Back in HCMC

I can't believe I nearly forgot to post this...

Our holiday finished with us going back to HCMC. Which meant we got to eat Western food again (strangely enough we are now craving Mexican food as well as Italian food) and Dan got to go back to his favourite place in the whole of Vietnam - Le Pub - where the beer is on tap and where the tv is permanently tuned to the sports channel.

Dan at Le Pub

Bits and bobs...

...from Soc Trang to HCMC, a collection of random, odd-shaped and left over articles and things.

Meditation huts at the tile pagoda - Soc Trang.

A green monkey statue at the tile pagoda - Soc Trang. This is one of the strangest, 'most beautiful' things I have seen in Vietnam.

These girls were at the clay pagoda - Soc Trang - and really wanted their photo taken.

After they'd finished posing I let them play with my camera - so they dumped the little girl in my lap and started clicking away. As you can tell, the little girl wasn't too happy about this!

Another 'most beautiful' thing in Vietnam. This Tom and Jerry vase was in the lobby of our hotel in Can Tho.

Turtles at one of the Chinese pagodas in HCMC.

Inside a Chinese pagoda in HCMC.

A door knocker at another Chinese pagoda - HCMC. Isn't it awesome! One day, when I have a house of my own, I will paint the front door dark red and get a door knocker just like this.

All the riches of Cambodia

We visited the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh which was built around 1860 and where the present king resides (sometimes).

The Silver Pagoda is the main attraction in the palace - it has Italian marble staircases, silver floor tiles (which are mostly covered, the uncovered ones are all tarnished black - except where tourists have surreptitiosly rubbed the tiles with their bare feet) and a huge collection of Buddhas. There were wooden Buddhas, stone Buddhas, copper Buddhas, silver Buddhas, gold Buddhas, even a jade Buddha (which may actually be Bakelite).

The palace grounds were well maintained and it was very peaceful there. However, it was slightly surreal walking around there in such an opulent setting, after having visited the killing fields and encountered beggers and children selling water and photocopied books in the streets. Admission to the palace was also relatively expensive, which makes me wonder if ordinary Cambodian people are able to visit there. Though I'm sure that, like most things in SEA, there is a tourist price and a local price.

A mural on the palace wall.

One of the palace gates.

A work in progress.

One of the stupas in the palace grounds.

A Buddha statue and an absolutely bizarre flower in the palace grounds.

Rolous Group

The Rolous Group are the oldest surviving temples in the Siem Reap area. The group is made up of three temples - Preah Ko, Bakong, and Lolei. It was really interesting to see the different architectural styles of the temples and how the designs kept getting bigger and more ornate - eventually culminating in Angkor Wat.

I suspect that I am boring everyone with all these temple photos, after all there is nothing worse than being forced to view someone else's holiday photos (well, actually there probably are worse things - like being eaten by a shark or finding an unexpected durian filling in your otherwise delightful lunchtime pastry - but you can't think of these things when you are actually being forced to see boring holiday pics).

Anyway, if you are bored with the photos, too bad! Because I still haven't gotten around to downloading the Angkor Wat photos off Dan's camera. But I promise that they will be the last set of ancient temple photos I post on here. For a while, anyway.

Lolei Temple - ruined statue, renovations and chin-wagging.

Lolei Temple - a crazed looking demon...

Lolei Temple.

Carvings and windows at the Bakong Temple.

Nose-less elephants guarding the Bakong Temple.

Statue ruins at Bakong Temple.

Khmer Rouge trials

The UN-backed Cambodian War Crimes Tribunal today handed down a 35-year prison sentence to Kaing Guek Eav (alias Duch), the former head of the Khmer Rouge S-21 prison. This is a historic day for Cambodia as Duch is the first senior Khmer Rouge member to be tried for the atrocities committed during 1975-79.

Click here to read an article about the trial and verdict. Alternatively, the BBC has a series of articles about the trial, the verdict and stories from survivers of the S-21 and of the Khmer Rouge era.

Stick Village

We visited a poor fishing community situated on the currently-dry bed of the Tonle Sap Lake. I can not remember the name of the village but our driver (a very friendly man from our guesthouse who told us all kinds of useful and informative stories, such as why cows sound like they are saying "more" and "no more", why dogs lift a leg when doing their business and why dogs sleep in the streets....trust me, you don't want to know!) said it was known as stick village - due to the houses all being built on high stilts. Each year, at the end of the wet season, the the Mekong River floods and the Tonle Sap Lake fills up, flooding the village. 

The houses have been built so high up to prevent them being flooded, but the inhabitants are effectively flooded into their homes for about three months a year. If anyone wants to go anywhere they have to row, including to the local pagoda and primary school. The villagers are all very poor, they make a subsistence living off fishing and growing crops in the lake bed when the water is low. Some of the houses are very sparse, even missing entire exterior walls. It was sad to see people living such a tough life, yet the villagers all smiled and waved at us and the kids, especially, were so excited to see us and came over to give us high fives and hold our hands.

A typical house in Stick Village.

A local woman. Checkered scarves are worn on the heads or around the necks of many Cambodian people as a kind of unofficial symbol of ethnicity or nationality.

Looking out over Stick Village. All of the grassy area will be under water later this year.

Stuck in the mud in Stick Village.

The Valley of 1000 Lingas

Older than Angkor Wat, Kbal Spean (also known as the Valley of 1000 Lingas) is a collection of Hindu and phallic images carved into a riverbed. To get there, we had to travel about 40km out of town then trek 1.5km through the jungle and up a mountain (on a very well maintained and well trodden track).

The trek through the jungle alone was spectacular, occasionally there would be a break in the trees, offering a fantastic view out over the surrounding jungle, valleys and mountains. There were thousands of different butterflies flitting around and, if we stood still long enough, landing on us. We could also hear different birds calls and, possibly, monkey cries (though that could also have been some kind of owl, hooting away to try and confuse the tourists).

The riverbed carvings were unbelievable. The surrounding jungle is so dense and the site seems to remote, it is incredible to think that people were up there over a thousand years ago, carving images into the rocks, just to show their devotion to their gods and to pray for successful crops.

We were in Siem Reap during the wet season. Trekking through the jungle in high humidity was very hot and sweaty.

I don't know what these carvings of people represent, but they don't look over 1000 years old!

The river washes over the carved lingas. Animals are carved into the big rock.

The river runs through the carvings of lingas and Hindu legends. 

Not Angkor Wat

Unfortunately my camera battery died just as we arrived at Angkor Wat. So I won't be posting any photos of Angkor Wat til I can get my hands on Dan's camera. I know you're craving more ancient temple ruins pics so, in order to satisfy you (you demanding lot!) I'll allow you to admire this picture of me bravely climbing the steep, narrow and often slippery steps of an Angkor-era temple...

Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei is a beautiful temple complex a couple of kilometres out of Siem Reap. It was built in the 10th century and, although it is smaller than most of the other temple complexes we saw, I thought it was just as spectacular, if not more-so. The temple is covered in thousands of intricate carvings which are set off by the stunning reds and oranges of the stone. Some guidebooks say that it is called the Citadel of Women and that the carvings are believed to have been done by women - because they are too fine to have been done by men. However, an information sign at Banteay Srei said this could be a mis-translation of the name. Regardless, the temple is absolutely stunning and it is set in a beautiful countryside area.

Carvings above a doorway at Banteay Srei.

Banteay Srei

Banteay Srei is made of a type of red sandstone. The colours of the stone and the carvings are spectacular.

Dan resting by one of the temple walls.

A carving in one of the entranceways.

Banteay Srei - Citadel of the Women or Citadel of Beauty.

Life in Siem Reap

The old markets in Siem Reap. These markets are absolutely huge - you could find anything there including souveneirs, fruit, meat, tea, hairdressers.....

Sewing in the old markets.

At a pub opposite the old markets.

The pub in the photo above had flavoured vodkas. I ordered a shot of mango-infused vodka. It tasted nothing like a mango, but it tasted exactly like my grandfather's gramma pie! I had to order a couple just to be sure....

The Unlucky Temple

The Unlucky Temple. This temple was abandoned during construction. Lightning hit the temple while it was being built, a fortune teller told the king that it was a bad omen.

Dan climbing down the Unlucky Temple. The steps are all very narrow and very steep!

Angkor Thom

The south gate to Angkor Thom, one of the five gateways to the complex.

Buddha's faces (or possibly the king, or possibly a combination of the two) overlooking the entranceway.

Bayon Temple - this temple has over 200 depictions of Buddha's face carved into it. Again, the faces could also be a combination of Buddha and the king (Jayavarman VII).

Construction work on one of the temples.

A construction worker climbing the temple

Terrace of the Elephants.

Terrace of the Leper King

Another entrance to Angkor Thom. Many of the Buddha and demon statues had their heads removed by the French colonialists who took them back to French museums (where many remain to this day). The Khmer Rouge also removed many heads and statues to sell in order to raise money for weapons.

A Cambodian/Vietnamese Holiday

I’m back! The past 2-3 weeks have been jam-packed. I’ve been shopping in Ho Chi Minh City, exploring ruins in Siem Reap, sight-seeing in Phnom Penh, eating and drinking in Soc Trang and, finally, more shopping in Ho Chi Minh City. For all of these activities I was accompanied by my parents (who decided that me living in Vietnam was a good excuse for a holiday here), their friend Ed and, of course, Dan.

My holiday from Soc Trang life started roughly 3 weeks ago when I decided to go to HCMC on a Thursday morning so I could go birthday-present shopping for my mum. It was a perfect plan, get out of Soc Trang earlier than expected and have a few blissful days of shopping without Dan (who hates shopping with me and who I hate shopping with). Then I met up with my parents and also with Dan and we spent the weekend exploring the city, sampling the local delicacies and sussing out which embroidery stores had the nicest dresses for my little niece. Then onto Cambodia.

Siem Reap
We flew into Siem Reap after Dan vetoed taking a 12hr bus ride there. Siem Reap is a bizarre town, full of lovely old French buildings, an endless variety of restaurants and cafes and plenty of tanks of fish waiting to nibble the dead skin off your feet. It is also the base for exploring Angkor Wat and all the other Angkor temple ruins. This was the aim of our visit.

Our first day in Siem Reap was spent visiting the temples in the Angkor Thom compound, Ta Phrom and Angkor Wat. We capped off the day by climbing a mountain to visit Phnom Bakheng and to admire the view over Angkor Wat, Siem Reap and the countryside stretching out to the mountains. We visited more temples further out of Siem Reap on day three, including Kbal Spean, which involved trekking for 30 minutes up a mountain and through the jungle; Banteay Srei which is said to have been carved by women; and the Rolous Group temples, the oldest surviving temples in the area. All of the temples are unique and they are all absolutely amazing. It is incredible to think that these massive monuments were being built about 1000 years ago. There is so much stone work and detail in all of the carvings; it is hard to believe that it was all done by hand. With the help of a few thousand elephants too.

We also visited a stick village which, for three months a year, gets flooded be the rising waters of the Mekong and the Tonle Sap Lake. In order to cope, villagers have had to build their houses on massive stilts (hence the term ‘stick village’), and need row boats in order to get around. The villagers were all mostly poor families eking out an existence by fishing and growing crops on the dry lake bed.

Phnom Penh
After Siem Reap we bussed down to Phnom Penh. We caught a tuk-tuk out to Choeung Ek – the killing fields. This is where the Khmer Rouge executed thousands of prisoners. A stupa has been built there to house all the excavated bones of the prisoners. It was such a sad, harrowing place to visit. Seeing the skulls of the prisoners in the stupa and seeing fragments of human bones and scraps of prisoners’ clothes partially buried all along the walking track was just devastating.

There is such a stark contrast between Cambodia’s Angkor-era history, it’s relatively recent Khmer Rouge history and it’s present struggle to overcome corruption and poverty. Despite everything they have been through, and all that they are still going through, all the Khmer people we met were so friendly and always had a big, happy smile for us. Cambodia is such an amazing country to visit, do go there if you get the chance!

Soc Trang
To be blunt, Soc Trang is not much of a holiday destination. But my parents wanted to see where Dan and me live and work so they were our guests here for four days. The director of Kiem Lam very kindly allowed us to use Kiem Lam’s car and driver so that we could drive around the countryside, visit some pagodas and visit Au Tho B village – where the mangrove co-management pilot project is being implemented. We also borrowed some bicycles so that we could all cycle around town and see the sights, which was all good until my mother crashed into me. I was fine but mum stubbed her toe, making it bleed, which made her feel faint. So she had to have a sit down under a tree beside the road; I think it was the funniest thing the Soc Trang locals have seen in a long time!

Our time in Soc Trang happened to correspond with my mother’s birthday, so we invited a host of workmates and friends to Restaurant 36 where we had a lot of seafood (mum’s favourite food!), a lot of beer, some Australian white wine (which started off cold but soon got pretty warm) and two bottles of Dalat red wine (drunk with ice). Then we went to another restaurant where we had more beer, a big plate of crabs and some clams cooked in a very tasty sauce (possibly tamarind-based). It was a very decadent birthday celebration!

Can Tho
As both my parents and Ed were flying out of HCMC, we decided to make our way back there via Can Tho so that they could take a boat tour out to the floating markets. Having already done this tour I opted for a sleep-in (I was not up for another 5.30am tour start!) and a trip to the supermarket for supplies (i.e. chocolate). When my parents returned from their tour they decided that they would also like to visit the supermarket/department store. Here they got their first taste of waiting in-line to be served by the cashier - Vietnamese style. There is no such thing as line-etiquette here, if you want to go to the front of the line and be served next, go! If you want to swap lines but not lose your place in the original line, just do it! You have to be very assertive to keep your place in a queue here; your elbows and your shopping basket are both useful weapons against other shoppers.

HCMC
Back to HCMC and time to hit the shops. My parents shopped for clothes for my niece, clothes for themselves, presents for various relatives, Doc Martin shoes for themselves (and for me – thanks parents!), dvds, handbags and souvenirs. You can buy just about anything in HCMC! I also indulged in a bit of shopping, I bought an embroidered book for my niece (there are a lot of really lovely hand-embroidered baby clothes, kids clothes and toys here), a “Vietnamese stone” necklace for my sister, I bargained for a “Zara” shirt in Saigon Square, bought a skirt in the Saigon Tax Centre and had a pair of shoes hand-made for me in the massive Ben Thanh Markets (80,000VND – bargain!). Plus I had to visit the supermarket for more supplies (chocolate, again, but also some peanuts for Dan seeing as he let the mice eat his last lot). I also spent plenty of time in Bobby Brewer’s café; I ended up spending over two hours there waiting til it was time for the bus to take me back to Soc Trang.

Back to Soc Trang
So now I am back in Soc Trang, back at work, back to cold showers and back to local Vietnamese food. I’m working on environmental education material at the moment, which may involve creating a story/colouring-in book. Hmmm… I wonder if the Soc Trangian kiddies would like an environmental book starring the giant gecko monster lizard?