Hanoi ... and the end

Our last stop on the main travel itinerary was Hanoi, in northern Vietnam. [We have a 3 day stopover in Seoul, Korea to avoid what would have been a 13-hour layover, but in our minds, we are already be on our way home.] Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam, but its much smaller than Saigon and of a completely different character. Hanoi lacks the large boulevards leftover from the French colonial period that dominate Saigon's downtown. Instead, Hanoi's hectic traffic is crowded into small streets and lanes, particularly in the historic Old Quarter, and as a result I often feel like the city is pressing in on me and crowding my space. Hanoi has hectic traffic like many other Asian cities, but here there are no rules of the road. (It makes Bangkok traffic look absolutely law-abiding and orderly) . Traffic at intersections simultaneously moves in all directions and it's a wonder that anyone ever manages to get across. Motorcycles are parked on the narrow sidewalks (only on the street once the sidewalk is full) and most cafes and street kitchens also spill onto the sidewalk so there's no room for pedestrians, who are forced to walk in the street and brave the onslaught of vehicles. I'm constantly fearing that someone is going to drive into me from behind; thankfully, it hasn't happened, although Adam's arms have gotten clipped a few times from motorbikes going by. I prefer to walk into the direction of traffic, but even that's not straightforward, since people regularly drive the wrong way down one-way streets and/or drive on the wrong side of the road! The Vietnamese believe heavily in fate, and walking anywhere in this city is an exercise in trusting the universe that you won't be killed. A few nights ago, a man on a motorbike drove straight-toward me; I expected that he would swerve around me at the last moment as usual, however, he kept coming straight on until I smacked my hands down on his bike and swore like a trucker at him.  Yesterday, Adam and I were crossing a street that actually had stoplights and a signal for pedestrians. We were crossing on "the little green man" when a city bus came barreling around a corner and drove right through the crosswalk. We managed to get out of the way in time, but shockingly (to me), the bus didn't even slow down, not one little bit.  If we survive the rest of the day in Hanoi without getting hit, I'll put it down as a small miracle.

A typical intersection in Hanoi's Old Quarter (above)

A relatively quiet sidewalk in the Old Quarter (below)

The lack of space on the streets of Hanoi is also felt in shops, restaurants and even hotels. Many Asian cultures have a different sense of privacy and space than Canadians, and northern Vietnamese people take this to an extreme; there seems to absolutely no concept of personal space or privacy. For example, in many of the shops in central Hanoi, the sales personnel have followed me around peering over my should at whatever I'm trying to look at, adding a running commentary as we move around the store. It's overwhelming. And at our hotel, while I was reading my email on one of the computers available for guests in lobby, the weekend manager came and sat down beside me, and began to read my email with me. She even commented on the content of one of the messages! Then she noticed my iPod sitting beside the keyboard and picked it up and started touching buttons. To her, she wasn't doing anything rude or wrong, but to me it felt incredible invasive and was terribly annoying. There's certainly a profound cultural difference that I've noticed over the past few weeks in Vietnam.

Then there's the noise. Given Hanoi's crazy traffic, drivers use their horn as both a defensive and offensive weapon in the war on the streets. All day long the honks of motorbikes, scooters, small cars, large trucks and buses resonate through my brain. Our hotel is in a relatively quiet part of the Old Quarter ("quiet" being a very relative concept in Hanoi) and so there is some relief late at night, but the honking starts up again terribly early in the morning, usually well before 7am. After awhile you start to tune it out and relegate the honking to background noise, but it's still there battering my subconscious and eroding my patience. If that wasn't enough, tourists can't walk anywhere in Hanoi without being hassled by someone for something. We don't usually get a block from our hotel before xe om (motorbike taxi) and cyclo drivers are asking us if we want a ride somewhere. Actually, if all they did was ask us if we want a ride, that would be tolerable, but they use any means possible to get our attention, which entails shouting, clapping, whistling, or whatever else they can think of to make noise and get us to look at them. Of course, we've learned not to respond to any of this, but (a) it's hard - Canadians seem to be inately trained to look for the source of and reason for the racket; and (b) it's irritating, even if we don't turn our head, and it increases that omnipresent cacaphony of sound. Then there's the guys wanting yout to buy one of their photocopied books that they carry around in cardboard boxes, the multitude of fruit ladies that want you to hold their basket for a photo, and other random folks with something (probably illegal) to sell.

So what is there to like about Hanoi? Lots. For me, the chaos is synonymous with energy. It's hard not to feel alive in a city like this where everything is buzzing. Hanoi is also full of "sights" for tourists including historic temples, museums, beautiful Hoan Kiem lake, and the heart of historic Hanoi, the Old Quarter. In the 13th century Hanoi's 36 craft guilds established themselves in this part of the city, each one taking over a different street, which was then named according to the wares or merchanise that was sold there. Accordingly, the Old Quarter was originally called '36 Streets'. Today, the streets retain their historic names although some areas have been taken over by tourism and are overrun by guesthouses, travel agencies, and uninspiring souvenir shops. But most of the Old Quarter remains 'authentic' and local; it's a great place to wander, maybe get lost a bit, and watch life go by. Hanoi also has some excellent shopping, other than the uninspiring souvenir shops and glut of shops selling fake luxury goods. There are excellent high-end silks, jewellry, lacquerware and art, if you have the money to spend.

A section of the Old Quarter where traditional laterns are sold (above)

But my favourite thing about Hanoi, without a doubt, is the food. Adam and I have been seriously investigating the local food everywhere we've travelled, and Hanoi is a goldmine. There are plenty of fancy restaurants and mid-priced cafes that cater to upcale businessmen, expats and tourists, but the real gem is the street food. This isn't street food sold out of little mobile carts or street stalls, but full-on kitchens set in hole-in-the-wall spaces, although they still only focus on one or two dishes and often lack any kind of name beyond the street number and type of food they sell. Some are famous Hanoi institutions that have room to seat one hundred for a busy lunch rush in the cavernous space behind the "kitchen", while others are tiny places with just three tables and a few plastic stools. So far, all that we have tried are lip-smacking good and of course, cheap. 

Our first stop after arriving back in Hanoi from Cat Ba island on Saturday was the bun bo nam bo outlet at 67 Hang Dieu for lunch. (It has a name, but I don't know it, and it's not important.) Adam and I have been on concerted hunt for good bun (pronouced 'boon') since we had some bun bo at a Vietnamese restaurant in Vientiane, Laos. It doesn't sound like the obvious place for amazing Vietnamese food, but it was some of the best bun bo I've ever had, and it blew the socks off any bun that I've had in Toronto in the last few years. It reminded me how good bun can be and why I loved Vietnamese food so much during my last visit over eight years ago. Anyways, back to Bun Bo Nam Bo ... it's a street-kitchen that's a Hanoi institution, busy at all hours of the morning, day and night. You step into a long tube of a room where stainless steel tables go back as far as you can see. They only serve the one dish, but it's a doozy: a bowl of thin rice noodles (bun) with sauteed sliced beef, bean sprouts and onions, fresh lettuce, herbs, then topped with green papaya and carrot slices, deep-fried shallots, and finished with a generous ladle of rich beef broth. You mix everything up in the bowl, add some hot chili sauce and/or soy if desired and voila, a very filling bit of heaven for a mere 30,000 dong (about $2.50 Cdn). We've eaten there at least once a day since.

For dinner, we started at a very small outlet at 71 Hang Bo than serves up banh cuon nong, which is a bit like a dumpling or a cross between noodles and a spring roll. At this place, an old Vietnmese woman spreads a thin layer of rice flour batter on a steamer (which looks like a big pot with a cloth lid), and once the resulting rice pancake is sufficiently solid, lifts it off the steamer with a bamboo stick with one swift motion and immediately rolls it with a minced pork and mushroom filling.  The rice noodle roll is snipped with scissors and then topped with deep fried shallots. The banh cuon are served with a warm broth made from fish sauce for dipping, and hot chillis, lime, and fresh herbs (cilantro, basil, etc.) are added to taste. It's a yummy snack, good for sharing, and oh, did we mention cheap?  Only 10,000 dong (less than a buck) per plate, although most people indulge in more than one plate per person.  We saw one family polish off plate after plate after plate. We've been back more than once, and yes, we order more than one plate each. We've also tried another banh cuon outlet at 14 Hang Ga street that was profiled in Bon Appetit magazing a few years ago; it was tasty too but a bit more expensive.

For the main course, we decided to try some bun rieu noodle soup at a shop with no name at 34 Cau Go. We love pho, and eat a fair bit of pho bo (sometimes even more than one bowl a day ...) but there are more varieties of noodle soup in Vietnam, including bun rieu. It's nothing like bun bo or bun cha (more on that later) which are both dry noodle dishes, but is made of the same round bun rice noodles rather than the flat rice noodles that are used to make pho. This soup is slightly sour, tomato based, and the stock is made with minced crabs, although you will be hard-pressed to find any chunks of crab in your soup. Ours had large chunks of pork sausage. Tasty and cheap, but given our limited time, I'll stick to pho for soup and eating my bun dry. 

On Sunday we decided to go on a hunt for banh ran: deep-fried, crispy sticky rice balls stuffed with either a savoury filling of minced meat and mushrooms (banh ran man) or a sweet filling of mung bean paste (banh ran ngot) that is better than it sounds. The shop we went to, which again appeared nameless, at 52 Ly Quoc Su, also had fabulous crab spring rolls (nem cua be) and banh goi, which look like samosas and are filled with the same minced meat and mushroom mixture. It was such a super cheap and tasty snack that we actually went back the same day for more banh ran man and nem cua be, although afterwards I felt like I'd had just a few too many of these heart-stoppingly greasy morsels.

Monday was another street-food adventure. We went to the Temple of Literature in the morning (see, we do actually go visit some real "sights" and not just eat ...) and then stopped at nearby KOTO, a not-for-profit restaurant that trains street kids. It's much like the restaurants run by the Friends NGO in Laos and Cambodia, but run by a different organization. It was a feel-good place for a Vietnamese iced-coffee (heavy on the sugar and condensed milk) and french toast for Adam. Immediately after that we embarked on a mission to seek out some of Hanoi's famed bun cha. This dish, which is native to Hanoi and only second in fame to pho, is similar to bun bo nam bo, which originates in the south. It features small slices of crispy, grilled pork which are served in a fish-sauce based broth topped with green papaya and carrot slices. The bun noodles and herbs arrive separately on different plates. Chillis and/or garlic are added to the broth to taste, and then to eat, one takes a bit of noodle, dips it into the broth, and scoops up some pork and some herbs with it. The method is flexible and we've observed some different approaches to getting everything mixed up and into the mouth. We tried our first bun cha at the eponymous named kitchen at 1 Pho Hue, and also sampled some of their amazing nem cua be, which were irresistable as they were being deep-fried right in front of us (I could literally feel the heat from the pot of oil on my legs).  I think that we may return here later today for one of our last meals in South-East Asia, it was that good.

One serving of bun cha and a plate of nem cua be (above)

The bun cha and nem cua be shop at 1 Pho Hue (below)

Although by noon on Monday Adam had already eaten 3 meals and we'd each had 2 cups of coffee, we stopped for che on the way back to the hotel. At least I had che, and Adam opted for the safety of another iced Vietnamese coffee. Che is the Vietnamese word for any traditional thick, sweet dessert-like soup, pudding or drink. It's a bit of a catch-all, as there is a myriad variety of che, served either hot or cold. It's usually prepared with beans or glutinous rice and served with sweet milk or a sugary-water concoction. To a Western palate, it seems strange, even weirder than bubble tea; but I had to try it. Trying to decipher the menu, not in English, was impossible so I relied on my limited knowledge of Vietnamese words for fruits and ordered a che sen dua - che with lotus seed and coconut. What arrived was a glass full of lotus seeds, coconut shavings, and shaved ice, all floating in a sugary-coconuty-liquid. The lotus seeds were the size and texture of chickpeas and were savory, yet the liquid was unambiguously sweet. It was a very odd combination. Adam tried it, made a terrible face, and went back to the safety of his iced coffee. But the che wasn't so bad, so I finished it, and at the bottom I realized that it had kind of grown on me. It's probably an acquired taste.

We have eaten at a few proper 'restaurants' in Hanoi, but not many. Generally, most of them seem horribly overpriced when there is such great, cheap food available in such abundance. We went to Highway 4 on Sunday night, a long way south of the Old Quarter in central Hanoi, which well-priced and popular among locals. The food was good, especially the salads and tapas, but the highlight of the night was the house-brand of rice liquors. Highway 4 is famous for their rice liquor and at less than $1 a glass I couldn't resist trying one of the 4-shooter tasting sets. Only one of the 4 varieties was decidedly undrinkable; I nursed the other 3 over dinner.  We also returned to Quan An Ngon, a popular eatery that has a location in Saigon where we had a fabulous lunch, for an encore yesterday. We had fresh, zesty salads (nom lac and gio bo bop thau), pho cuon (a beef filled fresh spring roll), and shockingly good bbq beef with chili, lime and salt. Since my first attept at ordering che at a street shop didn't go so well, I gave it another try here, since almost everyone was trying the stuff. I had che su'o'ng sa hot lu'u, which is black jellies, water chesnuts, tapioca pearls and some unidentified red beans all topped with shaved ice and plenty of coconut milk. It was a big improvement on the lotus seed che, and I assume that if you were a bubble tea lover, it wouldn't be that strange at all.  I also undulged in a bowl of roasted banana with tapioca pearls and coconut milk for desert, which was very tasty even to my palate. 

 

Today is our last day in Hanoi, and in South-East Asia. Later tonight we board a plane that will whisk us away to Seoul and then back to Canada where we will have to reintegrate with reality. It's hard to believe. When we left, we knew that our time to travel was finite and we understood that it would come to an end at some point, but it still never ceases to amaze me how quickly time passes. At the beginning of the trip,  7 months of travel seemed like an ocean of time, and now in retrospect, it seems like a mere drop. That's not to say that it's not time to come home -- it is. Adam and I are both tired and we miss the people, pets and things we left behind. We're craving a good BBQ, a solid cut of steak, a big bottle of red wine. We've had an incredible journey; shared amazing experiences and had a few crazy [mis]adventures. And I doubt this is our last sojourn abroad. But, it's always nice to return to Canada, because there's no place like home.

See you soon,

Robin (& Adam)

Climbing on Cat Ba Island (Ha Long Bay)

We are now back in Hanoi after 10 days of climbing on Cat Ba Island, which is in the south part of the famous Ha Long Bay area. Ha Long Bay is known for the thousands of limestone karsts jutting hundreds of feet out of the water. Most people who visit this area take a single or multiple day cruise through the bay doing little else other than sitting on the boat watching the islands go by. But climbers see this area in a bit of a different light. A couple of years ago, a climbing video was released which featured Deep Water Soloing (DWS) in Ha Long Bay. DWS is fast becoming a very popular aspect of climbing due to the lack of ropes or crash pads! Since the video, Ha Long Bay (and Cat Ba Island) have become a destination for climbers looking to try out DWS. The only thing necessary, obviously, is deep water. Most of the established routes tend to finish anywhere between 15-20 metres in height and the only way to get off the wall is to jump. Therefore, the tide must be quite high in order to avoid smacking the ground under the water.

Prior to our departure, I was quite excited about the DWS as we had a great time doing it while climbing on Tonsai (in Thailand). But we were informed by the local climbing shop that the tides in Ha Long Bay during the spring season are generally lower than the summer and that DWS may not be possible. But there has been quite a bit of route development on Cat Ba Island over the past couple of years and that was enough to solidify our travel plans.

Limestone karsts visible from one of our beach climbing areas

Getting to Cat Ba Island is a travel experience within itself. From central Hanoi, it requires a taxi to the Luong Yen bus station, a bus to Haiphong, a transfer to the ferry, a ferry to Cat Ba, and then another bus to Cat Ba town. Luckily, it is a single company that runs this service and the transfers were seamless and the whole trip only took 4.5 hours (which for Vietnam is quite impressive). Upon our arrival in town, we immediately went to the only climbing outfit on the island, Slo Pony Adventures. This is a true climbing shop run by a couple of Americans, Eric (Pony) and Slo, who have done all of the work developing the crags and working with the local interests to ensure access. Eric was injured recently (not from climbing) while back in the US so we didn't see too much of him; Slo was our primary contact during our entire stint on the island. A HUGE thanks to Slo Pony as they helped us find a great place to stay (Bay View Hotel), get a motorbike for the entire visit, and pointed out all of the great climbs in each of the crags. They've even printed a guide book for all the bolted and established DWS routes. Anyone going to Cat Ba for climbing or just to check it out should seek these guys out as they will help you organize whatever you require and will make sure you don't get ripped off.

The primary route climbing is at Butterfly Valley, which has a collection of 25+ routes which are graded from 4 to 8a+. This variety of grades ensures that there is some climbing for the beginner all the way to the super strong! The limestone is pretty solid and offers a vast array of holds including giant tufas, stalagtites, huge huecos and razor-edged crimps! During our ten day stay on the island, we climbed at Butterfly Valley for six of those days. The land owners offer a fantastic lunch each day of fresh ingredients from the market (required to order before heading to the crag in the morning) and there's so much food that it takes some serious effort to get back on the wall afterwards! There's a gazeebo to eat in as well as hammocks for a quick post lunch nap if necessary. Not having to go find lunch each day is a huge bonus and allowed us to maximize our time climbing.

There were some great routes in the 6a range such as "Mother Butterfly" (6a), "Rome to Hanoi Express" (6a), and "Argentina" (6a+), which both of us enjoyed! Most of the routes were at least 18 metres long and provided for some awesome exposure. Right next to "Mother Butterfly" is a 7c+ called "Flight of the Bumblebee", which has a super easy start but then kicks into some harder climbing at the mid-section and then the last couple of bolts are a full on boulder problem with terrible underclings, haneous pinches and a dyno to the finishing hold! I worked this route a bunch and fell on the dyno quite a few times before finally sticking it and ticking this one off.

An area in the centre of Butterfly Valley has a collection of amazing routes which I spent some working. "I Enjoy Myself" (6b) follows a perfect line straight up to a pretty hard mantle crux; a good warm-up before tackling the more challenging routes. I worked an awesome route called "Prayer of the Mantis" (7b) just to the right of "I Enjoy Myself". The key feature on this route is a perfect arete that required some slapping and serious body tension! The bottom also has some serious ground fall potential so Robin was kind enough to pre-clip the first two draws on the way down from "I Enjoy Myself" (that's true love)! I sent this after a day and then was able to move onto one of the nicest lines in the area. "Hippie Banana Tree Killer" (7b+) is a route which has just about every type of climbing involved. A balancy boulder problem at the start leading into crazy, acrobatic roof followed by some huge deadpoints after the roof and then some sustained pocket climbing to the anchors. After placing the draws and working out the sequences, I tried this route a bunch of times and only once came close to the redpoint. I was a bit disappointed not to send, but it'll be there for next time!!! Below are some pics of Butterfly Valley.

Robin on "Mother Butterfly"

Adam on "Prayer of the Mantis"

Adam resting before the crux on "Flight of the Bumblebee"

Adrian (SloPony employee) setting up for the dyno on "Flight of the Bumblebee"

(which he stuck...)

Slo workin' his new project...

On one of our rest days, we decided to rent an extra bike and take a tour around the island. There's a great loop with a couple of side roads out to different points on the island. Driving around the island allowed us to see more of the beautiful mountainous terrain and we quickly realized the untapped climbing potential of the rest of the island, beyond Butterfly Valley. At Gian Luan harbour on the northern end of Cat Ba, the views of the karsts out in the bay were pretty good. There's little development here but that is changing rapidly. I imagine that in a couple more years, this point will be a major entry point of tourists coming to Cat Ba from Ha Long Bay.

Robin posing on our island tour

On our last full day on Cat Ba, we took a boat out to Lan Ha Bay to do some climbing at Tiger Beach on one of the karst islands. The boat wound its way through inlets and around islands until we reached our destination and then we took a kayak to shore. The routes were fine but it was clear that we were some of the first climbers of the season on this particular rock; I'm pretty sure the next climbers there will appreciate the cleaning job we did. But it was the scenery that was the highlight of this excursion. There was a slight fog due to the intermittent rain and it gave the islands an atmospheric, prehistoric feel, like we were right out of Jurasic Park! I was waiting for some pteradactyl to come swooping out of the sky!

While it was unfortunate that we did not get to do any DWS on this trip, we still had a great time! With a bit more sun, Cat Ba would have been perfect but we can't have everything! It is a place I would love to go and visit again. By that time, the guys from Slo Pony will probably have more routes bolted and more DWS established. So that's it from the climbing side of our trip. I'm pretty sure the next time I touch rock will be back in North America (Red River Gorge Easter Trip???). But who knows...there may be a quick hit to some boulders in Seoul???

See everyone soon back in Canada!!!
Adam

Goooooooooooood morning Vietnam!!!!

We are in Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) at the moment, and it is definitely one of my favourite major cities! There's not much in terms of architecture or ancient history. Instead, it has it's own unique charm and character. The people here are very nice and for the most part quite hospitable. Before we arrived, we were surprised to hear from many people that they did not like Saigon and found the people not friendly at all. After walking around the city and interacting with quite a few locals, I was quite surprised at how friendly the people really are! [Robin had found people friendly 8 years ago, but feared that things had changed since then.] We've even made a serious attempt at learning basic Vietnamese phrases, and to the locals, that seems to go a HUGE way. They have a good laugh when we try but inevitably pronouce things very badly, and then they help us sound out the words properly. We can now order our favourite meals and ask how much things cost so we can bargain with locals who don't speak English (there's a lot of pointing at money in that case).

We've been to visit the Reunification Palace (which looks more like a city hall in any North American city than a "palace"), the Jade Emperor pagoda, and the downtown area (with the French colonial Opera House, Post Office, Notre Dame Cathedral, etc.) I also went to the War Remenants Museum, formerly called the War Crimes Museum, and I must say, it's no wonder that many Vietnamese still harbour a grudge against the Americans and French. We've walked through many of the back streets of the city and it's very interesting watching the people go through their daily lives. It really makes a big difference to get away from the backpacker/tourist district of Pham Ngu Lao to really get a feel for this city.

Saigon is also home to some of the best coffee we've ever had. The Vietnamese definitely have my vote for the best coffee of the trip, and we had some great brews in Laos. We've even tried the "creme de la creme" of their coffee, the Legende: a coffee bean that has been eaten by a mountain weasel, then pooped out!!! Believe it or not, it's the best, and I'm bringing back a bag or two of that stuff.

Today is our last day in the city and tomorrow we fly to Hanoi. We will only be spending one night before leaving for Ha Long Bay the next day where we will spend 10 days rock climbing in the Cat Ba National Park. The area is reputed to be as good, if not better, than the climbing found around Krabi, Thailand. We shall see very soon. One of the bonuses of heading north is that we will be leaving behind this oppressive heat and humidity once and for all. The average temperature has been around 35 degrees + humidity. Oh, and we had the heaviest thunderstorm that I've ever seen yesterday! There was sooooo much rain that the streets were flooded with close to 5 inches of water by the end of the storm. We were wading down the streets in water well above our ankles, with garbage and other detrius from the streets floating in it. (It was rather gross but we got over it quick -- we needed to eat.) It's threatening to rain again today. Hanoi and Cat Ba will be cooler, with daytime highs around 20 C. I'm sure everyone in Canada would like to throw things at us for saying this, but it will be nice to get to some more cooler, more comfortable weather.

[Note: We actually flew from Saigon to Hanoi this morning, but this post was written yesterday, while we were still in Saigon, I just didn't get a chance to post it.]
L8r,
Adam

Cambodia and the Mekong Delta

My last blog post focussed exclusively on Siem Reap and the Angkor archeological site. But there is more to Cambodia, of course. After getting our fill of Angkor, Adam and I headed south to the capital, Phnom Penh. It's an interesting place, a city in transition, and one that is still grappling with the legacy of the Khmer Rouge and the country's long and bitter civil war. The Khmer Rouge's history is well-documented in Phnom Penh, and in particular, the S-21 Genocide Museum reminds visitors of the brutal reality of what Cambodia and its people endurred under Pol Pot's regime. One of the lesser known consequences of the Khmer Rouge's rule was the evacuation of the city around 1975. The Khmer Rouge forced people to march into the countryside and work as agricultural labourers, leaving Phnom Penh a mere ghost town by the time the Vietnamese invaded several years later. People have slowly returned to the city, but that upheal stunted the growth and development of this capital severely. Now, in a new era of stability and foreign aid & investment, urban migration is brisk. There is a real energy or buzz to the city, a tangible spirit of renewal as the citizens try to rebuild, develop and move forward.

But poverty is endemic in Cambodia, particularly in Phnom Penh, where it's likely exaccerbated by rapid urban migration. The city is much more "raw" than either Bangkok or Saigon; it reminds me a little bit of Bangkok ten years ago, when the gritty underbelly of that city was more visible, before it was cemented over with shopping malls and hidden behind towering office buildings and new condo developments. Phnom Penh is notoriously not one of the safest cities in Asia for tourists -- the chances of falling victim to a pickpocket, snatch-and-grab bag thief, or even a mugger are higher here than elsewhere, and we met people who were unfortunate enough to have their belongings stolen from right in front of them. However, if one is cautious and sensible the risk is still minimal.

For tourists, there are several museums and other sites related to the Khmer Rouge's bloody history, such as the Genocide Museum mentioned above, and some of the 'Killing Fields'. [Adam visited the Genocide Museum but neither of us went out to the Killing Fields, partly in protest that the land has been sold to a Japanese corporation that is now charging a considerable entrance fee.] But Phnom Penh also has beautiful colonial architecture left from the French, and an enviable location at the confluence of three rivers. There is a good dining scene in Phnom Penh and cafe culture. It's a pleasant place just to spend some time relaxing and eating and observing life going by.

We treated ourselves to a sundowner at the Foreign Correspondents Club, which is still an extremely popular spot for expats and tourists to enjoy a beverage and watch the sun go down. Their happy hour prices are rediculously low and they make a mean martini. I had almost forgotten how much I like vodka ... I highly recommend it. We also had a great dinner at Friends, a restaurant in Phnom Penh run by the NGO of the same name (which also runs Makphet in Vientiane). The food is modern Cambodian fusion, with a tapas-style twist, as all the dishes are fairly small. Perfect for me and Adam, who thought that everything on the menu looked tasty. We ended up ordering 5 dishes for dinner, including a Cambodian curry, a noodle salad, Cambodian-style coleslaw, and sweet-potato fries with curry mayo. (I can't remember the 5th at the moment.) We couldn't resist ordering the banana & chocolate spring rolls with vanilla ice cream for desert, which may sound strange but were simply amazing. It was an incredible feast, and all for about $15 Cdn.

We enjoyed Phnom Penh, but quickly exhausted the list of things we wanted to do, and were eager to move on to the small towns of Kampot and Kep on Cambodia's south coast. Adam and I took another slow, local bus from Phnom Penh to Kampot -- it was a never-ending five-hour journey to reach a destination that was a mere 150 km away! But it was worth it when we arrived in the small, riverside town where there really isn't much of anything to do. We passed three days in Kampot doing little more than eating, drinking, reading and watching movies. Yes, movies -- our fabulous guesthouse (Mea Culpa) had a DVD player in the room, and in the middle of the day when it was unbearably hot outside, it was slothfully delicious to sit in an a/c room and watch a movie. In the mornings and late afternoons, when it was just slightly less hot outside, we went for walks along the river, bikes through the village on the other river bank, and one very pleasant cruise up the river to watch the world go by. Not too many tourists make it to this part of Cambodia, and it gets very rural very fast. It was quite scenic and relaxing; I enjoyed our time in Kampot very much. Although there wasn't a great dining scene in Kampot, Mea Culpa Guesthouse made up some of the best breakfasts we've had in a long time and Adam indulged in their pizzas, made in an authentic Italian wood-burning oven. There were also plenty of spots to sit by the river and drink a vodka-soda/tonic while watching the sun set across the river and behind Bokor mountain.

After three days in Kampot we moved on to Kep, an even smaller town (pop. around 3,000) about 30 km away. Kep is on the ocean, and before the Khmer Rouge came to power, it was a prosperous seaside resort town and port. But Kep was seen by the regime as terribly bourgeousie and most of the villas and other buildings were gutted or burned by the Khmer Rouge. Recently, Kep has been superseceded by Sihanoukville as the major port and beach destination in southern Cambodia, but it's making a comeback with locals and expats looking for a little waterfront R&R in a more tranquil setting than Sihanoukville can offer (which has perhaps become a victim of its own success; it has endured rapid [over]development recently and become a little crazy). Even fewer tourists make it to Kep than to Kampot, and there are limited services and restaurants around. But it was a very pleasant little spot to relax and see some of rural Cambodia. We stayed in a simple concrete bungalow set in a gorgeous garden at Botanica, and kept busy driving around with a rented a motorbike. Don't worry, Mom, it wasn't terribly dangerous given the lack of serious traffic. Adam drove, and although he was a bit tentative at first, he quickly got the hang of it, and miraculously, there were no accidents. We really enjoyed just driving around the very rural countryside, taking it all in. On one of our drives, we stopped at a pepper plantation and saw how pepper is grown - the trees are quite tall (about 10 feet) and resemble juniper bushes a little. Another day, we spent the morning at the local beach, reading and watching the locals float around in the water on inner tubes, most of them fully clothed. Few other tourists were in sight. We also enjoyed sunset drinks every day. For entertainment, instead of watching Animal Planet (a channel we've become slightly addicted to in Asia), we watched our very own reptile reality show take place in our bungalow, which we shared with several other creatures, including 3 tokay (giant geckos) and some tree frogs. At one point, we stumbled into a tokay vs. tree frog showdown in our bathroom. (We didn't have the patience to wait for the outcome of the standoff, so we don't know if the tokay ate the tree frog or if the frog lived to see another day.) After spending a great three days of doing nothing-much-in-particular in Kep, it was time to cross the border into Vietnam.

But I must disgress a moment, to mention what another blogger has called "The Ambassadors of Hello". When we were out and about in rural Cambodia, it was not unusual for the local children to wave wildly at us and shout "hello", whether we were on a boat, bikes, or in a tuk-tuk. They were thrilled when we waved or shouted "hello" back, and sometimes, you could see them running to the road or the water's edge from quite a long away, just so that they could wave at us and say hello. It was incredibly endearing, and I was very happy to finally see children in Cambodia wanting to interact with us without wanting money from us. In Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, we were overwhelmed by children aggressively trying to sell us trinkets, books, water, and anything/everything else, or just begging for money. Of course, their parents or other adults put them up to it, and sadly they often benefit little from whatever money they manage to obtain. It's terribly disheartening to see children like that, particularly when you realize that most of them should be in school, but there's little that tourists can do that's meaningful to help. (Although Adam and I have made a point of patronizing restaurants and retail shops in SEA that are doing good works with street kids and providing fair trade for local artisans.) Needless to say, my heart was rather lightened when we met some children in Kampot and Kep leading more normal lives.

Back to our Cambodia-Vietnam border crossing ... The border was a mere 30km from Kep, but getting there and across was an "interesting" experience. It rates as one of the more complicated overland border crossings I've done, and there have been a number of dodgy border crossings in my life, one of which involved several hours in a holding cell, but that's a whole other story. From our guesthouse in Kep, we arranged for a motorized tuk-tuk (similar to a carriage pulled by a motorcycle) to take us to the border. It was a slow journey, but we travelled through some very scenic countryside, and the time passed quickly. We knew that the last few kilometers would be on a rough dirt road, but neither of us realized just how rough -- the potholes were big enough to swallow a car and I felt like I was getting a chiropratic adjustment every time we hit one. It didn't help that it had rained the night before, but mud wasn't the main problem. Eventually, when we had endured the rough road for as long as I though I could bear, the driver stopped and told us that this was where we got out. But, ... the border crossing was nowhere in sight! He tried to explain that xe oms (motorcycles with driver) were coming to pick us up and take us to the border. This did not please us terribly, as the arrangement and plan was that he would take us to the border, we would walk across, and then we would arrange onward transportation to the next town in Vietnam on the other side. Now we were stuck in the middle of nowhere with no transportation options and no choices. We had to use the xe oms he had arranged in order to get to the border, and we had to pay whatever we could manage to negotiate (which was unlikely to be a fair price). We were also terribly skeptical that our 3 large backpacks, including Adam's climbing gear, and our two smaller daypacks, plus ourselves, and the two drivers, could all fit onto two small motorcycles, but guess what? They did! It was quite a sight. Each motorcycle had a huge 90 litre backpack sandwiched between the driver and the handlebars, then either me or Adam on the back, with each of us wearing yet another backpack. (Adam had to wear/carry his 12kg climbing pack, which probably didn't feel so nice each time he hit a pothole.) It turned out to be several kilometers to the Cambodian checkpoint along an even worse road than what we had already come down. The motorcycles were zipping around and turning abruptly, trying to avoid potholes, yet sometimes slamming into bumps, and we were trying to hold on for dear life. While all this was going on, my driver was trying to have a conversation with me and we negotiated the fare for our journey! It was nothing less than crazy. But we got through the Cambodian checkpoint and the Vietnamese checkpoint, where it took an interminably long time for them to process our passports, and then finally drove to the town of Ha Tien, which is 8km inside the Vietnamese border. We had left Kep at 8 am and finally arrived in Ha Tien, about 38km away, about 3 hours later at 11am! We had no intention of staying in Ha Tien, and fortunately there was a mini-bus leaving for the town of Chau Doc (in the Mekong Delta) an hour later. The journey from Ha Tien to Chau Doc was uneventful, but not pleasant. Our mini-bus was so old and busted that it looked like it might fall apart during the journey. None of the seats were in one piece and we could even see the road through the floor! There was no air-conditioning but lots of air-flow. There were no chickens or other livestock on the bus, but it was a very local service stopping constantly to pick-up and drop-off passengers. Needless to say, we were the only tourists on board. When we arrived in Chau Doc several hours later, we and our bags were literally thrown out the door and onto the side of the road. We managed to negotiate a ride to our hotel from a cyclo (basically a bicycle pulling a carriage) and were very happy to collapse there.

Our adventures in the Mekong Delta started the next day. Most visitors to Vietnam see at least part of the famed Mekong Delta, but the great majority do so on a group tour from Saigon. Few tourists travel to and through the delta independently, but I'm not sure why, as it's rather easy to get around from town to town and to arrange your own river tours once you arrive. Tourists don't have to look very hard to try to find someone willing to take them out on the river, usually boat drivers find the tourists! It poured rain our first night in Chau Doc, so we didn't do much other than get some dinner and watch CNN & Animal Planet. It was an early night, since we planned to get up before 6am to get out onto the river shortly after dawn. All the travel guides recommend getting onto the river early, as it's busiest before 7am. It's so hot in the Mekong Delta that everyone is up and about bright and early, and then the towns shut down in the afternoon. By the time we got to the riverside shortly after 6am, there were lots of locals out drinking coffee, walking the promenade for exercise, and doing group aerobics or Tai Chi, something that is popular all through Vietnam. It wasn't long before a young boy came along and asked if we wanted to go out on the river. After some good natured bargaining, we got into his rowboat and were off for a 2-hour tour of the floating markets (more about those later), floating villages and a fish farm. It was a nice little tour, and we were done in time to catch our complimentary breakfast at the hotel -- pork noodle soup and really strong Vietnamese coffee. We had a whole day left to explore the small town of Chau Doc, and we wandered through the market and the small streets fairly aimlessly. We had coffee in plastic lawn chairs on the sidewalk with the locals and watched traffic go by. Children stopped to wave at us and say hello, and locals smiled when we waved and said "xin chao" (seen-chow) in response. And we bothered the very helpful and friendly staff at our hotel repeatedly with our questions of how-do-you-say-this and how-do-you-say-that in Vietnamese. The language is a tonal one, and the pronunciations extremely hard to figure out, but we were determined to give it a try.

After a very full day in Chau Doc, we took a much newer Mai Linh minibus to biggest city in the region, Can Tho. We arrived at a bus station about 5km from town and so had to use the services of xe oms (motorcycle taxis) once again in order to get to our hotel. The trip was not nearly as rough, given that we were travelling on well-paved city streets, but it was substantially more harrowing in city traffic. But both of us and all our baggage arrived safely. After getting settled, we headed out to the riverfront to try to meet some of the 'boat ladies' who do all-day trips to the floating markets on the Mekong. It wasn't hard ... if you walk around for more than a few minutes, you'll soon have people coming up to you saying, "You want boat trip?" But the locals who are trying to make a living this way are usually pleasant and polite, it's not a pushy or hard sell like some of the tuk-tuk drivers in Cambodia who harass you endlessly, even when it's obvious that no, you don't want a tuk-tuk. There's some friendly bargaining, but most of the boat drivers have a fixed price -- although this can range wildly from boat to boat. For example, a woman who based herself at our hotel wanted to take us on a boat tour for $30 USD, which for what is generally a 6-hour round-trip works out to about $6/hour. Other people offering boat tours on the riverfront were asking for $2/hour to $3/hour or more. We booked a trip with a very friendly woman who quoted us $2/hour upfront, no bargaining. (I appreciated that no-nonsense approach.) So it makes sense to shop around, especially because all of the small boats seemed to be more or less the same. There are bigger boats used by tour groups, which move faster and carry more people, but these boats cannot go into the middle of the floating markets the same way the smaller boats can, and of course, you share your day with a bunch of other tourists, rather than being the master of your own boat and going wherever you like for as long as you like. (You can guess that I'm not a fan of the big tour boats...)

Our trip on the Mekong started just before 5.30am the next morning. Although it was pitch black out, the city was already alive and there were lots of locals out, getting their day started. We cruised along the river in complete darkness at first, but we got to see dawn break while we were out on the river, and arrived at the first floating market, Cai Rang, right at 6am when it's busiest. A boat full of drinks pulled up to our little boat almost immediately, and Adam and I were able to buy steaming hot coffee, which really made our morning. Our driver, Sang, also took us to a boat selling food where we were able to buy some breakfast -- rice, pork and chilli. Sang plunged her little boat right into the middle of the mayhem, which at Cai Rang means both big and small boats. It's hard to explain (and so I really hope I can post some photos soon), but imagine a river full of boats of all sizes, laden with fruit and vegetables and ice and even housewares, where everyone is buying or selling. Sellers advertise what it is that they are selling by tying some of it to a bamboo pole sticking up from the boat. After cruising through Cai Rang for awhile, we continued down the river for another hour or two, until we arrived at the second market, which was made up exclusively of small boats, jammed together into a single thriving flotilla. Again, Sang thrust her little boat into the chaotic jumble, and we floated around in it for almost an hour, just gazing at the commerce taking place before us. I thought there might be order in the chaos, but no, I think it was just chaos. The boats smack each and move around each other like bumper cars, and most have old car tires tied to the sides for just that reason. It was an entirely unique experience. About mid-morning it was time to head back to Can Tho, and Sang took us back the long way, through the small, labyrinthine "back canals". It was incredibly scenic and we only saw one other tourist boat the entire time. We finally arrived back in Can Tho at 11am, 5 1/2 hours later. It was a fabulous trip. For me it was a highlight of our time in South-East Asia, but sitting on a wooden plank for that long was tough, and I don't know if my bum has ever been so sore! It was hard to believe that we had most of the day still ahead of us, although we didn't do much beyond eating, drinking coffee, and reading a good book. It was definitely an early night for us; we were totally exhausted from so much travel and so many early mornings in a row.

After 4 days in the Mekong Delta, we headed to Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon, as it's still referred to by most people, on March 4th. I think Adam's going to do a post on his impressions of this city. I was here 8 years ago, but it's all fresh and new for him. We've been here for 4 days, mostly eating some amazing local food, drinking fabulous coffee, and even doing a bit of sightseeing, when it's convenient to the eating and drinking. We fly to Hanoi tomorrow morning, and head out to Cat Ba Island in Ha Long Bay the next day. Although wifi is ubiquitous in Vietnam and internet cafes are cheap or free, but I can't seem to find a fast enough connection (or the requisite software) to post photos to the blog. I have my fingers crossed for Hanoi, otherwise the pictures might have to wait until we're home ... in a mere three weeks!

Cheers!
Robin

Angkor

Superlatives are heaped upon the Angkor archeological site, which is just 6 km outside of Siam Reap in northwest Cambodia, to such an extent that some tourists who arrive find that Angkor simply cannot stand up to the hype. But for most, it's the highlight of any trip to Cambodia, if not the highlight of South-East Asia. Travelfish.org states that Angkor is "quite simply, one of the most splendid attractions in all of Southeast Asia." Lonely Planet proclaims it as extravagantly beautiful, "the perfect fusion of creative ambition and spiritual devotion", and the eighth wonder of the world.

The Angkor site encompasses hundreds of temples spread out over a vast area -- it's all that remains of Cambodia's ancient Khmer empire, which lasted about 600 years from 802 to 1432 AD. Most of the significant temples that remain today were built between 900 to 1200 AD. At that time, the Khmer civilization was dominant in the region and Angkor likely had a population over 1 million. The houses and most of the buildings of the Khmer civilization were built of wood, and so quickly disappeared, but the Khmer's elaborate temples were constructed of stone, and remarkably many have survived in various states of ruin and restoration. Notably, most of the temples combine Hindu and Buddhist elements; some are dedicated to specific God-Kings or their mothers/fathers.

There are many books on Angkor and a vast amount of information available on-line, so I won't go into detail about the history or significance of Angkor or the Khmers (from whom modern Cambodians are directly decendended). Instead, I have decided to post some of the pictures that I took during our 4 hot and sweaty days of touring the temples. I've tried to restrain myself and just post a few, but I have almost 800 photos! (Yes, that's almost 200 photos a day, 40 photos an hour ...) I've mostly stuck to the big, famous temples, but I have lots of photos of the minor ones that I would be happy to share when we return. I've tried to use photos that Adam or I are in to show "proof of life". (No, we haven't killed each other and yes, we're still smiling, despite the dust and heat!) I had a great time touring around Angkor, and I think Adam, who unlike most people, had few expectations for Angkor, was pleasantly surprised at how much he enjoyed it as well.

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is the largest and most well-known of the temples at Angkor. (In fact, most people use the term "Angkor Wat" to refer to the entire archeological site, when in fact it refers to the central temple -- or "wat" in Khmer.) It is widely believed to be the largest religious structure in the world, although Adam and I contemplated whether this excludes the pyramids of Giza as 'religious structures'. In any event, the symmetry of the temple is startling, and the size and state of preservation makes it impressive.

Pictures, or my pictures anyway, don't really do Angkor Wat justice. It's the kind of place that you need to experience yourself. I have included a few photos that include either Adam or I. But my favourite photograph of Angkor Wat was taken by John McDemott during a solar eclipse over Angkor in 1995. I cannot include it here for reasons of copyright, but an image of it can be found on the web at the following address: http://www.asiaphotos.net/photo.php?id=352. It's well worth clicking on to see a much more majestic Angkor Wat.



Above, Adam dutifully posing for just a few photos while the tourist hordes are temporarily abated. Below, me, on a very rare occasion of being in front of the camera.

Below is just one photo of a few of the hundreds of Apsaras that Angkor Wat is famous for. Most of the stone walls of Angkor Wat are intricately carved.

The Bayon

The Bayon is one of the most favoured and photographed temples at Angkor, and probably the most unusual. The temple, like others at Angkor, features a central tower (45m high) with additional towers surrounding it (a total of 54) in a pyramid design. However, originally each of the 54 towers had four faces at the top -- one looking to each of the north, south, east and west. Many of these remain today, and the effect is remarkable. Visitors to the temple often feel as though they are being watched by the giant faces, which surround them and look down on them in all directions. No one is sure what the faces represent, but my favoured theory is that the faces represent King Jayavarman VII (who ruled at the time it was constructed) as a God-King, looking down on the entire Khmer empire in all directions. We were fortunate to plan our visit to the Bayon for early morning before the masses of tourists descended, and it was quite peaceful and beautiful.

Ta Prohm

Most people will have previously seen an image of Ta Prohm, perhaps without even knowing that it's from Angkor. This is the temple that is being reclaimed by the jungle, and it is in various states of ruin. Images of Ta Prohm are scattered in our popular culture. The temple is perhaps most notable for being used in the Tomb Raider movie, and the "Tomb Raider tree" is now featured on most guidebook maps! Our first visit to Ta Prohm was in the middle of the day, and the site was swarming with Asian package tourists who queued up to have their photo taken in front of the aforementioned tree. Not the relaxed, spiritual visit I was hoping for. We went back the next morning when it was quiet and tranquil, and we could actually hear the birds chirping and feel a connection with nature and the temple.

I must note that there are sections of the temple that are cordoned off with pink tape for safety, so that tourists don't wander into unstable sections where parts of the temple could come down on their heads. A laudable aim, but not so good for my photos of the ruins. Adam was very helpful and temporarily removed some of these ropes/tapes in out of the way locations so I could get my photos. Of course, we put the rope/tapes back!

Above, the (in)famous crocodile tree. There is a platform in front so that tourists can stand on it and get a good picture in front of the tree! I had to wait about 15-20 minutes to get this shot with no one in it. There's about 40 people just beyond the frame ...

And below, Adam doing the tourist-thing and getting his photo taken in front of the Tomb Raider tree. Not the most remarkable image in the temple, but the most well-known.

Ta Som

Ta Som is one of the 'minor' temples at Angkor, which is quite beautiful and as it gets fewer visitors, it is more peaceful than the major sites. The eastern gopura (gate) is completely overgrown. I love this photo with the Cambodian children in front ... they are running to catch up with me.

Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei is set apart from the other temples at Angkor - it's about 25 km beyond Angkor Wat. This is perhaps because it was commissioned by a high-caste Brahman rather than a King. It is quite small, even petite, compared to the other temples (again perhaps because it was not a royal temple), but it is undoubtedly the most intracately carved and thus perhaps the most beautiful. It features some of the most detailed, exceptional carvings extant in the world. Mystery surrounds Banteay Srei. Some have suggested that it was built or designed by a woman as no man could have created something so beautiful and so delicate. Unlike the other temples at Angkor, the carvings were done directly into the pink sandstore rather that into a plaster coating that was later attached to the temple face. It has been dated at mid-10th century (which would be almost 200 years before Angkor Wat was built), but this has been called into question recently. It may have been built much later. No one really knows when it was built, why, or by whom. But its a highlight of Angkor, that's for sure. I have at least a hundred photos of it, but I've limited myself to including just one, below.

And finally ...

Who would be surprised that Adam couldn't resist clamouring about on some of the lesser temples, doing a bit of a traverse? (see below) This is at one of the earlier temples, Ta Keo, where it didn't seem out of place or inappropriate given that other people were scrambling up the sides of the ruins to get to the top for a view. Adam didn't desecrate any of the major temples, and we respected "no climbing" signs when they were present.

I hope you enjoy! This is the first time in weeks I've found a computer fast enough and with the applications to post these, and even then it's been a painstaking process. So I'm not sure when the next photos will go up. Perhaps Saigon or Hanoi ... or when we get home! We just arrived in Vietnam, and I feel like we're in the home stretch now.

Robin