Exploring South Vietnam

Our first order of business was procuring a rental scooter for our trip northwards from Ho Chi Minh of South Vietnam. Heading out was a bit of an ordeal, travelling an extensive distance in a dichotomy of road conditions before the hectic congestion of traffic eased. Some roads were well paved and others were like being on a trampoline as we bumped and jarred over the numerous potholes and uneven surface. At times, we thought "This can't possibly be the right road!"

Our large map and reality didn't always jibe and signs were few and far between, even at intersections. Small towns many times were not indicated on the map. Asking locals for directions produced haphazard results as most rural people spoke no English so it usually took the enquiry of many to get a dependable direction.

On one occasion, one man pointed in one direction and his buddy shook his head and pointed in the opposite direction. What! Now what? The two had a brief discussion and both eventually agreed on the direction we were headed. The road was horrendous. But it eventually became fairly smooth pavement.

Sometimes we had to backtrack and try again. We tried to take it all in stride and as part of the experience and as the expression goes "We are not lost, we are just on an adventure". Even with a little frustration, we always got to our destination - maybe a bit late, but we arrived.

Woman tending her roadside rice paddy

Our stops at day's end were varied - some less than ideal but some very beautiful and interesting places. We enjoyed Dalat and Nha Trang for example. The approach to Dalat was along a twisting and verdant mountainous road where with each mile the altitude went up and the temperature and rain came down. We arrived in rain gear, chilled to the bone and the decision to splurge on a luxurious hotel room for a long hot shower was easy.

Dalat has several suitable nicknames such as City of a Thousand Flowers, City of a Thousand Palms, City in the Fog, and Little Paris. As we were riding in the dry season, we called it Pretty City in the Cold Wet Clouds!

One of the reasons for our trip to Dalat and Nha Trang was to find the artisans who create beautiful pictures by embroidering with multiple coloured fine thread. Some were so intricately perfect that they looked like photos. There were also pictures that were embroidered on both sides of a see-through fabric, ideal for viewing with a double-sided frame.

Perfect artistry

The next day, again in the cool high altitude air that was laden with mist and threatened rain, we headed out, once more snaking through the steep mountain roads. But this time we were descending, heading for the coast and a hotter climate.

Water below!

Nha Trang is a coastal city that is now popular with divers, backpackers, and Russian tourists. Downtown area was especially busy and full of high-rise hotels. Eateries were everywhere including beside the long stretch of beautiful golden sand.

From Nha Trang, we started to make our way back to Ho Chi Minh City taking a more coastal route. The sights were different from the interior...fishing villages, sand dunes, and miles of vacant beaches.

More boats

A peasant's limo

Back in Ho Chi Minh, we met a Canadian couple and the 4 of us went to the Bitexco Tower for a sunset cocktail and the great 360 degree view of the City below. It is considered the third tallest in Vietnam at 262.5 m (861 feet). But that is miniature compared to the tallest in the world at over 800 m (over 2,700 feet) in Dubai!

Tower with helipad (photo copied from the Internet)

Ho Chi Minh below

SOUTH VIETNAM

The next couple of days, we continued eastward on our motorcycle through the flatlands of Cambodia, crossing the Mekong River once again as we headed to the border of South Vietnam. We spent our last Cambodia night at the border town of Bavet. The hotel there agreed to let us leave the motorcycle in their secure parking for our sojourn into Vietnam as we found no way past the restrictions of taking it into their country.

In the morning with very little border traffic, we found it was a breeze to get processed and through the officialdom for entry into Vietnam. We then caught a bus for the 2-hour ride to the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh (formerly called Saigon) and into its labyrinth of streets chockfull with frenetic traffic.

We easily found a clean and cheap hotel in a popular area for budget travellers. Like North Vietnam, we saw many of the same skinny buildings sandwiched between others.

Smiling Bayon

The temple at Bayon is at the center of Angkor Thom of the Angkor complex and was built about 100 years after Angkor Wat. This temple has 4 smiling faces looking north, south, east, and west on EACH of the 54 towers.

Bayon Temple

Bayon is full of smiling faces throughout the temple, some say between 2,000 and 3,000! You feel like you are being watched...

How many can you count?

What a happy place. We were left in awe and our advice to all is to definitely put Angkor Wat and its many sites on your bucket list.

Ta Prohm

We continued our amazing exploration of the Angkor sites after visiting Angkor Wat earlier in the day, including Ta Prohm for example (a location for the 2001 movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie) which struggles to escape a relentless jungle embrace.

Ta Prohm

Bits of rubble

Nature's overgrowth and destruction

A scene from Tomb Raider

Larger than life

Strolling through time

Ta Prohm has mostly been left to nature, but now the experts are trying to preserve it as nature is becoming too destructive to the temples.

Angkor Wat

Of the several impressive ancient Khmer temples scattered around Cambodia, we saved the best for last.

Just to the north of the present day city of Siem Reap in the jungle flatlands was the seat of the complex Khmer society of centuries ago. Discovered antiquities pop out of the steamy overgrowth here and there, over many square kilometres. The uncovered sites are mostly impressive temples that were the focal point of those prosperous people and as further evidence of their industriousness are the remains of a lengthy labyrinth of man-made canals and lakes.

The most magnificent of these temple edifices is Angkor Wat and is distinct not only for its size (just over 162 ha) and intricate and complex stonework but for its intact condition. Words, and for that matter, pictures, cannot capture the scope and wonder of it all.

We travelled on our motorcycle on paved roads with the rest of the tourist traffic from one prodigious ruin site to another of the Angkor area, each in various forms and features and in various degrees of ruin such as Angkor Thom, Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm, Bayon, etc.

Approaching the Angkor complex

Over 3,000 nymphs carved into walls of Angkor Wat

Walking down the outside wall of...

...800 metres of intricate and astonishing bas-reliefs (carvings)

Inner area, outside of a temple

One of Angkor Wat's towers

Made of mostly sandstone, the thousands and thousands of tourist footsteps are slowly causing erosion. Steps are being taken to try to preserve this UNESCO World Heritage site.

More ruins

Continuing further east on our motorcycle in the hilly terrain just below the Laos border in Cambodia, we were looking for a UNESCO World Heritage ancient temple site called Preah Vihear (meaning The Temple in the Sky).

Arriving at the park entrance, the official warned us of the steep road and suggested we take their 4x4 shuttle, but we confidently declined and continued up the long road. The last part was indeed steep and it was all our loaded Honda could do in low gear to get us up to the top.

The site, more than 1,000 years old, consists of 5 pavillions and 4 courtyards that stretch more than 800 metres on a gradual incline culminating on the edge of the plateau's cliffs affording distant vista over the flatlands in the distance to the south.

Just a fraction of the site

Coming through

The kingdom laid out below

Finished with ruins for the day, we headed south to Siem Reap making it a long and full day of riding. We had a delicious supper of French baguette with cheese, Vietnam spring rolls with shrimp, and wine. For dessert, we had purchased earlier from locals on the side of the road barbecuing something in bamboo - sticky rice with mango stuffed inside. Very different and delicious, another first!

Ruins

With full clearance from Cambodia Customs to take our motorcycle into the country, we left the Poipet border town and headed on a road less travelled.

Rice fields in the flatlands

Most tourist traffic makes a beeline to the most famous ruins of Angkor Wat but we wanted to see some less visited and more remote sites first so we turned north and followed the Laos border to find the ruins of Preah Banteay Chhmar of Cambodia.

The state of these 12th century ruins and the lack of official presence made it feel like we stumbled through the jungle and found ancient remnants of a lost civilization.

Can you see the rock faces?

Nature - the great recycler

Time to say goodbye

Return to Poipet

Official permit in hand from Phnom Penh (Cambodia), we grabbed a minivan for the 8-hour ride back to pick up our motorcycle at the border where we had to leave it at Customs in Poipet (also Cambodia). We were hoping to simply hand in our Customs paperwork from Phnom Penh and be finished, thus giving our Thai-registered motorcycle the clearance to continue in and through Cambodia.

But no way, not quite yet! The Poipet Customs needed some time to do their due diligence, but after a couple of hours, we finally had our clearance. While waiting for the return of our file, we checked into a room at a hotel casino, even though we are not gamblers, as it was late in the day and we could not leave until morning.

FYI: Poipet is a well-known gambling town with many casinos. Busloads of people arrive from Thailand to partake in the activities as gambling is illegal in Thailand.

Definitely not Vegas

Waiting and sightseeing

Day 2 in Phnom Penh: We received a phone call early in the morning from the Cambodia Ministry of Tourism requesting another change in our typed letter of yesterday. We thought "Here we go - the slow wheels of bureaucracy." We immediately went there, made the change, and were asked to wait.

After about 10 minutes of cordial conversation with a staff member, we were given a file folder containing copies of all the pertinent paperwork and Jordan was ushered upstairs to the Deputy Minister who, to our happy surprise, quickly stamped and signed the papers and with a smile said we were done there, but must next go to Customs to finish up.

Arriving at Customs, we were requested to leave our file and pick it up at 17:00 so we left for more sightseeing.

We went to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. We had previously read a non-fiction book entitled Stay Alive, My Son (by Yin Yathay) so were familiar with the tragic history of the Killing Fields and the Khmer Rouge.

During this horrific period, the Khmer Rouge indiscriminately rounded up thousands of persons for questioning, torture, and execution. One of the most notorious venues for their ghastly endeavours was the Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh, once a happy high school converted into dark and dingy cells of despair.

Catalogue photos of the prisoners were left behind after the fall of the regime and are now displayed as a poignant reminder of the brutality. Of the rough estimate of the 14,000 to 20,000 people imprisoned here, only a handful survived.

Tuol Sleng (also called S-21) was only 1 of nearly 200 secret prisons where people were tortured and executed by the Khmer Rouge.

Reverent contemplation

At 17:00 back at Customs, we happily picked up our stamped and completed file of our motorcycle permit from Customs, albeit in a sombre mood after our visit to S-21.

Phnom Penh

Early in the morning of July 31st, we caught the express bus to Phnom Penh from Battambang of Cambodia. Upon arriving in Phnom Penh, we immediately rented a scooter and hotel room. The next morning, we were off to Customs to get the special permit required to bring our own Thai-registered motorcycle into Cambodia.

Customs sent us off to the Ministry of Tourism where they told us it could take 7 to 10 days to receive the permit! We looked very forlorn and said we wouldn't have any time left to explore the rest of beautiful Cambodia. After a huddle, the staff then indicated that they might be able to expedite the process and that we needed to type a letter to the Minister of Tourism with our request.

Using one of their computers and a sample letter, I typed the letter. They suggested a couple of changes, printed it, and said they would give it along with copies of our other pertinent papers to the higher-ups and try to put a rush on it.

Now the waiting game started. For the rest of the day, we visited the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda on the shores of the mighty Mekong. The Royal Palace complex is where the King and Queen reside but their living quarters and several pavillions are closed off to the public.

Building at Royal Palace complex

Stupa at Royal Palace complex

A building called the Silver Pagoda gets its name from the 5 tons of 5,000 silver floor tiles. Unfortunately all but a few of these ornate tiles were totally covered by rugs for protection from the many footsteps of tourists. In the center of the interior's large open space sits the 90-kg life-sized solid gold Buddha speckled with 9,584 diamonds, the largest being 26 carats. It was placed at ground level in a glassed cage but roped off to keep tourists back, making it difficult to see all the gems.

Competing for attention is the Emerald Buddha that sits high up so it cannot be seen very easily, though its stand is attractively gilded. Whether the Buddha is made of crystal or glass is in debate.

Photo taking was forbidden within.

CAMBODIA

Leaving the small Thai town of Chachoengsao on the 29th of July, we did a 2-hour cruise on dry roads to the bustling border of Aranyaprathet Thailand/Poipet Cambodia where the skies promptly opened up and dropped a deluge on us - the first since leaving Phuket 6 days earlier. We couldn't complain though as we were travelling during the rainy season.

We had tried to enter Cambodia last year at a quiet border crossing from Laos and were denied entry with the motorcycle, being told that before foreign registered vehicles can enter, a special clearance permit would have to be obtained and that permit was only issued at the capital Phnom Penh, a long ways inland. Could this unusual and complicated requirement be true?

Now we were about to find out if this border's officials mandated the same. So as we were making our way through the officialdom which involved running the gauntlet of "facilitators" of questionable status and fees, it was suggested by some that as there was no control at Customs, we could avoid checking in with them and just go on through and hit the road.

As we didn't want to skirt the law or encounter any future problems, we voluntarily went straight to Customs where it was confirmed that we DID need a permit and it was only issued at the capital. A kindly Customs official said we could leave our motorcycle (with no charge) behind locked gates at the Customs building as we would have to take a 6- to 7-hour bus trip to the capital Phnom Penh to get this permit.

Recent Cambodian history has been cruel (an understatement) to its citizens and even today they are struggling in penury in an underdeveloped country, unsupported and ignored by their civil servants. This was evident in the immediate scenes that hit us, where huge overloaded carts were pulled by hand on dusty, horn blaring streets or the hustlers trying to depart you from your dollars. But it's with empathy we say, it brings out the worst in some, and with admiration, the best in most others.

Cambodia chaos

Once finished with border business and as it was still early in the day, we hopped on a bus heading towards Phnom Penh but with a stop for a day in Battambang, a place we wanted to visit. It was an older bus and didn't make very good time dodging all kinds of traffic on a 2-lane road that's muddy when it rains and dusty when dried. But 3 hours later (118 km), we finally arrived and took a tuk tuk to a cheap but adequate hotel room.

The next morning, we took a tuk tuk out into the country to the infamous Bamboo Train. It's actually a number of individual small flat cars with flat beds of bamboo slats, 3 m long, and they run on an abandoned rail line. Up to 15 persons can ride on the flat bed with the driver manipulating the motor. But we only saw 2 to 4 persons on each flat bed.

All aboard!

We were propelled down warped, misaligned tracks, hair blowing in the breeze, listening to the multitude of birds chirping and through small clouds of butterflies, through the ubiquitous rice paddies for about 20 minutes before stopping. We stretched our legs where the villagers offered drinks, snacks, and souvenirs.

Dismantled trains at rest stop

Click on our YouTube video to see drivers taking the trains off the tracks while waiting at the rest stop:

https://youtu.be/oIH7TyFLtio

Then back on the train for the return trip of maybe 20 minutes. Maybe, because if 2 cars meet on the track, the one with the least number of people would have to dismantle and heft it off to 1 side letting the other train pass. Our car stopped to help several others get put back together so it was much slower to return.

On the road again!

Every time we head out on a road trip, Willie's song On the Road Again plays in our head. He must have been a travellin' man. Our 1-month Thai Visa expires on July 30th so we are going to Cambodia and southern Vietnam (after just returning from Nepal on June 30th where we had flown to for 8 days). This will complete our tours of Asia.

Leaving Sea Turtle Phuket on the July 23rd, it was an easy 2-day, 850-km run to Bangkok  on our motorcycle; here we applied for a Vietnam Visa which takes 4 days to process. Not wanting to hang out in busy Bangkok for that long as we had been there several times in the past, we made tracks to the touristy beach City of Pattaya to visit a friend from my hometown and do some sightseeing.

Jeff runs Pattaya Bungy Jump where we each, 1 at a time, took his exhilarating "slingshot" ride. We were strapped into a harness that is attached to long bungy cords that are attached to 2 tall poles. We were pulled back many yards till the bungies were stretched achingly taut and then released. We have never experienced any G-Forces as strong and instant as this thrilling ride as we were shot out like rag dolls then back and forth till we caught our breath.

Watch this video to see my experience.

https://youtu.be/t5M5HzOKhYc

It was suggested that we visit the Nongnooch Tropical Gardens. The Gardens cover a huge area consisting of several different themed sections such as orchids, bonsai, cactus, French, Italian, bird aviary, mini-zoo, etc.

Not real elephants!

Throughout the Gardens, you could walk on the shaded upper level boardwalk for great views of all below or you could stroll at ground level through and up close to the vegetation.

Where French meets Asia

It also had an area of amazing pottery designs...

Potty mouth

An avid car enthusiast, Al Baan Hawk, displays his very impressive car collection in a large room of the Gardens. Jordan, who knows his cars, said there were some there he had never seen or heard of before. But his favourite, the Lotus Super 7, was featured.

KTM: have you ever seen this car before?

The next morning, we went to check out The Sanctuary of Truth. This is an amazing all-wood temple building filled with an intermingling of Buddhist and Hindu statues intricately and labouriously carved beyond belief. We were in awe of the detail and the scope of the work.

The Sanctuary of Truth

Every square inch of intricate detail

The Sanctuary was started in 1981 but it will probably never be finished as new carvings are always being added and the older carvings are constantly being rejuvenated by dozens of artisan workers.

Statuesque appearances

Employing artistry

To watch the artisans at work, click on our short YouTube video:

https://youtu.be/CBMQg8N-cCA

Returning to Bangkok, we picked up our passports with Vietnam Visas and immediately headed east towards Cambodia, stopping along the way at the small town of Chachoengsao to retire our weary bodies before tomorrow's entry (July 29th) to Cambodia where Visas can be obtained at the border crossing.

Last days of Nepal

Our last few days in Pokhara were uneventful. We wiled away the time wandering the town shops and stopping here and there for coffee and bites. At 1 stop at a little street cafe, the young proprietor explained that Pokhara was a part-time home and his other enterprise was guiding on Mount Everest. He had summitted twice and when we asked him if he knew Tenzing Norgay, he said "Oh yeah, he was my neighbour up there." (Tenzing Norgay: With Sir Edmund Hillary, he was 1 of the first 2 to reach the summit.)

It was the looming wet and overcast that kept us close to our hotel and the "Delhi Belly" even closer to it. After a day of expelling fluids, and with our departure date looming, I checked into the small tourist hospital for some intravenous rehydrating, tests, and the prescribed remedy meds. Judy stayed at my side, waiting for my recuperation. I was barely stabilized in time for the return to Kathmandu.

Hydrating in the hospital

It was unfortunate that the weather didn't cooperate to expose the dramatic mountain scene that is the highlight of this place, however we did get some glimpses on our bus ride back to Kathmandu.

The first half of our last day in Nepal had us wandering the back alley shops in Kathmandu.

Crowded street-alley

Pallet of bright wool colours

The last and most pleasant venue was our juxtaposed visit to the Garden of Dreams. Here, stepping through the entry gates was like travelling through a portal from 1 extreme world to an opposite extreme.

Outside the Garden walls was Kathmandu's chaotic street scene complete with the din of honking, jostling traffic of all sorts, incessant horn blaring, barking dogs, fumes from exhaust and who knows what else, and hemmed in by buildings lacking any architectural merit let alone any code compliance!

But stepping into the serene Gardens, it was as if time slowed down. One could easily imagine royals of days gone by, lounging in the tranquil setting.

Garden of Dreams

Serene lotus pond

The meticulously maintained grounds featured cloistered walks, lotus ponds, tastefully planted greenery, terraces, and benches that invited quiet contemplation. There was a chic little cafe set in 1 of the Garden's classical buildings where on the raised veranda we lazed over a light lunch welcoming a respite from the world outside.

Most peaceful terraced cafe

There were extremes in Nepal to be sure, and it's good to experience all types, but it was nice to get back to Sea Turtle in Phuket Thailand where our real life and story continues.