In Conclusion

For starters, I have to simply say that this trip exceeded all of our expectations tenfold. It was one surprise after another, wow moment after wow moment. The diversity of Vietnam from one region to another is beyond belief. I also cannot emphasize how well the trip was set up, organized, and executed by Mrs Ha from Vietland Discoveries. For first time visitors to Southeast Asia like us, I would recommend her services to anyone. Outstanding personal service by someone who really cares about her clients.

To summarize our itinerary, we started in Hanoi, then Halong Bay, the overnight train to Sapa for a couple of days, then overnight back to Hanoi. A couple of nights in Hue, a few days in Hoi An and then Na Trang. Drove to Da Lat for two days, flew to Ho Chi Minh City for a couple, two days in the Mekong Delta, boat to Phenom Penh, and finally three days in Siem Reap.

If I were to start over, knowing what I know now, I would add another day in Hanoi - we did not see all the highlights that I would have liked to see. I might skip Na Trang altogether - there was little there of interest to us apart from a nice beach. We would have loved more time in Da Lat and would include an agricultural based tour day. Our guide in Da Lat grew up on a nearby farm and would be the perfect choice for such a day. Our time in both Hoi Chi Minh City and Phenom Penh was short, but that was enough for both locations. Siem Reap was great, I wish we had a bit more temple time though.

Our favourites, well Halong Bay is listed as one of the wonders of the world for good reason, so that makes almost everyone's favourite list. Sapa and Da Lat were also tops for us. Somewhat surprisingly as I generally hate crowds of people,The Old Quarter in Hanoi was special for me.

The guides and drivers that we had were good, especially in Sapa, Da Lat, and Hoi Chi Minh City/Mekong delta. We have email contact for two of them and will be seeking the third from Ha. Our weather was also fantastic, we knew that Halong Bay and Sapa would be cool in January, and they were, however we had above average temperatures at both locations so we were very happy with that. We also knew going in that the food was going to be memorable, and that did not disappoint at all.

It goes without saying that this was an outstanding vacation. I do not know what we can plan for our next holiday that will not pale in comparison to this. Time will tell, but meanwhile we have a ton of pictures, memories, and momentos to remember this one.

 

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Our last day!!

Our final day was pretty quiet.  We got our luggage organized a bit in the morning, then hopped a tuk tuk to downtown for a little bit of shopping and lunch.  We had some awesome sushi along with some 50 cent draft beer, right on pub Street, which is far less hectic during the daytime. 

I like their definition of Happy hour.

Eileen followed up the sushi with an ice cram stick.

An ice cream stick

We spent about half the afternoon downtown, then headed back to relax, close up the suitcases, and check out.  Stored our bags and then went back downtown to The Grey for dinner.  This is actually where we met Lynda for drinks the previous night, and we thought that it looked like a good supper choice.  We got that right.  We did their 7 meat BBQ special for two, and combined with two for one drink prices, we not only had one of our best meals, but it was a good deal.  The put a bbq in the center of the table, this one cooks the meat in the middle but all around the outside they pour a broth that cooks your vegetables and noodles, which they kept replenishing as we cooked the meat; beef, pork, chicken, crocodile, two types of fish, and squid, all nicely seasoned.

Cambodian bbq

We got back to the hotel and found the driver waiting for us.  He got us to the airport, and then we found our flight was delayed by an hour.  Oh well, we wait in Siem Reap or we wait in Seoul, which is actually where we are right now.  The airport here has several rest areas for people on layovers, there are showers, recliners, big soft chairs for sleeping, play areas, etc.  Very few people taking advantage of it, so it's nice and quiet.  Little more time here, then of for the long leg to Vancouver.

Tomb Raiders

So we did some of the eastern ruins today, made famous of course by Lara Croft and the Tomb Raiders.  There is some significant restoration work going on here, funded by India.  Some of the work that has already been completed is impressive, based on the before and after photos. 

Example of the restoration efforts

On-going restoration

 

The roots of these trees that have overgrown the walls and foundations of these temples are amazing.  They are able to occupy the slightest crack and then just explode, sometimes looking like big serpents crawling along the walls.  The tree roots and the quality of the original build of this group of temples is responsible for their poor condition now.  The king that built these was cheap, and used a lot of recycled rock for his building.  Good in principle but not so much for us now. 

 

A tomb raider moment

 

Huge tree roots

We really enjoyed looking at all the detailed carving in the walls

We finished up our ruins touring by noon, had another nice lunch at a local eatery, and then got dropped off at the hotel.  Said our good byes to the guide and confirmed our pickup tomorrow with the driver.  We chilled out for awhile, then I went walking while Eileen pulled out her kindle and a pillow on the deck.  I ended up downtown (a couple of kms), strolled around a few markets, spent $1 on some soup ingredients, and $2 for a ride home.  Found Eileen lazing by the pool with a baby kitty sleeping in her lap when I got back. 

Cambodian gas station

We had made contact with Lynda, asking her about getting together tomorrow, but they are doing the temples, so we headed downtown for early happy hour today to hook up.  We only spent an hour with them but it was a lot of fun re-living each others journey through Vietnam. We had a short but good visit. 

After our happy hour drink, we took a quick tuk tuk to this buffet dinner that was followed by one hour of traditional Cambodian dance/ceremony, called  Apsana dancing.  There were an incredible number of people there, at least 1,500 I'd guess.  However, nothing much to say about the food or the show, which was slow and sleep inducing.  

Tomorrow we just intend to take it easy, probably go downtown for lunch and another wander.  Check out at 6:00, airport pickup at 9:00 for the flight to Seoul.

Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat

We've have visited some big ancient ruins of the Mayans such as Chitzen Itza and Coba, and they were quite spectacular, and granted, they are older than these but it is the enormity of the temples of Angkor that is almost overwhelming.  I had read quite a bit about the place but I still was not prepared for all of this, and we just saw one small portion.  There has been a lot of restoration work done over the last fifty years or so, with interuptions for wars and other conflicts.  A lot of the work has been done by foreign interests, France, China, Japan, and others, either due to a guilty conscience for misdemeanors wrought against Cambodia or in hope of a bigger share of natural resources.
The number of tourists here is also boggling, I mentioned yesterday about all the large modern hotels and resorts.  Well all those rooms get filled and all those tourists have one main destinations, and that is to the temples.  It was busy when we arrived this morning but when we left there were hundreds of tour buses in the parking lots, and most of them would have been filled by Korean and Japanese tourists.  There are plenty of western tourists too, and we saw so many of them touring the ruins on their own.  After doing it with a guide, I think these people are losing out on a great deal of the experience.  The details that they are able to show you, and the stories that they can describe from the thousands of intricate carvings, you just would not see by reading a guidebook.  Here is one example; conflict in this region is nothing new, the rulers of the land alternated between Buddhist and Hindu many times.  We were in the Bayon temple where there were a whole series of wall carvings.  Our guide showed us the outline of the original carving and it's typical Buddha form.  After a hindu takeover the Buddha was scraped smooth and replaced by a hindu carving.  However the tall Buddha towers were not destroyed, but a third hindu eye was added to each of them (I do not know the proper term for the forehead spot of the hindus, sorry)

Hindu eye on the Buddha forehead

I could go on and on with pictures etc, but it would get very long winded so I will just put up a couple more of the Angkor Wat temple and save the rest for home.

We had a choice of hanging around for about two hours for sunset over the temples, or skip it and go back to the hotel.  We were hot and tired, so we did the skip it option, choosing instead a poolside lounger and beer.

We're 2nd floor, behind the two short palm trees

We went back downtown for supper tonight, it was tasty but overpriced and non-filling, so we went for a post dinner drink and snack at the Red Piano bar, locally famous as Angelina Jolie's hangout during the filming of tomb raider.  Good place to people watch too.  Tomorrow we will visit the Angkor sites that were featured in the movie. 
A night market stroll, a tuk tuk home, and soon to bed.  We have a dinner reservation tomorrow at a place recommended by our guide that does a buffet supper followed by some traditional performances.  The price was good and a lot of people were coming out as we drove past tonight on our way home.

Killing Fields and our final stop - Siem Reap

We had a nice poolside breakfast at the small eating spot that our deck overlooked.  Eileen had not slept as well as she would have liked, the mattress was a step above "firm", otherwise this small boutique hotel is a rather peaceful spot just a block off a main street in PP.

Pool area at the 252 Hotel in Phenom Penh

Our guide picked us up right on time and we headed off to Killing Fields, with some Cambodian history along the way.  Mentally, we were both prepared for what we were about to see, but it's just so chilling to think that just 35 years ago, 2 million or so citizens of Cambodia were killed by fellow Cambodians, sometimes even brainwashed youth killing their own families.  I took only two pictures, one of the monument that has recently been built to honor the memory of the millions that were killed, and one of the Killing tree, now adorned with memorial ribbons.

The skull filled memorial tower

The killing tree

After the Killing fields, we made a brief stop at the Russian market, which did not differ much from many of the other markets that we have been to, although this one did seem a bit more structured.  From there we went to the nearby S21 Genocide museum and had a quick look there.  This is an old high school complex is district S21, that was converted to a detention center where they catalogued and interrogated everyone before they were sent to the killing fields.  This place is just about as chilling as the actual killing fields. 
Our lunch spot was not far away, we had lunch in HCMC at a similar place where they bring in disadvantaged youth, and train them in the food services industry.  Our food and service were excellent, I will be looking for a recipe for tom yum soup when I get home.
Straight to the airport after lunch for the quick flight to Siem Reap, I only had time to snap my neck a couple of times as I nodded off, before we started to descend.   As usual, our guide and driver were waiting, and we were soon at the hotel.  We were happy to be out of Phenom Penh, we just did not find much appeal to that city.  This place on the other hand has a whole different feel to it.  Growth here has been recent and rapid, with tourism accounting for a huge proportion of the livelihood.  Large luxury resorts line the main road from the airport to town, restaurants and tourists are everywhere. 
Our hotel is a little bit out of town, about halfway between the main town and the temples.  It is again a beautiful, peaceful spot, so I think we will enjoy our last few days here.  We're on the second floor, each room has a private sitting area outside the door, with a couple of couches on the deck overlooking the pool area.

View from sitting area, pictures don't do justice

We had a beer on our deck, did some trip advisor hunting, and decided to jump in a tuk tuk and go downtown for supper at #2 rated Genvieves (spelling may be off).  It was pretty busy but the owner said it would be 15 minutes, so he took or name and we went for a short walk.  Got our table shortly after getting back and actually decided to order western food, Eileen lasagne and I had lamb shank.  The portions were huge and very good, but once I got deeper into my meat, it was almost frozen.  The owner apologized, saying that they cook three or four of these per day and sometimes they do not all sell.  They are frozen and reheated, but certainly something went wrong today.  They brought me out an entire new one from todays batch, and did not charge for my meal.  There was no way I was finishing, but we both left stuffed and happy, for $15.  We walked the Pub Street, just because we were right there, but did not make any stops.  Another $2 tuk tuk back to the hotel, rum and blogging on the deck, although the heat and mosquitoes sent us indoors eventually.  Since we have hit the Mekong, we have found the mosquitoes.  Too bad, because it would be very nice to sit out here and soak up this warmth in the late evening.

Our fabulous supper at Genvieves

A view of Pub Street

Tomorrow we have a day at the temples, where I no doubt will use up a few bytes of memory card.

The real Mekong River and Phenom Penh

Another early start today to catch the Victoria hotels riverboat up to Phenom Penh.  There was no real excitement during the trip, which lasted about five hours, including the border stops.  However, the riverbank scenery was constantly changing, and most of the time we travelled close enough to one side or the other, so that we could have a good look at what was going by.  About thirty minutes out from the hotel, we made a left turn, and it was then that I realized that everything that we had seen of the Mekong up to this point was barely a creek compared to what we just turned onto.  From here to Phenom Penh, I doubt that the width was ever less than a mile, and that might be a conservative guess.  My other surprise was to realize that my Hollywood war movie concept of the Mekong with gunboats and strategic hillside artillery lookouts was certainly incorrect.  If the elevation of the surrounding landscape ever exceeded 5 metres as far as the eye could see, then I missed seeing that strategic point of land.  This is the bread basket of the region, you can see irrigation pipes down into the river constantly, there were thousands of them.  Rice, corn, and fruit (lot of mangos from what I could see) and I'm sure there were lots of low growing plants like melons and pineapple that would not be visible from the river.  About an hour into the ride, we pulled into a dock and all got out at Vietnam customs.  There was a hotel rep on the boat who had collected all our passports, Cambodia visa paperwork and fees.  He disappeared somewhere and 15 minutes later we all got back on the boat and away we went, for about five minutes when we docked again and all got out.  This time we sat on benches under some trees while he dealt with some officials at an open air table.  Eventually, he got up, handed out our passports, and then we lined up for a passport review at a small office.  All in all, probably another 45 minutes.  We got into Phenom Penh at the expected time, was met by a guide and driver, and were taken to our nearby hotel.  He gave us the pickup information for tomorrow and told us that there would be someone else looking after things tomorrow.
We wandered about for an hour or two this afternoon, spent an hour or two by the pool, had a good pizza for supper, and back to the hotel at a decent hour. 
Tomorrow morning will be tough, the killing fields and genocide museum, then I think we visit the Russian market before the short flight to Siem Reap.
Here are just a few pictures of the scenes and landscape of the Mekong River.

Loading rice, two baskets at a time

Vietnamese houseboat

Vietnamese houseboat, complete with satellite dish

Riding bareback

Numerous churches, looks like this one was re-built

Close quarters here

The girl in the center was really swinging her hips and dancing

Can Tho floating market and journey to Chau Doc

Nhung came bouncing up the walkway from the pier this morning while we were finishing up our breakfast on the restaurant deck.  While we finished up, she went in and grabbed a couple of passion fruit and extracted the seeds for us to take home.  She's convinced we can grow them and produce a crop.  Time will tell, as long as we don't get arrested by customs....
The boat was ready and waiting, so down the river we went.  It took about half an hour to reach the market, but there was always something to see.  Here are a couple of examples of the level of physical work that some people go through here.

Unloading boatload of logs, one at a time

Unloading crushed rock, one basket at a time

The Mekong is like a commerce highway here, boatloads of goods travel the river and the market here is one of the distribution methods for the goods.  Farmers supply these boats who sell wholesale style, and supply many of the street markets and roadside stands.  We were there around 8:30 and it was not very busy, apparently the most active time is at or even before sunrise.

Nhung getting some onions for her mother

The flagpoles advertise the product that the boat sells

Pineapple on a stick

Taking off the skin, then it was quartered and we all shared

We boated back to the hotel, checked out, and headed towards Chau Doc.  On the way, we stopped at an ancient house that was owned by a wealthy Chinese man.  A movie called The Lover tells the story of him and a teenage French girl, and was filmed here in Vietnam.  They had some nice garden areas too.

A pretty butterfly

Nhung and Eileen

Our lunch stop was at a crocodile farm, where we were given an impromptu tour of the operation, thanks to Nhung.  The have about 10,000 crocs here.  The incubation success rate is somewhere in the upper 90's whereas it is single digit in the wild.  It was pretty neat to see the animals at their various stages, including some that were only a month old.  Doesn't take too much imagination to guess what we had for lunch either.

Sun bathing

Two months old

Ummm, grilled crocodile

Following lunch, it was about an hour and a half to Chau Doc, where we had to say our sad goodbyes to our driver and Nhung, they had a long drive back to HCMC ahead of them.  We got checked in and stretched our legs with a walk around the area.  There is some nice park areas along the river adjacent to the hotel, and when that ended, the local market was right there.  For such a small town (about 175,000), they sure have a big local market.  We did not come across any restaurants that looked appealing, so we decided to just splurge and head at the hotel, since we have VND left over and I expect we'll get burned at the border when we try to convert the leftovers to US$.  Couple of beer by the pool and a nice dinner downstairs.


The Mekong from our balcony

Tomorrow we hop onto a large speedboat and head upriver to Cambodia, about a 4.5 hour trip, including a border stop nor far from here.  Nothing scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, but I will email Lynda tonight to see what they are doing.  She retired from McArthur a few months ago, and we overlap in our Cambodia destinations.

The Mighty Mekong

We hit the road today at 8:30 and as expected it took quite awhile to clear HCMC.  Once out, we hit some good highway where no motorbikes were allowed, with a speed limit of 100 km, which is unusual.  Large flat rice paddies, most of which had one or more tombs located haphazardly somewhere in the field.  It's no longer allowed to put a tomb in productive land such as this, as the need for food is too great.  After an hour and a half, we stopped for a stretch and an iced coffee.  Vietnamese coffee with ice and condensed milk.  I'm not normally into something like that, but these were very good.  Three of them cost $2. 

Our coffee and happy place stop

It wasn't too much longer before we made it to the river, where we saw several sizable groups heading to the boats.  I thought we'd be a part of one of them, but give it to Mrs Ha again, we had our own boat.  Sweet!  We puttered past a small local market, then pulled in to a dock, where we got out and watched some small scale industry in action.  Caramel candy, popped rice, and Mekong whiskey (yes we got some candy and whiskey).  We discovered that Nhung has quite a sweet tooth.

Eileen and Nhung discussing the candy making

Vietnamese popcorn (rice) maker

After departing this dock, we went to the other side of the river, where we all boarded a small rowboat, operated by a rather elderly woman, who took us up a narrow tributary that cut through the mangroves.  I'm not sure how long we were on this boat, but it was certainly over a half hour and she was paddling against the tide for half the time.

Blending in with the locals

exiting the mangroves, the original boat picked us up, and took us for about an hour, along what I thought was a branch of the Mekong, but we were actually going around an island.  The tide was really low, so our speed was slow at times.  A lot of interesting houses and boat traffic. I cannot imagine what this lifestyle would be like.

Home along the river

One of many small boats

We arrived at our lunch spot a little later than I think we had planned (3:00), but it was good (appetite has returned, horray!)  Highlight was a Mekong specialty, elephant ear fish. 

Elephant Ear fish

We got back on the boat for a short trip back to the car, with a full stomach Eileen had a little relax time at the back of the boat.

A little relax time

I think it was about an hour to Can Tho and the hotel.  We crossed the Mekong a couple of times, including once on a very impressive bridge that was built with some Japanese help.  This has not been the first bridge in Vietnam that has been a Wow moment, but I think this one might be the winner.  No decent picture though....
Awesome hotel in Can Tho, a very colonial looking building with a large pool and big landscaped property.  Would be a nice spot to have a little more leisure time.

View of hotel, river is behind me

And finally, a card that is on the desk in our room, that I had to smile at, and which Eileen outright laughed at.  Instant thoughts of a friend from home, you know who you are.

We had a couple of happy hour beer at the bar here, and saw that the restaurant prices were pretty steep.  Nhung had said that there were eating places at both sides of the resort, so we headed to one of them.  The one we picked covered a large area, each table was basically it's own island, surrounded by Mekong water (not out in the main channel but certainly connected).  We had a seafood and mixed mushroom hot pot (that we could not finish) and four beer, for a cost of $12.50.  Crazy.
Tomorrow, we get to a boat early and putter through a large floating market.  It's supposed to be quite a scene.  We then drive up to the Cambodia border where we have to say goodbye to Nhung and our driver.  We will be exchanging email addresses for sure, she has just been too much fun.

Cu Chi tunnels and War Remnants Museum

We were met in the lobby this morning by our guide Nhung, who interestingly has a law degree and has worked two years in law, until she decided she enjoyed travelling and tourism more.  Her sister is also a lawyer, with her own practice, which Nhung says she will join when she feels it is time.  Off we went for the 1.5 hour drive to the tunnels, most of which was in Hanoi and outlying urban area.  In the rural area leading up to the tunnels we went through quite an area of rubber trees, which I had not expected to see.  We arrived before too many of the big tour buses arrived, which is probably why we had an 8:00 pickup instead of the more typical 9:00. 
The ingenuity and determination of the Vietnamese was apparent throughout the day.  The systems that they had for filtering smoke from cooking fires and the ventilation openings disguised to look like termite nests were classics.  This particular tunnel system totaled 250 km of length and I think she said there were 16,000 people who lived in these tunnels.  The soil that was removed was hauled to the river, used to repair roads, or inconspicuously dumped into bomb craters, which were all over the place. There were also some displays of the boobie traps used by the Vietcong, nasty looking devices.  One section of the tunnels has been 'Westernized', as in made about twice the original size, to accomodate tourists like us.

I easily fit into the westernized entrance

 

A ventilation mound

 

We made it 40 metres through the enlarged tunnel

 

These tunnels went undetected for many years, although the US knew they had to be there.  They were discovered by accident, when a shirtless US soldier sat and rested against one of the ventilation mounds and felt the cool air from underground.  Eventually, this lead to flooding of the tunnels by pumping water from the Saigon river, drowning a large number of the residents.  So sad, and not so long ago either.
After touring through the tunnels, we drove back to the city and had lunch quite close to the hotel, at a place most tourists probably would not stop at, but really in the heart of the city right below one of the most modern looking high rise buildings in HCMC.  As usual, good food.

Lunch stop, those bbq duck looked good

 

Financial building outside the lunch stop

We then went to the War Remnants Museum, which is a large, three story building with thousands of journalist photographs from the war.  It was a very somber place, and some sections we so difficult to see that we went through those parts quickly, especially the after effects agent orange and other chemical weapons that the US employed.  There were several familiar pictures as many were prominent on Time magazine covers during the war, and of course there was that iconic photo of the 'Napalm Girl', the crying, burned child running towards the photographer.   The grounds surrounding the museum contains a large number of US aircraft and artillery that was abandoned at the conclusion of the war.

Abandoned US helicopter

Close by the museum were two old French built landmarks, the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Post Office, which still functions, although ATM machines now occupy several of the old wooden phone booths.

Inside the Notre Dame cathedral

 

Notre Dame cathedral

 

The Saigon Post Office

 

The neat looking wooden phone booths

Got back to the hotel about 4:00, turned on the AC, had a beer and nap, and then headed to supper at the BBQ Gardens, recommended by Nhung.  Great looking outdoor place, very popular, good food that you cooked yourself on the BBQ built in to the center of each table. 

Cooking supper

View of the BBQ Garden

Tomorrow Nhung and the driver are picking us up and we'll head to the Mekong river for a couple of days with them.  We had a great time today with Nhung, despite some of the disturbing history that we witnessed.  A prelude to Phnom Penh and the Killing Fields next week.  Nhung and Eileen had a lot of laughs together, so we are looking forward to the next two days.