Saigon, Phnom Penh, Kampot

Well the travel gods tested me again this week. At about 2 am, walking back to our hostel in Saigon, after a night out with some Vietnamese guys we met playing basketball, I was accosted by a ladyboy prostitute. This is not uncommon, although this particular hooker was particularly grabby and aggressive. After eventually pushing her off of me and thinking nothing of it, about 10 steps later a guy on the side of the street told me he thought she stole my wallet. I told him I didn't have a wallet just as I realized that my iPhone was missing. By the time I turned around the thief had already ridden off on her motorbike, and I never even saw what she looked like.

As with losing my passport, I am looking at this as another facet of the adventure, and am not too upset about it. My travel insurance will most likely cover the cost of the phone, and the only thing I really need it for was the camera, but I just bought a cheap digital camera off the street so I'm fine now. Plus how many people can say they were pick pocketed by a ladyboy in Saigon. It's a good story.

Anyway beyond that Saigon was not very eventful. We spent most of our time playing pickup basketball at a court we found with decent games, and met some really friendly and cool locals. Basketball has been a great way for us to meet and interact with locals on our trip, and in each new city we always check if there are any courts near us.

I don't have any pictures of Saigon obviously, nut it was pretty much just a big bustling city, a bit like a smaller version of Bangkok. We spent one day doing a trip to the Cu Chi tunnels, which was a tunnel system used by the Vietcong about 100 km outside of Saigon. It was amazing to crawl through 100 meters of the tunnels and feel so exhausted and claustrophobic by the end that you need to get out, just to realize that many Vietcong spent whole days and weeks down there. But the tour was very tourist oriented, including an AK-47 shooting range, and was packed with large groups of fanny-pack-clad foreigners, which Arni and I prefer to avoid.

After Saigon, we took a sleeper bus across the border to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Cambodia is an extraordinary country with an unbelievably horrific history. Many people, Americans especially I'm sure, don't know anything about Cambodia or the gruesome genocide that occurred here less than 40 years ago. Much of our time spent in Phnom Penh had to do with seeing leftovers from the genocide, so I will give a brief history lesson before diving into the pictures.

In 1975, shortly after the fall of South Vietnam, and about 2 years after the US withdrawal from Vietnam, a communist group known as the Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge attempted to create a perfect, classless agrarian society. They evacuated all of the cities, including Phnom Penh, the capitol, which at that point had swelled to a population of 3 million people, most of which had fled to the city to escape the encircling Khmer Rouge. Overnight, the Khmer Rouge made all 3 million people get up and leave their homes behind, and walk to a farm somewhere in the countryside, leaving Phnom Penh a ghost town.

The Cambodians who were relocated to the countryside became essentially slave laborers, working 12-15 hours a day farming or performing hard labor, and were given extremely small rations, usually one small bowl of rice gruel a day. The food that they were farming was being used to buy weapons from the Chinese for the Khmer Rouge to fight the Vietnamese on the border. Many workers starved to death, but if the starvation didn't kill them then often the Khmer Rouge did. The Khmer Rouge envisioned a completely equal, classless agrarian society, so outright killed anyone with any sort of education; people with ethnicities other than Khmer (many Chinese-ethnic people lived in Cambodia); people who worked in any capacity under the previous regime; or just people considered "city people", as opposed to what the Khmer Rouge called "base people", who were the darker skinned farmers. If you wore glasses, this was considered a sign of education and intelligence, and so you were killed. 

As Khmer Rouge regime wore on, they became ever more paranoid about infiltrators, traitors, and Vietnamese agents, and so increased their killing regimen to include anyone who did anything that was not in the best interest of the regime. A story stands out in my mind of a woman who was caught with 2 bananas, which she had been given as a reward by a Khmer Rouge soldier. When another soldier discovered these bananas, he scolded her for believing she was above other Cambodians to deserve this extra food, then immediately shot her. The Khmer Rouge believed in a completely equal society, so if everyone else was starving, you should starve too.

In 1978, in response to Khmer Rouge soldiers attacking Vietnamese border towns, Vietnam invaded Cambodia, quickly and easily deposing the weak Khmer Rouge regime. In the 3 years, 8 months and 20 days that the Khmer Rouge ruled Cambodia, they killed between 2 and 3 million Cambodians, out of an original population of only 8 million. Imagine a quarter of the population dying at the hands of your countrymen. In the context of the US, that would be 80 million people, killed by other Americans.

In the aftermath of this terrible period, Cambodia has tried to find its way back into the modern world, but it has been a tough journey. A study conducted in the US found that 62% of Cambodian immigrants suffered from PTSD. All of Cambodia's infrastructure and educated class was destroyed by the Khmer Rouge, and Pol Pot succeeded in bringing his country back to what he called "Year Zero." So they had a long way to go to catch up with the rest of the developing world.

Despite this, they are growing very quickly, with a GDP growth rate over 10% in many recent years. And my personal experience so far has been very optimistic, as I've seen many signs of the emerging modern world, including wifi on a bus we took, phone shops on every corner, and a few skyscrapers in the capital. I take all this with a grain of salt, as I have only been in heavily populated areas with a developed tourist infrastructure, but I've still been impressed. 

OK I realize that was a bit long, but this country has really amazed me with its friendly people and its atrocious history, so I had to share it. For more on the Khmer Rouge I highly recommend the documentary Enemies of the People (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568328/), which follows a man whose family was killed by the Khmer Rouge trying to find some answers by interviewing many actual Khmer Rouge killers, as well as Pol Pot's number 2 guy. Also for a personal account of the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, I recommend the book First They Killed My Father by Luong Ung (http://www.amazon.com/First-They-Killed-Father-Remembers/dp/B0017ODVCW), which is the very powerful story of a little girl who lived through the regime and her family's struggle to survive. 

Now finally on to some pictures.

You see the funniest things on the backs of motorbikes in Southeast Asia. They carry everything on them. In Vietnam we saw two people on a motorbike with a full size mattress between them. Here is a ladder.

Just me and my pig.

The CPP is the dominant political party in Cambodia today, and you see these signs everywhere. The party is led by Hun Sen, a ruthless and corrupt leader who has been in charge in some degree since the Vietnamese placed him at the head of their puppet government in 1979. In Phnom Penh we saw multiple CPP rallies in the streets, which were essentially an excuse for teenagers to ride around on their motorbikes honking and yelling at everybody they passed. One rally we came across was pretty much just a dance party in the middle of the street. All of these passionate rallies were interesting, but slightly scary, as these kids I'm sure know and care little about the actual politics, yet still show complete, passionate devotion to the party. In my mind this is how regimes such as the Khmer Rouge or the Nazis come to power. But I might be overreacting a bit to a simple rally.

About 10 km outside of Phnom Penh there is an exhibition at one of the killing fields used by the Khmer Rouge.

This small hole was a mass grave of 450 victims, discovered by the Vietnamese in 1978 after invading Cambodia. Like the holocaust, there were many rumors and refugee stories coming out of Cambodia of genocide, but most westerners did not believe them, until real evidence was found by the invading army.

A photo of the mass grave when initially discovered.

The field looks like a grass moonscape with 40 or 50 large holes scattered throughout. These are all dug up mass graves.

Bones and teeth fragments occasionally come to the surface when it rains.

Farmers still work the land surrounding the killing fields, despite knowing that many dead bodies lie under the ground that they work  on and in the streams and rivers nearby.

Clothes that have come to the surface of the fields in recent years.

Mass grave of 100 women and children.

The infamous killing tree. This is one of the most horrendous things I have ever seen. This tree was used to kill babies and small children, by smashing their heads against the tree until they died. When discovered by the Vietnamese, there was still hair, blood, and brains on the side of the tree. The Khmer Rouge killed entire families of suspected traitors, because they wanted to prevent any surviving family members from seeking revenge. The Khmer Rouge mantra was, "to dig up the grass, one must also remove the roots."

More bone fragments found in the fields after the original excavation.

Mass grave of 156 headless bodies, later identified as Khmer Rouge soldiers. Near the end of the Khmer Rouge rule, they started getting more and more paranoid, and killed any soldiers showing hesitance or anything but complete devotion to carrying out their mission.

A jaw bone, found in the fields recently.

The central monument of the killing fields. This memorial contains the skulls and bones of thousand of victims found in this killing field. Around 20,000 people are thought to have been killed in this field.

Skulls of the victims, up to the sky, as far as the eye can see.

Pol Pot is quoted as saying, "It is better to kill 99 innocents by mistake than to let one enemy go free."

Pol Pot was fond of saying, "it is no gain to keep you, it is no loss to lose you." 

Tools used to kill Cambodians in the killing fields. Bullets were too expensive to waste on killing Cambodians, so the Khmer Rouge used whatever was at hand.

The S21 prison was originally a school in Phnom Penh. When the Khmer Rouge took over, they abolished education, and converted the school into a torture prison. All of the prisoners of S21 who did not die from being tortured, starvation, or disease inside the prison were taken to the killing fields above. Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge kept meticulous records of all the prisoners of S21, including an entrance picture, some of which are shown here.

The mass shackles used to hold prisoners.

Barbed wire around the prison to prevent prisoners from committing suicide.

A chronology of Cambodian history.

Alright, I'm done with the depressing stuff. After Phnom Penh, we went down to Kampot for a couple days to chill out. Our guesthouse was on the beautiful Kampot river, which we spent a lot of time swimming in and just hanging out on.

The river again.

We played some barefoot basketball for a bit with these guys, but my feet weren't as tough as theirs and after a few games I had to stop because of blisters.

Chilling out at Bodhi Villa. It was good to have a few days without doing much after hectic Vietnam and the depressing realities of Phnom Penh.

We just arrived in Siem Reap, and tomorrow we will go see the temples of Angkor, which many of you might know from the Tomb Raider movie. We will be going from the low of Cambodian civilization, the Khmer Rouge, to the high, the civilization centered at the city of Angkor, which was once the world's biggest city, having a population of over a million people when the population of London was around 50,000. So it should be a happier tourist experience than Phnom Penh, so we are excited. 

Again sorry for such a long, depressing post, but I think knowledge of atrocities such as the Khmer Rouge regime is important for people to have, and an understanding of these atrocities is the only thing preventing their repeat in the future.

Till a happier next post, 

leah hai

Hue, Hoi An, Nha Trang, Dalat, Central Highlands, Ho Lak

It's been a busy week in Vietnam. Arni and I crossed over the border about a week ago, spent 2 days in Hue, 2 days in Hoi An, took a sleeper down to the beach city of Nha Trang for a day, then did a 3 day easy rider tour of Dalat and the Central Highlands of southern Vietnam. So I have a lot of pictures in this one. 

But first I must tell of our bus trip to cross the border from Laos to Vietnam. I didn't get any pictures of the bus, which is unfortunate, because it was a crazy ride. We bought a sleeper bus from Pakse to Hue, which google maps says is an 8 hour drive. We obviously didn't expect it to be that short, but like 12 hours maybe because of the border. And of course it is still Laos, so we only half expected an actual sleeper. But when we showed up at the bus station, we were in for a treat. After waiting around for an hour or so for a nice sleeper to show up, we were ushered onto a bus that said "Hi Class" on the side of the bus, but looked like it was about to fall apart. We stepped on to the bus, to find that there were about 4 rows of cramped seats, behind which was just an open space filled about 3 feet high with bags of rice, with about 10 Vietnamese people laying across the rice. We were pretty excited about this seemingly authentic bus ride and tried to go lie in the back with the Vietnamese, but they decided we should get the seats, which made sense a few minutes later. The bus sat there for another 20 minutes or so, and a steady stream of Vietnamese hopped aboard, so by the time the bus was ready to leave, the back was packed with maybe 25 Vietnamese basically lying on top of each other. We were glad for the seats, however cramped they may be. Then the bus driver honked his horn a few times, signaling it was time to go. At this announcement about 10-15 more Vietnamese rushed aboard and piled in the back, and we were astounded that they could pack so many people like sardines just lying on top of each other, for what we thought would be a 12 hour bus ride. 

However, 12 hours was a gross underestimate. As was often the case with buses in Laos, the bus was not only transporting people, but supplies, stopping randomly for hours at a time to pick up or drop off huge bags of rice, fruit, machinery, whatever the locals needed shipped. Then we got to the broder at about 4 am, and it did not open until 7, so we spent about 4 hours just chilling at the border. All in all we finally made it to Hue in about 21 hours from Pakse (26 hours including the 3 tuk tuks from 4000 Islands to Pakse). Despite the 2 Dutch girls complaining the whole time, we had a great time riding what we came to call the clown car, even though it was by no means comfortable. At one point Arni woke up to find on one shoulder the head of the man in the seat next to him, on the other shoulder the head of man sitting on the rice bag behind his seat, Arni's legs intertwined with those of the man laying in the aisle, and when he tried to lay his head back on the seat he instead laid it on a foot jutting out of the mass of people in the back. But it got us to Vietnam, and that we were happy for, as from the start we noticed how beautiful of a country it is, an idea that was reinforced in the week that followed. 

Now I'll stop telling you about Vietnam, and show you.

The old imperial city of Hue. This city reminded us a bit of Boston, in terms of its size, walkability, and the parks along the river. And walking one of the bridges here reminded me of the thousands of times I've walked across the Mass Ave bridge from Boston to Cambridge in the last 5 years.

Our first dinner in Vietnam, grilled sting ray. It was actually quite nice, a kind of mix between crab and fish.

The imperial citadel in the center of Hue, flying Vietnams flag. I found out later from a Vietnamese friend that the star in the middle stands for the Vietnamese dream, and the red represents the blood spilled to achieve that dream.

Arni taking a quick break for being a tourist in the Forbidden Purple City in the middle of the Hue Citadel. It is forbidden in the sense that only the emperor, his 6 concubines, and eunuchs could enter the compound. Only eunuchs because the emperor did not want any of his concubines to be tempted in any way.

Getting a mototaxi across town.

I look pretty cool in my pink helmet and speed racer visor.

A common sight in Vietnam, a beautiful mountain line above a river, in this case the Perfume River, which runs through Hue.

Arni playing soccer with a random Vietnamese dude.

A pagoda. Whereas in Thailand there are Buddhist wats, in Vietnam they have Buddhist pagodas.

A typical bus in Vietnam, where there are three rows of seats which recline all the way. So much more comfortable than a normal bus.

Hoi An. This is a very touristy city, full of clothes shops, markets, and foreigners. Despite this it was actually a really nice small city on the river. 

Che vung den, or black sesame pudding. Looks like tar, tastes delicious.

Banh mi. This is a very common food in Vietnam, and we went to the most popular banh mi stall in Hoi An to try the French-influenced sandwich. It is a baguette filled with pork, pate, a bunch of chopped up veggies, chili sauce, some other sauce, and we got it with an egg added. Total cost 20,000 dong = 1 dollar. This was so good, with so many flavors, that we came back a couple hours later for seconds.

When we first got to Hoi An and we were walking to find a place to stay, we came across this court, and decided to play. We played pickup with an awesome group of Vietnamese guys for about 2 hours. I was the tallest player by about 8 inches (besides Arni). It was a blast to play ball after so much time traveling, and we came back the next day to play again. We almost decided to stay in Hoi An another day just to play again, but we are a little tight on time so we left after 2 days.

We took a sleeper bus to the beach city of Nha Trang, and we got there at about 5 am, exhausted. We immediately went to the beach, which was packed with locals at about 530 am. This is because the sun hasn't come up yet, so it's still nice and cool. And locals do not want to be in the sun, as they want to retain their whiteness, which is considered attractive here rather than being tan. We immediately laid on the beach and passed out for a few hours, only to be woken by the sweltering sun at about 8 am. The beach was now empty, except for a few Russian tourists. Nha Trang is very popular with Russians, and more signs are written in Russian than English. 

After waking up, we went for a swim, then laid on the beach for another hour or two. We both changed into swim shorts to swim, and Arni left his cargo shorts under his bag. At some point during either our swim or when we were lying with our bags, someone came and took Arni's shorts with his phone, camera, and passport inside. We were constantly watching or within a few feet of the bags, so whoever took them was pretty sneaky. This was like deja vu for me, and I prepared to help Arni go through the motions of filing a police report, getting an exit visa, etc. 

After going to the police and wandering all over town getting the wheels rolling, we decided to go back to the beach around 4 pm to make one last desperate check. The beach was now packed with tourists and locals alike, as the sun was going down and it was getting cooler. We walked around the area where we were sitting, and about 100 feet from where we were sitting we glimpsed a pair of cargo shorts in the sand, surrounded by people. No way, I thought. But amazingly enough, we went over and picked them up, and inside the pocket was Arni's passport. So lucky. The phone and camera were missing, as expected, but the 20 or 30 dollars were still there... So some thief was nice enough to save Arni a whole lot of trouble.

Pho, or beef soup. Probably the best thing about Vietnam.

We showed up at the police station to file a report, and were greeted by 2 sleeping policemen and a sleeping dog. After waiting for one of them to wake up, he just pointed around the corner and went back to sleep. 

We found a youth soccer game, and watched the whole thing with an enthusiastic Vietnamese crowd. Unfortunately it ended 0-0.

Nha Trang. It is a very developed city, full of tourists. We decided just a day there was enough, so the next day we booked a 3 day easy rider tour from Nha Trang to Dalat and through the Central Highlands. Easy rider tours are a kind of staple of Vietnam, and consists of a guide who drives you on a motorcycle around the countryside, explaining the culture and showing you the "real" Vietnam. It was an awesome experience, and we learned a ton about Vietnam from Hiep and Huan, two brothers who live in Dalat. Hiep took us from Nha Trang to Dalat, and Huan took us around the Central Highlands, and we stayed at their family's house in between.

A Cham temple right outside of Nha Trang.

Arni on his bike driving from Nha Trang to Dalat. I am riding on the back of Hiep's bike, so I get to enjoy the scenery the whole way. Riding on the back of a bike is a great way to see the countryside.

The home of an ethnic minority family. In Vietnam there are over 50 different ethnicities, with the Viet people being the majority of around 70%. Many of the minority people have darker skin, and are heavily discriminated against by the Viet people, and so have a lot of trouble escaping poverty.

A minority woman separating beans by hand.

The Central Highlands.

More Central Highlands. We spent 3 days motorbiking through this scenery, it was amazing.

One of many waterfalls we came across on our trip.

A fish farm. Hiep and Huan showed us a lot of agriculture during the trip, explaining how many farmers live and what their daily life on the farm is like. We encountered rice, coffee, flowers, fish, mushroom, corn, silk, pepper, and many more types of farms that I can't remember right now. It was really interesting to see the diversity of the types of agriculture, and to learn about the economics of the different types. For example, flower farms make much more money than coffee, which make much more money than corn or mushrooms, which make much more than rice. But crops that make more generally require a bigger investment, such as a greenhouse for flowers, and take more time to start producing.

Hiep here is explaining how a fish farm functions. Hiep was a really good storyteller, and one detail which Arni noticed is worth sharing. Hiep smoked a lot of cigarettes, and as soon as getting off the bike in a new place what light a new one. At one point we stopped, he lit the cigarette, and he began telling a story. He got so into his story, that by the end of the story, 20 minutes later, the cigarette had completely burnt out, without Hiep having taken a single puff. He didn't seem to notice or care, and ashed the cigarette out and we got back on the bikes to keep going. It was awesome to have a guide who was so interested and excited about what he was telling us that he didn;t even notice his cigarette burning out.

After biking about 180 km to Dalat, we stopped at a famous landmark in Dalat, the Gaudi-esque crazy house.It felt straight out of Alice in Wonderland, and was fun to walk/climb around.

More crazy house.

Huge dragon outside a pagoda.

Nazi turtle (notice the swastika on the shell). Actually this turtle is not a Nazi, the swastika was a Buddhist symbol for good luck before the Nazis stole it, and it is all over Vietnam. Hiep actually had one drawn on his hand, and is in fact not a Neo-Nazi, just a devout Buddhist.

Farmland. Notice the greenhouses for flower farming.

Our bikes.

A flower farmer getting her crop ready to ship to Saigon. Flowers can provide a family income of over a thousand dollars a month, which is very high compared to the average salary of around 200 dollars per month.

A weasel at a coffee farm. Weasel coffee is a type of coffee made from coffee beans that are fermented inside a weasel's stomach, and retrieved by the farmer from their excrement. It is a delicacy, and costs 2 or 3 times more than normal Vietnamese coffee. We had a cup, and it was noticeably better than normal Vietnamese coffee which is very good. (I have started to gain an appreciation for coffee on this trip.)

A silk factory.

Big silk weaving machines.

Another waterfall.

Huge happy buddha.

More scenery.

Pretty standard meal for Vietnam, rice with various meats, eggs, and vegetables on top.

House boats. People live in these floating houses and fish for a living.

A fisherman on serene Ho Lak (Lak Lake) at twilight.

Ho Lak. This is about 160 km from Dalat through the Central highlands. We stayed the night in a small village on the lake's edge.

Longhouses, which just consist of one open long room, which is where the villagers live. We stayed in one of these.

A friendly elephant wants some of Arni's breakfast.

Nice elephant.

Huan, our other guide, explaining something to Arni on one of our stops.

I really wanted to zipline down these power cords.

Awesome pose with the highlands in the background.

Pongour waterfall. We spent an hour here climbing the falls and showering in the cool, clean water. 

A better view. Huan thinks this is the most beautiful waterfall in all of Vietnam, and I can believe him.

The Dalat market. Dalat was a really nice city in the mountains, very cool as compared with the sweltering heat of the rest of Vietnam. We stayed with Huan and his family here, and learned a ton about Vietnamese culture and life. I could go on for pages about what we learned, but this is already a long post and I'm tired so I won't.

We are currently sitting in a little cafe in Ho Chi Minh City, taking a bit of a rest day after all the hectic traveling of the last week. We will probably spend 3 days here, then off to Cambodia for about a week. Till next time,

Tam biet