SE Asia Day 7: Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh

I arranged for my bus to Phnom Penh with the front counter at the hotel.  I was a little surprised at how nice the bus was.  It was $10 for what would be a six-hour trip.  The bus was nearly empty.  Out of forty seats, there were only five passengers.  I took a seat near the middle of the bus, opting to bring my pack on with me.  I was ready for a nice smooth ride into Cambodia.
Then, the Koreans showed up.  They were two Korean businessmen and they came right for me.  I began to wonder if I was a Korean magnet.  I thought that since there are about forty empty seats on the bus, there would be no way they’d sit near me.
And then they did—right in front of me.  I wanted to take my stuff right then and move away from them.  I wasn’t keen of the idea of listening to these colleagues chat in Korean for the next six hours.  However, I decided to give a chance.  The bus started and began heading out of town.
Then, one of the guys got on his cell phone.  He made a short call, and then he started e-mailing.  For those outside of Korea, you’ve hopefully been spared the sound effects found on most Korean phones.  Many Korean phones have a standard feature where every button pressed makes a huge sound.
This sound can be a vocalization of the numbers being pressed.  Another common one is a water drop sound.  By default the sound is on high.  Okay, all that to say the guy started texting away with a loud water drop sound every time he pressed a button.  I could hear this even though I had my headphones on.
So, I headed further back on the bus and enjoyed myself all the way to the border.  At the border, we handed over our passports.  Then, the bus started to drive off!  I started freaking out a little bit because the driver didn’t give back our passports.
Turns out they have this deal worked out with these border restaurants.  Since the visa process can take some time, they allow buses to take their passengers to these border restaurants to wait until the passports are processed.  Its semi-secure since the border crossing is pretty remote.  So, I had some lunch until they showed up with our passports again.
When I got into Phnom Penh, I stubbornly refused rides from the persistent tuk-tuk drivers and chose to walk to the hostel I had chosen—Sunday Guest House.  My first impressions of Phnom Penh weren’t good.  It was a place of stark contrasts:  shiny clean Range Rovers driving by land mine victims begging for money.  The streets were dirty because of the runoff from the monsoon.
I put my things away and headed toward the national museum before it closed.  The museum housed artifacts of the Khmer Empire.  The handiwork on the statues was pretty amazing.  Unfortunately, pictures weren’t allowed.
After that, I walked around the river front.  What I saw reinforced the impression I had read before I got to the country—that the ruling party in Cambodia is more interested with lining their own pockets than helping people.  There was nothing as far as I could see in social services for the street kids or land mine victims, yet these luxury apartments and hotels were springing up along the riverfront, and someone is making enough money to afford these luxury imported SUVs that are rolling around.  I don’t know enough to say that it was corrupt, but it definitely has that appearance.

SE Asia Day 6: The Mekong Delta

For my sixth day, I signed up for a tour to the Mekong Delta.  I’ve always been reluctant to take guided tours.  But this one was $10 and included everything—including lunch.  We rode in on a minibus with about 15 seats for about two hours to get down to the delta region.
We made a pit stop at a tourist trap place that sold trinkets and food.  The stuff actually looked kind of cool, but was more than I was willing to pay.  The place had a nice garden area.

Here are some bottles of “snake wine.”  In each bottle is a whole snake that has a scorpion in its mouth.  At a later stop, they were giving samples of this stuff and I tried it.  Snake wine tastes like liquid snake—simple as that.

When we arrived at the delta area, I was surprised at how wide it was.  I haven’t ever been to a major delta region before.  The river seemed to move very slow and was so wide that it could be mistaken for a lake.

We made four major stops on our boat tour of the delta.  First, we visited a small island that had a bee farm.  There, they had honey tea for us to taste, and of course there was an opportunity to buy some honey.  This kid was an expert bee keeper.

There they also had a huge python for people to hold and take pictures with.  One person said that it was the biggest snake he’d ever seen, then the tour guide corrected saying, “It’s not a snake—its a python.”  Of course.  That’s a distinction without a difference if I ever heard one.
Here’s my fun tourist picture with the python.

Then, we went to a place to listen to traditional music of the region.  The songs were from a traditional Romeo and Juliet style story about two young lovers whose parents didn’t want them to be together.  They served use some interesting fruits during the music.
The fruit in the foreground is called dragon fruit.  It has a pink skin with green pedals or scales on the outside.  The flesh is white and almost apple or pear-like in texture with small black seeds like a kiwi.  It was the first time I’d ever eaten, seen, or even heard of this fruit.

I don’t actually know what the below fruit is.  It is like a big grapefruit with a much milder taste.
 
Above, in the small dish to the right center is a mound of spiced salt that is used as a condiment when eating fresh fruit.  I must say that I appreciated the spice more than the salt on the fruit.
From there, we went on a canoe ride through a canal to another island.  They had hats for each of the passengers to wear.

Our rower was a middle-aged woman who looked like she was more comfortable on water than on land.  The strap on her hat was made of the same material that her blouse was made from.

The next stop was at a coconut candy factory.  When I think of coconut candy, I think of something with actual coconut flesh in it with chocolate over it.  These candies were more like taffies made from coconut milk. 
The final stop on the tour was for lunch.  The simple lunch that came with the package included some vegetables, rice, and a cut of pork.  It wasn’t bad.  Then, we had a couple hours of down time to laze about in the area in the hammocks and nap or relax.
Overall, I had a great day.  I must say that it was easily the best $10 I’ve ever spent on travel.

SE Asia Days 4 and 5: Ho Chi Minh City

I left Bangkok on the afternoon of my fourth day.  I flew Air Asia, this cool new discount airline in Southeast Asia.  They’ve developed the model of selling rock-bottom tickets, and then charging you for everything else—from your first checked bag to a can of soda.

Again, I had this plan of using a bus to get into town, but I arrived after the bus service had shut down.  So, I got a cab driver who took me to the area where I was planning to stay.  The guy was kind of a jerk.  He wouldn’t take me down the side street where my hotel was actually located, and then he was insisting on a tip.

The first night I stayed at a place called Hong Hoa.  It was pretty nice and centrally located.  I quickly discovered the most of the hotels and guest houses in Ho Chi Minh are tall and skinny—often having 14 floors with only two rooms on each level.  I had a great dinner at a nearby restaurant and went in for an early night.

The next morning after a quick breakfast, I decided to change hotels.  I moved to Hotel 64, which is run by Madam Cuc (pronounced kook).  Madame Cuc runs several guest houses in the area the include breakfast and dinner with the room rate.  Anyway, I liked the place and decided to stay there for the next few nights.

After that, I went for some lunch and then out to see the War Remnants Museum and the National Palace.  The war museum contained mostly pictures taken from journalists during the Vietnam conflicts—both the French-Vietnam conflicts in the 50s and the US-Vietnam conflict.  Without controversy, this museum could be said to at least show the horrors of war.

There is military hardware left behind from the American withdrawal next to the American brands that came later. 

There were also a few reminders of the French occupation.  Here is a real guillotine.  The second I saw it, I got shivers all over.

Below is a mock-up of the “tiger cages” used to hold prisoners under the French and later under the Saigon regime during the war.

 

The museum was sobering to say the least.  From there, I walked to the National Palace.  The place is strange.  It was built under the Saigon regime during the war for the president and it seems to be frozen in time.  Here’s a conference room that asks, “Hey, remember the 70s?”

By the time I got back to the hotel, I was beat—it was a lot of walking.  I went out for some great pho—Vietnamese soup.  The restaurant is called Pho 24.  According to the menu pho is, “more than just a balanced meal.  It is [sic] represents the heart and soul of Vietnam and its people.”

Notes from the Road: days 1-8

I thought I'd write a brief post about my Southeast Asia trip thus far.  I plan to update with pictures and more details when I get home.

Day 1:  Busan-->Tokyo-->Bangkok
This was a day of travel.  I had an extended layover in Tokyo which inspired me to do a guide to hanging out in the Tokyo airport.  I've recently become a fan of the Australian show Kath & Kim.  In one episode Kath spends her honeymoon stuck in the airport, but has the time of her life.

Day 2:  Bangkok
Spent the day on a bicycile ride through town on Bangkok Green Bicycle.  The rental was free--and you get what you paid for.  The chain fell off my first bike, and the second bike had a bent pedal!  But it was a great way to see central Bangkok.

Day 3:  Bangkok
Stayed near Siam square in the more developed part of the city.  It was really need to see the urban Thais in their element.  I encountered some teens playing cards on the skywalks connecting the malls.  On the way back to the hotel, I passed two old men playing checkers with beer bottle caps.

Day 4:  Bangkok-->Saigon
Spent most of the day traveling due to dire warnings from the hotel staff of demonstrations that would disrupt travel.  So, I left extra early for the airport, only to find that the ride took 25 minutes!  While newer, the Bangkok airport has less material for a guide to hanging out there.  I rode Air Asia, the new budget airline in Southest Asia.  The planes are brand-new, you have to pay for any extras (can of Soda, $1), and the flight attendants wear a lot of makeup and red mini skirts

Day 5:  Saigon
I can't believe how many motorbikes there are in the city.  People drive in swarms in many different directions.  It is madness.  Checked out the war museum.  Pretty nasty stuff:  pictures of the horrors of the war, weapons the US left behind, and a tank full of fetuses deformed from Agent Orange.

Day 6:  Mekong Delta
Today I spent probably the best $10 on any travel I've ever spent.  Went on a guided tour of the Mekong Delta.  Was with about 12 other people.  We toured a honey farm (the bee dissapearances in America don't seem to be impacting here), a place where we listened to traditional music and ate local fruit (dragon fruit), a place where they make coconut candy, and finally a nice lunch and chill time in some hammoks.  Very great.  On the way back, I sat next to an American who teaches LSAT classes back home!  I picked her brain about applying for law school, studying for the test, etc.

Day 7:  Saigon-->Phnom Penh
It was a long bus ride, but very comfortable.  There were ten people on a full big bus.  The air conditioner was frosty, and they showed pirated movies on LCD screens that flipped down from the ceiling.  I went to the National Museum when I got into town.  Pretty amazing.  The Khmer people used to be the dominate force in the region--for a long time.  But their downfall seems to follow the same way of Romes (curiously at about the same time): overextending themselves, then constant attacks from invaders.

Day 8:  Phnom Penh-->Siem Reap
Spent the morning at the Killing Fields.  I don't really have words for it.  They built a huge monument to the dead made of skulls.

Tomorrow, Angkor Wat.  Pray that tensions between Cambodia and Thailand don't get too messy--I need to cross the border in a couple days.  Also, Pray that the Thais at least hold off on a coup until the 31st--the day after I leave!