Honey, I'm Home: Angela & Her Trip To Asia

So, last week I returned from a 17 day trip through Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. I know, many of you probably didn’t even know I was gone, because I don’t usually say much when I go on a trip. Paranoid or not, I feel like it’s a big welcome sign to internet creepers saying, “Swing on by! I’m not home!” Besides, Becca was here through it all, keeping the cogs greased and the posts posting. I am so lucky to have her for a blog partner/friend/mentor/co-author/occasional psychiatrist!

The trip was, in a word, fabulous. We went with a group and tour guide through G Adventures, and saw a ton in our 17 days. The only bummer was that right as we were leaving Vietnam to go to Cambodia, out camera’s memory card died on us. Our whole time in Vietnam was on that card!

We have taken it to a data guru, hoping he can rescue our pictures. Luckily my son had his camera as well, so at least we have something to fall back on if the card is nuked (and I have some pictures to show you!). I’m sure I can ask for pictures from other people in the group, too. Still, I am praying we’ll get our own pictures back!

When we arrived at Hanoi, I thought I was going to die. Seriously. The traffic was insane. Imagine if you will, if every car you see during rush hour was replaced by 50 scooters. Oh, and all of them beep their horns constantly. Then, think about what it would be like if there were no stop signs, no lights, no right of way–if every direction of traffic all went at the same time. Now, imagine that you, Joe Pedestrian, must cross these streets to get around.

Amazingly, I didn’t die in some spectacular scooter vs crazy tourist accident. In fact, I actually got pretty adept at crossing the street, and knowing that the cars and buses and scooters would just whizz around me.

Of course, the .25 cent beer and social nature of the Vietnamese helped ease my nerves a bit! It’s quite incredible. Every night the streets transform as people drag out hundreds of low stools, claim a piece of sidewalk, and roll out a keg of freshly brewed beer. Vendors are everywhere, serving all kinds of local street food. DELISH.

Ha Long Bay was incredible–all these misty mounds jutting out of the sea like a host of mossed-over grave markers. We slept overnight on a Junk boat, did some hiking, waved at fisherman and children at the floating villages (you can see one in the picture–some of these villages had schools, grocery stores and banks!) and explored some cave systems.

It was very eerie floating along in our boat, surrounded by these giant limestone rocks. Ha Long Bay is one of the new 7 Wonders of Nature.

After we got back on the mainland, we took a rickety sleeper train to Hue (Hway) which was an adventure in itself, one that taught me one very important acronym for travel in Asia: ACTP (Always Carry Toilet Paper!)

 In Hue, we did this awesome all day scooter trip, touring the Imperial Citadel, Royal Tomb and Thien Mu Pagoda.

I was in a constant state of grin, riding behind a savvy yet half-crazy motorbike driver as we zipped from historic site to site, through the countryside, alongside rice paddies and down back alleys to see how the people lived.

By far, this was my favorite ‘adventure’ part of the trip. It was exhilarating to be part of that massive flow of traffic inside the city too, but safely perched on the back while someone else drove!

This is me with Lisa, a fellow Canadian & member of our tour group. She took a video of what it was like to ride ‘in’ the traffic–I’ll have to see if I can snag it off of her!

From Hue we moved on to Hoi An, which was a shopper’s dream. This city is known for their tailoring, and you could get anything you wanted made for you within a day or two. Suits, dresses, blouses, skirts, jackets…you name it, and everything was runway gorgeous and good quality. Inexpensive too–an evening dress might cost 30-50 dollars, a suit 80. One person had a beautiful wool coat made for 60.

I have to say that I let down TEAM FEMALE and didn’t get myself something made, but my son Darian did get a pair of shoes designed!

Darian and I also went to a cooking school there as well. At the Blue Dragon we learned how to make Vietnamese spring rolls, BBQ pork and stuffed fish in banana leaves. The best part? Eating it all once it was cooked!

From Hoi An we flew to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). There we visited the War Remnants Museum, which was a very hard trip because it gave a very graphic and terrible account of the Vietnam war. Let’s just say that in North America, we hear a watered down version of what happened, and the aftermath of Agent Orange and other chemicals dropped by the US. It was horrific to see the chemical burns, mass graves and terrible birth defects as a result of exposure to Agent Orange.

We also took a day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels. Southern Vietnamese people lived and fought in these tunnels during the war, and after seeing them with my own eyes, it’s hard to fathom. We had an opportunity to go in some, which were widened twice from their original size to accommodate tourists.

I went into the tunnels via a different entrance built for the *cough* North American body type, and as I crawled through, claustrophobia started to take hold. All I could think was, These tunnels were widened TWICE and they are still so narrow? How the heck did people LIVE down here?

After crawling around in the pitch dark and wondering what sort of crazy I’d been drinking to do such a thing, we took a boat cruise in the Mekong Delta and visited a Coconut Candy factory. Aaaaah. MUCH more my speed!

Finally it was time to head over to Cambodia and Phnom Pehn. It was an all day bus ride, mainly due to a two hour traffic jam we encountered. At the roadside stops we were exposed to lots of local eats that included spiders, cockroaches, locusts, grubs and tiny birds. My gift to you all is to NOT post pictures of these creepy crawly sauteed delicacies (but if you are curious, head over to my FB page, where I did post a shot!) And no, I didn’t eat any of it!

Phnom Pehn has a terrible history, and out of respect for Cambodia, I won’t post pictures from
Tuol Sleng Prison and Choeung Ek (The Killing Fields), a mass grave site.

In the 1970′s, the Khmer Rouge came into power and killed over 3 million people through torture and starvation. They turned a school into a prison (one of dozens) and systematically murdered almost every educated person in Cambodia.

When they were finally driven out, the entire country had only 2 doctors and four teachers among the population. The Khmer Rouge wanted to make a single class of people–farmers–and so even sought out people who wore glasses, believing they wore them to read, and therefore had education.

Cambodia has high poverty and low education, and is still recovering from the KR regime. We did meet people who are working to bring education into the country however, and creating opportunities for women to learn a trade so they do not have to turn to prostitution, which is widespread.

One place was a silk farm, and so we actually got to see how silk is formed and how it is harvested. The farm imports most of its raw silk because the bushes silk worms eat do not grow well in Cambodia, but they produced scarves and teach local women how to weave.

Moving on to Siem Reap, we got ready for our sunrise tour of Ankor Wat, the world’s largest religious monument. For me, this is why I wanted to come on this trip–to explore Ankor Wat. And let me tell you, it didn’t disappoint!

We were led to the lake in the dark, with no idea of what we would see once dawn came. It was such an experience to see the darkness lift bit by bit, and silhouettes of far off buildings form.

After sunrise, we headed back to our hotel for breakfast and to pick up the kids (they opted to NOT get up at 4:45 am, lol). Then it was back for a full, hot day at Ankor Wat. The Hindu temple complex is massive beyond imagining and would take days (or weeks!) to explore it all.

The carvings were so intricate and detailed. Amazingly we were able to walk through much of the area, although I don’t imagine it will always be this way, as so many tourists will wear down the stone and ruin the site.

It was fascinating to learn the history of this lost city and those that ruled here. The walls were full of carvings depicting their religious beliefs, the cultures of the time and their dealings with each other.

They were renovating many parts of the complex, trying to restore what they could, but the jungle has taken hold in many places and I think it will not release it’s grip too easily.

And okay, yeah, so maybe I goofed around a bit with this headless Bhudda statue I discovered…
 
It was quite hot there–creeping into the 40′s Id say (Celsius). A person got used to sweating all the time and drinking gallons of water to stay hydrated. It was a very fufilling, yet exhausting day.

Despite the heat, we managed to climb up to the upper level of the Wat (temple). You’ll see me here with my fan. I swear, that fan was the best $2.50 I ever spent. Darian grabbed one too, and we noticed whenever we had it out, people in our tour group would stand closer to us, rotf…

So after our big, long day at Ankor Wat, we decided to just bum around the city a bit. Everywhere we looked, we saw these fish tanks. They were for fish massages!

This one had a sign that said, “Fish Massage: No Piranhas, We Promise.”  Now if that isn’t sound advetizing, I don’t know what is!

Well, we figured while in Cambodia, do as the Cambodians do… (it helped that each massage session came with a free beer!)

I’m not going to lie…this FREAKED me out at first! But then after 5 minutes, it sort of felt good. And my feet were so soft afterwards, too!

(RIP any fish I killed from my nasty foot sweat!)

Our time ended all too soon, and off we went to Bankok, Thailand. Unfortunately by the time we arrived it was about 4 pm, and we flew out the next day at 5 am. We were able to swing past the Palace, and did get one night in Thailand.

 After dinner, we went to the Night Market, and let me tell you, anything goes! We passed a lot of bars that offered things that I can’t mention on this school friendly blog, and more than one booth that offered to make just about any type of ID a person could ever need or want. The streets were alive with activity and energy.

I would love to go back and spend more time there, and check out the rest of Thailand. I think I’ll end this snippet of my trip with this beautiful street lamp I discovered as the sun went down…

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