Just reached the capital of Cambodia and now eating Moroccan sawarman and drinking the local beer Angkor (btw, they also have a beer called Anchor). Spend most of the day today in a Mekong slowboat, sleeping, and later waving to naked Cambodian children.
Tomorrow will probably see the sights of Phnom Penh and decide what to do next. Csilla wants to see dolphins in Kratie and the Estonian hotel owners in Sihanoukville. I just want to see Angkor Wat and then go back to Bangkok. But Cambodia seems nice, nobody is honking here, maybe it's worth staying here longer.
2010-07-29
Huy Hoang Hotel, Can Tho
Today travelled by bus in a tour group of 40 other tourists to the town of My Tho where we switched to a boat (and later several smaller boats) and visited an island where people produce (and sell) coconut candy and honey (and of course woodcarving). The whole visit felt like being on a conveyor belt: there were many other tour groups around and the focus was on buying stuff. In the evening ended up in the town of Can Tho where we are now staying overnight to continue this 3-day tour tomorrow morning.
Today was saved by a delicious (but unfortunately small) portion of Zürcher Geschnetzeltes mit Rösti in restaurant Pizza.CT (if I'm interpreting their business card correctly). The rösti was real, not some local interpretation like on the Galapagos and Java.
Looking forward to tomorrow. The Mekong Delta is famous for its rice, farmers get 3 harvests per year. Was a bit disappointed today that we were presented with honey instead.
Today was saved by a delicious (but unfortunately small) portion of Zürcher Geschnetzeltes mit Rösti in restaurant Pizza.CT (if I'm interpreting their business card correctly). The rösti was real, not some local interpretation like on the Galapagos and Java.
Looking forward to tomorrow. The Mekong Delta is famous for its rice, farmers get 3 harvests per year. Was a bit disappointed today that we were presented with honey instead.
2010-07-28
Hoan Hao Tourist Co., HCMC
Leaving Saigon. Going to the Mekong Delta for 3 days, and from there directly to Cambodia.
2010-07-24
Seawinds Hotel, Muine
Spent two nights here at this beach resort. There is a nice sandy stretch of beach just a few meters from our hotel, however the waves are quite big and thus swimming or snorkelling is not really possible. Kaarel had a lot of fun jumping into the waves. Quite a weird thing was that some hotels let their used water run directly into the sea and although it stinks, some people were bathing right there in the outflow...
Unfortunately Kaarel had to work and was feeling a bit sick (must be the strong air-conditioning in the hotels), so we stayed mostly at the hotel. This morning we planned to walk a few kilometres to the Fairy Spring: a creek running in a small canyon with nice rock formations and sand dunes, but it stared raining last night and has not stopped yet. The other main attraction here are the white and red sand dunes with a water lily pond somewhere in the middle. Must be quite nice, so next time we will visit it.
At noon we take a bus to Saigon and after a few days we have to leave Vietnam, as our visa is expiring soon. Looking forward to seeing Estonians in Cambodia (they are running a hotel in the south, at a beach), the first ones during a year of travelling!!! Could somebody please convince Kaarel that it could be fun to meet fellow countrymen?
Unfortunately Kaarel had to work and was feeling a bit sick (must be the strong air-conditioning in the hotels), so we stayed mostly at the hotel. This morning we planned to walk a few kilometres to the Fairy Spring: a creek running in a small canyon with nice rock formations and sand dunes, but it stared raining last night and has not stopped yet. The other main attraction here are the white and red sand dunes with a water lily pond somewhere in the middle. Must be quite nice, so next time we will visit it.
At noon we take a bus to Saigon and after a few days we have to leave Vietnam, as our visa is expiring soon. Looking forward to seeing Estonians in Cambodia (they are running a hotel in the south, at a beach), the first ones during a year of travelling!!! Could somebody please convince Kaarel that it could be fun to meet fellow countrymen?
2010-07-21
Hotel Nice Dream, Dalat
Reached Dalat (alt. ~1500m) this afternoon. Temperature is pleasant here: no need to choose between an hotel room with fan or with AC as neither is needed here. Lonely Planet raves about "elegant French-colonial villas" but during a brief visit to the town centre we failed to find it.
Spent yesterday evening in Nha Trang visiting the museum of Yersin and a complex of Cham temples, most of them dedicated to Shiva. This morning woke up at 5am and hung out with the rest of the Nha Trang people on the beach. Surprisingly the beach is most crowded early in the morning.
Tomorrow will try to visit the Hang Nga Crazy House and a silk farm.
Spent yesterday evening in Nha Trang visiting the museum of Yersin and a complex of Cham temples, most of them dedicated to Shiva. This morning woke up at 5am and hung out with the rest of the Nha Trang people on the beach. Surprisingly the beach is most crowded early in the morning.
Tomorrow will try to visit the Hang Nga Crazy House and a silk farm.
2010-07-18
Restaurant Cordon Bleu (Day Xanh), Hoi An
Small touristy town (UNESCO World Heritage), reminds us a bit of Luang Prabang in Laos. The old buildings which have somehow survived the several wars give the town a special atmosphere. These days the houses are tourist-oriented, hosting souvenirs, restaurants, and tailor shops.
Monday morning (now) it is quite pleasant, otherwise quite crowded with tourists and locals. The latter group contributes considerably to the noise pollution and other spam: constant honking and "buy from me", " everything one dollar". I misread the Lonely Planet, that motorbikes are banned from the centre of town. The reality is that "this town is for walkers and for primitive vehicle users" (as the signs declare at the entry points to the center) and that the numerous motorbikers are clearly among these primitive users.
One way to escape the noise is to bike to the Cua Dai beach (6 km away). The ride there is rough (spoiled by honking), but once there, it is quite relaxing. There are many simple restaurants that can keep an eye on your bikes, provide you with a deck chair and a beach umbrella, as long as you order something (the prices are somewhat higher than in town). Around sunset local women start to show up and set up their mobile food stalls, right at the waterfront, and start grilling meat over charcoal. Then the local customers also start streaming in and soon the beach gets quite crowded.
This morning as early as 5 am we took a tour to My Son, an other UNESCO World Heritage site, only an hour drive away, where the Hindu temples of the ancient Cham civilization stand. Or whatever remained after the heavy bombardment of the US forces. The site was indeed quite destroyed, but still quite impressive, considering that the oldest ones were built when the Hungarians were still riding around somewhere in the "Puszta".
This afternoon we will take an overnight bus to Nha Trang. Officially 12 hours, but based on our Hanoi-Hue bus experience, probably 3h longer.
Monday morning (now) it is quite pleasant, otherwise quite crowded with tourists and locals. The latter group contributes considerably to the noise pollution and other spam: constant honking and "buy from me", " everything one dollar". I misread the Lonely Planet, that motorbikes are banned from the centre of town. The reality is that "this town is for walkers and for primitive vehicle users" (as the signs declare at the entry points to the center) and that the numerous motorbikers are clearly among these primitive users.
One way to escape the noise is to bike to the Cua Dai beach (6 km away). The ride there is rough (spoiled by honking), but once there, it is quite relaxing. There are many simple restaurants that can keep an eye on your bikes, provide you with a deck chair and a beach umbrella, as long as you order something (the prices are somewhat higher than in town). Around sunset local women start to show up and set up their mobile food stalls, right at the waterfront, and start grilling meat over charcoal. Then the local customers also start streaming in and soon the beach gets quite crowded.
This morning as early as 5 am we took a tour to My Son, an other UNESCO World Heritage site, only an hour drive away, where the Hindu temples of the ancient Cham civilization stand. Or whatever remained after the heavy bombardment of the US forces. The site was indeed quite destroyed, but still quite impressive, considering that the oldest ones were built when the Hungarians were still riding around somewhere in the "Puszta".
This afternoon we will take an overnight bus to Nha Trang. Officially 12 hours, but based on our Hanoi-Hue bus experience, probably 3h longer.
2010-07-16
Hotel Ngọc Bình, Huế
Yesterday it was raining all day cooling down the air (which is otherwise around 40 degrees). We rented bikes for 1 USD each per day (motorbikes are also cheap at 3 USD per day) and drove out of the city to the south to visit the royal tombs. In the end we only managed to visit the Tu Duc tomb; the tomb of Dong Khanh was under restoration and closed to the visitors, the tomb of Thieu Tri was only partly accessible (it has not been restored at all), and the other tombs remained too far away (we started our bike trip only in the afternoon). The tombs are close to the Perfume River, the river bank offering a nice view to the area.
Today will take a 3.5h bus to Hoi An. Looking forward to this nice town which has banned all motorbikes from its center.
2010-07-12
Boat Imperial, Halong Bay
Trip going well: landscape impressive, food good, tour companions interesting. Will spend night on boat. Tomorrow Cat Ba island.
2010-07-11
Hanoi Lucky Hotel, Hanoi
Hanoi is not our favorite place. People are impolite, not very friendly and even rude sometimes (also with their fellow countrymen). The food we had so far was nothing special, in a small village even disgusting and caused diarrhea. Even in Hanoi we did not feel like trying street food, because it did not smell and look good. So it only leaves the expensive restaurants or the tourist restaurants, which are expensive and food id not good (had the worse fried rice here in SA Asia so far). Kaarel is missing his 7-eleven hot dogs from Thailand as they were cheap and good and gave a nice variety to the rice and noodle diet.
In Hanoi the streets are very crowded, there are millions of motorbikes and the drives have no manners, cross the red light, turn everywhere in every possible angle and only use their honks to drive. The prices are much higher than in Laos, but the service is worse. The only interesting thing so far was the water puppet theatre, although the movements and the puppets themselves are not that sophisticated as they were in Thailand. Visited the Temple of Literature, which was not really impressive, neither was the Ho Chi Mihn Museum (did not learn much about uncle Ho, as the displays seemed to be chaotic without temporal order, no information about his ideas and visions or his achievements, only many photographs of him). The old quarter was quite ok, there were some interesting shops: Buddhist shops, herbal medicine shops selling dried sea horse and pangolin (of course illegal) and weight reduction coffee, advertised with leptin on the label (no clue though how the adipocyte hormone would get into the coffee????). We also saw the weasel coffee sold here, although we thought it was a Javan specialty and produced by civet (the idea is that the civet eats the coffee beans and what comes out on the other end is collected -hopefully disinfected- and sold very expensive. The digestion process is supposed to give a special flavor to the coffee and is said to be the best coffee in the world and also the most expensive. En guete!!!).
So after that we are looking forward to leave Hanoi tomorrow. We booked a 3 days trip to Halong Bay. We are just wondering what the hook will be in that trip... Somehow we both have the gut feeling that it will not be perfect, but we let the tour operator surprise us...
In Hanoi the streets are very crowded, there are millions of motorbikes and the drives have no manners, cross the red light, turn everywhere in every possible angle and only use their honks to drive. The prices are much higher than in Laos, but the service is worse. The only interesting thing so far was the water puppet theatre, although the movements and the puppets themselves are not that sophisticated as they were in Thailand. Visited the Temple of Literature, which was not really impressive, neither was the Ho Chi Mihn Museum (did not learn much about uncle Ho, as the displays seemed to be chaotic without temporal order, no information about his ideas and visions or his achievements, only many photographs of him). The old quarter was quite ok, there were some interesting shops: Buddhist shops, herbal medicine shops selling dried sea horse and pangolin (of course illegal) and weight reduction coffee, advertised with leptin on the label (no clue though how the adipocyte hormone would get into the coffee????). We also saw the weasel coffee sold here, although we thought it was a Javan specialty and produced by civet (the idea is that the civet eats the coffee beans and what comes out on the other end is collected -hopefully disinfected- and sold very expensive. The digestion process is supposed to give a special flavor to the coffee and is said to be the best coffee in the world and also the most expensive. En guete!!!).
So after that we are looking forward to leave Hanoi tomorrow. We booked a 3 days trip to Halong Bay. We are just wondering what the hook will be in that trip... Somehow we both have the gut feeling that it will not be perfect, but we let the tour operator surprise us...
2010-07-08
Hanoi Lucky Hostel, Hanoi, Vietnam
Yesterday night reached Hanoi, after 19 hours in 2 different buses, first from Phonsavan (Laos) to Vinh (Vietnam), then from Vinh to Hanoi. First impressions of Vietnam quite negative: food disgusting; music loud, boring, and unavoidable; people not keeping their promises (the bus to Hanoi dumped us 10km from the center even though we had agreed on the center before); hostels were all booked out, the few remaining ones very expensive by Asian standards; lots of drunken foreign teenagers. I'm sure today will be better.
2010-07-06
An internet place, Phonsavan
Reached Phonsavan after 7h in a minivan. The road was so winding that it turned my stomach upside down. Tomorrow will visit one of the Plain of Jars sites, a jars quarry, a UXO field, a hospital in a cave, a war-scrap village, and a Russian tank.
2010-07-05
Nam Sok Guest House, Luang Prabang
In 30 minutes leaving for Phonsavan, a small town in the hills close to the Plain of Jars historical sites. The last 4 nights we spent in Luang Prabang (Louang Phabang), a very touristy UNESCO World Heritage site,
- visiting temples;
- swimming in the Kuang Si waterfalls (1h tuktuk drive from the town);
- climbing the sacred Phou Si hill in the center of the town;
- buying souvenirs, fruit shakes and French baguettes at the night market;
- speaking English with local schoolboys (a Big Brother Mouse initiative);
- visiting the Royal Palace (now National Museum), with the most famous Lao Buddha statue in a side chapel and in the courtyard a Soviet-made statue of the last king of Laos handing over the country to the communists (in 1975);
- observing the local alms ritual at 5-6am (involving long lines of teenage monks, old ladies and men giving each of them small portions of sticky rice, another set of old ladies selling such portions to tourists so that they can make the offering, and a bunch of tourists photographing everything).
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