Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) 1st- 5th of June

Small alleyways filled with locals hunched over small plastic tables sharing food, children chasing each other through these alleyway suburbs. Swarms of motorbikes flying along the roads in organised chaos. Tourists standing on the side of the road trying to figure out the best way to cross the street, bright lights and designer stores; this is Saigon.

We had heard many stories that detailed the madness of Saigon so when we arrived it wasn’t as bad as we had anticipated. Our guesthouse owner in Can Tho had told us that the bus would stop far from the centre and that dozens of motos would try and take you there for an inflated price, but the bus company would provide free shuttles to the centre but generally don’t advertise it.
So as we watched confused tourists get off the bus and get mobbed by moto drivers we asked the bus driver where the shuttle was, and sure enough there was a mini bus waiting to the side.

We got into town and managed our first road crossing without incident, we knew from other’s experience that the only way to cross the road is to walk in a straight line at a consistent speed, so the motorbikes can predict your next step and avoid it. This works extremely well, just make sure they are looking at you, and not talking to the person behind them. We saw a few people who would hesitate or back track which caused chaos as they became unpredictable.
We found our guest house nestled in a small alleyway just off one of the main roads, hotels and noodle stands lined the alley.

Barber in the alleys of Saigon

Saigon alleyway guard dog

Just walk

We knew that with any big city the main star was the street food.
So the next day we ventured out to find the infamous “lunch lady” I had seen her on an Anthony Bourdain episode and there are many blogs that mention her, her stall has become a must do for foodies looking for what many regard as the best bowl of noodles anywhere. Every day she does a different soup, after becoming so popular her family members have opened up stalls to support her, there’s a fruit shake stall and fresh spring rolls also.
I could write on about here but lots of others already have, so to read more visit gastronomyblog.com

Lunch at "The Lunch Lady" oh my god.....these noodles oh my god....

We visited the war remnants museum which shows the horrific results of agent orange, but the museum is heavily focussed on the “Vietnamese heroes vs the American imperialist puppets”
which is a bit off-putting that such a tourist attraction in this day and age can be so filled with propaganda; it doesn’t mention much if anything about the years of war between the north and the south before the US joined in.
A more interesting visit is the reunification palace which was the home and workplace of the South Vietnamese president, and also the site of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnamese war.
There were lush meeting rooms, theatres and parlours upstairs, while downstairs there war bunkers and command centres. The place looks to be frozen in time, worth a few hours’ visit.

replica of the tanks that broke down the gates

Communications room in reunification palace

Reunification palace 

We booked a day trip to tour the Cao Dai temple and Cu Chi tunnels,
Cao Dai is a religion that was created in South Vietnam, but to be honest I can’t remember a lot about it and you would be better off checking out Wikipedia for more info on it Wikipedia
The Cu Chi tunnels are a huge network of tunnels spreading for hundreds of kilometres and gave the Viet Cong a huge advantage during the war; they even had underground kitchens with sophisticated smoke dispersion systems so they wouldn’t be seen from the air, hospitals and supply rooms.
At the park they have opened a section of the tunnels up to visitors roughly 100 metres long, which has been made wider (for the fat westerners). Even with the tunnels being wider the closed in space and the heat makes for quite the claustrophobic experience.
At the end of the park there is a shooting range where you can shoot down the range with some old war weapons ranging from handguns to the huge m60 mounted machine gun. I decided that this would be one of the only chances I would ever get to shoot the iconic AK47. Wow these things are loud, they walk you to the spot and hand you some ear muffs, the problem is that to walk there you walk past other people firing guns and without ear protection these things are scarily loud. It was a good bit of fun but at over $1 US a round it’s not cheap.

Cao Dai temple

Worshippers at the noon service

Worshippers at the noon service

Rakatatatatatata!

Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City (make sure the latter is used when speaking to police or any government official) is a great place to visit with a bit of pre-visit study online. It’s not as scary as people make it out to be.

Can Tho – 31st May – 2nd June

We arrived into Ha Tien from Cambodia and stayed a night getting out bearings. For what is meant to be a small town, the fast pace hustle and bustle took us by surprise after two months in the some of sleepiest places in Asia. There isn’t a lot to the place so I won’t bother writing about it.
The next day we hopped on a small bus and are taken to Can Tho, the capital of the Mekong Delta, and famous for its floating markets.

 We stayed out of town in a homestay which was more like family run style hostel. The guests stay in little bungalows on the riverside and later on during the day Hung (owner) takes everyone up river then walks with them through the village, talking about the way people live, what is grown and how its changed. Later on that night we sit down and Hung’s family make us dinner and show us how to roll some spring rolls, unfortunately you don’t get to eat with the family. After dinner Hung pulls out a plastic bag of rice whisky and inserts a chop stick in top and pokes it out the bottom corner making a little spout and fills peoples glasses, then lowers the chopstick into the hole plugging it up for the next round; genius.

The next day we go by boat to the floating markets. Farmers from hundreds of kilometers travel by river to Can Tho to sell their produce, there are a few floating markets which are quite a sight. Small to large wooden boats painted brightly with eyes on the prow to scare away the river monsters, drop anchor and raise a sample of their produce up the flag pole so from a distance you can spot your target. Boats filled with tens of thousands of pineapples, watermelons, durians, jackfruits, onions, cabbages, the list goes on.

Pineapple farmers advertise their goods

Local business men buy some pineapples

 And in between these boats are small dingys owned by local businessmen that buy a few hundred of this and that then go to their local markets and sell it onward to stalls. Little dingys rowed by little old ladies go from boat to boat selling hot bowls of noodle soup or iced coffees; the market is its own little city. After tasting some of the local fruits we go around the city looking at the other trades popular in the region, which include a family run rice noodle factory where broken bits or rice are boiled with starch and made into a paste. Then this is ladled and smoothed in circles onto cloth which is above a steaming pot, moments later they are moved into the sun to dry, and then once dried they are put into a shredder and dispatched around town.

Making rice paper for noodles

Thousands of tiny seedlings

Woman making banana tube seedling holders

Many local nurseries thrive on the popular markets and sell small seedling any fruit of vege you desire, small teams of woman make small tubes from banana leaves and pack them with ash (from the business down the road which burns rice husks to power their rice noodle steam pots, nothing’s wasted) After our tour of the city we are dropped off at the bus station and head for Saigon.

Rice fields in Can Tho

Kampot and Kep 26 – 28 May

From Sihanoukville we moved further down the coast to Kampot. Here we stayed at a chilled out place by the riverside. Our room was a three sided bungalow set in the garden, with a curtain as a fourth wall for privacy. This was quite idyllic setting, however we later learned that the main building was in fact a former snake temple; explaining the cool designs on the balustrades, and also the fact that there had been several snake sightings in the area, which made us feel a little less secure.

The bar at this hostel turned out to be a popular hangout for a bunch of expats; it felt a little like ‘central perk’ from ‘Friends’, or the bar from ‘how I met your mother.’ It was a great group of people hanging out and working at the bar though, and we hung around there a bit just chilling out.

We also rented a motorbike and scooted around, checking out Kampot, which is actually filled with some great old colonial buildings, from the time of the French, and nice little shops and cafes. One café we went to was run by the deaf community, and you ordered by writing down your choices, or signing them (signs for certain things provided in the menu).

We definitely felt the presence of the rainy season at this time, but decided to brave the rain with a day trip on the motorbike, down to Kep, armed with our cheap ponchos (basically like wearing a massive plastic bag, and just as noisy). Kep is a seaside town well known for its seafood, particularly crabs. We arrived at the crab market, and saw all the local ladies, fully dressed and knee deep in the surf hauling up cages full of crabs. Just down the road were rows of restaurants, serving said crab and other seafood. We sat ourselves down and proceeded to feast on delectable crab with kampot pepper. Interestingly, kampot pepper is apparently famous in the culinary world, and will soon be awarded ‘geographic indication;’ therefore allowing no one else to use the name ‘kampot pepper’ unless it’s grown in kampot (as with champagne, brie, etc.).

From Kampot we bid farewell to Cambodia and headed for the Vietnamese border.

Sihanoukville 20 - 26 May

Our next stop was Sihanoukville, on Cambodia’s southern coast. We had heard that some areas of Sihanoukville were over-touristed and a little sleazy, so instead sussed out a chilled out beach to stay at; Otres beach. 

On our first day here, we went on a boat tour arranged by an American guy living and working at Otres. There were seven of us on this mini tour, and we had a stunning day for it. We visited Bamboo Island, a gorgeous island uninhabited apart from the one guesthouse’s cluster of bungalows. Here we swam and snorkelled about, went for a walk, and had a delicious seafood barbecue on the beach. We also went cliff jumping before heading back to the mainland.

Early one morning (around 5am) I woke up to a rustling noise in the thatching of our bungalow room. I thought it was a mouse or rat or something, so put on my glasses to investigate. To my astonishment, I saw a hole which had been made by parting the thatching, and through this hole, a large, human, eye staring at me. I shouted “hey!,” and a male voice replied “what!” before the eye retreated. I jumped out of bed and raced around to the outside to spot the peeping tom. All I saw however was a retreating back strolling away into a paddock. I was a little disturbed by the thought of someone apparently watching us as we slept. We changed places that day anyway, so no need to worry about a return visit. I did mention this to someone later however, and they explained there had been some robberies lately; probably our peeping tom was scoping out our room and valuables and would return later to pinch them.

We strolled down Otres beach’s one road, and settled in at Everything is Everything, another bar/restaurant/guesthouse. Our bungalow here was right on the beach, and caught the all-important cooling breeze. While the amenities were basic here, the location and the atmosphere was superb and we found ourselves staying a few days at Otres. Everything is Everything is run by two Aussie guys, and the whole vibe was super relaxed (also partly because it was the low season – for a couple of days it was just us staying there).

There were quite a few nice little guesthouses, restaurants and bars at Otres (although hard to find local food), and a great crowd there. Chatting to some of the expats who have ended up living and working in the guesthouses there, we could see the appeal. Towards the end of our stay at Otres however, the weather really started to pack in which was a shame, so we moved on, bidding farewell to our relaxing sojourn at the beach.

Sam Bat Village, 15 - 18 May

We were sitting on a park bench enjoying some local fruits whilst looking out over the river that runs through Siem Reap when a gentleman introduced himself as Waha. He explains that he is the director of a small school, located an hour out of town in a village called Sam Bat.
The purpose of the school is to give children in the area that cannot afford school English lessons.
Some of the children are orphans whose parents have either passed away or went to Thailand to make more money and never returned. The name of the school is under privileged school Cambodia. You can volunteer to help teaching English, and for $5 USD a day you get shelter, water and 3 meals a day.
We looked at the pictures and took a flyer, the next few days we saw the temples and explored the town centre and decided to extend our stay in Siem Reap and spend 3 nights in Sam Bat.
The following day we took a tuk tuk an hour of town, off the main road and down a dirt road through many small villages, it’s interesting how differently people live just an hour out of town. Modern concrete homes are replaced by wooden stilt houses, the cars disappear and so does the power.

We arrived and met our fellow volunteers David and Sjoerd from the Netherlands.
We took a walk with Waha and a few of the local boys. We climb a small bamboo structure in a field as it catches a nice breeze and spend an hour or so talking to Waha he tells us about his school, his mission, the children and their stories. Waha explains that there are 3 classes a day ranging from 1-2 hours. In between these times the children are at home helping. Not all the children go to all 3 classes, some make it to 2, and some to 1. 

 

After this it’s time for lunch; a family living next to the school made our lunch of small fried fish and rice which was very tasty.
After lunch the children started turning up with pens and books in hand, with huge smiles but a little too shy to say hello. Once sat down Waha gave them some info about us in Khmer then encouraged them with  “Good…” then an almighty “GOOD AFTERNOON TEACHER!” roared through the classroom.

We found the classes a little frustrating as we didn’t speak Khmer we couldn’t ask them if they understood and couldn’t explain rules such as “A” vs “An” but I think after many examples and big circles on the board they got it. It seemed a little bit like the children just mimic what you say without understanding what the words mean, and with the language barrier it’s hard to figure out how well they understand. But in saying that there were the more advanced classed where the children spoke pretty good English so it seems like it works.

That night we slept in the newly constructed library building which is a small concrete building with a tile floor which with a few thin reed mats made for a surprisingly good sleep. Unfortunately the next night and the days following there was a wedding party down the road which had super loud booming music from 5am till midnight for a few days on end, which is surprising seeing that there is no power in the village. So with the heat and the music sleep was a little harder; fortunately between classes there was time for naps, my favourite nap spot the bamboo stilt hut we had met at earlier.

The next day Bruno from a local NGO was visiting and he and Waha were discussing a proposal to supply the children with uniforms. Waha had to create a proposal document outlining the details of the request and the goals of the school. This was difficult as his English while good didn’t translate to formal documents, also without a laptop this didn’t look easy. Bruno explained to me and Waha that if any one of the criteria or documents didn’t make it to him by X date the project would be scrapped as there are many other projects that need funding. So I volunteered Hannah’s excellent written skills and suggested that I get a ride back into Siem Reap to pick up our netbook.
We went back into town I shared Bruno’s tuk tuk as he was heading home and Waha followed on his motorbike. Waha had some things in town to do so we decided on a meeting point and after I gathered the netbook, some medical supplies, and some flip flops and clothing from a nearby 2^nd hand shop (some of the kids didn’t have shoes and their clothes were torn and mouldy); Waha and I met up. By now it’s night and very dark, as we were heading out to the village on the main road we got a flat tyre. Now in New Zealand this means calling AA or hoping you’re near a garage. In Cambodia, like a lot of south east Asia, there seems to be a bike repair shop every few kilometres.
We arrive at someone’s home and he opens up his garage. 15 minutes later we had a new inner tube and we are on our way. A few kilometres after the turn on to the dirt road it goes flat again (maybe something sharp was still lodged in the tyre) and we find another fellow to change it for us.
By this time it was around 10pm we have been gone for near on 5 hours and I was sure Hannah was getting worried. About a kilometre down the road the chain on Waha’s motorbike starts to make slipping noises and it gets to the point where it stops and the bike makes a lot of noise but doesn’t go anywhere. So after multiple failed attempts to wake up local repairmen we start walking the bike with quite a few kilometres to go. We come across a group of tipsy locals that Waha knew and after maybe 30 minutes of group discussion and pulling and prodding the bike they gave up.
Waha called the family that lived next to the school and soon after two guys turned up on another motorbike/scooter. We all jumped on his bike; one guy on the front, then me behind him and the other behind me; we must had looked like an oreo on a bike. The guy on the back reached behind him and grabbed Waha’s hand and pulled him while he was on his bike, and with this human tow rope we finally made it back to the school, what a long trip but a truly south east Asian experience.
Once we got back it must have been 11pm and everyone was waiting for us so we could go to the wedding down the road. We arrive and most people had left but there was still a group of maybe 15 men dancing, and with drunken excitement they quickly invite up us to dance. With twirling hands and bopping up and down we danced away I paired up with the fiancées father; our dance consisted of facing each other and bopping up and down with the music clapping and a paddy cake style hand clapping game. We retired home and finally made it to bed only to be woken up at 5am with more wedding music. The next day classes continued as usual and in between some games with the children; mostly the south east Asian version of hacky sack, which is a group of flat plastic disks and a group of feathers poked through them; it works really well, makes a reassuring sound when kicked and the feathers ensure the unit comes down controlled which makes it easier to hit. 

A game of hand tennis

Meanwhile Hannah spent most of the day with Waha on the netbook writing up the proposal for the uniforms.

writing the proposal with many proof readers 

We spoke with Waha about his plans for the school and he mentioned that he would like another small building for computers as the school had just had a generator donated. This being a topic I am interested in I had a long discussion suggesting that he uses ex lease laptops or something similar as the generator was fairly small (as we found out we couldn’t charge our netbook while the family watched TV). So on the way back to Siem Reap we stopped by a hardware shop and brought 160kg of cement to donate to the project. This isn’t a lot as Waha said they will need around a ton to get started but every small bit helps.
I won’t forget our time in Sam Bat; the great feeling of being somewhere and having such friendly locals that aren’t trying to sell you things but are glad to see you and the HUGE smiles on the children’s faces.

Schools out

Cheeky and shy

You can view the school site at http://underprivilegedschool.blogspot.com/
If you’re looking to do similar work in other countries visit http://www.workaway.info/

Siem Reap 13 - 19 May

During our Cambodia trip, we had been thinking; “I wonder where all the tourists are.” Well it turns out they all seem to be in Siem Reap. With the temples of the Angkor Wat archaeological park and the infamous pub street, I don’t think we had seen so many tourists since……well maybe ever.

The town itself has obviously benefitted from the crowds and the dollars they bring with them, with an attractive tree lined river side and a number of NGO-run restaurants and shops. Having such a large tourist population however has resulted in an even larger population of tuk tuks, and you really get sick of being asked for one every two steps. That said, we enjoyed hanging out in Siem Reap, it was an easy town to get around (we used bikes from our hotel) and it was just a nice place to be with a nice atmosphere.

While in Siem Reap, we of course went to Angkor Wat, spending about two and a half days visiting different temples. There were certainly some stunning ones; from the majestic Angkor Wat to jungle-covered Ta Prohm. Many of the temples have international teams working to restore or preserve certain sections, so often some areas were closed off.

We soon found out that clambering around and up and down temples in the heat is quite exhausting. The park itself covers a huge area, and there are different routes you can do. We did both the small and the big circuit, although missed the odd temple, and then went back to spots we had missed. Being at Angkor Wat for sunrise is a popular thing to do, so we thought we’d do that too. Unfortunately this meant leaving our hotel at the ungodly hour of 5am. The sunrise was nice, and we got some good shots, although I’m not sure I’d do it again.

Being the rainy season, our temple visits or plans for visiting sites around the city were affected a little by sudden downpours. We saw people biking between temples who were caught out in the rain and drenched in seconds – didn’t look very pleasant, although at least you cool down. Luckily we had arranged a tuk tuk through our hotel which took us from temple to temple, and our driver met us with icy cold water after each temple. While we enjoyed visiting these amazing archaeological sites, at the end of Siem Reap, we were a bit templed-out.

The rain about to pour down

Battambang 10-11th May

We arrived in Battambang from Phnom Penh and after being dropped at the bus stop we turned up at our guesthouse, named ‘bus stop’ – very confusing. An Australian-owned place that advertises “the coldest beer in town” – what is it with Australians and their beers needing to be the coldest?

The next day we turned up at the bamboo train locally known as a norry, BattamBang is one of the only places left in Cambodia that has these. During the 80’s and 90’s there were hundreds if not thousands of these things whizzing around the country. Of course before the Khmer rouge shutdown the railways in the 70’s these tracks were for actual trains and as the country recovers and repairs the seriously neglected tracks the bamboo trains become more scarce. In construction they are simply a steel frame sitting on steel wheels and covered with a bamboo base powered by what seems to be a go cart or scooter engine, which propels them down the tracks at speeds up to 40 km/h

40 km/h doesn’t seem that fast but with the low centre of gravity, the lack of suspension, sound deadening, walls, and by the looks of it nothing but a bit of wood for brakes it soon gets more exciting than you’d expect.

When another “train” is met coming the other way they both stop and one helps the other to lift their train off the tracks drives past and then puts it back on again.

moving out of the way for oncoming traffic

At the other end of the track we arrived at a small village full of eager locals for you to get out of the heat and enjoy a drink. Children create animals from flax and proudly show you around their village (of course for a small fee)

She was taking pictures of me so I got to take one back

When we got back we found an evening cooking class which involved a market tour, which along with the normal fare of meat/veges/ fruit also had fried crickets and cockroaches.
We sat in the kitchen of a family run restaurant and chopped and bashed under the supervision of the husband, while the wife and children attended to the patrons. We created a fish amok which is a yellow fish curry that is steamed in banana leaves, a sour soup and popular Lok Lak which is diced beef done with black ground pepper topped with a fried egg served with rice.

Sour Soup

Beef Lok Lak

It was nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of Phnom Penh and see local life that doesn’t revolve around tourism.

The next day we left for Siem Reap.