Angkor - the ancient temples of Cambodia

I thought, I'd start this blog entry with a quick summary line:

Wow !!!

That's probably a good summation of our impressions of the fascinating temple ruins around Siem Reap.

A bit of history first (and I'll promise to keep it brief):

Between the 9th and 15th century the Khmer people built a series of temples around their ancient capital city of Angkor. (NB: Angkor literally means "capital city".) It's hard to believe that Cambodia, which today is one of the poorest countries in the world, had such an advanced culture approx. a thousand years ago.

There are around 100 temple monuments in this area - some Buddhist temples, others Hindu temples. At its high point in the 12th century more than 1 million people lived in this area (in comparison there were only 40,000 people living in London at the same time).

Today one can still see many of these amazing temples and costructions - or rather what's left of them. Some of the temples had been overgrown by the jungle and have only recently been recovered. And others have suffered from war, destruction or plundering. These days many countries from around the world are sponsoring the renovation of these temples (including Germany, whose tax dollars seem to got towards the reconstruction of the Angkor Wat temple).

Apart from the sheer magnitude of the ruins around Angkor, many of the detailed stone carvings and ornaments are very beautiful, too.

Arguably the greatest temple within the complex is Angkor Wat - which is also the biggest religious monument in the world. We visited it during the day, and I also went back one morning at 5.00 am to experience it at sunrise.

The other temples which really stood out were the Bayon temple, which has more than 200 large stone faces. Plus the Ta Prohm temple for the perfect lost-in-the-jungle experience (NB: The movie "Tomb Raider" with Angelina Jolie was partly filmed there.)

Below is a slide show from our visits of the temple ruins (NB: including some shots which show us nose-to-nose with the giant faces of the Bayon temple):

Angkor

The days that we spent at Angkor were very hot (especially during the middle of the day it was almost too much), but we were rewarded with some incredible impressions from one of the world's greatest archaeological treasures.

Cambodia - The floating villages on the Tonle Sap Lake

On this daytrip we saw that Cambodia has more to offer than just temples and ruins.

In the morning we drove from Siem Reap through villages and past rice fields to the Tonle Sap Lake, the largest lake in South East Asia.















We took a trip down one of the many rivers leading to the lake. The lake has a huge difference in water level, depending on whether it's the rainy season or the dry season (NB: The lake area is three times as large during the rainy season vs. the dry season.)

This is one of the reasons why fishermen etc. have decided to have their homes on boats, so they can rather flexibly respond to the change in water levels by season. On both sides of the river that we went on the fishermen and their families have created what can best be described as a floating village. The place is inhabited mainly by Vietnamese people, who have illegally come across to Cambodia.

The floating village includes a school, some small shops and even a church - all on boats.

Out on the lake we stopped to take in the vast area of water and to enjoy a moment of calm. But, as usual, we were quickly spotted and one of today's special "photo opportunities" (against a small tip, of course) involved a little girl with her python snake:















(NB: Notice the " Hand of God" on the right hand side of the picture above?! Well, that's actually Fiona, getting all her courage together to pet the python.)

Once we survived the "snake attack" on the lake we were shown around a floating fish / crocodile farm. All on rather wobbly grounds... Another attraction is a little tower to have a view across the floating village. Ah, and a (floating) gift shop was at hand, too.

And for those who needed some something more substantial, there was also something on offer:

If you don't like scorpion, no problem. They have also have other flavours (e.g. snake and lizard). Anyways, as it was still before lunch, we skipped this local drink and rather focussed on taking more photos.

Here is a little slide show with a series of images from our trip to the floating village:

2010-08-07

As you might have noticed in the slideshow, central to the houseboats are hammocks, the preferred means of rest. Good also for a little rest during the day. Plus they serve as perfect swings for the kids, too.

Many boats also have a TV set; power comes from car generators / batteries, given that there is no electricity to which the boats are connected. And the omnipresent mobile phones have also already arrived here.

Going underground: The Cu Chi Tunnels

Yesterday morning I had some time off from the rest of the family to visit one of the most impressive remains from the Vietnam War - the Cu Chi tunnels, about 35 kilometers Northwest of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

But before I got there I first spent some time in the Vietnam War Remnants Museum, which is in HCMC.

This modern museum, which looks like a modern art museum from the outside, tells the story of the Vietnam War (again from the communist side, of course). It is a rather one-sided account of the story of this war - one of Western aggression and brutality...

































In the museum forecourt there are numerous American tanks, fighter planes, armed vehicles, bulldozers, helicopters etc. on display:















Inside the multi-story museum are a number of exhibitions, mainly with black & white photos, maps and statistics on the wall, recounting the events of the Vietnam War:















Some of the war photos were rather explicit, so I was glad that the kids hadn't come along. Probably most moving were the images of the people who had suffered deformities to their body as a consequence to the use of chemical weapons in the war. This was really brought home when - in the final room of the museum - I was met by 20 or so people (mostly children) from the next generation which had all been born with birth defects and which were now working in the museum during the day on some basic tourist souvenirs, which they are hoping to sell for some money. All rather moving and emotional.

Having had the background, causes and consequences of the war illustrated to such an extend, we then drove out to the tunnels of Cu Chi.

Around the area, which was largely bombed and destroyed during the war 40 years or so ago, there are now forests of carefully planted rubber trees (NB: Vietnam is the world' second largest exporter of rubber.)



















With all the American superiority above ground in terms of airfare, chemical weapons and firepower, the Viet Congs had literally gone underground to fight this war in a guerilla style. The had created the most elaborate tunnel system, which just in this area stretched an amazing 250 kilometers. These tunnels were dug out by hand and ran on various levels, with underground hospitals, command centers and all sorts of "special effects", like trap doors, booby traps etc. One of these tunnels even ran right underneath one of the US bases and lead one of the US Generals to the statement "You cannot see the Viet Cong, but they are all around us". And how right he was...

The tunnels themselves, from which I had already heard and read a lot, started off rather wide and luxurious:















Well, that's not too bad then.

This was, however, just the entry to the tunnel system area, which they decided to create - get it - as a tunnel.

The actual entrances to the old tunnel system were somewhat smaller. Much smaller, in fact!!! A Western person (certainly one of my shape) would not even get through the entry doors, which had usually been cleverly disguised and camouflaged little openings. The photo below shows a probably 12 year old Japanese boy who did fit through:



















For today's tourists they have re-created and widened (!!!) a small part of the tunnel system. Lead by a uniformed man with a flashlight you are going down one person at a time. Even though I probably only crawled 30 meters or so through this "luxury" version of the tunnel, I was rather exhausted - both physically and emotionally from the experience. Certainly not recommended for anyone who suffers from claustrophobia...















In addition to the actual tunnel systems, there are numerous other items on display. Probably most "pointed" (in more than one way) are the various trapdoor devices which are being demonstrated:



















What from the surface looks like normal soil with leaves, grass etc. turns out to reveal a much nastier side to it, when stepped upon. Long iron sticks and sharpened bamboo sticks await the unlucky ones who step onto it:















The whole visit was then rounded off by another recollection of the war in a kind of "visitor center": A small TV set showed a black & white propaganda film from 1967 about the war, which highlighted the lives of some Viet Cong war heroes and enthusiastically introduced them as (quote) "American Killer Heroes" in this very one-sided propaganda film.















All in all, it was an interesting excursion - though what it must have been like for those who lived through it one can only imagine:

Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), the commercial heart of Vietnam

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City with some trepidation. People and tour books had warned us that this 8-million-people city is "quite a handful": traffic that is out of control, pickpockets and people who try to rip tourists off.

We are pleased to say that only the crazy traffic really materialised in our case. We spent two days here and quite like this place. It's what Shanghai is (vs. Beijing) in China - it's the place where commerce flourishes most (while the other place is the political capital).

Compared to Hanoi, there are lots more commercial billboards, shops, street vendors, new building constructions, and - if that is possible - even more motorbikes on the road.

And in between you can still spot some remains from the old French colonial times when the city was still called Saigon, including some of the old grand hotels where people would enjoy the good life back then. They even have a catholic church called Notre Dame here. And a lovely Central Post Office, designed by Gustave Eiffel (the one who also built the tower), which looks like a train station from the outside and has a big portrait of "Uncle Ho" inside. Plus a City Hall and an opera building, both of which clearly also go back to the French days.

After the Vietnam War, when the communist North Vietnam triumphed over the South Vietnamese army (which was backed by the US), the country got unified and Hanoi became the capital for all of Vietnam. To really drive the point home that the South had lost the war, Saigon got renamed - you guessed it - Ho Chi Minch City by the new rulers in the North (even though many people today still refer to the city here as Saigon).

We visited - at length - the so called Reunification Palace, which was once the palace of the South Vietnamese president (until 1975 when the North Vietnamese took over). An interesting history lesson, obviously written from the winner's point of view.

After all this big history we found some peace and calm in a Taoist temple. Lucy and Fiona were - albeit briefly - owners of some pretty fish, before we then released them in the temple pond as an offering to the temple. (No doubt, the fish will be back in a plastic bag tomorrow, waiting for the next donor...)

Plus we undertook a cyclo tour through the center of town, which seemed the easier and safer alternative to trying to cross the manic roads as a pedestrian.

We found some lovely restaurants and a great shop (called "Dogma") which has put communist propaganda imagery onto all sorts of commercial items.

Here is a slideshow with some images from our time in HCMC / Saigon:

Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon

Tomorrow we are leaving Vietnam. Next stop Cambodia...

Nha Trang, on the beach in Vietnam

We took a plane from Danang to Nha Trang. At Danang Airport you had in true socialist fashion a wide choice (of destinations):
















Fortunately, there was one other flight (i.e. ours) to Nha Trang.

Nha Trang is one of Vietnam's favourite beach locations. And - to be honest - we were quite ready for a few days of relaxing on a beach.

Well, we were in for a bit of a surprise: Rather than a nice sleepy seaside village with sandy beaches and palm trees moving gently in the wind ... we arrived in what looked (and sounded!) like Hanoi-by-the-sea:















All rather busy and chaotic. Compounded with the fact that Sabine and Lucy were suffering from a tummy bug, morale was a bit low when we arrived here.

And didn't really get better when the hotel rooms that we got turned out to be windowless. Argh!!!

So we had a bit of a negotiating session with the hotel front desk staff and in the end came out victorious and got "upgraded" (!) to rooms with a window. Things were starting to look up again...

...and got even better when we saw in the next street from the hotel the restaurant sign "Good Morning Vietnam":















These restaurants, founded by an Italian, have - no doubt - "saved" quite a few Western tourist in Vietnam before. They have great authentic Italian food. And so we indulged into some proper spaghetti and pizza (...after all there are only so many spring rolls and portions of fried rice one can eat).

We took things easy here in Nha Trang. We relaxed and got our laundry done (70 pieces / 9.3 kg total weight - all for about US 12). And soon our tummies and mood were better again...

And we saw that once you left the busy city (traffic) behind, that Nha Trang has a really long sandy beach, including one or two beautiful restaurants right on the beach.

With everyone being fit again, yesterday we undertook a daylong boattrip for some snorkeling. After the fantastic Great Barrier Reef snorkeling experience we were wondering how this would compare. To start with it was only 10% of the price of the snorkeling daytrip in Australia. Well, OK, the boats for the snorkeling trip here didn't exactly compare with the modern high-speed catamarans in Cairns:















But the snorkeling itself was surprisingly good. We stopped at two places which both had corals and fish in abundance. A local guy even showed me a lionfish which was quite beautiful. Plus I saw - what I thought were - 3 long seasnakes, but they turned out to be rather long seacucumbers.

I had completely forgotten the time while snorkeling and so when I returned to then boat I realized - rather embarrassingly - that the whole boat had just waited for me. As "punishment" I got a big sunburn on my back from all the snorkeling.

Lunch was on the boat and a pretty enjoyful affair:















We finished off the day with another meal at our favourite restaurant "Good morning Vietnam". There we also met again a Dutch family with whom we had already shared the boat trip in Halong Bay. In fact, there are few Western families (Dutch, Swiss and English) who we first saw at Halong Bay and who we keep bumping into on our trip through Vietnam - ...they seem to have the same itinary as we. It strangely reassuring to see these familiar Western faces again (and to trade stories, which are mostly about the things people saw and the little illnesses they had contracted along the way.)

Today we are off to the airport again. For another Vietnamese Airlines flight - this time to Ho Chi Minh City (the old Saigon).

Hoi An, where the past is still alive

Hoi An was a prosperous port city in Central Vietnam about 200 years ago and did a lot of trade with China and Japan. The city is located on the Thu Bon River a few miles inland from the sea. By the end of the 19th century the river started to silt up and larger ships were no longer able to reach the port.

And life in Hoi An came to something of a stand-still. The city today feels somewhat caught in a time warp. Not much had changed as far as the buildings in the old town are concerned. The only difference being that many of these old houses now have shops, restaurants, cafes etc. - it's all rather beautiful and picturesque. In fact, the old town has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site to protect it for the future.

Another big bonus is that the old city is for most of the day a pedestrian zone, so for once we could truly enjoy walking around without having to spend all our attention on avoiding the omnipresent motorbikes.

Here is a little slideshow with some images from our time in Hoi An:

Hoi An

As if this isn't enough, Hoi An has something else to offer: It's famous for its tailors who produce literally overnight a suit or dress etc. to your measurements (and rather inexpensively, too). And we are not talking one or two tailor shops, there are literally dozens and dozens of these tailors all throughout this relatively small city.

So, to answer the obvious question straight-away: Did we get anything made? Yes, Sabine got a beautiful new Summer dress done, which fits perfectly well after just the initial measurement session. Here is a photo from the initial session where they literally give you whole catalogues for you to choose the style you want:















Once we left the shops and tailors behind...















... we undertook a boat tour on the above mentioned Thu Bon River, which, amongst other stops, also brought us to a small pottery village outside Hoi An, where Lucy and Fiona made some new friends:















All in all, the days in Hoi An were hot and humid, but the place was very pleasant.

Through the Vietnamese countryside from Hue to Hoi An

Our journey, which took us South via bus from Hue, gave us a chance to see more of the Vietnamese countryside. On the left side of the bus one could occasionally see the sea (including some nice sandy beaches) and on the other side - towards Laos - were mountains, some of which we also had to cross.



We saw quite a lot of agriculture (mainly rice fields). Along the main street in all the villages were many rather basic shops and street vendors. Including lots of little street kitchens with a few mini plastic chairs around them for any guests that might show up:





























No matter how poor a village is there seems to be an abundance of flags everywhere, mainly alongside the road and on official buildings. No surprise, red is the colour of choice, most often with the yellow star on it (i.e. the Vietnamese flag), but many also carried the Communist hammer & sickle symbol on it.















Plus there is a huge number of government propaganda posters everywhere, which seem so, well, old-fashioned to the Western eye these days. But at least they are pretty colourful. Many have somehow managed to incorporate the image of "Uncle Ho (Chi Minh)" on them.





























Apart from what's going on on the side of the road, one is well advised to also spend attention on what's happening on the road. That way one is less surprised if the bus brakes abruptly or if it all of a sudden veers to the side to overtake some of the rather old-fashioned traffic objects.















As mentioned before on this blog, the street-traffic in Vietnam is a source of constant astonishment to us. And so we have started our own little games to shorten the journeys...

My favourite game is who can spot motorbikes that carry more than 3 people. We have already seen about 10 bikes with 4 people on it, but we are still looking for one with 5 on it. Though, I feel, it's just a question of time...















Lucy has invented a game which she calls "sweet & sour": If she sees that someone looks at her, she waves back. Does that person then smile, he/she is considered a "sweet" person; if he/she doesn't, it's a "sour" person. One is best advised to play this game while in a moving vehicle; it is not such a good idea to play it while stationary, especially if the people in question are street vendors (as they most likely interpret a wave at them as a serious purchase intention.)

Plus I am always on the look-out to see if there are any remains from the Vietnam War to spot - so far this tended to be mainly old bunkers (like the one below on the Hai Van pass, just North of Danang):



It was here in Danang where the first US Marines landed on China Beach in 1965. Today there is another battle taking place there: All the major US hotel chains are fighting it out who gets the best plot of land to build their hotel resort there on this nice beach. (If the computer drawings on the building fences are anything to go by, then this area will look quite spectacular in a few years time.)

In Danang, which is the 4th largest city in Vietnam, we stopped for lunch and visited a museum about the Cham culture. Another hour after Danang and we arrived at our hotel in Hoi An.

And the good news on another incredible hot and humid day - it had a big pool: