Cambodia - The Good

In our last post, I painted a pretty dismal picture about the history, present state and future of Cambodia. I hope you’ll find this post a bit more uplifting as I briefly recap our experiences with those brave souls who have successfully committed themselves to providing hope by creating schools, employment and awareness of the issues.

Our friend Robin who volunteered with us in Rwanda suggested we visit Friends Restaurant when in Phnom Penh. So one afternoon, we lunched over there and read about all the good work the organization does (http://www.friends-international.org ). We spent about $25 (which was easily the most expensive lunch we had had since we had left Canada) but it absolutely worth the price. It was continental food with a Cambodian flair and it was scrumptious. The restaurant is staffed with street teenagers who are being groomed for employment in the hospitality industry. Their attention to detail, genuine politeness and sense of self-esteem reminded me how a little faith and investment in an individual is sometimes all that’s required. After our lunch, we went next door to their training school where other students are learning various vocations. Upon learning the beautician students were offering manicures and pedicures for about $6, Dal sat down for an hour long pampering. She noticed I looked bored, so she arranged for a foot massage and a male pedicure for me. I sat down..and after about 2 minutes, my beautician called in for backup and her manager came to provide additional support. I have no idea why. Nor do I care to speculate. [Sidebar – What’s appropriate facial/vocal encouragement for a male to give a female masseuse during a massage?  I’m always fearful of either coming off as unappreciative of the effort or, at the other end of the spectrum, as a creepy, lecherous old man looking for extra services. I typically wait for them to ask how it is and respond with ‘very good’, a 60% smile and head waggle (if in India) to show my appreciation and then go back to closing my eyes. And that brings me to another question. When the masseuse is in front of you while massaging, where is a male supposed to direct his eyes? Ideally, I’d be focused on reading my BlackBerry or a magazine. If those aren’t available, I just close my eyes to avoiding staring at the masseuse. But then I worry about how blissful I look…again trying to avoid looking like creepy, lecherous man. Anyone have a definitive/helpful/funny answer to the etiquette ?]

After our experience in Rwanda, Dal and I had decided to look for other volunteer opportunities during our trip. While in Luang Prabang, Laos we met a wise Dutchman named Leonard. He also went to McGill, had a career in advertising and consulting, was an avid globe-trotter and provided support for a couple of students and tuk-tuk drivers in Siem Reap, Cambodia (more details at http://AngkorTukTuk.net) . We traded contact info and when we arrived in Siam Reap, he let us know he was staying at Seven Candles guesthouse. I googled this place and discovered it was run by Ponheary Ly who was a finalist for CNN’s 2010 Hero of the Year! As a tour guide at Angkor Wat, she witnessed children skipping school to sell souvenir trinkets to make money and this drove her to start her foundation (http://www.theplf.org) . Step by step, she allocated her tips to children’s education and raised awareness to tourists. She now supports over 2,000 kids through four primary and five secondary schools. We called them up and told them we wanted to visit one of her schools for the day. The next day, we showed up at the guesthouse to meet Ponheary and her business partner, Lisa from Texas, and took an hour-long tuk-tuk ride into a village where one of the schools had been set up. The school reminded us a little bit of our Rwandan experience with Cathy and PREFER.  Shiny, smiling faces eager to learn led by enthusiastic local teachers intent on helping the children with the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. Lisa explained some of the administrative and political finagling they’ve gone through in order to grow the foundation and acquire support from other major NGO’s such as the World Food Programme. Additionally we had an insightful discussion on the psyche of the Cambodian kids and parents and how poverty and living for daily survival drives their decision making. Recognizing the importance of children’s education is an evolving process itself amongst the communities. Writing this blog post reminds me that I’d love to connect Lisa with Cathy from Rwanda so that they can share their best practices on grassroots education programs.


Me, Ponheary Ly and Dal



One of classes in the primary school learning English



Lisa explaining to Dal about the area designated to teach farming

A volunteer (we can't remember her name) from Minnesota introducing the kids to sock puppets

My debut as a sock puppet king

I'm not sure if she's more unimpressed with my sock puppet, my raspy King voice or my Leafs ballcap.

The pose on the left is pure poster bad-ass

Mackerel donated by Saudi Arabia. This came from the World Food Programme

After leaving the school, Lisa took us to visit a family to inquire why one of their children had not been attending class lately. The child was confined to a wheelchair due to a case of Muscular Dystrophy. The family of six children were very poor although the father worked as a labourer to feed his family. The child in the wheelchair had a fantastic spirit and show off his skills manoeuvring a ball with his feet. Apparently the child hadn’t come to school because his wheelchair was broken so Lisa provided a bit of money to assist with getting the wheelchair repaired.

A clean-water project supported by Canadians !

The family house

I love the nonchalant lean against the wall. You lookin' at me ?

This child was amazing. Huge smile, huge spirit and nimble with his feet

One of the tours we did in Siem Reap was of the Cambodian Land Mine Museum. My entire knowledge of landmines had been acquired through watching the movie “The Hurt Locker” which made this tour even more riveting. It’s estimated that there may still be up to six million land mines scattered across Cambodia which cause around 35 deaths a month. Already 40,000 people have lost limbs due to land mines giving Cambodia the dubious distinction of having the most amputees per capita (about one in every 275 people have lost a limb!). A treaty to ban land mines was signed by over 100 countries in 1997. However, the USA, China and Russia who are the main producers all refused to sign the treaty so production continues to this day.

The museum (http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/) was started by a former Khmer Rouge child solider, Aki Ra, who used to lay mines for the army. In 1995, he received UN training on removing mines and began to clear them from his country with simple tools such as a knife and stick. The museum is a place to show all the decommissioned mines, bombs and other weapons and the impact they’ve had on the country. Proceeds go to Cambodians that have suffered loss due to landmines.  Aki Ra was also a finalist as a CNN 2010 Hero.

Cambodian service station. Not exactly Shell or Petro Canada.

Getting ready to fill the tank of our tuk-tuk

Child + wife beater shirt + messy bowl haircut + Fanta = awesomeness



A display of decommissioned bombs and mines

While Cambodia has many extreme blemishes to its name, there is good to be found. We’re in complete awe of heroes like Ponheary Ly and Aki Ra who have dedicated their lives to daily swimming upstream in their efforts to improve the lives of others.

- DP

Cambodia - the Bad

I’ve never been a big history buff but this trip has me contemplating about subscribing for the History Channel. What’s particularly fascinating about SE Asia is that many of the seminal moments laden with civil war and mass bloodshed that define their socio/economic/political state have taken place during my lifetime or just before.

South Vietnam and the US attacked Cambodia in the early 70s in an effort to weaken the rebel communist forces of the Khmer Rouge and the Viet Cong. These attacks backfired as it created 2 million refugees that streamed into the cities, many of whom who joined the Khmer Rouge with a strong resolve against the US.  In 1975, the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, took power and ironically renamed the country Democratic Cambodia. In the back drop, the nation was going through a devastating famine that required external assistance to overcome. Pol Pot, however, took a dastardly approach to this problem. He decided to evacuate the cities and focus solely on agriculture, through manual labour rather than technology assistance. He effectively eliminated arts and culture in his country by destroying temples, libraries and schools and looked to rid his country of all intellectuals so that he could maintain power. We visited a school which was converted into a prison and interrogation centre, called Security Prison 21 or S21. During the four years of Pot’s reign from ’75-’79 over 17,000 prisoners were tortured in S21 with the goal of getting them to give up names of their family and friends that could threaten the paranoid Pot. Again, it was mainly educated people and those from the previous regime that were subjected to this horrible treatment. Ethnic Chinese were cleansed, and those with glasses were targeted because they were likely to be educated or professional. Eventually, Pot even turned on some members of his own government whom he suspected may undermine him and sent them to S21. The forced confessions that prisoners gave were a mix of true events and fictitious accounts of their links to the CIA, KGB or Vietnam. One of the displays at S21 showed the last sentence of one prisoner’s particular confession: I am not a human being. I am an animal.

S21 Museum

One of the room where prisoners were held and tortured

One of the prison cells

This is worth clicking on to enlarge. Simply barbaric.

After suffering from torture inflicted daily for 2-3 months, prisoners were taken to the Killing Fields where various weapons were used in their execution. They were then buried in mass graves in the grounds. We visited the Killing Fields which was another excruciating but necessary emotional experience. We saw the sites of the mass graves and read the descriptions of the savage executions that made us question how one human being could do this to another human being.

During the Khmer Rouge reign, it’s estimated that over 2 million Cambodians or 25% of the population was extinguished.  The war only ended after Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia in ’79. Yet due to corruption and very slow movement from the UN and the tribunals, it took 31 years before the first Khmer Rouge member was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and was sentenced to prison, shockingly only for 19 years.

A very tasteful display to commerorate those who died in the Killing Fields

Some of the mass graves

Sickening

Having visiting Rwanda and learning about its scarred history, there are several parallels to be drawn about the genocides both countries have endured. Essentially both countries suffered due to the whims of barbaric government leaders that were driven by a large dose of paranoia and craved indefinite control at any costs. There were so many illogical decisions yet so much coldly-calculated brutality.

However the post-war period shows some stark differences between the two countries that left us feeling incredible optimistic about Rwanda’s future and completely depressed about Cambodia. In Rwanda, they a president with 95% approval (some of it may be coerced) who’s intelligent, well-respected both internally and by foreign leaders and seems to have the well-being of the country and his people as his main priority. He wants Rwanda to reduce its dependency on foreign aid and for the people to have an urgency that drives them to do better. He’s a strong believer in education and is encouraging business development. His government has been quick to lead Rwanda to forgiveness so that the country’s collective psyche could move onto brighter days.

Conversely, Cambodia simply doesn’t have its shit together. It’s still in the infancy state of reconciliation. In the 80’s, the Khmer Rouge continued to exist and attack local resistant territories. This brought upon sanctions from the Western power and coupled with the impact of these attacks, reconstruction was halted and the country remained incredibly poor. It’s very dependent on its Asian neighbours, and goes as far as to outsource much of its commercial administration to Vietnam. It’s ranked 127^th in the world audit corruption rankings (Rwanda was 51^st) and we could sense the frustration amongst Cambodians. We spoke to a few locals who wanted to start businesses but kept running into roadblocks from the government. Education is available, but there’s not as much importance placed upon it as in Rwanda. And the sickening distribution of wealth is evidenced by the massive Lexus 570 SUVs which are apparently owned by government officials and NGO’s driving along the roads of Phnom Penh as poor children beg.

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the BIG 570's so this will have to do

I know this is a depressing post and it took a while to gather my thoughts for this one. I promise the next post, Cambodia – the Good, will be more uplifting as I’ll focus on some of the amazing people who are making a difference there.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

After the shopping spree in Hoi An, we flew further south to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), better known as Saigon, but also known as the Paris of the Orient as it was a key French colony. “The Fall of Saigon” or “Liberation of Saigon” (depending on your viewpoint) happened in 1975 at the conclusion of the Vietnam War and the city was soon renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the communist leader of the Viet Cong.

One of the most disturbing tours we took on our trip was that of the War Remnants Museum. The Museum was actually opened in 1975 and was known as “The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government of South Vietnam”.  An inoffensive, neutral name that rolls off the tongue eh? The name evolved into the Museum of American War Crimes, then the War Crimes Museum and finally the War Remnants Museum. The museum grounds had some of the large tanks and helicopters that the US Army used. Inside the museum were various themed rooms. Some showed domestic and international art and media portrayal of the war, with an obvious anti-US or pro-Viet Cong bias. One of the toughest exhibits we digested was the one focused on chemical warfare, covering the effects of Agent Orange, napalm and defoliants used by the US to remove the jungle advantage the Viet Cong fighters had. Horrid deformities continue to be experienced by the newest generation of Vietnamese whose parents or grandparents were harmed by the chemicals. Another exhibit covered the My Lai massacre which can only be described as a few maniacal American soldiers taking gross, barbaric liberties with Vietnamese civilian children, women and men. I’ve never felt that emotionally charged walking out of a museum before and when I asked Dal what she’s do if she saw an American at the moment, she angrily replied “I’d punch them in the face”.  [Sidebar :  I know a few of our American friends check our blog but since you’re all reasonable people, please rest assured you won’t be wearing knuckle imprints after our next encounter]

Outside the War Remnants Museum

One of the exhibits from the tours

A couple of days later, we took a tour of the Cu Chi tunnels located at a pivotal jungle area where much fighting occurred. We were amazed to see the intricate 75-mile long network of tunnels that the Viet Cong used during combat to hide, eat, move, transport supplies, treat injuries and sleep. It was even used to lure and trap the burly Americans who would get stuck in the tunnels.  There were several highlights of this tour including seeing the various methods of trapping the enemies and getting a chance to navigate through the tunnels. At the end of the tour, they have a shooting range where one can try firing an assault rifle. I chose to make my mark with an AK47 (10 bullets for about $12…I missed the target 9 times) for the first, and likely last, time I’ll ever shoot a gun.

Navigating the Cu Chi tunnels

Sniping the enemy

Dal was the only one who fit into this tunnel. Note the blue Crocs.

Continuing the trend from Hoi An, we did some shopping. After searching 2 months for a rain-jacket that fit AND was under $100US AND was waterproof, Dal finally found a sweet North Face jacket for $22. I was astonished by the prices but given all the tags on the gear as well the conversations I had with people in the market, it seems to be legit. I wound up buying a pair of Croc shoes for $8 [Sidebar : Yes. I’m one of those people who have made fun of people who wore Crocs. Now that I own a pair and have worn them continuously for six weeks, they’re easily the most comfortable, versatile pair of sandals I’ve ever had. I bought a beige pair so they wouldn’t stand out too much. A Russian dude on our Cu Chi tunnels tour took a different approach and bought a pair of bright, garish aqua blue Crocs. What a douche.]

Lastly, I’d like to recap the strangest of the many massages we had in South East Asia. There was a sign in our hotel that massages were available for $8. The photo and text on the poster looked appropriate and the hotel was classy enough that we assumed we were in for a legit massage. So we spoke to the hotel front desk and ordered 2 masseuses for a couples massage at 9pm. At 9pm, the doorbell at our hotel rang and a petite Asian woman in a top and miniskirt holding a small towel and baby oil smiled at us. Dal and I looked at each other quizzically and then asked her where the other masseuse was. She didn’t speak a lick of English so all 3 of us went down to the front desk to find out what happened. The woman at the front desk didn’t speak much English but after a few minutes, we figured out the 2^nd woman would be coming at 9:45pm. So we told the first girl to come back at 9:45 so that we could get our massages together.  As we returned to our room, Dal worriedly asked me if we should just cancel. I quickly soothed her doubts and assured her the massage would be relaxing and the experience would be fun.  I sprinkled in a few foursome jokes which probably didn’t help the cause…but I couldn’t help myself. At around 10pm, both masseuses arrived and we got started. They basically laid a bath towel for each of us on the double bed and Dal and I lay there in our underwear. I had the petite masseuse who showed up early and she attempted to pulverize me for the next hour. Dal received a much gentler massage from her larger masseuse. At times, it was a little too gentle as the masseuse was deeply engrossed in a phone conversation and was basically delivering a half-assed one-armed massage. I looked at her..and then at my masseuse. Thankfully my masseuse clued in and asked her friend to put her phone away and get back to work. However Dal’s friend didn’t turn her ringer off and we heard beeps repeatedly throughout the hour. At another point…I felt my masseuse standing on my back so I told Dal to turn her head and take a look. She did and burst out laughing as mine was basically dancing a Thai jig while using the ceiling to maintain her balance. Sorry..no photos. At the end of the massage, we tried tipping $1 to each of them. Suddenly, their English skills improved dramatically. “Not enough. Give more please”.  We gave an extra dollar each and sent them on their way.

The bed, prior to the doubles massage.

Bonus photo : Note the striking resemblance to the real Mona Lisa. You can barely tell the difference eh ?

Overall, we enjoyed Saigon more than Hanoi because it was a much better walking city. Many, MANY people warned us about safety in terms of bag snatching and pick-pocketing so we took the necessary precautions and really enjoyed ourselves here.

Shopping Spree in Hoi An, Vietnam

After Hanoi, we flew down the Vietnamese coast to Da Nang airport and then took a 30 minute car ride south to Hoi An. Many travellers told us about this sleepy French colonial town with scores of tailor shops. We had read in a few places that this was THE place to get custom tailored clothing made so we planned for a 4-night stay to give ourselves enough time for fittings and alterations. We checked into our hotel at night and rested up for a day of clothes shopping. Our hotel was the Southern Guesthouse and it was $24 a night (including wifi, complimentary breakfast for 2, shuttle into town). The amenities were great but staff service was only average. [sidebar : most of our hotels have been under $30 a night. In Asia, it’s easy for a couple of to find a place for less than $15 a night, but we prefer luxuries such as: no cockroaches, private bathroom, clean (or the appearance of clean) sheets, air-con and hot water. Our hotel booking process generally was done a couple of days in advance of arrival date : first go to TripAdvisor.com and get their ranked list of hotels under $50 in the city we’re staying and then cross-check with expedia or agoda.com to see if there was availability. Pretty painless and 90% of our hotels have been totally fine].

That night, I googled “Hoi An Tailors” and bookmarked a list of reputable tailors as well as tips on buying tailored clothes in Hoi An. The emphatic Rule #1  : Don’t buy at the first shop you go into. I’ll come back to that point in a moment.

The next morning, Dal and I took the short shuttle from the hotel to the downtown area. About 10 seconds after we got off and started walking, a lady on her bike waved at us and we exchanged greetings. She asked us where we were from and we told her Canada. She confidently told us she had a cousin in Vancouver. And then she dropped the boom. She said she had a clothing shop just down the street and that we must come over because lots of Canadians buy their clothes there. Dal and I looked at each other and rationalized that we needed to start somewhere and her place was as good as any. And of course, we were just going to look…not buy.

We followed the bike lady and soon arrived at her shop. She proudly showed a book of testimonials to me while another lady occupied Dal with all the fabrics and samples. Secretly, I admired their divide and conquer tactics. Well played, ladies. Fast forward an hour and we left the store having placed an order of a dress for Dal and a suit and 2 shirts for me. What happened to not buying at the first store? Well, we justified to ourselves that we bargained a decent enough deal ($125 for my suit and 2 shirts and $30 for a dress for Dal) and that we’d actually doubt the finished product if we paid any less. Also, the store was listed in google for solid quality AND of course the book of testimonials (which I actually checked to see if there was identical handwriting on multiple pages…there weren’t) pushed us over the hump. She told us to come back at 5pm that same day for our first fitting. We walked out of the store a little dazed and a little confused wondering how the hell we each had purchased clothing before 11am on the first day.

I’ll spare you the gory details on all the tailor visits, the fittings, the re-fittings, the runway walks showing off clothes. We’ll let the numbers speak for themselves:

Number of tailor shops we made purchases from: 4

Number of suits for David: 3

Number of shirts for David: 5

Number of business outfits for Dal: 3

Number of formal dresses for Dal: 2

Number of winter coats for Dal: 1

Number of pairs of shoes for Dal: 1

Number of suitcases purchased to carry new clothes: 1

We justified to ourselves that we’ll need decent outfits for the job interviews we hope to get when we return to Canada. Additionally, it would be a wasted opportunity if we DIDN’T buy clothes that we likely would have bought in Canada at 3 times the prices. So even though we left Hoi An feeling somewhat embarrassed by our shopping spree given that our trip revealed such abject poverty and had taught us how few possessions were required to be happy, there was negligible buyer’s remorse.

Here are a few more highlights of Hoi An :

Café Des Amis: A fun little restaurant along the waterfront that was started by Mr Kim who has been a guest chef for dignitaries in Europe. It was a fixed-menu (Seafood or Veg) consisting of whatever Mr Kim felt like making that day. The meal itself was quite tasty and ridiculously filling and reminded me of a poor-man Susur’s (a swank resto-experience in Toronto). Again, a testimonial book was brought out and our contribution wound up being a few haikus.

Row Boat Lady: On our second day, we walked along the waterfront and these frail, elderly women in these wooden rowboats asked if we wanted rides. We politely refused, partly due to the ominous raincloud about to unleash havoc and partly due to the fact that Dal felt it was just wrong for a lady the same age as her Nana to row my hulking mass around.  The next day, we walked by the waterfront again and I told Dal that if we saw the same lady, we should get a boat-ride from her. If she’s in the boat, she either enjoys it and/or needs the money and it would probably be a fun blog-worthy experience. As luck would have it, we heard her unmistakable nasal “boa-riiiiiiiiiide” proposition and we negotiated a 30 minute ride for 60,000 dong which is $3 (yes yes…Dal chided me for negotiating with an old lady so we gave her a generous tip). The ride itself was fun…she let us wear her traditional Vietnamese hat, and at one point, I did all the paddling while she enjoyed a well-earned rest.

Ant infestation : Being suckers for snacks, we had purchased bags of sugared shredded coconut and other goodies which we left in the hotel room one afternoon. More specifically, Dal left one bag open on the nightstand and apparently I had left a bag open near the laptop, upon which I had dropped some of the powdered sugar during a late night blogging session. When we returned to the room, Dal was stunned to see a small lizard in her bag. I proceeded to give her a stern lecture on the hygienic dangers of not cleaning up after herself. After my rant had run out of steam, I opened up my laptop and discovered about 50 small ants darting in and out of the crevices of the keys and on the screen. They had also spread to the surrounding areas on the bed and appeared to be building civilizations in my knapsack, on our rainjackets and in one of the trolley bags. After Dal summarily mimicked my rant, we spent the next few hours on clean-up duty and did our best to exterminate the little buggers. In a way, that experience was good for us because it somewhat prepared us emotionally for a cockroach infestation which we’d encounter later on the trip.

Hoi An was a delightful highlight for both of us thanks to the shopping, the food, the sights, the smiles and the old lady in a rowboat.

A Cruise on Halong Bay

All of the major travel websites strongly recommended an overnight stay on a junk cruiser in Halong Bay, so we got our hotel in Hanoi to organize a trip for us, and the next day we were off at 8am on a 4 hour bus ride to Halong City (a dump) where we’d board our boat for Halong Bay (paradise).  Somehow, the captain of our boat was an hour late (which led to a round of Captain Stube-id jokes) but by 2pm, we were on our cruiser and ready to set sail for a trip around the hundreds of limestone karsts and isles emerging spectacularly from the clear blue water.

Our Amber Gold Cruise boat

The junk cruiser was a neat experience. They served copious amounts of tasty Vietnamese food, had a nice deck on the top floor and comfortable cabins. The view from the deck was gorgeous. We were also able to kayak for a couple of hours in Halong Bay, which translates into Descending Dragon Bay is a UNESCO World heritage site and it’s difficult to compare to anything else I’ve seen. It’s the backdrop of James Bond’s “Tomorrow Never Dies” flick. Some of the islands are actually completely hollow and we able to into one of the biggest ones, Hang Dau Go, which is a  massive cave that contains stalactites and stalagmites as well as 19^th century French graffiti.

Our Titanic moment

Chilling on the deck

Sunset from our kayak

One of our boat-mates was a Vietnamese man who had moved to the US in the 1970’s and was now returning to Vietnam for the first time. The amazing thing was that he was travelling with his in-laws and their family, none of whom he had met before…and his wife was back in the States ! His English was pretty good and he reminded me a lot of famous poker pro Scotty Nguyen because of his affable, engaging personality and his love for Tequila Sunrises regardless of time-of-day. Although his in-laws didn’t speak much English, it appeared that they all bonded quite well over several rounds of drinks

Scotty Nguyen loves ya baby !

We also bonded with a Quebec couple, Roger and Catherine that have taken a year off to cycle around various countries. They had completed 3 months in Turkey and were making their way through Vietnam before headed to AUS/NZ.  Their fantastic blog, written in French, is found at http://rogeretcatherine.blogspot.com and it's worth a click just for the photos. Similar to at least half of the Canadian long-term vacationers we’ve encountered on our travel, they are noble school teachers and we enjoyed sharing our Rwandan teaching experiences with them.

Lunch with Roger and Catherine

Speaking of Quebec..Habs-Leafs game this Saturday and I'm thrilled to say I'll be watching an internet feed of it from my McGill buddy Venka's place in Bangalore at 5:30am Sunday morning ! It'll be the first hockey I'll be watching all season and of course I'm a huge Leafs fan and he's a big Habs fan. For inspiration, I'll be playing this video regularly leading up to game time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmq7WGF55yQ

Back when we were in 'Nam

After five soothing days in Luang Prabang, Laos we flew to Hanoi to begin our tour of ‘Nam (yes…I love telling stories of back when I was in ‘Nam). We arrived in the evening and were picked up by two guys our hotel had sent for us. For the first 15 minutes of our ride, I was a little suspicious because they spoke virtually no english, didn’t really smile, drove fast...and there were TWO guys. Why would two guys be necessary for a hotel pickup of two people?? After a while though, my fatigue set in and I began to doze off. Dal quickly woke me, apparently stricken by the same suspicions and warned me NOT to fall asleep during this ride. (Sidebar : When travelling, I recommend a small dose of paranoia. 99.9% of the world are good, honest people willing to help, so too much distrust leads to unnecessary stress and missed opportunities. But too little caution and you leave yourself exposed to thieves, scam-artists, and filthy hotel bathrooms). We wound up reaching safely, and I was glad I stayed awake because it was our first experience of truly crazian (crazy-asian) driving at its finest.

We did a day tour of Hanoi which was pretty good. Our tour mates included: a precocious Argentinian named Ignacio (I had mixed feelings about him. I loved that his nickname was Nacho (Nachoooooooooooo !!) but despised him for guessing my age to be 46 years old), 2 elderly Vietnamese people that kept wandering off and an elderly Australian gentleman with a younger Singaporean wife who were fun. We visited Ho Chi Minh’s Palace grounds. For clarification : Ho Chi Minh was the leader of the Vietnamese independence movement and the leader of the Viet Cong and his palace grounds were in Hanoi which is in the North; Saigon (in the south) however has been renamed Ho Chi Minh City or HCMC). Uncle Ho, as he’s affectionately referred to, is still revered as a national hero and maintains almost god-like status by the communist government and many Vietnamese people. This is why I was a bit aghast when Dal asked our tour guide if he had had many mistresses.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

The older wandering Vietnamese couple, Nachooooooo and us

Later in the tour, we were taken to a 6-story building where we saw how a piece of pottery was created, shaped, coloured, polished and completed into a finished product..to be sold at your local dollar store. Actually..the prices were quite high compared to the Dollar Store, however these were genuinely handmade. One pet peeve of mine about city tours in Asia is that you’re inevitably taken to a place where you feel almost obligated to purchase something. We obligingly purchased 2 mugs – once shaped like a dog, and the other shaped like a mouse. Dal is planning several tea parties when we get back to show off her mouse mug.

Dal creating on a masterpiece

They listened to hip hop as they worked

$5 US ?? Do you know how much I could get this for at a Scarborough Dollar Store ?

We were then taken to another museum that used to be the University of Literature. To be honest I don’t remember much about it, but it was our first sighting of Confucius statues, which of course led to rounds of "Confucius says" jokes. Outside the museum, we encountered a slew of postcard and book vendors including the boy below. We wound up buying “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini for $5 which is a brilliant yet disturbing novel set in Afghanistan.

Confucius says

I honestly can't remember the background..but I liked the photo..

Really sweet kid selling postcards and novels outside the museum.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the wonderful staff at the Hanoi Guesthouse. It was only $22 a night and came with breakfast (a big bowl of Pho or bread/jam). The room was fine (although it was on the 4^th floor and had no elevator) and laundry was reasonably priced and it was in a location close to the action. But what was truly phenomenal was the staff that went above the call of duty regularly when it came to coordinating trips, flights and ensuring our comfort. They always had a genuine large smile on their face and we’d strongly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Hanoi. Hanoiguesthouse.com is their website.

In terms of food, the hotel recommended a restaurant down the street that served the best deep fried shrimp I’ve ever eaten. I was sooo tempted to try the deep fried crickets but decided against it as we were going on an overnight cruise to Halong Bay the next day and I didn’t want an upset stomach. We also went to another restaurant, Quan An Ngon, recommended #3 out of 225 on Trip Advisor which reminded me a little of the Movenpick chain in that there were several types of cuisines available. Ironically, this was also the only restaurant in Asia that didn’t have spring rolls...because they ran out of them…at 8pm ! How does that happen in Vietnam ??

Hanoi was actually one of our least favorite cities on our SE Asia trip. The main reason is that we thought it was a terrible walking city. Hanoi is a city with around 6 million people and 3 million motos and they’re everywhere. They’re parked all over the sidewalks, they’re weaving down the road at breakneck speed or they’re driving along the edge of the road in the wrong direction. Crossing the street is an experience that you almost have to psyche yourself up for. I harkened back to the days of playing computer Frogger as my inspiration.  Dal’s strategy was to hold my hand, close her eyes and hope for the best. Hanoi was also a stark contrast to the clear air and tranquil, leisurely atmosphere of Luang Prabang so the culture shock may have caught us off guard. Hanoi’s a place worth checking out, but we’re glad we only spent a couple of nights there.

Motos. They're EVERYwhere !!

- DP

Elephant Trekking

Among the tourist attractions in Luang Prabang, Laos is the Elephant Mahout course – a 1-day or 2-day excursion where you get to ride elephants mahout style (i.e. on their shoulders, the way their trainers do), learn their commands and then take them down to the river for a group bathing event.

We arrived at the elephant camp and were duly outfitted with our ‘mahout gear’, a rather unflattering matching denim set of three-quarter length shorts and a shirt. ‘Better their clothes than mine’ was my thought process and I ignored the hideousness of my outfit and resolved to have a good time.

The day started with an hour long ride on the elephants in the traditional elephant harness. This was likely to get us used to the size of the animals and used to the way in which they walk. After the ride, we sat down to a simple lunch and a nap, which was occasionally disturbed by the camp cat who insisted on chewing on our clothing while we slept. After swatting it away about 10 times it finally took the hint and fell asleep on a nearby pillow.   

After lunch came the moment to ride the elephants bare-back as it were. The ellies were lined up and we were encouraged on clamber off the platform and sit on their necks/shoulders and basically hold on for dear life. Except there was nothing to hold on to. My first few moments on the elephant were terrifying. Though the elephant herself was a lovely, gentle, obliging creature, I was concerned that I might lose my balance and then have to deal with a rather far drop to the ground. My assigned mahout sat behind me (in the seat normally reserved for tourists) and assured me it would be alright. About 30 mins into the walk he asked if I was doing ok. ‘How nice of him’ I thought, and replied affirmative. At which point he promptly took a nap and left me and the elephant to our own devices. Thanks fully my old girl was a peach, unlike Dave’s elephant who had a phobia of elephant dung and would veer off the trail and plough into the forest to avoid having to step over the dung of the elephants before here. As a result, Dave and his mahout were scratched and bloody after their walk, having ploughed through so many thorny trees.

Riding an elephant is a strange experience. It takes a bit of balance to sit comfortable on their shoulders as they walk, and as you lean on their heads for support, you realize how incredibly wiry the little hairs on their heads are. Sometimes, they flap their ears, which provides a lovely breeze as your legs are neatly tucked behind their massive ears as they walk.

The highlight of the day was taking the elephants down to the river to bathe. Mine elephant obligingly sat down and raise one knee, allowing me to clamber up her knee and onto her back (it’s not as graceful as it sounds – the mahout did a fair bit of pulling and shoving to get me up there as well). Dave’s elephant refused to sit down, but did put up her knee. She then proceeded to walk away while he was still climbing up her, leaving him dangling off a moving elephant until the mahouts managed to shove/hoist him up. Fun for all, especially the elephant. Here's a clip of it : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ6hNw5OdPc

The elephants love the water and once they’re in, they proceed to get playful. In my case this meant showering me with cold river water from her trunk. In Dave’s case, it meant dunking under the water entirely, leaving Dave to wonder when he might fall off his crazy elephant and how he would get back up.

At the end of it all, we’d had a fantastic day. We politely ignored the fact that NO safety briefing had been included in the tour. So we devised our own safety measures which included hanging off the elephants ears and bellowing for help should something unexpected happen. One thing we did notice was that none of the elephants were prodded with elephant hooks. Instead, the mahouts used loud voices and small branches broken from trees to coax them forward. It was nice to see the animals are treated with kindness and gentleness and made the experience a positive one all around.   

- Dal