Asia 2018: Day #24 Saigon Stopover

Disembarkation from the boat at 8:00am was followed by a 90-minute bus ride through the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City.  Our stay on the boat was finally over and we were a bit sad at that. It had been pretty good overall. The food was great, the boat amenities and staff were excellent and the service overall was not to be faulted. I suppose the only complaint we had was the problem on the first day regarding the cruise kick-off point. Robyn and I had already started discussing the prospect of other river cruises, and decided that if this example was anything to go by then we definitely needed to do more research.

Even though we were headed for our final destination the cruise company still had a couple of excursions lined up for us. The first at the Chinese market at Cholon and then to a lacquer factory.

By the time this was all over I was done. A short taxi ride later and we were at the Majestic Hotel right on the waterfront. Robyn had specifically picked this hotel for its location though even she didn't expect it to be as well-situated as we discovered it to be over the next two days.

We had two things lined up for the next two evening in Saigon, one at a restaurant and one at the Opera House. Both were within 15 minutes' walk of our front door.  A better location would have been hard to find. Added to that the hotel itself was old-style French with a good bar on the roof, a decent pool fully enclosed by the hotel and a big room with a comfortable bed; some of the beds we'd had over the past four weeks had been hard as rocks.

Robyn and I had discovered that Luke Nguyen, the Sydney based chef of Vietnamese heritage, had opened a restaurant in Saigon a year or so ago and we decided that it would make a great final treat for holiday to have a meal there. I had booked while we were on the river boat and luckily enough received a confirmation before the internet packed up. So all looked good, and it turned out to be exactly that. The food was excellent, and washed down with a d'Arenberg white from McLaren Vale, a winery situated about 10 kilometres from my father's house in South Australia.

We skipped the set menu in favour of appetisers and main courses. We were stuffed by the end of it. A quiet walk home and quietly to bed.

Asia 2018: Day #23 Final Day on the Boat

A small launch took us to the Vietnamese town of Sa Dec on the Mekong Delta where we would be visiting another local market. Our guide must have realised by this time that we were all pretty much over the concept of market visits and devised a plan to make the visit a bit more interesting.  He split us into two groups of seven, gave us some small amounts of Vietnamese dong and set us the task of buying four items, the names of which he only provided in Vietnamese. I originally thought this would be a disaster but it turned out really well as each group had to struggle to be understood in their lousy Vietnamese and to bargain for goods at the same time.

About 45 minutes later we got back together and came to the conclusion that each group had purchased a grand total of one item correctly. The major problem had been in our pronunciation. Vietnamese is a very nuanced tonal language with words for very different objects sounding very similar to our Western ears.  The market stall holders and some of the security personnel had a great laugh at our expense. It was good to see that everyone took it all in fun and it made a simple market visit quite memorable.

This was followed immediately by a visit to "The House of the Lover". This house was owned by Huynh Thuy Le who was the Vietnamese lover of Marguerite Duras (French novelist and script-writer) when she was a teenager and he was about 30.

And then another temple, though a slightly different one. Caodaism is a Vietnamese mixture of Hinduism, Buddhism and Catholicism and made for a very colourful temple indeed.

After lunch we visited the small town of Cai Be and a small family owned business that makes rice paper, pop rice and rice candies.

Farewell cocktails and the presentation of the crew marked our last full day on the boat. Saigon in the morning.

Asia 2018: Day #22 Fish Farms and Silk Factories

Now firmly in Vietnam our first stop of the day was to a floating fish farm. The fish here is the Vietnamese Bassa which everyone at home seems intent on not eating. The general view is that the farming methods are not very good and the fish are basically raised in near-raw sewage. That isn't the case here as the water is that of the Mekong. Still not the most pristine of water environments but certainly better than we have been led to believe. Maybe the Bassa raised here on these family run farms is only destined for the local market. I doubt we would get to see any of it in Australia.

Sunrise

Floating fish farm

A short walk then took us through to a mat weaving factory where we were shown how the ever-present rattan mats were woven and coloured.

Rattan weaving

Then, in the cruise company's ever-expanding list of travel options, we were transported to a silk factory by rickshaw. This is the area in Vietnam where they make the famous black silk, made from raw silk dyed some 40-50 times using a dye made from a locally grown fruit. Apparently this fruit only grows in this local area and is rare and therefore very expensive. Hollywood celebrities seem to love it.

Another rickshaw ride back to the boat and lunch, and resting. Later in the afternoon our Vietnamese guide gave us a talk about Vietnam and something about his life. Information such as this is very informative though the fine detail will probably be lost over time the general information goes into the memory banks for use at some time down the track.

Asia 2018: Day #21 Cruising Down the Mekong

As with our Laos trip there has to be one day when all you do is travel from one place to another. For the river cruise this was it.

We departed the Phnom Penh port at about 9:30am and cruised down the Mekong towards the Vietnamese border which we reached at around 3pm. We had been told our passports had been cleared with Vietnamese visas included but we still hadn't seen them. I figured the cruise director would have been in a bit of a panic if we hadn't been able to cross the border successfully. He wasn't and we did.

Preparing to depart

Mekong (right) meets Tonle Sap (left)

So it was a nice lazy day on board watching the river traffic gradually increase once we'd crossed the border. The difference in type and quantity of the traffic was quite marked.

The afternoon was relieved by a visit to the engine room and wheelhouse of the riverboat which broke things up a bit.

Engine room

Wheel house

Otherwise, it was snooze time, and reading time, and time to complain about the wi-fi which had become rather flakey and which was destined to disappear almost completely over the next few days.

Mekong sunset

Asia 2018: Day #20 Phnom Penh Exursions

Still moored at Phnom Penh. Presumably this was where we actually caught up to the original schedule so from here on all is as it should be.

The day started with an excursion to the Royal Palace situated on the banks of the Tonle Sap River. There really isn't very much to say about palaces such as this. Nothing in particular stands out, so I'll juts let the pictures tell the story. 

Then on to the National Museum which seemed to consist mainly of sculptures taken from the temples from the north of the country. Interesting but not up to the standard of the Angkor Museum we went to in Siem Reap.

Museum exterior

Museum interior

That was followed by a wander around the Phnom Penh local market. Most of the goods on display here were the same as we had seen elsewhere in the country with the exception of the fake watches and bling jewellery. The best of the market was in the food section, as usual.

The afternoon excursion was to Tuol Sleng, better known as S21, a Khmer Rouge torture centre. This is not my cup-of-tea at all so I stayed on the boat while the bulk of the other passengers went on the tour. The general impression I got from them later that day was one of shock and a feeling that they really hadn't known what was going on. I suppose I could have said the same thing in the 70s and 80s but appear to have picked up enough in the past 20 years of what happened in Cambodia to know that I really didn't want to be reminded of it. Similarly I didn't make any attempt to visit any of the Polish concentration camps when I was in that country in 2017.

The evening entertainment on board was a demonstration of Apsara Dance by some local teenagers and children who were pretty good. A lot of them were training to be future professional dancers. This was obviously a group that was being nurtured somewhat by our cruise director. He also provided us with the interesting snippet of information that the whole art of Cambodian Dance was banned under Pol Pot and nearly lost. It was brought back into the country by ex-pats who had kept the traditions alive while in exile. And a good thing too.

This cruising is getting exhausting.

Asia 2018: Day #19 Phnom Penh and Surrounds

Excursions on day 19 were regulated by the early tour schedule change. Theoretically we should have started much closer to Siem Reap on day one of the cruise, crossed Lac Tonle and then travelled down the Tonle River to Kampong Tralach. But that got all thrown out the window due to the previously mentioned new iron bridge at Phnom Penh.

Mekong sunrise

So we were on a bus again, from just outside the boat in Phnom Penh to the former capital of Cambodia at Oudong. Here in the Vihara of the Vipassana Centre we received a blessing from the Buddhist monks.

Buddhist monks

After a wander around the temple grounds, we were back on the bus for a visit to an old pagoda via ox-cart some 15 minutes or so down the road. We had started early so it was still cool when we set off. Not so when we got to the ox-carts. Luckily it was only a short 10 minute ride to the sit of Wat Kampong Leu, one of the oldest pagodas in Cambodia. The temple is is in a rather poor state of repair inside as the forces of Pol Pot had used the building as a salt storage facility during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, and the bottom metre or so of the murals were badly damaged. UNESCO have now assumed control of the site and hopefully restoration will start sometime soon.

Ox-carts

Pagoda mural

The afternoon was left free for private tours into the city but we opted for a quiet time on board. This also gave us to the opportunity to attend the lecture of Cambodian History from 1953-1993 given by Jean-Michel Filippe, professor of linguistics at the Royal University of Cambodia. This lecture was fantastic, and Professor Filippe was hugely informative and very entertaining. He was also able to succinctly explain the reasoning behind the Khmer Rouge philosophy of emptying the cities and towns and trying to turn Cambodia back to a fully rural society. It made a lot of sense; the explanation that is, not the philosophy itself, which was insane and totally deluded.

And then dinner was followed by a 30-minute tuk-tuk ride around the night streets of Phnom Penh. Traffic was hectic but it did seems as though the crowds were down a bit as the citizens had probably already eaten and then gone home. A marvellous way to end the evening. Especially as we all made it back in one piece.

Asia 2018: Day #18 English Lessons and Silk Worms

The boat was moving by the time we got down to breakfast though we didn't have far to go, First excursion of the day was to Angkor Ban, a small village on the banks of the Mekong that feature the traditional Cambodian stilt houses.

Stilt house

Village laneway

Village temple

A gentle stroll through the village and we were back on board for the compulsory safety drill with life jackets and a relatively simple explanation of what we would be required to do in case of emergency: basically not much other than don the life jackets and do as we were told. Though it was put in rather milder terms than that.

The afternoon excursion took in a primary school on another small island, Oknha Tey (1 kilometre by 5 kilometres) where we talked to some of the grade 6 students learning English. We made some donations to the teacher and were told that our cruise company helped to fund the English teacher in this village; something that was not available in a lot of other schools.

English class

Then it was a short ride by tuk-tuk to a silk farm which employed a number of the local women in the trade. We'd seen a similar setup in Vientiane but this was much better, and we got a view of silk from egg to caterpillar to cocoon to thread to final product. Robyn picked up a few things in the shop, as she does.

Silk worm cocoons

The boat moored at the end of the island which turned out to be just across the river from Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital. Die to the change in schedule we would be moored for three nights within about a kilometre.

The cruise director showed The Killing Fields in the main lounge at 9pm but I was nearly asleep by that time and so skipped it.

It was a bit of a lazy day which was a relief after some of the hectic ones we'd had, or seemed to have had on this trip.

Asia 2018: Day #17 The Beginning of the Cruise

Robyn and I had been discussing the possibility of a river cruise on the Mekong for some years. We had not specific thought about timing just that it should be high on the list of things we'd like to do. Then, in mid-2017, Robyn found a good deal and within a week we had decided on going, on when we were going and in which direction.

That was the centre-piece of this trip and, given we were going downriver and would finish in Saigon, we then decided to add Hanoi at the front (as we had always wanted to go back) and then figure out a tour through Laos and a few days in Siem Reap to see the temples.

And there it was. The overall structure of the trip was decided fairly quickly by both of us. The fine detail I left to Robyn (though all options and possibilities were discussed at great length) as she has taken to that over the past few years with an enthusiasm that can be rather overwhelming at times.

There had been a bit of mis-communication regarding the start of the cruise, so the earlier problems with the passports allowed us to get the correct pickup location and time – both different from our original booking details. We had asked the hotel to arrange a taxi to take us across town to the other hotel, explaining that we weren't checking in there, just so we didn't leave them thinking we hadn't liked the place. And in typical hotel fashion they didn't do that but rather offered the Rolls Royce as their preferred option. We decided not to hurt their feelings and took up the offer with more than a little appreciation.

The hotel Roller gets a polish

We had been under the impression that the first part of the cruise would be a 30-60 minute bus ride to the Siem Reap pier and then embarkation. Not this day however. After we got onto the English guided bus we were informed that the bus trip would be closer to five hours. No explanation was provided and most of us speculated that the river must have been down, making navigation of the water close to Siem Reap impossible. This actually wasn't the case, as we found out later, and people started to get a bit cranky about the long ride. I think in this instance a short explanation early would have been extremely helpful.

A couple of pit stops later and we arrived on the boat in time for lunch. The food was slanted towards a Western audience with some nods to Asian cuisine and it became very obvious, very quickly that the quantity of food available was enormous. Some control was needed otherwise I was going to end up looking like a balloon.

The boat awaits

Some people took off for the afternoon excursion but Robyn and I opted to forego the tour of another pagoda in favour of reading and snoozing.

Each evening the Cruise Director gives us a rundown on the program for the next day and answers any questions people might have. The major question asked on this first day concerned the change in the tour itinerary from that publicised. It appears that a daughter of the current Cambodian Prime Minister owns a large tract of land across the river from Phnom Penh and access was restricted to one of the existing bridges, which she and potential buyers considered less than ideal. So a temporary steel bridge was put up connecting one side of the river to the other,or more importantly connecting the city to her land. The trouble was this bridge was built too low and the pylons were too close together to allow medium passenger and cargo vessels to pass through safely. As a consequence the Mekong Pilots Association have banned boats such as ours from passing under the bridge. The other concrete bridges across the Mekong around Phnom Penh are fine. It's just this one that's causing the problem for everyone. And it's just this one that no-one can do anything about.

The thought is that this bridge will be replaced in a few years by a better planned and designed concrete structure that will allow river traffic to pass once more. Political privilege is a wonderful thing.

The boat moved from from the initial mooring and travelled for an hour or so down-river. We then dropped anchor in the middle of the Mekong, where we stayed overnight.

Sunset

Passengers lined up for the photos

I over-indulged at dinner. Must be more careful.

Asia 2018: Day #16 A Final Day in Siem Reap

Our last full day in Siem Reap and our third cooking class of the trip. After a pickup from our hotel we were joined by a young woman from Italy and a couple from the US and then headed to another local market. We've been to a few of these already but still tend to find them fascinating as all in different settings and have some foodstuffs that set them apart.

The guide showed us around and explained the shopping process,including the unusual method Cambodians have for obtaining change from a purchase. Everything is paid for with small US dollar bills with change, of less than a dollar, given in Cambodian riel, at an exchange rate of 4000 riel to 1 USD. This whole process of marking prices on USD had been bothering me for sometime. Even at the National Museum where we bought and ice-cream, the cash register only calculated in USD, and when we wanted to pay in riel the cashier had to get out a separate calculator to show us the price. Very strange, and something of an indication of the citizens' views of the local currency.

Most of the small food items we bought were destined to be used in our cooking class which gave the shopping expedition a little extra interest. Our US companions were rather shocked by the state of the meat left out uncovered and open to the flies. He had experienced a few bouts of salmonella in the past, so his shock was perfectly understandable. I wasn't worried as I wasn't going to be eating it.

It was a good class. We picked up a good technique for rolling fresh rice paper spring rolls which will be useful, learned how to use short rice noodles, and made a tapioca and pumpkin dessert. I don't actually see myself making this last one again, but the rest should make an appearance at sometime or other.

Robyn pounds

Perry stir fries

After we were dropped back at the hotel after the class Robyn went off to do a bit of shopping while I lazed around the hotel, writing, reading and backing up photos, the last of which seems to be a full-time job as I shuffle photos from one device to another, freeing up space and uploading some to my Google Drive space.

Prior to leaving Australia Robyn had come across reviews of the Phare Circus in Siem Reap but hadn't booked anything. We found some more details of it in our hotel and got them to book for us for our last night. And what an excellent,energetic,and acrobatic performance it was. The circus aims to provide young Cambodian youth with vocational arts training and if this circus is anything to go by they are doing a wonderful job. Full of humour, drama, sex, and music it ended our stay in Siem Reap on a wonderful note.

Asia 2018: Day #15 Dawn at Angkor Wat

If you ask anyone about Cambodian temples they will probably only be able to name Angkor Wat. Even if they did realise there were other temples they would generally have lumped them all under the one title. I know I did before this holiday.

Our tour guide had recommended that we aim to get to the temple to see the sunrise. And, he said, we'd get there before the crowds of Chinese tourists who flood the place from about 8:30am. So it was up at 4am for a 4:45am pickup. It was still dark by the time we got to the temple at around 5:15. We had a good spot the the sunrise was a little disappointing. Some yellows and grays but not a lot else. Still, you can't dial up a sunrise to specification so there was no point in complaining about it. It's all just the luck of the draw.

Angkor Wat silhouette showing the five towers

The crowds build

The sun puts in an appearance

A quick bite from our breakfast packs supplied by the hotel and it was off exploring the complex before 7am. It's big. Really big.

There are restoration projects underway which are aimed at replacing some of the collapsed towers. Most of the funds are coming from international organisations under the direction of UNESCO. I hope the work continues and it isn't rushed.

Main temple causeway

Looking down from the main tower entrance

Main tower

Wall carvings featuring apsara

Wide view of the inner complex

Bas-reliefs

By the time we exited the temple at around 8:45am, hot and sweaty, the crowds were really starting to build up. Large numbers of buses were already sitting in the parking station and we were glad to move on to Bayon temple which is part of the nearby Angkor Thom complex. This temple is probably the second most popular due to the numerous small towers, each with four massive stone faces. Added to this are two impressive bas-reliefs which depict everyday life, as well as historical and mythological scenes.

External view of Bayon

Bas-reliefs

Tower face

Bayon small tower

If the crowds at Bayon were anything to go by Angkor Wat must have been absolutely packed. There were people everyone, most of whom seemed to be wanting to take selfies in various poses highlighted against the temple faces. I don't understand this need to have your photo taken in front of every statue,monument or painting you come across. And they take so long about it. I was hot and tired and my basic grumpy nature was coming to the fore. It doesn't take a lot to bring that on.

By 11am we were done, totally. A quick stop at a silk shop and we were back at the hotel by noon.

A good day but a very tiring one.

The afternoon consisted of naps, some swimming in the hotel pool, a beer and a bit of food, before a wander through an artisan market in the evening. We were asleep by 9pm.