Good bye Southeast Asia

We board in about 15 minutes for 19 hour flight home. What a few weeks! So much to see. Cam on/ aw koon/ xie-xie. Thank you in 3 languages!

No escaping the zombies

On the waterfront Whirl wind tour

From Victoria Peak

High above Hong Kong

No escaping the zombies

Hong Kong haze

Landed here early this morning. We're off shortly on a whirlwind 4-hour tour around the city. I wonder if we'll encounter the protestors? Then to the airport for our 6:45 pm 19-hour flight home. Processing this terrific trip. Highlights: Mekong delta, floating villages, Hanoi old town, Saigon, so much! 

Floating village

Last day

Spent the morning out visiting the floating village on Ton Le Sap lake, a huge inland lake that floods and forms during the

Monsoon season. About 700 people live in this village- houses, school, health center, pagoda all on stilts. They call this poor-ism perhaps our looking. But we bought some pencils, tipped everyone who showed us around and said thank you many times. Once on the lake itself, there's only water for miles furled across the flat wide horizon... Like the ocean. We floated in a small mangrove forest. Saw no crocodiles but lots of little kids swimming and playing. We fly out this evening for Hong Kong... Last stops before home. What a last day in Siem Reap... In Cambodia. A most memorable journey. Missing home! 

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat in the morning heat was intense on a bunch of levels. High humidity so everything seemed enriched -- smell, sound etc. The photos can't depict the scale of the buildings.



So the first photo is of the back gate, not a main entrance but still compelling. You see three of the five towers -- symbolizing the mountain home of the gods…i.e. the Himalayas. Angkor Wat is a Hindu temple honoring the god Vishnu…the protector god.

Second photo is of some steps just to give you a sense. The steep angle of the stairs was meant to force climbers into a bow of respect. Visitors today use wooden steps, not those in the photo.

 Next is a photo of some of the apsaras -- dancers -- that are carved into the sandstone. There apparently are some 1,500 of these figures, none alike. And by the way, some 1 million blocks of sandstone were used in the construction of this temple --hauled from mountains by elephants. It took about 30 years to build, with the elaborate carvings taking even longer. Generations worked on this.


The long corridor in the fourth photo is just a segment of four corridors in a square along which are carved the longest relief frieze carving in the world. Several stories are told on the walls…a long story about the battle of the Monkey King versus the devil -- Hanuman.

The view shown in the fifth photo is out one of the windows looking toward the main gate.



Next is a scene looking across a reflecting pool back at the main temple -- and you see all 5 of the towers.


Finally, the photo with the Buddhist monks is of the road that goes across the moat (once filled with alligators) through the main gate into the temple complex. Some 20,000 folks lived inside…including the royal family and priests.

You just can't help but think again and again about the construction, the work, the human labor and design that went into this place.

The internet is quite slow or we'd upload more. Steve took pix from many angles … so much more to show, but this will suffice for now. So off to the pool!

Morning visit at Angkor Thom

She said a prayer and gave us bracelets

This morning an excursion to two of the ancient temple cities of Siem Reap: Angkor Thom and Ta Prom. These are combo temples: Hinduism followed by Buddhism. Unknown to the west for centuries until a French naturalist discovered the ruins hidden under layers of jungle overgrowth. But according to our guide, the inhabitants of course were always aware of the ruins. These structures are redolent with what they once were. Moss and grime covered. Crumbling foundations. Sandstone carvings of dancing apsaras. To walk around the site -- you and the hundreds of other visitors -- is to want to imagine the 54 towers and carvings without the layers of time. Before the looting and degredation due to war.

Ta Prom (not pictured) is a smaller site. Here the forest has literally wrapped its roots around the walls. Apparently Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider was filmed among the trees and artifices, according to guide Sim, who, like all our guides, was touched by war. His father, mother and 2 sisters were killed by the Khmer Rouge, accused of working for the CIA.  Cambodia is only just surfacing from decades of conflict. The Khmer Rouge (think Killing fields and re-education camps) were routed by the Vietnamese in 1979. The monster Pol Pot died in the 1998 so history is still fresh here.
The temple sites today reminded us of some we saw in India but with a Buddhist flare. Orange-robed monks roam the grounds. And there are a bunch of huge Buddha statues and pagodas still being used for worship and prayer. Tomorrow we'll visit Angkor Wat. Tons of photos taken already, and to be taken, with Steve in his element! Indeed everyone is snapping away -- on ipads, iphones, digital cameras, go-pros, you name it and someone is taking a picture. Millions of people visit the Angkor temples every year…think of how many images are floating around the world!  So we join the stream.

Evening stroll

Pinch us

Not sure about this

Cao Dai temple

Good bye Vietnam and onward to Cambodia

Iced coffee with condensed milk at the airport as we wait to fly to Cambodia. This is Vietnam's answer to ice latte.

An amazing week that went by too quickly. More adventures to come: Angkor Watt and Hong Kong where our hotel may apparently be near some of the recent demonstrations. Watch for updates on the temples and more. Missing everyone at home.  So happy that all is now well and safe with our intrepid reporter Gordon! And Bon voyage to Will who heads south to his next adventure.) Love you guys! 

Delta day

light at top of brick kiln

Later we agreed today was the best. We traveled by rickshaw-truck, bike, motor boat and row boat  in the Mekong delta. Got soaking wet in a flash downpour. Saw kids swimming in muddy waters. Chickens and dogs sleeping in thatched roof compounds. Walked carefully over the husks of coconuts piled in mounds at a local coconut factory (coconut is king of the delta). Rode along the rutted narrow road that zig-zagged through the hot jungle. Ate chom chom and mango. And crispy rice cake with Mrs. Sau Tuong, the wife of a former Viet Cong soldier who was supposed to join us but was working late somewhere. (We had our tea without him.) She showed us how she makes rice paper in beautiful fine discs, setting them on a bamboo frame to dry. Soon she'll retire as she's too old. How old I ask, hoping I'm not being rude. Born in the year of the snake, says our amazingly awesome guide Giao…during the war but no one kept track then…so she's about 50. There's so much about this day to describe. Too much. Lunch- a feast- 4 courses. Check it:  grilled prawns and soup and a curry dish. More fruit and more fruit. The color of the water after the rain…like chocolate mousse. And the boats. Long low and most with striking almost Egyptian-looking eyes painted on their bows. We visited a brick factory. And a coconut factory, where every bit of this fruit gets used somehow. And a key wonder? No tourists! Other than us. One thing you are continually reminded of on a trip like this is that you are just passing through. You'll only catch the surface of a place. You visit the highlights and they are important. But there's so much you'll never see or experience. Not only in terms of natural wonders or museums or the bright lights of a city. But of the people. Today it seemed perhaps possibly we'd been given a deeper look. Or was it all part of the tour? I don't believe so. Was it about the rich wet beauty of the delta? The jungle-ripeness was in full bloom in a relentless humid hot wet heat. Or about our guide Giao (ignore previous spelling) and how she completely enriched the experience? Not only did she answer almost every wacky question put to her (by you know who) but she was generous with her information. Sharing stories about her culture -- the cuisine (rice paddy rats are a delicacy), the customs, social concerns as well as local. She knows the names of plants and Saigon's plans for cleaning up its canals and river. She pointed out photo ops and places to shop. She helped us to feel like more than tourists, almost like neighbors. When we arrived back at the hotel (after a 2-plus hour drive that was topped off by a downpour flooding some of Saigon's streets and low-slung shops), we rested, showered, ate and headed out for a last walk and some night market shopping. We felt a welcome in Ho Chi Minh city that we've not felt before. Even as the vendors shoved wallets and t-shirts in our faces, we were at ease. We smile and nod. No thank you but hello. There's no animosity. They seem to smile too as they move on to the next passerby.

chickens at the coconut factory

our delta boat

village road

rice paper sheets drying. Will be cut into thin rice noodles

Going after Kurtz. Or Brando. Queue the Stones.

Tiger prawns

On the Mekong Delta

Into the Cu Chi tunnels

Dad has much better photos and movie! Will post soon.

Opera house

Waiting for the show

American giants in Vietnam

Some Saturday pix

Cao Dai temple

War and Peace

Our second day in Saigon. We arrived early yesterday -- landed, drove to city and did a whirlwind tour of some of the highlights of Ho Chi Minh City: Reunification Palace, The history museum, the War Remnant museum and another ripoff laquer workshop in which the point is to get you to purchase stuff.

You can look these places up in a guidebook. The War Remnant museum was possibly the most moving in that it was filled with photographs of the American war taken by a range of war photographers, including some of the iconic images. Then several rooms of photos devoted to Vietnamese devastated by Agent Orange. Any kind of birth defect you might imagine depicted. The nexus of the two exhibitions was upsetting. To look and think about the impact of this war across a swath of peoples. So today's journey to the Cu Chi tunnels and then the Cao Dai temple touched some sensitive nerves.  The tunnels, in case you're not up on your Vietnam war history, were networks just outside of Saigon, used by the Viet Cong to hide during the war. Turned into a tourist attraction in about 1994, the site lets visitors follow a path created over one section. Along the way, you're invited to view how the Viet Cong and local guerrillas set up kitchens, strategy rooms, dining rooms, hospital -- but over many years prior to the American war.  Visitors can also see the different types of booby traps as well as B-52 craters. Both Dad and I were upset to view the booby traps -- spikes of all kinds hidden under leaves etc. all designed to kill and or maim. Hard to think about young soldiers caught in these devices. And to wonder about the tourists and what they might be thinking as they view. You do get a chance to crawl through short sections of the tunnel and a classic Dad video will be posted eventually. The weirdest disconnect came at the end of the path. You exit the site through a combination gift shop shooting range!  Not sure about the thinking: "let's get the tourists all worked up about war and then invite them to shoot an AK-47???"  We did purchase a fake classic Vietnam lighter.  And then headed off to the incredible Cao Dai temple about 10 kms away.  Cao Dai is a strange conglomeration of religions that was started in Vietnam in the 1920s.  It combines Buddhims, Daoism, Christianity and one of its saints includes Victor Hugo!  Hopefully the video gives you a sense of the joyful, color-infused beauty of this temple. They conduct mass several times a day and we arrived about half-way through. A kind man offered information about the ceiling and our lovely sweet guide, Zhaio, translated away.  Speaking of our guide, Zhaio is the best!  Her English is very strong…again the best of all. She constructs complicated ideas and sentences. She is enthusiastic and helpful. Her mother died in May. She's from a family of 12!  Her father fought with the South Vietnamese Navy…was wounded a bit. And she's only 29 years old.  Pretty too!  Anyway, we're off to dinner.  Tomorrow we head to the MeKong Delta. 

Evening cocktails ...

pam got long island ice tea but decided to go for the diet coke mix.

Soup in Vietnam is a meal

Dinner over Saigon from 52 floors up

Good bye Hoi An

A funky honky tonk town with beautiful beach but not much else to see. Lots of junk for sale. Food poisoning on path to ancient temple site- a first! On to Saigon and more to come.

My Son

At ancient Hindu temples outside Hoi An, where the viet cong hid. Bomb craters around along with 50 cal holes in old walls. Double crater in foreground. 

Morning walk

sunrise

the pathways are not blue

Georgia O'Keefe would be proud

Birthday update

Our day started with sunrise and Tai Chi on the poop deck aboard the Paradise cruise boat (and I use the word boat purposefully because these are not like huge Carnival cruise lines) and ends here in Hoi An near Da Nang in this room and from this bed where we've finished with room service and can now digest and discuss the time in Ha Long Bay.
So the phrase picture-postcard-perfect when used to describe a view or a place brings to mind shiny glossy images of water or mountains. Left out are things like garbage and crowds.  So when you look at google images of Ha Long you see incredible vistas -- dramatic architectural structures rising straight up from teal green waters and looming like prehistoric beasts. These are certainly what we saw during our overnight tour of this World Heritage site. Of course, close up and personal reveals the darker side -- the floating plastic bags, the numerous cruise boats that cluster together -- karaoke music and lights nearly negating the beauty of these limestone peaks at dusk. Then there are the souvenir ladies in their flat-bottom rowboats who swarm about, selling strands of fake pearls and other chotckes, sending them up for your consideration in long handled fishing nets. And beware. If you make contact, they'll dog the boat, anxious for your business. This is totally understandable. But none of these images surface online.  And yet. There's magic in the hills of Ha Long. The mini mountains are remarkable. And rowing under a stalagmited-arch to an emerald lagoon was amazing. Tai chi accompanied by a Ha Long breeze as a way to mark one's 61st birthday…pretty f-ing priceless.
Then there's the carefree way we all meet and interact with other passengers. For instance, meet Katherine and Finley from Scotland. Retired cigarette salespeople who are on a full pension in their mid 50s and spend three plus months a year traveling the world. They've grandchildren. Two grown kids. Maybe because we're only together for a day, we feel at ease. Funny sarcastic jabs before tai chi. A happy birthday hug at breakfast. We dine with new friends from Israel. Two lawyers. Uri and Galia (? spelling). She's very dramatic, almost a diva. He's into photography like Steve. And guess what--they're here at Hoi An.  Probably will run into them on the beach.  And then that will be it. Nothing complicated. Easy peasy vacation breezy.
I woke at 2 a.m. after too much wine. Opened the small door onto our second floor porch and looked out over an ancient scene. The islands looked like they were drawn and furled across endless Chinese scrolls. Any minute a man with a walking stick would cast his shadow over the bay. But nothing. Just an orange moon. The lights of the Paradise boats. The chugging of their engines. I went back to sleep.
Tonight the surf of the South China Sea pounds against the sea wall beyond our room. A good way to end my birthday…and so it goes.

Happy bday treatment

Brought them in at no small expense.