Catching up

I have been negligent and need to catch you up on the Vietnam/Cambodia trip. Things will be a little out of chronological order because I posted the Halong Bay Christmas Eve/Day photos before I finished what we did in Danang and Hoi An, so I'll be backing up a bit.

On the way to Hoi An, we would have driven over the Truong Son Mountain Range, but it was so rainy and foggy that we took a 6 km long tunnel instead. It was much safer, but a bit disappointing that the weather was so socked in that we couldn't take the other route and see what is supposed to be spectacular views of the South China Sea. We stopped in Danang and visited the Cham Museum which is an open air museum of sandstone carvings. The Cham people are an ethnic group that likely started as Hindus but later followed Islam. The carvings we saw reflected both traditions. The museum also had photos of present day Cham celebrations and festivals - very colorful events.

We resumed our drive and passed China Beach which is a very long beach area where American GI's took their R&R during the Vietnam War. It is now being developed (over-developed, in my view) with large 5-star resorts and hotels. The up-side is that it is bringing much needed employment to this impoverished country.

We then stopped at the Marble Mountains which are five hills made of, you guessed it - marble. They were once islands and are said to represent each of the elements - metal, water, wind, fire, earth. There are many caves in which Buddhist sanctuaries have been built over the centuries. We took an elevator (yes, I wimped out on the climb) to near the top (but there was some climbing left to do once we got off the elevator) and visited some of these cave sanctuaries which were so mystical and awe inspiring. We walked all the way back down and it was a fairly difficult since the stairs were not of uniform height, were made of marble and were quite slippery, being made of marble.

Inside the cave temple at the Marble Mountains

On we went to Hoi An - a lovely, now small city which was once a major port for ships traveling to the far east from Portugal, Italy, Spain, etc. The market here was so interesting and very colorful.

Market at Hoi An

We took a boat trip on the Thun Bon River to Kim Bing Village on Cam Kim Island where there are families who have been shipbuilders and wood workers for generations. We then visited a silk making shop where we saw a demonstration of how the silk is gathered, spun and woven - and of course, saw a variety of beautiful products they make from the silk. Couldn't resist and had a silk jacket made - delivered that evening to the hotel.

Silk lanterns outside of silk shop

The next day was Christmas Eve and we left Hoi An very early to fly to Hanoi where we were picked up and driven for 3 hours to where we boarded the boat for our cruise on Halong Bay (see previous post). The area is a World Heritage site which is made up of about 2,000 limestone karsts and islets of different sizes and shapes, each with lush vegetation and rising dramatically out of the ocean. This is obviously a huge tourist draw.

We arrived at the port where thousands of tourists were milling around and cruise companies were collecting their passengers and getting them onto the small tenders that transfer them out to the cruise ships. There were passengers going on day cruises as well as those, like us, who were going on overnight cruises. What a circus it was! But we eventually got on our tender which took us on about a 20-minute ride out to our large wooden junk. It was a lovely ship with about 28 cabins. We were first taken to the dining room where we met some of our fellow passengers - a couple from Hawaii and another couple from St. Petersburg, Russia shared our table. The man from Hawaii was about my age and was originally from Chicago so we shared some stories. The Russian couple were very interesting - he is a lawyer whose English was a fair bit stronger than his wife's - an economist. There were a couple of excursions from the ship to some caves, but I took a pass on those, feeling a real need for some down time; besides, the scenery was amazing in and of itself!

It was unseasonably cold, however, and our Christmas Eve dinner was held on the upper deck where we were all wearing jackets - Pam even had on a toque and the Hawaiian couple had on parkas! The crew had planned all sorts of games and activities for the passengers for Christmas Eve. They handed out a list of games and the rules for the games; however, the English was so bad that we really couldn't figure out the rules! We had to wait for demonstrations and eventually got them figured out - with much laughter!

On Christmas morning there was a huge brunch on board the ship, another excursion to some caves and then we cruised back to port. The day was beautiful and I spent the cruising time on the top deck enjoying the sunshine which we hadn't seen for 4 days. When we got back to port the tender took us to a different place than where we had been dropped off. Everyone else seemed to have drivers waiting for them, but our driver was no where to be seen. A nice British family noticed that we were without driver and offered to have their driver phone our tour company. Thank goodness for that. He found that our driver had not been informed that we would be dropped off at another location, and was waiting for us where he had dropped us off the day before. It was only a 5 minute drive, but when our driver arrived he was stuttering and seemed so terrified. I imagined he thought he might lose his job or at least his tip because of the mix-up. I felt so bad for him and tried to reassure him that all was ok.

So off we went back to Hanoi where we met a new guide who, because we arrived quite late in the afternoon, took us on a rather whirlwind tour. We started at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum where we witnessed the changing of the guard. Then we went on to a pagoda, the name of which I can't remember. It was so interesting, tho, and it was the first university in Vietnam. We then were taken on a cyclo tour - that's in a cycle-driven rickshaw. We were toured all around the old quarter of Hanoi during the early evening when there was lots of traffic - the lights were beautiful. We were dropped at the theatre where we saw a water puppet show.

Pam in front of the Opera House on our cyclo tour of Hanoi

The next day, following some free time to wander the old quarter and poke into the many shops, we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. I was starting to feel quite tired and not quite right. We arrived in Siem Reap at about 9:00 p.m. and taken immediately to our hotel. The next day I woke up with a bad case of "la tourista" and could not leave the hotel. Pam and our guide went to see a few sites and brought me some Imodium. By 4:00 I was feeling better and we headed out to see the Bayon Temple. It was amazing! This is the temple that has huge stone faces on the exterior surfaces. We were fortunately enough to see this at sunset when the light makes it look so mystical and serene. Quite an experience.

Bayon Temple - see the faces in the side of the rock?

On our last day we had to make up for lost time. My body was suffering from being so dehydrated despite the massive amount of water I drank. Everything was still off-kilter. We headed off to Angkor Wat - the largest and most well-known temple.

Angkor Wat temple

You walk in about a half kilometre to the temple. It was beautiful and there was so much to learn about it. Our guide was so knowledgeable and told us about the temple in great detail. However, it was very hot and after about an hour, I was starting to show signs of heat stroke. Our guide had to get our driver to come into the grounds (usually not permitted) to pick me up. A half hour of sitting under the air conditioning vent revived me enough, however, that I was than able to walk around the next temple. After lunch we went to Ta Prohm which is being excavated, but is overgrown with tree roots and foliage - from the size of the trees and roots, it is amazing to think how long this site had gone before being discovered.

Tree growing up over Ta Prohm temple

That evening we headed back to Doha on an overnight flight through Bangkok. The entire trip to Vietnam and Cambodia was wonderful, but it is always great to get home to my own bed and belongings. We had a few days before returning to work, and it was a good thing we did as I had come down with a low-grade cold/fever thing and was generally just exhausted from being on the go for 12 days. I was truly grateful for the down time.

New Year's Eve was a non-event for me and on New Year's Day I think I slept the entire day. We headed back to work on Jan. 2nd and hit the ground running as we prepared for the new batch of students and the returning students. Our numbers are growing and things have been very busy. It's a good busy as we are so pleased that interest in our programs is growing.

One of my favorite places to go here in Doha is The King of Frames - a framing shop that is a real dive, but so much fun. Choosing mats and frames for pictures I have picked up in my travels is about the only creative thing I do and I love it! The 'King' is an old man who normally sits in a chair by the door and says nothing while we (I generally go to this shop with at least 2 friends) pull out our pictures and try different colour mats and pull frame samples off the wall and try them out. There are 3-4 other men who work there who offer their opinions and suggestions. The 'King' would only speak up when we asked, "how much?" He says an amount (which is ridiculously low by Canadian standards - labor is very cheap here). There are no receipts, no one writes down frame or mat numbers or colors - they just remember it all. Occasionally, if there are more than three of us, he will write down on a scrap of paper the number of pieces and the amount. You can leave a deposit, if you want; or you can just pay the whole amount when you pick up your pictures - usually only about 2-3 days later. The results are always beautiful. These guys have gotten to know us - we are rather good, frequent customers. I used to imagine that when we walked in they would roll their eyes and think, "Not these crazy Canadian ladies again!" But now I think they actually like us and look forward to when we come. In fact, the old guy has gotten a hair cut, dresses a bit better and the last two times we came in, he talked and talked like we were old friends! He's looking for a new wife because he only has 13 children and wants to have more than his mother did - 19! I think I'm out of the running for that honored role!

I have to learn a new skill now - how to use a blow dryer, flat iron and/or curling iron. I had my hair straightened! Since I've not had long hair since my kids were tiny - more than 30 years ago - I need to learn to use the new peraphernalia to keep it straight. Wish me luck!

Do you recognize this woman?!