Crazy Saigon, NOT Ho Chi Minh City

So Bangkok has a massive amount of organized traffic & Cambodia has zero traffic laws but we were very curious to see where Saigon fit in the spectrum. Somewhere in the middle I’d say. It seems just as busy as Bangkok and while it has traffic signals, many motorbikes just blow right through them. By day 2, we had a catchphrase for our approach… “Hesitation kills”. The light switches, you get the little green walking man, you put your head down & just walk briskly at the same pace without breaking stride, assuming the renegade motorbikes who are running the light will see you & adjust their path to you. If you alter your path, pace or hesitate at all, your arc changes which then throws off the motorbikes, leading to potential disaster. So out the window flies what your parents drilled into you as a little child… There is no looking both ways before you cross the street. You’ll never make it & will be stuck on that corner for hours. You look one way, even with the little green walking man, & then you sort out the rest on the fly. We adapted just fine (& survived) & I must say, it was a bit exhilarating & made simple strolls around the city pretty darn exciting.
You may have noticed I’ve been referring to HCMC as Saigon. On our first night in the city after travels & a lovely dinner at a restaurant operated by former street children & orphans, we ended up at Ice Blue, despite its name, a chill local bar down the street from our hotel. We sat having local beers for an hour or so before we realized we were the only ones in the bar & were approached by the Vietnamese owner & his older British minority investor. The owner explained their tradition that if bar newbies stay past 11, they are gifted a tequila shot dropped in a beer and only once we successfully chug the beer/shot mix, do they recognize our names (we remain nameless before). We weren’t given an option so the nice girls working the bar set up the contraption & we had to take them down. Afterwards, I ended up having a wonderful 2-hour+ conversation with the owner about various topics, while Amy was unfortunately stuck talking to the pompous investor. The owner & I spoke about our personal histories (he’s originally from Hue in central Vietnam); all of the American Vietnam War vets who sidle up to his bar, ridden with guilt, & how he tries, over several nights, to get them to open up & leave the past in the past & focus on living a happy life now; & the fact that no one calls the city HCMC. Tran says he’s never EVER heard ANYONE call it anything but Saigon. And he was emphatic about it. He said to the locals, this was very important as they don’t want to recognize & memorialize communist Ho Chi Minh (as it was renamed for him upon fall of Saigon in 1975). I really liked that spirit, & can attest we never heard locals refer to it as HCMC, so it’s Saigon from here on out. He was a lovely feisty old man w endless fascinating stories & a refreshingly positive outlook on life & I loved our conversation. He took out a pad of paper & drew a map of Vietnam and using his input, we mapped out our 3-week proposed itinerary. He gave me his card, in addition to a big hug upon leaving, & insisted if I needed anything at all or had any questions as we traveled, I shouldn’t hesitate to reach out to him. I think, after we complete the 6 weeks travel & Amy unfortunately has to leave, I will be back to Vietnam, and Saigon specifically, & will certainly make a point to stop in at Ice Blue for another chat w Tran.

The lovely restaurant’s mission statement

Drinking local wine from Dalat…it’s really not that bad & the wine professional traveling w me agrees

Our first fresh spring rolls of the trip

Their house specialty… deep fried shortribs w lemongrass

The contraption & the lovely ladies behind the bar who really enjoyed when I talked shit to the pompous Brit.

That last post was a real downer

If I haven’t lost you yet, we’re heading next to Vietnam, the country I was most looking forward to. I promise to keep it a bit lighter for the next several posts. Ha.

A sobering day in Phnom Penh

I had heard mixed reviews of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city. “A big bustling city with lots of things to do but not a lot of culture”. It was still very important for me to go as that was the epicenter of the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975 and I felt I needed to see that history to be respectful of the Cambodian people. It’s kinda like visiting Auschwitz or other concentration camps… You know it’s not going to be a fun day of touring but it’s something you need to see. It’s that important. I first saw the great & very powerful early 80s movie “The Killing Fields” in my early 20s and read the book on which it’s based shortly thereafter & was incredibly moved. So this was a must-see for me. We booked a tuk tuk driver, Mr Vann, to take us touring of the S-21 Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh and the Choeung Ek killing fields outside of the city. These are just two examples of hundreds of similar places that the Pol Pot regime setup to rid the country of any non-farmers or basic day laborers (e.g. teachers, doctors, any/all professionals, anyone wearing glasses). They were subject to gruesome torture at the prison and then shuttled off under cover of night to be killed and buried in mass graves at the killing fields. In 4 years, the Khmer Rouge killed over 3 million Cambodians, nearly 30% of the population. The US didn’t help the situation as it’s prior bombing of the eastern border of the country to flush out VC, forced rural Cambodians into PP, which was then emptied by the KR. I think what was most disgusting to me is how the world could standby and let this happen AGAIN after what Hitler did in WW2. I’m sure the US political atmosphere was such that entering into another war in SE Asia, immediately after getting our asses handed to us by the Vietnamese/Russians/Chinese, was not what Washington wanted. But sometimes you have to do the right thing & not only enter into war to defend your own financial or political interests. To make matters worse, even after the Vietnamese ousted the Pol Pot regime in 1979, the US (and the rest of the west) proceeded to back (financially, politically, militarily) the Khmer Rouge as it had a seat in the UN through the 1990s bc the primary US concern was “the spread of communism” & of course couldn’t support a government propped up by the Vietnamese/Russians. It’s just disgusting. And what’s even more disgusting is the same thing is probably going on in Syria right now. I’ve traveled to a lot of places but in SE Asia, more than any other place, it’s been real tough to respect the decisions our government has made (also includes not-so-secret bombing of Laos during the Vietnam war). Mr Vann told us his family’s story after the day of touring. Of 8 kids, 4 of his siblings were killed in the US bombings, forcing the family to move to PP. Once there, the rest of his immediate family fortunately survived the Khmer Rouge as they were farmers. But other family and friends of his were not so lucky. He said “I’ve met Americans and I like them, they’re good people, but I really don’t like or respect their government”. I can’t really blame him.

There are still 40+ unexcavated mass grave sites at Choeung Ek.

This was horrifying. I needed tissues listening to the audio tour. They wanted to save bullets.

Monument to the victims, includes remains unearthed at Choeung Ek

Tuol Sleng was a former school that the Khmer Rouge converted into a torture prison.

A torture room. Vietnamese soldiers discovered the site & found 14 victims shot to death, still shackled to the beds, as the Khmer Rouge’ torture techniques were abruptly interrupted & they wanted to leave no witnesses.

Monkey bars are a real creepy reminder that this hell used to be a school.

The Khmer Rouge took lessons from the Nazis & painstakingly documented all of their victims & atrocities committed.

Cambodia, a country absent any apparent traffic laws

I wasn’t sure I’d ever see crazier traffic than what we saw in Bangkok. And then we arrived in Cambodia. While Bangkok surely is much bigger, it now occurred to me that it was an organized chaos as drivers for the most part seemed to obey traffic signals. Cambodia, on the other hand, seems devoid of any traffic signals, stop signs, anything. So you come to a 4-way intersection and everyone goes at once from any direction. I’m not just talking cars here… This also includes tour buses, tuk tuks, scooters and people-pushed street vendor carts. Further complicating things, is the lanes of traffic but from what we can tell, they are adhered to by only about 75% of drivers. The other 25% (primarily scooter drivers but there’s an occasional car) drive towards you, in the opposite direction of traffic flow, making things real exciting. But somehow it all works. We saw no accidents. We never felt unsafe as our tuk tuk drivers, Saru in Siem Reap and Mr Vann in Phnom Penh, were solid drivers. People use the hell out of their horns and it seems there’s an unspoken rule that size rules in descending order so buses dictate and scooters adjust. We agreed this would never work in America, recalling the confusion that ensues after a storm knocks out power at a big intersection and all the Trump-voting morons struggle to coordinate an efficient timed response in which all cars on opposite sides go at once. We tried to capture this awesome and utter chaos on video but largely failed as we were too caught up in the experience. There’s a couple video links below that don’t come close to doing it justice.
https://youtu.be/jnBddBv0Kjc
https://youtu.be/8ItKNznswo4

Boating, Cambodia style

In an attempt to mix up modes of travel, we decided to take a boat from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh. The boat left at 7:30 and the operator sent a jumbo tuk tuk driver to pick us up at 6:30. After a variety of mishaps including his inability to find other guests (never did) and culminating in a flat tire, we found ourselves stuck at the side of a SR road at 7:30. Another tuk tuk driver swooped in to take us the rest of the journey to the boat, all the while, Amy and I were wondering why a “large boat w 3 levels including a sunbathing open air level on top” would bother to wait for us. We didn’t arrive at the pier until 8am, fully expecting to have missed the boat & already mentally planning to head to the airport (airports in SE Asia, as an aside, have been far more efficient that US airports). We were met by the boat captain who told us to “hurry up” (as if any of the last 1.5 hours was our fault), and quickly ushered us onto definitely-not-a-large boat as our backpacks were taken & thrown on top. It was a small wooden boat with only one level. Maybe sat 30 people in real uncomfortable wooden seats. I then recalled we were told that bc it was dry season, a small boat would first be taking us to our large boat as the large boat can’t make it to the pier given water levels. So that put us at ease, figuring we’d only have 30 minutes on this uncomfortable beast until we met, what now in my mind was a luxurious liner, in Tonle Sap Lake. 4 hours and several engine outages later, we had made it entirely through the largest part of the massive lake only to meet our “large boat” in a relatively narrow portion of the lake. Obviously the photos of the lovely large boat presented in their marketing materials in no way reflects the actual large boat that we were now boarding. There was a bit more room but it wasn’t as advertised. All we could do was laugh. Especially when we had to spend another 4 hours on the large boat before finally reaching Phnom Penh (the trip was a bit longer than initially communicated). In hindsight, we agreed we’d do it again bc the glimpse into local Cambodian life of those that live on the water was very special. The only thing we’d do differently was perhaps bring food & more water. But then again, the bathroom situation on both boats was less than ideal so maybe it was for the best.

As we had seen more than enough of the river, we spent the evening walking around the city center and taking in the royal palace, the continued Cambodian obsession w bright neon lights as decoration, street food stalls, a few cocktails and a lazy night. We did find something interesting on a menu in one of the restos…

Me, not sleeping, trying to keep warm (my music saved me)

2 guys peeking out from behind their boat to check us out

4 girls frantically waving hello to our boat

Yep, fried tarantulas & shots of spider rice wine

Siem Reap, more than just temples

People come to Siem Reap, Cambodia to visit the Angkor temples, 8th wonder of world which is only 5 km away, but that’s not all. Siem Reap city center is quite touristy, featuring a blatantly labeled “Pub Street”, which is exactly what you think it is. Amy accurately described it as “the Bourbon Street of SE Asia” as it’s terribly touristy but it is fantastic for people watching. Apparently temple-goers, after a long hot day in the 93 degree sun trekking around old massive archeological holy sites, feel the need to satisfy their inner cravings, whether it be by downing a few local beers & some street food, as I did, or by wrangling up a young Cambodian prostitute, as we witnessed at least 4 old white men do on Pub Street. I did mention it was great for people watching.

There’s also pretty great food. And the locals are real nice. You come to Siem Reap for Angkor, which is a can’t miss. But I think I can cross it off my return list.

The coolest bar on Pub Street – a brilliantly named no frills pub

Night 1 in SR, I was on my own for food & out wandering the streets when I passed this street food cart & smelled this amazing deliciousness. I tried to ask the woman chef what it was she was making with no success but I ordered one anyways for $2. To my utter delight, it was this egg noddle dish with pork, bean sprouts, other veggies, chili sauce, fish sauce and topped w a perfectly fried egg (& extra spice added by me). Absolutely amazing & easily one of thr best meals I’ve had on the trip. This pic is during her cooking process.

This pic is the end result in less than ideal light as I wandered the streets in the dark inhaling it.

We treated ourselves to a nice dinner in SR. This was the first fresh spring rolls we’ve found.

Traditional Khmer dish of free range chicken roasted w honey & rice brandy, jackfruit & lemongrass served w prahok dipping sauce. Ridiculously amazing.

Traditional Khmer dish fish amok (which is essentially a green curry w river fish)

Post-dinner one of our servers wanted a selfie w us

Maybe my fave bfast yet – local Cambodian bfast of yellow egg noodles, pork & veggies w a to-die-for sweet sauce. I think I’ve figured out that they go light on the heat in the morning and then bring it full throttle the rest of the day.

Palm sugar (cooking in cauldron & for sale)… we cooked with this in Thai cooking class. Must find in Chicago.

Street life (kids just off from school)

https://youtu.be/exQvW-mbT_8

Watting, Indiana Jones style

Now this is watting I can get behind. Angkor is often compared, by people a lot smarter than me, to the Egyptian pyramids and Jordan’s Petra, two other fantastic displays of ancient civilizations putting slave labor to good use erecting unnecessarily massive palaces and temples. Beginning in the 12th century, Angkor served as the capital city for the Khmer Empire and was apparently home to over a million people which made it the biggest civilization of the time. The most famous is Angkor Wat but my favorite was Ta Prohm as it was jungle-like with the trees growing in/atop the structures. It’s shameful how many pix I took so only a few are below.

Angkor Wat, the granddaddy of Angkor temples

Angkor Thom, famous for 50+ faces eerily similar to king

We are old

Amy: “Can we get the check please?”

Cute young server: “You don’t want to leave now. We have sexy dancing and fire show tonight.”

Me: “What time?” (Bc who doesn’t want to see what they mean by “sexy dancing?!?!?!!”)

S: “11”

Me: “What time is it now?”

Amy: “It’s another 40 minutes.”

Me: “We’ll just take the check.”

In our defense, we did get up at 4:30am to catch a flight. But still…

Monk action series

Throughout Northern Thailand, Laos & Cambodia, I’ve developed a sort of monk obsession. I’m fascinated with them and their lifestyle. But I’m not talking about real deep stuff here. More along the lines of… Why do Bangkok monks have to go barefoot and are too skinny while Chiang Mai monks get to wear shoes (typically flip flops or leather sandals) and appear healthy (i.e. well fed)? Why do Lao monks have to keep their bald head freshly shaved while Thai & Cambodian monks can play it a little looser? However, I admit that my primary interest in them is most likely even more superficial… their bright orange robes really make a picture pop. “Monk alert” is a term we’ve coined when one of us spots their orange robes so we can quickly become camera-ready. Lao monks have turned out to be my favorite, probably due to their daily early morning alms procession (I got up before 6am 3 out of 4 mornings to witness it bc I just couldn’t help myself). I was beyond thrilled when we showed up at the river bank for our Mekong boat day only to find two monks seemingly waiting to board our boat. Dreams of a live monk action series leapt into my head and while that unfortunately didn’t materialize (they instead waved us goodbye), that was the inspiration for this post and a collection of my monk photos, which I’ve largely spared you to-date.