Blood & Roses in Cambodia

Towards the beginning of our trip, I read the novel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, a story about a future dystopia in which, as a character-building device, two of the main characters play a game called ‘Blood & Roses’. The game pits historic human-instigated atrocities against human-created phenomena.  After Vietnam, we spent a short five days (Feb 10-15) in Cambodia, but I can’t help reflecting how such a small country has at its core one shining example of each the Blood and the Roses.

Choeung Ek memorial

We started our journey in Phnom Penh, the capital city.   This was the site where the Khmer Rouge regime kept its headquarters and most infamous prison / torture chambers during their rule in the late 1970s.  It was previously a bustling city that became abandoned when the Khmer Rouge forced the population of Cambodia into the countryside in an attempt to create a self-sustaining, agricultural society with no religion, no currency, no education, and certainly no individualism of its people. During the rule, it is estimated that anywhere from a quarter to half of the Cambodian population was killed, generally after being tortured in ways you or I could never imagine, or died from, for example, starvation, malnutrition, or lack of medical care. We visited two memorial sites: Tsol Sleung, once the site of a school, was turned into a holding pen where thousands were tortured and killed during the nearly 4-year reign; and the Choeung Ek ‘killing fields’, where the atrocities were brought to life even more vividly.

I knew little to nothing about this regime before coming here, but I wanted to learn more.  After visiting these sites, Jason and I both read Survival in the Killing Fields by Haing S. Ngor, who was the main Cambodian actor in the movie The Killing Fields. The book was his autobiographical account of his experience during the Khmer Rule regime. It is at once a torturous love story, a tale of patriotism and defiance, a family drama, a heartbreaking and powerful excellent read. It gave me nightmares but I couldn’t put it down. If you have the slightest interest in learning about this slice of history, I hugely recommend it.

There is no way I can do the topic justice here, so I’ll move on – it wasn’t all doom & gloom in Phnom Penh, though, where we discovered the deliciousness of Cambodian cuisine in a half-day cooking class.   This one was a little more casual but even more hands-on than the one we took in Vietnam.  The first thing we made were deep-fried spring rolls with a chilli fish sauce. Then we got into the real treat of Cambodian food – amok. Amok is a dish made with a mixture of curry paste (we made yellow, then red curry paste), coconut milk, and a protein – anything from fish to chicken to tofu – put together and steamed in a cup fashioned from a banana leaf. We were surprised at how delicious the ones from our class turned out to be, and enjoyed others at restaurants during our time in Cambodia.  In fact, amok is probably at the top of our list of new foods we’ve enjoyed during our travels!

Jason handles the hot stuff

Smashing up my yellow curry paste

The finished product - amok! It is incredibly tasty!

At risk of making this the longest post ever, I’ll continue on to the ‘Roses’ of Cambodia – that is, the ancient temples of the city of Angkor outside Siem Reap.  Several dozen temples were built in various styles under the rule of about 20 kings, from around 800-1300AD. They began to be “discovered” in the mid 1800s by Europeans, and in recent decades have become the single reason many tourists come to Cambodia from all over the world. Rightly so! The temples, in various states of disrepair (some have been intentionally left unrestored), are a continuing testament to human ingenuity and artistry, Buddhist & Hindu devotion, and royal greed during the golden years of Khmer civilization.

Out exploring the temples

Angkor Wat - somehow we always manage to see important sights when they're covered in scaffolding

We made 3 trips out to Angkor from Siem Reap – two by bike (about 35 minute ride from our hotel to where the temples start) and one for which we did the usual thing and hired a tuk-tuk, which let us reach some temples that are simply too far to travel to by our own power. The first afternoon, we only had time to visit the famous Angkor Wat, the largest of the temples and, in fact, the largest religious monument in the world. On the second day, we made a full tour of the Grand Circuit (about 50km/31mi) on our bikes, enjoying the independence of seeing as much of what we wanted to, stopping to eat when we felt like it (which turned out to be for bowls of soup at 10am and 3pm), and feeling the satisfaction of being covered in red dust as evidence of the efforts of our literally long & dusty trail. Through our temple touring, a couple stood out as favorites of ours due to their uniqueness among the lot...

First, the Bayon, constructed of towers each with 4 faces looking out – creating a simultaneously humorous and disconcerting effect:

The Bayon from a distance

A few of the dozens of face-towers

Up close & personal

... and Banteay Srei, comparatively miniature to the other temples in scale, with detailed carvings that have weathered time because of the pink sandstone material used to create the temple:

Banteay Srei, made of pink sandstone

Incredible carvings

Monkey-human guards of the temple

While we are by no means experts in distinguishing one temple style from the next, we did quickly become expert at evading the admirably enterprising yet somewhat annoying vendor ladies who set up shop in front of each temple’s parking area.  Mostly they have on offer cans of soda and bottles of water, which can be necessary in the heat of a day’s touring, but not every 30 minutes. We did find the dialogue they seemed to have with themselves as they tried to get our attention pretty amusing:

You want cold driiiink, mister? Lady! You want cold driiiink? Maybe not now, maybe when you come back after?

Needless to say ‘you want cold driiink’ is now a phrase that creeps into conversation on hot days. Speaking of which, it must be 5:00 somewhere.

Hablas Espanol?

Unfortunately we don’t as my Spanish 15+ years ago in high school and college doesn’t seem to have stuck. Since we don’t speak the language we also figured it would be a good idea to arrive in Chile (as we did on Tuesday) without a guidebook or a map. Makes sense when you think about it. We do at least have a Spanish/English dictionary, which has gotten good use already. 

All is good though and after a small adventure finding our guesthouse in Santa Cruz the first evening (we won’t soon forget roble means oak in Spanish - don't try looking for Oak Street in a town that doesn't speak Ingles) we have settled in with the help of Karla, our super friendly host at the guesthouse, and a lot of tasty food and wine. We have some more wine tasting planned before a few days of nature and hiking and some city time (Valparaiso and Santiago) at the end of our stay.

View over Vina Santa Cruz estate

Enjoying lunch by the sea in Pichilemu

If the people the rest of the way are half as friendly as we’ve found our first few days we’ll be fine, even with our limited Spanglish.  

Current Events (Audience Participation Requested!)

New Zealand’s news broadcasts have been pretty similar to the rest of the world’s these days: Japan with a smattering of Libya thrown in. But one thing that differentiates it is that there is continuing coverage of the Christchurch earthquake, which happened a month ago.   When the tragedy is local, it’s natural that there should be so much focus on this as well.

Beyond the usual stuff – uplifting stories of near misses, tales of the agonizing hours spent waiting to hear from family members, coverage of Prince William’s speech at the memorial ceremony last week, the continuing efforts of volunteers helping those affected, etc. – there are 2 things which particularly piqued my interest in the coverage.

The first is that a decision needed to be made regarding whether Christchurch would be a host city for the Rugby World Cup, which I assume happens later this year.  We were in a shop and heard a sports radio broadcast where the very somber conversation was regarding the final decision not to have matches in Christchurch – and how important it was that an independent journalist had asserted it was an impossibility before any official decisions needed to be made (thus making the “very obvious” decision an easier one and taking burden off the decision-makers).  As an American this is unbelievable! If this were any city in the US, the decision would be easy: Heck yeah, we’re gonna keep those matches in Christchurch! We will not be held down by the forces of Mother Nature! U-S-A! U-S-A!

(Note: I do not intend to be disrespectful to the lovely people of New Zealand; simply an observation on cultural differences!)

The second broadcast of note reported that China was asking New Zealand to pay financial compensation to the families of 7 Chinese students who had lost their lives in the Christchurch quake. The reason being, because of China’s one-child policy, these students were the future breadwinners of their families and therefore the families have now lost their future financial security.  REALLY? This is mind-boggling to me on several levels.  Here’s a test: name the top 3 reasons (or even 1) why this is ridiculous. Please leave your answers as comments below. :-)

Hello, Gorgeous!

In the interest of trying to keep up & get caught up, we’re going to try alternating current activities with the travels we’ve done in the last month… here’s what’s happening now!

On March 13, we flew from Sydney to Christchurch, New Zealand.  We’ve been quietly excited about our time in New Zealand, and were dismayed when we looked at our itinerary about a month ago to find out that we only had 8 full days (9 nights) to spend here.  There is so much beautiful country to see, and 8 days only allow us to barely scratch the surface.  Fortunately, we got a head start on sight-seeing during the last 40 minutes of the flight.

Somewhere over the Southern Alps

We made our way from Christchurch on the east side of the south island, winding through the mountains to the west coast, stopping in Greymouth as our first destination.  Greymouth is the largest town on the west coast, yet we found it completely dead on the Sunday night we arrived.  Even in a ‘city’, we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere.  In the morning we made our way north to do a couple hours of hiking and to see the ‘pancake rocks’ in the town of Punakaiki.  Half way along our 45km (28mi) drive, a small bumpy feeling in our Hyundai Getz turned into a loud flapping. We quickly pulled over and found that the rubber was stripping off one of our tires.  We pulled into a lot and changed the tire all by ourselves. We thought this would make our fathers proud.

Lug nuts off

At least there was a nice view... and clear skies!

Ack!

We carried on and checked out the pancake rocks, which turned out to be pretty neat, as far as rocks go.  They’re called as such because they look like stacks of pancakes, and geologists haven’t quite figured out exactly why they have become the stratified stacks that they have.

Mmmm... pancakes

Given we were driving around on a midget spare, our hike was cast aside in the interest of getting a new tire put on.  We back-tracked to Greymouth – which was on the way to our next destination anyway – and paid the friendly people at Firestone a visit.  They fixed us up but spooked us a bit by saying we were extremely lucky the tire didn’t explode in our faces & kill us.  Yikes! Next time, let the pressure out…

We carried on to our next stop, the town of Franz Joseph Glacier.  Our path took us through several sleepy towns, the biggest of which, Hokitika, has as its main attraction a Sock Knitting Machine Museum. We seriously debated stopping but instead pushed forward because we wanted to walk to the glacier (here pronounced glassier) face before it was too dark. This decision was the right one, and we enjoyed our walk along the surface of the moon to the glacier face.

Hello down there! (Glacier approach path)

Where's Jason? (hint: yellow shirt)

At the base of the Franz Joseph Glacier

The next day we went even more intrepid and hiked on the face of a glacier itself. We chose to hike the Fox Glacier, which is just south of Franz Joseph yet much less touristed.  We joined a guided trek and spent the day climbing on the ice, checking out the features of the ice and learning about the local glaciers. It was heartening to learn that there isn’t much concern for the future of the glacier: although it’s in retreat, it continues to advance and retreat in irregular cycles, and they see no danger of it melting away completely.  The rainforests growing on the mountains on either side of the glacier are regenerating. So nice to hear a positive environmental story for once!

We had just about the perfect day for the hike – it poured throughout the previous night but had stopped by the time we woke up.  The skies were clear and the temperature was perfect for walking around on ice in medium weight clothing.  That said, the approach walk which is normally open to the public was closed that day, due to the flooding from the previous night and the instability that can cause in the rocks (there were some landslides far above when we were on the glacier!) – but it is pretty safe to do with an experienced guide.  I found the trekking frustrating because I was nervous, and conclude that winter mountain sports just aren’t my thing (Jason felt differently – he really enjoyed walking on the ice!). Even with my fears, I did enjoy the experience simply for its uniqueness and the stunning scenery.

If you squint you can see another group on their approach walk, crossing the riverbed

Beginning our ascent - note dustcloud from landslide above.

Another group from below

Resting for lunch

This looks more perilous than it is (the drop behind me is about 2 feet)... but I like the effect.

A view from our furthest point up

On the descent

SO glad to take these off!

On day 4, we followed the coastal road south and then turned inland, through Mount Aspiring National Park to the town of Wanaka.  Every 100 meters or so we’d pass over a creek or some other geological feature, and they all had signs with their names.  While many were named for people, we got a kick out of others: Dismal Creek, Dizzy Creek, Gout Creek, and my personal favorite:

The drive was one of the more spectacular routes we had ever come across, as it took us by the northeast corner of Lake Wanaka, and along the west edge of Lake Hawea.  See for yourself:

Lake Wanaka

Lake Hawea

We are spending 2 nights now in a campground on the southern end of Lake Wanaka.  We hosteled it for the last few nights, and now we’ve got a little 1-room “cabin” and a short walk to the shared kitchen and bathroom facilities. Now let’s hope tonight’s rain dries up by morning so we can enjoy more of this gorgeous country tomorrow (and trek on regular ol’ dirt, thanks very much). 

Our shack

Very close to our shack

The rest of our time in capitalist-communist Vietnam

A word about pictures:  we have a fixed amount of data transfer with our internet time right now, so we can’t keep our Picasa albums in sync with our posting, for those who are looking at our albums. We’ll let you know when they’re up!   

Picking up where we left off in Vietnam we started our journey south flying to Hue on Feb 2^nd. Thanks to some helpful advice (flying is basically as cheap as the train and not much more than the bus) and pre-planning we managed to avoid the New Year travel madness of the train and what I can only imagine is a horrible overnight bus.

Despite its setting along the Perfume River, Hue lacked the character and charm of Hanoi but offered a number of cool historical sites owing to its position as a former capital city. Our sightseeing included a visit to the Citadel, which was constructed in the early 1800s and housed the imperial city along and was home to the emperors of Nguyen dynasty. While much of it is in ruins or heavily renovated thanks to damage during the Vietnam War, you still get a good sense for the magnitude of the city and the grandeur of the emperor’s home (Forbidden Purple City).

Inside the old citadel in Hue

On our second day we took a boat/bus tour along the river to visit several of the emperors’ tombs and two pagodas. We particularly liked the Tomb of Khai Dinh which had a unique blend of European and Vietnamese architecture.

Khai Dinh tomb complex

Hue also provided a chance for some Asian fusion food, local style. The restaurant we particularly liked was run by a friendly woman who looked about twelve years old and had a great sign outside …always best to avoid the ‘cheap food’ and stick with the ‘price reasonable’.

As advertised, and good food too!

From Hue we took the train to Danang on our way to Hoi An. While the ride was fine, and provided a unique food cart experience (we didn’t sample, but the fragrance was hard to avoid) and some decent coast line views, it definitely made us even more thankful for our decision to fly from Hanoi.

This guy did not find his food as amusing as we did.

I'll have the pre-packaged sandwich & chips, please.

Our three days in Hoi An provided a different experience from Hanoi and Hue with a much more ‘tourist friendly’ feel.   On the day we arrived, we explored town and the temples hidden behind all the retail shops – mainly tailors (Hoi An is the custom-made clothing capital of Vietnam) and ladies enticing you into their stores by suggesting “Buy something!”, a sales pitch that turned out to not be very effective on us. 

The next day we rented some bikes and rode to the beach. While we didn’t go in the water ourselves, we made some friends with a couple of locals boys who found us funny – especially my picture taking - and we were fascinated by watching the locals go in the water in their everyday clothes.

Shoes or cameras? Same-same, but different.

Seems uncomfortable to me.

We spent a morning visiting the totally disappointing My Son Hindu temple ruins about a 90 minute bus ride from town… but at least we checked that off the UNESCO World Heritage list.  The highlight from our stay was a half day cooking class. After a market visit we took a boat to a small hotel/restaurant about 3 miles down the river. We learned about and got to practice making several different dishes including fresh spring rolls and rice paper from scratch, Vietnamese omelet, and a clay pot eggplant dish. We also did some food carving, which Jess seemed to have a better knack for than me (no photos of my efforts will be shown here; see album), but I largely blame on my inadequate knife.

Top Chef Jason

Master food stylist Jess

On the boat trip back to the center of town we were treated to an amazing sunset.

Our final stop in Vietnam was Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), a large bustling city that removes any doubt one might have that the Vietnamese have fully embraced capitalism. While we probably didn’t do the city justice by our choice of location for accommodation, in backpacker central, we didn’t find much in the way of charm or interest in the city itself. That said, a trip to the War Remnants Museum was a fascinating experience. While the displays painted a slightly different and more one-side picture of the Vietnam War from the one I knew, the photo exhibits left little doubt of the horrific nature of the fighting, tactics employed and the impact on Vietnam.

By the time we left on the 10^th on our 6am bus bound for Phnom Penh in Cambodia we were ready for something a little less in-your-face and hoping for a break from having to negotiate the price of everything and pushing back on the inflated “your [item or service] costs 50% more because of Tet Holiday [link]” pricing which lasted well past the length of the actually 3-day holiday. In that vein, though, we were feeling particularly smug after we refused to pay our Vietnam-Cambodia bus monitor man $25 each to take care of our Cambodian visas ($20 visa + $5 service charge:  “$2 stamp fee, $1 for the border guard, $2 for me”).  That last “$2 for me” was the final straw!  We decided to handle the visa ourselves, taking our chances that the bus might leave without us – but with our bags in the hold – if we took too long. Turns out it took no time at all, there was no stamp fee, we didn’t have to bribe the border guards, and we were back on the bus before all the locals made it through.  Vietnam might have hosed us a few times, but we left on a winning note! 

Sticker Shock!

While our blog and pictures may only have us through Vietnam, in reality our time in Asia has passed and we have found our way briefly to Sydney on the 10^th of March on our way to a long week on the south island of New Zealand starting on the 13^th. Our excitement at being back in a western city was doused with a little cold water when the reality of prices in Sydney hit us. Even with some small steps price the pricing ladder in Bangkok and Singapore we clearly weren’t prepared for what Sydney had to offer, which at least upon our quick visit is a beautiful city and setting but horrible value for money (and that’s from people who lived in London for 2 ½ years).  To point, we stayed at the Hilton in the central business district – the cheapest reliable option for lodging available by the time we  booked.

We’ve managed to quickly adjust our mindset and are enjoying our brief time exploring the city, taking in a few of the beach towns, taking lots of pictures of the Opera House and even enjoying our first opera (if you can’t do it here, or maybe in Vienna, where can you do it). We did it in back-packer style, with standing room tickets purchased on the morning of the performance – although they still weren’t cheap! We dressed in our finery (read: clean-ish clothing) and truly enjoyed Carmen, both the familiar tunes and the Hollywood-predictable plot – aided by English surtitles.

The magnificent Sydney Opera House

Sleepless in Saigon

There's more to share about Vietnam, but since the last post was long I thought I'd put up a short one.

Jumping around a bit, our last stop in Vietnam was Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City.  We were pretty tired on our first night there and decided to sleep in a bit, setting the alarm for 9:00 (we have typically been getting up around 7).  

So much for that plan, as around 6AM we were startled out of sleep by the following: 

This was one of those "if you don't laugh you'll cry" moments, so we had a really good laugh and took a few minutes of film (which I have managed to edit down - how's this for my first attempt at video editing?).  I had just made the decision to make myself presentable and check things out at street level when the whole thing stopped as abruptly as it started.  Unfortunately there was no hope for further sleep after that, but at least we have this video for posterity! Personally, I like the flourish around 0:27 - you can tell they really worked on that one - and the drum riff at 0:49.  Very jazzy.

Hanoi & Halong Bay

After our brief sojourn in Hong Kong, we flew to Hanoi, where South East Asia smacked us hard in the face. In addition to the usual pace of life and traffic, preparations for the Vietnamese New Year, or "Tet" were well under way.  But we've already shared some of those experiences, and our time in and around Hanoi wasn't entirely about dodging scooters, eating street soup, and wondering what happens to all those oranges after the holiday is over.

We spent 4 nights in the Hanoi area: 3 in the old city and one night on a boat in Halong Bay, about 3 hours outside of Hanoi.  Halong Bay is a series of limestone island mountains in the Gulf of Tonkin, renowned simply for their unusual formation and natural beauty.  Visiting the bay is one of the most popular side-trips from Hanoi, as evidenced by the crowding of 'dragon boats' in the bay.  And yes, the boat drivers are as liberal with their horn use as the motor vehicle drivers! Thankfully they calmed down a bit once we got out of the port and into slightly more open waters.

Overcast Halong Bay

Just a few of the boats visiting the bay

We were on a boat with 14 other people - three Brazilian guys, a trio of Californian girls, a Spanish couple living in Shanghai, a pair of English girls, and 2 separate Australian couples. Once we got out into the bay, we visited a cave, during which our "English speaking" guide stretched our imaginations pointing out stalactite formations that may have looked like various animals or obscene figures if you squinted your left eye and tilted your head precisely 19 degrees to the right.  We amused ourselves by trying to interpret exactly what we were being told, and piecing together our own story as we went along!  One thing we did figure out, though, is that in lieu of any rational explanation for the formation of the islands in the bay, the local story is that a dragon plunged into the sea, creating mountains when the land was displaced by his tail (hence 'Ha long', meaning 'where the dragon descends into the sea'.)

I think I see Santa Claus in there

Before dinnertime, we had the opportunity to take kayaks out in pairs and paddle around the islands, which was very cool, once Jason and I got somewhat in sync with our paddling and remembered to enjoy ourselves.  The weather wasn't too cooperative during our excursion, but it did manage to clear up a little in the late afternoon so we had some of our best views during this time - but no camera!

Just after we finished our kayaking (others are still out there)

In the evening our group of party people had a good time trying out the 'Happy Water' (rice wine) served to us by our guide and rocking out to karaoke as late as they let us, which was 11pm.  

Happy Water tastes pretty much as you'd expect, given the serving vessel

If you zoom in you'll see: "Tell me why are we / So blind to see"

The next day was a real wash-out, and we were all pretty chilled and ready to be back at our hotels for hot showers.  On the trip back to Hanoi we made the obligatory rest stop at an enormous souvenir shop, and we were told our driver needed to rest - after all he had been driving all morning to come fetch us.  Normally the drivers refuel on noodle soup.  We stared in disbelief as ours reenergized by belting out a few ballads.

Our trusty driver

Jason in disbelief

Back in Hanoi, we visited a number of sights, including the Temple of Literature, dedicated to Confucian teachings, and the Hoa Lo Prison Museum, once used by the French for imprisoning Vietnamese, and later dubbed the 'Hanoi Hilton' by American POWs who were held there.  I plan to write some more on the war stuff in a later post, but suffice it to say that the exhibits were not exactly unbiased.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

Our most surreal Hanoi sight-seeing experience, though, was our visit to President Ho Chi Minh's tomb.  "Uncle Ho" died in '69 before the war was out, but he was a legend for having defeated the French and for his passionate efforts to re-unite the country under communism.  Rather than being cremated as per his wish, he has been embalmed and is on display inside a massive mausoleum on the west side of town.  As you don't just get to visit a deceased leader's body just any day, we paid a visit.  We checked our bags (and camera), removed our shoes, and padded slowly along in a solemn procession of primarily Vietnamese visitors.  We went up a red rubber lined set of stairs, entered the silent room with the guarded body, gawped for about 30 seconds as we processed around the glass case (from a distance of about 3 meters) and padded our way back down the stairs out into the sunlight. Completely bizarre, but entirely worthwhile.