| | Looks like our trip just got more educational. Unable to find a cheap
air fare to Thailand from here (apparently it is expensive to fly out
of Vietnam for reasons that are probably corrupt or at the very least,
machiavellian), we are going the overland route through Cambodia,
or "Cam pu chia," as it says on the map on the wall in front of me.
So it is off to Phnom Penh on Tuesday morning, a 7 hour jaunt on the
bus. There, we'll see the famous killing fields and the war museum as
well as the fascinating mix of past and present in this cultural center
of Cam pu chia. Then after a day or two, it is north to Siem Reap, a
town of 10,000 but with nearly 10% of the population being of foreign
origin. Expatriates? The exiled? Just people escaping the western world?
Perhaps we'll find out. There, we will see Angkor Wat. Then it is a
12 hour bus trip to Bangkok, and a short flight or a long train ride
(with sleeper berths) to Southern Thailand. The road between Siem Reap
and Bangkok is supposed to be incredibly bumpy. This is because,
according to the Lonely Planet guidebook, airlines rain bribes on
officials to delay upgrading the roads so that people will opt to fly
from Siem Reap to Bangkok.
Tomorrow, we see the Chi Cui Tunnels that the Viet Cong used during the
war. We will actually crawl inside them. Should be interesting.
Since leaving Hoi An, we went to this sleepy beach called Mui Ne. It was nice, a string of resorts, but not crowded. Our guest house was right at the beach. There was a sandy courtyard in the middle of all the doors leading to our rooms, and there hung hammocks hooked up to thick, coconut bearing palm trees. You'd order a coconut juice, and the guy would climb up a bamboo ladder, use a bamboo stick-device to remove a coconut, and come back with a straw protruding from it. Slurp. We booked a 2-hour tour where we sat on the back of motorbikes and they took us to a fishing village, some red sand canyons caused by rainwater and then to some huge yellow sand dunes.
It was low tide at the village and Bren and I were roped into playing some barefoot soccer with the locals. Fun. The sand dunes had sand sledding where you board a thin plastic sheet and sled down the dunes. However, dozens of kids would swarm around you pestering you to rent their sleds. I ended up paying four kids 5,000 dong each - because they all played a part. One packed sand on my sled, two pushed me down and so on. We played around with the cheeky bastards (I guess kids in America sell lemonade and the kids in Mui Ne pester tourists to rent their sleds. I know it's not that simple because they're certainly not renting them from a stand on lush grassy green front lawns, but still, they seemed to be having fun) for a while and returned to our guest house literally encrusted with sand. After two days, it was off to Saigon, aka Ho Chi Minh City.
Saigon has a palatable energy. The roads are busy with motorbikes, it is about 70% motorbikes on the roads here. We have been partying a lot the last two nights, meeting other backpackers and so on. yesterday we went to one of the most depressing places on earth, the "American War Remnants Museum," formerly called the, "American War Crimes Museum." Here are a few excerpts that Bren sent to his family and I couldn't say it better:
"The museum wasn't
necessarily well-organized but it succeeded in the same way the US tried to win
the war: overkill without concern
to human dignity. disturbing pictures were everywhere, from deformed
children with three fingers for an arm because they were exposed to agent orange
to mutilated children/senior citizens from a
village murdered by former senator Kerrey (a navy SEAL during the war; he finally acknowledged the
atrocities but several years ago) to confused civilians running
around with tragic burns from napalm. I am
somewhat glad the museum changed its name because 'American War Crimes Museum,' would have implied
that war is not a crime in itself, which would be terribly misleading."
More in my next deafdc blog on this, but it was an incredibly depressing experience. They had on display the dazzling array of weaponry we used to inflict damage on the Vietnamese during the war and it just makes me sad; What kind of race are we in which we continually pour so much energy and money into devising new ways to kill, blow up and maim each other? Take the average US soldier in Iraq today - I read somewhere that each soldier walks around carrying$200,000 (or something) worth of equipment. Sigh.
Soon, we book our bus tickets to Cambodia, the half day tour to tomorrow's Cui Cui Tunnels and then grab some dinner. Tomorrow I will definitely ride a cyclo (kind of like bicycle powered rickshaws - will explain more about the interesting history behind the drivers of these cyclos in my deadfc blog) which is an unique way to experience Saigon. Off I go, fellas.
Peace upon you,
Jesse
Below is a picture - similiar to what I see out of my hotel window of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
Motorbikes everywhere! The guy with the blue shirt in the forefront on the right is pedaling a cyclo.
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| | Posted 6/3/2007 4:53 AM - 92 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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