Fun on the Mekong

Well the last few days on the Mekong delta have been great -
especially yesterday as we jumped a boat to take us eastwards
down the mekong to Can Tho where we stayed in a local farm stay
(basically just somebodies house converted to allow for visitor
accomodation). 

The boat trip took about 8 hours, and I spent most of it a hamock
reading a book or listening to music...  there is such
an abundance of things to look at! So much is going on in the
Mekong delta - I've seen brick factories, loads of family owned
live aboard cargo boats, floating fish farms (basically houses
with netting cages underneath housing the fish), barges dredging
the harbour of transporting fertilizer and all sorts of other
random things.   It's definitely my favourite part of
the Mekong that I've seen so far - I'd love to come back with my
own boat and explore the region thoroughly one day - it's simply
stunning.

This'morning we got up early and headed to the floating markets
in Can Tho by boat - the markets setup every morning,
selling food predominiately, but also covering things such as
porcelain, fuel and building materials - all from boats floating
50 or so yards off shore.. I would estimate that there was at
least 200 boats there this morning - fascinating stuff to watch,
especially as just about every boat over 6 or 7 metres
doubles as a family home.. so you have mum, dad and the
kids all helping out.. some more then others (the woman here seem
to get worked bloody hard).

Also while in Chau Doc we headed up the Sam mountains to watch
sun set over the amazingly fertile Mekong delta (I've never seen
any place greener) - and headed out to a village near the Khmer
border which had all but 3 of it's occupants slaughtered by the
Khmer rouge - and amazingly one of the 3 survivers runs the local
drinks shop, so you can talk to her (via a translator) - what a
tough old bugger she is too - shot in the neck and beaten over
the head - she lost conciousness only to awake 3 hours later and
discover everyone else in the town dead (I think it was
aproximately 3000 killed?) - and somehow she just kept of living
ever since.

Back to Saigon, The War Remnants museum

This afternoon we headed back to Saigon, where I am now.. and
decided to visit the war remnants museum... which is basically
the American/Japanese war crimes museum.. the museum seems to be
split into 4 sections.  The first is a number of war
artificats - including tanks, fighters, helicopters and artillery
from the vietnam war... which was quite interesting, to me at
least.. second section is a wonderful array of war time
photography done by american and japanese war correspondents that
provides an insight into the photographers themselves as opposed
to what they were capturing on film, included in this section is
a book listing a page long history of each photographer who lost
his life (or just went missing) during the conflict.. I never
realised just how many war correspondents perished in the
conflict.. there are a lot of pages.

After that we have the war crimes sections, which I see as two -
basically the first one you hit is what generally horrifies most
people - which details the devestation caused by defoliants, such
as agent orange, and phosphor based bombs dropped on villages. If
the photos on the walls aren't bad enough (people with skin
falling off, disfigured and humongous birth defects) - they also
have fouetuses in jars showing massive deformities as a result of
gross dioxin poisoning in their mothers.

The second section is the more traditional war crimes -
documenting the wholesale slaughter of men, woman and children..
with some truely horrific pictures of American soldiers looking
pretty pleased with themselves as they proudly show off corpses
(and in some cases partial corpses) of their victims.

I think the museum in itself is interesting for two very
different reason, one because of the truely amazing photographs
that are on display, and secondly because it is truely a product
of propoganda fueled from the north - displaying a
particularly one sided view of a tragic and drawn out conflict -
a good reminder of whoever wins the war, writes the history
books... but regardless of bias, the end result is that a lot of
people died on both sides, most of them needlessly. 

Off The Nah Trang

Tonight we jump onto an overnight train at 11:00pm to take us up
to Nha Trang ... it will be interesting to see how the
trains are in Vietnam, compared to China and Thailand
- Looking forward to it, definitely been too long since I've
been able to catch a train (seeing as Laos has none, and Cambodia
has one or two (depending on who you talk too) .. but it's
only capable of travelling at ~20km/hr!)

Incidentally Nah Trang used to be the traditional R&R spot
for american soldiers, and still carries a very dodgy reputation
after dark - it should be good for a laugh, though my guide
warned that they've had cases of men being chased by prostitutes
- even all the way into elevators in hotels.

Just a quick post...

Well I met up with my tour group yesterday... there's 6 people total including myself.. a lady from NZ (trish), a bloke from Australia (roger), a couple of girls from England (Louise and Hellena) and a guy from the states, Clint. After doing the general introductions thing we did Dinner down in the market (I had soft shelled crab with Tamarind sauce.. it was bueno! nice to eat crab without all the anoying work to shell it) and then headed out for a few drinks in a local expat bar, which though hardly an "authentic" vietnamese experience it did offer some amusing opportunities to watch drunken hash house harrier members failing badly at pool.

Our guide is an Australian guy who used to be a beef/sheep farmer in Aussie (by the name of Mark) who gave it all away and relocated to Hanoi in vietnam after holidaying here a few years back... obviously with his most recent job being that of a intrepid guide for the south east asian area.

Today we jumped a bus and headed to the border town (with Cambodia) of Chau Doc.. where I'll be hanging for a couple of days and then eventually will go for a bit of jaunt on the Mekong in a boat equipped with Hamocks.. which sounds pleasant enough
;o)

On the way out of Saigon/HCMC we popped into the interesting and rather daft looking Cao Dai temple, Cao Dai being a rather unique religion encompassing another of other religions and our special friend the all seeing eye of illuminati fame ;o) (http://www.laze.net/papers/caodai.php).

So far the scenery in the south of Vietnam is great.. there are hundreds of canals and waterways weaving across this area and all connecting with the Mekong, being plied by various live-aboard ships carrying all manor of things from fish to fertiliser.. very cool.

Hi all, well my border crossing at Moc Bai was easy.. if not long winded (took about an hour and a half just to get stamped out in Cambodia and back in at Vietnam) - so I didn't end up in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City till about 4 in the afternoon (left Phnom Penh at about 7:30am).

First Impressions

First impressions of Vietnam are... well, great!  I wasn't really knowing what to expect.. but so far it seems like a fusion of everything I've seen in asia so far, but with a personality all of it's own.

There's a strong chinese influence, a bit of the pushy cambodian spirit for tourism and definitely a fading french colonial (like Laos) look to alot of the buildings - and so far the people themselves are lovely, the foods not too pricey and the digs are nice - I've set myself up in a swish $8/night room which has air-con, TV with cable, fridge, warm shower.. nice bed.. all the mod cons - I even indulged in watching TV in bed this morning (they had a 2 hour animated "star wars - the clone wars" on, it was tolerable... probably because I've had TV in so long).

Poverty seems less "in your face" here then anywhere else I've been except maybe Thailand, the streets are all very clean and though many still wear traditional clothes, carry baskets on their heads and ride bicycles there is a definite abundance of technology in any peoples hands - obviously this is a bustling city, with me in the heart of it (well the stomach probably) - so my first impressions are really of HCMC as opposed to Vietnam, but I feel strangely at home here - maybe it's just because it reminds me a little of China (Which has been my favourite country so far) - but I really don't feel any culture shock - I definitely think I'll enjoy my last 3 or so weeks of travel here, and my stomach is back on form so that will hopefully include loads of local cuisine :)

Rain and art museums

Well today I decided to go and check out the art museum... it was pretty cool - an interesting mix of war related art, with uncle Ho featuring in many aspects (I love his goatee)... ancient artifacts from the last 1800 years and some pretty cool pieces of porcelain, bronze work.. oh and some modern'ish artwork, of umm... varying qualities, but it was insightful to see how various techiques and styles have been adopted and changed/chanelled into truely vietnamese works.

The museum is set in a old french colonial building with stained glass windows, dusty tiled floors and poor lighting... but it's truely gorgeous it's own quaint way - I probably spent as much time looking at the bulding itself as the exhibits... which was enhanced by the amazing electrical storm taking place outside - mucho goodness - then again I'm always happy when it rains.

Fruit vendors

Oh.. and early this morning I bought some fruit (granny smith apples from NZ, and oranges from California.. apparently) - I'm not sure quite how, but the lady at the market somehow managed to sell me almost entirely bad fruit... but I would've sworn as I watched her pick them that they looked great, I'd even inspected them earlier.. which leads me to believe I was actually attacked by some harpy who hexed me into buying her foul and fetid produce... I'll have to be on my guard next time - maybe I should've taken a 20?

Oh and tomorrow I start my tour of Vietnam with intrepid, so that should be interesting - hopefully the group is as good as It was in China.

I'm heading for vietnam tomorrow morning - fingers crossed it all goes smoothly. Apparently it's only an 8 hour bus ride, sounds piss easy.

At any rate, had a swell time in Cambodia the last few days - been relaxing, watching movies (Saw Kung Fu Hustle on DVD... not bad for a chinese comedy martial arts flick, though it aint not "Hero" either)...

...And... I'm getting used to the place (Cambodia), just as I'm about to leave... heh, cest la vie!

At any rate.. I went to the russian markets for some clothes. They have everything there... including a delightful semi-sweat shop setup in the middle of the clothes department (watch the nock off nike apparel appear before your very eyes!)... a cool engineering section with a surprisingly wide selection of precision tools - loads of acessories for lathes and milling machines... and of course parts for every 100cc motorbike ever built by asian hands.

All in all it's good fun - loads of weird smells and a lot of people manufacturing goods on site which kept me entertained (I get pretty bored wandering markets look at tat, being a lad 'n all)... so I got to watch jewelers working on custom pieces, a guy doing a valve grind, woman making clothes and carving/varnishing wood items - a smidgen of open air butchery... all the good stuff.

After that I wandered my way back, skirting past a load of engineering firms for a bit of a butchers hook (it's funny how the smell of dust and oil reminds me of my childhood) and generally letting my mind wander, eventually turning onto Molivong boulevard... which pretty much runs from one end of Phnom Penh to the other... half way along I stopped in an ptometrist to get my glasses fixed (I broke them back in Pakse a few weeks ago) which was free, a pleasant surprise!

After a bit more walking I decided I best get a haircut (been putting it off for weeks) - so I popped into a local barbers for a $2 cambodian special... I haven't got a mirror in my current room so I don't really remember what it looked like - nor did I care - I'm on holiday - all I know is it's now less hot.

Had to get some more reading material, decided for some fantasy to counter the rather depressing (and relevant) no-logo as I work my way through prime sweat shop country... but after searching one store only to discover they only had an almost complete set of L.Ron Hubbard books including his mission to earth bollix.. which though strictly you could call it "fantasy".. I wasn't really prepared to waste any more of my time (then I already have in the past ;o) plumbing the depths of scientological scat.  Long story short It took me a couple of stores till I bought a  Terry Goodkind book, "Wizardsv First Rule" - I'm sure Ben or Lyle will fill me on wether it's a series, and of course if it's shite or not, at some point in the future... for the first 300 pages it seems like a pleasant enough read.

The one advantage of a toilet/shower combination is that you can keep cool while on the can.

Angkor Temples, round 2

On the 16th I had my second go at Angkor wat, with much greater sucess as my antibiotics seemed to be doing the trick.. so I went and saw the remaining temples I had missed the first time... mostly similar to what I'd seen already, I like east Mabon - had nice elephants - and Tah Prohm is a gorgeous temple that the surrounding jungle has overwhelmed.. they've (who ever "they" are... probably the "man") even filmed a scene in tomb raider there... but don't let that put you off.

I had fun with my driver who seemed to be obsessed with me eating "at the temple" - in particular where we ate on my first day - no doubt there's some kind of kick back in it for him - and he seemed annoyed when I denied him the pleasure, but by then I was kind of annoyed with him - too cocky and in your face, he tried to stop me even visiting one of the temples because it was "same same"... and it wasn't.

But I digress, so the temples were good... my visiting was rounded off by about 1pm, and then I headed back to Angkor wat after an extended lunch to catch sun down on the big one again - which afforded some nice people watching time - and a few conversations with the locals who seemed to find me curious - apparently Angkor wat has more stone in it then the great pyramids - I said "all of them?" - and they said "yes!" with chests that almost seemed puffed out. 

I haven't got a clue if it's true though ;o)

The unamed girl at Ta Keo

Though of course I couldn't visit Angkor without having a run in with the local street kids.. in this case a girl who I'd estimate at about 7 or 8 years old, with empeccable english considering she obviously wasn't attending school (though submersed in this archealogical pseudo amusement park for most of her life she was probably going to have a hard time not becoming multilingual). 

At any rate.. as I was skirting around Ta Keo the little girl approached almost on the verge of tears and asked for some food - I didn't have any food and she looked about to cry after I said as much, so I started chatting to her, as much to distract her as anything else. We headed around the base of the temple and suddenly her whole attitude changed and she ducked out of site from 3 children above, and signaled me to be quiet... I wandered up beside her and she said "bullies" - and wouldn't budge any further, and started sniffling - so I suggested to her that perhaps we could walk round the other side - her little face lit up and so we turned round.  On the way she played tour guide, as older boys in the area normally do to try and ensure you'll be guilted into giving them some money - but by this point I wasn't really sure of the little girls motivations... 

"This is limestone" she proclaimed, followed by "this is sandstone, it's better against rain" - she pointed to collapsed statues of nagas and snakes, she was pretty damn good actually. After a while we talked about her parents, mother dead (of course) and her father is a cripple from a mine accident and plays music at one of the other temples (mine victims play music for donations all around the angkor temples) - all a bit grim for a kid that should by all rights have been in school.

After a while we came to some steps, and she motioned up - "theres a buddah at the top, if you want to go have a look" - at which point she mumbled "money?" - and I replied "of course, when I come back down ok?"  (I find this is a good way to pick the greedy kids, as they wont trust you) and she smiled and seemed pretty happy at the thought and waved me goodbye.  So I clambered up and came back down 10 minutes later, she was hiding around another corner this time because the bullies had relocated.  I followed her along then she disappeared completely, so I fished my wallet out and starting grabbing all my low-order cambodian riel, till I had a fistfull, probably about $1 US - more then enough for some food and water - later on I caught site of her again and she walked up looking sheepish and whispered me to be quiet again, so I stood there and then casually tried to hand her the money I'd got out... and a wave of panic and anger flashed across her face, like I'd do her a mortal wound and she started weeping and pleading that riel was worth so little and that all she wanted was US dollars. 

At this point my charitable spirit left me and my critical re-evaluation of the situation kicked in, "are you sure you dont want it? I have no US dollars", she shook her head, so I started walking away.. after I had all but left the temple grounds I heard a whimpered "okay mister" from an alcove as she crouched out of site.. so I gave her the cash and tried to see what kind of facial expression she adopted - but it was just blank, like I no longer existed... as I got back on the tuk tuk I'm pretty sure I saw her chatting to all the "bullies".

And..

And this is why I like watching people from a distance - up close it's hard to get any kind of focus, and it's also why my time spent exploring these temples isn't how I'd imagined it to be in my head before coming here.

Back to Phnom Penh

And so today I jumped the bus back to Phnom Penh.. it wasn't bad, I was greatful for my faltering sense of smell and fully charged I-Pod as I was seated next to a mum with bub of about 6 months and another girl of probably about 3 years of age.. The problem with alot of asia is that nappies are non existent - so when a baby shits, it's potentially rather... exposed.. as it was today, thankfully I managed to dodge it :) and drowned out the horrendous Hang Meas Karaoke VCD volume 59 (I mean 59, I can't believe there are at least 58 more of these... ugh!) which was playing on the T.V up front. 

When the bus stopped briefly at some unknown village I got to watch one of the local kids wander round with an empty Tora air pellets box over his head.. he even bumped into things... umm... random?

And this afternoon I plowed through another 100 pages of "No Logo".. which is a good read, until finally retiring to my room for a quick freshen up before dinner only to get a call on my cellphone from Mum & Dad.. which has been only the second call I've got since leaving NZ (the first being from Mark Skinner while in the Beijing airport) - must say I was quite surprised!

I'd almost forgotten how it works (the phone that is) - in fact the only reason I keep it charged now is because it acts as my alarm clock.

At any rate, I'm kicking it for a few days here and then will make my 3rd and final border crossing in south east
asia...into vietnam no less.. first stop, Saigon!