War Post II: Phnom Penh

Jan 29, Phnom Penh

One of the most impressionable days on this trip has been the one we spent in Phnom Penh. We arrived late afternoon on the 28th and were picked up by a tuk-tuk driver, Mr. Borith, who patiently took us to a few hotels until we found a reasonably-priced one. His personality warmed us and we hired him the next day for a city tour.

The next morning we spent visiting the S-21 prison and the Killing Fields memorial, sites of the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot.

S-21. A former secondary school turned to Security Center (prison) in 1975 after the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh. Classrooms were converted into prison cells and interrogation rooms. Graphic photos of the prisoners held and tortured here - mostly former doctors, teachers, intellectuals - now hang on the walls.

The Killing Fields. 8000+ people were tortured, killed and buried here in heaps on mass graves. Often entire families, elderly and children. In memoriam, their clothes and bones have been placed in a Buddhist shrine in the compound.

For more info:

http://www.yale.edu/cgp/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge_rule_of_Cambodia

What made the day particularly emotional was hearing a first-hand account from Mr. Borith, now the sole survivor of his entire family. In 1975, his father, a professor, his mother, a clerk, his older brother, an electrician, his sister, a university student were separated and sent to different camps. Their traces disappeared among the estimated 1.2 million people who lost their lives during the Khmer Rouge.

Mr. Borith is now married, has 2 kids and drives a tuk-tuk for a living. His story humbled us.

If you ever go to Phnom Penh and need a guide, you can reach him by e-mail:borith1964@yahoo.com

EK

War Post: Vietnam

Jan. 26-29, SAIGON/HCMC

We've been having a great time on this trip, but we also wanted to address what we've seen of wars that ravaged both Vietnam and Cambodia not so long ago.

In Saigon, we went to the War Remnants Museum, which houses American military vehicles, weapons, and most importantly photographs from during and after the war of the devastation in Vietnam. We didn't take pictures of the photographs because they were too disturbing, but they went a long way to illuminate the brutal realities of war.

The next day, I visited the Cu Chi tunnels, outside of Saigon. To avoid American forces during the war, the Viet Cong and the peasants would hide in an enormous underground system of tunnels that had been dug by hand. Some lived in the tunnels for years, facing malaria, and lack of air and water, not to mention food.

Here, a Vietnamese man re-enacts entering a tunnel. The entry was as wide as a tall man's foot.

The circumference of the tunnels were also extremely small, though some have been widened for Western tourists' "big bodies" (as my tour guide delicately put it).

I got the sense that the Vietnamese still take enormous pride in their resilience, even as they sustained huge losses of life, and that the Cu Chi tunnels are a symbolic of resistance.

As for me, I feel extremely fortunate to have never experienced armed war near my home. Coming to a country where the effects of war are still visible on the land and people has reinforced my opinion that war must be avoided at all costs.

MN

Mekong Delta Cruise

Jan. 27-28, SOMEWHERE IN THE MEKONG

The next morning after our Saigon festivities, we were punished swiftly and promptly by a 7am wake-up call. We were leaving on a 2-day Mekong Delta cruise that would lead us out of Vietnam to Cambodia via the mighty river.

Day 1: No pictures of us exist from the first day. We did not look cute and we had to save our strength for getting out of the bus and into the right boat.

Still, I took a pic or two of life on the river; the white circles are spring roll noodles drying in the sun, and you can see how people live in boats and buildings on the Mekong.

Day 2: Sleep did us good!

Rowers picked us up at the dock early in the am.

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They rowed us for about an hour along the Mekong, and then took us to a Cham (a Vietnamese/Muslim minority group) village where we met some of the kids.

The rest of the day we were on a "cruise" - aka a ride on the noisiest, jankiest boat ever.

Yes, we were quite shiny on the boat.

We disembarked for a few minutes to officially cross into Cambodia. Festive border crossing alert!

Our border agent kept on looking over his shoulder at the movie playing behind him, so we entered Cambodia without hassle. On to Phnom Penh!

Saigon Part II: Blood of Snake

Jan. 26, Ho Chi Minh

It was supposed to be a quiet evening of recovery after Saigon, Saigon bar the night before. 10 o'clock we would be home, max.

When Morgan threw out the idea of joining Miro, our new found Croatian friend, and some of his local friends for a 'wild meat' dinner, my excitement levels were lifted by a notch or two. I have been talking and wanting to go to such a restaurant ever since we set foot in Asia. We decided to go. Morgan is a good friend.

I shot an e-mail to Jenny & Jason who we had plans with, rushed to get some last minute passport photos for our Cambodia crossing the next day and off we were in a taxi to Duyen Hai restaurant, a congested ride away from our hotel in tourist area District 1.

The restaurant had all the trappings a 'wild meat' restaurant ought to have, cages of live bats, porcupines and wild birds, big jars jars of pickled cobras suspended in yellow liquid, and cases of Saigons (beer) scattered on the restaurant floor.

Our senses a bit overwhelmed, we let our local host Cindy do all the ordering. First dish up, cocoons served on delicate butter lettuce with a side of lemon juice, salt and pepper mix.

Next some tasty, and not overly dramatic, dishes of curried wild pig and barbequed wild rabbit.

Lastly, our main course. A hand-picked cobra, drained and gutted in front of us that would later be used in 3 different dishes and vodka snake blood shots. (Video clip coming soon)

"YO!!!!! (Vietnamese for cheers.) To Health and Potency"

From left to right: Miro, Jenny & Jason, the American couple we met in Nha Trang, Cindy & Helen, Miro's friends and our local hosts.

Dish 1: Stewed guts with mushroom sauce.

Dish 2: Sautéed snake bits with fried rice pancakes.

Dish 3: The finale. Snake and lemongrass soup with side noodles.

How do you follow that dinner? First with a stop at Seventeen Bar where cowboy clad young men and women led us to an upstairs karaoke bar. I tried my hand at a tambourine while Morgan sang a line or two of some unknown song.

Perhaps feeling the potency of snake blood, we carried on to Apocalypse Now, a well-known dance club. Our first real night out, and dance we did!

(Thanks to Miro for some of the photos used in this post).

Goodbye, Saigon. It was memorable!

EK & MN

Editor's note: Eastern Europeans love house music. Americans prefer mid-90's rap.

Editor's note 2: Avoid vodka laced with snake's blood the night before intensive land travel.

The Performance

Saigon Part I: In Which Morgan and Eriola Put Their Custom Dresses To Good Use

Jan. 25, HO CHI MINH/SAIGON

We've alluded to our custom-tailored dresses from Hoi An a couple of times, and this post will talk about the dresses as well as their big debut in Saigon.

Here are some photos from one of our many fittings at Yaly's, probably the best-known and spendiest custom tailor in Hoi An (go big or go home!):

I'm with Hanna, one of the women who work at Yaly's. She was amazing, giving me encouraging pats and shoving me into dressing rooms to try things on.

Eriola also got to try on her dream dress, which she would linger over lovingly every time she was in Yaly's. Apparently a woman with near-identical measurements had ordered one in black before leaving for Australia and they wanted to fit it better before sending it.

In Saigon, we took our dresses out for a spin! We hadn't been doing out much and this was a real occasion. We went to a fancier hotel bar named Saigon Saigon. Killer view, western cuisine... it was the kind that attracts mature white gentlemen and their Vietnamese girlfriends.

E remarked, "I think we are the only self-financing women in this bar!"

A custom dress deserves a big martini, and the big martini

led to two more, and pretty soon I'd crumbled to E's insistence that I sing on stage with the cover band. The first few chords of Under the Bridge drifted through the bar, and up I went to sing/butcher the song.

(Video of this unfortunate event will be posted tomorrow morning due to popular demand.)

Parting shot: tipsy and sweaty on our walk home!

Nha Trang

Jan. 24, Ho Chi Minh

After indulging in custom made dresses, a cooking class and general relaxation (blog coming up), we decided to change our original plan to fly to Ho Chi Minh and headed south to Nha Trang. Glorious warmth and sun awaited us on arrival. I was giddy with excitement - I had been craving some beach time.

We arrived at the hotel in record time. Nha Trang was a very pleasant surprise, well manicured, busy but not chaotic, and belted by 6km of white sandy beaches steps away from hotels, restaurants and park areas. I quickly changed into sun gear and headed to the beach for an afternoon of basking in the sun and reading Oscar Wilde's witticisms. Morgan meanwhile took the afternoon to recover and make up on lost sleep.

In the evening, we went for a nice run along the beach and met with Barbara, our traveling friend who has been following the same southward path as us.

The next morning we booked a snorkeling trip on the famous "No partying, no drinking, no karaoke snorkeling boat."

What started as an overcast/light rain morning turned into a gorgeous, sunny day. We swam and snorkeled around various islands and had a massive lunch and fruit feast on the boat.

Later in the evening we joined some of our new snorkeling buddies at a local brewery, conveniently located on the beach near our hotel. What do the Vietnamese know about beer you may ask? A lot it seems, the beer was quite good.

From left to right, a young Australian couple getting married in a few weeks and taking a year-long honeymoon to travel around. A couple from the UK who also quit their jobs to travel for half a year.

As I type this, we are on the [right] train to Ho Chi Mihn, after an almost tragic mistake that could've landed us back to Hanoi.

M is now sleeping and so is the rest of the train.

EK

Here comes the sun

Jan. 21, HOI AN

We keep on migrating south seeking sun, but abysmal weather has been our lot since we set our flip-flops onto snow in Seoul. Imagine our surprise when after going to bed last night in a downpour (and waking up to one), the sun broke through at 10am!

Eriola made renting and riding bikes to the beach sound fun enough to lure me out - I have been feeling a bit sick since our "soft sleeper" episode - so off we went.

We obtained bikes for 15,000 Vietnamese dong (just under 1 USD). Here's me on my cruiser near the rice fields:

We got to the beach, and two boys motioned us into their bike parking. We tried to avoid them, but we think they threatened to puncture our tires if we left them on the beach. So we shelled out 2,000 VND (0.12 USD). Extortion, but conveniently priced.

Bikes "safely" parked, FREEDOM!

We were happy all the way down to our feet. Aw!!

More later on our adventures with Hoi An's bespoke garment business!

MN

Cooking Class

Jan. 20, HOI AN

Hoi An is home to the Red Bridge Cooking School that is apparently quite famous; we signed up for their half-day class which included a tour of the market, a boat ride to their restaurant/school, cooking demonstrations and lessons, and a wonderful meal at the end before the boat ride back.

At the market, our guide showed us the variety of Vietnamese fruits:

The variety was truly amazing. There was even a fruit named "Women's Breast" for the milky juice it produced. SOMEONE could not help herself from making an inappropriate joke.

After our boat ride to the school, a super sassy chef (his opening speech went something like this: "Anyone vegetarian? What wrong with you. You allergic to squid? You die today,") taught us

some delicious quick recipes.

Including fresh rolls with handmade noodles!

The piece de resistance was eggplant cooked with lemongrass in a clay pot, and Eriola and I were as proud of ours as kindergartners who've made a finger painting.

We ate like kings (queens?) and then left on the boat back to Hoi An. Goodbye, Red Bridge!

MN