minibus that took us right on to the ferries and to our next destination, Khao Sok, turned out to be something quite different. The minibus took us to somewhere near the ferries. Then the driver pointed to a random little storefront and told us to go there. The guy in the storefront told us to wait by a bus that was parked outside. The driver of the bus pointed to yet another bus which we got on. It drove around the corner -- literally -- before we had to get off to board the ferry. The bus then drove on to the lower decks. When we arrived at the mainland, the buses all drove to a parking lot and we had to find ours and get back on it. It dropped us off somewhere in town at another storefront. They told us we had to wait another 2 hours for our next bus. So we went next door to have lunch. Delicious. Luckily we'd just finished, when the storefront guy ran over and said that the bus parked out front was ours -- an hour early! We scrambled to pay and ran to the bus. It was a local bus with no AC and only 1 out of 6 fans were working. We also had no idea where to get off, but we eventually made it to Khao Sok. We'll tell you all about it in our next post!

Bangkok, Oriental City

We arrived in Bangkok after what seemed like a long journey and checked into the Ambassador Hotel where we met up with Eric's friend Rob from New Zealand. We were too tired to do anything crazy so we took it easy while Rob and some Canadians he met went out on the town. The hotel only had about seven rules, and lo and behold, rule #5 was no durians allowed in the room. Dammit!

After a bit of a rest, Eric and I explored the neighborhood. There were many Indians who lived in the area and lots of Indian restaurants, but since this was our first day in Thailand, we resisted the temptation to indulge in a lamb curry. Instead, we hopped in a cab and headed to a night market in hopes of getting some tasty street vendor food. Unfortunately, the night market was more of a shopping destination with a different kind of menu... Eric was approached every few meters by men holding out a menu with items such as "Pussy Ping-Pong, Pussy Darts, Pussy Cigarettes". We had heard about some of these shows from friends and it was intriguing, but certainly not what we were looking for so we went out of the area and had dinner at a little restaurant/bar. Eric had pad thai and I had a spicy seafood salad all washed down with a Singha beer. Tasty. We were sitting next to a Dutch couple who told us about an island in the south of Thailand called Koh Samui which they described as "paradise", and since we hadn't made any plans yet, we were sold and made a mental note to make that one of our stops. On our way back to our hotel that night, we stopped into a tailor shop and were fitted for some custom made clothing. I needed suits anyways and we figured we may as well get some pants to fit Eric's tree trunk legs.

We met Rob for breakfast the next day and headed to the Cambodian embassy to get our visas -- figured we'd get that out of the way. We went to see the Grand Palace (where the king lives, I think) but had to rent long pants since shorts were not allowed. In some areas we had to take off our shoes (and nearly burn our feet on the tile). It was a stinkin' hot day. The palace itself was quite magnificant -- gold statues, elaborately tiled walls and roofs, and detailed murals. For lunch we headed to "backpackers row", the (in)famous Khao San road. It was packed with hostels and vendors, but we managed to find a little cart selling pad thai and spring rolls. Lunch for the 3 of us cost us $2!

That night we hit the town for a few bevvies and to check stuff out. The area we ended up in was mostly go-go bars, but had some awesome street food. Mangosteens at 90 baht per kilo. Feasting occurred. We also enjoyed BBQ'd skewers and other delectibles before moving on. One intriguing element to the night life in Bangkok is that blind people often have mirophones and portable speakers and wander the streets singing for money. Smoe have the typical sticks with the red strip on it and others are led by people who can see. In one instance, a blind man was being led by another man who apparently couldn't see either. It truly was the blind leading the blind. We're going to hell for sure for this pic...

One of the things we were never interested in, but so many people told us we had to experience, was Thai kickboxing. Apparently, it's different from anything else we see in the western world so we thought we'd give it a shot, but unfortunately, we weren't able to get tickets in time. What's the next best thing? The pussy show of course! That was also something we were never interested in, but we heard from singles and couples who went together and they thought it was "very interesting". So we made our way back to the night market and headed up to Pussy Galore. As soon as we sat down, about 7 girls in bikinis surrounded us and tried to talk to us in their showgirl ways... it was very awkward and uncomfortable to say the least! Finally, they figured out that I was actually Eric's wife and not his hired "lady joiner" and they were not so aggressive. However, this very ugly man-woman charged us an arm and a leg for 2 beers and insisted that we tip the girls so Eric somehow gave them all the money he had in his pocket. It was more out of desperation at that point because we just wanted to be left alone! Anything to make them stop massaging Eric's leg. Poor Eric. Anyways, in front of us, a woman was shooting darts out of her vagina at balloons... and some of the darts landed dangerously close to us. Across the room an English man was yelling that he was going to stop the show right now if he didn't get his money back because the waiter was trying to pull a quick one on him and not give him any change for a beer that he purchased with a large bill. Beside us, one of the bikini ladies that was all over the man sitting beside us slammed down a beer and caused a rucous -- don't know why but it didn't look good. Needless to say, it was time for us to leave the shady joint so Eric and I booted out of there. Been there, done that. We'd never do it again, but when in Bangkok...

At least when we were on our way back from the excitement, we stumbled upon a local fruit guy and got ourselves some mangosteens, dragon fruit and some other fruits that we'd never tried before. They were tasty!

On day 3 in Bangkok, Rob checked into another hotel where he was meeting his tour group. We checked into the New World Lodge, where we were going to meet our tour group the following week. One of the reasons was that we wanted to leave Bangkok for a week but wanted to leave one of our packs somewhere, so leaving it at the hotel we would come back to seemed like a good idea. Another reason was that we didn't want to give the Ambassador Hotel another dime after being slapped with a $40 laundry fee -- that was the price of the room itself! The New World Lodge is about a 10 minute walk from backpackers row, so it had a lot of the conveniences without too much of the touristy bit. We dropped off some laundry for a much more reasonable $1 a kilo. After a quick lunch and a drink with Rob, we parted ways. It was great to see him.

After a disappointing breakfast buffet at the hotel the next day (e.g. soggy pad thai, typical continental breakfast stuff under a heating lamp) , Eric and I finally got the courage to get our feet massaged and try out a Thai massage. It was fantastic, especially for $7 an hour! Then it was off to Koh Samui!