One of the major pros I considered in deciding to move to Singapore was its connectivity to major cities across the globe, and many lesser known places in South East Asia. Within a week of relocating in September, I figured it was time I planned my two week mandatory vacation for the year.
With really cheap tickets available on Scoot and the weather expected to be near perfect in October, the first choice was Australia. The Australian Embassy in Singapore, however. advised me to wait for a few months before applying for a visa so that I had some track record of working and being paid. To make things easier, we decided to narrow our universe to countries providing Visa on Arrival. After considering Bali and Philippines for a bit, we decided on Cambodia and Vietnam.
The plan was to visit Angkor Vat and Phnom Penh in Cambodia, travel by road to Ho Chi Minh city, then visit a couple of interesting places in Central Vietnam (recommended by Lonely Planet), and end with a few days in Hanoi with a side trip to Halong Bay. After booking all tickets, I realized that the Visa on Arrival facility for Vietnam was available only at airports and since we would be making the journey by land, we would have to apply for the Vietnam visa in advance.
I had an anxious week at work before the vacation started. I got quite edgy if anything unexpected came up: I wanted to ensure I did not have to spend too much time on the phone or blackberry. Jyoti flew in from India on Oct 20th and the next morning we were off.Day 1: The long journey to Siem Reap
I usually never sleep well the night before start of a vacation. Too much adrenaline. I activate two wake-up calls but wake up 5 minutes before they go off. Today, it was a 3:30 am wake up to reach Changi Airport at 4:30, 2 hours before departure to Phnom Penh. I had paid 8 dollars to book a cab in advance. I don't like to take chances when leaving for vacation.
After check in, we had a nice South Indian breakfast at Changi. Got a reclining, emergency exit row, window seat. At Phnom Penh, the immigration officers, like most of the counterparts around the world (except those of Japan), were a little rude. The customs officers had both gone together for a loo break, leaving their stations unmanned: this was the first of many firsts in Cambodia. We got a $1 prepaid calling card at the airport, booked bus tickets to Siem Reap and hired a tuk-tuk to drop us to the bus stop.
The bus ride took us through the flat, green, densely populated Cambodian countryside, the road lined with houses built on stilts, and the rice fields in the background filled with the monsoon rains. The bus had a dual seating, and I suspect, a dual pricing system: the foreigners paid $9, and got front seats. The locals could hop on / hop off any moment, used the seats at the back, or sat on stools in the aisle, and probably paid much less per km. All through the 7 hour journey, the driver played the most monotonous music, with the same combination of 4 notes played over and over and over again, till I had enough and put my iphone to work.
We reached Siem Reap at dusk, tired and famished (there was no veggie food for us at the lunch stop) and took a tuk-tuk through the dusty roads to our hotel. En route we saw a big congregation in the brightly lit town square and the tuk tuk driver told us that the King had passed away, and people were visiting the Royal Residence area to pay their respects and "celebrate" a long life well lived. After check-in, we headed to the market area, where the rundown / commercial look of Siem Reap gave way to a vibrant night market full of shops, restaurants and bars. We settled down at a multicuisine restaurant on Pub street and ordered $1.75 Mojitos (it easily makes it the cheapest cocktail I've had anywhere in the world, with the quality being on par with decent places in Mumbai). For food, we resisted going for the succulent wood fired Margarita our neighbors were having and tried the Khmer style spring rolls (nem) and papaya salad. The doubts that we had regarding getting good veg. food vanished. After dinner, we considered the idea of hanging out at a bar having a live "Apsara" dance show, but opted to walk around for a bit and then have a $7 1 hour full body Khmer massage before retiring for the day.
Day 2: Angkor Vat
Besides the usual toast, tea/coffee and fruit juices, breakfast included some exotic fruits, and Aloo Bonda (they called it hashbrowns, but it was certainly more Madras Café than McDonalds). Unfortunately, the quality of breakfast would only wane as the trip progressed.
The tuk-tuk driver who had dropped us at the hotel the previous evening was waiting for us outside the hotel, insisting he drive us around the temples during the day. After some haggling, we settled on a price and off we went to the Temples. The Siem Reap area has many temples of the Angkor era, but we would be sticking to the major ones, concentrated in a lush green archaeological park a few km from Siem Reap.
Certain great buildings blow you away at the first glimpse. The first sight of the Taj, the Pyramids at Giza and Machu Picchu are etched in memory. Visiting Angkor Vat was different. While the massive size makes itself evident at first glance, I realized what a massive undertaking this place was as I walked along the corridors and hallways admiring the intricate stone carvings of apsaras and stories from Indian classics such as the Mahabharata adorning every wall, every corner of this massive complex. Consider the vagaries of the monsoon, and one realizes what an engineering marvel this place is. A few years earlier, a friend in New York had mentioned that he made a four day trip to Siem Reap, 3 of which were spent on a plane to get there, just to see Angkor Vat. I could now see why.
The irony is that few Hindus within India are even aware of the existence of this temple, even though it is the largest Hindu temple complex in the world, built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the 12th century and dedicated to Vishnu.
It is unlikely that structures like these can be built in this day and age. And that is a good thing. While these places are mindblowing, such massive undertakings is the vision of one monarch with too much power and tens of thousands of men slogging for decades in terrible work conditions for little reward. Emperors have emptied their treasuries and lost their kingdoms in quests for erecting bigger and bigger temples and palaces. Every statue of Mayawati that gets built in UP, it means that hundreds of children have been deprived of healthcare or education for a year.
After a nice lunch (vegetables in butter for Jyoti and sphagetti for me), we headed to the city of Angkor Thom, built by Survavarman's descendant, Jayavarman VII, who was Buddhist. The centerpiece of the city was the Bayon temple, consisting of multitude of towers consisting of four faces in each direction, to give a total of 216 faces. Adjacent to the Bayon temple was the Residential Palace, the rear wall of which was in the shape of a reclining Buddha.
A couple of km away was the Ta Prohm temple, which was badly damaged during the Second World War. Trees have grown over a lot of structures and massive stones lay scattered everywhere. The temple is being reconstructed via a joint project between India and Cambodia: it was cool to see the "No Entry" and "Danger" signs posted in Hindi everywhere. One main corridor was reconstructed, while most of the temple still lay in ruins: hopefully the Indian contractors in Cambodia work faster than they work in India.
The plan was to stay in the park area until sundown, but the sky was turning grey, and we returned early to the hotel, just before the heavens opened up. En route, the tuk-tuk driver told us that like many of his countrymen, he saw the face of the deceased King in the moon the previous night. He was a non-believer in such matters, but he did see the King's face in the half-moon as he stared long enough.
Back at the hotel, we headed to the rooftop, made ourselves comfortable on the recliners and got some cocktails, and then got another full body massage, this time even cheaper at $6 for an hour. For dinner, we ordered some Naan and mixed veggies to go with a vegetable Amok curry (Amok is the major culinary tradition of Cambodia involving steam cooking in banana leaves and using coconut cream across all dishes)
Day 3: Onto Phnom Penh
After the regulation Aloo Bonda breakfast, we boarded the Mekong Express bus to Phnom Penh. Slightly more expensive at $12, but inclusive of water, breakfast, a TV screen showing Hollywood fare, and more importantly, no local stops. At the beginning of the journey, some Cambodian pop songs were played, all of which were essentially a typically Bollywood love story rolled into 5 minutes, the highlight being the hero with streaked hair and bright, glossy lipstick.
At our lunch stop, I got attracted to a food vendor who seemed to selling black olives, only to realize on closer inspection that they were cockroaches. We got some noodles with veggies for lunch, and a couple of hours later, reached Phnom Penh. Our hotel, the Eureka Villas, was adjacent to the Royal Palace and National Museum, and a few minutes away from the Tonle Sap river.
In the late afternoon, we visited the National Museum, consisting of artifacts from the Pre-Angkor and Angkor eras. One got to see different depictions of Shiva (with a beard for instance), Vishnu and Lakshmi. Ideally, one should visit the museum before seeing the temples, as it provides a good overview of the history of Cambodia, the engineering and design of the temples, as well as the current challenges facing the reconstruction projects.
Later in the evening we headed to the riverfront and had a nice pizza with some cocktails at a rooftop Italian restaurant. There were tens of thousands of Cambodians, dressed in white, heading to the Royal Palace to provide their respects to the King. Half of them were walking with their heads upturned, trying to see the face in the moon. Next to our table was an Englishman in probably his 50s or 60s with a Cambodian woman in her 30s asking her about where her family lived, what has she studied etc. We came across this type of conversation many more times during the trip.
Day 4: A History Lesson
I have heard certain people complain that Americans know little about the east. That's probably true. But I don't think its because they are narrow minded. I am from the east, and I don't know much either. I didn't know till a few days earlier that the largest Hindu temple in the world was in Cambodia, and I hadn't heard about "Brother" Pol Pot and the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.
In 1975, just as Vietnam was leaving the war years behind and looking forward, Phnom Penh was captured by Pol Pot and his "comrades". Over the next four years, in his quest to build a perfect society, they killed 2 million (out of a total population of 8 million) men, women and children. Their targets: doctors, scientists, teachers, artists.. in other words, anyone educated, anyone with a mind of his own, and their families, their 80 year old grandfathers and their two year old children. In Pol Pot's words "Better to kill an innocent by mistake than spare an enemy in error"
We live in a world where one man dead in the West is equivalent to 50 men dead in the East, and probably a thousand men dead in Africa. Events taking as many lives as the WTC attacks are happening on a quarterly, if not monthly basis in Africa, but few are taking note.
Today, we visited the "Killing Fields" just outside Phnom Penh, where about 20,000 Cambodians were hacked to death in a manner that would put Hitler's gas chambers to shame. Originally a Chinese cemetery, this site was only one of the 300 odd Killing Fields across the country. To save money, killings happened with clubs and axes rather than guns. Propoganda songs were played during the killings to muffle the sounds of the victims. Walking among the graves was painful. The memorial built at the site was stacked with skulls of the victims. An audio guide was provided with the ticket, full of information about Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, the killings fields, personal stories etc. As the guide mentioned, such mass killing by one of your own has few parallels, if at all, in History.
After the Khmer Rouge lost its grip due to defections and infighting and Cambodia was liberated by the Vietnamese, the West continued to consider the Khmer Rouge as the legitimate rulers of Cambodia and they had a seat at the UN. Only in the late 90s did the rest of the world wake up to the atrocities that had taken place and many of Pol Pot's comrades are only now being tried for war crimes. How much of this could be going on in unknown places in the world, which might only come to light 20 years down the line?
The next stop during the morning tour was the Russian Market, sans the Russians. Half the market sold regular stuff like clothes, shoes, fish and vegetables, while the other half was dedicated to automotive spares. This one could be missed.
We then headed to the Genocide Museum, which was a prison called S-21 during the Khmer Rouge time, and a school before that. Prisoners were held here for interrogation and torture before they were sent to the Killing Fields. A wooden pole earlier for exercise was now used to hang prisoners upside down and torture them. The museum contained remnants of torture equipment, confinement cells, photographs of victims, and details on how many of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge still haven't been punished, all a reminder of how things can horribly go wrong.
Back at the hotel, we strolled to the riverfront for lunch and decided to get some Indian food: paneer tikka masala (with the paneer much softer and nicer than I expected in this neck of the woods), dal makhani and onion kulcha. If only there was a magic pill to destroy those calories, I would eat this kind of food everyday. I tried Angkor beer: as good, probably better, than Kingfisher, Heineken or Tiger,
We shared our table with a bearded Aussie farmer who was living in South East Asia for a few years. When I asked him how old he was, he said my body is 65, but my mind is 35. He was married thrice: he didn't talk about his first wife, his second wife had unfortunately died of cancer after which he started traveling ("I don't like Australia because there are too many rules, I don't like to be told what to do"), and his third wife, a petite 20 something Cambodian, was in fact in the hospital, just having giving birth to his 6th child!
The plan was to visit the Royal Palace after lunch, but it was closed due to the King's death. We could visit the adjacent Silver Pagoda instead (it gets the name after the silver tiles used in the complex), the architecture and layout very reminiscent of the Pagodas I had seen in Bangkok. The inside of the pagoda was full of gold statues and gem-studded gold ornaments.
In the evening we had a couple of drinks by a riverfront restaurant, people watching as they were still looking for the King's face in the moon. We ordered a vegetable shawarma and were very surprised at how good it was. Food was a concern before we took off, but now I was beginning to wonder how long before our luck would run: we were picking up random restaurants, trying different cuisines and every single time, the food was good, or better.
Day 5: Adieu Cambodia, Hola Vietnam
For our roadtrip from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City, we decided to stick to the tried and tested Mekong Express Bus, playing the same (same same but different ??) Cambodian love songs. On the Cambodian side of the border, there were many Casinos frequented by Vietnamese as gambling was illegal there. We were fingerprinted as we exited Cambodia, which I thought was pretty sophisticated for a developing country. A country developing very slowly. A country still healing from the wounds of the Khmer Rouge. But a country of spirited people with smiles on their faces. I thought about India, in the years after independence. Were people happier then? What causes pain: is it absolute poverty or relative poverty? A survey revealed that most people rather have a $50k income with their neighbors making $40k rather than a $60k income while their neighbors made $70k.
On the Vietnam side of the border, our bus hostess had collected all our passports and given it to the immigration officer. He first cleared all the Cambodians in a hurry. Then, not necessarily in order, the Canadians (Mexicans with sweaters, as one American standup comedian calls them), British (they're everywhere: don't blame them, blame their weather), Americans (oh sorry no Americans, I forgot they don't have passports), French, Russians, Swedes etc Then it was the turn of us Indians. He pored over the passport front to back, then back to front. He then stared at us and our photos in the passport like Jyoti was from Venus and I was from Mars (just for the record, I haven't read the book). I guess he doesn't get to see too many Indian Passports, certainly not at the Cambodia-Vietnam Land Border.
Our 65 yr old Aussie friend had told us Vietnam was a different world. I couldn't imagine how. I expected it would be similar to Cambodia, maybe a little better off: a developing country, full of hills and rice fields, dusty towns, a lot of poor and some rich people, and similar faces. And I had no expectations from Ho Chi Minh city: it was on the itinerary only as a base for some one day trips, and I expected it to be a shithole.
It turned out to be the surprise package of the trip. As we drove into HCMC after a nice lunch at a highway restaurant I could not help but compare it to Mumbai. I bet HCMC has some slums tucked away somewhere which I did not encounter, but most of it seemed nice, clean and organized with wide roads. The traffic was relatively smooth (chaotic if you were from Sweden or New Zealand), even with 5 million mopeds on its roads. The city has practically no public transport and most of its 10 million inhabitants use mopeds, probably making it the moped capital of the world. Pollution is bad and most people wear masks, yet it is a much more civilized, human commute than Mumbai trains.
The nucleus of the city was district 1, located on the west bank of Saigon river, with tall commercial buildings, tourist attractions, hotels, nightclubs and restaurants all packed in a couple of square kilometers easily explored on foot. We were famished by the time we checked in around 2 pm, and lo and behold: "Saigon Indian Restaurant" was right across the street. Malai Kofta and Garlic Naan in Ho Chi Minh City: Bliss!
There was no plan to see anything in HCMC but we had a free afternoon so we got some suggestions from the hotel, a map and explored the city. We walked past the City Hall, the seat of the municipality and closed to the public. The next stop was the Notre Dame Cathedral, which as the name suggests, was built by the French during occupation of Vietnam. Nothing special about the building, but it was nice to see the Vietnam Traffic Police helping edgy foreign visitors to cross the road, shielding them from the barrage of mopeds. If only they knew we were from Mumbai, they might have enlisted us as volunteers!
We then took a guided English tour of the Reunification (Independence) Palace, conducted by a pretty young teenager, beaming with pride for her country, and interspersing her commentary with humor, though not completely comfortable with the English language. I'll remember her as face of the young new Vietnam: confident, hard working, looking westward while staying rooted. The Palace was first built by the French for its Governors, destroyed during the war and rebuilt again as the Presidential Palace, where the Presidents of South Vietnam resided in the mid 50s to mid 70s. Once Ho Chi Minh's troops from the North captured Saigon (and renamed it HCMC), it became a symbol of the reunification of the country, and thence the name.
Our guide showed us the Conference Room, which was green since it calmed people down, and the Dining Room, which was yellow since the color made you hungry. There were the regulation Presidential Suites, Recreation rooms etc. but we also got to see the underground rooms used during the war, full of maps and communication equipment. After the tour we headed to the Ben Thanh market, where Jyoti picked some tops, and left the bargaining to me. Rule of thumb: bid one fourth of the offer, start walking away when the shopkeeper makes a face and they will 3 out of 4 times call you back and give it to you for 40-50% of the original quote.
For Dinner, we headed to Lemongrass, a rooftop restaurant, giving us a nice view of the city and the Saigon river in the not too distant background. We ordered some Vietnamese noodles and Tofu. The Tofu sauce was great: if it was combined with Paneer instead of Tofu, it would have been the best dish of the trip. Across the street was one of the more prominent commercial buildings in the city, with the "Citi" logo on the top storey. I had mixed feelings about it: if I had any problems, say getting mugged, help was right round the corner. But what if some work came up and I was asked to use that office? That couldn't happen, I assured myself: I was on compliance leave, which forbid me from entering Citi premises.
Post dinner, we headed to a local jazz club we had spotted walking around in the city. The plan was to spend an hour there and retire early, but one of the performers, who played the flute, the sax and the trumpet in succession, was so good we stuck around for the second set as well. Later we realized that this guy, Ru Rung, owned the place. Good Jazz was the last thing we expected in HCMC, but then, we had many surprises on this trip already, and there were more to follow.
Day 6: Snake Soup and Croc Patties
This day was dedicated to a day trip to the Mekong Delta. The Mekong is the one of largest rivers in the region, originating in Tibet and snaking its way through China, Thailand, Cambodia and finally Vietnam. Our guide today would be middle aged gentleman who said his name was "Long", which means Dragon in Vietnamese. It seemed that a third of the hotels (including our own) and businesses have "Long" in their name. And this is because there are many types of dragons.
There are ascending dragons and descending dragons, earth dragons and heavenly dragons, coiled dragons and crocodile dragons.
Looking back at the trip, I could have skipped this tour. It probably appealed more to visitors from the West. I had imagined a nice boat ride (notwithstanding the spiteful noise of the motor, of course) among the islands in the delta, staring at the greenery and the horizon. None of that here. The guide told us that the island we were visiting was also accessible by a suspension bridge now. Following a two hour drive from HCMC followed by 15 minutes on a ferry, we reached an island which by now seemed designed with tourists in mind. Our first stop was a bee farm where they offered us honey tea, and sweets made by combining honey with banana, and coconut and other fruits. The next stop was to taste local fruits and listen to a local band singing traditional songs and ending the performance with "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!!".
Following the musical performance we took a 15 minute ride in a small rowboat followed by a 15 minute horse-cart ride which took us to the lunch place. The menu contained, besides the usual seafood, chicken and beef, delicacies made of snake, crocodile and turtles. We decided not to even try to explain to the guy that we were vegetarians. Our company at the table was a Brussels based transport pilot and his girlfriend. He had lived in Bombay for 3 years as a teenager and he asked me all sorts of questions about how the city had evolved. Was Fire and Ice still the coolest place to hang out? Have the roads got any better? He was a commercial pilot, I had completed my solo flights. Many of his friends while in Mumbai were kids of diamond merchants: my father was in the business. It was nice to be able to talk about so many things: it certainly helped take my mind off the hunger.
Post lunch, some of us drove bicycles for 10-15 minutes on the narrow footpaths meandering through the island. It's the circle of life. The milkman on the bicycle is dreaming about the motorbike, the biker about a car, a car owner wants a bigger car, and the owner of a big car wants to holiday in villages driving a bike. The Indian tourist wants to eat in Michelin starred restaurants in London, and Gordon Ramsey wants to learn cooking from locals in Assam and Chattisgarh.
Post cycling, it was a boat ride followed by a bus ride home. We were famished and headed to Alfresco, a popular chain serving Western food, for a late lunch / early dinner. We ordered a Mexican platter consisting of jacket potatoes, enchiladas and tacos: they had one ingredient too many, but nevertheless well made and well presented. Jyoti got a nice Singapore Sling while I got Saigon Red Beer, which was quite nice too.
After a short nap, we headed to the Saigon waterfront. There were a dozen big boats ready to leave for the night cruise, at $1.5 per person. Large, gaudy, noisy, playing pop music. All the locals were flocking to those. There was one that looked like a traditional junk, had subdued lighting and offered a traditional music performance on board. It offered a generous buffet meal for $20, but we would probably only be able to have some fries and noodles (not again!), so we decided against it, whereupon the hostess offered us a table and some fruit juice for $5.
The musical performance was quite good, using some novel instruments: one of them consisted of a stack of bamboo sticks of different lengths and was played by clapping close to one end. We then spent some time on the upper deck watching the water and the buildings by the bank. I couldn't help but think as to when will Mumbai have a proper cruise to spend a nice evening in. Dinner today was at the Saigon India restaurant, the Malai Kofta making way for yummy dosas !
Day 7: The Wreckage of War
This morning, we made a half day trip to the Cu-Chi Tunnels, narrow passageways made by the Viet Cong to hide from the American and South Vietnamese forces. Our guide (he said his name was "Hi") was a gentleman close to 60 who had fought on the South Vietnamese side, and then probably sent to a "Re-Education" Camp once Saigon fell to the North Vietnam Liberation army. He had grown up in Saigon and thus was naturally drawn to the cause of South Vietnam, and worked with the American forces as a translator.
Before we set out to see the tunnels, we were to see a film depicting the bravery of the Viet Cong. Our guide had warned us it was highly one sided. And that was evident within a few seconds. All Americans were butchers, and all Viet Cong soldiers, both men and women, were brave, dedicated, smart: each one of them killed at least ten, if not hundred, of the enemy.
After the movie, Hi showed us the secret traps laid out by the Viet Cong and a model of the underground workshops where they handcrafted weapons. The finale of the tunnel tour was the challenge to crawl through one of the few preserved tunnels, though widened considerably to make it a little more comfortable for tourists and inspected regularly to ensure there were no creepy-crawlies inside. The tunnel for 100 metres long, and had exits every 20 meters in case you felt claustrophobic, sweaty, afraid of the dark, pain in the knees, or all of the above. Some people got out in 20 meters, and very few went beyond 40. Imagine living in one half the size of this one!
Before leaving the Cu-chi tunnel area, there was some time for some shooting: M60s and AK47s. You had to buy a minimum of 10 bullets ($2 a bullet) for each gun, so I shared the cost with a couple of teenagers from Singapore, and shot 3-4 bullets each.
This was hardcore stuff. The guns were very heavy. The recoil powerful. The noise, even with earphones on, deafening.
We were back in HCMC in time for a late lunch. Today we tried the Pho Noodles (noodles in soup with veggies) at Pho 24, the Vietnamese equivalent of KFC / McDonalds. After lunch, we had just enough time to visit the War Remnants Museums: not pleasing by any standard, but important to see from a historical perspective. While the exhibits totally disregarded the atrocities committed by the North Vietnamese and the Vietcong, they did paint a chilling picture of the American Aggression: bombardment of civilian targets in North Vietnam, heavy spraying of Agent Orange (a toxic substance that has resulted in many congenital deformities in decades following the war). One section contained pictures of rallies the world over (including one held by the Communist Party in Calcutta) severely criticizing the American intervention. It is amazing that the intrusion lasted 20 years, disregarding certain American officers refusal to fly bombing missions, the international community's decree of the aggression as a war crime and the internal opposition within the US.
The war killed 3 million Vietnamese, and about 50 thousand Americans. Jyoti was upset for the rest of the day. It was difficult for her to believe that a country which prided in providing freedom and liberty to its citizens could commit such acts. I thought that the only consolation in the entire affair was that there were internal checks and balances within the US' democratic framework and the freedom with which one could oppose the war that did have somewhat of an effect in the withdrawal of the troops.
During the shopping spree at Ben Thanh market a couple of days ago, one of the shopkeepers had two hands and a leg amputated. I had then assumed it might have been some sort of accident. It struck me only at the museum if it had something to do with the war. At first I wondered if they were hacked (and how does it matter which side: when its war, both side are typically butchers), but she was too young for that. Could it have been a landmine? If so, why had she lost her arms when one leg was intact? Maybe it had nothing to do with the war after all. I will never know, and back in my comfortable life in Singapore, probably never think about it again.
It was time to put the war aside and engage in some retail therapy. Jyoti bought a couple of nice dresses from local boutiques a few blocks from the museum.
Walking around the streets close to the river, we hit upon a Tapas bar with live music called Pacharan, and I recalled they had a restaurant in Phnom Penh as well, so it seemed like a well established brand. And we were not disappointed: sangria, patatas bravas, marinated olives and gazpacho soup was a nice break from pizzas, noodles and naans.
Day 8: The Florence of Vietnam, and the smell of Napalm
Today we took an early morning flight to Da Nang, one of the major towns in Central Vietnam and took a half an hour cab-ride to Hoi An. I first heard about the place on an itinerary on Lonely Planet, and then figured that it has been designated as a world heritage site by UNESCO. Our hotel, Hoi An Garden Villas, was located in a moderately populated area full of hotels, restaurants and spas, halfway between Cua Dai beach and Hoi An ancient town. Cabs were available and one could walk, but the best way to head to town was by bicycles, which could be rented from the hotel free of charge. There was a minor snag: Jyoti doesnt ride cycles and I had barely got comfortable riding them again in Singapore. But we decided to try doubles, and after a couple of fumbles, we were alright.
Hoi An was inhabited by the Champa peoples from the West during the 14-16th century and thereafter was a busy port in the 16-19th century, a confluence of Chinese, Buddhist and Vietnamese cultures. The ancient town is barely a couple of square km and the narrow streets are lined with two storey homes with the ground floor typically being a shop or restaurant. Its a pedestrian only zone in the evenings, not even bicycles allowed. The heritage status of the town is thanks to a couple of dozen structures interspersed across the old town: Chinese Assembly Halls, Old Ancestral Homes, Communal Houses, Museums and the Japanese Covered Bridge. Most of the houses are painted a warm yellow ochre and the quiet Hoai river flows on side. The closest resemblance I could think of, though let it not mislead you, was Florence.
One "bunch" of tickets entitled you to visit any five of the interesting places in the town. We bought our tickets, got a guide, and parked our bicycle at the tourist information center at the edge of town. Our first stop was the Museum of Hoi An History and Culture, which gave us a quick introduction to the advent of the Champa peoples, and then the Chinese and Japanese traders. The next stop was the Phuc Kien Chinese Assembly Hall, built in the 18th Century. Given Hoi An's port status, it was not very surprising that the main idol in the Hall was that of the Sea Goddess.
The next stop was the Tran's Family Chapel, an ancestral home, half of which was for worship and the other half the living quarters of the family.There were three types of ceilings: the turtle shaped Chinese style, the bow and arrow shaped Vietnamese style, and the slightly complex Japanese style representing the 5 elements. The altar consisted of wooden boxes representing the ancestors. Married couples had exactly the same type of boxes. The boxes gave way to photographs in the 20th century and to the right of the altar were photographs of more recent generations. The umbilical cords of new borns were buried in the backyard generation after generation: the belief was that this would help keep the family together.
We then spent some time at the Hoi An Art and Craft Manufacturing Workshop, seeing carpet making, silk weaving and embroidery making. There was even a demonstration of how silkworms were boiled to obtain the silk fiber. The final stop was the Japanese covered bridge: the Chinese then added a temple to one side and the Vietnamese preserved and refurbished it over the next couple of centuries.
Having woken up at 4 am and not having had any breakfast, we were quite famished and had an early lunch at about 11:30, heading to the tried-and-tested Al Fresco across the river for some pizza and sphagetti. We then cycled back to the hotel, checked in and took a much needed nap. In the afternoon, we cycled to the nearby Cua Dai beach, and lazed around on the beach chairs. It was a nice long beach with hills at either ends and a few islands at the horizon. Before this trip I had two enduring images of Vietnam: the rain as described by Forrest Gump and the beaches where Colonel Kilgore in Apocalypse Now says "I love the smell of Napalm in the morning" (Just two weeks back, a colleague who loves the movies had quoted this line as of his favorites and offered a bottle of chili sauce to the one who could identify the movie. It sits unopened at my desk). It seemed to me like that beach couldnt be far away from there. Later I found out that it had in fact been shot in the Philippines.
In the evening, I took a refreshing splash in the pool and thereafter we headed back to the town center. It was the 14th day of the moon's waxing phase, all the shops in town would have their lanterns brightly lit and there would be some singing by the river. We found a nice restaurant, got some mojitos and ordered gnocchi which was delicious. The portion was huge and all we could eat after that was some chocolate mousse. As we walked out of the restaurant, we saw a painting depicting a man covering his nose and mouth with his palms and saying "I love the smell of my palm in the morning: Apocalypse Now". Coppola ranks it as the best movie he has made. Yes, better than Godfather! At the Cannes Film Festival in 1979, he said "My movie is not about Vietnam... my movie is Vietnam"
It was just 8 pm by the time we cycled back to the hotel, so we went for a walk. There were a couple of spas on the way. We entered one, but it was relatively expensive ($20 for an hour of aromatherapy) and we walked out. At the next one, the hostess quoted $22 per hour. I told her I'll pay $20 not for one, but two people. As I started walking out, she agreed. Jyoti told me that amounted to exploitation. I told myself I was still paying more than what we paid in Cambodia.
Day 9: Chal meri Luna
This morning we took a taxi to Hue, another UNESCO world heritage site. We did not know why, except that there were some interesting monuments there. The first half of the drive was breathtaking, traversing the hills with the South China Sea on one side. En route, we stopped at the Marble Mountain, a hill complex of Pagodas and cave temples, with a bird's eye view of Da Nang city and the seaside resorts from the top.
There was no time for lunch so we decided to head to the monuments. They were however far off, and we would need private transport to get around. A private car for the afternoon would have cost $35, so we decided to rent a moped. The problem was: it was ten years since I had driven one, and wasnt exactly comfortable then either. And the passenger seat was occupied by my friend who was quite the expert. So I decided to take a short test drive, and made quite a fool of myself. The hotel receptionist wasnt sure if I would be alright, but I insisted I was rusty and would "find my groove" soon. So off we went, with Jyoti taking on the responsibility of the navigator.
In the 19th century, the capital of Vietnam was moved from Hanoi in the north to Hue in the centre by the Nguyen dynasty, as they hailed from the South. The first stop was the Tomb of Tu Duc, one of the Nguyen Kings. The complex not only contained his tomb, but also tombs of the queen and a few others, as well the residential palace. This place wasnt outstading (it wasnt that grand, and it was quite worn down for its age), but it had a nice charm, a lot of greenery to complement a water body, and harmony among the buildings and the natural surroundings. With similar beliefs as the Egyptians in an afterlife, the tomb was designed to fulfill the king's requirements in the afterlife: for instance, a row of stone Mandarins stood on alert on both sides of the corridor leading to the tomb.
Our next stop was the Citadel, the center of activity during the Nguyen Dynasty's rule. It was a vast forfitied complex, consisting of residential sections, a concert/theater building, assembly halls, places of worship etc. The buildings were badly destroyed during the wars and a lot of reconstruction activity was going on. Our final stop of the day was Thien Mu Pagoda. By this time, I was quite tired and hardly remember much about it except that it had a nice setting right by the river.
Now came the tough part: driving back to the Hotel. It was dusk, the traffic was heavy and chaotic with more people driving on the wrong side than I could handle, and I was tired. We lost our way a little bit but made it back unscathed. Jyoti suggested we could rest a bit and then drive to a nice restaurant, but I was exhausted: it was a hot day, my pedometer read 16-17 thousand steps, and I had already driven for an hour and a half. I couldnt trust my concentration, so we decided to walk.
Unlike Hoi An, once you leave the monuments, Hue is but a crowded, dirty, industrial town. There are no restaurants by the river or areas you would like to walk around in. For dinner, we headed to a Buddhist vegetarian joint, a favorite with middle class locals, and ordered a "small pot", which was a vegetable broth, served with spinach, noodles, a hot sauce, and a peanut based sauce. It was the best meal of the trip. The tofu was soft unlike the chewy versions we had eaten earlier, the broth tasty, the rice noodles light, and the sauce, which we just added to the broth with the noodles and spinach, delicious. All for $3.
Day 10 A (relatively) disappointing day
We had our fair share of positive suprises on the trip. HCMC, which we expected to be a crowded, industrial town, turned up an urbane, chic city. We figured Hoi An would be only about history, but it was pretty too. We cycled doubles and then went around on a moped safely. Today we would embark on the last leg of the trip: Hanoi and Halong Bay. After Angkor Vat, we had the highest expectations from these places.
A couple of hours drive from Hue, with a short stop at Langco beach, took us back to Da Nang airport. We had an early 11 am lunch of noodles with veggies at the airport, and reached our hotel in Hanoi, located in the heart of the old quarter with a view of the Hoan Kiem lake, at about 2:30 pm. This was a Tuesday, and I had planned to do some local sightseeing in Hanoi on Friday, after we spent Wednesday and Thursday at Halong Bay. Looking at the brochures, we realized that most museums in Hanoi were closed on Fridays and Uncle Ho's Mausoleum was closed all day on Friday. In any case, we were a little fatigued in seeing more and more of similar monuments. So we decided to see the top rated places in the city the same day and venture out into the countryside for a day trip on Friday.
Our first stop was the one-pillar pagoda: as the name suggests, it was built on a wooden monolithic structure, originally in the 11th century. It has been rebuilt several times, and in its current state, I did not see much architectural value in it, but it remains one of the top places to visit, probably due to its religious and cultural significance. Next to the one pillar pagoda was the Ho Chi Minh museum, dedicated to the man himself, and showcasing his work in the country's development and unification. We were short of time, so we skipped the museum and headed to the Temple of Literature instead. It was a curious name: upon arrival there, we realized the name is such as it is dedicated to Confucius and his disciples. Originally built in the 11th century and then reconstructed a few times, the temple, over the centuries, has been the one of the major centers of learning and exams in Vietnam. The temple consisted of a series of courtyards with the last one having a temple with idols of Confucius and his four major disciples. It is imprinted on the 100,000 Dong note (which is only about 5 USD!).
The next stop was the St Joseph's Cathedral in the Old Quarter. I thought this one could be missed. By this time we were very hungry, but it was just 5 pm. So we headed to a small cafe in the church square and had some bruschetta and beer. We then walked around the old quarter for a bit. While there were many nice quaint buildings around, walking leisurely was not a possibility: the footpaths were full of parked mopeds and the narrow lanes were overflowing with speeding ones. We looked around some shops, but most of them seemed to be selling antiquated clothes.
We had tried different cuisines on the trip, but had not come across a good Thai restaurant so far. We found one adjacent to the lake (but without a view): I forget the name of the place but it also has a branch somewhere in India. Unfortunately all the curries had meat stock, so we ordered some Olive rice (is that really Thai food) and pad thai noodles, and inspite of all the overdose of noodles in the past few days, loved it.
Days 11 / 12: Halong Bay
I've been mentioning what we ate for lunch and dinner everyday, but have said nothing about the breakfasts since Siem Reap. Well, because they've been the same everyday. Fruits , toast (sometimes a baguette), juice, and sometimes tea or coffee to go with that. And today it was the same story. After breakfast we were picked up by the tour operator to Ha Long (literally meaning descending dragon), a relatively new outfit called V'Spirit Cruises.
En route, the guide mentioned a few things about the Vietnamese way of life. He said they ate just about anything, dogs, cats, snakes. Only four things were taboo: first and foremost, the turtle, as its the symbol of longevity (why were they on offer in the Mekong delta then ?). The other three animals they didnt eat were the phoenix, the unicorn and the dragon. Basically, sab chalta hai!
We made a stop at a handicrafts workshop where we bought some lacquer work: a wall hanging with some Chinese alphabets and a serving dish with some esoteric symbols, whose meaning we didnt care to enquire. We paid $10 apiece for them: later in Hanoi we found the same stuff, albeit of a lower quality, offered at $5, which meant you could probably buy them for 3, and then again at the airport, same quality, for $7. Moral of the story: unless you are looking for something exceptional, buy your souvenirs only at the local markets, and haggle hard. I realized it was the same thing for tours: while it made sense to get your airport pickups and any pre-arranged tours organized by the hotel for safety and quality reasons, once in town, visit one of the various tour agencies around and try to get the best price. In any event, most of the stuff is so cheap, you won't save a whole lot in any case.
We reached Halong town around noon and took a small motorized boat to our cruise ship: now this was like 1/100 hundredth of the size of the Ocean Liners that you might take in the Caribbean, Alaska or Mediterranean. It had 5 cabins and the galley on the lower deck, another 5 cabins, dining and the captain's cabin on the middle deck, and some lounge chairs to sunbathe on the top deck. We checked in to the cosy rooms and then had lunch as we sailed towards the center of the bay. There was a lot of vegetarian stuff for lunch: potatoes, some patties made out of a local vegetable, noodles again, fruit, chewy tofu again. We were so fed up of the traditional fare by now, I would have exchanged all of that for some yogurt and rice.
I had heard a lot about Halong Bay, and I was a touch disappointed. Sure it was probably a one of its kind place in the world, with hundreds of huge limestone hills jutting out of the water. Due to its geographical significance, bio-diversity and traditional lifestyle on the water, it has been placed on UNESCO's world heritage site, and tourists throng here in the thousands. There were a few issues though. One, there were too many people. I understand that if a place is pretty enough there will be a big crowd. But hordes of tourists meant dozens of polluting boats, and there seemed to be a permanent haze in the air. The limestone never acquired any vibrant hues that could have made this a special experience. Second, the water was both polluted (we could see some boats' crew throwing garbage into the water) and murky (nowhere close to the nice water you'll get at say the intensely crowded Maya Bay, or to a lesser extent, the James Bond Island in the Phuket area)
But overall it was a nice relaxing experience with good company on board. A retired Swedish couple described how their biggest fear during this trip (they had already visited Bangkok and Hanoi) was being run over while crossing the road. One British couple was on their honeymoon: when I expressed surprise at their choice of location, the guy told me that they had run out of places that his wife hadnt already seen. There was a big Swede, traveling with his family, with a huge Pentax Film Camera. That made him a rare species: I should have taken a snap of him changing film!
After lunch, we went for a bit of kayaking around one of the floating villages, and then headed to an island with a small sandy beach, albeit with filthy water. A 15 minute trek through the dense vegetation took us to the top of the hill, affording a panoramic view of the bay with the sun about to go down. Back at the boat for dinner, we again had a generous spread before us, but to us, they were the same things. Do what you want to tofu, it ain't turning to Paneer. I was inclined to tell the cook to heat a packet of ITC Dal Makhani I was carrying all these days for a bad evening like this one, but I figured it might be a little offensive.
Post dinner I headed to the top deck to gaze into the sky for a bit. Only two objects were visible: the moon, probably on day two of its waning cycle, and close to it, a bright planet, which could only have been Jupiter or Saturn. This certainly was a polluted place.
Next morning, I woke up early at 5:30 am to catch the early morning sky and attend the tai chi session: two other Mexican women joined me as we mimicked the moves of our bartender-by-night-tai-chi-guru-by-day. After breakfast, we headed to the Sut Song ("Amazing") cave, a half kilometer cavity in the limestone full of stalactites and stalagmites. Impressive for the size, but the formations werent as impressive as I had seen in the Luray Caverns in the US or in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
Back on the boat, we had a cooking class on the top deck: learning how to make spring rolls. The cook brought all the ingredients, mixed them and then asked everyone to put on gloves and make rolls of the mixture using rice paper. Not much of a class really. A couple of boats passing by were blaring out loud pop music: people were drinking and dancing, at 10 am in the morning! After lunch (yes, the same stuff again!) it was time to disembark at Ha Long port and take the bus back to Hanoi.
In the evening we did some souvenir shopping, and picked up some Vietnamese coffee and a coffee filter. For dinner, we had pizza at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Hoan Kiem lake. One way an Asian City stands out from others in the world is the lights they use to illuminate buildings in the night. Be it Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Ho Chi Minh or Hanoi (and from the pics I've seen of Shanghai), whether its a small restaurant or the tallest building in town, its magenta, then purple, then orange, then yellow, and the circle keeps repeating. In Paris, London or Venice, even the lighting at fort in Mumbai, its simply white or yellow light, which is more often than not subdued.
Day 13: Hoa Lu / Tam Coc
For this unplanned day, we booked a day trip to Hoa Lu / Tam Coc. Hoa Lu was the first capital of Vietnam, established by the first King of Vietnam in the 10th century, before the capital was shifted to Hanoi in 1010 A.D (the 1000 year anniversary was celebrated with great fanfare in 2010). I didnt listen to the story told by the guide intently, but apparently the first King was one of the provincial leaders who united the Vietnamese and overthrew the Chinese rule. He had two sons, and there were some conflicts, and I think one killed the other, and then both the King and the other son died or something, and the Queen married the General who become the second King, but wasnt accepted by the people etc etc. Its the same story of passion, power and betrayal wherever you go.
Post Lunch (this would be the last noodles lunch I would be having for a long time) we took a boat ride through Tam Coc, considered the Halong Bay on land. We, alongside hundreds of tourists at the site, were taken around in a small row boat (the men were rowing with the hands, while most of the women were using their feet deftly to power the oars) through the marshes surrounded by tall cliffs. You could see some of the village folk at work in the marshes, fishing from the boats or dragging nets while walking through the marshes in chest deep water.
After spending about an hour and a half on the boat, I took a guided bicycle ride with some other people in the group through rice fields surrounded by the hills. There are rice fields all over India and we had been driving past them in Cambodia and Vietnam everyday for the past 10 days, but riding a bike leisurely on narrow embankments seperately the fields was a special experience. We came across a herd of water buffaloes, and for the Brazilian and Europeans in our group, it seemed to be the equivalent of an Indian sighting a herd of Moose in Alaska.
It was dinner time when we arrived back in Hanoi and we were in no mood for any experimenting and headed to Namaste Hanoi, ranked in the top 5 restaurants in Hanoi (out of some 500) on tripadvisor. We had our fill of Vietnamese buildings, food, culture, lakes and rivers, and we craved for nothing more than some roti-shoti.
But there was time for a bit more action, so we attended the Water Puppet theater show. It was essentially a puppet show in the traditional sense, except on a bigger stage, and the puppets being suspended on water. The performance showcased various aspects of the culture: working in the rice fields, men wooing women carrying the traditional fan by playing the panpipes, the influence of Indian dance forms on Vietnamese folk dance, the harmony between the 54 ethnic tribes that constitute the country etc. There was one big problem with the show that killed it for me: cameras were allowed and there was no restrictions on the use of flashes. It was a typical lose-lose situation: the amateurs firing the flashes were only illuminating the hair of the people in front of them, and irritating the hell out of others like me who blinded with thousands of flashes going off in a 1 hr performance. I think I should write them a suggestion that no flashes be allowed: hopefully I end up doing that soon.
Day 14: Back to Singapore
No one typically likes vacations to end. But we were tired of two things: two much bus travel and too many noodle lunches. If we had more time, we would have loved to chill out at the beaches in Nha Trang or Sihanoukville, and get some snorkeling and diving action. But its short life, and vacation allowances even shorter, so you tend to push yourself a little.
Though some are more memorable than others, every vacation is special. This one I will remember for more than a few reasons: the magnifient temples of Angkor Vat; the consistently good food, no matter what cuisine you tried; people living a tough life with a smile; water bodies everywhere; and two chapters in 20th century history that I think every responsible world citizen should have a good understanding of.
P.S.: I came back from Vietnam and Cambodia thinking I had got a good sense of the Khmer Rouge and the Vietnam War. Even when we think we have realized or uncovered something, more follows that makes us fall flat on our face. After returning, I came upon a program on the History channel named "the Most Secret Place on Earth" Seeing some Asian faces in military, my first though was this was a documentary on North Korea. It was actually about Laos, the least known of the three Indochina countries. The doc was about American carpet bombing in Laos during the Vietnam War, since a lot of the Viet Cong was in hiding there. Using B52s, they dropped more bombs on Laos than on Germany and Japan combined. In the words of one American commentator, "we vaporized an entire civilization".
"How many deaths will it take till he knows that too many people have died?"
