Sunday, March 14th 2010 A Real Vietnam Experience

Of all the experiences and sights one might see while traveling, the ones that we will always remember are our experiences with people. I can think of Sapa, Halong Bay and Hanoi, and have "pictures pop up in my mind, but as I remember North Vietnam, it will really come down to the time Peggy traveled with Phong, the young interpreter I had in Quy Nhon, and his new fiancee', Quynh Anh. We traveled about an hour and a half from Hanoi in our rented car and driver, Mr. Thach, stopping along the way at a village whose focus is the production of shoes. Phong wanted my input on his wedding shoes and Quynh Anh wanted some womanly guidance from Peggy. After this major decision had been made we traveled on down towards the town of Ninh Binh (it's mentioned in Graham Greene's, "The Quiet American") and then turned off of the road for a couple of Km to his family home. There we met his mother, Tran thi Bac, 50 years old, her husband, Nguyen Ngoc Hoi, who is 55, his sister Nguyen thi Kim Dung and his grandmother as well as a number of uncles and cousins. They have a traditional country farm, chickens,two pigs, a couple of ducks, cats, two fish ponds and a dog. Phong's father is a photographer and his mother is the family farmer, raising rice, a few animals, fish and vegetables. Phong's sister, Kim Dung, is a teacher in the Middle School, 24, and is getting married this Fall. She also helps her Mother in the fields, so I don't know how that will effect things when she leaves.

It was great being in the country and with "the real people". Bac and Hoi have an older home, or older style you might say, that looks like it has been there from before the war, but was actually built around 1990. An older home sits next to it and that is where grandma lives. The main home is in the middle of some remodeling and so, like our own home, some of the rooms were a little torn up. However the large living room was spread with mat and laid out with the makings of our large mid-day meal. It was a feast that was laid out for us and the rest of the company: pork, fish, chicken and rabbit along with some sort of gourd/squash that was very good, some glass noodles/greens/chicken intestines (it was fine, though Peg didn't eat any), fried tofu, fried spring rolls and, of course, rice. Most of this was right there from the farm, the pork being the only exception. Along with the parents and his 86 year old grandmother, there were an assortment of uncles and cousins who were doing some concrete and tile work on the house remodeling. Of course there was the tea, and beer with dinner and an after dinner drink of rice wine Phong's auntie had made.

After dinner we sat down for another cup of tea with Hoi and uncle and talked a little about the old days. The Uncle (a sergeant in the Medical Corps) had gone into Saigon in the Spring of '75, but other than talking about the lingering effect of Agent Orange and official indifference on the part of our government in regards to the effects of A/O in Vietnam, there was little talk of the war and certainly no bitterness aimed at us at all. (FYI: during the Clinton years, there was a conference in which the U promised to help VN deal with the effects of A/O, poisoned land, water, the handicapping of children and cancers; sadly little happened during the Bush era, but President Obama recently doubled the amount being spent, which is still relatively small. A group of 100 Vietnamese victims of A/O had their case against Dow and Monsanto heard before the Supreme Court, but it was turned down; an article I read commented that perhaps legalistically it was appropriate, but as a matter of American honor........).

After we had eaten our dinner on the straw mats on the cement floor, it was really nice to crawl (and I do mean crawl) off that to sit on the wooden couch. Sitting crossed legged for any length of time is a challenge at our age, to say the least. We then asked Bac to take us for a walk around the neighborhood. The rice paddies were all bright green and neat, as are the vegetable fields and gardens, and the area is quite beautiful. As you look at this and think of how little they have in the way of any mechanical assistance, you just have to shake your head. On the way back there was an old woman, 77 ( but you'd have sworn she was much older) working in her rice paddy. Quynh Anh told me that the woman had to work in the field in order to have enough to eat. I helped her up to the trail, so tiny (and that by Peggy standards) and frail that you had to wonder how she did any kind of field work! Getting back to the hamlet area we were waylaid by another elderly woman who took my hand and pulled me, with the others trailing, into the courtyard and then into her house and sat us down for tea. Phong was trying to rush us out, but our host was insistent. After doling out the little cups of tea, she lifted the lid of a basket and indicated we should try what was inside. There were some leaves wrapped tightly and a round fruit-like thing cut into quarters. So I popped them into my mouth ("Give it to David, he'll try anything") and started chewing. Well, it wasn't sweet, so it wasn't a fruit, and in fact it was rather coarse and somewhat tasteless, but chew I did. Phong couldn't translate exactly what it was, but I was figuring it out...... betel nut! If you have ever seen the pictures of the old Vietnamese women with blackened teeth, that's from chewing betel. I started salivating like crazy, wondering if I am supposed to spit or swallow. Peggy said I turned bright red and talk about a head rush! It made that rice wine seem like 7-Up! Whoa!! Of course if you chew tobacco and swallow that...... Talk about a head rush! Now I can add it to the list of crazy things I have tried, though I am not sure I will ever make it to the snake wine with the cobra neatly coiled in there. I'll bet that stuff really "bites" you.

We had to get ready to return to Hanoi by then, as we needed to get back to our hotel before heading out on the night train to SaPa and Quynh Anh had to get home. Things are still rather chaste here. The goodbyes were as earnest as they were endless. We walked back to where the car had been parked and presented our wedding gift, money in a red card for luck, to Phong and Quynh Anh, which was passed along to his Mother. We have been invited to their wedding on April 11th, and I wish we could be there, but we will be down south by then, getting ready to leave the country. It would have been a real opportunity to learn more about customs as they have been in the past, how they are now in the city (white wedding gowns and all) and how the two have been combined out here in the countryside. Among the traditions we were told is that the entire village is invited and they each pitch in a bit of money which feeds everyone and the extra goes to the bride and groom

Well, I will close for now, farther behind than ever with my writing as we are now in Quy Nhon, the town I "grew up" in (circa Dec 1968 to Dec 1969). The the weather here is hot and clear, a huge change from the weather we experienced in the North and Hanoi when we went to the top of the Soffitel Plaza Hotel (thanks Julie and Anne) and had one very expensive drink before we left because it was so foggy we could barely see West Lake which is right in front of the hotel! Hopefully, I will catch up at some point, though our social life here in QN leaves little time.

Goodbye Hanoi! David & Peggy

Halong Bay (March 7-8th) Hanoi (March 8- 13th)

"Cloudy, the skies are gray and white and ........ cloudy"

Thank you Paul Simon for the weather report here in North Vietnam. And now for the rest of the news. (The second time over for me as I lost the first copy when my battery failed and I hadn't saved it; you writers know how that feels after you have spent several hours mulling over phrases and descriptions and crafting your writing, then it's gone. Wahhhh!)

Yes, I am way behind schedule in blogging, as we are at present in Hoi An. Getting on with it though, the Feys', Cenis' and Frazier's left smoky Laos behind us and hoped that we would get into air we didn't have to chew, however we had checked the weather report and realized that the worst of a low pressure was supposed to arrive just as we headed out to Halong Bay. Rain, now wouldn't that be memorable in one of our world's Natural Heritage Sites. We had made a hurried call to my friend Phong who had arranged our trip. Can we move it up? Poor Phong, I think he would do anything for me. He was just about to graduate from the university in Quy Nhon when I we met three years ago. He was hunting for some volunteer time and to be able to act as my translator, since he was an English Major, was a natural fit. It's strange over here how it was the young who people became my friends. At first because they could practice their English. For me perhaps it was because I only met one married couple who were my age (and I met them through their son), another couple in their fourties and Co Nga also in her fourties, who were "mature" adults. However, it is the young who have kept in touch with me. Phong is 25, a baby-faced "kid", very slight and even in his own eyes, weak physically. He sought my advice, opinions and enjoyed being with me. It is such a nice thing for an old toot like me to have these young friends. Anyway (says Uncle Pard), Phong rearranged our car trip and the boat trip, but was disappointed as he would be unable to act as our guide. We got in from the airport, the only delay being of Peggy almost be refused entry into the country; she had lost her passport! Fortunately, they found it on the plane. Phong arrived minutes after our arrival and after joyous hugs he got to meet everyone else. He explained that he would be unable to act as our guide since he was going to his parents home with his fiancee, her parents and her older brother; it was a very important meeting, he explained, since they were going to decide when they were to be married (more abut this in a future blog). He assured us that he would have a guide and driver there to meet us the next day. He had had to do some change up on the car and driver and since it was at the last minute we weren't getting the same vehicle he had planned for, but that it would be OK.

The next morning, cloudy of course, we were met by our driver, Mr. Tach, who didn't speak English and who was also part of the greater majority who didn't understand my Vietnamese, much to my frustration, chagrin and embarrassment in front of my wife and friends. Somehow or the other, we understood that we were waiting for our guide (I guess I was on the phone with Phong). Finally, we took off, sans guide. Our car was essentially set up as nominal seven seater, though the folks in the rear seat were rather cramped. A few minutes later we pulled over along Ho Tay/ West Lake and in jumped Phong's partner, spiffed out in his blue serge suit and tie, to join us super casual, aging American near-backpacker. Ohh, we are really crowded now! Too bad I had to ride shotgun.

We whizzed along with our guide, a genuinely nice fellow, answering all of the questions that were thrown at him, and us taking in all of the aspects of the varying landscapes, urban, suburban, rural; real rubber-necking tourists. I'm sure we all had different impressions. Dan was an officer with MACV back 40 years ago, Jerry only got to see VN from the air in the back seat of an F-104 as the electronics officer, and Peggy, Margy and Joanne through the eyes of their husbands while they served in this strange and distant land. This was the land of our....... enemy. Well, for sure back then, but things have changed. Probably more dramatically for the Vietnamese people than for us time travelers from 40 years past. We see rice paddies all around, farmers swinging hoes, water buffalo waiting to go to work, flocks of ducks and geese in ponds; what we don't see is machinery. Not quite true, really, there is a big Komatsu crawler excavator and big dump trucks with sand filling in a paddy and raising the level of the land. "What are they doing", we ask. Preparing land for a new company. A we begin driving by huge warehouses and fabrication plants, Panasonic, Huyandai, Yamaha, Kodak, other names we didn't recognize, Chinese and Vietnamese. We go though grimy, dirty towns, black with dust from the coal which is being hauled to the electrical generating station. The towns are an near endless line of shops selling everything from soup to screws, new motor bikes to renovated second and third hand whatevers. Trucks spewing diesel fumes with full loads of steel, containers and who knows what. Then back to the countryside and driving by simple agricultural activities that have been going on endless ages before the present.

We arrive at the quay at Halong Bay. It is itself a sea; awash with buses, vans, cars, motor bikes and streams of people waiting to board the waterborne equivalent which fills the bay. There are hundreds of craft of all types out here; modernized versions of junks, the coastal freighters of the past, that we will be boarding. Then the sanpans of several sizes and varying design, the typical ones propelled by oar and the modernized version with small engines, which will be taking us out to our junk. Further out we see rusting, ill kept coastal freighters, barges, floating cranes and small tankers, for this is still a working port beyond its tourists.

Alighting from our sardine can (the forces of democracy and the shared pains from our no longer youthful bodies had ejected me from the comfortable shotgun position sometime ago) we are told to wait near the ticket gate. The throngs of our fellow tourists flow around us as if we were a boulder in a stream. Finally, our guide arrives with another chap and tells us to follow him through the gate and down to a sanpan. Oh, bye the way, "Goodbye". Not so sure we were in really a great need of a guide to escort us down here, but getting the tickets would have been another thing. We get into the sanpan with a few others, it turns out they are Norwegians and a French group. We arrive on our junk, which is anything but. It is very clean and comfortable. On the bottom deck is our berths, the second is the dining area and the top open air deck for sunbathing and enjoying the view. Not that there is one, after all it's..... cloudy.

We sit down to a sumptuous lunch that comes out in courses, prawns, squid (calamari for you squeamish ones), clams, oysters, crab and fish, followed by fresh fruit. Though this was by far the largest meal, all of the other that followed were equally generous and delicious and.... "seafoody". That was great with everyone except Peggy, who is deathly allergic to all seafood, and Dan who is allergic to shrimp. Sad to say that Peggy's dishes weren't up to par with ours and later in this first repast Dan was enjoying the stuffed crab shell until he spotted a bit of pink color in there. Whoops..... shrimp. Soon we wasn't feeling well and headed to their bedroom. The rest of us headed up to the top deck as we headed out the bay. I was expecting to be in a parade of boats, but it turns out that Phong had taken care of us well, at a price admittedly, but our ship was on a special course that kept us away from all of the others. Between our semi-private route, clouds and light fog, we seemed to be almost alone out here. Ha Long Bay is so famous because of all of the limestone islets that rise up a couple of hundred feet out of the water, nearly straight up! There is seldom a beach on any of them and they are not particularly large if there is one, most of the land being vertical, but they are covered with bright green foliage, brush, vines and small trees. They are truely beautiful, rather like innumerable bonsai arrangements setting on the water. Some are with sea arches, all of them uniquely shaped; superlatives don't do them justice and my descriptive skills are not up to the task of painting you a picture. We just enjoyed it.

The following morning the clouds reached lower, in fact we were part of them and the spa mist was on us. We went to a "floating fishing village". The homes, the school, the little sundries shop and some other service were anchored either together or moored independently, their front yards and fence the cool, blue water. The toilets, hmmm, don/t ask. We took small boats around to view the village then re-boarded the junk and went off to visit a well known grotto; actually the other passengers did that, the "Great Adventurers" got into some beat up kayaks, off to explore on our own. Well, not quite; we had a babysitter in a motorized sanpan, but we kept him busy as if he were herding cats. I can't say enough about the equipment; they even tried to pawn off a paddle on Joanne that was busted in half on the working end and Peggy's was way too short. In any event, it was great to stretch our bodies and sweat a little working off all of the calories we had consumed on the boat with some really good meals and being up close and personal with the little islets we paddled next to. We went by one where a small fishing boat was anchored under an overhang, cooking their meal, and on a ledge above them there was a small shrine they had set up. We did paddle by a small beach area as well. There were a couple of snack stands and a trail that wound up to a little pagoda or shrine at the top. It would have been a fun place to stop, and Peggy was eager for a swim, but we only had an hour and we were cranking those paddles. As we got to the boat, the others had just returned to their walk to the large, but not deep cave grotto, with its attendant little shops of souvenirs. Glad we were out paddling.

As we headed back to the port of Halong, the rain began to fall. It would have been nice to have had some bright sun out there and to see those islets against a sky blue background, it certainly would have produced better photos, but just to have been here to see these amazing 1,000 islands is something we won't forget. Back to the quay and the throngs of fellow travelers, we were met by Phong and our driver, Mr. Thach. Back to Hanoi with a couple of stops, usually at a special shop or company selling ceramics. On the outskirts of Hanoi we stopped by a ceramics village where everyone in town is involved in the making, finishing, transporting or selling a plethora of plates, bowls, jars, etc. of every shape and design.

Our last few days together in Hanoi were up and down as it seemed as there was always one of us a little off with a bit of upset stomach or a touch of the the "travelers disease", nothing serious, but it throws you off. We walked in the Old Quarter where certain streets are all primarily of one occupation; bamboo street, silver street, hardware street, paper street, religious street, etc., at least that's what we called them. We went with Phong to Uncle Ho's place, though the Mausoleum was closed as he was out seeing his cosmetician that day. The three old warriors each carry some baggage of the old days; Dan felt uncomfortable with the flags, Jerry with the hammer and sickle symbols and I with the T-shirts and caps with the various symbols of the past we fought against. Meaningless on one level, deeply ingrained in our psyche on the other. Other sites were quite worth a visit, especially the Temple of Literature and the Museum of Ethnology. The first is where the Mandarins of old, the royal administrators, were trained and the best were, and still are, quite revered by the Vietnamese people. The Museum of Ethnology is really an amazing place as it has wonderful displays of each of the 54 different ethnic groups in Vietnam. There are something like 10 main groups, the Hmong, Dao, Thai, Lao, etc., and then sub-groups within those. Outside of the Museum they have a wonderful park like setting where they have reproductions of the different homes that typify each of the groups. Peggy missed most of our group visit here as she spent her time in the ladies room, but she an I did return later. Of course the walk around Ho (Lake) Hoan Kiem is not to be missed.

On the 12th the Fey's and Cenis' were preparing to head towards the south. Jerry wasn't feeling well and it seemed that I had passed along my cough to Joanne. Margy was busy on the computer setting up hotel reservations. So our together time was coming to an end. We had put on a lot of walking miles, shared our travel discomforts, managed three different countries, put up with the weather and each others moods, made our compromises as to what to do and when, and accomplished all of this and kept our friendships intact. That is the hallmark of good traveling companions. Peggy and I had a few days on our own in Hanoi, a lot of it spent shopping, or so it seemed to me. We had to arrange things to fit in a trip to Phong's family with his fiancee, Quynh Anh (sounds like Queen Ann) and a trip to Sapa. More writing ahead, just need more time! Oh, it was still cloudy.

In Luang Prabang March 3rd-6th 2010

The entire flight from Siem Reap to Luang Prabang was one which offered no view of the green and verdant jungle which is supposed to lay below us. My last flight into Laos three years ago was one which was stunning because of the greenery. This day and all of the succeeding ones are destined to be remembered by the color gray, the result of burning in the forests. They use fire both clearing for farming, swidden farming, and clearing the forest floor. It isn't like we aren't used to that, having lived in the Okanogan for 30+ years and having had too many forest fires blow smoke in our direction, but I was expecting to show Peggy just how beautiful SE Asia is. Strike one; evidently March is the traditional month for this burning to go on. Put that in your book of travel "Do not......."

Our Guest House was a beautiful bungalow style stay with each of us having our own little house overlooking the Kong River which flows into the Mekong about a mile away. I had looked at the location on the map, but had placed it in my mind near the old bridge rather than the new bridge. Big mistake, it was a significant ways from the older part of LP. Phillipe, a Swiss, and his Lao wife ran the place and are both helpful and accommodating and the grounds were a tropical garden with even a pond and fish. I know a large part of it was my expectations and wanting all of the others to see the beauty here and to really enjoy the place, but I was pretty let down between the smoke, the horrible visibility and being a little isolated from town.

That night we had dinner overlooking the Mekong; too bad we could barely see over to the other side. Then it was on to enjoy the night market in the main street, where the local Lao and other indigenous groups come into town to sell their goods. So much of it is the same from stall to stall, silk scarves and runners, small blank books of homemade papers, cotton wall hangings, pillow covers, shirts, T-shirts, wood carvings, deer tusks (barking deer have large curled eye-teeth), etc. A female tourist's dream, though it doesn't get me too excited and I know Dan and Jerry felt the same way. Oh well, gotta keep the ladies happy.

The next day we all went our own ways. Peggy and I walked in to town and went up over Mt. Phousi, which overlooks the old town and has a Buddhist temple up there. Along the way Peggy spotted a sun visor on a post which she said was just like Margy's and so she picked it up. Later on we ran across J&M and sure enough, it was Margy's! We had a big laugh over that.

We went down to a shop called Ock Pop Tok, where they sell silk products made by the local women. We found out we could go out to where they do the spinning, dyeing and weaving, so the four of us jumped in the tuk-tuk and headed out to the edge of town. It was a beautiful spot overlooking the Mekong. We started talking to Emmy, who was at an adjoining table, and who turned out to be a sort of business manager here. An Aussie, she found the job on the internet and came with her boyfriend who is trying to set up an adventure travel enterprise here. She took us on a tour of the process of silk weaving, from the silkworms to the finished product. Fascinating. We had a great lunch and then headed back into LP.

We split up again and after wandering around town, we headed back to our GH. On the way we stopped at Northern Travel, which is owned and operated by my friend, Toon, with whom I'd spent time with the last time I was here. We had spoken when we had first arrived and planned to get together for a dinner. He wasn't there and we told he was home sick, however the secretary called and we talked and he said the dinner was still on and that we would meet that evening at 7:00pm.

I was excited for Peggy and the others to meet Toon; he had really been a help and a comfort to me three years ago. We arrived and shared hugs and backslaps and he introduced his wife, Noi, the same person who had called him at home when we had stopped by his office. Noi speaks quite good English, a little better than Toon in fact. Toon led us down to another one of the numerous restaurants that line the street above the Mekong. The eight of us enjoyed the evening and conversation together, and we drank a toast to Toon and Noi, their two year old, Thaksin, and baby number two which is due in five more months. After dinner we dropped the Cenis' and Fey's at the night market and we went back to the office with Toon and Noi who then drove us back to the market. The best part of traveling is really about the people you meet and stay connected with.

The following day we took a van out to some waterfalls south of LP. We drove through the mountainous countryside, viewing where a fraction of the burning was going on, winding our way up and down and trying to avoid the on-coming traffic, which is speeding, crossing the center lines and passing on the curves... ugh. We got to the park, and what a lovely change; it was green, with lush jungle all around us. All of this greenery was close enough to where we didn't notice the smoke. At the waterfalls, probably 80 feet in height, it was beautiful and we decided to hike to the top over a rough trail. It was steep and breath-taking (in that "I'm getting older" kind of way). The top overlooked the steep escarpment, but I think what I will always remember will be the sheer cacophony of millions of cicadas "singing" to us; it was just overwhelmingly wonderful.

The next day we packed up our gear and then went out for our last hours in LP. We toured the Royal Palace and went into a couple of Wats and had something to eat. Then it was out to the airport, up through the smoke of Laos and on to Hanoi. I think we will have to come back at a different time of year if I ever want to show Peggy how beautiful it really is here.

City of Stones II

OK, this will be a challenge; no notes and trying to recall two countries ago! Well, here goes from where I left off.

Recovered, somewhat, from my coughing, our trusty tuk-tuk drivers took us to one of the older wats away from the main complex. As I had missed the tour the day before, it was really amazing to come here. According to the guide books, Angkor was the greatest urban complex of the pre-industrial world, this during the European "Dark Ages". I won't try to describe these monuments of that past age; my words simply won't do them justice. Check it out on the Web or go to the library; even better, come here. We drove out further and did a hike up into the mountains a couple of Km to a stream that contained 1,000 lingas. For the uninitiated, a linga is phallic representation (more plainly, a penis) in the Hindu tradition. I think I wrote that the original inhabitants, the Khamers, worshipped Shiva, Brahma and... er, ummm.... another god. The forgotten one represented the beginning of life (ergo the linga), Brahma the life we live and Shiva, the destroyer of life. Anyway, those linga were pretty small, but were carved in the stone stream bed. Afterwards we went to a pool at the bottom of a nice sized waterfall and the driver, Peggy and I really enjoyed the water pouring over us. We stopped at another wat on the way in. That evening we went to a vegetarian restaurant that was not that good and the service was terrible. Where's the meat?!

The next day, Dan and Jerry were kind enough to take me out the the main Angkor complex, which they visited the day I was at the hotel. Again, words can't begin to describe the temples. I believe it is the Banyon complex that you will often see in pictures with the very large heads carved with blocks of stone. If I was smarter I would figure out this picture posting thing. Someone suggested that I use Flicker, so I will have to explore that option. There was also this amazing mural at the main temple that went most of the way around the building (it was unfinished) that showed this great battle scene, elephants, archers, swordsmen, spears, blood and gore. Another wall showing more peaceful scenes, but they went down the exterior hallways that were 150' in length.

It does tire you out with all of the walking and gawking. So, back to the hotel and dinner. The next day we went to the airport for our flight to Luang Prabang, Laos. More about that later..... Peggy is starving so I'd better wrap this up!!

City of Stones

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

OK, I probably won't be able to finish this and it's not because I've been drinking Palm Wine (or perhaps stronger than wine) and eating fertilized duck eggs with the Tuk-tuk drivers across the street from our GH. Just because the Palm Wine is in used water bottles, you really shouldn't turn your nose up at it. And the duck eggs, while the idea of it might turn you off, once you have had a couple of shots of the former, you can easily eat the latter. And as for the company, and as we stumble through English they've learned on the streets, you couldn't ask for any better. We laugh and joke and even ask a few serious questions. When you cross the street, both culturally and economically, that is when you get to know a country and its people. The 5 Star hotel and bus tours just don't work for me.

Now it's Friday; where did the time go? I better get busy on this as we are up in Laos now, and been here 3 days. So I will return to Siem Reap and our visit to Angkor Wat.

We traveled by a six hour bus trip from Phnom Penh and we stayed at a guest house run by an American ex-pat and his Thai wife. They are going to be leaving this comfortable life style in a few months to live in San Francisco. Gordon is a great father, but comes across as being a bit arrogant. The rooms were comfortable enough, with fan, A/C and a TV (the latter is a bonus for me as we don't have TV back home... I am too easily addicted to it). The all Cambodian staff spoke a little English, but not well. All things considered, it was a good location and the price fair and it was away from the tour buses and big hotels.

Dan and Joanne had just come back from a walk when the four of arrived. Dan went for a rest while the rest of us walked down to the National Museum, a quite recent addition and a beautiful one at that. The displays were well laid out with good descriptions and explanations. Very briefly, the 144 square kilometers that make up the Angkor Wat complex, was started back in the 800's and once had a general population of several hundred thousand people. The "City of Stones" that were left behind were largely religious, Hindu, which over the centuries became a Buddhist center. The "wat" is a religious temple and they weren't satisfied with one large one, no, they are scattered over a large area, some of them are over 20KM from the central wat.

The next day we planned to go to Angkor and the surrounding wats with a guide. However, my cough was still bothering me and I was concerned about it dropping into my lungs, that I would crack a rib or it would start a new hernia. So I spent most of the day in our room while the others got a tour of about eleven hours for $30 and $15 for the tuk-tuks. For me, it wasn't a great days.. The rest of them returned around 5:30, hot and tired as the temperature was in 90º's. The guide was a university graduate in anthropology, so he was a great source of information and added a great deal to their visit.

The next day, cough or no cough, I was determined to see this wonderful site. We were going out in two tuk-tuks (yes, some of the same drivers referred to in the Palm Wine incident up top) to a couple of wats about 15KM out of town. We drove by the the main complex and the moat that surrounds it, a square mile, all dug with the people's labor for the king, plus all of the stone that was brought in from the quarries which were 30 miles away. It is hard to believe that all of this was completed in just 30 some years! We drove through small villages that sustain themselves through the tourist industry, farming and the typical small town business of the merchants and repair shops. There seem to be certain villages that have one speciality or another. One that we stopped in was the making of palm sugar. The men climb these impossibly high palm trees, aided by a single bamboo pole, 30 to 45 feet long, that are tied to the tree. Once up there, they make a cut in the palm flower and after a couple of days of this the sap begins to run and they collect 3 or 4 liters which their wives boil down into the sugar.

Finding Thom

February 26th-27th

@#%%@*!! I tried getting some pictures up, but I am sure it mus be their fault. I'll try again....nope' that didn't work either. I need some serious help!

So, it was Friday and I was up an out of the GH pretty early. I grabbed my computer and walked the few blocks to the GH I stayed at 3 years ago. I was on a mission. The story:
While I was in Vietnam in 2007 I had some visa "issues", and after staying 3 months I was required to leave the country to re-new it. Cambodia was the logical place to go and while I was there I, naturally, wanted to take in the sites. Understanding the Khmer Rouge and the Pol Pot regime of terror was a natural. I grabbed one of the many moto drivers that hang around the GH's and we went to Toule Sleng High School which they used as a prison, interrogation center, torture chamber and execution ground. Only seven people were able to survive its horrors. Afterwards, we went to the Killing Fields, which is a few kilometers outside of PP. Right after leaving the grounds, a drunken idiot sped down our side of the road and sideswiped us. Long story short, my drivers bike was scratched up a bit, his cell phone was busted, the police made him give the idiot some money! and I busted my hand. We went to a clinic to patch me up, but the next day he showed up to take me to the bus. After the medical bill, dinner and paying the GH, I didn't have any money, but it didn't matter to him! He felt responsible for me!
So, with not much hope of finding him, no name and only a picture on my computer I went looking. I ordered some tea at the GH and showed the picture to the staff and a couple of drivers. Of course, no luck. Finishing some crappy, lukewarm Lipton tea, I went to the street and started asking around. After three or four tries, one fellow, who spoke no English, points across the street and yells to a young man who is waiting on his bike! I showed him the picture and he quickly recalled the events of that day. I had brought $50 dollars over in the hopes of finding him and paying off a debt I felt I owed him. I then brought him back to our GH, got everyone downstairs to meet him and had him join us for breakfast. It has been my greatest moment here thus far.
Peg and I went to the National Museum afterwards, while Jerry and Margy made a run to the airport to pick up something that they had left on there way here and then went to Toule Sleng HS. The National Museum is so beautiful and with a great deal of material from Angkor. Not feeling well, another nap for me, while Peggy did a walk about... yes, she felt quite safe to be on her own. We had made arrangements to meet at 2:00pm and Oun Thom came with a Tuk-tuk driver friend of his to guide us around Wat Phnom, the first pagoda put up in PP by Lady Penh back in the 15th C, I believe. The big reason for this trip was so Peggy could ride an elephant. Well, I ended up accompanying her as well. It was like being in a small boat in really wavey waters. Yes, there are pictures, but.......
On Saturday we were up early for our six hour bus trip to Seim Riep. Thom showed up to say goodbye. He brought me a ball-point pen, and as we were talking, he just choked up and his eyes flooded with tears. He had wanted to take us to his village and meet his wife and 7 year old daughter, but our schedule simply wouldn't allow for it. What a pity for us. We are now "Mother and Father" to Oun Thom...... what a gift of kindness repaid.

Cambodia and Finding a Friend

(So, let's see how I do. I had a heck of time getting to this point. I hope I can get some pictures up this time.)

February 24-26th, 2010

We arrived in Phnom Penh after being in transit for 28 hours; the worst of it being the 6 hour layover at SeaTac after coming from Spokane; that's what you "pay for" when you are on frequent flyer miles, I suppose. Otherwise a good flight to Seoul on KAL, though we were a little late arriving and they gave us a special escort through the airport to make our connection. We both got a couple hours of sleep on the next leg, Seoul/ Phnom Penh (PP). I was actually up early the next morning and walked around a little before the others were up. I could see in that brief walk that things are starting to develop more since my last visit in April of 2007. Yes, poverty is still endemic, but even the poor seem to have cell phones and there are not as many bicycles, those being replaced with motor bikes and cars; "progress" is a double edged sword. I returned to our Guest House (GH) Sokha Heng for my morning tea. A comfortable place for $20 a night, located across from the National Museum and close to the Royal Palace and the river front cafes along the Tonle Sap River, which joins the mighty Mekong here. I finally went and woke everyone up, had breakfast and then we went to the Royal Palace. What an architecturally magnificent compound, what with the palace, pagodas, halls, residences and the gardens and shrubbery. Words can do it little justice nor do the pictures.

At 11:00am they close until 2:00pm, so we walked down to the river front street to rest and get some refreshment. My beverage of choice over here is Pastis, a licorice flavored drink (like Ouzo, Annisette, etc), a sort of paean of times past, about 40 years ago to be exact. The heat, the trip and the beginnings of a cold (granddaughter Maicy this time) sent me back to the GH for a 5 hour rest/nap. Peggy, Jerry and Margy, in the meantime, took a Tuk-tuk to visit the Russian Market. It is a covered market area, much like the Mercado's of Mexico, and absolutely sweltering in the crowded and narrow aisle-ways. After dinner together, Peggy and I walked along the river walk, which is being re-done, and will be quite nice eventually, but at this time we were walking through sand and then some mud. Back to the GH and up the steepest 60 steps you can imagine to our 5th floor room for a good night of sleep.

February 21, 2010 OK, OK, try #3 on trying to post this blog. Yes, my technical skills in regards to "tech" leave a lot to be desired; son Ryan had to come over and fix my Skype connection. I couldn't even do a simple thing like that without buggering it up.

We have been busy getting ready for this 7 weeks away from home. Today it was celebrating the birthdays of 5 year old Cammie, 3 year old Maicy and the christening of 6 month old Leslie. And what a beautiful day it was! Crystal clear blue skies, relatively warm, plenty of food and lots of family. Great fun and a perfect time to hear "Bon voyage".

Two more nights and we fly out. I don't know how long the entire trip will be, but we have about a 5+ hour layover in Seattle, of all places. Why not that much time in Seoul, South Korea, our next stop?

One of the couples with whom we will be traveling with the first part of our trip, spent 30 hours of travel time getting to Bangkok. Ugh! We will be landing in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, recover from jet lag, see a few sites there, then travel up to Siem Riep, our base for exploring Angkor Wat.

Next on our itinerary is Luang Prabang, Laos. I am looking forward to reconnecting with Toon, a Laotian friend I spent time with on my last trip. Laos is a beautiful and laid back country, and LP is very interesting in its own right. I am sorry that we won't be able to spend more time there. From there we fly to Hanoi where we will meet up with Phong, one of my interpreters from my Quy Nhon stay. Phong and a friend have started a small travel company and has made the arrangements and will be traveling with us around Hanoi and Halong Bay. After we return, they head for the south, while Peggy and I go up to Sapa, in the Northwest part of VN next to the Chinese border.

On our return we will travel with Phong to his family's village to the south of Hanoi, and then be going south on the train to Hue. After that to Hoi An, Phu My, Quy Nhon and Saigon. We will be visiting with my Vietnamese friends all along the way.

So, stay tuned and check in on this site for our progress, commentary and photos of a beautiful and intriguing part of our world. Perhaps it will build a desire in you to consider traveling to this lesser known destination!