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Month: July 2014

  • The night before last I took a tuk-tuk for the first time. Everyone else was going to pub and I didn’t want to so I got a ride back to the hotel. It’s pretty much just a taxi only it’s a roofed cart with a motorcycle attached to the front. $2US for 5 minutes up the road. It would have been a long and adventurous walk.

  • The Killing Fields
    I have yet to fully process. There is nothing I can say.

    The Genocide Museum
    This was a high school that was turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge regime and then turned into a museum.

    I shook hands and took photos with 2 survivors. They are old now and sell books to tourists that tell their stories.

  • Today! was a bus ride from Saigon to Phenom Pehn. Not too exciting but there were tassels on the window shades in the bus, so not too bad. Maybe mildly exciting was the border crossing into Cambodia. Off the bus to show our passports to exit Vietnam, then on the bus for a short ride across area that is no country, and then off the bus again to enter Cambodia. They took my fingerprints on a scanner!

    In Phnom Penh our new tour group took a cyclo tour around the city and then dinner, and now I’m watching the X-Files movie on TV.

  • Mekong Delta was yesterday. This was the last day of the Vietnam part of the trip and the last day with our tour group. As such, we had Final Dinner last night, which included a game of “Secret Buddha” – Secret Santa only we’re in SE Asia. So. I stole and bargained for my present- but I don’t think anyone wanted it as much as me – a purple pouch with “Vietnam” stitched on. There was a lantern and other stuff for the taking too. I’ve written too much about this.

    The Mekong Delta tour was well organized. Our first stop on the river was the coconut candy making place, which I Enjoyed Very Much. Coconut candy is great. I also liked leaning more examples of how Vietnamese use up the whole coconut in the process (the shells used in the fire used the cook the candy, etc). I like crafty processes.

    The candy making place also included another rice paper making place, and a python that we were free to wear on our shoulders and take pictures. I felt comfortable not participating in this.

    After eating and buying coconut candy (because that happened, too) we had a ride in Vietnamese Mercedes’ (which is like a small pick-up truck with motorcycle). These took us to the tropical fruit place (many samples) and then to lunch (so much good food). Vietnamese-sharing style (many dishes served one at a time, one plate between 4 or 6 of us – we put portions of each into our own little bowl). This started with fishy salad rolls, where a whole fried fish was brought out in a stand, and the served picked off meat to add to the rolls. 2 each but I had 4 because Julie didn’t like hers. Then soup, and a chicken in sauce, and a fried rice, ending with honey tea from the hives located on site. Then: naps in hammocks if you wanted.

    Lunch and naps were followed by a ride in a row boat back to the main river. It was very peaceful (except for the far-off traffic noises, but just ignore that.)

    I didn’t nap in the hammocks for fear of falling into the mud or the pond but I did nap on the bus back to Saigon. Every day I am pooped!

  • Last night was night train to Saigon. That sentence sounds romantic, but we were deposited at the Saigon station at 6am. Tired day:
    Trip to cu chi tunnels
    War remnants museum
    Both are lessons about the Vietnam War – called the American Was here. ( maybe google “cu chi tunnels” if you want-I’m going to fall asleep before I explain or find a link)

  • Nha Trang

    I escaped Nha Trang today for another motorcycle ride into the countryside. I also escaped most of the tour group, too, as it was only three of us. We started with a ride up a winding road up into the mountains, stopping once to take pictures of a rice field and some cows. Our next stop was along a river and some falls. I waded in it up to my mid-calf – had a bit of a foot massage against the sand and rocks. The scene was surrounded by trees and full of the sound of insects/wildlife. We spent some time there and I spent some of that sitting on a rock and staring.

    Next was a ride *down* the mountain and a visit to villages who make (respectively) brass castings, rice paper (for salad rolls, or thick for crackers), and woven mats. We also stopped in at an old house that showed how Vietnamese people live/lived before they started moving to the cities.

    Lunch was noodles soup from a woman set up at the corner by the rice paper making place. Noodles and broth, with tofu and green stuff (cilantro). Yum. It is veggie because it was new moon, which is a day when Vietnamese Buddhists eat veggie. We also learned how to eat said noodles soup – using chopsticks to collect noodles onto spoon, add a little broth and deposit to mouth.

  • Tour group spent the day on a boat trip out of Nha Trang today. There was snorkeling and some time on an island beach. I was seasick/hungover (?) and so didn’t enjoy it as much as I might, but I did get a swim in off the back of the boat- beautiful water! I didn’t snorkel as I don’t like to see the creatures I’m swimming with. At the beach I sat under a grass umbrella and read so that was pretty much heaven to me.

    We visited a fishing village first and got to ride in a basket boat. I say ‘ride’ but I actually got to help paddle from the shore back out to the boat. (Julie has photographic evidence of this- and of basket boats). So fun.

  • Tour group spent the day on a boat trip out of Nha Trang today. There was snorkeling and some time on an island beach. I was seasick/hungover (?) and so didn’t enjoy it as much as I might, but I did get a swim in off the back of the boat- beautiful water! But I didn’t snorkel as I don’t like to see the creatures I’m swimming with. At the beach I sat under a grass umbrella and read so that was pretty much heaven to me.

    We visited a fishing village first and got to ride in a basket boat. I say ‘ride’ but I actually got to paddle (Julie has photographic evidence of this- and of basket boats). So fun.

  • 10 hour daytime train ride.

    I had a nap.
    I watched Cap’n America (The Winter Soldier)
    I purchased some dodgy rice and tofu from a stand at the side of the tracks during a stop
    The train compartments are air-conditioned
    I have a top bunk
    I knitted.
    The toilet. OMG the toilet. It’s not a hole in the floor, so it has that going for it.

    2 hours to go. Maybe less.

  • I’ve been a bit of a socialite for the past couple of days. I had some clothes and shoes custom made, and in between fittings I had lunches, and went in the pool, and went to the spa to have my nails done. It sounds relaxing but I’m exhausted.

    Today I am in the train station at Da Nang, waiting for a train that is 45 minutes late. It’s a 10 hour ride to Na Tranh but have several things to keep me occupied.

    Last night when I got back from dinner, my new suit was waiting for me at reception of the hotel as it had been delivered for me. It’s now crammed in my suitcase. With new clothes and shoes, my suitcase is just a titch heavier now, but I was still able to lift it on to the bus.

    Just for reference as to how hot it is, as I sit here using my thumbs to type, I am dripping in sweat. I’ve taken to having my hankie with me so that I may blot, but I didn’t think the wait this morning would be so long and I packed said hankie deep within my suitcase somewhere. Hoo. Drippy.