Another long ride.

It's just after ten in the evening and I have arrived in Siem Reap. This morning I got up at 6:30 had a shower and got on the bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh. The border crossings went smoothly and the ride was quick enough that at two o'clock I found myself in the capital of Cambodia. A quick check on the timetable and another hour later I was back on a bus again this time bound for Siem Reap where I arrived at 9:30 in the evening. This is when familiarity helped out, I have been here a few times before and knew where I wanted to stay, and found myself in Front of the Red Lodge ten minutes later.
Time for a good nights sleep and off to the ruins tomorrow!

Quiet Day

An altogether quieter day today. I managed to get a few blisters while walking yesterday because I wasn't wearing any socks in my shoes and today i was paying the price for it. Not that sitting in a cafe drinking coffee is that bad a price to pay.
Tomorrow I shall be on my way to Cambodia and all being well I should be in Phnom Penh around three in the afternoon. We'll see.

Another day wandering around Saigon

I spend another day wandering the streets of Saigon visiting temples and taking in the sights. The complete collection of Vietnam photos can be found here but these are some of yesterdays highlights.

A family having breakfast just down from the hotel I am staying at.

These two cuties posed for a photo in a temple forecourt then promptly demanded payment! I declined.

Worshipers in the "Jade Emperor Pagoda"

Saigon

It took eleven and a half hours but the bus made it to Saigon where we arrived in a tropical downpour. Luckily I was prepared for that and had my umbrella handy. My backpack has a waterproof bag inside it so everything was dry as a bone.
Tomorrow we'll see what the city has to offer.

Hoi An

Hoi An is small town about half way between Hanoi and Saigon that has escaped more or less unscathed from the various wars. With the opening up of Vietnam for tourism it has been spruced up and is now a reminder of an older gentler time that probably never existed. Having said that, its interesting and well worth the day I spend out here.

Lovely tree covered streets and no traffic, cars are banned from the city center!

The "Japanese" bridge was built to connect the Japanese and Vietnamese parts of the village.

A Colorful temple entrance.

Cities of the dead.

 The emperors of Vietnam had a fair bit of time on their hands as the country was run by the French and their wives and concubines obviously didn't provide enough entertainment so they set about building magnificent mausoleums for themselves. In order to take a look at some of them I hired a motorbike and driver and cruised the byways of Hue.

First up is a pagoda rather then a tomb but this one has an unusual and unpleasant relic stored in its compound. In 1963 during the height of the Buddhist repression by the South Vietnamese government the venerable Thich Quang Duc was driven to the center of Saigon in the Austin motor car that is now on display here. When he got to his destination he got out of the car, sat down, another monk poured petrol over him and he burned himself to death.
Today the pagoda is a quiet and pleasant place along the river.

 

 Next up the tomb of Emperor Tu Duc who had 104 wives and concubines but didn't father a single child. He did however build a rather nice tomb with a large number of ancillary palaces, temples and pavilions. Apparently the population thought it was rather to nice and to expensive and attempted a coup, they failed and today his extravagance makes for a popular tourist attraction.

Emperor Khai Dinh his tomb actually took longer to build then his reign a total of eleven years. It is a combination of Vietnamese and European design and looks like something you can expect in France. Built against a hillside it's a climb to get there but once you make it the Emperor awaits in effigy. A lifesize gilded statue sits on top of the actual grave.

 Finally I visited the last resting place of emperor Minh Mang. This is considered the most harmoniously laid out tomb and indeed the courtyards and buildings blend beatifully with the landscape. Unlike the other ones the tomb itself is actually inaccessible but just wondering around the area is well worth it.

Scams

I was warned by various people as well as by every guide book that honesty is not something that's high on Vietnamese their agenda. Now after ten days in the country I tend to agree. Not a day goes by that someone isn't trying to rip me off on something. Normally its small stuff like charging double for a cup of coffee or trying to get you to pay ten dollars for a taxi ride that costs only two. But sometimes its far worse then that, two Australians I spoke too had hired a rickshaw for the afternoon and presented with a bill for four million Dong afterwards, that's two hundred dollar! When you dispute any overcharges a lot of the locals get very aggressive indeed.
Not a problem for me I can give as good as I get but quite unsettling for a lot of people.

Now how did this happen?

It's 39 degrees outside and I am having a cold. Runny nose, watery eyes and a sore throat.
You think that couldn't happen out here.

I'll have another Strepsil now.

Night train to Hue

It's 700 kilometers to Hue and the only half comfortable way of traveling there is the night train. The alternative a night bus is only for when you are really desperate.
We left exactly on time at 3.45 in the afternoon and arrived spot on at 6.15 the next morning. As you can see from the photos there are four berths per cabin and I shared mine with a Chinese couple. The big benefit of travel by train is that you can get up and walk around to stretch your legs and on a sleeper train like this you can stretch out and try to catch a rest. I still didn't sleep much but that has probably more to do with me then the train.

Hanoi

Hanoi is quite a fascinating town with lots of old narrow streets, temples, churches and of course uncle Ho's last resting place. Over the last few days I have walked all over town, seen the sights and had some good coffee. While, or perhaps because off, Hanoi is nowhere near as modern as the places I visited in China it has a pleasant feel to it.

The Ho Chi Minh mausoleum.

You don't get to many of these anymore. A statue for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin.

Entrance to the temple of learning.

The venerated teachers.

Off to Vietnam

The trip from the Yuányáng Rice Terraces to Hanoi took me two days and started off with a misunderstanding on the first day of my travels. I had taken a small and bouncy van that passed my hotel to the bus station and attempted to buy a ticket for the bus to Hék?u when incomprehension ensued. The lady behind the ticket window said something to me and waved her hand. I tried again, same response, no ticket. I asked at another ticket window nothing to make me any wiser. So I walked through the bus station to see if there was anyone who could speak English, or Dutch, or German, or Spanish, French even. No luck I was obviously on my own. So I started to look for a bus with the script for Hékou, no bus. By this time I am considering walking to the border it's only 200 kilometers after all. Then a plan B pops up in my mind and I ring the owner of the lodge I stayed at and who speaks some English. Bingo! I talk to him then hand the telephone to the ticketing woman, she speaks to him and hands the phone back to me, I talk to him amd find out that the bus is yet to arrive at the station and I can buy my ticket on board of course at that point the Hék?u bus shows up.
Right on the bus and how long can 200 kilometers take? seven hours as it turns out. On the upside its a scenic trip and at one stage we do almost two hours on an unsealed road through the mountains. When we finally make it to Hékou I hit the same language barrier. I am at the busstation but where is the border post? I decide to take a short cut and hop in a taxi show him the script for border post and he drives me around the corner and charges a dollar for it. Almost there now. After the hassle of getting there the formalities on both sides of the border are few and three minutes later I am in Vietnam.
My first night in Vietnam is limited to finding out what time the train leaves for Hanoi and having a good meal.
The next morning I am at the railway station at 8.30 am for the 9.15 departure of the slow train to Hanoi needless to say it's delayed we finally chug out of the station at 10.30. The carriage has timber benches and seat alocation for eighty people. Add another eighty for good measure and a can of sardines starts looking spacious. Still the people are friendly and we are moving. Then we stop I had forgotten that this is the slow service. We stop and start for the next thirteen hours, vendors come around to keep us fed and watered, people come around to practice their English on me and a group of students sings and dances in the aisle. By the time we trundle into Hanoi I am knackered, just one more ride on the back of a motorcycle and I am in my hotel and ready to sleep yet again

Vietnam

After two days of long and tiring travel I arrived late last night in Hanoi. I will try to update the blog on the time I spend in Yuang Jang as well as my trip down here later today but first I want to go and see some of the city.

Vietnam Visa

My visa for Vietnam arrived this afternoon as promised and tomorrow I'll be moving on again.
Probably Chiang Rai tomorrow and the border with Laos on Monday. I anticipate to be about two weeks in Laos before going to China.

Another Visa run

The same as for my China Visa, I have handed the friendly lady at the travel agent my passport, a photo and some money, and she promises me that my passport will be back on Saturday with a Vietnamese Visa stamped into it.
As always I remain a little wary of these kind of transactions but last time it worked flawless.

Chiang Mai

After lots of thought, and changing my mind about five times, I finally decided to keep on heading North, rather then go East, as I had initially planned.
So this morning I got on the bus to Chiang Mai and after a pleasant ride got here around half past three in the afternoon.
Not sure yet what I am going to do in the next few days but trying to get a visa for Vietnam and doing some cooking is on the agenda.

Watch this space!

I am currently waiting for my flight to Bankok where I expect to be for a few days to sort out a visa for China. Then it will be north to the ancient monuments of early Thailand, east to Laos then north again to China. After a loop through southern China I hope to return to Bangkok via Vietnam and Cambodia. This first part of my trip should take about three months.
After that I'll fly to Nepal for some trekking before heading back to New Zealand for some rest and relaxation and undoubtedly some work.