Category: Travel

Asian Adventure: Siem Reap

JWF Leave a comment

Yesterday First Lady Michelle Obama was here in Siem Reap as part of her Asian tour promoting education for young girls.  We didn’t see her, but saw lots of evidence—police, armed guards, and security vans around one of the nearby hotels.  Siem Reap has grown exponentially in the last ten or so years to a population of around one million people. This has been driven in part by the explosion of tourists coming to see Angkor Wat and the other Khmer temples here.  But, like other cities in the developing world, Siem Reap is a study in contrasts between new hotels and resorts for the international visitors and the very basic life of people living in the countryside. Running water is not a given and many people have no skills and need training and assistance in order to have a better life.

Our hotel, Shinta Mani Club, is modern with traditional elements and is a model for effective community outreach.  The building, set around several courtyards with reflecting pools and balconies, was recently renovated and has air conditioned rooms and modern bathrooms.  Most of the staff are young men (a few women work in the restaurant) and they always greet us with palms together and a slight bow.  At night, the main floor corridors and lobby are lit with candles–votives on stalks, votives in sculptures like one in the shape of four hands, and tall thick orange pillars sitting on the floor.  It makes me feel like I’m in a monastery or a temple, which is probably deliberate on the part of the architect, and is a bit eerie.

But the hotel is up to date.  Upon arrival, we were given a local cell phone to use and the reasonably strong Wifi is complimentary.  Even better, here on the other side of the world far far from home, Facetime works.   Thanks to Wifi, we enjoyed a screen call with our granddaughter.  Simply amazing!  We had connected in Hanoi and Hue also and marveled at how technology has transformed how we stay in touch.  When I was a child, my grandparents would call long distance from Michigan to New York State and my siblings and I each got a turn talking to them—but we had to be brief because it was long distance and each minute cost.

The hotel restaurant, Kroya, is excellent.  The breakfast buffet has everything you could want either Asian or Western, hot and cold dishes, and the dinners are very good.  There is an a la carte menu, but more fun is to do their tasting menu of Cambodian dishes.  The portions are small and the menu is different every day, but usually includes some sort of salad, a sour soup, rice, and two other small dishes with pork and fish and then a sweet, often something based around rice.

More important than the hotel itself is what Shinta Mani is doing for the people of Siem Reap.  They run a School of Hospitality at the hotel which trains young people in all aspects of hotel operations, providing them a stipend while they learn and equipping them for future jobs.  This was so successful that more recently the Shinta Mani Foundation was established and their efforts now also include a program on farming techniques for villagers, start-up loans for small businesses and support for healthcare check-ups in rural areas.

Yesterday morning, we went at dawn’s early light to the Banteay Srei temple which is a Hindu temple to the god Shiva built in the 10th century.  It is made of reddish pink sandstone and is simply lovely!  Smaller in size and scale than the other Angkor temples, it has been dubbed the “Lady Temple.”  Since we were there so early and almost alone, we meandered around, had time to frame our photo shots and even got inside the ropes for an up close look at some of the beautifully intricate carvings.  We easily spent an hour in that peaceful pink setting.  Hard to say, but this may be my favorite of all the temples we’ve seen.IMG_9393IMG_9336IMG_9395IMG_9403

IMG_9313

Asian Adventure: Tuk Tuking to the Temples

JWF 1 Comment

Our last morning in Ho Chi Minh City was devoted to a tour of some notable sites.  We visited the Presidential Palace and I admired the elegant state reception rooms in particular and noted in the war council and secure rooms that not only was there the one important “red phone” which was red, but also phones of every pastel color imaginable midst a few black ones.

We stepped inside the intensely mustard yellow grand central post office built about 1880 and learned that the exterior will be re-painted its usual more subdued yellow now that the new year’s festivities have ended.  We also spent a bit of time in the War Remnants Museum which mostly dwells on the Vietnam (or American) War and the atrocities committed by the Americans—everything from torture and the wiping out of whole villages to the ravages of Agent Orange.  It is a wonder after seeing all that that the Vietnamese people are so welcoming of us Americans.

Our last stops of the morning were a Chinese pagoda temple still in active use and a wholesale market that had everything from stacks of ball caps to piles of plastic ware to clothing, spices and grains, fresh meat and produce and lots of small food stalls where one could sit to eat or buy something to take away.

We spent almost as much time in the air as we did getting processed at the Siem Reap airport to enter Cambodia.  Immigration procedures from completing a health form to filling out the required visa application to waiting for the return of our passports and then waiting in another line to have said visa and other immigration forms examined and stamped in different places with at least five different stamps took a bit over an hour.  But getting our luggage and getting to the hotel were smooth and the hotel staff, all young men as far as I could tell, very welcoming.

It was a short night as we met Eric de Vries at 5:15 am for a day of photography at some of the Angkor temples.  A professional photographer he offers a variety of tours from temples to city streets to Cambodian countryside.  From Holland originally, Eric has spent time in Cambodia since 2000 and lived here since 2007.

We traveled by tuk tuk, pictured above and called by some, “auto rickshaws,” which was more easily able to navigate the narrow roads around the temples.  Leaving in the dark meant we got to the first temple just as dawn was breaking and ahead of some of the tourists and, we got well started before the heat and humidity became oppressive.  It got up to about 95 degrees, but fortunately was somewhat hazy.  Within some of the temple ruins, there was shade and an occasional breeze.

Eric took us to his favorite spots for shots and gave us pointers on what settings to try and then gently critiqued our efforts.  He had us re-take the photo several times until we made it better or tried a different approach.  One of his mantras was “make it darker” and generally, the result was better.  We visited several temples from early morning until after 2:00 in the afternoon with a break for Khmer cuisine for lunch.  I was especially fond of the Preah Khan temple and all the shadings of stone it was possible to bring out with the camera.  The day was a great experience and I’m glad I persevered despite the heat!

IMG_9219

 

IMG_9267 IMG_9136

Asian Adventure: Exploring the Mekong Delta

JWF Leave a comment

What a fascinating 24 hours we’ve had!  We left Saigon yesterday morning for the trip by car to the Mekong River, about 4 hours total. We were told that before a strikingly stunning new bridge across the river, you had to take a ferry. The ferry ride wasn’t particularly long, but the wait for the ferry could be one to three hours.  Hence, the new bridge has shortened everyone’s travel time.

We boarded our boat, Bassac, immediately upon arrival and met our fellow passengers:  5 other couples, two from the UK, one retired and one very young and three French couples.  There was an English speaking guide on board for us and a separate one for the French people.  The boat is small and built in the style of barges that were used to carry rice.  The cabins are very compact with just enough space to turn around in and no more, but more importantly, they are air-conditioned, essential in the heat and humidity.  It turns out March is the hottest month of the year with August next!  After a delicious lunch of prawns and fried calamari to start followed by fried catfish, a stir-fried beef dish, sauteed pumpkin flowers (really pretty and tasty!) and steamed rice, finished off with a plate of fresh tropical fruits. we had several hours to just relax and enjoy the view.

In the late afternoon, we disembarked into a small boat with a simple motor sitting low to the water and cruised along for about 10-15 minutes until we came to a small village.  Our guide then proceeded to lead us on a very informative nature walk naming all the various trees and fruits and breaking off leaves and stems to let us sniff the various herbs and flavoring agents.  This area is rich in sweet and pungent fruits of many types from the more familiar pineapple, watermelon and coconut to mango, dragon fruit, manogstene and jackfruit.  I liked the mangostene (slightly sour midst the sweet), but found the jackfruit too sweet.  The last stop on our trek was a villager’s house where we were served tea made from the leaves of the pandan tree and a selection of fruits plus some mouth-filling preserved ginger.

Like lunch, dinner consisted of a selection of Vietnamese dishes which were the equal of lunch.  After breakfast this morning, we disembarked for a stop at a workshop to see the making of rice paper sheets (circular in shape) that becomes a crispy cracker like a pappadum, rice that is heated with black sand and pops like popcorn, and a small distillery used to make a very strong rice liqueur.  We had the opportunity to sample all of these and ended this visit with yet more tea (jasmine this time) and a selection of little coconut and rice candies.

On our smaller boat seen at the landing below, we passed through a busy floating market.  This is a wholesale affair where the farmers bring their produce on board to sell to the shops.  The growers stay here living on their boats for several days until all the vegetables are sold.  Each boat has a stick on it with a sample of what they are selling–sweet potato, for example, or pineapple.

IMG_9028 IMG_9067

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last stop of the morning was a walk through a riverside village market.  I love the colors and shapes of all the produce that is grown here and continue to be amazed by the amount of fresh meat, live poultry, and live fish that are laid out for sale. [My intention was to load more photos here, but the hotel Wi-Fi is incredibly slow so will have to upload them later on.]

I learned from our guides that the patterned masks we see on the women on motor scooters are not for disease prevention or to combat the pollution, but rather for sun protection to prevent their skin from getting darker.  The ideal is very white fair skin and if your skin is too dark, you will have a hard time getting a husband.  Our guide, wearing a long-sleeved sweater on our hike, was even asked by the other guide why she did it and if she thought her husband would “quit her.”

She also told us that here in the south, in their families, people have numbers as well as names.  The eldest child is number 2 (there is no number 1), and so she is known to her brothers as “Sister 2.”  When one marries, you acquire the number of your husband as well.  So, since her husband is the third child or number 4, to his siblings, she is “Sister 4.”  These numbers are also used in combination with names when addressing elders such as aunts and uncles or grandparents.  She offered even more examples, but I have to admit to getting a bit lost in some of the complexity!

This afternoon we returned to Ho Chi Minh City which now seems bigger and brighter and busy after our sojourn on the Mekong.  Tomorrow we leave Vietnam for Cambodia and the temples around Siem Reap.

 

Asian Adventure: Steamy Saigon

JWF Leave a comment

Today we left our hotel early and flew from Hue to Saigon.  The official name of the city is Ho Chi Minh City, the name since unification in 1975, but the airport code is SGN.  We’ve discovered that in the north almost everyone calls it HCM City; the older generation is more apt to call it Saigon while for the younger people, 20’s, 30’s 40’s, it’s definitely HCM.  And sometimes people say Saigon because it’s shorter and easier than all the syllables of HCM.  So really, I should say we are now in Ho Chi Minh City, a city with 24 numbered districts.  The district numbers are frequently cited as in District X is where the government is headquartered and District Y is mostly residential with more cars than scooters.  Over the years, communities were added to HCM City and given district numbers and some districts were re-combined or divided.

Our tour guide met us and our itinerary said we’d go to our hotel via the Cu Chi Tunnel.  “Via” turned out to mean an hour and a half’s ride to the tunnel and after lunch and touring the complex, an hour and a half to the hotel.  Our guide here, Huy, is very knowledgeable about the Vietnam War and gave us a comprehensive history lesson with precise dates on the way to the tunnel.

IMG_5613 IMG_5615We had lunch at a lovely restaurant by the river with a pleasant breeze and watched the water hyacinths floating with the current. We felt like we were moving too!

 

 

 

This complex outside Saigon was where Vietnamese guerrilla fighters resisting the Americans lived, worked and holed up.  They had bunkers for cooking, meetings, sewing uniforms, and making weapons.  Underground is an extremely elaborate network of tunnels at three different depths–3 meters, 5-6 meters, and 9 meters with branches and arms, all designed to make it difficult for the enemy to find and attack them.  We watched a video about life in the village before the war when the inhabitants cultivated fruit trees and tapped rubber trees, had a demonstration of how someone could easily get in and out of the tunnel without being detected, and were shown numerous examples of various traps designed to maim or kill unsuspecting soldiers.

IMG_5628

And for those who were brave enough, it was possible to go down into one of the narrow dark tunnels and advance in it for some distance before surfacing.  My spouse briefly went underground; I stayed topside.  Today, this is a very peaceful spot, but the exhibits and the bunkers and tunnel remind one of how horrible and devastating war is no matter who is the enemy.  In this case, we Americans were.

 
Our first glimpses of Saigon reveal it to be the most modern Vietnamese city we’ve yet seen.  It stretches along a curve in the Saigon River and looks prosperous with skyscrapers, more businesses with English names, high end stores, even more motor scooters than Hanoi, and a bustling, urban sophistication.  Here nearly all of the adults on scooters are wearing helmets (not so in the north), although I saw an occasional child riding with a parent and the adult had a helmet on, but not so the kid.  Despite the humidity, those on scooters had long sleeves and some women were even wearing sweatshirts or jackets in addition to the very common face mask (for sun protection we were told).

But, these larger Vietnamese cities remain a study in contrasts; while there are beautiful shops and shiny new buildings, some life is still lived on the street, on the sidewalk.  This was certainly true in Hanoi which had less evidence of the prosperity.  Even here, I saw the low to the ground red or blue plastic chairs and tiny tables outside a storefront where residents could enjoy pho or noodles or coffee. While you could say that this is just their version of cafe society, and to some extent it is, it is more”down and dirty” that we would expect at home.