Sunday, January 3, 2010
Happy 2010 from Thailand!
Sawasdee-kaa!: Back in Bangkok...
We flop into the hotel room after the flight from Siem Reap. First day back in Bangkok is a wash. With Dave sick in bed, I head out into the streets alone to try and find a laundry place. We're not in a particularly touristy area so all the signs are in Thai and almost no one I meet speaks English. After an hour of walking, I finally find the place. Two Thai sisters grab my clothes and count everything out as their shirtless dad (I assume) with a belly big with ascites and glasses thick as jars yells indiscriminately from his perch on the Laz-y Boy. They hand me my receipt and with a "Khap kun kaa" (thank you) I'm on my way to find soup for Dave.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Soa s'day! Cambodia and the lost (and found) capital city of Angkor
We meet our guide, Sal (short for Kosal, his name from his years as an orphan in a Buddhist monastery), a little after 5AM (it was supposed to be 4:50AM, but Sal overly informed us he was partying with his buddies and overslept). We head out on the darkened road, chauffeured by Chum in the remork (like a tuk tuk), with the caravan of other tourists. Arriving at Angkor Wat in total darkness, Sal deftly guides us to a picture spot where plenty of would-be photographers are lying in wait for the legendary Angkor Wat sunrise. As Sal recovers from his hangover, we sit and listen to the clicks, beeps and other little sounds digital camera manufacturers dream up. Suddenly, the first lights of dawn fill the sky and the ancient 12th-century temple reveals itself. Built in honor of the Hindu god Vishnu, the temple was later transformed into a Buddhist temple (in fact, some of the Vishnu statues now sport the orange robes of the Buddhist monks). Sal takes us around, regaling us with stories from his studies of both Hindu and Buddhist philosophy while making sure to point out the bullet holes, beheaded Buddha statues and other tragic remnants of the time of the Khmer Rouge rule in the late 1970s.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Xin Chao!: Hanoi, again.
During the second stop, we saw the Hanoi of 4:30AM (after arriving on the overnight train from Sapa)… the streets were quiet and empty and we were tired. After sleeping for a couple hours in the only seedy motel open at that hour, we regrouped and decided to get a feel for the history of Hanoi. First stop: a traditional Vietnamese breakfast of pho: noodle soup with vegetables and meat (just veggies for me, of course). We toured around in little chair pushed by a tough Vietnamese man who showed us the sights, a statue of Lenin, a military flag tower and Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum – a monolith of stark concrete architecture located in front of Ba Dinh square where he delivered a speech declaring Vietnam’s independence in 1945.
We then toured the Temple of Literature, Vietnam’s first university and a structure that is about 1000 years old. The university originally centered on the teachings of Confucius.
After walking back to the seedy motel to grab our stuff, we headed on to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.