Hoi An and the fun train trip

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Headed up to Hoi An via Danang by train. A nice 11 hour trip that Michael said would be fine by soft seats as it left at midnight. A crowded Vietnamese train is not my idea of fun.  Then a woman had a nightmare and her screaming woke up the whole train and the guards had to settle her down. The Vietnamese guy behind started laughing maniacally as if it were a scene from Flying High and he was waiting for the passengers to line up and slap her. Michael just said she had a nightmare and went back to sleep and next thing the guards are back looking for something in her area with a torch.  Needless to say I didn’t get any sleep that night.

The trip continued and then at 4:00 am the train stopped and a septuagenarian woman came through the train selling coffee and fried chicken. She took a shine to Michael asking if he was married and he pointed to me. She then turned around and said that she was lonely and that Michael should come with her and be her husband.  Michael was tempted by the fried chicken, the whole carriage thought it was hilarious and I was not impressed.

Taxi to our Hotel Vinh Hung 3 Hoi An from Danang. It also has a pool on the roof that the locals talk about. The city is lovely and was settled by the Chinese centuries ago and they have keep the place as original as possible. The streets and architecture are nice to walk around and the vendors are not so determined as the other cities. Most people cycle here, so walking around is much nicer. At night they close the streets off to traffic which adds to the enjoyment of the town. Another Chinese festival is coming up and children are on every street corner practicing their dragon dances with drums and dragon costumes that we see at Chinese New Year.

Tim, we again solved a developing world problem with a first world solution and had tea at Streets Restaurant, an organisation to help street kids get work. Had a very nice meal and friendly staff.

Michael went of diving to Cham Island as it was the last day of the diving season as a tropical depression was moving through. He said the dive was ok, but affected by the overcast day and current, plus the water was a bit cold at 27c.

 

Headed off to My Son today, a Cham Temple similar to Angkor Wat, but on a much smaller scale. The rain was really coming down, but cleared when we got on the bus. Interesting site and can see where the cross influences of the Khmer style come in. The guide kindly told us (numerous times) a lot of sites were destroyed by the US in the American War on Vietnam in 1968. 

Will spend tomorrow relaxing and exploring Hoi An.  Then we will watch Hawthorn win the Grand Final on Saturday and then onto Hanoi.

Lindsay, in regards to your comments, Michael says that Dave O’Neil suggested they both go to Vietnam and would be treated as gods. So this is part of the mystery for them.

Thank you Melinda for your note, we were not sure if the game had finished at the time you sent it.

Da Lat to Nha Trang more diving

Well a nice 9 hour bus ride from Saigon to Da Lat, with the drivers of all vehicles deciding whether they wanted to be under our bus or not. The winding road up was good with changing vegetation to pine forests. Stayed at the Fortune Hotel, which was nice except for the owner who wanted to force-feed us breakfast bringing dishes from everywhere to try. Certainly much cooler at 19c and checked out the town looking at the locals all rugged up as if it was 5c selling hats and heavy jackets.

Decided to make it an easy day with no tours so Michael took me for a walk to see the Crazy House and Train Station. The weather was great for walking and after getting lost and a few wrong directions we found the train, 4 hours after we had set out!  We had a pleasant 8 km ride through the countryside which is made up mainly of farms. At the end of the line was a Giant Buddha made of flowers that is in the Guiness Book of Records.

We then went to the Crazy House, which lived up to its name. Created by one of Ho Chi Minh’s granddaughters who went to a Russian architecture school and then decided to build a hotel that was a cross between Disneyland and the Brothers Grimm. The whole place was winding passages with odd shaped rooms but worth a look. No work safe or council permits for this place as they are still building as you walk around.

 Bear Room

Winding bus for 5 hours from Da Lat to Nha Trang, a coastal town with a lot of Russian tourist operations. Staying at the Summer Hotel, which is centrally located and nice, and has a pool on the roof  which they make a big deal over. All the menus are in English, Vietnamese and Russian as the tour groups come here via Danang. Michael has gone off diving and practicing Nyet and Da with the Russians. It is funny watching the hawkers enter into these long conversations with Michael in Russian for him to turn around and say English. Michael dived with two groups Rainbow Divers and then went to Turtle Dive, as they were cheaper and more relaxed. Only one area used for dive sites and got to try some dive throughs, but coral and fish life not as good as Koh Tao or Langkawi.

Most important thing in Nha Trang was to find a pub for the footy and watch the mighty Swans win convincingly. The following day we went back and watched the nail biting Hawthorn v Adelaide game.  Unfortunately the bar was full of rabid Crows supporters one of whom called Buddy a peanut!  Anyway, the Hawks prevailed and the bar was very quiet after that.  Bring on the grand final!  I am looking to buy Michael a black armband to wear after Saturday’s result.

Finally feeling the stress of travelling after 5 weeks and before leaving Nha Trang booked in for a 4 hour massage which was well worth it.

Saigon and Long Tan

Bussed down from Phnom Penh to Saigon, plenty of rice fields to see. Cambodian customs was easy, but Vietnam customs was an interesting experience with the bus driver taking all the passports and giving them in a pile to the customs officer who then stamps at random and throws them back at the bus driver who call the names out.  Anyway, we eventually made it back on the bus.

Saigon is one big traffic jam although with no tuk tuks. The biggest vehicle has the right of way, but motor bikes do suicide slides to get in between the vehicles to get that extra spot. Staying at Victory Hotel Ho Chi Minh City which was built as CIA housing in 1963 and then taken over by the military in1975, who still own it today. It is a very nice hotel. Walked around the area and can see the old French architecture and the road lay out. Being a Saturday it was a bit quieter, but still busy.

 

Sunday headed of to the War Remnants Museum to see an unbiased version of the war. Plenty of US weaponry on display and photos of American atrocities, thought provoking to see how the other side see it. As they say the victor gets to write history. Mind you, if only 10% of the propaganda is true, then the US has a lot to answer for.  Just more examples of man’s inhumanity to man.

Went off looking for a cache and Michael made the mistake of sitting down and was immediately descended upon by shoe cleaners even though he was wearing sandals. Despite saying no at least a dozen times, shaking his head vigorously and waving them away with his hands, they managed to get his shoes off his feet.  In the meantime, a young Vietnamese uni student sat down next to me to practice his English.  We were having a lovely chat until I became aware of a commotion.  I looked up and there was Michael surrounded by three shoe cleaners who wanted payment of VND 500,000 (AUD23). After much discussion and involving two police/security officers it was settled at VND 200,000. On the bright side his sandals have never looked cleaner, but he has been avoiding them like monks since. Found the only cache in Saigon though – take that Whitby Scouter!

We went off to the Unification Palace to see where the tanks rolled in and looked around the building, which has been kept for conferences and well maintained. Then a general wander around Saigon and, as it is the wet season, the ponchos were out with Michael suggesting that we looked like locals. Nice try fail as he is towering over them by at least 2 feet.

 

Starting to drink the coffee here, which is as thick as Turkish coffee, but the base is condensed milk so it is black and sweet like Sabre.

Monday booked a trip to Long Tan Battlefield that Michael wanted to do. All day event with a long drive to Long Tan seeing the former Nui Dat Task Force Base (Nui Dat SS Hill). All that is left is 2 broken pillars, areas of the encampment and helipad fields. 

 

 

Then off to a kindergarten that the 6 RAR association has assisted in setting up, lots of cute kids which Michael would not let me take any home.

 

Then to the Long Tan Cross Memorial where our guide, a South Vietnamese person called Chien, invited another tour group to join us and conducted an impromptu service of remembrance with the last post, the ode and the national anthem all on a Nokia phone. 

It was a moving little service and the other group of tourists were Australian also, with one member whose brother had served and were appreciative of Chien’s invitation and were quite teary.

It seemed ironic that a Vietnamese person was conducting the service, but talking to Chien, he was born in Da Lat City and his father was a police commander of the area. The family was well off until 1975 and then things changed with the family having to go through re-education and losing all their possessions. One of his sisters tried to escape Vietnam by boat but the boat capsized off the coast of Malaysia and she drowned. The family suffered hardship for the next 10 years. Despite all of this he is very positive about the country and has one sister in Canberra and another in Belgium.

Due to Chien’s ability to speak and read English, he became a tour guide and since he knew the areas of Long Tan he works with the Long Tan Association and 6 RAR association in running tours to Long Tan. He showed us photos of the various dignitaries he has meet. I think that Little Pattie is the favourite, even after meeting Quentin Bryce and other Australian officials.

We then went on to the Ming Dam secret zone were the NVA and VC hid out from the Australians and a temple had been erected in their honour. There are no monuments for the South Vietnamese Army in the country.

Lovely lunch at Long Hai on the beach and on to Long Phuoc Tunnels which had been used as cover from the Australians and which have now been widened to fit big Aussies. Michael went in and looked around for 100m or so with a bat as company.

Then headed back to Saigon with Chien discussing life in Vietnam and how things have changed. It certainly shows the other side of the boat people story.

Headed off to Bitexco Financial Tower the tallest building in Saigon - the taxi driver could not find it! Once we got there we headed up to level 50 to have and excellent drink as the sun set over the city. It is a very modern city and you would forget it is communist with all the advertising and activity.

Well off to Da Lat to cool down.

If you go down to the woods today...

Well today was an excellent day going to the Free The Bears Inc to see the sun bears and asiatic black bears and pretended to be a zookeeper for the day. We were aware of the charity from an article in The Age before leaving and seeing what passionate people can do. In this case it was Mary Hutton from Perth who saw a documentary on the treatment of bears and started a campaign to rescue them leading to the setting up of the sanctuaries. They have rescued over 500 bears through Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, India and Indonesia, either from poachers who sell them for alternative medicines or people that keep them as pets and then realise that they are not. The area set aside for the bears also has 4 other Non Government Organizations (NGO). They’re looking after other endangered species including tigers, elephants, monkeys and birds. They even had a lion that was brought in from Russia as a cub (the owner told customs it was a kitten).

 Sun Bear

The sun bear is the smallest bear with a U crescent marking on its chest and the asiatic black bear has a V shaped marking on its chest. 

Asiatic Bear

Whilst we could not handle the bears we did get to feed them and see the rest of the zoo. There was a friendly gibbon I wanted to take home but someone would not let me.  I was allowed to hold hands with her, which was an amazing experience.

Funky Gibbon

The bears were cute and could stand up when they were expecting food. Some had been kept as pets and would seek out people who come close to the fence.

Phnom Penh Day 1

Bussed down from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh for 6 hours seeing many rice fields and also pigs being carried on the back of motor bikes. Upon arrival took the tuk tuk to our hotel the King Grand Boutique Hotel in Phnom Penh. The Driver was Lan and we asked him to take us around the following day. Wandered around a chaotic city with bikes, tuk tuks, 4wd and cars going in every direction, so I have put this down to training for Hanoi that is yet to come.

Checked out the places Darrin and Kate suggested starting with the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek.  There were over 17,000 people killed there over 4 years from 1975 by the Khmer Rouge.  There are another 164 sites through out Cambodia where an estimated 2.5 million people were killed (1 in 4 people). We spoke to Lan afterwards to obtain his view on the place.  

 

 

 Lan told us that his father was killed by the Khmer Rouge when he was seven years old and he lost 2 uncles on his father’s side and 2 on his mother’s side. Like most Cambodians he still cannot understand why Cambodians turned on Cambodians. He showed us an article in the day’s paper where people are still looking after 30 years to find out what happened to family members.  We spoke to another person later who lost nine family members who were killed by the Khmer Rouge.  Another person listening to this tale simply shrugged and said that every family lost someone.  It is very hard for us to comprehend such devastation.

Then we went to Tuol Sleng Museum or S21, which was a former high school that was turned into the secret police torture centre where up to 17,000 people were processed (tortured) and then sent onto the killing fields. Only 7 people survived their time there and only 2 remain alive today. The place still has the blood and equipment left in the torture rooms to remind people of the atrocities committed there. Strangely for the Khmer Rouge that wanted to go back to an agrarian society, they took a photograph of each person coming in and their height. The cell-blocks are full of photographs of people that passed through the facility, with haunted faces knowing this will be their last picture.

 

To rub salt further into their wounds their saviours from the Pol Pot Khmer Rouge were the Vietnamese, their enemy. It is unbelievable that the Australian government kept supporting the regime for 10 more years, even funding them, when they had killed a quarter of the population. Maybe if they had oil something would have been done earlier. They have now found oil on the border with Thailand so the fun will start again over ownership.

To change the mood Lan took us to Wat Phnom the founding place of Phnom Penh where Lady Penh found floating in a tree on the river four bronze Buddhas  and erected a shrine on a hill (phnom). This is where the name Phnom Penh comes from. Also saw the train station which has no trains and which is proudly funded by the Australian Government, but they will come. Lovely Art Deco building built by the French in their Colonial heyday.

We then had an enjoyable lunch with Lan talking about his life, family and the country. After lunch went to the Russian Markets, Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. So if you are looking for a Tuk Tuk driver in Phnom Penh look him up polanllsg@yahoo.com or +85512992019. They even have to sit a Tuk Tuk drivers’ test, I don’t understand why when there appears to be no road rules here!

Well Tim we solved a 3^rd world problem with a 1^st world solution by eating at Friends Restaurant.  This restaurant trains street kids in jobs in the hospitality industry to get them employed and off the street. The meal was the best we have had so far and well worth the visit. Best coffee has been the Tuk Tuk Café, although Opera Café has just opened by and Italian fellow and was OK.

 

Exploring Siem Reap

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Well we hit a few temples and the royal palace. I feel that the Emerald Buddha sums up Bangkok in that they had covered the Buddha with plaster to stop it being stolen.  By accident, many years later, an abbot chips the Buddha’s nose and notices that it is green underneath. The abbot believes that he has discovered that the Buddha is Emerald and no one questions this until they work out years later that it is jade. Is it normal for abbots to chip  statue noses?

Bangkok is centred around shopping and wats (temples) and not much else. So once you have sorted out wats what it was time to move on. There was the Tramit Wat which houses a gold Buddha weighing 5.5 tonnes, which was also covered in plaster to stop theft until it was dropped whilst moving and discovered to be gold.

I might have to push a few Buddhas around to see if they all have gold in.  We also saw a reclining Buddha, which was impressive. Now waiting to find a hammock Buddha.

Found 3 caches around the temples.

Had a lovely Chinese dinner on the 34^th floor in Hotel. We were the only ones there and ordered a Brandy Alexander.  After half an hour a pink cocktail turned up with an unknown mixture of alcohol. Michael is sticking to beer.

Up at 4.15am to catch the 5:55 train from Bangkok to Aranya Prathet for Cambodia. Lovely third class trip in a non air-conditioned carriage and learned how to open the window. You have one person outside holding the carriage destination sign (about the size of a number plate) and this get placed on the lower edge of the window- sill to be opened. Then person on the inside holds the top of the window towards them to unlock it and then the person outside bangs like mad on the window and down it goes. Lovely 6 hour trip meeting the locals and sharing biscuits with some young boys that could make them last half an hour each with their pet fish in tow.

Arrived at Aranya Prathet and then took a tuk tuk to the border to cross over to Poipet. Michael looked funny with his knees around his ears on the ride. Crossing the border was easy and managed to avoid the scammers and vendors. On the other side proceeded to the bus to travel to Siem Reap. Upon arrival another tuk Tuk to the Angkor Rivieria Hotel, lovely place with air- conditioning and pool which is a must as it so hot here. Tuk tuk driver seemed ok so we have kept him on to take us around. So we now have Tony the tuk tuk driver and Michael is trying his Khmer on him.

 

We haves so far seen Angkor Thom (Banyon Temple 

 

 and Baphuon, Elephant Terrace, Leper King) - very impressive, Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, 

 Banteay Srei, Pre Rup. They are all amazing buildings considering their age and how they have survived. Wonderful architecture and design on the walls with thousands of intricate carvings.

Currency is a bit confusing as everything is quoted in USD, but change is given in local Riel currency (KHR). But you can pay using both at the same time with 4000 = 1 USD. Michael thinks Vera would love to build a till for this system.

Food has been good and the shopping would be great, but Michael keeps saying we have to carry it for the next 6 months so I can’t buy anything.  The Cambodian handcrafts are amazing and absolutely beautiful.

 

On to Bangkok

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Managed to get down to Sairee for dinner of seafood and to see the sunset and the jetty the following night. As you can see the electricity companies are liberal with cable placement. Matthew, you may want to come here to fix them up. The water is a lovely 27c and flat so that a lot of people use surf skis to paddle around.

Michael has completed his EFR (Emergency First Response) and Stress and Rescue course with a few fun dives. Hopefully he has learned how to tell if his son has two broken arms and the difference between someone being drunk and having a stroke. Time will tell. His instructor Jessie was a Kiwi who would be happy to drown an Australian, he is still here so he must have passed. Put in the wrong link it is Alvaro Diving

 (Two of the dive instructors Sasha and Jacque and their dog Mimi)

We swam at the private beach and could go out 100m and still only be 1 metre deep, the water is fantastic.

Became fascinated with the versatility of the moped/Motor cycles carrying three people, babies and best of all dogs. They seemed to enjoy the ride even a fat dog fitted in on the stand.

 

 

Returned to Chumphon by express catamaran ferry and air conditioned bus (Lomprayah), well worth the extra money for the shorter trip and not being on a cattle truck. Chumphon was a bit more lively this time than our previous visit at 2:00 am.

Took the 2^nd class air conditioned night sleeper to Bangkok, which once I had climbed on to the top bunk I was not prepared to come down for the night. Michael was scammed for morning coffee upon getting on the train that night (60 Baht AUD1.80). The fellow promised us coffee in the morning and after receiving payment he just got off the train at Chumphon never to be seen again. We watched a group of Germans go nuts after being scammed and not receiving their coffee. Welcome to Bangkok. We thought our boys would be happy to know that we were scammed just like they predicted.

The usual frantic pace on arriving at the station with tuk tuk drivers and taxis offering the best service. As the Lonely Planet guide pre warns you on so many scams in this place decided to just join the queue and grab a cab. Have checked into the Prince Palace Hotel, which has a special offer and is very nice with air-conditioning, pool and away from the street.  They upgraded our room to an Executive Suite, which I think is rather hilarious considering that we are both unemployed. The street below is hectic with market sellers everywhere. You were right James about inventory control being unknown here.

Recovering from the overnight trip and have walked around the area to get our bearings. We will hit the temples tomorrow.