Same, same … but different!

March 18, 2007

Cambodia, although it is just next door to Vietnam, felt much different. The country is definitely poorer and has few resources. The people are different too – shorter, browner and a bit stockier. While Vietnam seems very much in the Chinese sphere of influence, Cambodia has historically come under the influence of Indian culture and religion. We found the country much poorer and people we observed seemed to be living very basic lives.

We arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia after a 90-minute flight from Hanoi. Exiting the plane, we were met by a wall of humidity, but the airport, itself, was very modern and air-conditioned. We had to go through passport control and show our visas and also customs, but were soon out and changing money again – this time it was 4000 riels to US dollar. Again we changed 500 RMB but really shouldn’t have bothered. We had plenty of US dollars and that seemed to be the preferred currency. We took a taxi to town and our driver, Boron, offered to drive us around for $25 a day. This seemed such a good deal we didn’t even bargain. He asked where we were going next and when he found out we were going to Pnomh Penh he offered to drive us for $100. Since we had no reservations for this part of the trip and wanted to see some of the countryside, we agreed on a price of $80. Siem Reap is all set up for tourism; modern hotels line the road from the airport, most seem less than 10 years old. The big attraction is the Angkor temples. Our hotel, the Angkor Holiday, was 3 star but very nice – modern, clean, nicely furnished, good breakfast and in the city surrounded by tourist services – restaurants, convenience stores, massage parlours and Internet cafes.

Our driver, Boron, arrived to pick us up in his air-conditioned Camry at 9:00. In the daylight, we could tell that Cambodia was a poor country – dusty roads, cracked pavement, half-clothed kids and pigs rooting in the garbage. I recommend the driver approach to anyone coming to Angkor to see the temples. Boron knew the area and advised us what to see, where to go and how long it would take. After an hour or three climbing around the temples, it was nice too see Boron waiting for us with the air-conditioned car. It felt a bit decadent, but was well worth it! It was mid-30’s the whole time we were there and I would recommend an early morning start and a long lunch to beat the heat. We went hard the first day and visited Angkor Thom – Bayon, Baphuon, the Royal Palace, the Terrace of the Leper King and Terrace of the Elephants. There was lots to see and it was all spectacular. I was most impressed by the scale and the detail of the carvings. The temples are all different but similar in materials, construction and style. They are generally made of sandstone fitted together without mortar. The stones have shifted over time – some are over 1000 years old – and the most are undergoing some degree of conservation or repair usually sponsored by some foreign country – India, China, Japan, the US. It is hard to describe all the temples and I will let the pictures speak for themselves. That evening Boron picked us up at the hotel and we went to dinner and a floor show of Aspara dancing at the Jasmine Angkor restaurant.

The second day we learned that an early start was best and Boron picked us up at 7:30 AM. We had reserved this day for Angkor Wat, which is the crown jewel of the Angkor temples. Angkor Wat is absolutely huge and completely surrounded by a 200 meter moat. Once you cross the moat there is a gatehouse and then about a kilometer long causeway to the main temple which is built on three levels. The climb to the last level is very steep – almost like a rock climbing wall. Brenda didn’t come up to the top and I spent about 30 minutes poking around up there before I decided to come down. Only one of the 4 staircases had a stair rail, which is a modern addition. We visited one more temple, Preah Khan before we left for a late lunch in Siem Reap. Preah Khan was beautiful and huge but unrestored. This is where you see the pictures of trees growing on top of the ancient walls.

By this time Brenda was not feeling well and so she laid low while I went out to take sunset pictures at Phnom Bakheng. This temple is at the top of a small mountain; it was about a 20 minute hike. Once I arrived at the top, the temple proved to be quite small and very crowded. People were swarming all over the temple hoping for the perfect sunset picture. It seemed quite dangerous as several of the towers seemed to have loose stones and the wear and tear on the temple was severe. Undaunted, I climbed to the top and got my shots. Actually, it was a disappointing sunset and I left before dark hoping to avoid scrambling down the mountain without light. As it was, I had difficulty connecting with Boron but eventually found him and got back to the hotel.

By this time we were all templed out and decided to have a lazy morning and meet Boron at 10 AM for the drive to Phnom Penh. I thought it was an interesting drive, but Brenda spent it sleeping in the back seat. Most of the trip was near a huge seasonal lake called Tonle Sap. Because it was the dry season, we didn’t see much of the lake; but many of the houses were on stilts to avoid the high water. The area under the houses is used as living space and a corral for animals. Also most houses had a large hole in the front yard. Boron told us that the hole was for a fishpond when the water comes up. As the water recedes the fish are trapped in the hole and the family has their own little fishpond for a while. But overall we were struck by how poor people seemed – houses were small and lightly built, naked children were crawling around and the houses seemed to be shared with the livestock. In fact, when we stopped for lunch, we shared space in the restaurant with a chicken.

We arrived safely in the Phnom Penh about 3:30 and said goodbye to Boron. I was not impressed with Phnom Penh, but my opinion may be related to my turn being sick that evening and night! Feeling much lighter the next morning, I managed to rally to see the National Museum, the Royal Palace, ride in a tuk-tuk and enjoy a dinner in a nice restaurant along the river. However, overall we found Phnom Penh crowded, dirty and with a strong smell of exhaust fumes. Anyway the following day we flew to Beijing; the Phnom Penh airport was very modern but strangely infested with mosquitos! Back in Beijing on Monday evening, we spent a day or two recovering our strength. We now believe that our symptoms were caused by the malaria medication we were taking. The rest of our holiday was spent planning and preparing for the new term. What dedicated teachers we are!

“So you want to be a millionaire...”

… Then you should visit Vietnam! We arrived at the Hanoi airport about 11PM on February 17th and immediately went to change some money. We changed 500 RMB – about $75 dollars Canadian. The total in Vietnamese dong was about 950,000! Wow! The exchange rate was 16,000 dong to $1US! That took us a while to get our heads around! We had lunch the next day and the bill sounded enormous – 40,000 dong! Some furious mental calculations and we realized that we had had lunch for two for $2.50 US! Actually despite the huge numbers quoted most things in Hanoi were very cheap – even cheaper than Beijing.

Our trip into town was memorable. As we exited the airport to look for a taxi – always a challenge in a new city – we saw a big sign “Taxi to city 150,000 dong or $10US”. Great, I thought; this is better organized than Beijing where some taxi drivers are always trying to rip you off. So we got into the line, but soon realized that although there were plenty of taxis none were picking up from the line, but trying to make private deals to take people to town for much more. As we settled into the line, we heard a familiar voice – it was Peter, a retired Aussie and his wife, who live in Beijing and had joined us on the Harbin trip. This was our trip for meeting people as we had already met several people we knew – students, teachers and Rebecca, our guide and passport saviour from the Harbin trip. Anyway, after waiting for a few more minutes, one of the taxis relented and agreed to take the 4 of us into town for $4 each - $1 more for him and $7 cheaper for each couple.

The ride into town was not uneventful, there were fireworks going off evertwhere and our taxi driver began acting strangely and slapping himself on the head! It turned out that because of the Chinese New Year celebrations, he had been driving for over 24 hours without a break and was very sleepy. He stopped the car and we gave him some water that he poured over his head. He walked around for a while and then returned to the car refreshed. We did our best to keep him awake, singing songs and telling jokes.

Our first impression of Hanoi was that the architecture was quite different – all the houses and shops had a very narrow frontage – perhaps 10 feet wide. Ground floor was often a shop or a garage with living quarters above connected by steep, narrow staircases. The houses were generally 3 to 5 stories with a covered deck on top. We found out that the narrow frontage was related to taxes as the taxes were based on the frontage. Now, Vietnam is undergoing an economic revival, but much of Hanoi is still very old going back to French colonial days. Of course, it was dusty and dirty as rainy season was due to start in a few weeks. Many things were closed that night due to the Chinese New Year and the roads were very narrow with lots of cracked pavement and ruined sidewalks. To cause further congestion Hanoi has a vibrant street economy, which uses up most of the sidewalk and even spills out into the streets. So we were not quite sure what we were getting into, but we arrived safely at our hotel, which was basic but adequate.

The next day we had breakfast and booked a junk tour on Halong Bay and a city tour. We discovered that many things were closed because of the holiday, so we decided to get a taxi to the Old Quarter to explore on our own. We were overwhelmed by the number of motorbikes – they were everywhere, in every colour, style, make, age and configuration. We saw motorbikes carrying slaughtered pigs, baskets of chickens, and lots of children. We had been told that the Vietnamese were known to carry 5 people on one motorbike and we keep watching for the mythical 5 on a bike. We actually saw it on our last day in Hanoi – mother, father, 2 kids and a babe in arms. We found the Old Quarter very busy, until we sat down in a café to have an iced coffee and began chatting with two Aussie tourists who said they couldn’t believe how quiet things were – everyone was gone because of the New Year’s holiday.

Generally, we found Hanoi a very pleasant city, somewhat down at the heels but in a kind of elegant, bohemian way. Vietnam is very much influenced by Chinese culture, but the people look a bit different – they tend to be slimmer and often almost willowy and elegant and very small. The city itself has several lakes and there are cafes and restaurants along the shore or on boats anchored in the water. The food was delicious and very inexpensive.

The next day we cruised Halong Bay in a junk – nice to do as the rock formations were beautiful; we stopped at a floating village and bought some refreshments. Our junk was often attacked by smaller craft piloted by bands of piratical children trying to sell us fruit. They would sail close to our junk, jump on and scuttle along the gunwales trying to sell bananas, lichees and mangos. We had lunch on board the junk and afterwards toured a vast limestone cave. Then it was back to the bus and the 3-hour trek home; it was only about 100 kilometers but the traffic and poor roads slowed us down.

The next day we were up early for a city tour, which included a lovely pagoda – Tran Quoc – by a lake, where we watched Vietnamese pray and cram good luck money into various crannies in the shrine. Afterwards we went to see Uncle Ho – Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum is a must see stop on the tour. Security there was intimidating. We were screened twice and them scrutinized by a procession of guards as we meekly waited in line. People were pulled out of line to cover up – women had to cover their arms and legs – and to uncover – men had to remove their hats. People were pulled out and searched; we saw one fellow searched twice in the space of 50 feet. Once inside, we solemnly trooped past Ho who looks good for a man of 117! Apparently he flies to Moscow each fall for a tune-up with Lenin’s conservators. Afterwards we saw the Presidential Palace – a relic from the French colonial days and a smaller house where Ho lived in ascetic circumstances and an even smaller house on stilts by a lake where he spent his last days – it was a very simple house further away from the palace. I wonder if the move wasn’t motivated by the threat of American bombing. Anyway the grounds were very beautiful and so was the lake. We noticed people clapping hands at the side of the lake and found out that legend has it that Ho used to summon the fish for feeding by clapping his hands and apparently the fish will still come when summoned in this way.

Afterwards we saw the One Pillar Pagoda and had lunch in the old quarter. We ate with a Argentinean family – they had 3 young children which brought back memories of 20 years ago for us. We decided to skip the after lunch part of the tour – another pagoda - and set off on our own to tour the old quarter. We started with an hour-long pedicab tour, strolled around the lake, stopped for coffee (Vietnamese coffee is wonderful and strong) and then bought some art and souvenirs.

The next day our flight was at 4:55 so I went out in the morning to do some more photography in the old quarter while Brenda enjoyed a leisurely morning. I used the opportunity to travel on the back of a motorbike. It is a very cheap and quick way to get around and there are people waiting on most corners to give you a lift. We enjoyed our stay in Vietnam and Hanoi is a city we would definitely like to visit again; it is crowded and old, but somehow charming and the people seem very accommodating. Surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be much lingering resentment against the French or the Americans. There were lots of French tourists about and the American dollar is readily accepted. I wonder what all that trouble was about back in the 60’s??