Last day in Luang Prabang...

Yesterday, I ran into Steffan, the young German fellow that I had met earlier in the week, and we spent some time together talking to some of the monks at the local wats. These seven young teenage boys (mostly 16 and 17) all became novice monks at around 15, but will not be considered to be actual monks until they are 20 years old. (Evidently, they have to sign up for a five year commitment.) At that time, they can decide if they want to continue in that life style or return to their family. They were all very friendly and seemed extremely happy to practice their English skills with Steffan and I. One of them invited us to come to another wat at the other end of town at 5:30 in the evening to observe the rituals and chanting that they were required to do twice a day. I walked down to the wat at 5:30 and quickly found myself engaged in another spirited conversation with an 18-year old novice monk. He stated that his parents were poor farmers in northern Laos, and that, as a novice monk, he was allowed to see them for only a few days a year. He said that his father earned about US$1.50 a day. Surprisingly, they were allowed to smoke, but they had to avoid all alcohol and drugs and any physical contact with women. (According to him, mothers were OK to touch but hugging sisters was forbidden.) This morning (Friday), I rented a bike (all day for a buck) to pedal around the back streets of the city that I hadn't yet explored. The street running along the Mekong River is mostly shaded and lined with Guest Houses on one side and open-air patios with tables and chairs on the river side of the street. The kitchens are located in the Guest Houses, and they serve excellent food and drink to those who are sitting across the stree on their patio. All of the patios are about thirty feet wide and are perched at the edge of a 70 foot cliff which drops down to the Mekong. Very picturesque. At night, many of them are decorated with colorful lights. Today, (Friday) I'll do a bit more shopping, and then put together a box of stuff to send back to California. Tomorrow, I'm being picked up at 6:40 A.M. in order to catch the slow boat up the Mekong River into Thailand. More later...

Kicking back in Luang Prabang...

Yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) I took the second half of the tour that I had started on Monday. This time, the van picked me up at the hotel and we drove about 30 minutes out to a local waterfall. Although it is still officially dry season, the waterfall was still very impressive. The water in the pools leading up to the main falls was an incredible shade of shimmering green. The area actually consisted of several falls with the largest fall at the top. Along the way, there were several deep pools that you could use for a swim. At the main falls...which crashed about 70 feet over a cliff to a pool...I decided to brave the swift water and wind and move in the turbulent water along the side of the pool to an area behind the fall itself. Very cool, indeed. Later that evening, I hooked up with a German IT guy named Steffan who was just completeing a four week holiday, and another fellow from Canada (Luke) who had just completed his contract teaching English in Mynamar. My friend Fiona went off on an elephant trek for a few days and we may have dinner together again tomorrow night. This morning, I bought a cardboard box and plan to buy some things at the street market tonight and ship them back to California. I also visited the National Museum which used to be the palace of the king. The walls and ceilings of the main reception room for the king were covered with colorful, mirrored mosaics depicting people fighting, worshipping and celebrating. Most of the human figures were about 8 inches high but there were also elephants, buddhas, etc. of various sizes. Each figure was carefully constructed and color coordinated. Since they were mounted on a wall that was painted blood red, the effect was really quite startling. The weather is clear and hot today. A lot of the restaurants around here list their menus in several currencies: the Lao Kip, the Thai bhat and the US dollar. Occasionally, they even list the price of the item in Euro. More later....

In Luang Prabang...

On Sunday, I took a 40-minute flight from Vientiane to Luang Prabang and checked into a hotel at the far end of one of the main streets. Every night, hundreds of people descend on this area to set up a street market. They close off the street to cars and motorbikes and the local folks set up their little areas by sitting on the sidewalk and spreading out their wares on blankets and bamboo mats. There are an amazing number of items available, and they're all presented very well. I'm sure that it takes an incredible amount of energy and dedication to create...and to dismantle...this fair each and every day. The center of the street is also used by merchants so there are two separate walkways for you to wander along. The merchants even bring their own electric lights so the market stays open from around 6 to 10 P.M. every night. Since many of them are selling very similar items, you can get a lot of great bargains if you're not in too much of a hurry. (Too bad that I don't like shopping.) Yesterday, I took a 2-hour boat trip up the Mekong to the famous Buddha Caves. The boat was about 50 feet long and 6 feet wide. It held 14 passengers and a crew of two. Along the way, we pulled into one of the local villages and saw how they produced rice whiskey. When we got to the caves, we had to climb a hundred feet up to the cave itself. Inside are about 2500 ancient statues of Buddha...some several feet high while others that are placed into the nooks and crannies of the cave walls might be only an inch high. There is also an upper Buddha cave but it takes some effort to climb the steps to check out. On the way back to town, the boat stopped at another village...this one specialized in making paper. When I returned, I treated myself to a 1-hour foot massage from one of the local massage parlors. Excellent! Massage is very inexpensive in Laos and the quality of their work is certainly equal to...if not better than..any massage that I've received in the States. Laos gives you a lot of bang for your tourist buck. You can get a single room with A/C, cable TV, shower and free breakfast for about $1O-15. Three full meals a day will probably set you back about $1O-12. A large Lao Beer (which, by the way, is quite good), costs a buck and a one hour full-body massage will set you back another US$3. You could live quite comfortably here for around US$25-30 a day. The tour yesterday (at a cost of US$10) was actually divided into two parts. In the morning, we went to the villages and the Buddha cave and, in the afternoon, the same tour then went out to a local waterfall for swimming and kicking back. I decided, however, that I would break the tour into two separate days, and so I plan to go to do the waterfall part this afternoon. As I was walking along the street a few days ago, I ran into a couple from Germany that had been with me on my boat trip out to Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. Yesterday, I was spotted by Fiona...the engineer from Ireland...who I had shared dinner with back in Vientiane. We had another dinner together and, since she's doing the cave-waterfall tour today, we might see each other again this afternoon. On Saturday, I'm leaving Luang Prabang on a 2-day slow boat up the Mekong. We'll be stopping at some other local river villages and checking out some of their caves, too. After that "Plan A" is to take a 3-hour bus trip to Chiang Rai. More later...

Around Vientiane...

Yesterday, I hired a tuk-tuk to take me out to a place called Buddha Park. It's an area on the banks of the Mekong about 25 K north of the city. The park itself is a collection of very old stone statues of Buddha, cobras, dragons and some of the demi-gods and deities that are described in Buddhist literature. A particularly impressive statue is a reclining Buddha about (I'm guessing) 100 feet in length and over 40 feet high. There were several other statures that towered over the others. Wandering around these weathered and beautifully-carved edifices was quite an amazing experience. They even had one large ball-shaped dome...perhaps fifty feet high...that you could enter by squeezing through an open stone mouth. Once inside, you could climb to the top floor through very narrow passages and then circle that level. Inside the dome are numerous stone statues that represent, I was told later, the various level of hell. As you finally descend, floor by floor, you end up at the lowest level with stone skulls and people being tormented by demons. I tried, unsuccessfully, to find a description in the guide book and only learned about it from the hotel. It's well worth the trip so, if you ever get to Vientiane, be sure to see the Buddha Park. Tomorrow is Sunday and I've booked a 40-minute flight up to Luang Prabang for a few days. Today, I've visited the Cultural Hall and the Revolution Museum and, at 8 P.M. tonight, I'm going to dinner with a delightful Irish fellow named Graham. Some general impressions around Vientiane: 1) As it is around Indonesia, many of the houses and business have small "spirit houses" that they maintain near their front door. Sometimes, these small houses are on the ground but, more often, they're mounted on a platform that is supported by a stone pillar about 4 feet high. On the flat area, (sometimes as large as 4' x 4'), they then erect what resembles a miniature temple or wat that is supposed to honor the spirits. Flowers, incense, fruit, etc. are placed on the platform as gifts. I understand that, if you add to the size of your house, you also are expected to add an addition to the spirit house as well. 2) As it was in Hanoi, the folks in Vientiane also have a special area in which to practice their aerobics every evening. It's all quite voluntary, of course, and the physically-challenging movements are all performed with great enthusiasm. 3) The sidewalks in Vientiane are sometimes very uneven, and it's not uncommon to see gaping holes in them that seemingly appear out of nowhere. Some of these holes, in fact, are several feet across and over a foot deep so, if you're not paying full attention, it's all too easy to take a serious fall. None of these hazards, of course, are marked so you really have to walk carefully. I remember that I had experienced that same kind of pedestrian hazard when I was walking the streets of Bali many years ago. 4) The restaurants in southeast asia don't give you a lot of napkins to use during your meals. For example, at the restaurant in my hotel this morning, I was given one small square of tissue...about 8" x 8 "...that was so thin I could, quite literally, read my newspaper through it. More later...

In Vientiane, Laos...

After the frenetic energy on the streets of Hanoi, Vientiane is quite laid back. Yes, there are the usual omni-present motorbikes, of course, but not nearly as many as are zipping through the streets of Hanoi and HCM City. Also, there's a noticeable lack of horn-honking. More and more westerners have found out about this little haven in Laos as evidenced by the many hotels that cater to travelers. Vientiane lies on the banks of the Mekong and is the capitol of the country. It has enough wats (Buddhist temples) to sastisfy anybody's taste for the exotic. A number of Buddhist monks pass down the river-front street by my hotel every morning around 6 A.M., and you have an opportunity at that time to offer them alms. The currency in Laos is the Kip, and it takes 10,000 of them to equal one US dollar. As it was in Vietnam, you can eat three good meals a day for US$10-12. Actually, I've been told, Vientiane is a little more expensive than the other places that I'll be visiting in the country. Part of the excitement of traveling is the joy of having spontaneous conversations with other folks who are also out on the road. Last night was no exception. In the same restaurant/bar last night, I connected first with a very interesting fellow from Canada named Jillian (who looked a lot like Saddam). After he left, a young woman named Fiona (who works as a mechanical engineer in Ireland) enjoyed another full hour of delightful sharing about life, trips and philosophy. This afternoon, as I was visiting about six of the wats, I hooked up with a married couple from Melbourne. As much as I enjoy traveling to see new places, a major draw for me really lies in these fascinating conversations that I get to have with people from all over the world. Very cool, indeed. Well, it's off to dinner now. More later as it unfolds...

Last day in Vietnam...

Today, I met my friend, Tuan, by the central lake (its name is actually Hoan Kiern), and we went on his motorbike over to a small pond several miles away where there are visible remnants of a downed B-52 bomber still sticking up out of the water...tires and all. There is a stone memorial marking the event and, surprisingly, the pond that the wreckage sits in is only about 150 feet square. Tuan explained that the entire area had changed considerably and had been rebuilt several times since the plane had gone down some 40 years ago. We also went over to Truc Bach Lake which sits in the middle of Hanoi and was the actual site where they captured Senator John McCain back in 1967. I finally heard from the newlyweds, Grant and Cathy, (the Brits that I had first met going down the Mekong from Phnom Penh almost two weeks ago). We had a great lunch together and shared our adventures over the past 10 days. Grant called me later at the hotel to give me a few tips on where to stay in Vientiene, Laos. I had dinner tonight (and last night, actually,) at the City View Restaurant that overlooks the Hoan Kiern Lake at the south end of the Old Quarter. The lake itself is rectangular and appears to be about a half a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide. There are two small islands in the lake...both of which have temples. Around the lake are trees whose branches hang out over the water. At night, about a dozen of these trees around the lake are ablaze with thousands of tiny white Christmas tree bulbs which dangle quite close to the water. There is also an arched pedestrian bridge over to the larger of the two islands, and it's lit up with red lights which reflect brilliantly off the water. The entire effect is very stunning. I took a bicycle rickshaw back to the hotel and began to pack up for my trip to Laos. More later...

Relaxing by the lake...

I had breakfast at the Kangaroo Cafe, a very western little place just a half a block from the central lake. After that, I found my way over to the infamous Hoa Lo Prison...better known to the American pilots who were kept there during the war as the "Hanoi Hilton." The prison has actually been around since 1896 and, over the years, was used to house thousands of patriots, revolutionary fighters and Americans between that time and the the mid-70's. Between 1964 and 1973, the prison's inmates included Douglas "Pete" Peterson, America's first Ambassador to Vietnam, and, of course, the well-known U.S. Senator from Arizona, John McCain. In fact, along with his picture, the museum still displays McCain's flight suit, parachute and other survival equipment that he was using on that date back in 1967. Most of the original prison was demolished in 1993 to make way for an apartment complex but they are still preserving the southeastern corner of the structure as a memorial to those terrible days and to the thousands of tortured people who passed through the facility...especially during the occupation by the French. After the tour, I found a large bookstore and bought a few book in English that I could wrap myself around for a while back in my room. As I was walking by the lake again and heading back to my hotel, I ran into Tuan, the Vietnamese student that I had had lunch with a few days ago. We continued our converstion, and he graciously invited me for some black tea at one of the nearby stalls. Excellent stuff. We plan to meet at 10 A.M. tomorrow for breakfast. He's going to take me to see the remains of a downed B-52 bomber that's also being preserved as a war memorial. Some more quick impressions around the town: 1) It's not uncommon to see someone driving their motorbike the wrong way on a one-way street...and/or with the lights off at night. 2) In the Old Quarter (which absolutely everyone should check out if they ever make it to Hanoi), the sidewalks are not really used very much by pedestrians. Instead, they're mostly filled with parked motorbikes and those small tables and chairs where whole families are cooking and eating their meals. Also, of course, many of the shops simple spill their wares out onto the sidewalk and take up any remaining space. The shops...all next to each other... open directly onto the sidewalk and are closed at night by some kind of sliding metal garage door. Because of the limited sidewalk space, the street itself has to be shared equally by pedestrians, buses, trucks, cars and the ever-present motorbikes. 3) Even though the vans and cars are all equipped with seat belts, absolutely no one bothers to wear them. (In India, too.) 4) It's not uncommon at all to see three full-sized adults sandwiched together on a small motorbike or two adults and two children all squished together...zipping in and out of the traffic. Naturally, of course, no one is ever wearing a helmet. Obviously dangerous, but, amazingly, I've yet to see anything even remotely resembling an accident. Everyone seems really quite adept at handling the chaos-of-the-street. I'm kicking back tonight and getting ready to enjoy my last full day in Hanoi tomorrow before I head off to Laos early Wednesday morning. More later...

A day in Hoa Lu...

After the overnight train from Sapa arrived at 6 A.M. on Friday, I hitched a ride on a motorbike back to the hotel. After I changed clothes and grabbed a quick breakfast, it was off on another full day tour. This time, I wanted to check out the temples around the ancient capital called Hoa Lu several hours outside of Hanoi. After driving on fairly-decent roads for 50 miles (and with green rice paddies stretching out for miles in both directions,) we arrived at Hoa Lu. Along the way, we saw many cemetaries in the middle of these fields...some with elaborate structures and tombstones...that commemorated the ancestors of the folks who lived in the nearby settlements. The geography around the ancient temple of Hoa Lu reminded me a lot of Ha Long Bay where I had visited earlier in the week. In fact, the formations of the odd-shaped mountains...sheer limestone cliffs rising vertically from a flat plain... looked almost exactly like Ha Long Bay... but this time, of course, without the wall-to-wall water. After we had lunch, our little group of ten tourists paired up and were directed into small boats powered by one or two local people who rowed, alternately, with their hands or even vigorously pedaling the oars with their feet. The 3 hour trip was truly magical and other-worldly. The stream/river...about 50 feet wide...snaked its way among these towering rock formations that were easily several hundred feet high. Rice paddies had been planted on each side of the river and went all the way to the walls of the vertical formations that loomed over us. All you could hear was the swoosh of the paddles and the water gently lapping at the sides of the boat. Twenty minutes later, we saw that the river seemingly disappeared into the side of the cliff, and, within a few minutes, our boat went into the darkness. At times, the roof of the limestone cave was within a few feet of the water but the guides expertly directed our boats safely through without difficulty. Within a few minutes, we could see that the river emerged again into another open area. Our boats were about 25 feet apart from each other and, clearly, everyone was mesmerized by the unexpected beauty of what we were experiencing. Fifteen minutes later, we went into yet another cave...this one shorter than the first. Finally, we went into yet a third cave and emerged into a smaller area which had a number of boats filled with some of the locals who were selling everything from T-shirts to beer. We landed and took some incredible pictures of the distinctive sawtooth, rock formations at the far end of the valley. After that, my boat "partner" and I, a delightful fellow from Singapore named Decland, returned to our boat to begin the 1.5 hour trip back to our point of origin. There were a lot of boats on the river, but it never seemed to be over crowded. I imagine, though, that as the word gets out about this unforgettable ride through the rice fields and rocks, this area will change for the worse. I'm so glad that I saw it now. LATER: When I was looking for a place to have dinner back in Hanoi, (by the way, the locals here spell it "Ha Noi"), I was amazed to see over a hundred people...mostly women....quite enthusiastically doing aerobics in a park it 8:30 at night. They all knew the moves and followed the instructions that were piped to them over the loudspeakers. At dinner, I started a conversation with a free-lance journalist from Rotterdam who stated that he often worked for the Economist magazine in London. David has been covering the southeast Asia beat for many years and had recently spent over 8 years living in Cambodia. A very good connection. SUNDAY: I haven't yet heard from my honeymooning friends that I had met down in HCM City (Cathy and Grant from the UK), so I'm not sure if they're flying into Hanoi on Tuesday or not. Anyway, I'm leaving the evening open for a final dinner together if it works out. Meanwhile, I booked a flight from Hanoi to Laos for early Wednesday morning. I can get a 15 day visa at the border and plan to use up all of the days. When I was reading my knock-off copy of the Lonely Planet book on Laos by the central lake near the Old Quarter, I was approached, at three different times, by Vietnamse students in their late teens who wanted to practice their English on me. Everyone is very friendly, but the never-ending motorbike traffic rushing through the streets here is truly horrific. Much too crowded and way too noisy. Some of the smaller bikes have "cleverly" installed huge horns that might be expected to be on trucks or buses in order, I suppose, to create an illusion for those in front of them that they're driving a much larger vehicle and should be given the right of way. According to one of the teenagers, they even have separate batteries to power their 110 decibel blasters. Believe me, these horns can absolutely rattle your bones. I'm sure that the older folks around here dearly miss the quieter old days some 30-40 years ago when only bicycles ruled these same streets. Oh well. C'est la vie. Everything changes and everything ends. More later as it unfolds...

Raining in Sapa...

I was awakened this morning to incredible thunder and lightning. From my hotel window, I could see the fog and mists coursing into the valley between the peaks that surround Sapa. It was all very visually stunning and rather surreal. The rains were very intense at times and the lighting and thunder almost occurred simultaneously. I hadn't brought a rain jacket with me when I had came up from Hanoi and so I was totally unprepared for taking my scheduled six hour trek through the mountains today. Anyway, I decided to hang around this fascinating little town for the afternoon before taking the overnight train back to Hanoi later on this eveing. Since the elvation here at Sapa is about 5000 feet, this has been the first time that I've been outside AND cool at the same time in over a month. Very pleasant. Last night, on my way back to the hotel, I could even see my breath. Sapa is much quieter and decidedly less hectic and intense than is Hanoi. However, as it is down the hill, some of the motorbikes don't bother to put on their headlights at night so you still have to be careful. Some more impressions of this country: 1) As it is in both India and Cambodia, all of the westerners drink only bottled water (unless they're staying or eating at some high-end hotel.) 2) many of the middle-class houses in both Hanoi and in HCM City follow the same general design: they're simple cement rectangular structures (only 12 or 15 feet in width and up to maybe 40 feet in length). The family business is often on the first floor. However, these structures are, in a sense, "replicated" up to five stories high. Many of the floors have with ornate balconies with pillared railings and other decorations. Some of them are used as separate one-room apartments on each floor while others are used entirely by a multi-generational family. Most of the time, only the front of the house is painted while the flat and unadorned sides are kept the dull grey of cement. 3) In HCM City, many of the shops sell bottles of a powerful (I've heard) yellow-colored liquor. If you look closely at the bottle, however, you can see that they each contain a small snake (usually a cobra) that's coiled to strike. These small cobras (once very alive) are "arranged" so that they're biting a scorpion or an alligator that's dangling in their mouth. Very weird, and, presumably, very popular for the tourists to bring back home. More later when I get down off this mountin...

Taking the train to Sapa...

On Wednesday evening, I hitched a ride on the back of a motorbike over to the train station in Hanoi to catch the overnight train up to Sapa, a beautiful and mountainous area northwest of the city. I just took a daypack and left my much- larger backpack at the hotel. The first class compartment on the train consisted of two bunkbeds, individual lights, blankets, pillows, etc. I shared the rather crowded space with two men and a woman...none of whom spoke English. No worries. By the time the train left at 10 P.M., I was kicking back with my iPod and quickly drifted off to sleep. By 6 A.M., we were pulling into the train station where the tourists get their vans and buses for the 25 mile ride up the mountain to Sapa. Many of the people in this region dress in very traditional and colorful clothes that reminded me of how the people dressed in Guatemala. Sapa is only (I think) about 20 miles from China and so the people around here look like a mixture of Vietnamese, Chinese and definitely a strong Tibetan influence. Very beautiful and dignified. According to one of the guides, the Vietnam war left this area mostly untouched as it apparently had no strategic value back then. Sapa was bigger than I had expected it to be and there are many tourists hotels and cafes around with full access to the internet. Unlike Hanoi, the kids up here easily approach the western tourists and try to persuade them to buy some of their handiwork. Many of the kids wanted to practice their English on me and some of them pulled me over to the nearest internet cafe to have me help them write better English to some of the westerners that had come through the town earlier. Amazingly, many of these kids had already established email addresses through yahoo or hotmail. Most of these young girls (ages 8-14) were all dressed in a similar kind of school uniform. Their English was certainly passable and you could tell that they had spent a lot of time interacting with the tourists. Surprisingly, I saw no boys hawking stuff on the street and, when I asked the girls where they were, they indicated that the boys mostly had to stay at home working with their parents. So it seems that, around here, the boys are handling the family goats and water buffalo, while the girls are on the internet and learning English. In the afternoon, I took a 3.5 hour trek with two Kiwis and a Buddhist monk. The local guide took us down a path to a waterfall in one of the canyons. The guide said that the elevation of the town was about 1500 meters, and, although it is hot during the afternoon, the temperature drops quickly as soon as the evening mists showed up about 5 P.M. I've got an excellent corner room at the Grand View Hotel that looks out onto the green-covered peaks surrounding the town itself. Many of the hillsides around here are farmed by terracing the areas in order to make the best use of the available land. I'm going to head off on a 6-hour trek tomorrow morning and then catch the overnight train back to Hanoi. More later...

Hanging around Hanoi...

On Monday, I took a tour out to Ha Long Bay to see the famous islands. This is an extraordinarily beautiful meeting of land and sea that's about 3.5 hours east of the city. On the way to the Bay, we drove through miles of rice paddies, and saw a lot of people in their traditional conical hats working alongside their water buffaloes. Ha Long Bay itself has over 2000 islands that rise almost vertically out of the ocean. Some are nothing more than a few hundred square feet while other are quite large. I'd guess that 99% of them are uninhabited because of their inaccessibility from the sea. For example, many of them have sheer rock walls and are topped with shrubbery and trees. However, there are a few unspoiled small beaches that are nestled among some of these islands. The islands are, (I'm just guessing here) about 200-300 hundred feet high. At the Bay, there are probably a hundred tour boats that are available for the travelers. For a reasonable price, you can cruise among these unique islands for as short as a few hours or stay for several days. For example, including everything (four meals, overnight on the boat, kayaking, seeing the cave, the trip to and from the Bay, etc.) was only US$80. Some people, like myself, chose to sleep on the boat while others landed in Cat Ba, a small town on one of the islands that actually boasts a 2-star hotel. It provides access to Cat Ba National Park. On the boat, the crew served us a traditional Vietnames lunch before we landed at one of the larger islands and toured a rather impressive cave. After that, we cruised to a small village and kayaked for an hour among rocks. Finally, our boat chugged into Cat Ba itself. Some of our passengers went off to the hotel while the rest of us anchored a few miles away and watched the nearly-full moon reflected off the nearby islands. A truly magical night. Surrounding Cat Ba "city" and snaking around these islands are many hundreds of floating shacks...some standing alone, some linked together..that provide housing for many many families. Traditionally, these people make their living from the sea and, obviously, spend the vast majority of their time on the water. Interestingly, some of them had TV antennas. The size of these shacks is probably around 12 X 15 feet...if that. Lots of them have one or two dogs, kids and the adults appeared to be very friendly to the visitors. This is such a unique area that I can only imagine how it will change over the next ten years as it becomes increasingly popular with the tourists. Already, there is some water polution and, of course, the ongoing exhaust from the engines of these hundred tour boats is becoming apparent. Nonetheless, if you ever make it to Hanoi, you absolutely MUST check out the beauty of Ha Long Bay. Some other impressions as I walked around the city: 1) at night, a lot of people sit on the sidewalk on small stools that are about one foot square and a foot high. Either that, or they're sitting in what appears to be under-sized plastic lawn chairs. Commonly, the people who own the shops literally cook and eat their meals right on the sidewalk very close to the never-ending rush of motorbikes, horn-honking and exhaust fumes. 2) Speaking of traffic, you have to develop nerves of steel to handle the traffic in Vietnam. Crossing the street through an unbroken stream of motorbikes, cars and buses can be very daunting. After watching the locals, you'll see that you have to bravely step out into the stream itself and, magically, the traffic accommodates your presence. They adapt to your body being in the street and simply flow around you as would water flow around a "rock" that was crossing a stream. The key is "Don't run!" If they can guage your steady progress, they will adjust their own speed and direction to avoid hitting you. 3) The electric power wires that are strung between the poles around the city are amazing. They're all twisted up and attached to the poles with little regard for either safety or order. Imagine a pole with several hundred black wires all converging together within a few feet of each other. I don't know how it all works but, apparently, it does. I'm taking a day off and mellowing out around the nearby lake here in the Old Quarter. Tonight, I'm taking an overnight train to a beautiful area northwest of Hanoi called So Pa. More later...

Good morning, Vietnam !!!

Once I landed in Hanoi, I grabbed a ride in a van into the Old Quarter of town. It's a very picturesque and historic section of Hanoi with a lot of the older buldings, low-end tourist hotels and great places to eat. I got a room for US$10 with A/C, cable TV, a refrig, a telephone, a balcony, two single beds and a half a dozen pieces of ornately carved (and very heavy) mahogony furniture. I took a tour of the city on Sunday and visited Ho Chi Minh's masoleum. (He's preserved like Mao and Lenin.) Lots of guards and, of course, pictures were forbidden. We also saw the residences where he stayed when he was living in Hanoi. There's also a large museum that's worth visiting that carefully documents his rise to power. After that, we went to the "Temple of Literature" which is a series of historically-important old buildings that originally housed a 13th century university (of sorts) for the study of Confucianism and his ethical way of living in the world. Lots of statues of Chinese deities, incense, candles, etc. According to my guide, most people in the north believe in a combination of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. Tonight, I attended a performance of the world-famous Hanoi Water Puppets at their theatre here by the lake near the Old Quarter. This art form can be traced back to the 11th century when the farmers used it to entertain each other in the rice paddies during the monsoons. The 60 foot "stage" is really a rectangular pool of green water. Behind it, you can see a traditional gold and red pagoda with carved dragons. The puppets (people, dragons, birds, fish, water buffalo, etc.) are mounted vertically at the end of long poles which are then moved horizontally under the water by a half a dozen workers hidden behind the pagoda. The puppets can raise their arms, turn their heads and interact in surprising ways with each other. The hour-long presentation included live music and singing from the eight excellent musicians sitting to the left of the stage. They played very traditional instruments, and the music was both uplifting and haunting. According to the literature, the Hanoi Water Puppets have traveled to many other countries... including the U.S. Very unique, indeed. I'm off to Ha Long Bay tomorrow. More later...

Hanging around with Uncle Ho...

Last night, Grant, Cathy and I had dinner and a few drinks on the Rooftop Garden at the Rex Hotel where we were all staying. (Newsweek magazine actually ranks it as one of the best bars in all of Asia.) My new friends flew to Hue this morning, and I'm planning to fly up to Hanoi this evening to check out the north. I only have a ten day visa so I want to see as much as I can before I have to leave next Saturday. There seems to be some issue about extending visas for both Americans and Koreans so I may have to go to Laos in seven days. I was awakened today by some militaristic-sounding music that was blaring from huge speakers in the square across the street from the hotel. Evidently, there was some early morning celebration that had taken place in front of the statue of "Uncle Ho" that graces the central position in the small park. As I walked around town an hour later, there were uniformed police and security guards everywhere. However, I sensed no hostility at all. If I smiled at someone, they invariably would smile back, too. As it was in Cambodia, the only overweight people that you see here are western tourists. This morning, I had breakfast with a group of eight ex-military guys in their 50's and 60's who had served in the Viet Nam war. They had banded together from different parts of the country to re-visit some of their old haunts on the battlefield and, they shared some of their earlier memories of the Rex Hotel itself. As it is in most developing countries, the exchange rate here is very high. In India, one US dollar is about 44.6 Rupees. In Cambodia, one US dollar was worth about 4100 Riels. However, in Viet Nam, one US dollar buys you a staggering 15,000 Viet Namese Dong. Consequently, you're always dealing with bills of 50,000 and 100,000 denominations. These larger bills, though, are definitely very cool. They're totally plastic, and they each have two clear "windows" that are actually part of the bill. One clear window is about the size of a large nail head. The other one (about 1 inch by 0.5 inches) is much larger and rather odd shaped. Very unique. Naturally, the bills sport pictures of "Uncle Ho." I'm hanging around the hotel this afternoon but will be heading off to the airport this afternoon around four. It'll be a two hour flight up to Hanoi and then a 45 minute ride by taxi into the city. More later...

Down the mighty Mekong...

Instead of taking an air-conditioned bus from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City in Viet Nam, I decided to take a five hour boat trip down the Mekong River to Chou Doc. After that, I planned to get a bus or van up to the city. Our covered "speedboat" held about 20 people...most of whom were western tourists. There was a group of 10 German travelers, a couple from the UK who were traveling with their two daughters ages 9 & 5, and another young couple from the UK (Grant and Cathy) who were on their extended honeymoon. The Mekong River is very impressive, and, at times, it appeared to be at least several miles across. Before we arrived in Chou Doc, however, the boat pulled into the shore where we had to surrender our passports and go through immigration to leave Cambodia. Thirty minutes later, we got back onto the boat, traveled about a quarter of a mile, and pulled in again to the shore to be looked at by the Viet Nam authorities at their checkpoint. This time, they kept us waiting for over an hour in the blazing heat of the afternoon. I found out later that the boat captain had to bribe the Vietnamese officials in order for him to expedite our entry. It seems that we could have easily been kept there for several more hours. Once we all got back in the boat, however, we still had to travel another 30 minutes. Eventually we turned off into a narrower part of a tributary of the Mekong. As we got closer to Chou Doc, both sides of the river became lined with run-down, delapidated shanties...most of them up on stilts. Sometimes, there were single rooms that had been built on floating platforms...homes to entire families. The narrower channel was filled with motorized barges which sometimes looked like miniature arks. A lot of them used an outboard-type motor with a drive shaft up to 10-15 feet long which was angled down into the water at 45 degrees. Most of the boats had a red "face" with black eyes painted on their bow. Grant, Cathy and I decided to hook up at to share a van ride up to the city. It was almost 3 P.M. by the time we had arrived in Chou Doc and, since it was a day of travel anyway, we decided to tough it through another 5-hour van trip to Ho Chi Minh. The van ride up to the city was pretty rough. For the first half, we all got bounced around on a highway that was still under construction. Lots of bumps and dips. Two hours from HCMC, they stopped at a restaurant for dinner and we ordered a traditional Vietnamese soup. We phoned ahead for reservations at the 4-star Rex Hotel....a place where many of the foreign journalists worked during the Viet Nam war. Although the three of us were pretty exhausted by the time we arrived at the Rex(10 P.M.), we still had enough energy to have a few drinks at the Garden Terrace restaurant on the top roof. Live music and very decadent atmosphere. The next day, Grant, Cathy and I met for breakfast and became to plan our day. We first walked over to the "Reunification Palace,"...made famous at the place where the last helicopters left the rooftop when the U.S. was pulling out of Viet Nam. Some readers will remember seeing pictures of the rush at the gate back in the early 70's and the desperate look on the faces of those trying to escape before the country descended into chaos. From there, the three of us went to the War Remnants Museum and saw, as expected, a very one-sided viewpoint of their version of the war. They were many examples of captured American weapons including several jets, helicopters, small planes, rifles, machine guns, artillary, morters, etc. etc. Lots of pictures and documentation about how they were "right" and how everybody else (including the French) was "wrong." We then walked over to a famous Chinese temple pagoda and paid our respects to some of the images inside. Finally, we went to the central marketplace a few blocks from the Rex Hotel. It's a huge warehouse structure that's home to many hundreds of little booths selling absolutely everything you can impage...food, clothing, souveniers, wood carvings, shoes, luggage, flowers, etc. A paradise for those who like sensory overload. We went back to the hotel and arranged to use the gift certificate that the hotel had given us each for a massage. It's hot (over 90) and with 85% humidity. Grant and Cathy are leaving tomorrow morning but we'll probably hook up again when I fly up to Hanoi on Tuesday. More later...

The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek...

Today, I descended into the Heart of Darkness. I caught a cab to take me to the infamous Killing Fields just south of Phnom Penh where Pol Pot tortured and killed about 17,000 men, women and children between 1975 and 1978. It was a very powerful and deeply-felt experience that moved me profoundly. The centerpiece of the area was a pagoda-style structure that housed, on more than a dozen stacked wooden platforms, the skulls of about 8900 victims that they had retrieved from the dozens of pits nearby. The guide said that the many pits had been over 10 meters deep and that they were still recovering bones and fragments from the entire area. Indeed, as we walked along the paths between the pits, you could easily see articles of weathered clothing and human bones that were totally visible because they were, quite literally, just sticking up out of the dirt. The guide even showed me several teeth that were lying on the path beneath our feet. One of the trees had a sign indicating that it was the place where the heads of young children were beaten to death against the trunk. In fact, in order to save on bullets, most of the people in the Killing Fields were struck by a blow on the back of their necks as they knelt...blindfolded and with their hands tied behind them...by the edge of the pit. After a blow with a metal rod or farm tool, their throat was cut and they were thrown over the edge. According to the guide, some of them were still alive and,of course, were simply buried that way. Along the walk between the pits, we saw many small piles of bones. Although they were from many countries (including some Americans), a lot of the victims were the intelligensia and their families. Pol Pot wanted only two classes: the working class (for the factories) and the peasants (for the fields). Before they were sent to the Choeung Ek, most of these unfortunates had spent 2-3 months at S-21...the notorious interrogation center about halfway between the fields and downtown Phnom Penh. The buildings had originally been used as a high school, but became the main center where men, women and children were kept chained in three floors of cells as small as 4 X 8. One building was used totally as the torture center and you can walk from "classroom to classroom" and still see the original metal beds where the victims were shackled and tortured by beating, electricity, drowning, dismemberment, rape and everything else that lurks in the Shadow. One room contained a collection of all of the original torture instruments that were used on the people who passed through S-21. The Khmer Rouge were very methodical about what they were doing. Each of the victims was photographed and specific data about their background was carefully recorded. There are at least a half a dozen rooms that are filled with panels of haunting black and white pictures of men, women and children staring blankly back at the lens of the camera. Some of the people were obviously dead, and their bodies showed signs of extreme torture.
On the way back to town, our cab was pulled over by some uniformed police who had set up a makeshift (and quite arbitrary) check point on the main road. According to my driver, most of the cops here are corrupt. It seems that they would randomly direct cars to pull over at their whim and then they'd try to shake down the driver for a few thousand riels..or whatever. Luckily, they didn't bother with me and were only interested in leaning on the driver.
Tomorrow, I'm taking a boat to the Viet Nam border and then hopping on a bus to take me into HCMC itself. More later...

On the riverfront in Phnom Penh...

I checked out of the House of Malibu on Serendipity Beach this morning and caught the bus for Phnom Penh. Happily, a very friendly fellow named Mark (who usually drives a taxi in Seattle), was sitting next to me and so the 4+ hours passed quickly. Once the bus stopped in the city, as expected, every westerner was immediately surrounded by at least 4 drivers who wanted to take them to the hotels that give them kickbacks. I opted to use a moto, and we got to the California 2 Guesthouse in a few minutes. I had written them an email the night before but, unfortunately, they hadn't read any of their mail by the time I arrived. No problem. I was re-directed to the Cozyna Hotel a few doors down and found a very nice A/C room, complete with TV and a refrig...for only US$20. My room faces the river and is quite comfortable. It even has its own balcony overlooking the street.
I had a beer at one of the many local bistros along the street. A young girl about ten (who was lugging around at least 25 books in a basket) zeroed in on me and asked me in fairly broken English to check out all of the titles. Amazingly, I was able to buy the 2006 edition of the Lonely Planet book on Laos for only US$6.00. What a deal! Later, however, she saw me again when I was kicking back on the quay wall by the river a few blocks away and she quickly brought her sisters and cousins (who were also selling books) over to say hello. Her older brother told me that all of the newer Lonely Planet books were, essentially, pirated knock-offs that the kids were buying for only a buck and then selling to the tourists for about US$6. Evidently, there's a flourishing underground printing industry thats able to copy other books so well that you can't tell the difference between the copy and the original. The kids practiced their English on me for a while and, since they all looked pretty hungry, I decided to spring for some food at their favorite Khmer diner. None of them had eaten since the morning and so they quickly wolfed down the very excellent food'that they ordered. These kids are very young (about 4-13) and are totally unsupervised for many daylight hours and well as on into the evening. After they ate, they all wanted to take me across the street to watch the locals dance in the open park. The Cambodian music certainly isn't rock, but everyone seemed to enjoy listening to it and singing along to the lyrics. Kids as young as six and some older folks all danced in a big circle counter-clockwise around the big amplifier in the center. The whole atmosphere was very festive and celebratory.
The Cambodian people are physically very beautiful, and they're blessed with dazzling white smiles and open, friendly hearts. As expected, I'm running into more western tourists up here in the city, but (even over in India), I have yet to see even ONE Afro-American tourist anywhere in my travels. For some reason, they just don't show up over here. Tomorrow, I'm going to see if I can arrange for a day-long tour of the city and, in the afternoon, check out the infamous Killing Fields.
More later...

On the road again...

Well, I'm going to be packing it in and moving on. I've decided to take the 9 A.M. 4-hour bus trip back to Phnom Penh tomorrow. I'll hang around in that city for a few days and then find some way of getting over to Viet Nam. I was able to get my visa for US$33 from the Viet Nam Consulate here in Sihanoukville in only 15 minutes. Just mellowing out today on the beach and reading my Lonely Planet book on Southeast Asia in order to better anticipate at least some of what will show up on the next leg of the journey. As it stands now, I think that I'll be in Viet Nam for about ten days and then heading on over to Laos for the next few weeks. After that, I can re-enter Cambodia again by taking a flight south from Laos to Siem Reap in order to check out the magnificent Angkor Wat. Stay tuned....

Swimming to Cambodia...

On Friday morning, I signed up to take a full-day tour of three of the local islands that are visible from both Seredipity and Occheuteal beaches. (Only US$15) Naturally, all of the tourists were westerners, and I shared the day with several more Brits and a young American originally from Texas. He's been teaching English in Japan for six months and was on holiday. After being in the boat for 45 minutes, we anchored off the first island and all jumped in the water to snorkel the reef. After an hour or so, we left for another island and pulled up onto the sand of a long white beach with some nearby unpainted shacks that were actually for rent. There was even a full, open-aired bar that everything was centered around and which catered to visitors from the mainland. It was run by a friendly fellow named Mitch who hailed from San Francisco. The half dozen rooms for rent on the beach cost US$10 a night and were simply 12 X 12 enclosed platforms on raised poles. No TV, A/C. screens, lights, etc. etc. All very primitive and with one nearby communal W/C for one and all. There were, of course, the ubiqutous German tourists sunning themselves when we arrived but there were only about 25 people on the entire beach...including the eight from our boat. We had a simple lunch beneath the palm trees consisting of BBQ baracuda, coleslaw and lots of sliced fruits. After lunch, we all hiked through the jungle to the other side of the island, where, believe it or not, there was yet another full, open-aired bar awaiting us. However, there were only a few people over on this side and there were no rooms to rent. This beach looked directly out on the Gulf of Thailand and so there were no picturesque islands to look at as there are on the other side. After lunch, we stopped at the third island to snorkel another reef. We returned to Occheuteal beach about 4 P.M. I hiked back to Seredipity and took a shower in my room. About 8 P.M., I walked back to Occheuteal beach and checked out some of the restaurants that sit near the water. I finally decided on one that had great sounding menu and about a dozen tables (3'X 2') lined up about six feet from the lapping water. All of the tables, of course, had candles and the service was very fast. I had an absolutely fantastic chicken kabob with a bowl of rice and two long island iced teas that set me back a whooping eight bucks. All of the restaurants on these two beaches here have open-aired bars, western music, lots of tables next to the water, cushioned couches, candles and thousands of colored twinkling lights.

On Saturday, I signed up for a trip to go to Ream National Park for the day. Again, everyone on the tour was either from Europe or the States. The trip took about 1.5 hours down this river towards the open sea. We finally pulled up onto this pristine beach that was totally deserted. The guides made us a BBQ baracuda lunch (I guess that's what all of the tours get) and the obligatory serving of cole slaw and sliced fruits. After splashing around in the water some more and checking out the unusual rock formations, we all trecked 1.5 hours through the jungle to the other side of the island where our boat was scheduled to meet us. Just before we arrived, however, we passed through a small village of about 100 people who lived in shacks that were built up on stilts. (A lot of the homes in the country are built off of the ground in order to take advantage of any cooling breezes that might be able to circulate beneather the structure. Also, the empty space provides shade for the house animals and for the hammocks that everyone seems to sleep in at night. About 40% of the population in Cambodia is under 15 years of age. The guide told me that, in this one village alone, 60 of the people were children with most families having five kids. We peeked in their "schoolhouse" which was stark, barren and unlit. In spite of living in conditions that many Americans would find appalling, Cambodians are certainly some of the friendliest people that I've come across in all of my travels. Lots of warm smiles and laughter. More later...