Just Step off the pavement and walk

Kids are in heaven, after a few weeks of roughing it and being constantly on the move we are in a clean modern hotel, free internet, cable TV and room service. We left them to enjoy and head out to explore Ho Chi Min City (Saigon).

We had heard from a few people about the traffic in Saigon. The only way to cross is to just step of the pavement and walk, trusting all the drivers to flow around you. It is quite a thing to get your head around and I had thought about it a lot. Finally here Louise and I were at one of the busiest traffic circles in Saigon opposite the main city market and we had to get to the other side. Taking a deep breath we stepped of and walked……..like schools of fish the hundreds of scooters, motorbikes, and taxis flowed around us without missing a beat.

Our trip through Asia has been like this, no plan or agenda just step of the pavement and walk, often putting our lives in other people hands. We are coming to the end of the first half of our journey and are once again on the banks of the mighty and inexplicable Mekong River. From the northern most tip of Thailand near the Chinese border, through Laos, back into Thailand, through Cambodia and now close to the ocean in Vietnam we have been zig zagging the Mekong.

We had used every mode of transport imagineable - busses, scooters, boats, canoes, trains, bicycles, tuk tuks, elephants, pontoons, rafts and rickshaws. Traveling this way has its rewards, slow travel lets you appreciate where you are and gain an insight into the daily life of the locals. Your rhythm changes, distances become real again, you acquire a sense of discovery and adventure sharing your days, meals and boredom with people you would otherwise never meet. The humanity that moves about with bundles and children while the world of the aeroplane passes over their heads in every sense of the word. Slow travel is for us, but then I guess you have got to have the time.

What a great and pleasant surprise Ho Chi Min city turns out to be, feels like the Paris of SE Asia. We arrive at the market and after 2 seconds Craig is bored, anyway we end up in the food section and he is no longer bored - funny that. We sit down to Vietnamese spring rolls and a beer from one of the many stalls yumm, Craig’s in heaven and he could have stayed all afternoon but I dragged him off to look at all the groceries and delicious delicacies.

The food market is staggering and we realize that there is a whole new world to food in Vietnam. After spending so much time in little rural towns and villages we are back in foodie heaven. We start thinking about dinner and having seen lots of fresh seafood we decide to fetch the boys and hunt down some chilli crab. We walk back to the hotel, down-load, un-pack, freshen up and then get our concierge to flag down a “real” meter taxi to dinner. Bill is mortified as he is missing his Arsenal game to come and eat with us, shame poor deprived child!!

This restaurant comes highly recommended from an article given to us by the foodie of all time Irene and boy was it an incredible experience! The restaurant is packed, mostly with locals, which is a good sign but after a few minutes at the entrance we are shown to a table by our friendly waiter. There are 15 different kitchens surrounding a central courtyard with each kitchen preparing its own delicacy. A salad section, a barbecue section, a steam section, a soup section and so on and so on.

After being taken on an impromptu guided tour by our showman waiter through all the various kitchens we are flummoxed - how to decide when everything is so mouthwatering! We finally settled on a papaya salad – spicy (just for a change) a chicken mince meatball packed around a sugar cane stick- deep fried, a prawn toast/fritter and the piece de resistance our Crab steamed and stir fried in a Tamarind sauce - God it was sublime. Kids have salad and chicken – a few beers, a bottle of wine all bloody marvelous and happiness all round.

Back to the hotel to drop the kids and we decide to hit the town. It’s a Friday night and the city is busy, the streets are lined with bars, clubs, restaurants, massage parlors packed with people and noise. We settle on a corner bar and try and get a take on things, we are in the touristy part so there is lots of action. People on the make everywhere sex being the central theme- “love you long time one dollar”. Tomorrow we leave and are feeling sad, having caught a glimpse of the shade we want to see the sun. Vietnam we hope to see you again soon.

Flie Lice a Chika

One more bus ride to Saigon, Lou made sure it was the “top of the range”, not a double Decker (remember the Barf Bus) and no changing busses at the border.

A 4 hour bus ride out of Cambodia awaited us before reaching Saigon (Ho Chi Min City).

Cambodians can’t pronounce the R sound or use consonants at the ends of words so Fried Rice and Chicken becomes Flie Lice a Chika. Somewhere near the border with Vietnam we stop for lunch. I decide Flie Lice a Chika would be a safe bet and was I wrong!!! All of us felt squeamish as its plopped down in front of us, Bill got a sharp bone stuck in his cheek, I am busy scrapping all the chicken off and just gonna eat the rice, when Craig in true style casually asks, “do you think this is dog or snake”? the mental picture was too much to swallow, I heaved and almost vomited in my plate, tears flooded my eyes, and Craig laughed, oh my the thought of those poor mangy dogs, or even a snake eeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Shortly thereafter we arrive at the border. Borders can be pretty intimidating places and this was no exception, first up this medical man, dressed in swine flu mode takes everyone’s temperature using this syringe looking device which he inserts into your ear. All forty people on the bus – one syringe, nice. Louise has fed Nicky a Myprodol in desperation half hour before the border because Nicky had been running a temperature and we can’t face a six week quarantine dining on local cuisine at the Cambodian border. Anyways we all pass the swine test and join the queue to go through passport control. Nicky is REALLY feeling fiiiiiine after the myprodol and fooling around big time, once again as the blonde baby of the bus he is getting the rock star treatment. Whilst we are all standing waiting to X ray the bags and obtain stamps he jumps the rows and is led of by the guards for a behind the scenes tour to watch all the bags being scanned. One more mention of snakes, Louise starts heaving, I feel bad and before we know it we are in Vietnam!

Once again we cross the Mekong, there are no bridges so our bus boards a ferry, I get out of the bus and watch Cambodia fade away. Whilst standing with the truckers and some locals this adorable little girl approaches selling bits and pieces. I buy some tiger balm and Wriggley’s and in exchange get a photo, our last memento from Cambodia.

We arrive in Saigon, Craig points to one taxi man and says okay you’re our guy. He was an extraordinary little creature with small teeth (like he never got his adult ones) and a round button mouth, a gruff voice- “where you going” he barks, we give him the name of a hotel we have chosen in mid range lonely planet, he assures us he is a meter taxi (which the book also tells you) and we squeeeeeeeze our bags into his Mazda.

Bill hops in the back and as he is moving across the seats the man slams the hatch and almost propels Bill into the front seat, I just couldn’t hold it the laughter was so good Bill and I had tears running down our face. Off we wiz across traffic in the middle of the road on the wrong side of the road, Vietnam is a city of motor bikes its incredible, like swimming through a shoal of fish.
Eventually the mad one screeches to a halt at the hotel we requested (which turns out later not be the one) Craig goes in and comes out $ 90– too expensive so then this strange creature now becomes animated and writes $25-30 on his hands and goes befok , he knows where to take us, before we could do anything he whizzes off the meter clicking away. In a land of crazy drivers we have picked the outer fringe, he moves over into oncoming traffic and just stays there, cars veering off all around. Finally he slams on brakes on the wrong side of the road and disappears with Craig into another hotel and he comes out gesticulating like mad, still too expensive for him – yeah right and the meter seems to be speeding up!

Anyway we end up at this cool clean oasis exactly 30m from where we got off the bus, Craig negotiates a good deal for 2 rooms while I draw local money to pay the rally driver. I am about to walk into the hotel with “The Driver” to pay (always better when hotel staff are around and he whips it out my hand and gives me change, all the locals are laughing and I know I’m being ripped so I walk into the hotel to find I’ve paid $28 when it should have been around $4.

Anyway we all agreed that it was a fabulous entertaining ride and worth the money, Nicky has the action down pat, and if we need some cheering he does a rendition of the mad taxi driver and we all fall about. Time to explore Saigon!

Phnom Penh

With a banging on the door all hell breaks loose the next morning. The night before I had switched our cheap Chinese alarm off instead of on. Our pick up is outside pacing, he still has three more collections before getting us to the main bus station to catch our 7am, “super deluxe AC” to Phnom Penh.

Ten minutes later with vast amounts of luggage and sleepy children in tow we board the pick up which is a rickety old relic without windows. Louise and I have a good chuckle as we watch the horrified expressions of some Australians as we arrive to pick them up, “Hiya mate is this bus taking us to Vietnam”?

Another bus another journey, except now I’m (Lou) having an allergic reaction which started in Siem Riep in a small way just my arms were itchy, on the bus ride I was having an internal dialogue about what could be wrong, I would get these hot flashes somewhere on my body followed by intense itchiness, it would move all around, it was freaky.

By the time we get off the bus at Phnom Penh and the taxi drivers all attacked us I was ready to blow, which I eventually did, I mean come on they can see I’m with Craig and the boys and we are walking towards a tuk tuk , they still come into your face and say “madam tuk tuk , come with me!”

“CAN’T you see I’m with my husband and I have a tuk tuk, back (f>>K) off for god sake!” I yelled at them, Nicky told me later that they all were smiling and laughing at the mad woman ! Oh well! It's good to release some anger sometimes :)!

Craig decided to follow the 3 South African girls (mmm wonder why) who were staying in a budget guest house, oh help me god, so we had a look I thought, please no, we tried a few others which were just tooo expensive, said ok went back, jeeez Louise, it was horrid at R120 a night for all of us a dormitory room 4 single beds, lets just say it wasn’t the highlight of our trip. (…..It was great, clean rooms, cheap beer and food, lots of interesting travelers and we have to do at least one backpacker joint on the trip, part of the experience!)

Not to mention the itchiness was getting progressively worse and eventually I surrendered to the fantastic orgasmic scratching with my hairbrush, out of control I was doing myself serious harm, even the strong antihistamines Murray prescribed were doing nothing, I can only think it’s the MSG which Asians use in everything and I mean everything. The second night after nearly exfoliating my skin off, we stopped at a pharmacy and he said allergy (duh) Erticaria? Take these, cortisone, it did help but it took a while for it to go completely but by that stage would have taken anything to stop the itching, my god it’s terrible, and the worse thing is, msg is their salt.

Given Cambodia’s magnificent civilized past its recent history is horrific, 25-30% of their population were tortured, beaten and massacred just 30 years ago, their only crime being that they were educated, Pol Phot’s grand plan to develop an Agrarian utopia of subservient peasants

We decided to explore Phnom Penh and went to the war Museum, oh my god, thank goodness we didn’t go to the killing fields, Nicky said straight away that there were ghosts. What was once a school became a torture chamber where Pol Phot did the most horrendous things to anyone considered an enemy to their cause. I was creeped out and depressed, it is incredible brutality and they kept meticulous records with photo’s to prove it all. The fact that most of the leaders haven’t been brought to justice astounds me beyond anything, Pol Phot died of old age in exile a few years ago. The photographs are haunting. There is still something in the atmosphere in Cambodia, how can a country just continue after such a brutal time. There has been little retribution for the people who caused such pain, no reconciliation, just a get on with it and dry your tears kind of attitude.

A poem written by a prisoner explains that time so well (below)

That night we popped in to the Foreign Correspondence club to cheer up, a beautiful colonial building on the Mekong River as another tropical storm hit. To be sure this setting must be the inspiration behind the launch of a thousand novels.

We sat next to a Dutch girl, who was writing to her friends back home on why men are such bastards- she met a cool European man at a bar the previous night really hit it off was thrilled and then gave him her phone number, on the way out his Cambodian wife pops up and asked her why she wasn’t taking her husband home, it was fine with her as long as she used a condom!!!
She is in love with Phnom Penh and is here to teach English. She recommended that night’s restaurant a hip, trendy and organic place that supports training of Cambodians for the service industry – good food and sadly as always crazy expensive white wine.

We have a family vote to end the traveling and settle down somewhere in Bali for a while (surf beckoning). I was keen to carry on but the boys were tired and it was 3:1 Our last stop was Saigon (Ho Chi Min City) from where our flight was booked to Bali, hasty emails to Lawrence and Janine to see if we could join them, flight numbers and dates changed, we were set.

More Siem Reap (See and Weep)

Its amazing the subtle differences one notices crossing borders. Cambodia is no exception, I mean we hadn’t see a live pig trussed up on the back of a scooter anywhere in Asia, now every third bike seems to be carrying one. The Tuk Tuks are different, the beers, local whisky/rum/vodka stuff, traditional clothes, facial features. In Cambodia you can’t get local currency everything is in $US even at the Autobanks. Some countries don’t use coins, change is given in sweets! One delicious thing in Cambodia is the bread, lovely fresh baguettes everywhere, a throwback from the French occupation.

As we entered Cambodia we started noticing little stands alongside the roads with bottles of yellow and red liquid, couldn’t figure it out, we thought perhaps a traditional drink until we stopped to fill up, turns out its petrol, no meters, no pumps just old bottles filled with petrol sold by the liter, not surprisingly petrol filters are evident in the shops. Cambodia is mainly Buddhist and one comes across simple daily offerings everywhere, little handmade baskets with rice, flowers and incense. The after effects of the war are visible all around, minefield survivors with no legs or arms are in bands playing traditional music in town at night on the pavement or at the entrance to temples, damn its heartbreaking.

The “Golden Banana” becomes our central point for our explorations, a little oasis with a pool to cool off and relax. Met a girl there doing a survey for World Vision on the kids, she goes out into the field and asks questions, some of the answers break your heart, child abuse, sex tourism, slavery. Kids as young as 4 or 6 approach you at the temples, why aren’t they at school?
One thing that seems consistent is both the positive and negative effects of tourism, towns and cities are changing at a blistering rate all over Asia. Siem Reap is showing all the signs of becoming a tourist trap, touts, western bars, expats, cheap sunglasses, Mexican restaurants in Cambodia huh? People start giving up their traditional ways and sometimes you need to dig a little deeper to find what you are looking for.

An early morning visit to the local market in Seam is fascinating, I am on a mission to find an even bigger suitcase, one with wheels on as our luggage is breaking out all over the place. With the heat and lack of refrigeration fresh produce pours in daily from the surrounding countryside, piles of fish, strange vegetables, flowers, skinned frogs, other unmentionable moving things. With the heat, smells noise and steam the atmosphere is rich in the market, my camera lens keeps fogging up as I try to capture the scene. Our stomachs are pretty tough and spicy by now and we eat a lot of street food, mama behind the wok, children serving, $ 8 dollars buys our family a delicious fresh crunchy tasty (albeit MSG filled) meal.

One morning Mr Sam took us out of town to a little boat from where we traveled for about an hour to a floating village set on the largest Lake in SE Asia, a source of vast amounts of protein. This village is not set up on the side of the lake but miles from any shore. Everything is floating - houses, shops, vegetable gardens, even their pig-pens. We bought a hundred pencils (at a vastly inflated price) and stopped at an orphanage where Nicky handed them out. 100 sweet little Vietnamese children, human flotsam living in the middle of a lake in Cambodia! Last stop and of course the boys highlight was a visit to a floating crocodile and snake farm/ restaurant – as tough as our stomachs have become we declined to stay for lunch.

Bangkok to Siem Reap via Hell

Its an early morning start 6.30 and by now we have far too much baggage and we are all a bit grumpy. Nicolas has lost his shoes, we are fighting with the hotel staff and the bus is waiting. Luckily the mini bus is comfy, air conditioned and empty. Nicky gets to sleep on a seat of his own – thank god as usually I find I’m his pillow and spend most of the trip uncomfortable while he gets to have a soft cushion and a good sleep.

It seems so quick, four hours pass and before we know it we stop for lunch and think how civilized this is. This guy comes over and says he will organize the visas just fill out the forms, they will take all the passports get our visa’s while we have lunch (cooool) There are about 4 mini busses and we are all like sheep handing out our passports. So while we are eating a plate of fried rice we start calculating what we are being charged and then 2 Canadian girls say they want their money back and they will do their own visa and heated discussions erupt. We all look at each other and know how we have been scammed big time.

I have done this border thing a few times before and hence my earnest conversation with the agent in Bangkok the day before but damn if the point didn’t come when our comfy mini bus disappears with our tickets and we are standing in the hot sun with far too many bags, waiting for a switch in operators. We are in no mans land a long stretch of tarmac to the border post. We toss our bags into a prehistoric wooden donkey cart being pulled by an equally ancient man and head for our pre-border swine flu grilling.

So now we have a smiley Cambodian in a pink shirt who attaches to us like a leach, he starts working us, we queue in a crowded sweaty office to get our passports stamped and I lose the forms so we get to the front and get bumped to the back of the queue again to redo the papers– talk about a sense of humor failure!! Nicky of course has no shoes so has to walk vast stretches in this hellhole on hot tar. Welcome to Cambodia!

Heavy bags moaning children and heat all makes a great opportunity for an excellent con artist. He starts priming us about the length of the trip from the border to Siem Riep and the bus only leaves at 4pm and stops everywhere blab blab la. Its 2 pm we would have to wait 2 hours in the sun then travel another 6 hours awww noo man.

He convinces us an air-conditioned taxi is the way to go so we hand over another 400 Baht each. (we later found out the bus left at about 3 and took 3 hours) oh yes and he conveniently walks us to the atm and describes how this is the last point to draw money (probably making sure he gets paid)

We are so aware we are being conned but are feel pretty softened up. Anyway we walk on with Nicky hopping at the heat on the road (good lesson on how NB shoes are to keep) there are casino hotels everywhere in this no mans land.

We get to the temporary bus station and get whisked out the back door past some really smelly toilets and it all feeling very surreal, we get into the taxi and say goodbye to the tosser merrily waving probably thinking – good one suckers!!

Our taxi-man takes a detour down a really bumpy track and stops at this place for GAS and I do mean gas they pop the boot with all our possesions, now I’m thinking – this is sooooooooo dodgy, so Craig hops out to see what the hell they are doing and remove the bags to fill this huge gas cylinder with well Gas, not the petrol type but the real type of gas, Huh? I thought they were filling the aircon gas for which I was grateful, anyway our driver couldn’t speak a word of English so we just left it at that.

The driver is silent but non violent and the 3 hours are pretty relaxed after the border crossing and we watch Cambodia unfold. Along the way we are a bit puzzled at these bikes roaring along with pigs balanced upside down on their backs in a basket like holder. We later find out that they get the pigs stoned with Ganga (Dagga) and because they are stoned its easy to transport the poor things to get slaughtered, shame poor pigs, my only consolation here is at least they are zoned out and probably thinking wooohooo is that what things look like upside down. Asia can really make you become vegetarian.

We were assured we would be dropped at our hotel but surprise surprise we get dropped at the tuk tuk station. The tuk tuk driver “our chosen one’ tells us that the guest house we want is no good as its full of lady boys, no good for our boys, mmm heard that one before and we say that’s were we are going OK. Guess what the name is??? GOLDEN BANANA GUEST HOUSE
Well it is full of lady boys and they are efficient, the place is gorgeous and has a fab pool yipeeee. We do a deal with our homophobic tuk tuk driver to be our driver for three days and with promises of a 9 am start we head for the pool.

Last Night in Bangkok

So Nicky, Bill and Lou set of for Bangkok again with a card of a hotel in Ko San road area. We arrive at the Wild Orchid something or other and I just think nooooway anyway I go and check out the room and then the next price range up and then eventually the top range room which is on the 6th floor with NO LIFT- huh?

We decide to leave and get a cab to our trusty hotel near the river when some sweet Thai girl says we have a better hotel just round the corner called Villa Cha Cha and it has a pool. We are sold, she grabs a heavy pack – lucky Nicky and head for the mad streets with us in tow, it’s not just round the corner but a lengthy walk and when she slips into this alley I’m thinking paranoid thoughts. Then out pops Villa Cha Cha from the swirling mass of stalls and mess, we check in very excited and happy to have found a home.

The problem is Craig is on a plane from Turkey and then onto the Wild Orchid villa and we are not there, how to get a message to Craig with no phone and no computer. So I found an internet café logged onto Craig’s email gmail and sent an urgent message from Craig to Craig??? Hehehe
The boys and I hit Fuji and had sushi yippee; love Bangkok did some good shopping whilst boys got their fix of Games in the big Kids entertainment emporium.

I get the message as I arrive in Bangkok which after Turkey is starting to feel like home, easy transfer into the city taking no bullshit from the taxi drivers and find my way to the hotel. What a relief to walk into the Cha Cha and see my tanned and chilled family sipping mango lassies around the pool. Louise has chosen a particularly crazy part of Bangkok, restaurants and shops line the streets, and in front of these a second tier of restaurants and bars line the pavements.

We emerge from our alley and fall into a papaya salad, chilli fish and Tiger beer. Much later I weave of nonchalantly down the road with promises to find a trip to Cambodia. Feeling jet lagged and spaced out I catch a tuk tuk across town to the train station, find an agent, stared earnestly into his eyes for a sign of honesty, think I see it and pay over good money for 4 tickets and a hassle free ride to Siem Reap in Cambodia the next morning.

Evening’s arrived when I return, we dump the boys in air conditioned comfort watching scratchy pirated DVD’s and head back into the human tide looking for a night on the town. Dinner is Indian, lots of white wine and ends with a hubbly hubbly shisha pipe watching the second tier of restaurants through the haze on the pavement. It has been particularly hot and humid even by Bangkok standards, the heavens open up and a tropical downpour engulfs the world outside.

Total non panic as rickety awnings emerge, restaurants and bars continue unabated – wires stretched overhead, bare light bulbs, grills, fires, dogs, chickens, rabbits, gas and all. Our last night in Thailand …… just over a month from North to South and everywhere in between - we love it!