Back in Bangkok...Over and out

We had a long but uneventful day of travel back to Bangkok from Battambang.  The border was pretty scruffy, especially on the Cambodian side.  Once we got into Thailand they told us that the bus was going right to Khao San road in Bangkok (the backpacker's ghetto where we stayed the first time) but this German couple put up a bit of a stink because they didn't want to go there so that suited us just fine because they negotiated with the driver to drop some of us off near a skytrain station.  We decided we just couldn't handle Khao San road this time around and really had to reason to go back there since we had seen all the temples and attractions in that area anyways.  We actually stayed at this really cool hotel called The Atlanta whose style has not changed since the 1960s so it's very funky.  They had a pool in the back and a nice restaurant and lots of resident cats plus a very sweet little dog!  So our last few days in Bangkok were pretty uneventful but it was just what we wanted.  We swam in the pool, slept in, and generally enjoyed what the big city had to offer.  Everything in Bangkok seemed so clean and modern after being in Cambodia. 

So I guess that's it really!  I have 10 days in Denmark to see the family and Dan will head home now and get started on some brush hogging I think!  Can't wait to see you all soon and catch up!

Love from Hanna and Dan xoxo

Pigs crossing the border into Cambodia

 The Atlanta's strict No Sex Tourists policy..."Zero tolerance and sleaze free zone.  No sex tourists, junkies, louts and other degenerates."

 Foyer at The Atlanta

 Bankok's busy streets.

 At one of the many malls in Bangkok.

 Breakfast at the cool restaurant in The Atlanta.

 Relaxing by the pool.

Battambang

We ended up coming to Battambang a day earlier than expected...we decided we couldn't stay forever at our wonderful hotel in Siem Reap, although we would have liked to :>)  Our tour through the countryside around Siem Reap was nice.  We got to sample some sticky rice cooked in Bamboo that was very tasty!  This method of cooking was originally used by the army because they couldn't carry pots around to cook the rice, but now it's used as a snack food for the locals.  The rice is mixed with coconut milk and a few beans and cooked inside the bamboo over an open fire for an hour.  We also went to see some remote villages where the homes are built on very tall stilts because apparently in the wet season the roads floods and becomes a river!  It was a bit shocking to see how little the people have and how simply they live.  It is such a stark difference from anything that we are used to.  It is unfortunately not difficult to see how much poverty there is here.  We feel it much more so than in any other country we have visited.  There are beggars everywhere, many of them amputees and children.  What you really want to do is fix their social system, but since that's impossible for the average tourist, we have to content ourselves with giving small amounts of money and food to the children. 

On our arrival to Battambang, we were totally unprepared for the mayhem at the bus station!  Before we even got off the bus there were tuk-tuk drivers tapping on the windows at us and furriously waving signs for various hotels.  We could barely get around the bus to get our luggage because we were totally surrounded!  It was worse than both Siem Reap and Phnom Penh!  It didn't really make sense for us to accept a ride though since you could see our hotel from the bus station!

Yesterday we visited Phnom Sampeau, a temple at the top of a limestone outcrop, with beautiful views over the surrounding countryside.  It was a bit of a trek to the top, especially since I didn't think it was possible, but it seems to be getting hotter here!  In the afternoon we went to some other temple ruins outside of town, and tried unsuccessfully to find an old Pepsi bottling plant.  After circling the area 5 times we gave up :>)  Today we rode on the famous bamboo train.  A little touristy but very fun!  When two trains approach each other in opposide directions one train is dis-assembled and removed from the tracks and then put back on!  I continue to be impressed by Khmer cuisine as well.  Most everything I have had here has been delicious and there are so many veggie options too!

So tomorrow we are taking the bus to Bangkok and we officially begin our journey home....but we'll probably make one more post before we fly out.  I have also added some pictures to the Phnom Penh and Siem Reap/Kampot posts if anyone is interested.

Bye for now!

Hanna and Dan xoxo

Fruits and veggies at the local market - the big red ones are banana flowers.  I ate banana flower soup at a restaurant one night and it was amazing!

 Village on stilts

 Notice the traditional checkered headscarf - called krama.

 Fishing village on Tonle sap lake

 Sticky rice in bamboo!  It was so delicious I ate too many and now won't go near the stuff...

 Cambodian delicacy...we haven't tried them.

 Monk at Phnom Sampeau

 Bamboo train

 Making way for another train to pass.

Kampot and Siem Reap

Well we had a fantastic time in Kampot!  As we are well used to by now, the bus took 5 hours to get there from Phnom Penh instead of the advertised 3 hours, but we were very efficient at finding a place to stay when we got in.  We got our own cabin in a lovely garden and the food made by the family restaurant at our hotel was to die for!  I had this fantastic Khmer red curry that was made from scratch because you could see all the pieces of chili cut up in it...yum!  The following day was quite busy, since we took a tour through the countryside.  First we went to see some natural caves, then we got to see the pepper farms and the salt mines.  There wasn't actually much going on in terms of work because it's the dry season in the case of the salt and not harvesting time in the case of the pepper, but we got the gist of what goes on in both cases.  Kampot pepper is world famous so we are anxious to try it out in the kitchen when we get home!  In the afternoon we headed to Rabbit Island for a few hours.  The boat ride was pretty sketchy as the boat seemed very unstable and there were pretty big waves and a lot of wind!  I was happy to get off on the island, but much happier when we returned safely to shore :>)  We did have fun on the island however, since they had inner tubes you could rent so we spent some time playing in the waves.  Our last ocean swim was on the Perhentian Islands in Malaysia so it was nice to hop in again!  Our tour group was nice and small, (there were only four of us) and we got on so well that we had supper together in town later that evening.  We got to ride around in a tuk-tuk all day, which was much nicer than a minibus.  The local people are so friendly and, of course, we got the usual waves and "hellos"from the local kids :>)  The homes in the countryside here are quite lovely.  They are made of wood, stand on very tall stilts and have lovely trim around the roof, a large front porch and a big staircase going up the front.  Other than a few more motorcycles, it seems like not much has changed here in the last 50 years.  There is no farm machinery, and we see lots of farmers out in the fields working with water buffalo and cattle.  It's quite an amazing sight.  And I absolutely love at 11am and 5pm when all the kids get off school because we always see them riding home wearing their white shirts and carrying their big backpacks on their bicycles, usually two to a bike.  The following day we rented a motorbike and toured around the countryside.  We stopped to get Dan lunch at the crab market in Kep and it was quite an interesting scene!  They have all the crabs in bamboo cages in the ocean, and when you show up these women wade in through the waves and haul the baskets in for you to pick which ones your want.  Then they boil them up right there...for an extra dollar.  We then headed up to the lookout at Kep National Park for some views of the water and the city.

The following day was a marathon travel day to Siem Reap.  We were originally going to break up the trip by staying overnight in Phnom Penh but then decided to do it all in one day so we would have an extra day in Siem Reap.  The entire trip was about 12 hours in length, including the 2 hour stop-over in Phnom Penh that we hadn't really anticipated.  We looked at our budget for the trip and we are pretty much on target with what we had expected to spend, so we decided to stay in a really nice place here in Siem Reap that was recommended to us by another traveler who we met in Chau Doc.  And it's pretty amazing.  It has an inner courtyard with a pool and the bed is sooooo comfortable!  And we get this amazing breakfast every morning :>)  There are these really big geckos that somehow keep finding their way into our room and we can't figure out where!  But we are happy that they are keeping the bugs at bay!

We have spent the last 3 days at the temples of Angkor.  Amazing.  There is really not much else to be said.  And we are actually pleasantly surprised at how few people are here!  I sort of expected there to be mobs but many of the temples are quite peaceful and sometimes you can just sit and soak up the atmosphere without another soul in sight.  The first 2 days we rented bicycles and cycled around the various temples, but today we spoiled ourselves with a tuk-tuk, since we were pretty wiped last night.  Fortunately the roads are in very good shape and it's very flat, but it's HOT here.  At least there is no shortage of cold water.  As soon as you arrive at a new temple, there are usually a minimum of 5 different people trying to sell you water :>)  There are a lot of monkeys hanging around the temples here too, thanks to all the good food the locals give them :>)  Tomorrow we are off on a boat tour to see a village where the homes are built on very tall stilts, then we may hang around town here for one more day before heading to Battambang.  Then after a few days there we are off to Bangkok to fly home!  Crazy!


Lotsa love -

Hanna and Dan xoxo

Pepper farms in Kampot

 Dan's feast in Kep by the ocean

 This guy made a nightly appearance outside our room in Kampot

Salt fields

 
You all know "Wat" this is....sorry....couldn't resist :>)

 Crazy roots at Ta Prohm temple

 Cute kids we ran into on the way to the temples

 Love the baby monkeys!!!

 Bayon temple...one of my favorites

 More funky roots at Preah Khan

Phnom Penh

So we really enjoyed our slow boat experience into Cambodia.  The first 3 hours we headed to the border through small canals and homes that were either right beside the river or floating on top of it.  The people were extremely friendly and always waving to us and smiling as we passed by.  We arrived at the floating border control and it took about 30 minutes for us to get stamped out of Vietnam and we had the chance to get some lunch in the meantime...we weren't sure if it actually took that long or if it was an excuse to sell us some lunch, but we were happy for the food regardless.  Then we hopped into another boat and went to the Cambodian border where we pretty painlessly got our VISAs (much cheaper than Vietnam or Laos).  We spent another hour or so on the boat up the Mekong then hopped on a bus for the remainder of the trip to Phnom Penh.  The boat dropped us off somewhere in the country and the first part of the bus journey was really pleasant, driving through the countryside and seeing the wooden homes on stilts...much more like the ones in Laos than what we got used to seeing in Vietnam.

The sights in Phnom Penh are a mix of amazing architecture and history of the Angkorian period, and the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime.  We decided not to see everything to do with the Khmer Rouge on the same day because we thought it would be too emotionally taxing.  And we were right.  The first day we went to the Tuol Sleng Museum, which was once a primary and high school, but was taken over by the Khmer Rouge and the classrooms were turned into torture chambers.  It is too difficult and I think not right for me to describe it here, and may be better reserved to be discussed in person when we get back.  It is definitely one of the most horrible places I have ever visited in my life, and it's almost impossible to understand how something like this could happen.  Some of the photographs you can't even look at.  But I still think it is an important visit for anyone who goes Cambodia, because it is necessary to understand what the people here have endured.  The afternoon was much lighter, since we explored the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda.  We are in the transition month into the rainy season and it has started to lightly rain every afternoon here, but what is really amazing is the skies.  The dark clouds descend like a blanket over the city and you can see blue sky on the horizon and these menacing clouds over top..it is really quite beautiful.

This morning we went to Choeung Ek, otherwise known as the Killing Fields, where most of the prisoners from the S-21 prison (now the Tuol Sleng Museum) were executed.  Again, too much to put into words.  All I can say is that I pray that the souls of all those people are at peace, and that my heart goes out to the people of Cambodia, because nobody should have to go through that.

We found a great spot to get a coffee at lunch time overlooking the street and with free internet!  After lunch we headed off to one of the city's temples, Wat Phnom.  The temple is actually on a hill and has a park all around it, and is home to some mischevious monkeys!  We realized why they hang out there, since this local lady came by giving them all sorts of amazing fruit!  We were smart not to get too close though, because we actually witnessed this local boy get bitten!  I don't think it broke the skin, but still...RABIES!(Not to mention hepatitis...ect ect....)  Major human health risk!  Eek!  We planned to walk around the central market, but by the time we got there we realized we only had an hour until the museum closed so we hopped in a tuk-tuk and headed off.  The museum was actually very beautiful.  The building itself is lovely since it is built in the style of the temples and there is a courtyard in the middle with Angkor-era sculptures around it and ponds with lotus flowers.  We actually just sat for some time enjoying the surroundings.  I guess we were missing Vietnamese food because we were pretty happy about finding a spot to get Pho for dinner :>)  They even had a veggie option so I got some tofu rather than just noodles and leaves!  We found this great place to get ice cream after dinner over-looking the river, except that Daniel ordered durian flavoured ice cream and slipped some into my bowl when I wasn't looking!

Tomorrow we will take a bus to Kampot, reputed to grow the best pepper in the world!

Bye for now!

Hanna and Dan xoxo

Homes build on the river in Vietnam

 One of our first views of the Cambodian countryside.  There were huge piles of corn in front of many of the homes.

 Independance monument in Phnom Penh

 Royal Palace

 No more need be said about this one :>)

 Monks riding on motorcycle taxis...one of my favorite images.

 Mango lips!  Monkey feasting at Wat Phnom.

 Memorial stupa at the Killing Fields for the victims of the Khmer Rouge. 

Chau Doc and goodbye Vietnam

Well we decided to take off one day earlier than expected to Chau Doc on the border of Cambodia.  We took a local bus, which was a big chaotic.  The bus station was absolute madness, with people trying to sell us tickets the minute we stepped out of the taxi...we almost forgot to pay him it was so crazy!  The bus was actually a minibus that should have sat about 12 people but, as per SE Asia style they jammed about double that in, with people sitting on tiny plastic chairs beside the regular seats.  We were fortunate to have secured more comfortable ones at the station.  People also came on with all manner of cargo, some pretty stinky, and because the driver was a bit of a maniac, my backpack arrived in Chau Doc reaking of raw fish...lovely.  Dan said it was "part of the experience."  I took it into the shower and gave it a good scrub down though so it's nice a clean now!  I guess that's what you get for a 3 hour bus ride that only costs 3 dollars!

Things started out a little rough for us upon our arrival in Chau Doc as well!  We got off the bus as were met by the usual swarm of moto drivers trying to take us to a hotel, but we decided to sit down and have a coffee and wait until they dispersed before making our way to the hotel we had scoped out from our travel book.  It wasn't long before this random guy came up to us trying to sell us a room in his hotel.  We were not really that interested and just wanted to enjoy our coffee, but we thanked him and took his buisness card just to be polite.  About 10 minutes later he came back and started offering us a boat trip to Cambodia, which of course we intended to purchase eventually, but not 10 minutes after getting off the bus!  We politely declined, but he just stood there and asked us what was wrong.  We smiled and thanked him for his help and told him we already had a hotel.  And then he started to get really angry with us!  He told us we were abnormal, that Vietnamese people were friendly and nice and that we clearly were not, and that he didn't know which country we were from, but we should just go back there!  And it got worse!  He then concluded that we must be part of the mafia, and could we please accompany him to the police station!  Eventually he took off, but he kept coming back on his motorbike and stalking us and yelling at us!  We paid for our coffee and were very relieved to find some moto drivers to take us to our hotel of choice, which I am please to say is lovely :>)  The people are so nice and helpful but not pushy about tours and stuff at all.  But I have to admit I was a little shaken up by that little fiasco.  Especially since I feel we try very hard to be nice and polite to people, smiling and politely saying "no thank you" in Vietnamese.

We drove out to the countryside that afternoon where there were some temples build on a mountain, and climbed to the top for lovely views of the never-ending rice fields and into Cambodia (although we were not sure exactly where it started.)  We found a wonderful local restaurant on a busy street for dinner where we had soup and a hot pot.  Today we went to Two Million Dollar Hill, named so because they Americans spent so much money bombing it during the war.  It's very rocky and there are caves inside where Viet Cong members hit out, making it a target for the Americans.  The caves are quite extensive!  We went through part of them, accompanied first by 3 kids, but by the end there were about 8 of them tagging along...we had no idea where they all came from!  We were also the only foriegners there, and everybody wanted to say hello to us!  We stopped by the side of the road for noodle soup for lunch and I tried out my Vietnamese again, asking for vegetarian noodle soup.  I even pointed to the vegetables and the noodles just to be sure.  They seemed happy and smiled and nodded and motioned for us to sit down, and then my soup arrived...vegetables and several pieces of "name that mystery meat."  I think it was liver and lung.  Ah well, at least they could be removed easily :>) 

So tomorrow we really are off to Cambodia.  We have opted for the slow boat, because it's only $10 each instead of $25, but it does mean that it's an all day ordeal.  But if everything goes smoothly we should be in Phnom Penh by about 5pm tomorrow!

I also forgot to mention a couple of posts back that we have seen this coffee for sale here called Weasel coffee.  I had never heard of this, but apparently the Asian Civet actually eats the coffee berries and the beans are pooped out, washed (thoroughly, I would hope) and used to make coffee!  The digestive tract of the civet actually breaks down some of the proteins in the bean and makes the coffee less bitter!  It is apparently the most expensive coffee in the world!  I am reluctant to try it however, because I hate the idea that some of the coffee comes from farms where I do not think the civets are treated well.  But the history as to how this kind of coffee came to be drunk is rather interesting, and if anyone wants to read it the Wikipedia link is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kopi_Luwak.  Oh also this computer is uploading pictures well so I have added some to a few of the older posts.

Bye for now!

Hanna and Dan xoxo

View from the temple on the mountain just outside of Chau Doc

 Cute local kids

 Beautiful countryside

 Cows walking down the main street

 Two Million Dollar Hill

Can Tho

So we booked this bus ticket to Can Tho from a travel shop in Saigon, and we found it quite interesting how many vehicles we ended up in before actually getting on the bus!  First they put us in a taxi and the driver took us to some random tiny bus station where we sat and waited for about 10 minutes before being signaled to get onto a bigger bus that took us to the main bus station where we finally ended up on the actual bus.  And we didn't have to worry about not having snacks for the road!  While we waited on the bus for it to leave people came on selling drinks, bread, snacks, lottary tickets, newspapers, anything you might want for a bus trip!  The funniest was this guy who was trying to sell carrot peelers...he even had a big carrot with him a did a little demonstration about all the ways to use it at the front of the bus...hilarious.  I don't think he made a sale though. 

We have a place to stay with a balcony overlooking the Mekong and a giant statue of Ho Chih Minh, that we have since discovered is the place to hang out at night.  We wandered around the market yesterday afternoon and were amazed by the selection of seafood and fruit and veggies for sale!  I too was also unfortunately disgusted by the treatment of some of the animals for sale, since they tie them up but don't kill them so I guess they are sold as fresh as possible.  That would definitely not fly in Canada.  We stopped for an ice coffee and the lady actually understood my Vietnamese!  She only had to look at me strangely for a few seconds before realizing what I was actually saying :>)  We had a lovely dinner beside the Mekong.  Dan tried the crocodile, that actually came out raw with a little pot full of charcoal and a grill and he roasted it himself!  I think tonight we may try the hotpot.

Today we got up at 5:15 (eek!) to go on a trip to see the floating markets.  We went to Cai Rang floating market first, which is the biggest one in the delta.  It was pretty congested and some of the bigger boats carrying bricks and sand were bumping into the little ones carrying fruit!  It was so interesting to see how busy the river is and how much it is used in daily life.  We were in a small boat all to ourselves which was nice and after seeing the markets we went down some of the narrow canals past homes where we could witness the local lifestyle.  All the kids were happy to see us, always waving from the shore.  The surroundings are very lovely and it is quite unfortunate that the garbage is not handled very well because the canals especially were quite dirty in certain areas and we witnessed large piles of garbage on the riverbank and people thowing huge buckets of garbage into the river.  I hate to see what it might look like in 10 or 20 years.  We got back at 1pm and took a nap before heading out again.  We think tomorrow we will rent a motorbike to see some of the countryside, then probably go the Chau Doc the following day, the border town to Cambodia and arrange to take a boat to Phnom Penh.

Bye for now!

Hanna and Dan xoxo

Dan roasting crocodile meat and adding a little beer Saigon on top for flavour :>)

 Sunrise - we don't see those very often!

 Floating Market

 Dan's attempt to eat an entire Durian - he gave it a good effort, and I was zero help :>)  We ended up giving a lot away to there two little kids who were begging on the street.  At first they were giggling uncontrollably, but they seemed pretty happy about it...we watched them take off and dive into it right away.

Saigon!

Well our flight to Saigon was short and painless and it was so great to see Peter and to meet Che!  They met us at the airport and we had a lovely, late night snack near the market by our hotel and a chance to catch up before we went to bed.  The following day Peter took us to this really big great market selling all sorts of weird stuff...from lungs to nuts (the vegetarian variety...ha ha).  We stopped for an ice coffee to cool off before heading to Che's for lunch with the family.  I really can't say enough good things about the family.  They are so wonderful and welcoming.  Che's sister has a talent for painting and brought out all of her work to show us which was really beautiful!  She was so kind to let me take one home to Canada...fortunately Peter is taking care of the mechanics of getting it home.  We had home-made spring rolls wrapped in rice paper and they were delicious!  Everybody seemed fairly relaxed before the big day :>)

And the wedding itself was really great!  Dan and I were so happy that we got to be a part of it.  We got to help carry gifts to Che's home for the family and be a part of the ceremony which was really really special.  Peter and Che were all smiles all day long...it was so wonderful.  The first part of the wedding is just the family members, and if both the bride and groom are Vietnamese, then Che's family would come to Peter's home and bring gifts there too and we would have had a similar ceremony there.  So after some drinks outside the cool off we headed to the restaurant where all of the bride and groom's family are invited as well and there is a dinner.  The restaurant and photographers seem to sort of run the show, which is nice because I think it takes a lot of pressure off the couple and their families.  I actually didn't take a ton of pictures because we were sort of a part of it so it was hard to, and because the photographers took soooo many!  This wedding was definitely well photographed!  And at the end of the evening everything was settled up in cash before going home!  So all in all a great day!

We understandably have given Peter and Che some time to themselves in the days that followed, and we've had a the chance to explore Saigon and see the sights here.  Today we went to the war remnants museum, which is full of horrible photos from the Vietnam war from the perspective of the Viet Cong (the communist party fighting against the Americans).  It was obviously very one-sided so you come out with a pretty grim feeling about the US, although we realize horrible things happened on both sides.  Some of the photos you can hardly even look at.  On a more cheerful note, we also visited a beautiful Cantonese style temple and saw almost as many animals there than at the zoo yesterday (turtles, pigeons, a rat and numerous stray dogs).   Peter and Che took us to this amazing restaurant last night where you make these wraps full of carrots, fried rice flour (with seafood for those non-veggies), lots of different kinds of raw leaves like mango tree leaves, mint and basil (plus stuff I didn't even recognize), all wrapped in lettuce or another big leaf I didn't recognize(!) and dipped in sauce.  It was pretty fun!  We are heading out to dinner here shortly with the whole family so we're excited as to where they will take us tonight!

We have book a bus ticket to Can Tho in the Mekong Delta tomorrow where we will spend a few days before heading off to Cambodia.  It's been so great to be with family and meet new family here in Saigon...we really feel we've been spoiled!
Bye for now!

Hanna and Dan xoxo

Coffee break

 Amazing dinner with Peter and Che

The family

 Quite possibly the cutest girls I have every met :>)  Kitty and Yenny ( I may not have spelled that properly...correct me Peter and Che if I didn't)  Che made their dresses and her own wedding dress as well!

 Reunification Palace

 Roadside fish salesemen