phnom penh. fnom fen. fuhnomp penhuh...
first of all: thank you for your interesting responses. some posted, some emailed. i think it's important, amidst the tarts and omelets and noodles, to think about this stuff now and again, especially as history seems so intent on repeating itself. Sometimes it's hard to read the opinions of those who hold a different stance from myself - it's very uniform out here. other americans (and most other travellers so far) that make it as far as southeast asia on the circuit we're on seem to share my political views almost without exception. upon meeting other americans, there's always a little dance. there's small talk and traveller talk and where have you been where are you going oh i went there here's the hotel i stayed at etc.. then someone might make an allusion about the government or voting - something subtle. but eventually it comes out and there's a rip-on-"America" session. over and over again with so many different people. i don't like how scripted it starts to feel, but it's heartening to meet so many like-minded people... still, part of being open-minded is listening to and discussing other views. that's the point, right? otherwise i'm a narrowminded hypocrite. so please feel free to send your views along by email or post them when the urge strikes. i am honored to have relations to so many with varying views and it is interesting to hear about them. sometimes friends and relatives neglect to discuss the heavy stuff. but it's important too. not in the day to day. but.. yeah.
second of all: just to talk about war again: i last left you before we visited the cu chi tunnels. sergi: even if i had been in the mood to yell "cu chi cu chi cu" as i ran through the tunnels, which i most certainly was not given the gravity of the place, i wouldn't have been able to. the tunnels were only about 1 meter high and very narrow. and very dark. you had to bend at the knees and waist to walk or just give in and crawl on all fours. i kept bumping into nabia in front of me and i am so glad i wasn't in there alone. there were 2 escape exits before the end and i made it past the first but got out at the second. i couldn't stay in anymore. only once i was back in the daylight did i realize how fast my heart was beating and how heavy my breathing had gotten. i can't imagine spending weeks at a time in those tunnels. that's what the vietcong soldiers did at points. this architecturally complex tunnel system is only about 60 kilometers outside of what was then Saigon - the American's base city. unbelievable, then, that they maintained it through defoliants and bombings and whatever else was thrown at them. the tunnels we visited were reconstructions, though there are still surviving tunnels, and they had displays of homemade booby traps and bombs that were used. it was all VERY anti-American. when we first arrived we watched a propaganda video from the 60s that described the quiet quaint village of Cu Chi which was turned into a village of heroic warriors against the evil invaders. The boobytrap display was in front of a mural of american GIs getting caught and mutilated on the traps. hard to look at. the whole thing was made that much more surreal by our tour guide (Minh - worked as a translator on the American side) who made some jokes and let people pose for pictures on the disabled US Army tank and things. also, there's a shooting range. absolutely insane. i was surprised the targets were paper animals and not soldiers in US Army garb. several of our group took the opportunity to fire machine guns or M60s or whatever they had for an extra charge of $1/bullet. the noise was truly deafening and even after hearing several shots, i couldn't help but wince every time the sound hit my ears. i tried to imagine hearing it on and off consistently for years... but i couldnt'even fathom. war section over. for the time being. also on this tour, before the tunnels, we visited the Holy See of the Cao Dai religion. it's a relatively new religion, a combination of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity... maybe something else too. anyway,. it's colorful and their symbol is a divine eye... it's really a surreal thing, but kind of cool. there are nine steps in the temple up to the huge globe with the eye on it... there are shiny stars on the ceiling. most of the followers are over 70 and garbed in white or red or blue or yellow, but mostly white with big oversized sleeves. it was interesting to see, for sure, even if we were on a sort of observation deck with a billion other tourists snapping away. then a run back to the bus in pouring rain. pouring, teeming rain. all the tourists were supposed to be back at their coaches at 12:20. so the rains came at about 12:15 and everybody clamored towards the doors but didn't exit, for fear of melting, and gazed forlornly at their now-drenched-but-still-respectful shoes that had been removed outside. some of us just went. and got wet. others waited a few moments until it calmed a bit. it was more fun to walk down the road barefoot, the nasal choir from the temple as a soundtrack, rain beating down as i tried to shield my camera...
third of all: so we're in cambodia. specifically phnom penh. we took a 2 day mekong delta/boat trip here from ho chi minh city and it was pretty piecemeal and discombobulated. i think we took about 10 different vehicles by the end, and no guide stayed with us for longer than a few hours, when each pointed to the next vehicle (or more often just in the general direction of the next vehicle) and left us to lumber down the road, each with 15-20 kilos on his/her back. There were rowboats, minibuses, bigger boats, motorcycle taxis, etc... but the group we were with was friendly enough (there were 10 of us or so) and we all arrived at the hotel they'd contrived for us to arrive at, and though in the cramped minibus we'd all made other plans for alternate accomodation from our respective matching guidebooks, the place they brought us to was fine and so we all just stayed. it's only a few nights. last night we tried to go out for food with just the french girl (Estelle) who we're sharing a room with and the 2 americans (Kate and Justin) we liked, but everyone else was sitting downstairs so we ended up roaming a couple of blocks in a pack of 10 whities. ick. anyway, we took 3 tables at a very crowded local place and ended up with a delicious plate of "special beef curry" which was beef cooked with lemongrass and mint and coriander. tasteeee.
adventures: well, on our tour with Delta Tours, vehicle number 4 of day 1 brought us to the Delta Adventure Inn a few kilometers outside of the town of Chau Doc. There was, of course, a restaurant on the premisis and we were expected to eat there (meals not included, though). But not we few rebels. Nabia, a French girl named Estelle we've befriended, a nearly unintelligible Brit Ross, and myself set out to explore. well, not really explore, but at least eat in town. town was 3 or 4 km away, so walking was not an option - it was already getting late. we stood by the side of the road and within moments had a choice: motorbike taxi, of course. after some haggling and walking away and crossing the road and "ök 5000?""ok 10000." "nonono. ok 5000?" we finally boarded 3 bikes (2 of us on one but then joined by a 4th bike and we each had our own) and sped off through the night, the wind embracing us. i'm sorry mom, but i have to say it: i really enjoy riding on the back of a motorbike. it feels like my eyes are more open and i can see what i'm whizzing by instead of just glazing over from the inside of a bus. i like it a lot. :) so we found a more local style restaurant and had some lemongrass drenched vegetables and some beef with noodles and, sated, headed back on a different vehicle. these are bicycle pulled platforms. it was a long way back, with some hills, so we didn't want to take these two guys at first, but they outbid the others and they seemed so eager... so board we did. 15 or 20 minutes later, sweatybacked but smiling, we paid them twice the agreed price just cuz they'd worked so darn hard. really. it was another 60 cents. i went to sleep feeling much more adventurous than many of my cohorts on the tour. good for us for striking out a little.
adventure number 2: back on the tour before we left vietnam. the morning of day 2 was on a rowboat. each little boat took 3 or 4 people and our rower was a beautiful girl who couldn't have been a day over 16. she was strong though, and we maneuvered along the mekong to see the floating houses with the fishfarms underneath. after that, we went to the Cham village - they're Islamic and that difference makes them eligible to be a stop on the tour. anyway, they had a nice mosque and adorable children selling little cakes, so it was a fine visit until we all started to herd back over the little creaky wooden bridge to reboard our boats. as we all filed towards the waiting crafts, the Irish guy in front of me said "duh yuh theenk eet can hould oos ooll?" and, no sooner had the words been spoken than one of the supports gave a creak, cracked a little so people did the arms-out-to-balance thing before giving way and splashing down into the only-a-meter-deep mekong. granted, it was the dirty muddy horribly polluted mekong, but only a meter deep thank goodness so noone went under. and, thankfully, no one was injured. i got a little whacked with one of the upright branches that went diagonal in the collapse, but other than a bump on my head, i'm fine. and i stayed dry. nabia, on the other had, went in up to her hips but had the presence of mind to hold her bag above her head so the camera is fine and the passport was safe as well. others were not as lucky. no one was injured, but some passports were soaked and a couple of cameras were not working as we all paddled away from the one maimed boat and the broken bridge.
adventure 3? not really an adventure... today we set out with estelle and visited the central market to change some money at a jewelry stand and saw wat phnom and the lobby of a fancy hotel (just curious about the rates: range from $125 to $870!) and the national museum des beaux arts (lots of khmer sculptures. really excited for angkor wat)... then we collapsed for a nap before meeting estelle to go to the royal palace and silver pagoda. now. i have yet to read the history section of my guidebook (that's in my plan for the next few hours) but pol pot seems to have destroyed almost everything from the khmer period. this was a really artistic advanced creative people - they built angkor and wat phu back in laos and lots of other temples - a totally different style than the rest of southeast asia and very intricate and beautiful. the silver pagoda today has over 1000 floor tiles, each weighing over 1kg, of pure silver. some of the buddhas are pure gold and have precious stones and diamonds inlaid. the craftsmanship is impeccable. some of the stone and metal sculptures are enormous. it's really a tragedy that so much of it was destroyed... apparently, according to The Book, Pol Pot left the Silver Pagoda and Royal Palace relatively untouched (only 60% destroyed) so as to demonstrate his concern for and appreciation of Cambodian culture. right.
so now we're exhausted and i'm going to say farewell for now. we're headed to siem reap in a couple of days, so i'm not sure i'll post again before we go there, but rest assured you'll be hearing all about angkor in no time at all.
much love,
amy
email me
second of all: just to talk about war again: i last left you before we visited the cu chi tunnels. sergi: even if i had been in the mood to yell "cu chi cu chi cu" as i ran through the tunnels, which i most certainly was not given the gravity of the place, i wouldn't have been able to. the tunnels were only about 1 meter high and very narrow. and very dark. you had to bend at the knees and waist to walk or just give in and crawl on all fours. i kept bumping into nabia in front of me and i am so glad i wasn't in there alone. there were 2 escape exits before the end and i made it past the first but got out at the second. i couldn't stay in anymore. only once i was back in the daylight did i realize how fast my heart was beating and how heavy my breathing had gotten. i can't imagine spending weeks at a time in those tunnels. that's what the vietcong soldiers did at points. this architecturally complex tunnel system is only about 60 kilometers outside of what was then Saigon - the American's base city. unbelievable, then, that they maintained it through defoliants and bombings and whatever else was thrown at them. the tunnels we visited were reconstructions, though there are still surviving tunnels, and they had displays of homemade booby traps and bombs that were used. it was all VERY anti-American. when we first arrived we watched a propaganda video from the 60s that described the quiet quaint village of Cu Chi which was turned into a village of heroic warriors against the evil invaders. The boobytrap display was in front of a mural of american GIs getting caught and mutilated on the traps. hard to look at. the whole thing was made that much more surreal by our tour guide (Minh - worked as a translator on the American side) who made some jokes and let people pose for pictures on the disabled US Army tank and things. also, there's a shooting range. absolutely insane. i was surprised the targets were paper animals and not soldiers in US Army garb. several of our group took the opportunity to fire machine guns or M60s or whatever they had for an extra charge of $1/bullet. the noise was truly deafening and even after hearing several shots, i couldn't help but wince every time the sound hit my ears. i tried to imagine hearing it on and off consistently for years... but i couldnt'even fathom. war section over. for the time being. also on this tour, before the tunnels, we visited the Holy See of the Cao Dai religion. it's a relatively new religion, a combination of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity... maybe something else too. anyway,. it's colorful and their symbol is a divine eye... it's really a surreal thing, but kind of cool. there are nine steps in the temple up to the huge globe with the eye on it... there are shiny stars on the ceiling. most of the followers are over 70 and garbed in white or red or blue or yellow, but mostly white with big oversized sleeves. it was interesting to see, for sure, even if we were on a sort of observation deck with a billion other tourists snapping away. then a run back to the bus in pouring rain. pouring, teeming rain. all the tourists were supposed to be back at their coaches at 12:20. so the rains came at about 12:15 and everybody clamored towards the doors but didn't exit, for fear of melting, and gazed forlornly at their now-drenched-but-still-respectful shoes that had been removed outside. some of us just went. and got wet. others waited a few moments until it calmed a bit. it was more fun to walk down the road barefoot, the nasal choir from the temple as a soundtrack, rain beating down as i tried to shield my camera...
third of all: so we're in cambodia. specifically phnom penh. we took a 2 day mekong delta/boat trip here from ho chi minh city and it was pretty piecemeal and discombobulated. i think we took about 10 different vehicles by the end, and no guide stayed with us for longer than a few hours, when each pointed to the next vehicle (or more often just in the general direction of the next vehicle) and left us to lumber down the road, each with 15-20 kilos on his/her back. There were rowboats, minibuses, bigger boats, motorcycle taxis, etc... but the group we were with was friendly enough (there were 10 of us or so) and we all arrived at the hotel they'd contrived for us to arrive at, and though in the cramped minibus we'd all made other plans for alternate accomodation from our respective matching guidebooks, the place they brought us to was fine and so we all just stayed. it's only a few nights. last night we tried to go out for food with just the french girl (Estelle) who we're sharing a room with and the 2 americans (Kate and Justin) we liked, but everyone else was sitting downstairs so we ended up roaming a couple of blocks in a pack of 10 whities. ick. anyway, we took 3 tables at a very crowded local place and ended up with a delicious plate of "special beef curry" which was beef cooked with lemongrass and mint and coriander. tasteeee.
adventures: well, on our tour with Delta Tours, vehicle number 4 of day 1 brought us to the Delta Adventure Inn a few kilometers outside of the town of Chau Doc. There was, of course, a restaurant on the premisis and we were expected to eat there (meals not included, though). But not we few rebels. Nabia, a French girl named Estelle we've befriended, a nearly unintelligible Brit Ross, and myself set out to explore. well, not really explore, but at least eat in town. town was 3 or 4 km away, so walking was not an option - it was already getting late. we stood by the side of the road and within moments had a choice: motorbike taxi, of course. after some haggling and walking away and crossing the road and "ök 5000?""ok 10000." "nonono. ok 5000?" we finally boarded 3 bikes (2 of us on one but then joined by a 4th bike and we each had our own) and sped off through the night, the wind embracing us. i'm sorry mom, but i have to say it: i really enjoy riding on the back of a motorbike. it feels like my eyes are more open and i can see what i'm whizzing by instead of just glazing over from the inside of a bus. i like it a lot. :) so we found a more local style restaurant and had some lemongrass drenched vegetables and some beef with noodles and, sated, headed back on a different vehicle. these are bicycle pulled platforms. it was a long way back, with some hills, so we didn't want to take these two guys at first, but they outbid the others and they seemed so eager... so board we did. 15 or 20 minutes later, sweatybacked but smiling, we paid them twice the agreed price just cuz they'd worked so darn hard. really. it was another 60 cents. i went to sleep feeling much more adventurous than many of my cohorts on the tour. good for us for striking out a little.
adventure number 2: back on the tour before we left vietnam. the morning of day 2 was on a rowboat. each little boat took 3 or 4 people and our rower was a beautiful girl who couldn't have been a day over 16. she was strong though, and we maneuvered along the mekong to see the floating houses with the fishfarms underneath. after that, we went to the Cham village - they're Islamic and that difference makes them eligible to be a stop on the tour. anyway, they had a nice mosque and adorable children selling little cakes, so it was a fine visit until we all started to herd back over the little creaky wooden bridge to reboard our boats. as we all filed towards the waiting crafts, the Irish guy in front of me said "duh yuh theenk eet can hould oos ooll?" and, no sooner had the words been spoken than one of the supports gave a creak, cracked a little so people did the arms-out-to-balance thing before giving way and splashing down into the only-a-meter-deep mekong. granted, it was the dirty muddy horribly polluted mekong, but only a meter deep thank goodness so noone went under. and, thankfully, no one was injured. i got a little whacked with one of the upright branches that went diagonal in the collapse, but other than a bump on my head, i'm fine. and i stayed dry. nabia, on the other had, went in up to her hips but had the presence of mind to hold her bag above her head so the camera is fine and the passport was safe as well. others were not as lucky. no one was injured, but some passports were soaked and a couple of cameras were not working as we all paddled away from the one maimed boat and the broken bridge.
adventure 3? not really an adventure... today we set out with estelle and visited the central market to change some money at a jewelry stand and saw wat phnom and the lobby of a fancy hotel (just curious about the rates: range from $125 to $870!) and the national museum des beaux arts (lots of khmer sculptures. really excited for angkor wat)... then we collapsed for a nap before meeting estelle to go to the royal palace and silver pagoda. now. i have yet to read the history section of my guidebook (that's in my plan for the next few hours) but pol pot seems to have destroyed almost everything from the khmer period. this was a really artistic advanced creative people - they built angkor and wat phu back in laos and lots of other temples - a totally different style than the rest of southeast asia and very intricate and beautiful. the silver pagoda today has over 1000 floor tiles, each weighing over 1kg, of pure silver. some of the buddhas are pure gold and have precious stones and diamonds inlaid. the craftsmanship is impeccable. some of the stone and metal sculptures are enormous. it's really a tragedy that so much of it was destroyed... apparently, according to The Book, Pol Pot left the Silver Pagoda and Royal Palace relatively untouched (only 60% destroyed) so as to demonstrate his concern for and appreciation of Cambodian culture. right.
so now we're exhausted and i'm going to say farewell for now. we're headed to siem reap in a couple of days, so i'm not sure i'll post again before we go there, but rest assured you'll be hearing all about angkor in no time at all.
much love,
amy
email me
posted by theonetheycallamy at 7/11/2005 07:19:00 AM
3 Comments:
Wonderful to hear that you've arrived safely in Cambodia. It feels really weird when people ask me where you are, and I say- "oh, she just left Vietnam and she's in Cambodia". Say what???? Anyway, there was a great article in the travel section of the local paper about Vietnam. I saved it for you amongst the many piles of stuff in your room. You'll like it.
So you fell into the Mekong! Unbelievable. I'm really glad noone was badly hurt and that your belongings weren't ruined. I bet a shower felt very necessary for both of you (especially Na) after that. Keep smiling!!!
I need to go google siem reap, so I know where you're going!
Stay safe and dry and noodly,
Love, mom
I'm glad you had the strenght to write all that you did. Na left out a lot of good ? details. These have been very strenuous days, emotionally and physically it seems. Take care, take some time for rests, and keep your good spirits. Love Barbara
I have nothing of note to say but I just wanted you to know that I am reading and definetely giving a shit. Fun, fun for me to read.
So, though I tend not to comment, I am lurking.
-Ara
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