Gooooood morning Vietnam

Location: Saigon (HCMC)
Country: Vietnam

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For many years it has been a dream of mine to come to Vietnam, I am finally here, and I have to say that so far it has been great.
But let me back up a bit first to my last couple of days in Cambodia.
From Siem Reap, we got a five-hour boat to Phnom Penh (Cambodia’s capital). It was a very nice trip.




In Phnom Penh visited the war museum and the killing fields.

Both were highly disappointing, they can learn a thing or two from the Jews about how to commemorate their dead.

From Phnom Penh took an organized four day tour of the Mekong Delta, ending in Saigon.
The route we took was Phnom Penh - Chau Doc - Can Tho - My Tho - Saigon.
There were some amazing boat rides during the trip. I especially liked the boat rides in the small canals on low boats with greenery all around. It was exactly what I pictured Vietnam would be like, I felt like I was in a film.

We were also taken to see some of the local industries along the way:
* Fish farm houses – These are floating houses on the river that people live in, around the underneath of the house they have a net that reaches the bottom of the river, in the net they grow about 60,000 fish.

* Floating markets – This is quite a sight. In a section of the river there were loads of little boats floating around, each selling their wares. Each boat has a pole on which they hang a sample of whatever fruit / vegetables they are selling, so that the buyers can know easily.

* Towel weaving workshop.
* Incense stick workshop.
* Rice paper factory.
* Coconut candy mill – It turns out that coconut candy is really tasty.
* Bee hives.
Mostly it felt that they were taking us to these places so that we would buy things, but it was interesting to see.

Arrived in Saigon yesterday. It is not too bad here in comparison with other Asian Cities.
About 80% of the traffic in the city is motorbikes, quite weird to see.

Today I took a tour to the Cu Chi tunnels, it was brilliant. For those of you who are not familiar with it – During the wars with France and the US, the Vietcong built a maze of underground tunnels, which were 250 km long, they dug it all manually.
It was a great trip and we had a really interesting guide who explained all about the Vietcong fighting and living during the wars.
The tunnels were really narrow and could just about fit the tiny Vietnamese.

They expanded some of the tunnels now, so that the fat western travelers can go through them, we went down one, and I have to say, it felt very claustrophobic.
After that I visited the war museum, which was quite interesting, though there were many gruesome pictures around.

Tomorrow I am heading to Mui Ne.

Traveling in Vietnam is really easy, maybe too easy, it is extremely touristy. Basically, you buy an open bus ticket between Saigon and Hanoi and you stop at about 5 towns on the way. At each place you can also get organized tours to see the sites. All seems very simple. All the tourists here go along the exact same route. It’s good and bad I guess, but it suits me right now, a bit of easy life is fine.

The start of my visit here has been very good and I hope it continues so. My only complaint is the food, it is just so bad, they are not good cooks. I think I am putting on weight, as I have to eat rubbish all the time, otherwise I will go round hungry.

I have dumped my traveling partner. It was either that or killing her, and I guessed that that would have been frowned upon.
I know that I am not the most cheerful, constantly happy person there is, but she was just depressing. She was never happy or satisfied with anything; she had this constant tortured soul thing going. She was bringing me down.
Some of you will understand how bad it was, when I tell you that she reminded me somewhat of Maya Israel.
I felt a bit bad about it, ‘cause I knew that she wouldn’t continue the trip alone, but I will not let anyone ruin my trip.

I have found my new favorite author – Ben Elton (Duv – Do we have his books in the private library?). I’ve actually only read one of his books so far – “Inconceivable”, but it was just brilliant, his writing is so good.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE.

The Angkor Temples

Location: Siem Reap
Country: Cambodia

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Bangkok was great. I ended up spending a week there and I have no idea where the time went.
The guesthouse I stayed in (Green House) was brilliant; it had such a good atmosphere.
I met loads of really nice travelers, very different, and from my point of view, much nicer than the type of people I met in India.
I did no tourist things at all, apart from a boat ride on the river, which I basically did just to get away a bit from the noise (didn't work), Bangkok seems to be forever noisy, no matter what time of day or night.
The only other time I left the Khaosan was to go to a film – King Kong, I enjoyed it, thought it was good entertainment.
Most of the time I just hung round the guesthouse, chatting with people, watching films, enjoying the good food and drinking some of the infamous Thai whiskey.
It was just what I needed after India.

I was really unsure about where I would be going next. In theory I wanted to go to Cambodia-Vietnam-Laos, but I wasn’t getting too far with finding someone to go with, and I did not fancy embarking upon Cambodia alone.
I changed my plans about every 10 minutes and just could not make my mind up.
Then I came across this Israeli girl – Yafit, who had come for just over a month and wanted to go to Cambodia and Vietnam.
I have to admit that it wasn't her striking personality that made me want to go with her (she is quite a strange one), but she was just so organized. She had gathered all the necessary information, knowing exactly where to go and what to do.
Seeing that I had no information what so ever, the only things I knew about these countries is that I wanted to visit them, it was very appealing to hook up with her.

On Wednesday we got a bus from the Khaosan to the Cambodian border. The road from the border to our first stop – Siem Reap is known to be really bad. Apparently some airline is bribing the government not to pave a new road there, so that their business won't be hurt. It is supposed to be a 3 hour drive, and some people have reported it taking as long as 10 hours on the bus and arriving with terrible back pains.
Hence, we decided to get a cab with another couple, it didn't even work out much more expensive.
I don't know if they have done up the roads lately or if I am just immune from my time in India, but I didn't think the ride was bad at all.



The reason for coming to Siem Reap, or actually the reason for coming to Cambodia is vising the temples of Angkor.
I will use the words of the Lonely Planet here:
"Prepare for divine inspiration! The temples of Angkor, capital of Cambodia's ancient Khmer empire, are the perfect fusion of creative ambition and spiritual devotion. The Cambodian god-kings of old each strove to better their ancestors in size, scale and symmetry, culminating in the world's largest religious building – Angkor Wat, and one of the world's weirdest – the Bayon. The hundreds of temples surviving today are but a sacred skeleton of the vast political, religious and social centre of an empire that stretched from Burma to Vietnam, a city that, at its zenith, boasted a population of one million when London was a scrawny town of 50,000."

We have spent 3 days going round looking all the different temples of Angkor, and it has been quite amazing. I feel the pictures I took don't do it justice, but they can say more than my words.












Today I also went on a hot-air balloon to see the view from above, which was spectacular. Though any excuse to go up in the balloon would have been good for me.



Everyone warns you that Cambodia is hard to travel in and that the people are very annoying and harass you all the time. I guess I have my time in India to thank, as I find it quite easy to get along here and haven't found the people to bothersome at all.
So far, I feel quite comfortable here, I felt a bit nervous before coming, but I see now that it is fine.
It is advised not to walk around at night; the people here are so poor that there is some crime, so I do listen to that advice. It is fine really, 'cause after walking round temples all day, I haven't the energy to walk round at night in any case.

The currency here is Real, but they seems to charge you in US dollars everywhere, I guess 'cause their local currency is so bad.

You do see quite a few amputees, victims of landmines around. It is suggested that you do not veer from the known path here, as there are still millions of landmines around. That advice I also make sure to follow.

In all, I would say that Cambodia feels as touristic as the next place and so far I have encountered no special difficulty traveling here.

Tomorrow I am off by boat to the capitol – Phnom Penh.

Civilization

Location: Bangkok
Country: Thailand

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Last few days in Mahabalipuram were not great, it was raining constantly and there is absolutely nothing to do there in bad weather.
It was lucky at least that Eric and I were together as we were able to entertain each other a bit (he is no master at cards, but was doing ok by the time I finished with him), but eventually we were climbing up the walls with boredom.
Also, after managing to get through 3 months in India with basically no stomach problems, it hit me in my last few days. I guess the gods of India just couldn't let me leave without that fine experiance.
It could be because of all the bad karma I had accumulated during my stay in India, all the many times I ignored beggars abruptly and the many times I expressed my utter hatred of the Indian people.
At least on our last day in Mahabalipuram it was nice and sunny and we could sit happily by the pool.
Side note - One of the days whilst sitting by the pool, one of the Indians decided that he wanted a coconut and climbed up a tree near us to get it, it was amazing to watch how he climbed up the tree so easily.


Eric left for England the night before me for a visit, hopefully he will be returning to the Far East and we may meet again.

Originally I was planning to get a train from Chennai to Bombay and get my flight from there to Bangkok. The train would have taken 27 hours, then I would have had to wait round Bombay for like 10 hours and then catch the night flight to Bangkok.
It didn't take me too long to decide that was way too much and I really did not fancy doing it. The big advantage of doing this trip at my age and not after the army, is that you can decide to spoil yourself from time to time.
So I booked a flight from Chennai to Bombay which took less than 2 hours, quite the difference.
I was informed the night before that my domestic flight was postponed by 2 hours, which had me stressing a little, as it only gave me about half an hour spare to catch my flight in Bombay, and I could be screwed if there were any delays.
In the end, there was a delay of another half an hour, and I arrived at the international airport in Bombay exactly 2.5 hours before my flight time.
Cutting it way too fine for my liking. Thought I guess it did work out for the best, as I did not have to hang round the airport for long.
On the 3.5 hour flight to Bangkok I had 3 seats to myself, which was lovely, I even managed to get some sleep.

I can't begin to describe the difference between landing in Delhi and landing in Bangkok.
Delhi airport looked like something built in the 50's that has never been renovated in any way, it was old, coming apart and utter chaos. As you walked out of the airport to find a cab (a totally disorganized procedure), you were welcomed by the site of hundreds of beggarss sleeping on the pavement.
Bangkok had a modern, clean and organized airport. Simple procedure for getting a cab and not a beggar to be seen.

At the airport I hooked up with an Israeli couple that were on my flight and got a cab with them to Khaosan road (the area where all the backpackers stay in Bangkok).

It was a bit of a hassle finding a guesthouse, everything was packed, I guess due to Christmas and New-Years that are coming up.
Eventually found myself staying in the main Israeli guesthouse. It is a little noisy, but a nice enough atmosphere.

I feel like a hillbilly who arrived in the big city, everything is so different to India. It's all so modern and expensive, and there are loads of tourist a night life.
They have all the big shops (they have a "Boots"!!) and restaurants (McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks etc.).
When you walk along at night, it all lit up with Vagas lights.

I was here about 7 years ago, I think it has changed quite a bit since then.
I'm walking around with a bit of dazed look on my face.
But I find travelers here are really nice, I've been spending my time playing card games and shesh-besh.
They also have TVs in all the restraunts showing films, so I am also catching up on some much needed TV time.
I still have not decide what I am doing next, I will give myself some time to adjust to the fact that I am now in Thailand and no longer India and then decide which way I am heading.

Last post from India

Location: Mahabalipuram
Country: India

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This will be my last post from India, all being well next week I will be in Thailand.

The last day in Podicherry, we went to see the only interesting thing there is to see in that area – Auroville village.
Auroville is an international community of about 1700 people from 35 different countries. They live together kind of like in a kibbutz, no interest individual gain or money and work in different crafts, research and all community things.
Basically it sounds very ideal, but it’s probably just some corrupt cult thing.
The woman who initiated the project is called “The Mother” and there are huge pictures of her everywhere.
But, if you find it interesting and would like to read about it - http://www.auroville.org/

We had had quite enough of Pondicherry and our “amazing” guesthouse there and decided to move on to Mahabalipuram. The problem was that it had been raining quite heavily and there were floods in the area and we were worried that the roads would be blocked, I really did not fancy being stuck in Pondicherry, but in the end all was well and we made it out of there.

Mahabalipuram is just great, exactly what we needed for our last days in India. It is a small town by the beach (though the beach is horribly dirty and only crazy English people seem to go near it), with loads of shops and nice restaurants around.
As it was Paula’s last guesthouse, she asked that we stay somewhere a bit nicer than usual, I was sure glad to have agreed. We had a lovely room with hot water (I haven’t had a hot shower in over a month, and I really really hate cold showers).
The best thing about the guesthouse is that it has the most amazing swimming pool.


The first day here we did a rickshaw tour of a couple of hours to see all the rock carvings in the area, was very nice.


Once we got that over with, we were free to just sit by the pool sunbathing and reading all day, allowing some time for shopping of course.
We were very lucky with the weather whilst Paula was here, it had been raining constantly due to a cyclone before we arrived, but we had wonderfully sunny days.
We met this really great English guy here - Eric, I get on brilliantly with him, and we are so similar in some ways it’s amazing (sorry Mum, don’t get your hopes up, he is gay).


Paula was flying home on my birthday, so we celebrated together with Eric the night before.
Paula managed to buy a cake from somewhere and even managed to get “29” candles.

Paula was not supposed to buy me a present, as she had already paid for the house boat as an early birthday present, but she went ahead and got one anyway – it is a beautiful necklace and I am really happy with it.

I also received a lovely card from her, and Eric was really sweet and gave me a card too.
You see Mum; you didn’t have to worry about me getting no cards this year.

Yesterday I went with Paula to the airport, which is a couple of hours away and saw her off.
It has been so great traveling with her; we got on really really well and had no problems at all.
I don’t think there are many people with whom I could spend such intense 6 weeks together with and not want to kill them by the end of it.
I have to say that she was brilliant, she did India in the same way that any average backpacker does, I did not let her take the easy way out. She was great about it and seemed to have no problems even thorough the inevitable hard parts.
I am sure that there will be times when I will miss traveling with her.

I am now sharing a room with Eric and spending most of the time with him. The weather has turned bad again (stupid cyclone), so I guess I will just have to teach him some card games.

Here are some sentences that I am sick of hearing from Indians and will be glad to hear no more. Imagine them in an annoying Indian accent.
“What is your (good) name?”
“What is your country?”
“What is your occupation?”
“Come see my shop”
“Just looking”
“Looking is free”
“Is good price”
“I give best price for you”
“You say how much”
“Hello madaaaaaaaaaaam”
“Rickshaw madam? Rickshaw?”
“You have money? / biscuits? / pens?”
And the most annoying of them all is feeling a light tap on your arm and turning round to see a local gesturing with his hand towards his mouth asking for food.

Small things that I have learnt to appreciate whilst traveling in India:
* A hot shower.
* Food arriving in less than half an hour.
* Food arriving for all the people at the table at the same time.
* Salt that actually comes out (apparently they haven’t heard of the idea of putting rice in the salt).
* Walking down the street without people staring at you and hassling you for something.
* A sink in the shower.
* No urine smell in the room / train / bus / street.
* Clean room and toilet.
* Good laundry service. Having the cloths smell like they have really been washed.
* Public transport arriving on time and no major delays on the way.
* Toilets that don’t make you want to throw up when you walk in.
* Toilet stops at normal intervals during bus rides.
* A comfortable bed.
* Fast Internet.
* Not seeing people spit and urinate around you.
I could go on and on, but that gives you a general idea.

But, having said all those things, I also must say that I have really enjoyed my time in India.
I have seen some amazing sites and places and have managed to meet some great people (even though many of the travelers here are not really my type of people).
India is huge, but I feel I managed to see quite a bit, and who knows, I may still visit here again before my trip is over.
I am looking forward to arriving in Thailand and enjoying its comforts, and exploring some new countries in that area.

As I mentioned, I celebrated my 29th birthday yesterday, I had no wish to make on my candles, as I am already fulfilling my biggest wish.
To all the people who sent emails and added comments to the blog, wishing me a happy birthday – thank you very much, it is much appreciated.
To all my readers who never add comments, you will have to do so now, it would be considered too impolite not to wish me a happy birthday...

Life under a fascist regime

Location: Pondicherry
Country: India

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We had a most wonderful time in Varkala. I sat on the balcony most of the day reading my book, occasionally getting up for food and shopping (got pretty good prices as there weren’t many tourist around, and the shop keepers were desperate). Paula was a little more active than me; she went down to the beach a couple of times and went for walks.
We both had a really great time there.


From Varkala we got an 11 hour night train to Madurai. Madurai is an awful Indian city, very dirty and very noisy, pretty unwelcoming to tourist.
There is only one reason to go there and that is to see the Sri Meenakshi Temple, which I think is the most impressive temple in India, they are trying to get it added to the seven wonders of the world list.

We arrived in Madurai early morning, got a couple of hours sleep in a horrible guest house, visited the Gandhi memorial museum which was ok and the Tirumalai Nayak palace which was quite impressive (well, what was left of it was).
We had to wait to see the temple in the afternoon, as it is a big area to walk around and of course you are not allowed to go in with your shoes on (does anyone know where the Indians got this obsession about shoe removal?).
The temple was absolutely magnificent; I have not seen anything like it. It was worth stopping in that horrid town just to see it.


That night we got an 8 hour night bus to Pondicherry, we were desperate to get out of Madurai, and were ready to do it as soon as we had seen the temple.
We were really looking forward to Pondicherry, sounded real good in the “lonely planet” and we got good recommendations from other travelers.
Personally, I am a bit disappointed by it, it is quite a strange place, could be explained by the fact that it was ruled by the French till 50 years ago.
It is quite a nice clean town, but I just haven’t connected to it.

The most interesting thing to tell about here is the guesthouse that we are staying at. It is owned by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, as is half of this town. Most of the good cheap guesthouses are owned by the Ashram, and ours is considered to be the best.
I have never lived under fascist rule, but I imagine it would be something like staying in this guesthouse.
When we checked in, we had to read their list of rules and regulations, there is also a copy hung on our door and we received an additional copy to have with us at all times.
I have decided that I must write it out for you, as it is just too amusing:

READ THESE GUIDELINES CAREFULLY; LET ALL MEMBERS WHO ARE WITH YOU BE AWARE OF THEM.
* Smoking, alcoholic drinks and drugs are strictly prohibited.
* Gates if the guesthouse remain closed from 22:30 till 05:00.
* Get your room cleaned in your presence before 17:00.
* No servants and drivers are permitted in the guesthouse.
* Guests wanting to receive friends and relatives may do so in the visitor’s room from 15:30 till 18:00 – No visitors are allowed in the guests’ rooms.
* No pets are allowed.
* Room rent must be paid at least one day before departure from 08:00 to 11:00.
* Use cloths stand for drying clothes.
* No tips to individual workers, if you wish, contribute at the reception.
* Speak softly after 21:00.
* Room key must be given to the reception when out of the guesthouse.

The people at the reception were really strict and unfriendly, I almost walked out, but I knew I wouldn’t find a better guesthouse from the point of view of room and price, and it also has really pretty gardens and is right on the beach.

We were told we must state in advance the exact amount of days we want to stay, which is a virtually unheard of request (we just gave a random number that came to mind, as they didn't think of charging in advance).
The morning we arrived we were dead tired, so we just went to eat in the dinning room of the guesthouse. I took toast with butter and asked for them not to apply the butter, I would do it myself, I was told by the stern waitress that “butter is already applied”, I told her I understood that, but I want mine not to be applied, the answer was “butter is already applied”.
As is many places in the south, there is no hot water in the showers, you can get hot buckets. After the long bus ride in, I just wanted to get in the shower and wash my hair. I went happily to get hot water, but hot water is supplied only between 06:00-09:00 and 18:00-21:00. I was not happy having a cold shower, I’ll tell you that.
They are kind enough to have mosquito nets in the rooms (loads of mosquitoes here), which you have to attach to the bed with these sticks, they have precise instructions and an illustration of how this should be done.
That is a fascist regime for you, for better and for worse – Strict, efficient, orderly, loads of rules and regulations, set times for everything, professional.
They do have their spiritual side as well – There is yoga every morning on the lawn, group meditation, the mineral water you buy in the guesthouse is herbal water (something which I’m still trying to figure out), and above the door of every room they have a positive affirmation word, such as: “tenderness”, “perfection”, “transformation”, “clarity”, “honesty”, “devotion”, “truth”, “aspiration” etc. etc. etc.
I just find the place extremely amusing, and can not seem to stop making sarcastic remarks to Paula.
I think a couple more nights here will be more than enough, and we will move on to Mahabalipuram.