Cambodia

We are now home--and have been very remiss re this blog.  Good excuse, though.  At least an excuse of sorts.  We left Bangkok at 0540, that's  5:40 A.M., on 13 April and underwent 18 hours of flying time from there to Orlando with intermediate stops at Tokyo and Minneapolis.  It's taken a long time to get back in the swing of things timewise.  Plus there was a mountain of mail to go through and several medical/dental appointments to take care of, etc., etc.  So, we're back, and here's a little rundown on the cruise after Saigon.  The first stop was Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

At one of the Sihanoukville temples.  This guy was a little young to be selling, but his big brothers and sisters weren't. And a standard mode of family transportaion was one of these.

Sihanoukville wasn't really much of a town but a couple of the temples were interesting and in the trash dump near one of them I found several counterfeit $100 bills. The workmanship was great, but they were a tiny bit smaller than real, so I wonder if any made it into circulation.  The temples were interesting and were populated by a batch of young monks and hordes of childrem selling stuff.  Many were kinda cute, but they were very aggressive, as were all the vendors we found almost everywhere we went, and it was hard not to become an "ugly American" in your treatment of them.  Aside from the temples, the big attractions were the snake house--and I hate snakes--, monkeys at roadside, and the market.  Seems that all these places have their markets, and in them you can buy almost anything from dry goods to appliances to fresh seafood and every thing in between.  Here are some shots of the place.

The next stop after Sihanoukville was Bangkok, but we were there only a few hours before we got on a plane to go to Siem Reap, in Cambodia, the town adjacent to the  temple area where Angkor Wat is located.  It's a fairly large city with a mess of hotels that have been built relatively recently to accommodate tourists bound for Angkor Wat.  Here are a few ramdom shots of Angkor Wat.  There are five towers, or whatever, and it's a big deal to take a  picture of the temple from across the pond so you can get the reflection of all five.  It's hard to describe the stone carving within the temple ara, so I won't try.

The carvings below depict various periods of upheaval within Cambodia of the past.  These carvings extend all the way around the four sides of the temple. They are truly amazing.

After Angkor Wat and a bunch of other temples, we went back to our hotel and an evening entertainment at dinner.  Next day we went out to the big lake where there's a floating city.  A few stores, a couple restaurants, and even a catholic church. 

Back in Bangkok we took a final tour with two other couples who had been on the cruise with us and saw the five ton gold budda and the sleeping budda and the emperor's palace and all that good stuff.  Must admit that by the end of that day, we were pretty much templed out--and ready to come home.

The gold budda and the sleeping budda followed by some of the very ornate structures in Bangkok's royal enclave.  Finally, a shot of our hotel's lobby from the fifth floor, where our room was.  That royal area was truly overwhelming, just one fantastic "building" after another.  To enter many of these places you had to take off your shoes.

SAIGON

A local container carrier

Saigon (Ho Chi Minh  City since 1975) was a bit of a disappointment.  Several tours were available, one long one to the tunnels   the   Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army dug near Saigon during the "Americn War," as the Vietnamese call it, one to the Mekong Delta--another all-day job--, and a shorter one called Highlights of Saigon.  We chose the latter, having been on  two all day trips at Hanoi and Hue.  They are exhausting,, and you spend most of the time just getting to area of interest. 

In Saigon we saw the former Presidential Palace which has been renamed by  the communist government to the Reeducation Center or some such thing, the central Post Office, and the  central market  in Chinatown where you can buy almost anything.  On the   second day we  took the shuttle bus from the ship into town and wandered around a little--but just a little because crossing the streets of Saigon is a life threatening experience.  The people drive their motor bikes at breakneck speed with utter disregard for pedestrians trying to cross the street.  I was scared to death.  Some fellow passengers told us the way to  do  it was not to   look either right or left at the traffic, but instead just look straight ahead and go!  What a way to die.

A funeral vehical.  A  hearse??

Excursion buses waiting our arrival. We took this from our balcony.

Ready- Get set -- GO!!

The water puppet show

They really know how to   load  'em  up

We had a beer at the Rex Hotel roof garden. Place was made famous during the war.

A small  herd at one of the few stoplights

A cute gal selling fans on the street.  "One dollah!"

Dangerous way to travel.

HUE

Once called the Imperial City, Hue was the capital of Vietnam during the 19th century, actually from 1802 until 1945. We visited the palace of the Nguyen Dynasty -- the home of 13 emperors during that
period. Hue lies to the north of DaNang and China Beach which was a popular R&R destination for American troops during the Vietnam war or the "American War" as it is called by the locals.

Lots of water, small boats and rice paddies

Two locals on a water buffalo showing off for American tourista

Another graduation

The palace where the emperors hung out

Unicorn dancers at the entrance to the hotel

Our lunch time entertainment at a local Hue hotel

HANOI

MA in HANOI:   At the Temple with recent graduates

A main thoroughfare.  This street is pretty clean.  Can't see the electric power lines very well here, but Marty, our electrical engineer, would have apoplexy if he saw them on many of the other streets.

Lots of cooking is done on the sidewalks.  Actually, this is really a side walk town.  People cook, shop, and eat on the sidewalks--and then leave the trash there.

Part of the motor bike/scooter herd

Hanoi gals love their heels, even on motor bikes.. 

A plaque in the Hanoi Hilton.  Sickening.  Check that third paragraph.

After Hong Kong we sailed to Halong Bay which is more or less close to Hanoi, like about three hours by bus.  We were supposed to take a helicopter ride over the bay and then on to Hanoi, but some weather forecaster thought the weather would not be propitious, so we had to go by bus.  An eight hour day.Turned out to be one of the most beautiful days we've had on the entire cruise.  Anyhow, we got to Hanoi finally, and found it to be probably the dirtiest city we've seen so far.  I mean, the other Asian cities have all been remarkably clean, but Hanoi, no way.  And the motor scooter traffic was truly frightening.  Crossing a street was something you just didn't want to do.  One of the sights we were taken to was the notorious Hanoi Hilton, where the American POWs were held, where John McCain was held for, what?, five years?  They had big blow up photos on the wall of Amrican anti-war protesters with captions making them out to be wonderful, enlightened people.  And one large sign, for want of a better word, was on the wall in both Vietmanese and English that said how well the prisoners were treated even though times were tough in North Viet Nam.  I wanted to throw up.

HONG KONG

Our first outing started with a trip around Hong Kong Harbour, a Chinese junk piloted by a lady captain.  On one side were small primitive fishing boats and on the other were million dollar yachts. As soon as we left the water we quickly learned that everything else is uphill as the island is quite mountainous.

A view of Hong Kong from the top, you can make out the skyscrapers in the background.....in spite of the smog.

The station

At the top

Going down the hill  --  backwards

Street view of escalator

  Another way of traveling up  is by escalator:  a 2 hour commute for some folks who want to avoid the congested streets.  One hitch:  you must walk down.

Check out the bamboo scaffolding; supposedly stronger than the traditional steel.  You see it everywhere as there is much construction here and in China.Then there was the city food and spice market where they sell everything and I mean everything.   When it comes to wholesale food, they dry it -- fish, herbs or whatever...yes even bats and probably other repulsive items I did not recognize.  People have a tradition of visiting this market at the beginning of each year and stocking up for 12 months.  Everything has a healthful purpose:  everything from promoting good eyesight to herbs or dried fish to prevent cancer. The Chinese will never become fat and in all of China we have never observed obesity.

These little squares sell for $1000 each  .
Considered a delicacy they are made from swallow nests containing the bird's saliva.

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The bat tails are the best part & therefore protected from breakage.