Vietnam/ Cambodia (Spring 2005)

I know that Vietnam and Cambodia may seem like an odd choice for Spring Break but it really couldn’t have been better. Nice tropical weather, cheap prices, and a chance to see these areas before mass tourism arrives. From the amount of construction and foreign faces I saw, it looks like I may have showed up just in time.

I had 10 days to travel and went with a friend of mine, Amanda, also an English teacher in the area. The original plan was to fly into Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and work our way up into Cambodia until we reached the Angkor Wat area. After that we wanted to backtrack our way into Vietnam and end the trip at the beach. Other than that nothing was really planned and we expected to play everything by ear. Luckily our original plan all worked out and I’m back to tell about it.

My first impression of Ho Chi Minh City was better than expected. It was much nicer, cleaner, quieter than I had thought. It also had a lot of character. The streets are completely full of scooters. I’d say that everyone and their grandmother owned one but the truth is you’d see a full family all crammed onto one so I’m not quite sure. Traffic is madness and even though there are occasionally traffic lights, I’m convinced they’re only for show. The best part was trying to cross the street. There’s no such thing as a crosswalk most times so basically you just cross with faith. The general rules are don’t run and don’t step back. If you just keep walking slowly I found that things would move around you. Towards the end of the trip I decided the best thing was to simply look straight ahead and walk. The drivers see that you’re not paying attention so get out of your way. Plus you don’t have to stress at the sight of a million motorbikes headed straight for you.

In Ho Chi Minh we explored the market and saw the main sights including the Notre Dame Cathedral, Reunification Palace (where the N Vietnamese officially took over), Jade Emperor Pagoda, and the War Remnants Museum (lots of gruesome war photos and propaganda). We also just walked until we got lost in the back streets (a trend as we would find out) and stumbled on a great BBQ restaurant in the middle of who knows where (we finally gave up and taxi’d home:) Another great thing about the city are all the streets lines with these huge tall trees that look like they’ve been there for ages.

From here we took an 8 hour bus ride up into Cambodia which wasn’t as bad as it sounds. The scenery on the way up was pretty amazing and I never realized how flat this country is. Reminds me a lot of Kansas back home, minus the crops. It was a lot drier than I had pictured too. Basically most of the landscape was dry and flat with random palm trees sticking out of nowhere. We ended up in the capital Phnom Penh and spent the afternoon zipping around on the back of motorbikes and the following morning at the “Killing Fields” and S-21 prison/museum. It was not a happy morning. The Killing Fields are where all the “political prisoners” were taken and killed and dumped in mass graves. Most of the graves have since been dug up and there’s a huge Buddhist stuppa full of the skulls that had been unearthed. It all seemed very unreal. The so called political prisoners were basically everyone from ages 1 to 100. The pits have been left as they were so as you wander you can see bits of clothes, bone sticking out of the earth. It’s all pretty sick. What’s worse is that we went to S-21 museum afterwards. This is the high school turned prison where all these people were kept before taken to the fields. The Khmer Rouge were so thorough that they photographed and catalogued everyone coming through so the museum is full of mug shots of all the victims. The Killing Fields seem a thousand times worse once you can put a face the skulls you have seen. They also have the old cells were people were kept and tortured. It was a relief to be leaving that afternoon for Siem Reap.

Siem Reap is the town closest to the ruins of Angkor. We bought a 3 day pass and headed out bright and early the next day. The place is indescribable really. The area is so huge that it’s impossible to see everything even if you stayed for weeks. We concentrated on the main temples and sights. The first day we started at Angkor Wat and climbed around the insides looking at engravings and climbing the towers. There are parts where every single thing is carved or engraved, even the corners of a wall. It’s pretty amazing. Afterwards we headed to Ta Prohm which was my favorite. The jungle had taken over parts and there were times you wondered if the wall was holding up the tree or if the tree was holding up the wall. The trees and vines would be growing on top of and all around a wall and some areas were left as they were found so it felt like it was you who had just rediscovered these structures (that is if you could filter the tour groups out of your mind). Actually we were lucky to be there around lunch time when most of the groups were away eating at lunch. I really did feel like an explorer at times. After this we checked out the Leper King and Elephant Terrace area (more carving, sculptures) and headed back to Angkor Wat for nice afternoon photos and finally uphill to Phnom Bakheng temple for sunset.

The next day we got up at 4:30 to make sure we didn’t miss sunrise. We ended up being the first ones to Angkor Wat and the view was amazing. Easily one of the best sunrises of my life. I’m hoping the photos can give you some idea. After that we headed to Angkor Thom and specifically the temple of Bayon. Here there were many towers with the same huge face carved in the side in all four directions. Below the towers were some small rooms and catacombs to get lost in. Surrounding all this was a wall completely covered with bas relief carvings. We also explored the nearby Royal Palace area and finally headed to Preah Kanh. This was another temple with huge long corridors you wander down wondering when they will end. Some areas have not been touched so again it feels like you’re the one discovering these lost ruins. Pretty amazing.

After all this we realized the trip was heading for an end so we wanted to spend the last few days at the beach. We spoiled ourselves and flew back to Ho Chi Minh City (1 hour vs. 14+ on the buses) and then caught the night bus to Nha Trang. It was festival time at Nha Trang to celebrate it being named one of the best beaches in the world. It’s basically 7km of beach and blue-green water. We went and explored the town (Pagoda, huge white Buddha) and joined a snorkeling trip the next day. Some of the best snorkeling I’ve done in awhile actually. We did two different dives. At the first one we saw a lot of great big fish and a few other unusual things. At the second spot the coral was amazing. So many colors and variety and more wherever we swam. The funniest thing was that we went with a scuba diving group and half the time we were diving right next to them. All that equipment seemed a bit unnecessary to me. The next day we explored more of the city including the central market and To Ponagar Cham towers (a few old towers/temples). After all this we caught the night bus back to Ho Chi Minh City for some last minute shopping. The past 3 nights have not been the most restful. I’ve either been on a night bus or plane and am looking forward to my own bed tonight. I should mention that the flight to Japan arrived at 6 in the morning. I spent the rest of the day in the old Japanese capital of Nara exploring Kasuga temple and the huge Buddha at Todai-ji. In the temple they have this small hole carved in one pillar that’s apparently the same circumference as one of the Buddha’s nostrils. Apparently if you can crawl through you will be enlightened (and slightly embarrassed). Well, needless to say I am enlightened.

Some more highlights of the trip were the daily fruit shakes (my search for the perfect mango smoothie), tons of different fruit (sapoche, soursop, mangosteen, jackfruit, dragonfruit, Kui, etc), bootlegs in Ho Chi Minh city (with the best cd selection I’ve seen), the monkeys at Ho Chi Minh zoo, the afternoon snack in Nha Trang (banana fritter, soursop shake, hot fudge sundae), Vietnamese coffee, the owner of Ly Ly guesthouse in Ho Chi Minh city (who gave up her place to us for nothing our last day), the Dead Fish restaurant in Siem Reap (with the live crocodiles you had to pass over to get to the bathroom), and the list goes on.