Cambodia: Seam Reap, The Temples of Angkor, and Phnom Penh

Seam Reap

We left Surin on a bus at 6:30am heading to the border of Cambodia. As our guide book had said it's not a very popular crossing for tourists, and in fact we were the only ones we could see there. Luckily the border officers spoke English and there were of course plenty of offers for "assistance" from the locals. We once again paid way too much for the Visa, as our book said it was only $20 USD, but we didn't have US currency, paying in Thai Baht we had to pay the equivalent of $33. There were no ATM or banks for hours, so we had to grumble and pay what they were asking, wondering once again how much we would have saved if we had arranged Visa´s beforehand.

Once across the border, which was quite a painless procedure, a young man offered to drive us to Seam Reap, of course he started by asking for way too much money, and we didn't have a lot on us after paying for the visas. We eventually got him to agree to a fair sum, letting him know we were giving him every last penny of cash we had on us. As we weren't paying top dollar we agreed to share the back of the car, although for most of the trip it was just the two of us in the back. There were two young Cambodian girls in the front seats though, and we tried to converse with them during the long road to Seam Reap. Only 5 minutes into the trip and we pulled into a gas station.

Our driver then asked us for money to pay for the gas. We refused as we had heard of a scam where they get the money from you and then refuse to bring you to where you want to go, or they take you to a hotel they are in cahoots with. You never pay until you get to where your going, that's the rule. We overheard him having an argument with the guy at the gas station, then he begged us some more, apparently he really didn't have the cash for the propane he had just been given. After refusing again, he left and sulked while sitting on the curb.

Realizing after a good 5 minutes that we weren't going anywhere fast we finally agreed that the girls in the front would pay for half the gas and we would pay the rest. We made sure he knew he wasn't getting the rest of the money until we arrived in Seam Reap. The guide book said it would take about 7-8 hours, although it did not mention road conditions. For the next 4 hours we drove down probably the worst roads we have seen on the whole trip. The road was made of red dirt and it twisted back and forth, and it was just FULL of big pot holes. I had taken motion sickness medication, but still felt queasy, Jes even had to take one after a bit. Our driver had stopped at the beginning and picked up some small plastic bags, and we soon found out what they were for. When the poor girls in the front started to lose their breakfast, we offered them some of our medication but they refused.

Oh, and not only were we on terrible roads, but we were in the middle of nowhere. We would pass one small village after another. These villages reminded us of Laos. The people were extremely poor and seemed to be living in one-room houses made of bamboo, leaves, and if they were lucky corrugated tin, which was often rusting. We were a little nervous that our driver was going to take us somewhere to be robbed or worse as there were no signs on these roads; near the start of the trip Jes grabbed the bear repellent and stuck it in his pocket, just in case. Boy were we ever relieved when we pulled onto a paved road and began to see ridiculously huge hotels on either side of us. It was hard to believe that there could be so much wealth after seeing so much poverty. It appears we took the short cut, as we arrived after only 4 hours rather than 7-8.

Our driver dropped us off at a gas station, passing us onto the local tuk-tuk drivers who started telling us they would take us to our guest house for free. This was of course too good to be true, so we refused despite their insistence. We decided to go into the truck stop, get some local currency from the ATM, and try to get our bearings. After talking with a couple locals who knew some English we found we were not within walking distance of our guest house. Skeptical, we took a free tuk-tuk to our hostel. We found later that many tuk-tuks will offer free trips so they can attempt to win contracts for taking tourists to Angkor Wat, which is where the real money is. Jes gave the guy two dollars which he did not want, but we were still too skeptical and didn't want to agree to use him for Angkor until we were sure it was the best option.

Speaking of a money, in Cambodia the bank machines will only give out US currency. Although Cambodia does have it's own currency which is about 4000 riel to 1 USD. So if you need change you get riel, otherwise everything is US dollars. Our guest house in Seam Reap was great. The Golden Temple was the name of the place. We had a private room with on suite, t.v. and A/C for only $15/night. But the extras that were included, get this.. free internet, two free bottles of water every day, free 20 min massage, and then only $3 for a 1hr massage, a movie about Cambodia playing nightly, friendly staff, and a restaurant with amazing food. Needless to say it was an incredible find.

After getting settled we went out in the sweltering heat to check out the old city. As we walked around we met a tuk-tuk driver named Rity. He spoke pretty good English and we agreed to go with him to a floating village after we walked around a little more. We took the long road out to the water's edge. There we were to buy tickets from some state officials. Our hostel said it should cost us about $18, but they wanted $30. They would not budge lower than $25, so we said we would not go on the boats, after all we had refused to spend that kind of money in Europe why would we agree to it in S.E. Asia? So instead we drove towards a large hill with a temple at the top, Rity told us it would cost nothing an we could watch the sunset from there. Once at the bottom of the long staircase we got discussing the cost of the boat ride and what we were missing, Rity informed us we could go still go to the pier and then see if any of the locals could offer us the boat trip for cheaper, plus we didn't really want see the temple so we went for it. The road to the docks was so bumpy I thought the poor tuk-tuk might fall apart. It was also a dirt road, so we had to cover our mouths with our hands to breath, and luckily we were wearing our sunglasses which protected our eyes.

All along the road were little bamboo houses on stilts. We are told the water in the rainy season is extremely high and that is why the huts are up on stilts. Again we saw incredible poverty. Unfortunately after much haggling with some locals at the boats we could only get the price down to $22, but after the long trip an all the work we decided it was worth it. Rity joined us and we enjoyed talking with him as the boat passed a floating school, and headed out toward the very large floating village. It was basically a mass of houses on the water. Most families have a boat of some type, but the poorest children swim to get to school we were told. The people live off of fishing, and any money they can get from the tourists who come to check out their village. A few times we had children speed up to us in small boats and try to sell us snack food, Jes gave in and bartered with a young boy who leapt from one boat to the other like a tiny pirate.

We saw a little church in the village, and Rity told us that it is completely run on solar power; we noticed the roof covered in solar panels as we went by. We then docked at a restaurant, which we did not eat at, but enjoyed the roof top view to watch the sun set. We also took some pictures of the crocodile pit, apparently crocs they had pulled out of the lake in fact. Returning to the dock we talked quietly among ourselves, it had been such a neat experience seeing a whole village that lived in the middle of a lake.

Dusk had fallen and although we were back in the safety of our tuk-tuk we had a new problem.. bugs. There were an enormous amount of bugs from the water that kept hitting us in the face as we drove back toward Seam Reap. We gave Rity my sunglasses as we had no idea how he could keep his eyes open to drive without them. Rity dropped us off at our guest house, and we made plans to meet him in the morning to go to Angkor Wat. We were surprised and honored when he even invited us to come to his home for dinner and to meet his wife and 2 kids. He said he would talk to his wife and pick a day later in the week.

The next day we were back in our little tuk-tuk with Rity. We were amazed as we pulled up to the famous Angkor Wat, which is only one of many, many temples in the area. We thought Rity was going to come with us, but he pulled up along side the many other tuk-tuks there and told us where to go and that it should take about 2 hours and he would meet us in the parking lot when we were done. As soon as our tuk-tuk had stopped we were swarmed by kids trying to sell us things. Everything from water, postcards, jewelry, a guidebook (which we bought), and t-shirts. The kids were very smart, although we were pretty sure the majority of them did not go to school. Their English was incredible, and they would ask "where you from" always as the first question. When we said Canada they would tell us our capital is Ottawa, and one girl even named about 20 of our cities. They know the capitals of pretty much every country. We met an Aussie lady who said one kid told her the name of her prime minister and the last one, and some of the things the new guy had done recently.

The kids would also always say "you remember me, buy my items, I remember you". They would say this over and over as part of the guilt trip they were planning on laying on you as you attempted an escape, mostly though they were harmless and we enjoyed interacting with them. The funniest thing was watching what happened to the swarms as we approached the entrance of the temple, the kids would stop following as if there was an invisible line, apparently they would get in big trouble by the police if they got too close. We learned this little trick quickly and would often jump out of the tuk-tuk and head straight for the entrance knowing the longer we lingered the worse we would get hassled. On a side note, all Cambodians can get into the temple grounds for free, only foreigners have to pay.

One of the neatest things we saw as we walked up to Angkor that first day were the children jumping into the large moat that surrounded the temple, they were flinging themselves off the large bridge and swimming in the water. Our guide book warned unless we figure we have the same immune system as the Khmers that we should avoid the public swimming holes, so despite the heat we stayed at the bridge and just watched the youngins jumping in. We spent most of the day exploring every inch of Angkor Wat, and then we moved onto the north complex called Angkor Thom.

The highlight there was a pyramid-like temple that is famous as it has four faces on the tops of the temple peaks. It was called the Bayon. The climb was pretty insane, very steep steps. We really enjoyed it though as it had some very intricate masonry, and the faces were cool.

Jesse was throughly enjoying himself, pretending he was Indiana Jones around every new corner. It was unbelievably hot that day, and the heat radiates off the stone temples. So despite sunscreen and hiding under our umbrella we were hot; we drank enormous amounts of water to help. After the temples Rity suggested a dinner and dance show we could see with traditional Khmer dancers and musicians. After stopping and getting tickets he dropped us off at our guest house and said he would be back at 7pm to take us to the show. When Rity came back though he was not his usual smiley self. He was quiet and withdrawn and informed us that his wife's mother had just passed away. He wasn´t sure if he would be able to take us to Angkor the next few days, and told us that his wife would not stop crying. We told him we understood the situation and that whatever he decided would be fine, he promised to send someone if he decided to stay home with his wife, and after dropping us off at the dinner show we paid him for the day and suggested that he should be with his wife the next day, as it sounded like she needed him for support. We also told him we would walk home from the show.

The show was very good. There was a buffet where we tried some really weird desserts. The dancers and musicians although very young were good, and it reminded us of the Heritage Days festival back home. During dinner we met an older Aussie couple sitting beside us and made friends. We were still talking away with them when they turned off some of the lights in the building and started packing things up. We took the hint and left, and walked our new friends home to their hotel.

The next morning we found that indeed Rity had chosen to stay with his wife and family and we met Pracott our new tuk-tuk driver. We spent another swelteringly hot day exploring some amazing temples. Our first stop was Sra Srang, an artificial lake that the Khmer emperors of Angkor had built for irrigation. Despite its small size it was one of the smallest of these artificial lakes, although of the big ones only the west one remains. Across from the lake we visited Banteay Kdei, and then onto Ta Prohm. The latter had been left largely as it was found, in other words not fulled restored. It had large trees that had destroyed some of the temple, while other trees were holding the delicate stone structures together. It was truly awesome seeing the jungle intertwined among the ancient structure.

In the afternoon we went to the Cambodian Land Mine museum. It was both fascinating and sad. We saw many disarmed land mines, and a couple pictures of victims. We learned of the Ottawa agreement that countries signed, saying they will not make personal destructive land mines and will work to rid their country of them (with international help if needed). We also learned of the 3 major producers of land mines who have not signed it being the USA, Russia, and China as well some other countries who refuse to sign. The museum itself was set up by some Canadians which made us proud. All money from the tickets, gift shop purchases, and the donation bin goes to help land mine victims and to the work they do to disarm the thousands of mines all over Cambodia, mostly left from the Khmer Rouge.

After lunch we saw a temple complex called Banteay Srei which had the most intricate carvings of any of the temples at Angkor, it like some of the sites we had visited had been built with a moat around it for protection, however like most of the moats they had dried up and only a depression remained. After dodging the souvenir toting locals we jumped aboard the tuk-tuk and asked Pracott to take us to a river in the mountains called Kobal Spien.

It had a bunch of stone lingums (carvings) in and around the water, the place was a good distance away, perhaps 20km. We knew it was a little farther out, when he asked a local about directions he returned and explained that the area closed at 3pm, and it was 2:30. It would take 30 min to drive there. Our ticket for the park stated that all exhibits closed at 5:30, so we figured he was possibly just saying this as he did not want to drive all the way there.

When we arrived at 3:05 we showed our entrance tickets to the uniformed attendant and he pointed us to two younger men down the trail. They had limited English but explained to us that the site was indeed closed after 3pm. They explained further that the site closes early despite our ticket saying all locations were open until 5:30 because there was no police presence after 3pm. They said we could pay to have a police officer go with us for the 1 hour hike if we wanted. This sure seemed like a money grab and after refusing to pay for a police escort as we had paid quite a lot already for our tickets we told the two young men we were going in anyway. There were no signs, nor anything physically stopping us from entering the site, so we started walking up the trail. We told them we would just go to the pool which was at the beginning of the trail, and had some interesting stone carvings we had hoped to see. As we countinued arguing with these two teens we watched as two other tourists came walking down from the trail. This set Jes off as he figured if others can be on the trail why can't we, so he took off down the trail, figuring once we were far enough away they would stop following. The one guy yelled for us to stop and came running up, standing in front of Jesse. It was pretty funny as the guy was half of Jesse's size, like most Cambodians. He was visibly shaking and repeating we were not allowed on the trail as it was too dangerous. Not sure if things were about to get violent or not I urged Jes and he retreated, but we let them know we were upset and left saying we were going to the main office immediately to let them know what was going on. To our astonishment the two guys agreed we should go to the main office. So we got back in our tuk-tuk and drove back toward the city.

Jes talked to a manager at the main office, who said indeed that the place we wanted to go closes at 3pm, apparently because of wild life. He then told us that a few years ago a tourist was attacked by a tiger and killed in the area. The manager didn't seem to care that we were unhappy, although hopefully he took our advice to put up a sign somewhere so that others will not make the same mistake of driving all the way out there to be disappointed like we were.

On the way home we stopped at a flower shop and bought Rity some flowers, Pricott was such a good sport and he agreed to deliver the flowers for us, so we paid him well for his day. That night as we were sitting at a restaurant outside we saw one of the men that had been pictured at the land mine museum. He had no arms, and was selling copied books. It is hard to buy real books in Cambodia, as most are just photo copies. We said to him "we saw your picture today", and he smiled saying "at the museum", although he didn't speak much more English then that. The many kids who were constantly asking us to buy things as we ate dinner sure did not look happy when we ended up buying a book from the land mine victim, but after all he was a celebrity.

After dinner we went to a little cafe for desert and the promise of A/C. We were pleasantly surprised when the two Aussies from the other night before came walking in. We stayed talking with them until the cafe closed, funny enough this cafe just turns off the A/C and people disperse quite promptly. lol

Our third day of visiting the ancient temples of Angkor. We started the day at a group of temples called the Roluos group. We left pretty early to try and beat the heat, luckily it was cloudy for a change and we really enjoyed the morning. The first temple we say was another pyramid type called Bakong, it was pretty large and impressive, although many of the structures around the temple itself have collapsed. It didn't help that the Khmer Rouge had used some of them as target practice. After seeing two other temples in the area we decided to head back to the city as we wanted to break for a few hours to beat the mid-day heat. We decided to spend our free time looking at the market in town and having a leisurely lunch. Unfortunately we didn't find any deals to be had in Seam Reap, apparently with all the tourism because of the temples the locals felt they could get top dollar for their wares.

For lunch we went to a school that trains young adults in how to work in the tourism industry. It is a non for profit organization and the students are chosen from underprivileged families along with other criteria. We were shocked at the service and food, it felt like we had gone to a 5 star restaurant! We almost bought a recipe book to give further support to the organization but alas it was only in French. After walking back to our guest house it was already 3pm and we were back on the road heading toward the last two temples we were to see before watching the sunset.

Unfortunately though the morning clouds had broken up and the afternoon turned into a scorcher, we were soon fanning ourselves, breaking out the heat shield (umbrella) and drinking all the bottled water we could find. The place we went to was Neak Pean, a very fountain that had two snakes wrapping themselves around the tower in the middle. When the middle pool which was more shallow then the outer pools was filled it would then empty through complex stone alters into the outer pools, it was a very impressive structure. The second site was called Banteay Prei and it ended up being one of our most favorite although we practically rushed the whole visit as we wanted to be out in time for sunset. The ruins were very large and like Ta Prohm were only partially restored with many areas left in original condition. We had a lot of fun pretending the stones were falling all around us and exploring this very original like site. Even though we had seen over 8 other temples we were still impressed by this final one, the over two dozens temples vary so much that we could have stayed a week and not been bored. Well Jesse could have, I was getting a little bored. lol

As we arrived at the large temple of Phnom Bakheng to see the sunset we were quickly surrounded by other tourists climbing their way to the top for the evening "show". We scrambled up the big hill and then found ourselves climbing some steep steps up the side of this pyramid like temple, I was amazed that we were even allowed to climb all over it as the after effects of being such a popular spot were apparent. Still we enjoyed the beautiful sunset and after getting driven back into town we said goodbye to our new favorite Cambodian and driver for the past two days. He had enjoyed our company and had fun working on his English.

The next day was planned as a rest day to use the internet, do laundry, etc. but most of all not go outside between noon and 4pm, as the temperatures were daily in the high 30's. We received an e-mail that afternoon informing us that Jesse's Grandpa had passed away because of that and the fact that Jes really didn't want to go on a tour I wanted to go on, we decided the next day I would go on a tour on my own and Jes used the time to call home and figure out if we should head home for the funeral or not. He spent 2 hours on the phone with his family, went back to the school for lunch, and rested. After talking with his family it was decided that we would continue traveling.

The next day, our last in Seam Reap, I went on a "day in the life" tour. I was with an Irish couple and a lady from England. We got along really well, and our guide was awesome. We drove out to a village and first met the mayor who was an old skinny man. The NGO company goes out to this village three times a week, and each time the mayor will chose a host family. We met the woman who's family was chosen and walked for about 15 min on a small foot path, then arrived at her house. We were then shown how to sew bamboo leaves using bamboo vines. The four of us then spent the next 2.5 hours sewing leaves that would be used to repair the damaged roof of their house. The panels need to be replaced every year to 2 years, and many of this ladies were in desperate need of replacement. We were pretty slow as we were learning how to do it, but managed to complete 24 panels by the end of the day. We were told our host family needs about 200 panels, and they cost 10 cents to buy, but as they can't afford buying them they usually makes them by hand.

We learned our host had two boys, and that her husband worked as a janitor. He rides his bike about 2 hours daily to get to the city then 2 hours home. The money that we paid for the trip is divided with some going directly to the host family, some to pay our guide for the van, etc. The remaining money is put in a fund to buy water filters so that the villagers have clean drinking water. We were able to see one that was bought. We ate fresh fish for lunch, but if we did not like the fish there were some sandwiches. The left over sandwiches went to any kids in the village who were there. Of course around lunch time about 12 kids showed up. They were very polite and stood patiently waiting, then bowed before accepting their 1/4 of a sandwich each. After lunch and doing some more weaving we went to a silk factory and got a tour of how the silk is made. We then saw a huge man made lake that they use for irrigation, which was currently being used as a swimming pool. After returning home to Jes we shared our days events, and spent the evening relaxing. We went for a walk, did some shopping, and enjoyed the amentites at our guest house.

Phnom Penh
The next day we were off to Phnom Penh

We took a lovely VIP bus, which was actually quite comfortable, shocking after our first experience on the big roads of Cambodia. Phnom Penh (PP) is the capital of Cambodia and Seam Reap is the second biggest city, so of course there was a nicely paved road which we traveled on. Along the way we stopped in a small place for lunch, and found a local treat.. deep fried tarantulas and deep fried cockroaches. I had seen two kinds of fried cockroaches during my day in the life tour, but the tarantulas were new. There were huge baskets full of them. Although we saw others eating them we just couldn't bring ourselves to try.

Once in PP we got a tuk-tuk driver to take us to a guest house. That evening we went for a very long walk and found the night market, which was really quite small. The next morning we headed out to the killing fields. It was a cool day and started to rain lightly when we arrived. Very fitting for the somber experience. We had learned a lot about the Reign of Terror by the Khemer Rouge while in Seam Reap, but it was something else to be in the place where thousands of people were killed after being forced to evacuate and then live our their lives doing forced hard labour. It reminded us of Auschwitz in Poland in many ways. There is a large memorial full of skulls they had found at the beginning of the excavation. As you walk though the fields signs mark areas where mass graves were found and some of the horrible things that happened there. We would recommend watching the movie 'The Killing Fields' to understand more of what happened. It was a quiet 45 min drive back to the city, and we used the time to discuss what we had saw.

We were dropped off at the royal palace, but found it was closed from 11:30-2pm daily for some crazy reason. So we walked around, then decided to go to the central market. The central market was huge and very crammed. It mostly sold household items such as kitchen ware, towels, tools, as well as some jewelery and clothing. We did not find anything we liked, and were melting from the heat, so decided leave. As we were walking we saw a place with a sign that said ice-cream town. Sounded good, but we did not think it was open as there were just 2 huge glass doors and it looked dark inside. As we approached and Jes pulled on the handle a lady opened and we went in. We were the only people inside that we could see, yet there were about 7 young waitresses ready to serve us. The menu was extremely small and consisted of single ice-cream, or a "lovers" ice-cream to share. We sat down and as we looked around inside this very dark place with very secretive booths in the corners we began to think we were not in just an ice cream parlor. A group of about 6 people came giggling down stairs, from who knows where, then ran off into a back room. We were pretty sure "ice-cream town" was a cover for a brothel. We left feeling uneasy. At every major tourist attraction there are pamphlets that talk about the huge problem of child abuse, particularly sexual exploitation that happens in Cambodia due to immense poverty. An organization called Child Safe which is a partnership of other NGO's (including World Vision) had a pamphlet at our guest house. We sent them an e-mail about our experience, and they responded saying indeed it sounds like our gut feeling was correct and that they would send their investigation team to check it out.

After walking back from the market we decided to put off the palace for some reason or another. We spent the rest of the evening walking by the riverside before tucking into a restaurant for a cheap meal. It took some searching but we found some incredible restaurants, both for the prices and the food. A month later and Jes is still talking about the restaurants in PP. lol

The next morning we set off on a long walk towards the Royal Palace, as we had not gone in the day before. We found a place for breakfast, but by the time we were done, having slept in too long, it was 11am and the palace closed at 11:30. The restaurant we found was attached to a mall, and we enjoyed walking through a supermarket inside. It reminded us of home as it had been months since being in a supermarket. The only difference was that it was pretty dead inside, and most other shoppers were white. I then attempted to go shopping for clothes, but even when the ladies would say they had a "big size" for me it was still way too small. I left a little discouraged and wanting to hurry back to weight watchers, but realized the reason was simply that I was shopping in a third world country where most people simply can not afford to eat. Afterwards we headed to the Royal Palace. We chose not to get a tour guide, but later thought maybe that was a mistake, as we mostly were just looking a big fancy buildings, with no idea what they really were. Never-the-less, we did see some neat treasures.

After the palace we went to the small national museum, which housed mostly old artifacts such as pots that were found from hundreds of years ago, along with a beautiful court yard. Again melting from the heat we ran for cover in an air conditioned restaurant. We tried to sign up for a boat tour on the Mekong, but ran into difficulties, mainly not finding the ticket office. We did talk to a few guys that wanted to rent us a boat but after much walking, searching, and asking we could not find a tour. We settled in at an internet cafe and spend a few hours there burning our pictures to DVD, we had been having on and off success with the iPod and really didn't want to risk losing all our pictures. We also met another friendly tuk-tuk driver named Dan. He took us across the river and for a scenic drive and explained to us there were indeed no tours any more.

On the other side of the river, we went to a quiet park. Jes sat and chatted with Dan for awhile as I entertained three children who had come over begging for money. We shared our cherry tomatoes with them, they taught us Khmer numbers and we helped them practice their English numbers. We hit it off well with Dan and agreed to let him take us out of town the next day.

On the following morning we headed out of town to visit a shooting range. After going through a military checkpoint, which was operated by a guy who held a rope line taunt until we were given clearance to enter (lol) we drove through a small village, and finally to the shooting range. It was outdoors, with no fence around it or anything. At one point a cow wandered in front of the targets in the hand gun area. Luckily no one was shooting at the time or he would have been beef! The army guys working at this place did not need ID or anything to allow Jes to shoot the guns, they just handed us a sheet of paper that listed the guns as well as prices. Jes chose to shoot an AK47 as well as a hand gun. He also got to look at and hold other ones including an M16.

After shooting up some paper bad guys we paid the insane fees (but really where else can you just walk up and shoot an AK-47), we headed to a go-cart track that was next door. They wanted $15 for 10 min which was ridiculous. We tried to barter asking if Dan could come for free with us of if they could give us a discount, but they would not budge, so we left. Back in town we ate lunch and then walked around the Russian Market. It was much more tourist oriented and we bought a few things. It was also very cramped, and getting very hot again. Dan took us back to our guest house where we changed into our swimming trunks, and then we headed out to the pool. Well it wasn't exactly a public swimming hole, we went to one of the fanciest hotels in town, and it had a swimming pool you could pay to use! It was an expensive $5 USD each but for the next two hours we were in heaven. We had decided after staying in a so-so guest house that only cost $13 USD per night we deserved to treat outselves, not to mention we really needed the cooling down. After our pool fun we returned to the the main strip by the river and relaxed at our new favorite restaurant PP Pizza, which btw has the best $1.50 hamburger on the planet.

The next morning we were up bright and early at 5:30 am to get on a plane heading to Bangkok, and then onto Shenzhen, China. We flew both flights with our friends at Air Asia.

pictures to follow

Khao Yai and Surin, Thailand

We traveled by bus from Bangkok to the city of Pak Chong. We could see the last day of Songkran was still going strong even though we had left behind the big city. In Pak Chong though the cool thing to do was cram at least 8-10 people into the back of a pickup truck and drive around town finding some poor soul to spray water at, although usually it was at other pickup trucks loaded with children. When we got off the bus we were approched by a lady who asked us to come to her lodge. The place was one of two listed in our guide book, so we went with her. Once we got there though we realized most of the prices were too high, but after some negotation we were offered a room for $12 a night. It had a fan but no AC, no hot water (which was just fine) but what it lacked it made up for with bonuses as the place had a great pool and beautiful gardens.

That evening we sat outside our room enjoying the scenery while eating some interesting food that we had bought out of the back of a minivan. The stuff looked like hair, but tasted like cotton candy, and came with 10 crepe looking things that were made fresh right in the back of this minivan. We washed down this sweet desert like local fad with a bottle of Pepsi, it was a sugar addicts dream come true. lol At our "lodge" we met a nice lady from France, she introduced us to a little restaurant down the road that had much more reasonable prices than the lodge we were staying at. The family that ran the restaurant, which was also their home were so sweet. We also met 2 couples from the Netherlands who joined us escaping the evil lodges prices, we enjoyed chating with them about all sorts of topics, including their homeland which we never had the opportunity to visit while in Europe.

As we were in save money mode, we decided to forgoe paying a crazy price for a tour of the nearby Khao Yai National park. So on our first full day we walked around attemtping to find a deal, we had asked at two other places that were within walking distance, only to find that all the tour companies were charging the same rate, bummer. So the next day we went to the guesthouse accross from our lodge to rent a motor bike and met Eric the owner of the property, and funny enough, the gardener. He was a nice guy and after talking to Jes about motorcycles, as Jes had been wearing his Orange County Chopper t-shirt, he suggested we rent his personal bike which he referred to as his "true love". lol We were nervous that the smaller bike, 110cc Jes tells me, may not be powerful enough to carry both of us up some of the large hills in the park.

Besides that, Jes was drooling at the look of this guys bike, it was much more powerful then the one Jes owned, a 1200cc Sukuzki something. It didn't take long before Jes had made up our minds and we took the stronger bike. We then drove ourselves into Kaho Yai National Park for the day. We spent the day inside the park driving around and doing a few short hikes. We saw many birds, beautiful landscape, small monkeys jumping into the river, a monitor lizard crossing the road, a monkey sitting in the middle of another road, and two beautiful waterfalls. It was a great day. We did have a scare though, when we were driving and noticed we had just missed our turn off Jes slowed the bike quickly, but there was a car bearing down on us from behind, so Jes pulled the bike over onto the side of the road. Bad idea, we were still moving and the bike skidded on gravel, after coming to a stop we almost dropped the bike on its side.

In what felt like slow motion with the bike leaning over, but we both held it up and only the muffler touched down, luckily it came away without any scratches. Unfourtunatly though in our attempt to save the bike Jes was leaning his leg on the engine and got a nice grill shaped burn on the inside of his knee. We had a bottle of water with us that had gone warm, but we poured it on the burn anyway. Of course, being a man, I did hear him wince in pain once and awhile, but whenever I brought up the topic he would comment on how cool of a scar it was going to be once it healed. lol

We miss-judged how far away our guest house was away from the park, and subsequently found ourselves driving back in the dark. Despite the powerful engine between our legs Jes took it easy and kept the speedo at about 60-70km the whole way back. Still, in the dark, it felt like we would never get home. We returned the bike to a very worried Eric, and it felt good to be back safe and sound. We went back to the same restaurant as the day before, and met both Dutch couples again, chatting with them until a late hour.

Despite the fact we had a fan in our room only, and unless you were in direct line of it you baked in the heat.. we decided to stay an extra day at the lodge, as the pool had just been cleaned and it was calling to us. The place was really beautiful, we could understand why they were asking over $30 for a double A/C room, but for a measley $13 we opted to keep our fan, after all free pool! The pool was extremely well done, a small shallow area for kiddies, and after that nice and deep, with a bridge that extended out to the huge 8 foot waterfall. We spent most of the day in and out of the pool, reading some novels we had with us, then using the free internet onsite, oh and we visited a place next door called Cafe Amazon which had this amazing blueberry smoothie.

Late in the afternoon we walked back to our friends at the restaraunt, the Thai guy who ran the place was so happy to see us again. We couldn't believe our luck as the food was great and even with drinks and sometimes 3 entrees we couldn't break the 300 baht mark, or $10. After lunch we said goodbye though. So it was a wonderful day of relaxing. The place certainly riveled our time at Koh Phangan, although the bugs were worse. We both had many mosquito bites on our legs, making them look like we had a sort of polka dot type disease.

Finally the next day in the a.m. we said goodbye to the "Khao Yai Lodge", and jumped on a train from Pak Chong to Surin. The train was a neat experience. It was an extremely hot day, and there was no AC, although there were fans and the windows were wide open the entire time. The ride was to supposed to take 4 hours, but ended up taking 5. Once in Surin we realized we were far from tourist country. Not only was there no other tourists in sight, but many people spoke little to no English. We finally got a tuk-tuk driver who knew the word "hotel", and he took us to a decently priced one. We made plans for the next day then took it easy walking around the town, talking to a travel agent, finding the bus depo, and finally having dinner. The place we went to had a rootbeer float on the menu that Jes was keen on having, but it took some explaination as the waitersses had apparantly never had to make one before. lol

The next day were were up bright and early to catch the 6:30 a.m. bus to the border of Cambodia.

Our pictures for this post should be accessable by clicking on the image below. Enjoy.

Khao Yai National Park, Thailand

our return to Thailand, Songkran 2008!

We arrived at the Bangkok airport for the 4th time on this trip. It was nice to know exactly where to go. We hopped on the airport bus into town with ease. We were returning specifically for the Songkran festival, which is the New Year's festival in Thailand, where the whole country takes part in a 3 day water fight. We were arriving on the 12th, a day before the festivities were to start, or so we thought. We had booked a hostel just off KhaoSan road which we were told would be the center of the festivities. As the bus got closer we saw the throngs of people, mostly armed to the teeth.. with water guns, alas the party had started already.

The streets were lined with people selling water guns and all around were people already soaked and shooting others. Along with water there are tablets that people mix with water in little buckets that makes kind of a clay mixture. Not only were people spraying each other, but smearing this clay stuff on each other's faces. We were nervous as the bus stopped and the driver said "KhaoSan" as there were hundreds of people just waiting for fresh meat. We made it to our hostel only a little wet, but with white clay smeared on our faces.

After leaving our bags we headed out into the madness, despite being unarmed we were quickly soaked to the bone. There were stands selling water guns everywhere, so after careful consideration Jes (being a typical man) bought what he considered to be the best gun. He figured I should be armed as well, for backup, so we got two of them! lol
Now it was time to fight back against all the people spraying us. We stayed out for hours, laughing, shooting people, and reloading our guns with freezing cold water for only 5 baht. The scene was truly incredible. At one point there were so many people on the street that we could barely move, and could not aim our guns at people as we had no room to point our guns.

Jesse was funny to watch as he became like a kid. He got quite excited when we found the many places that would sell melted ice to fill our guns with. Of course this meant much more screaming from the people we sprayed. I was amazed at the gentleness of the Thais as they put the clay stuff on our faces. They never threw it or slapped it on, but softly wiped the clay, often while saying sorry, or hesitating before to ensure it was ok.

The next day was the actual New Year's day, although the festival is 3 days long (or 5 if you count the day before and day after, as we found out). It was also a Sunday, and we wanted to go to the big, and famous Sunday market. We made it to the local bus only mildly wet and found our way with much help from the bus driver and the cashier lady on board. The market was huge, and reminded us of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. It was such a hot day, so we were actually glad when people sprayed us, although the water fight was pretty minor at the market. We bought a couple hats, and skirts, then headed back toward our hostel. We went across the street from where the bus dropped us off, but did not find a bus stop, and when we did find one it did not have either of our numbers on it. We decided to just jump in a tuk-tuk.

The first guy we asked just laughed at us when we said "KhaoSan road", so then we asked a few taxi's. They were willing to take us but their prices were through the roof, with all the tourists in town for the festival it was easy to see why. So after asking a local we found where a bus that would take us to the major bus station at the victory monument. Once at the station we saw a large sign that said KhaoSan and listed the buses going there. The bus was fully packed with people going into the area, mostly locals who were going there to party. Needless to say we were soaked from head to toe when we got back to the hostel with our items from the market safely in a plastic bag.

We met a lady from New York at the hostel and she joined us as we grabbed our guns and went back into the thick of things. It was another night of laughs and getting drenched and covered in clay. There was a stage set up with people dancing, and even more people than the night before. It was incredible. Unfortunately sometime near the end of the night we lost our friend in the crowd. We decided to duck away from the madness into a restaurant for dinner. They had a live band of Thai guys who sang English rock songs. They were really good and we said we would be back the next night to enjoy them again.

We spend a lot of time on our last day at a very cheap internet cafe that we found. It was incredibly hot out and it had AC. At first we were a little sick of being wet all the time, but that evening we decided to go out again. Why not experience the fun loving, gun toting hoards one last time. The streets ran with clay colored water and people were losing their flip-flops in the madness. All around people were selling water refills or drinks, or simply singing along to the blaring music, it was a party in the streets like we had never experienced before. After an hour we did return the the restaurant as promised, but it was a different rock band, and for some reason they had the sound just cranked, probably attempting to compete with all the other music on KhaoSan. We were a bit disappointed, but we stayed for a few songs and had some drinks to celebrate. What where we celebrating? A huge milestone, 200 days on the road!

The next day after packing up and saying goodbye we snuck away from the stirring crowds through an alley, jumping aboard the first taxi we could see. The taxi dropped us off at the N.E. bus station where we boarded a bus out of the city. We were lucky to get there completely dry and without clay on our faces, but we still had our guns hung from our shoulders, as the spirit of the festival will still alive and kicking. We headed north toward Khao Yai National Park and our next adventure.

Looking back we will never forget the famous Songkran festival we took part in.
Bangkok, Thailand, April 13-15 2008.

Click on the picture below to see all the photos.

Songkran 2008

Vietnam, Hanoi and Halong Bay

M We were on the road again (sing it donkey) and had landed in Hanoi, Vietnam. We had signed up to have our hotel send someone to pick us up. We were grateful, as there is a Taxi mafia operating in Hanoi and one of their major scams is taking taking tourists to the wrong hotel. Even as we stood waiting for our guy to bring the car around we were asked if we needed a cab, and when the guy left another local pointed to him saying "mafia" and shaking his head.

The drive from the airport was very.. interesting. Firstly, about 80% or more of the vehicles on the road were motorbikes (scooters), and that number increased as we got closer to the city. Our driver would pull up behind someone, and if they didn't pull to the side immediately he would honk and they would move. This is how all drivers drove. Almost like the person behind you had the right of way. Also, the lines on the road are just a suggestion really. We saw the aftermath of one bike accident that day, and would see a few more during our 10 days in Vietnam. As we drove and looked out our window we could tell we were not in Japan any more, and it was back to the realities of Southeast Asia. Homes and buildings made from scraps of corrugated tin and all around things were under development. The traffic in the city is simply unbelievable. We had seen a video on youtube.com before coming, but to see it in person was something else.

There are very few traffic lights or signs at intersections, and again they are just suggestions when they are there. People just move in and around each other like a choreographed dance. To get a feel for what it looks like go to youtube.com and type in Hanoi traffic. It was midnight by the time we arrived so we went straight to bed after hiking to room 403, on the 5th floor of our hotel, without an elevator. lol

The first day we slept in late; if you could call it sleep. I mentioned the crazy traffic, but should have really stressed that they drive more with their ears than their eyes, they honk constantly, and signal rarely. So we were awoken by the constant honking, then at 7:45, just like every morning we would find, a voice over loud speakers placed throughout the streets of Hanoi boomed for what seemed like forever. We learned later that it was the government telling the Vietnamese news. Propaganda? Nope it's the free government news, welcome to communism!

After pulling ourselves out of bed we had breakfast, used the internet, then ventured out into the crazy streets of Hanoi. It didn't take long for our first cyclo to find us. Cyclos are bicycles that someone rides with a scoop like seat in the front for the passengers to sit on. We were experienced in bartering by now, so we did fine, and found most of the cyclo drivers to be extremely friendly, often singing or making jokes as they pushed us along. As we enjoyed our first ride a guy selling books came up and asked if we wanted one. It just happened that he had a Lonely Planet guide book of China, how convenient we though. We bought it for what we thought was a good deal, new in packaging and all. While stopped, we were surrounded by people trying to sell us other goods such as hats, lighters, wallets, etc. We each bought a hat and finally told our driver to go on. As he left we noticed the the book guy gave him a tip (for bringing us by that corner we assume). Our guide book had recommended a restaurant called Pepperoni's. We went there and enjoyed a cheap Italian style meal. We promised we would be back.

Our cyclo driver waited outside as we had dinner, then aboard his cyclo he took us back to the place we had left a pair of Jesse's shorts to be repaired. The poor driver, he asked us if we wanted to go shopping, saying he could drive us around for an hour. We said no, back to where you picked us up. He agreed but as we were pushed along we were sure he was taking us in the wrong direction. We kept telling him back to tailors, to the clothing shop, etc. He would say "yes shop shop". We thought he was taking us to shops where he would get coupons for bringing tourists. Jesse even threatened to jump out at one point. Boy were we surprised when we turned the corner in front of the tailor and the cyclo dropped us off exactly where he had picked us up. We tipped him well for the inconvenience of arguing and doubting him.

Later that day we walked to a book exchange. Inside we found the same Lonely Planet China guidebook that we had bought, the same edition and all, except this one was a fraction of the price we paid. It was then that we learned that these guys selling books on the street were selling photo copies of the original book! With a color cover that looks exactly the same as the real deal, so for the unsuspecting foreigner who is used to paying a lot, it's a big money scam. So we had been taken, at least we had a guide book for China. The info is all there, although the maps are a little unclear.

That night we went to a water puppet show. Like many things in Vietnam (and most of Asia) the seats were quite small. Even my legs were touching the seat in front of me. Jes and many other foreigners had some real difficulty in the chairs. A band of 7 people played traditional instruments, while from behind a bamboo curtain set in a shallow pool of water, puppets would come out and act. There were 17 different scenarios, all done to live music. The show was really wonderful. We enjoyed it so much that we decided we would come back and see it again, maybe in better seats. We made it back to our hotel without getting hit by any motorbikes, phew.

The next day was a Friday in which most things around the city are closed. We learned that the temple of literature was open, so decided to get a taxi there. We thought we would be smart and asked the taxi driver to use his meter. He happily agreed and we had a lovely chat all the way there, then when we were about a minute from our destination (a 5 min drive) the meter suddenly sped up like crazy. When we had arrived the guy wanted the equivalent of $10 for the cab ride. It may not sound like much, but it should have cost about $2-3. When we started to argue, he suddenly did not speak any English. We gave up and paid him with a large bill, and then he had the nerve to attempt to not give us back proper change! Jes wouldn't have it, he sat there until the driver finally gave in and gave us proper change.

So once again we had been scammed in Hanoi, and it was only our second day! As we talked with other travelers we learned that you never go by the meter in Vietnam, as many of the meters are fixed. They just push a hidden switch and the meter speeds up. We also shared the general feeling like we were being ripped off at every chance more than in any other country we had visited, sadly.

The Temple of Literature was nice. It was a university that trained doctors for years, then turned temple. It had been bombed during WWII, but had been rebuilt to look exactly the same at before. As the name suggests there was a temple on site. As well, there was a huge drum and bell, a few ponds, large statues of turtles with the names of graduates on their backs, information on the university and a few gift shops. Once finished wondering around and hitting the gift shops (Jesse's weakness as of late) we started to walk outside. It was too far for a cyclo to drive us and we did not want to take a cab so we decided to hop on a local bus.

We had no idea where we were going, but Jes kept the map out and I told him each time we turned onto a new street. Then with the help of the driver we eventually got to our part of town again, and for a fraction of what we paid the taxi. Next we were looking for some of the places our guide book had recommended to eat at, or anything that we could find that looked affordable. We could not find anything after looking in at least three restaurants, apparently we had stumbled upon a rather expensive part of town (prices like at home). So looking at the map, we found we were not far from.. you guessed it, Pepperoni's! So we headed back there for another tasty meal. We met a nice Irish couple and tried to convince them to join us on a 2 day tour we had signed up for. No luck but they invited us to join them at a pub that night.

Later that evening we went to a cinema that played French movies with English sub-titles. The movie wasn't great, but it was interesting being in the old theater, watching a black and white flick. Afterwards we headed to the pub where we hoped to meet the Irish couple, it was called Red Mao's, but they were not there. So we stayed a few hours listening to some great tunes and enjoying cold drinks.

We got up at a decent time the next day and went to the Ho-Chi-Min Mausoleum complex. The Vietnamese have solved the "no photo" problem like no others. They simply confiscate all cameras/video equipment after making everyone go through airport style security. Then they return you camera or cell phone at the end. We joined hoards of people to see the dead body of Vietnam's national hero, Ho-Chi-Min. There were armed guards all along the way, and once inside where uncle Ho himself lay there was a guard at each corner of the casket, as well as many others pushing people along as not to hold up the line. It was an interesting cultural experience.

After getting our camera back, we went over to see the outside of the palace. On the grounds were also a simple small house where Uncle Ho had lived in, beside it was a garage filled with cars he had owned. By then it was 11am and the museum closed until 1:30pm for some reason. So we decided to take a cyclo to the museum of Ethnology. We found a one armed cyclo driver to take us, and as he did his smile slowly faded, five minutes into the ride he started asking Jes "how many kilos you". We laughed and told him, then Jes agreed to pay him more for his troubles. After another minute or two later and he dropped us off and said the museum was just around the corner, but no cyclos were allowed down that street. We paid him and went where he pointed. What we found was not a museum however, but rather an amusement park for kids. We had been scammed again! I guess he was just too tired and decided to get rid of us.

We found a nice place for lunch then started to walk in the direction the locals pointed us. After 10 min of uphill we could see why the cyclo gave up. lol We found a man with the oldest cyclo we had ever seen. It was covered in mud and looked like it could fall apart at any moment, but we were far from tourist areas, and had not seen a taxi or cyclo since leaving the amusement park. He took us and another 5 min up the road we turned into the museum. As we did the group of cyclo and taxi drivers laughed at our poor old cyclo driver and kept pointing at his pitiful cyclo. He didn't seem to care though as he took our agreed fee with a smile.

The museum was very interesting and talked about the many different hill tribes that are in Vietnam. There were displays showing the kind of dress they had, musical instruments, weapons, ways of making money, style of houses, forms of transportation, etc. It also talked about how their lives are changing as Vietnam becomes more modern. Things such as going to school rather than learning how to farm are becoming more important. Kids are also spending hours and hours in internet cafes rather than playing outside. Seems it is happening everywhere. After the museum we decided a cyclo would take too long to get back to the Mausoleum, so we took up the offer of 2 guys who would drive us on the back of their motorbikes. This was a much more scary way of traveling, but more efficient as we got there in about 2 minutes.

As we walked into the museum at the Mausoleum we were approached by a guy wearing an ID badge that said he worked at the museum and would give us a tour. The museum closed in just over an hour and he said the tour would take 45 min then we could walk around. We learned a lot about Ho-Chi-Min and what he did for the people of Vietnam, as well as some of the wars and history of Vietnam. It was a very well done museum. Then our guide led us outside. When we said we wanted to look around some more he said we were not allowed in once we left. He also demanded double the price as he said the price he quoted us was per person. Did I mention it came up during the tour that his name did not match the badge and he admitted that the I.D. badge was his cousin's? lol Anyway, we only gave him what we agreed upon and left. We had enjoyed the tour but not the extortion attempt at the end. Some luck we have been having.

We went to look at the famous one pillar pagoda, which was nice, but we had seen many pagoda's, so one sprouting out of a single pillar wasn't at the top of our list. We enjoyed a walk around the lake in the center of the town that evening, before heading back to our new favorite dining spot since Dukes in Chiang Mai, yep, Pepperoni's.

J The next day we left the busy city to do a day trip out to a national park. We went with a company called ODC, which had a few reasonably priced excursions, I mention this because many of the tour companies we looked at were crazy expensive, obviously Hanoi sees a lot of tourists and the locals want to squeeze every single last dollar out of you, if they can. Anyway, we signed up for Halong Bay tour, but then we started thinking about what we were going to do with our remaining days in Hanoi, and the next thing we knew we signed up for a two day trekking + boat package. Our first tour took us to the nearby Cuc Phuong National park which had a primate rescue centre on site. It was an odd adventure as not a lot of people go on it, so we had a driver and a tour guide to ourselves for two full days! Needless to say this cost quite a bit of money as we had to pay the salary of both of these guys and the cost of the vehicle, gas, etc. Although we did had the opportunity to find other people to join us and get a reduced fare, but we blew it, being so anti-social and all. lol

We met our driver and guide, who almost had the same names, the guide was Phong, and the driver was Phung. lol The drive out was a bit tedious, we slept for a lot of it, watching the traffic on the busy highway was a bit frightening (even for me). After 2 hours on the road we arrived at the park. The primate centre was very neat, we saw at least 6 different species of primates. Apparently when the (lets just call them monkeys for simplicity sake), when the monkeys arrive they stay in cages for a bit, before being put into a bigger community cage. The monkeys we saw were in big outdoor cages with others of their kind, and they were being fed a steady diet of what looked like boring leaves, but they seemed to enjoy eating them anyway. There is a part to the rescue centre where the monkeys live in a semi-wild enclosure, much bigger, no visible cages but an electrified fence on the perimeter. We were not permitted to enter the enclosure but we saw monkeys swinging from tree branches and giving us looks from the safety of "their"Jungle.

Although we didn't get close enough to touch or interact with any of the monkeys (bummer), I did almost get bit though. As we left there was a large dog that had been following our group, obviously he lived at the primate rescue centre, and when I went to pet him he snapped at me! Apparently he thought I was out to get him, as if man's best friend might become lunch or something.. only in Vietnam I guess. lol Seriously though, they do eat dog meat in Vietnam, we stayed away from it of course, or so we think.

After lunch we headed into the park itself, and we went on a decent hike. The path was nicely cleared and it really wasn't that difficult, however it was terribly hot. Our first hike took us to the "ancient tree", which was a pretty big tree, no big deal. The jungle was impressive though, we didn't see any animals unfortunately, but we saw bigger leafs then the ones we had seen in Laos. There were also tree roots that turned into vines that wrapped around trees and really made you believe you could swing through the vegetation like Tarzan, if you were so inclined.

I think our tour guide had us pegged as wimps though, because the path to this tree was quite easy with minimal climbs, and he was rather hesitant when we got back to the car and told him we wanted to go to the "1000 year old tree" too. He explained it would be another 2 hours of hiking to which (after discussion) we said "lets do it!". He complied and off were went. It was a tougher hike for sure, but an hour in we made it to the bigger and cooler looking tree. Although upon further inspection it seemed like the bottom of the tree was really 3 trees that had joined together after 20 feet. It's footprint and roots were huge though.

Back to the car and we started heading out of the park, we had discussed earlier that we wanted to visit a cave we saw as we entered the park, but our guide fell asleep as soon as we got going, and by the time we woke him and mentioned the cave it was too late. Oh well, apparently we would be seeing caves the next day.

We stayed overnight in the small town of Ninh Binh, and the next day started out on a beautiful boat ride at a place near town called Tam Coc "three caves". Our guide stayed behind which was fine, as there were two ladies who paddled the boat for us (luxury!). The one lady was quite a bit older, and just paddled with a single oar, the younger in the back turned out to be her daughter.

The mountainous limestone karsts of the area give it the name of "Halong Bay on land", and it was truly beautiful. As we rode we heard traditional music being played live by locals in a tent, we learned later that this music was funeral music, recognizable instantly by any local. The three caves were really cool to go through, we had to be careful of our heads as we rowed through them. We started feeling sorry for our elderly woman in the boat and offered to paddle, taking turns as we went. Once we got to the turn around point however, we stopped feeling bad for her as she broke out souvenirs she wanted us to buy.

Poor Michelle sat beside her as we took the 40 minute ride back toward the starting point, and all the way the lady pleaded with her to buy scarfs or other embroidery. We had agreed to give them a tip anyway, and so we thought we would do it then instead of waiting until the end of the trip. This didn't persuade her to stop trying and when we got to the end of the trip she even started pleading for more of a tip! lol We were used to this sort of treatment from vendors but it was fairly annoying that we could not get away from it, especially for Michelle as she was as always overly polite.

After lunch we took a short drive to some ancient temples at the nearby Hoa Lu. The temples were still in use, and there were Vietnamese tourists there to pay respects to the stone sculptures of these kings who ruled a century ago during the Dinh Dynasty. Some of the folklore was interesting, but we were not overly impressed with the buildings itself. I think we were simply confused as to why the locals (who are Buddhists) would worship old kings, ones that had been dead and buried for over a century. Our tour guide didn't seem to understand our questions and we didn't want to insult his culture, so we chose to ponder these mysters ouselves. We were also growing a bit frustrated with our guide, who was difficult to understand, and who seemed to be hurring us through, and not taking the time to let us explore the ruins.

We headed back to Hanoi, and once again despite asking to be taken to an ATM we were not and simply dropped at our guest house, we had a hard decision to make as to wether we should tip our guide or not, we were only barely happy with his performance. So we tipped him with the money we had, as we were low on funds (hence the ATM request). Hopefully we would have a better experience the next day when we left for Halong Bay.


One funny thing about Hanoi that I think we should mention. Many companies enjoy benefiting from the success of another. For example, there were a few tour companies, hotels, etc. That had made a name for themselves, and usually they were mentioned in the guide book. Many other companies would simply "adopt" the name as well. So you had to be very careful making sure you were going to the "legitimate" company and not a rip-off. This was especially true for one tour company called "Sinh Cafe" who had no less then 20 storefronts in the city, 19 of them probably not the original. lol

We used the rest of the afternoon to check into a new guest house, get to an ATM, and then head to the small island called Jade island, which is in the middle of Hoan Kiem lake, the centerpiece of Hanoi. There is a small temple still in use on the island called Ngoc Son. Despite being a nice place to take some pictures of the decorative bridge and treed edges of the lake, there is a giant mummified turtle on site! Apparently these turtles (the same as the mummified one) used to occupy the lake, although sadly these days they have all disappeared.

There is a legend surrounding the lake, and these same giant turtles. You see back in the 15th century king Le Loi met a large turtle that apparently came from heaven. This turtle gave him a sacred sword that then helped him defeat the Ming army, and then while back on the lake after the war this same turtle returned to take back the sword. So the king did the right thing and gave back the sword, and the turtle disappeared into the murky green waters. So the king named the lake Hoan Kiem or "Lake of the Returned Sword". We had read about this legend in our guide book, and were happily surprised when it showed up in the water puppet show.

We enjoyed the cool evening by stopping for a quick dinner at an outside restaurant, before walking to the Hanoi Opera House where we enjoyed the Hanoi symphony orchestra conducted by Pierre-Andre Valade. We were recognized as riff-raff upon entering (as I was wearing shorts and not trousers, my only pair being dirty) so we had to sit on the balcony with others wearing jeans and shorts. We still throughly enjoyed the evening, and the tickets were quite affordable.

M Bright and early the next day we met our guide for the trip out to Halong Bay, his name was Son. He turned out to be a very funny guy and entertained us with singing as we drove out to the Halong city. We were with a group of 19 people heading to the world famous area. We met a couple from Germany and a couple from the Netherlands who we hit it off with and spent a lot of time with. After a 3 hr bus trip stopping once to use the bathroom and to have people try to sell us handicrafts we arrived at the port of Halong. There must have been a hundred boats (which they call junks). We boarded our Junk and got settled in our tiny little room. Everyone relaxed on the top of the junk in reclining chairs in awe of the scenery. Out of the water shot mountains, for lack of a better word.

Our first stop was the "amazing cave" as our guide called it, and it truly was amazing. It was huge inside and they had it lit up with colorful spotlights. It was well done, not cheesy at all. Our guide kept pointing out rock formations and telling us it looked like a dog or a dragon or something, but we could generally not tell what he was talking about, plus the place was crazy busy with other tour groups. After the cave we did some more lounging on the boat (and took many pictures of course), then we pulled into a beach and quickly disembarked so that our boat could pull out and let other junks come in. We swam for a while, but a few times I felt something jelly-like and got scared, we found out there was indeed jelly fish in the water! Jes didn't believe me at first until he started feeling them in the water. Luckily no one seemed to get stung by them.

After swimming our Junk found its spot for the night and set anchor in the middle of a bay, surrounded on all sides by the limestone mountain tops sprouting out of the still water. Our group of 19 included 2 families with kids. Our guide, the kids, and one of the fathers jumped from the top of the boat into the water a few times. It was great fun to watch, but we had had dried off after the swimming and chose to just soak up the sun and enjoy reading our books while watching the others. Jes took our our ipod and played some music on the top deck for everyone, but the battery on our portable speaker didn't last too long. We watched the sun going down and wished the tour lasted a week, what an amazing day in probably the most beautiful place had ever visited.

After dinner we brought out our little travel Monopoly game that we had bought in Japan. We played against team Germany and team Netherlands (as we called them, lol) until 11pm, when we finally ended in a tie as the boat crew slept on the bench chairs in the dinning room, and they had turned their t.v. off and were all laying quietly, so we thought we should take the hint.

After breakfast we headed to Cat Ba island, where we boarded a bus. We went on a short trek for what ended up being 90 minutes, attempting to stay in the shade of the trees as much as possible. The hike wasn't too strenuous, which was ideal as we had an elderly couple and kids in our gang. Jes enjoyed talking to an elderly gentleman named Dell, an American who used to work in the airline industry. He thought it would be polite to stay at the back of the pack and walk with him, which allowed his wife to walk with the rest of the group. Her name was Ha, and she was Vietnamese although Dell and her had met and been living in the US for almost 30 years. As it was mid-day the sun was out in force, and the heat was on.

We eventually made it to our lunch stop which was at the home of some friendly locals of Cat Ba island. After lunch we went to a little stream to cool off. It was there that Jes slipped and cut his foot on a sharp rock, although he was bleeding it thankfully wasn't a deep wound. Of course our guide didn't have a first aid kit handy so Jes put his sock and shoe back on and bit his lip, we found out the bus was only 15 min away though. Then, on the way to the bus while deep in conversation with Dell, Jes, not looking where he was going, steps off the mount of dirt and slids right into the rice field, which of course is in 2 feet of water. lol

So with wet shoes and his pride hurt as he seemed to be accident prone today he limped onto the bus. Poor hubbie. A short drive later and we arrived in Cat Ba town, but before going to the hotel we were off enjoy some kayaking. The boat took us to a spot where we boarded the kayaks. The water was still and a beautiful dark blue color. Unfortunately the kayaks was not high tech and were quite tippy, so we had to be very careful getting in and out of the kayak. We didn't have a problem keeping up with our group though and enjoyed paddling through the big limestone rocks. At one point we went trough a small tunnel just like at Tam Coc, having to duck so we wouldn't hit our heads. This tunnel opened up to a large secluded bay where we saw 3 big jelly fish, I was happy to be in the safety of our kayak. I was also shocked at how hard the jelly fish was when we floated past one and I lightly touched it with my paddle.

After another 90 minutes we were headed back to Cat Ba town on the big boat. Our bus dropped us off at the charming hotel Two Princess and were were happy to hit the shower and put on some clean clothes. After dinner that night we talked for a long time with some of the people in our tour group. Dell turned out to be a pro-Bush, pro-Republican American. He had a lot of opinions which we found to be pretty biased, such as his view on how great the health-care system is in the U.S.A. We also heard about how the Bush gov't tried to help the Katrina victims ahead of time by telling them to leave the area, but they didn't want to listen. We bit our tounge and let him do most of the talking, but we could tell that the other members of our group were growing tired of the conversation, and even after offering to break out the monopoly game again, most of the group decided to go head to bed.

J We had chosen to stay an extra day so we wouldn't be joining the group this morning as they headed home. We met with Son as we were on our way upstairs for breakfast and said goodbye, we had throughly enjoyed our time with him. So with the day to ourselves, we decided to start with a short walk around town. After just 5 minutes I thought it would be a good idea to rent a scooter, as the island was simply to big to travel on foot and we wanted to see a few of the beaches and perhaps the National park. The bike only cost us $6.5 for the day, but once again we would be responsible for any damages, so I drove slow and carefully. We also made sure the place that rented us the bike had helmets. Thankfully the traffic on the island was quite tame, unlike Hanoi. In fact, most of the people we saw on the road were other tourists like ourselves.

We started our self-led adventure visiting the nearby beaches which were named Cat Co number 1, 2, and 3. From beach #1 we walked to #2, the cliff side walkway was closed unfortunately but they had just blast and cleared out a road through the mountain separating the two beaches. We walked anyway as we had just paid a woman to watch our scooter. These beaches were very beautiful, unfortunately it was a cool day out with lots of clouds. We walked along the waters edge for a bit, and then climbed around on some of the rocks at the side of the little cove we had found. The benefit of it being a slightly miserable weekday was that we had the beach almost completely to ourselves.

M Next we returned to our motorbike/scooter and drove up to see the hospital cave. It is a big cave that was used during the war as, believe it or not.. a hospital. As we drove up a guy came out waving and said we could park across from it at his place if we paid him. We saw no other cars on the side of the road and didn't want a ticket, so agreed to pay him half of what he asked. When we got inside though we found a small cave with an old rusted door that was locked. On our way down we ran into a family from Sweden going up. They were as confused as we were. We went back to the guy who had our bikes and he invited us into his home for tea. His home was just one room where a baby was sleeping, a few chairs and a table and there were a few teens also hanging out. He taught us how to 'cheers' in Vietnamese. Then he clinked Jesse's glass, but when he did mine he hit it quite hard and I dropped my glass, which shattered on the ground. I felt really bad, although I have a feeling it may have been a scam that he does with many tourists. He never asked for any money, but when we paid for our parking we gave him a few extra dollars for the glass.

As we started to drive away a guy pulling up beside us on a bike and told us he was the guide for the hospital cave. We told him about the big rusty door and he assured us he had the key to it. We wanted to see inside the cave as it was apparently quite the facility, but decided to return later after seeing the national park and fishing village. He agreed to return at 4 o'clock. So we started down the road again, realizing as we drove past we had probably went to the rear entrance, in fact the exit of the hospital cave.

Not two minutes down the road and we found the entrance to the Cat Ba National Park. As we drove up we again met the Swedish family just outside the entrance gate. It wasn't clearly marked and we weren't sure of the cost of entering the park. So after a short discussion we decided to go for lunch first. Our little map of the island, which was terrible, showed a fishing village to the left. So we decided to head that way for lunch. Before leaving we spoke with two other couples, they all seemed interested in going to the hospital cave, and so we had recruited a few other people for our 4 o'clock appointment. We drove off toward the fishing village, enjoying the beautiful scenery on the island.

After twenty minutes on the road we found we had caught up again with the family from Sweden, a middle aged couple with their 10 year old daughter. They were on two bikes. The fishing village was quite modern and we drove by, waving to the children and smiling at the locals. Nothing led us to want to stop and take pictures though. Just outside of the village was a small home that had a nice outside restaurant setup, obviously for the tourists that came by, being that the sign was in English. It had beautiful flowers and was surrounded by rice fields. We sat down and ordered lunch, and while waiting the Swedish family caught up and joined us. We enjoyed their company and ended up talking with them for a couple hours. We learned they had been living in Ho Chi Min city, as the father was a pilot and had a contract with Vietnam airlines. Their English was really incredible, we had no problems understanding them and they had a large vocabulary!

Unfortunately when we finally left our lunch stop and said goodbye to our new friends we realized we had missed the 4 o'clock hospital cave tour. It was getting late and we did not want to be on the roads at dark so we took the scenic route home along the water front. Once again it was quite beautiful. I was happy to return the bike, as we were scared that with no accident insurance we might have a repeat of our time in Thailand, especially with our luck with scams up to that point. No issues though and the guys at the rental place were very friendly when we brought the bike back, they even asked how our day was. That night after dinner I called my mom for her birthday. Skype wasn't working for us, but luckily we were able to use the hotel room phone. Although we didn't go for a trek or see inside the hospital cave it turned out to be a nice relaxing day.

The next morning we met our new group for the return home, and surprise surprise, our friend Phong who took us to the national park four days earlier was our guide. Once again, as with the last time we were with Phong we were quite disappointed. We were were told we would be stopping the boat to go snorkeling in the morning and before we knew it we were back at Halong City, stopping for lunch. We weren't too upset though as Jes had the foot injury and once again it was a little cold and overcast outside. We enjoyed looking over the pictures were had taken and finish up some books we had been reading.

That evening in Hanoi after our fourth and final dinner in our favorite restaurant.. Pepperoni's! We headed back to the water puppet theater, as we had enjoyed it so much the first time. Just minutes before the show started we walked up to the ticket window. We asked for an isle seat due to the lack of leg room, and the lady said there were front row seats available! So we had amazing seats, and again we really enjoyed the show, although for me it wasn't as good as the first time being that we knew the story, and it seemed like the singers were different as well. After the show as we walked home, guess who we ran into? The mom and daughter of the Swedish family we had met on Cat Ba island! We had given them the nickname Swiss Family Sweden. lol We talked to them for bit before heading back to the hotel for the night. We didn't feel like braving the streets to do souvenir shopping after our previous experiences in Hanoi, besides the prices just didn't seem as reasonable as those in Laos and Thailand.

The next day we joined a Thai guy from our hotel and shared a taxi out to the airport. We had a fun filled and interesting 10 days in Vietnam, although we wished we had more time to see the rest of the country.
Next stop was Bangkok for their new years festival.

All our Vietnam pictures can be viewed online at our Picasa web album. Click here to go there.