September - October 2001

Bangkok

After a couple of days to acclimatise in K.L., I took a 2 night train journey up to Bangkok, and met a lot of people on board who I was able to spend a lot of time with in Bangkok, including Arianna, Graeme and Jason.  Rob (My Kid Brother) arrived the following day!

Graeme, who lives in Bangkok took us to 'Wat Pho', a temple just behind the Grand Palace, where if you're nice to the guard, he'll let you wander around after dark.  We ended the day at a jazz club called 'Saxophone'.  Unfortunately, Graeme couldn't make it on the day that we'd arranged to visit the ancient capital of Ayuthaya, but sent his car and driver anyway!  We also made it to Kanchanaburi, and were lucky enough to see a train crossing the 'Death Railway Bridge' (Bridge over the River Kwai) whilst we were walking across it.  Nearby was the most incredible Buddist temple, Wat Tham Sua.

After bargaining for 2 England shirts for £7 each on the Patpong night markets, we met Jason, who introduced us to the nightlife - it's really quite incredible that those goldfish lived to tell the tale...'Strictly No Photography'!

We spent a few days in Bangkok chasing around from one embassy to another to try to obtain visas for Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos - 3 visas in 3 working days, that's some task, but we did it!  Next we headed north to Chaing Mai on yet another overnight sleeper train.  My third in just over a week!  From Chaing Mai, Rob and I went on separate jungle treks...

Northern Thailand

My trek was the shorter version of Rob's 3 day trek, with many of the same highlights, only less strenuous and less wacky-backy on offer!  We got to ride elephants, sail down the river on bamboo rafts, and visit one of the Northern Thailand hilltribes - the Karen people.  It was also the morning after the attacks on the U.S.  It was kind of strange - everyone had watched the events on CNN the night before, and all my travel companions on that day were American. We still managed to have a great day.

Land of a Million Elephants

Laos is a landlocked country with borders to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Myanmar (Burma).  Our visit began with a 2 day cruise down the Mekong River.  It's the most beautiful country, although very undeveloped and travel is not easy.

Our first proper stop was at Luang Prabang, the former capital, and as a former French colony, the French influence is very evident, with some beautiful architecture and inviting bakeries.  Those that braved the pool under the Kouangsi Waterfall got to swim with a snake, and almost got dragged away by the undercurrent.

High above the city was a hill with Wat Phu Si, a giant Buddah's foot imprint and fantastic views.

Another day of travelling - this time by bus - took us to Vang Vieng.  From here, we hired a tuk-tuk and some inner tubes and floated down the Nam Song River.  The scenery was divine - limestone mountains covered with lush green vegetation, and half way, stopped off to visit a cave.  Our guide, a little old man, had to finish his spliff before we went!  Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos as I didn't want to risk drowning a 2nd camera within one year!

And finally, the capital Vientiene, on the Mekong River with Thailand opposite.  They have built a beach on the riverbank, which is lined with restaurants and bars.  Vientiene's Arc de Triomphe was created with concrete intended for runways during the Vietnam war.  Otherwise, I found the city quite unremarkable.

It's hard to imagine that this sleep place (Laos) is the most bombed country per capita in the world - the U.S. dropped more bombs on Laos during the Vietnam War than they dropped world-wide during WW2.

Our journey out of Laos was even worse than the slow-boat.  My advice - take a flight...

Hanoi

I've never been anywhere like this before.  It makes Bangkok seem like a stroll in the park!

Motorcycles come from all directions, and to cross the road, you just close your eyes and walk - they decide which way to drive around you, and if you stop, you collide.  There's constant horn-blowing - you just become oblivious and keep walking.  Pedestrians share the road with motorcycles.  Pavements are motorcycle car-parks!

I've never seen pigs (dead, I assume) strapped to the backs of motorbikes, birds being pulled from cages on the roadside, killed and piled into heaps, or seen 'egg-rolled pig-trotters' on a menu before... I have now!

One street is lined with shops selling only brass door fittings and padlocks, others only shoes, appliances, bags or computers.  Motorcycle taxi drivers plead with you to let them drive you - "it's too hot to walk", they argue.  Postcard and booksellers follow you for streets saying "I give you good price", then turn abusive when you don't buy.

Then there are the things you shouldn't miss... a tour of Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum is followed by a visit to his 'stilt house', a beautiful wooden house with about 3 rooms, no walls, just bamboo blinds, next to a huge fish pond, shaded by trees, which he used as his office.  Nearby is Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum and Museum, although the museum is more like an art gallery.  Also worth visiting are the Army Museum, Prison Museum, and to unwind, a stroll around the Hoan Kiem Lake.

The Water Puppet show: Families in the Red River Delta used to have puppet shows in the rice paddies during the flood season.  The acts portray Vietnamese tradition and folklores, and are accompanied by traditional music.

Cat Ba Island - Halong Bay

Against the advice of the Lonely Planet, 4 of us travelled independently to Cat Ba Island...took the 6.15am train from Hanoi to Haiphong, cyclo transfer to the ferry port, and we were there before 10am.

I skipped the whole day sailing around Halong Bay that the others did, and by all accounts missed out on some spectacular scenery and snorkelling.

A visit to a big cave system, built into a mountainside gave us an insight into where the officers sheltered during the war.  They had a swimming pool, cinema/dancehall, ping-pong, a hospital ward, amunition stores, medicine stores, a hospital ward, officers' bedrooms, well just about everything.  Also a platform from where surface-to-air missiles were launched.  

Our guide (a very animated war veteran) proudly told us how he'd shot down 3 American planes - before he enquired about our nationalities!   Mmm...

The DMZ Tour

There's very little visible evidence of any war having happened here, so I took a tour of the former DMZ (Dee Em Zee/DeMilitarised Zone) to try to get a better understanding.  The DMZ is the 5km either side of the Ben Hai river which divided North and South Vietnam.

The focus was on the areas surrounding the DMZ, in particular, 2 former U.S. Military bases; Khe Sanh and The Rockpile on the south side and an underground tunnel system to the north.

The Rockpile is literally just a mountain now and it's difficult to picture anything sinister having happened.  Khe Sanh still exists, and is now being transformed into a museum.  A few old pieces of machinery remain there, although throughout the country, old shells etc. have all been removed and sold as scrap metal.  Most of the concrete bunkers dismantled to re-use in construction.  The old runway at Khe Sanh is still visible as the land was so badly contaminated that no vegetation will grow there.  

We stopped to visit an ethnic minority village of the 'Bru' tribe.  The village was on the old Ho Chi Minh trail.  The people were falling over themselves to be photographed (for payment, of course), perhaps their only source of income.  

To the north of the river, we visited the Vinh Moc tunnels, which were home to civilians after their village was flattened by bombing.  The whole area is still covered in bomb craters, although some bits have been flattened for growing rice.

Saigon

Although the official name is Ho Chi Minh City, you rarely hear it called HCMC – usually Saigon. 

We didn’t stop for long, but got to visit the War Remnants Museum.  One room was dedicated to the journalists and photographers, many who contributed to Time magazine during the war.  One photograph which sticks in my mind was one of American soldiers proudly showing heads they’d removed from Vietnamese soldiers.  There were many similar scenarios displayed.  Then, of course, there were bombs, planes and other ‘war remnants’.

One of the Vietcong’s leading revolutionaries set up a soup shop as a front for his meetings.  American soldiers used to eat there, unaware that their host was from the opposition.  The shop still exists, and Ngo Toai, who’s about 80 years old now, gives you a really warm welcome, and makes up for being unable to speak English by shaking your hand (over and over again).  He also gives you newspaper reports (in English), photographs, his visitor’s book and invites you to have your photograph taken with him!  Incidentally, the only thing on the menu is soup! 

The Mekong Delta

We took a one day tour into the delta, to see how the people actually live.  We visited a couple of the industries that happen there – a candy making operation and a rice wine distillery, although didn’t actually see anything of the distillery, only tasted the product!  It was here that I got to achieve one of my ambitions – to hold a snake around my neck!

You get to see the natives just getting on with their lives – bathing in the river, paddling in canoes with fishing baskets, mending nets, children playing etc. 

It quite peaceful to cruise along the channels and admire the scenery with the trees providing shade from the heat of the sun.  

Thanks for the photo's Rob (2 from the Delta and 3 from Saigon - when I had my camera set up incorrectly).

Cambodia is probably the most beautiful country I’ve ever seen.  That’s quite fortunate, as I needed something to distract from the awful journey from Saigon!  My brand new backpack got broken on it's first journey where it was thrown about so much on the bumpy bus ride!  We had been warned, but I didn’t realise I’d need to wear a shock-absorber!  The pot-holes resemble bomb-craters (many of them probably are), that’s the story country wide.

For as far as the eye could see, there were bright green rice paddies, broken up by trees of every shade of green and an occasional stilt house, built from wood or bamboo.  Workers in the fields pick blades of green or scoop water from one channel to the next.  We’d pass by the occasional village, where loitering children would wave as we went by.  Pigs and cattle got on with their grazing amongst the people.  Water buffalo grazing or lying in the paddies .

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh was flooded.  At one stage I’m sure the surface water must have reached the undercarriage of the bus – and this was the centre of the city. 

We only stayed for one full day and visited the Killing Fields and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.  Most people don't go, but we wanted to see it.  First we went to the former prison where the people were taken before being transferred to the Killing Fields.  The pictures and scenes there were horrifying.  I nearly didn't go to the Killing Fields after that, but I didn't find it as distressing as the museum.  It was kind of peaceful, and they encourage visitors as a memorial to the dead.

There’s more about The Killing Fields and museum on this link if you want to see it.

To avoid the roads, most of our onwards journeys were by boat.  There was incredibly beautiful scenery, and you wonder how people live on those stilt houses in the middle of a lake - then you notice the t.v. aerials on the houses and boats and wonder even more!  Travelling by boat is relatively expensive, but you compare it to the potential cost of having your back repaired after too many road journeys!

The children all want to practice their English on you.  Some that we met, as young as 7, speak fantastic English, and are also learning Japanese and Thai, so, along with Khmer, they even have to know 4 different alphabets!  Of course, some of them want to sell things to you too, but will still keep you talking even when you don't want to buy anything.  I think they must be the most friendly nationality of people I've ever met.  We were even approached by a Buddhist monk who wanted to practice speaking English.  He invited us to his Wat, but sadly, we were leaving town, so couldn't go.  

Siem Reap and Angkor

We arrived in Siem Reap by boat – 5 hours on the roof of a boat under the sun – bliss!  The boat took us through a Vietnamese floating village and a riverside village of stilt houses.  Once on land, the villages continue through the jungle.  You’d see people getting on with their lives – sitting in doorways, swinging in hammocks under their homes, children leaving to go to school, people setting up little stalls in front of their homes, people bathing and children playing in the river, fishing or mending nets.  As in Vietnam, they also carry pigs on the back of their motorbikes.  I never did work out whether those pigs are dead or alive!

Angkor

The temples of Angkor are something else!  It was difficult to know where to start so we followed the Lonely Planet’s suggested itinerary for ‘if you only have one day’. 

Angkor Thom city (late 12^th Century) is about 8km x 12km surrounded by a moat.  In the centre is Bayon.  The entire surface of the temple is covered in carvings and has 54 towers and more than 200 smiling faces.  It’s quite bizarre. 

Baphoun, another temple within Angkor Thom is being restored in a project sponsored by the French.  I bet the original builders didn’t have the luxury of a crane!

The one thing I really wanted to see in Cambodia was the temple overgrown with jungle – it’s called Ta Prohm.  There’s some controversy over it not being restored, but the trees growing from the temple walls give the place a unique charm.  

Angkor Wat itself (the 'most important' one) has strange carvings all around the walls of one of the buildings.  They're supposed to tell the stories of some of the legends.  Somebody must have had a very vivid imagination when those were designed...

One day was enough was enough for us, although many people stay longer.  After a few hours, it all starts to get repetitive and climbing up and down the steep and narrow steps gets quite tiring.

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