Travel fatigue
Christmas in Laos
(Savannakhet and up)
Merry Christmas
(Everyone)
Hi all,
Just a quick FYI:
Right now Becky & I are back in Phnom Penh, after having spent a marvelous four days in Kampot and at the Bokor Hill station. I hope to 'write' more about this later.
Tomorrow we're off to Stung Treng, were upon we'll be planning our crossing in Laos. This is an 'unofficial' border crossing so no idea how that will pan out - we've got our Lao visas in advance though.
The plan is to spend Christmas on one of the 'four thousand' islands in the south of Laos. Most of these places don't even have electricity, let alone Internet, so I don't know when the next opportunity will be to post on this blog. Also, it seems that everywhere (well, actually the one place) that does online booking etc is booked out (the other don't even have telephone numbers) - so chances are we'll be appropriately spending Christmas in a stable.
So here it is: Merry Christmas Everybody!!!
Hope you're having a great time wherever you are.
rgds
//richard & Becky
Holiday in Cambodia
Cambodia
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
I've never really been speechless before. It's just one of those phrases you use when something has annoyed or shocked you I suppose. A visit to Tuol Sleng made me realise what the phrase actually meant. Walking around this horrific place everybody was speechless, people were stumbling from room to room with a look of disbelief on their faces.
Vietnam and Cambodia
When does it get cooler?
Saigon
I could hear the notes of panic rising in Becky's voice. We'd just gone down a section of the Cu Chi tunnels north west of Saigon, and were sandwiched on either side by the other tourists on our trip who'd queued up for a go. We'd crawled on our haunches around a bend in the tunnel that cut out light completely. The air outside was a very humid 35 degrees, and in the tunnels the clammy humidity felt considerably higher. Fortunately for us, and probably most others who've visited this remnant of the American War, only a few yards further light began to seep in from one of the exits. It was no comfort that these tunnels had had to be enlarged to accommodate western tourists...
Of course, it didn't help that prior to this we'd just seen a demo of the exceedingly nasty bamboo traps that the Viet Cong used to set for the enemy; horrid things like rolling pins with spikes placed over a hole, trapdoors with what would have been poisoned spikes at the bottom, and one that got my imagination going: the pit with spikes designed to catch in your armpits on the way down. Also on offer, for a big price, was the change to use a shooting range to fire off a range of weapons, such as an AK-47 and a 'Rambo' gun (I never found out what this one actually is, not that I could be bothered). But there were some in our group who took the opportunity - one more thing to shatter the nerves before going down a claustrophobic tunnel.
Prior to going to the tunnels we'd just been to an odd, but memorable 'cathedral' of Cadoism. This is an odd religion created about a hundred years ago and is a curious attempt to blend the best of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, with some aspects of Catholicism thrown in. The huge building's incredibly colourful, with the congregation wearing white silk outfits and black (for the men) and white (women) hats; the many different members of the 'clergy' wearing bright blue and yellow robes. Probably the the oddest part of this whole spectacle is that this faith seems completely planned and hence artificial, and that bizarrely they must be the only people outside of France who venerate Victor Hugo as a saint!
This was our first 'tourist' trip outside Saigon. We'd arrived here (i.e. HCM City) fairly well rested at about 6am in the morning, having got the train from Hanoi.
The train trip was unequivocally lovely. The carriages perhaps weren't up to the standards we'd become accustomed to in Russia and China, but it was pleasant enough. The views along the way more than made up for this, especially in mid-Vietnam, around the erstwhile DMZ, Hué and Danang. Here there are rolling bright green hills, covered in bamboo and other tropical trees, becoming more decorated with palms as they reach the sea. All along there a numerous coves with golden yellow beaches at the edge of a deep blue sea, unspoilt and uninhabited - every now and again there would be local fisherman who'd obviously sailed there (i couldn't see any roads or paths even) and dropped anchor to fish for the day. (Reading this again, it seems a bit too clichéd, but I'm at loss to better describe it.)
Well, it wasn't entirely blissfull: we were sharing with an Australian. Should've known that he was the gregarious sort when he skipped into the compartment proclaiming:
"Howdy doody!!"
For many following hours we were caught like the proverbial rabits in headlights as 'Daz' regailed us with travel stories from his vast experience, from snowboarding in Colorado to Beerfests in Munich; utterly fascinating I politely said to him at the time. Also, one felt, he just wasn't quite magnanimous enough when the subject of the last Ashes test enevitably came up (I find myself wholeheartedly supporting England in instances like this). It turned out thougth that he was a life (or at least sanity) saver in the end. 'Daz' had a huge collection of MP3s of which I copied many onto my new player - so i could turn on, tune in and switch off.
Lastly a word on Saigon itself: this place might be as hectic as Ha Noi, but at least it's spread out, so doesn't feel as oppressive. Nonetheless, it's very hot here. We can only sleep with the aircon on at night (sorry, that's for those of you further up in the northern hemisphere). There are some lovely old French colonial buildings dotted around down, and not a few churches too. So far our experience of the food's good too - not nearly as greasy as the stuff from further north, especially China (where everything swims in oil).
rgds
//richard
(Saigon)