Sawadii-kha!
So we're back in Bangkok, and we've had another 'holiday'; this time it's been an actual holiday and not a fake holiday where we spend all of our time schlepping around and having places to be and things to do. This actual holiday has involved.. well, nothing. And it's been GREAT! We checked into a relatively nice hotel with a pool and seats for schloching about, and we've spent the past couple of days just relaxing and winding down before our wonderful 15 hours of flights tomorrow. We're saving money and the stress of an early start by going to the airport at 11pm tonight, for an 8am flight tomorrow, although I don't know how good a night's sleep we'll get hanging around in Departures at the airport.
We've been to Khao San Road market a few times, to get the last few bits and pieces, and I've managed to get my nails done, but generally there is nothing to report nor take photos of. It's been GREAT though, did I mention that?
The border crossing was indeed stress-free, somehow it all worked despite our coach leaving 45 mins later than it should've done while we sat in the bus while it went nowhere, before being told "bus broken. you change bus.", and then once we'd changed, the bus we'd been on originally just drove off, ostensibly not broken. Luckily we got to the border before there was really much of a queue, and at the other side I managed to schmooze a bit and get us on a cheap minibus to Bangkok. The journey was quick but the driving was APPALLING - the driver had no clue what clutch control was, or indeed that it might be desireable to maybe stop and start gradually, rather than stop-start-stop-start and driving mere centimetres from the vehicle in front, and this was mostly apparent in the worse traffic I've ever seen outside of horriffic hold-ups on the M25; there was no accident and neither was there a particular problem, this was apparently normal for Bangkok with the sheer weight of traffic meaning it took us as long to get from the outskirts to the centre of Bangkok, as it did for us to get from Aranya Prathet on the border, 140km to Bangkok. Speaking of which, I've just surveyed my passport which looks AWESOME with all the visas and stamps etc. It's not a reason to travel of course, but it's a very happy by-product.
So if I can get back on the free wifi at Abu Dhabi when we connect, I'll post a further update, but otherwise, expect us back all being well on Tuesday night. Ps thanks TfL staff for striking today/tomorrow, that's really what I want to deal with after a 3-week schlep around South-East Asia plus a whole day's worth of flying. Planning on getting the Picadilly Line to Green Park, changing to the Victoria line for 1 stop, and then getting the national rail to Nunhead. If the transport gods are listening, can you please do me a massive favour and keep that route free, please?
Lots of love to you all and see you very soon!
xxxxxx Louise
Monday, 6 September 2010
Friday, 3 September 2010
Siem Reap
Good evening, although it feels a lot more like the middle of the night, such has been our sleeping/waking pattern over the past day or so. We woke up at 4am this morning to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise, and then explored that and the surrounding temples until about midday, before collapsing back into the tuk-tuk and returning to the town. The temples were mind-blowing and very impressive; sunrise wasn't as good as it could've been as it was cloudy, but seeing the morning light bathe the temple and a perfect reflection in the water in front of it was absolutely stunning. I have lots of pictures, but to be honest you'll do much better to just google image search "Angkor Wat" for an idea. We had a tuk-tuk driver taking us from place to place, although he wasn't the one we'd pre arranged the day before: upon arriving at the Siem Reap bus station, we found a tuk-tuk driver and agreed that we'd pay him 15 dollars to take us to our hotel then, and then to drive us around the next day, and even though we didn't pay him anything yesterday and he would've had a guaranteed job today, he didn't turn up! We waited about 20 mins and then decided that we'd miss the sunrise if we didn't leave soon - so we found another driver, who agreed on 10 dollars for the day and ended up being really nice, like at one point during the intermittent torrential rain, we'd hopped out of the tuk-tuk to use the toilets, and then the rain started again, so he came to find us (about a minute-long walk in the driving rain) with two umbrellas so we could get back to the tuk-tuk in relative comfort :D
There was one incident/altercation when we were sitting across the lake/big puddle from Angkor Wat at about 6am with all the other tourists (there are SO MANY JAPANESE TOURISTS HERE, HOW DO THEY ALL AFFORD IT?!!?) sitting on red plastic chairs, and the stall-holders were flogging their wares (from the moment you leave your tuk-tuk at the entrance to all the temples, you're accosted by people offering LADY YOU WANT BRACELET? I HAVE COLD DRINK JUST ONE DOLLAR. YOU LIKE T-SHIRT? and one of the stall-holders came over and tried to get us to go to his food stall, just the usual until he said that his stall was number 007 and his name was James Bond. I'm not really a film-afficionado but I didn't recognise him: but then again I've only seen the Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery films so what do I know. Anyway, he kept insisting that since we were sitting on 'his' chairs, we had to buy a coffee from him. We went to a different stall when we did eventually want breakfast (one where they hadn't tried to tout us and where no-one else was sitting; they're all offering exactly the same food for exactly the same price and I wanted to discourage hassly selling), we found that all the stalls had EXACTLY THE SAME chairs! He still had a go at us on our way back past him, and insisted that we had lied and stolen the use of his chairs. Sigh.
Anyway, so temple exploration was fun, I enjoyed feeling like Indiana Jones and scaling perilously steep stone steps in the rain, and generally not understanding how they managed such amazing structures. But it got to about midday, we'd been up for 8 hours and it was enough.
Following that, we had some lunch at a place offering FREE FI-WI, and then ice-cream / sorbet. (Mark, I expect you at Heathrow on Tuesday evening with a HUGE tub of raspberry ripple). Ricky was going to get a fish massage (where you put your feet into a tank of fish who, apparently, enjoy nibbling the dead skin off your feet - although I don't know how the fish are able to communicate their culinary likes/dislikes to the proprietors), but ended up not due to rain and logistics, ie. came back to the hotel because of rain, and then didn't get changed and go out because we both fell asleep for several hours. So now, although it's only 7.30, it really feels like the middle of the night, and we're ready for sleep very soon, especially since we have a 4.30 start for the schlep back to Bangkok - not really looking forward to that, but it's overland schlep or expensive flight.
Siem Reap is nicer than you'd imagine, given it's just the town that houses the millions of visitors who flock to see the ancient temples. We're staying at a Burmese/Khmer guesthouse where the staff are super-super-nice and helpful and we've got our cheapest room yet, with the television that just keeps on giving. We've had a lot of animal programmes, including animal programmes with snakes/spiders that Ricky insists on watching even though he's deathly afraid of them - he's doing it right now!!
Anyway, to bed now I think. Hopefully the next time I update will be following a straightforward border-crossing and I will be non-stressed and generally serene and calm. Fingers crossed!
Lots of love,
Louise xxx
There was one incident/altercation when we were sitting across the lake/big puddle from Angkor Wat at about 6am with all the other tourists (there are SO MANY JAPANESE TOURISTS HERE, HOW DO THEY ALL AFFORD IT?!!?) sitting on red plastic chairs, and the stall-holders were flogging their wares (from the moment you leave your tuk-tuk at the entrance to all the temples, you're accosted by people offering LADY YOU WANT BRACELET? I HAVE COLD DRINK JUST ONE DOLLAR. YOU LIKE T-SHIRT? and one of the stall-holders came over and tried to get us to go to his food stall, just the usual until he said that his stall was number 007 and his name was James Bond. I'm not really a film-afficionado but I didn't recognise him: but then again I've only seen the Pierce Brosnan and Sean Connery films so what do I know. Anyway, he kept insisting that since we were sitting on 'his' chairs, we had to buy a coffee from him. We went to a different stall when we did eventually want breakfast (one where they hadn't tried to tout us and where no-one else was sitting; they're all offering exactly the same food for exactly the same price and I wanted to discourage hassly selling), we found that all the stalls had EXACTLY THE SAME chairs! He still had a go at us on our way back past him, and insisted that we had lied and stolen the use of his chairs. Sigh.
Anyway, so temple exploration was fun, I enjoyed feeling like Indiana Jones and scaling perilously steep stone steps in the rain, and generally not understanding how they managed such amazing structures. But it got to about midday, we'd been up for 8 hours and it was enough.
Following that, we had some lunch at a place offering FREE FI-WI, and then ice-cream / sorbet. (Mark, I expect you at Heathrow on Tuesday evening with a HUGE tub of raspberry ripple). Ricky was going to get a fish massage (where you put your feet into a tank of fish who, apparently, enjoy nibbling the dead skin off your feet - although I don't know how the fish are able to communicate their culinary likes/dislikes to the proprietors), but ended up not due to rain and logistics, ie. came back to the hotel because of rain, and then didn't get changed and go out because we both fell asleep for several hours. So now, although it's only 7.30, it really feels like the middle of the night, and we're ready for sleep very soon, especially since we have a 4.30 start for the schlep back to Bangkok - not really looking forward to that, but it's overland schlep or expensive flight.
Siem Reap is nicer than you'd imagine, given it's just the town that houses the millions of visitors who flock to see the ancient temples. We're staying at a Burmese/Khmer guesthouse where the staff are super-super-nice and helpful and we've got our cheapest room yet, with the television that just keeps on giving. We've had a lot of animal programmes, including animal programmes with snakes/spiders that Ricky insists on watching even though he's deathly afraid of them - he's doing it right now!!
Anyway, to bed now I think. Hopefully the next time I update will be following a straightforward border-crossing and I will be non-stressed and generally serene and calm. Fingers crossed!
Lots of love,
Louise xxx
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Saigon to Phnom Penh
According to the BBC, it's 93 fahrenheit here. According to the Louise weather forecast it is HOT HOT HOT. And humid, so very humid. I've just returned from a sweltering round of haggling and schlepping in the Russian Market (so-called because lots of Russians used to go there, not because they sell lots of big furry hats) under a tin roof, which was about as breezy as it sounds. I keep dabbing at my face with a napkin, but I'm still glistening constantly (women don't sweat, they glow). However, I absolutely love Phnom Penh, and have decided that it's my favourite place on this whole trip (unless Siem Reap turns out to be nice, which is doubtful since it's just a launch-pad for the zillions of visitors to the ancient Wats of Angkor etc.). The people of Laos were certainly lovely, and Luang Prabang was wonderful, but Phnom Penh has a certain something about it that makes me want to come back – and this is the first place I've been to that feels like I could live and work here (though obviously London remains my one and only true love in terms of home).
The Khmers are very friendly and non-hassley (general offering of tuk-tuks/motorcycle rides excepted) and their relentless cheeriness in the face of all that has gone before (upon which much more later) is admirable and infectious. Plus, vitally for me, the food is lovely and sort of a Thai/Indian fusion with superb coffee and baked goods. Phnom Penh is a surprisingly cosmopolitan city (we've found the best bakery/cafe ever that I would just about LIVE in if they had a branch in London) with a branch of PriceWaterhouseCooper and a bustling commercial centre plus a thriving arts scene, the architecture of the temples and even just the buildings is stunning, and best of all it's set on a lake (Tonlé Sap). Ricky and I are in accordance that we're not really beach people, but we are city-with-a-large-body-of-water people. There's a huge strip of bars/restaurants/pubs along the lake, and at night it feels really safe to walk around. So Phnom Penh has completely taken me by surprise and I love it a little bit. Which is funny, because we only stopped here for logistical reasons; we didn't want to do the whole 10-hour coach journey from Saigon to Siem Reap, and thought “hey it's a capital city, there must be stuff to do”.
History time.
The Khmer empire used to (as in, first to ninth century AD) be the biggest and best in the whole region, before a whole host of tragic and unfortunate events caused it to be as it is today, which is still developed, but far less so than the other countries in the region, even little Laos. This is thanks to various episodes, including but not limited to French colonisation and inter-nation warring with its neighbours. (the town next to the most famous point for tourism in Cambodia, Siem Reap, undiplomatically means “Siamese defeated”). The difference in living conditions was palpable upon crossing the border; and even though Phnom Penh is fairly gentrified in parts, there are many many pockets that remind me far more of India than any other urban settings in ex-IndoChina. There are a fair few beggars around too, many who have lost limbs presumably due to landmines, and others who I would guess have just suffered unfortunately from the reality of a country trying desperately to repair itself after the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. In three years and eight months, the country was systematically disassembled and all culture, industry and academia was completely destroyed (wearing glasses was enough to have you arrested and tortured/murdered as an intellectual). Overnight, thousands of people were rounded up and marched out of their home city, town or village, and put to work for 12-15 hours a day of gruelling manual labour, with very little to eat. Reading about it on paper is one thing, but actually visiting the museum really forces you to confront it. This morning we visited Tuol Sleng or S-21, which was a school until the Khmer Rouge turned it into a centre for detaining, torturing and murdering those who they saw as opponents of the regime. Unsurprisingly, this was just a thin veil for rounding up innocent people for no particular reason and then forcing them to confess to things they hadn't done. With the exception of a few displays and placquards which describe conditions, the school has been left as it was found in 1979, and opened as “evidence” (their term not mine) of the atrocities committed which they say amount to genocide. Lonely Planet says “Tuol Sleng was the largest incarceration centre in the country. The long corridors are hallways of ghosts containing haunting photographs of the victims, their faces staring back eerily from the Past. Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge leaders were meticulous in keeping records of their barbarism...when the Vietnamese army liberated Tuol Sleng in 1979, there were only 7 prisoners alive at S-21, all of whom had used their skills such as painting or photography to stay alive.” Needless to say, it was incredibly harrowing; I felt nauseous the whole time I was there and we both had to have a pretty lengthy time-out when it all got a bit too much. Obviously it wasn't the most pleasant of mornings, but you can't come to Cambodia without trying to understand what has gone before, which helps to put things into context. The recentness of Pol Pot's regime means that everyone in the country will have either experienced it personally, or their parents will have done. And the casualty/death toll means that many know someone who perished due to the brutality. As I used to close my work emails with at the Department of Health, “happy to discuss further if necessary”, but seriously it is a topic that I've become fascinated by, so always up for talking/learning more about it. More info at www.dccam.org, and www.yale.edu/cgp.
We had some lunch to recover (at a wonderful cafe across the road, serving incredible healthy dishes with the proceeds going to good causes), and then Ricky came back to the hotel to lie down, while I braved the aforementioned market, and am pretty pleased with the proceeds of my efforts and haggling skills, which I have now honed to a T. Oh and this morning in the cafe I had the best coffee of the trip, along with a cream-cheese bagel and an old copy of Glamour magazine. Now I'm sitting outside the hotel on the netbook, while Ricky has gone to get a massage and I have told him NO EXTRAS, or if he does then I'm not accompanying him to the Sexual Health clinic once we get home. Yesterday was a long, pretty much uneventful coach trip to get here, and once we arrived it starting raining torrentially, meaning we were trapped in our hotel, although we did go for a wander along the lake later on. I found affogato, an Italian dish, which combines my two favourite things in the world; vanilla ice-cream drowned in a shot of espresso. I struggle to find that in London outside of Italian cafes, but it's here in Phnom Penh. Just another thing that has impressed me greatly!
So tomorrow we're up early, 4-hour coach to Siem Reap, resting/pottering for the remainder of the day, and the next day having an epic early start to see Angkor Wat for sunrise, followed by as many further temples as we can cope with before the heat forces us to retreat to our hotel. And then we have to make our way back to Bangkok overland; apparently the border crossing is tiring but nothing that a bit of bribery can't fix (wave dollars and they open up another booth, thus saving you the 2-hour-long queue in the blazing, relentless heat). I'll see if my morals win out over comfort.
BBC World Service informs me that Tony Blair couldn't even wait til my return to publish his memoirs: how rude! I take it that the country will kindly refrain from reading/commenting upon it until I get back, pleaseandthankyou.
That's enough from me, something from you now please :)
Louise xxx
ps. Phnom Penh has nothing to do with pens, but rather is named after a temple (Wat Phnom) that was founded by a lady called Penh. So there.
The Khmers are very friendly and non-hassley (general offering of tuk-tuks/motorcycle rides excepted) and their relentless cheeriness in the face of all that has gone before (upon which much more later) is admirable and infectious. Plus, vitally for me, the food is lovely and sort of a Thai/Indian fusion with superb coffee and baked goods. Phnom Penh is a surprisingly cosmopolitan city (we've found the best bakery/cafe ever that I would just about LIVE in if they had a branch in London) with a branch of PriceWaterhouseCooper and a bustling commercial centre plus a thriving arts scene, the architecture of the temples and even just the buildings is stunning, and best of all it's set on a lake (Tonlé Sap). Ricky and I are in accordance that we're not really beach people, but we are city-with-a-large-body-of-water people. There's a huge strip of bars/restaurants/pubs along the lake, and at night it feels really safe to walk around. So Phnom Penh has completely taken me by surprise and I love it a little bit. Which is funny, because we only stopped here for logistical reasons; we didn't want to do the whole 10-hour coach journey from Saigon to Siem Reap, and thought “hey it's a capital city, there must be stuff to do”.
History time.
The Khmer empire used to (as in, first to ninth century AD) be the biggest and best in the whole region, before a whole host of tragic and unfortunate events caused it to be as it is today, which is still developed, but far less so than the other countries in the region, even little Laos. This is thanks to various episodes, including but not limited to French colonisation and inter-nation warring with its neighbours. (the town next to the most famous point for tourism in Cambodia, Siem Reap, undiplomatically means “Siamese defeated”). The difference in living conditions was palpable upon crossing the border; and even though Phnom Penh is fairly gentrified in parts, there are many many pockets that remind me far more of India than any other urban settings in ex-IndoChina. There are a fair few beggars around too, many who have lost limbs presumably due to landmines, and others who I would guess have just suffered unfortunately from the reality of a country trying desperately to repair itself after the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. In three years and eight months, the country was systematically disassembled and all culture, industry and academia was completely destroyed (wearing glasses was enough to have you arrested and tortured/murdered as an intellectual). Overnight, thousands of people were rounded up and marched out of their home city, town or village, and put to work for 12-15 hours a day of gruelling manual labour, with very little to eat. Reading about it on paper is one thing, but actually visiting the museum really forces you to confront it. This morning we visited Tuol Sleng or S-21, which was a school until the Khmer Rouge turned it into a centre for detaining, torturing and murdering those who they saw as opponents of the regime. Unsurprisingly, this was just a thin veil for rounding up innocent people for no particular reason and then forcing them to confess to things they hadn't done. With the exception of a few displays and placquards which describe conditions, the school has been left as it was found in 1979, and opened as “evidence” (their term not mine) of the atrocities committed which they say amount to genocide. Lonely Planet says “Tuol Sleng was the largest incarceration centre in the country. The long corridors are hallways of ghosts containing haunting photographs of the victims, their faces staring back eerily from the Past. Like the Nazis, the Khmer Rouge leaders were meticulous in keeping records of their barbarism...when the Vietnamese army liberated Tuol Sleng in 1979, there were only 7 prisoners alive at S-21, all of whom had used their skills such as painting or photography to stay alive.” Needless to say, it was incredibly harrowing; I felt nauseous the whole time I was there and we both had to have a pretty lengthy time-out when it all got a bit too much. Obviously it wasn't the most pleasant of mornings, but you can't come to Cambodia without trying to understand what has gone before, which helps to put things into context. The recentness of Pol Pot's regime means that everyone in the country will have either experienced it personally, or their parents will have done. And the casualty/death toll means that many know someone who perished due to the brutality. As I used to close my work emails with at the Department of Health, “happy to discuss further if necessary”, but seriously it is a topic that I've become fascinated by, so always up for talking/learning more about it. More info at www.dccam.org, and www.yale.edu/cgp.
We had some lunch to recover (at a wonderful cafe across the road, serving incredible healthy dishes with the proceeds going to good causes), and then Ricky came back to the hotel to lie down, while I braved the aforementioned market, and am pretty pleased with the proceeds of my efforts and haggling skills, which I have now honed to a T. Oh and this morning in the cafe I had the best coffee of the trip, along with a cream-cheese bagel and an old copy of Glamour magazine. Now I'm sitting outside the hotel on the netbook, while Ricky has gone to get a massage and I have told him NO EXTRAS, or if he does then I'm not accompanying him to the Sexual Health clinic once we get home. Yesterday was a long, pretty much uneventful coach trip to get here, and once we arrived it starting raining torrentially, meaning we were trapped in our hotel, although we did go for a wander along the lake later on. I found affogato, an Italian dish, which combines my two favourite things in the world; vanilla ice-cream drowned in a shot of espresso. I struggle to find that in London outside of Italian cafes, but it's here in Phnom Penh. Just another thing that has impressed me greatly!
So tomorrow we're up early, 4-hour coach to Siem Reap, resting/pottering for the remainder of the day, and the next day having an epic early start to see Angkor Wat for sunrise, followed by as many further temples as we can cope with before the heat forces us to retreat to our hotel. And then we have to make our way back to Bangkok overland; apparently the border crossing is tiring but nothing that a bit of bribery can't fix (wave dollars and they open up another booth, thus saving you the 2-hour-long queue in the blazing, relentless heat). I'll see if my morals win out over comfort.
BBC World Service informs me that Tony Blair couldn't even wait til my return to publish his memoirs: how rude! I take it that the country will kindly refrain from reading/commenting upon it until I get back, pleaseandthankyou.
That's enough from me, something from you now please :)
Louise xxx
ps. Phnom Penh has nothing to do with pens, but rather is named after a temple (Wat Phnom) that was founded by a lady called Penh. So there.
Monday, 30 August 2010
Au Revoir; Viet-Nam
It's our last night in Saigon and indeed Vietnam - tomorrow we leave on a coach for Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and we remain there until about the 5th September and then it's back to Bangkok to unwind before the return flight back to London! We have two border crossings to look forward to, fingers crossed they will be uneventful and smooth. Hours and hours on coaches though; predictably I went through my book far too quickly and have had to buy a copy of an Irvine Welsh book which has been photocopied (blatantly) but is quite legible. Plus I have lots of episodes of Peep Show and films like Apocalypse Now / Full Metal Jacket, thanks to Ben. I watched about half of Apocalypse Now last night and am enjoying it so far, although in the context it's quite hard to take, as you find yourself seeing the Vietnamese as the enemies, because the US troops are essentially shooting anyone wearing a cone straw hat. Which reminds me, it's funny to see that Vietnamese people do actually wear those cone hats in every day life - it's not just a touristy gimmick! Apparently it's to protect them from the sun / keep their skin fair (a sign of wealth/beauty), and so commenting on a Vietnamese woman's "great tan" would NOT be taken well!
So, home time, nearly. I can't believe how quickly it's come around - but I am very much looking forward to it. Although we've managed to find a few home comforts here, it's still no substitute for actually being at home with all of your friends and family with you (and Radio 4..), and actually I love London too much to be away for any long period of time. I suppose it's lucky I'm pretty much tied to London through my new job! Home comforts; namely tonight's dinner, which we ate at the Chabad Centre in Saigon (mum/Sandra, I hope you're proud) - Shakshuka for me, Schnitzel for Ricky - and it was lovely and reasonably-priced, especially for Kosher food. They were really welcoming too, and it was lovely although quite strange to chat to Jewish people in Vietnam (although not as strange as finding Jewish people in Laos - who were then on my flight from Luang Prabang to Hanoi, I don't know if I mentioned that!). Other home comforts have included finding a supermarket today: those who've seen me in an overseas supermarket will know exactly how much joy this brought me, and indeed it did make my day/week.
We arrived in Saigon at 4am on a train (17 hours, I wish that the people we were sharing the berth with understood the meaning of BEDTIME), slept a couple of extra hours, and then went off in search of the War Remnants museum later on this morning. The museum shows the Vietnamese side of what we'd refer to as the Vietnam war. Although I was familiar with the casualty rate and general facts of the war, (from my degree/reading about the terrible terrible history of the region on the aforementioned train journey), I wasn't aware of the fall-out from Agent Orange, on both Vietnamese and American survivors. Of course the museum was very propagandist/biased, but even bearing that in mind, visiting the museum was an extremely harrowing, distressing experience. I feel pretty strongly that America shouldn't have been in Vietnam to start with, and the whole event was absolutely tragic, and certainly the most pointless of all the 20th century wars. Anyway, less politics, Louise. After the museum we visited the Royal Palace and saw the tank that ended the war, still in situ from when it rammed through the gates in 1975.
I owe some of you email replies and I'm sorry I've been remiss, will write back as soon as I get a while on the internet (this has been typed out at breakneck speed). In the meantime, thank you all so much for your very welcome comments/emails, which have made me smile lots.
Anyway, we've enjoyed our short visit to Saigon - it's very bustling like Hanoi, but a bit less stressful. The name "Saigon" conjures all sorts of images, and it has been all that I expected but also completely different. That makes no sense to me, either. Also, you can really see the French influence here in all the architecture and especially the delicious coffee and cinnamon buns. I like to think that all of the schlepping about (my fault entirely, I just like exploring on foot! - my navigation skills have done us well, surprisingly) has helped to burn off any excess calories from the baked goods. Sweet chilli sauce is fat-free anyway, right?
So farewell, Vietnam. It was lovely knowing you, if just for a short while. And we had just about got the hang of crossing the road.
P.S. Thanks for all the pho.
Love,
Louise xxx
So, home time, nearly. I can't believe how quickly it's come around - but I am very much looking forward to it. Although we've managed to find a few home comforts here, it's still no substitute for actually being at home with all of your friends and family with you (and Radio 4..), and actually I love London too much to be away for any long period of time. I suppose it's lucky I'm pretty much tied to London through my new job! Home comforts; namely tonight's dinner, which we ate at the Chabad Centre in Saigon (mum/Sandra, I hope you're proud) - Shakshuka for me, Schnitzel for Ricky - and it was lovely and reasonably-priced, especially for Kosher food. They were really welcoming too, and it was lovely although quite strange to chat to Jewish people in Vietnam (although not as strange as finding Jewish people in Laos - who were then on my flight from Luang Prabang to Hanoi, I don't know if I mentioned that!). Other home comforts have included finding a supermarket today: those who've seen me in an overseas supermarket will know exactly how much joy this brought me, and indeed it did make my day/week.
We arrived in Saigon at 4am on a train (17 hours, I wish that the people we were sharing the berth with understood the meaning of BEDTIME), slept a couple of extra hours, and then went off in search of the War Remnants museum later on this morning. The museum shows the Vietnamese side of what we'd refer to as the Vietnam war. Although I was familiar with the casualty rate and general facts of the war, (from my degree/reading about the terrible terrible history of the region on the aforementioned train journey), I wasn't aware of the fall-out from Agent Orange, on both Vietnamese and American survivors. Of course the museum was very propagandist/biased, but even bearing that in mind, visiting the museum was an extremely harrowing, distressing experience. I feel pretty strongly that America shouldn't have been in Vietnam to start with, and the whole event was absolutely tragic, and certainly the most pointless of all the 20th century wars. Anyway, less politics, Louise. After the museum we visited the Royal Palace and saw the tank that ended the war, still in situ from when it rammed through the gates in 1975.
I owe some of you email replies and I'm sorry I've been remiss, will write back as soon as I get a while on the internet (this has been typed out at breakneck speed). In the meantime, thank you all so much for your very welcome comments/emails, which have made me smile lots.
Anyway, we've enjoyed our short visit to Saigon - it's very bustling like Hanoi, but a bit less stressful. The name "Saigon" conjures all sorts of images, and it has been all that I expected but also completely different. That makes no sense to me, either. Also, you can really see the French influence here in all the architecture and especially the delicious coffee and cinnamon buns. I like to think that all of the schlepping about (my fault entirely, I just like exploring on foot! - my navigation skills have done us well, surprisingly) has helped to burn off any excess calories from the baked goods. Sweet chilli sauce is fat-free anyway, right?
So farewell, Vietnam. It was lovely knowing you, if just for a short while. And we had just about got the hang of crossing the road.
P.S. Thanks for all the pho.
Love,
Louise xxx
Sunday, 29 August 2010
Leaving Hoi An..
..on the opposite of a jet-train, since it takes 20 hours to get us to Saigon. Our second and last day in Hoi An was lovely and quite relaxed since we're going to have a hectic schedule from here on out. The cookery course was brilliant, probably the best thing I've done in the whole trip - and I am furnished with expertise and recipes with which to attack you all in the near future. Expect an invitation for Ban Xeo and Pho very soon :P It was a really good course too, including a walk through the market with a lady explaining what all the foods were, and seeing where all the fresh fish gets brought in and cleaned, ready for sale. Apparently the market starts at 3am! Then we got a boat to take us to the restaurant/cooking school which was about a 25-min cruise and passed some lovely scenery, to a secluded place, on an island seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We were given (our second) welcome drink, something like pineapple/orange/grenadine/coconut juice, led through the herb garden, to the lesson itself, which lasted around 2 hours and was very hands-on: it was mostly him doing a quick demo and then getting us to replicate it. I can't remember the Vietnamese names for everything he showed us, but it included summer rolls, sweet chilli dipping sauce, Vietnamese pancakes, rice paper/noodles from scratch, aubergine in a clay pot, and fish sauce. Everything is easily replicated at home, especially since I can get my hands on all of the ingredients in nearby Vietnamese restaurants. Then we ate our delicious foods, cruised back to Hoi An, and went to the hotel room where we fell asleep for a bit (clearly from the effort!). In the evening we had another lovely meal at Streets, a stroll around town to see the nightlife, in which we participated.
Taxi's here so better go, to be continued! xxx
Taxi's here so better go, to be continued! xxx
Friday, 27 August 2010
Sin Jow, Hoi An!
Good evening, from a thunder and lightening storm - riddled Hoi An. A few minutes ago I told Ricky to get out of the pool since it was pretty much the worse possible place to be during this weather. However, the place itself - Hoi An - is pretty much the best place we could've come to right now. As you might've gathered from posts, Ha Noi was pretty stressful, owing to the fact that our days consisted of a lot of effortful schlepping around, while the city's traffic, people, crumbling pavements, and typhoon weather, all did their best to stand in our way. So Hoi An is a welcome antidote to all of that. Faded, gentle, languid, easy-going, friendly; these are all adjectives that spring to mind. Another UNESCO world heritage site, I believe, which explains why, like Luang Prabang, it is incredibly well-maintained and tidy, and all of the shops/restaurants etc have standardised signage. Very neat. I think it'd be a good honeymoon town, you could have lovely slow strolls through the old town or by the harbour. Just lovely!
We started with lunch, which was at a nice place called Streets - I was reading about it from newspaper clippings they had on display, and essentially it's similar to Jamie Oliver's "15" in Hoxton - that is, it's run by a generous benefactor (a New Yorker who was struck by the poverty he encountered on a visit to Saigon and who decided to set up a charitable organisation to do something about it), and employs disadvantaged youths, sets them up with jobs and skills, and gets them on a path to a better life that would've otherwise been out of their grasp. Oh and the food is delicious and reasonably-priced: I had my favourite food so far, some summer rolls with lots of fennel, prawns (massive prawns!!) and sweet chilli dipping sauce, and this was followed by a local noodle speciality. And the service is great. We then came to this hotel on recommendation from some backpackers in Ha Noi, and have found ourselves with an astonishingly good package for $13, including the aforementioned pool, plus FOUR HOURS of happy hour a night. A cursory meander round the town (there's no other way to get about really, everything is so relaxed!) has shown lots of tailors and clothes shops, plus souvenirs, restaurants, bars, and some very pretty museums and temples/pagodas. We've booked onto a cookery course for tomorrow, which I am very excited about - plus it's called the Red Bridge restaurant :D it includes a trip to a local market, a 25-min cruise to their restaurant and recipes etc to take home. And suddenly there's the rain - wow that is incredibly heavy! Maybe we'll eat at the hotel tonight...
So, last night.. The water puppet show was actually really enjoyable - the music was stunning and the show itself was cute, apparently the style of puppetry is of provincial origin, and came about during a time of flooding - very pragmatic! The traditional Vietnamese instruments and costumes of the orchestra/singers were gorgeous, too. And the train was fine - we shared a little room with four Vietnamese people who were pleasant but essentially ignored us, in the most pleasant way possible.
We're planning to stay here for another day or so, and then get a train to Saigon. I'm expecting Saigon to be stressful too, but I don't want to not see it so we'll maybe book into a slightly nicer hotel, or take an organised tour. Plus the food is apparently incredible there, so it'd be silly not to include it on my gastronomic pilgrimage. Speaking of which, I bought the coolest t-shirt ever, it's a parody of iPod stuff and says "iPho" with four cartoon squares underneath showing silouhettes of a bowl, cow, noodles and chopsticks. I think it was essentially made for me, and buying it has gratified me more than probably any material possession should =D
Lots of love/pho,
Louise xxx
We started with lunch, which was at a nice place called Streets - I was reading about it from newspaper clippings they had on display, and essentially it's similar to Jamie Oliver's "15" in Hoxton - that is, it's run by a generous benefactor (a New Yorker who was struck by the poverty he encountered on a visit to Saigon and who decided to set up a charitable organisation to do something about it), and employs disadvantaged youths, sets them up with jobs and skills, and gets them on a path to a better life that would've otherwise been out of their grasp. Oh and the food is delicious and reasonably-priced: I had my favourite food so far, some summer rolls with lots of fennel, prawns (massive prawns!!) and sweet chilli dipping sauce, and this was followed by a local noodle speciality. And the service is great. We then came to this hotel on recommendation from some backpackers in Ha Noi, and have found ourselves with an astonishingly good package for $13, including the aforementioned pool, plus FOUR HOURS of happy hour a night. A cursory meander round the town (there's no other way to get about really, everything is so relaxed!) has shown lots of tailors and clothes shops, plus souvenirs, restaurants, bars, and some very pretty museums and temples/pagodas. We've booked onto a cookery course for tomorrow, which I am very excited about - plus it's called the Red Bridge restaurant :D it includes a trip to a local market, a 25-min cruise to their restaurant and recipes etc to take home. And suddenly there's the rain - wow that is incredibly heavy! Maybe we'll eat at the hotel tonight...
So, last night.. The water puppet show was actually really enjoyable - the music was stunning and the show itself was cute, apparently the style of puppetry is of provincial origin, and came about during a time of flooding - very pragmatic! The traditional Vietnamese instruments and costumes of the orchestra/singers were gorgeous, too. And the train was fine - we shared a little room with four Vietnamese people who were pleasant but essentially ignored us, in the most pleasant way possible.
We're planning to stay here for another day or so, and then get a train to Saigon. I'm expecting Saigon to be stressful too, but I don't want to not see it so we'll maybe book into a slightly nicer hotel, or take an organised tour. Plus the food is apparently incredible there, so it'd be silly not to include it on my gastronomic pilgrimage. Speaking of which, I bought the coolest t-shirt ever, it's a parody of iPod stuff and says "iPho" with four cartoon squares underneath showing silouhettes of a bowl, cow, noodles and chopsticks. I think it was essentially made for me, and buying it has gratified me more than probably any material possession should =D
Lots of love/pho,
Louise xxx
Thursday, 26 August 2010
Leaving (Ha Noi) on a Jet Train
Or probably less of the 'jet' since it takes 14 hours to get there - but look up the distance from Ha Noi to Danang on googlemaps, it's a pretty long way there! Our train leaves Ha Noi at 11pm and arrives halfway down the country at about 1pm. From Danang we get a bus to Hoi An, which we are very much looking forward to, since it sounds lovely in the book and everyone we mention it to, who have already been there, smile and say "ahh, Hoi An...'. It'll certainly be good to get out of the city - unfortunately, Chiang Mai followed by Luang Prabang had rendered me extremely chilled-out and happy and relaxed; I say unfortunately, because that made it even more of a shock to be confronted with the buzzing, bustling reality of Ha Noi.
We've had a good time here, and (touch wood!) haven't been run over yet - crossing the road in Ha Noi requires a great deal of courage and faith - there are a million motorbikes, plus a good handful of cars/busses/bicycles thrown in for good measure - and there isn't any point waiting for a gap to cross because there is NEVER A GAP, just slightly lighter traffic so that the vehicles are able to go around you. And they do try very hard not to hit you, so what you do is that you firstly approach the road and try to work out which lane is which (although they can and do use any lane for any direction/turning), and see if anything is reversing in the middle of the road, and then you take a deep breath, and slowly start to cross. Best not to stop in the middle of the road. Just keep going, very slowly and very gradually, and you and the motorbikes judge each others' paths, and you go around each other. Every road crossing feels like a mini-victory! I think Vietnamese are much better drivers than Brits; some of the manoeuvres are just spectacular and seemingly death-defying.
Anyway, what have we been up to? Well, I've been trying to immerse myself in Vietnamese food with limited success - today I ordered some unknown Vietnamese food and it was literally hit and miss - 50% success rate. I stopped eating the 'miss', a lumpy white porridge dish (savoury) with bits of maybe-but-almost-definitely-not-chicken in it, when I noticed that there were jellyish chunks too. Probably an eye? They didn't taste good, anyway. We also went to a proper 'bia hoi' den, which is a little cafe-type thing on a street corner, but open to the elements, with tiny blue plastic stools, and I had a home-brewed beer which was surprisingly good. Ricky has managed some great Western meals too, although sadly the salad has to be removed because of threat of stomach problems. We've also been to a couple of museums - the National Museum was disappointing, but yesterday we visited the old Prison which was used to house, firstly the Communist revolutionaries during the first half of the 20th century, and latterly the U.S. pilots who got shot down during the Vietnam War, including the one and only John McCain. That was ABSOLUTELY fascinating and really quite harrowing too - the exhibits included a guillotine, and they'd kept the original cell blocks so you could peek inside. Funny how biased it was, too; according to the display, the Communist revolutionaries were tortured non-stop (I don't doubt that), while the POWs got to play netball etc and had a ball of a time. I'm not sure it was that cut-and-dried but anyway. We stayed in a proper backpacker hostel, in a dorm, with some Dutch people who were typical Dutch - excellent English-speakers but really weird. One of them was saying he sometimes crosses roads here just for the "FUN" of it!!
Ha Noi is a fascinating city; I don't think I would want to stay much longer though - the people range from ignoring us to being mildly rude - although a few have been quite sweet. I guess I've just been massively spoilt by the Northern Thais / Laotians. It's hilarious how many Japanese tourists there are too, all posing with their fingers in a V-sign and wearing those 'traditional' Vietnamese conical hats, which I reckon to be the equivalent of the tourists in Westminster wearing "I [heart] London" and "OXFORD UNIVERSITY" tshirts... I just got my nails painted with a very pretty and intricate flowery pattern, for just over 2pounds which is pretty wicked. While they were drying we were all watching telly, a TERRIBLE soap opera was on, it was dubbed so I guess it was Chinese originally? Anyway, I left before my nails were thoroughly dry because I couldn't take it any more. It's been interesting here though, especially it's been INCREDIBLE getting my favourite food (Pho) which costs over 8pounds on Kingsland Rd (so-called 'little Hanoi'), for 90p with a coke here. Might make me fancy Vietnamese food a bit less when I get home though! So highlights for both of us (we've discussed this..) have been:
- getting crayons at the restaurant last night and decorating the table cloth (it was paper and yes we did ask first..)
- the Prison museum
- walking around the lovely lovely lake in the middle of the Old Quarter, and the Pagoda/temple in the middle which you access by a bridge: it's just so peaceful round there and a very welcome respite from the bustle of the streets
- the ice-cream. There's a place called Fanny's, which seems to be the equivalent of Baskin Robbins. We are planning to hit it up for dessert later.
- seeing chickens in the road -- this was Ricky's; I wasn't fazed after the cows wandering the streets in India :P
So now we're off to catch a show, it's a Ha Noi speciality of water puppetry - I gather that it's in Vietnamese so we won't necessarily grasp the whole plot, but it's accompanied by traditional Vietnamese music and hey, we need a bit of culture! We didn't get to the Mausoleum to see Ho Chi Minh unfortunately [along with Lenin, Stalin and Mao, he's one of only four leaders to be embalmed], but I've tried to make up for it by learning all about him. Fact: it was his last wish to be cremated. Oops!
Looking forward to a rest on the train later, and catching up with some reading :)
Lots of love,
Louise (with Ricky) xxx
We've had a good time here, and (touch wood!) haven't been run over yet - crossing the road in Ha Noi requires a great deal of courage and faith - there are a million motorbikes, plus a good handful of cars/busses/bicycles thrown in for good measure - and there isn't any point waiting for a gap to cross because there is NEVER A GAP, just slightly lighter traffic so that the vehicles are able to go around you. And they do try very hard not to hit you, so what you do is that you firstly approach the road and try to work out which lane is which (although they can and do use any lane for any direction/turning), and see if anything is reversing in the middle of the road, and then you take a deep breath, and slowly start to cross. Best not to stop in the middle of the road. Just keep going, very slowly and very gradually, and you and the motorbikes judge each others' paths, and you go around each other. Every road crossing feels like a mini-victory! I think Vietnamese are much better drivers than Brits; some of the manoeuvres are just spectacular and seemingly death-defying.
Anyway, what have we been up to? Well, I've been trying to immerse myself in Vietnamese food with limited success - today I ordered some unknown Vietnamese food and it was literally hit and miss - 50% success rate. I stopped eating the 'miss', a lumpy white porridge dish (savoury) with bits of maybe-but-almost-definitely-not-chicken in it, when I noticed that there were jellyish chunks too. Probably an eye? They didn't taste good, anyway. We also went to a proper 'bia hoi' den, which is a little cafe-type thing on a street corner, but open to the elements, with tiny blue plastic stools, and I had a home-brewed beer which was surprisingly good. Ricky has managed some great Western meals too, although sadly the salad has to be removed because of threat of stomach problems. We've also been to a couple of museums - the National Museum was disappointing, but yesterday we visited the old Prison which was used to house, firstly the Communist revolutionaries during the first half of the 20th century, and latterly the U.S. pilots who got shot down during the Vietnam War, including the one and only John McCain. That was ABSOLUTELY fascinating and really quite harrowing too - the exhibits included a guillotine, and they'd kept the original cell blocks so you could peek inside. Funny how biased it was, too; according to the display, the Communist revolutionaries were tortured non-stop (I don't doubt that), while the POWs got to play netball etc and had a ball of a time. I'm not sure it was that cut-and-dried but anyway. We stayed in a proper backpacker hostel, in a dorm, with some Dutch people who were typical Dutch - excellent English-speakers but really weird. One of them was saying he sometimes crosses roads here just for the "FUN" of it!!
Ha Noi is a fascinating city; I don't think I would want to stay much longer though - the people range from ignoring us to being mildly rude - although a few have been quite sweet. I guess I've just been massively spoilt by the Northern Thais / Laotians. It's hilarious how many Japanese tourists there are too, all posing with their fingers in a V-sign and wearing those 'traditional' Vietnamese conical hats, which I reckon to be the equivalent of the tourists in Westminster wearing "I [heart] London" and "OXFORD UNIVERSITY" tshirts... I just got my nails painted with a very pretty and intricate flowery pattern, for just over 2pounds which is pretty wicked. While they were drying we were all watching telly, a TERRIBLE soap opera was on, it was dubbed so I guess it was Chinese originally? Anyway, I left before my nails were thoroughly dry because I couldn't take it any more. It's been interesting here though, especially it's been INCREDIBLE getting my favourite food (Pho) which costs over 8pounds on Kingsland Rd (so-called 'little Hanoi'), for 90p with a coke here. Might make me fancy Vietnamese food a bit less when I get home though! So highlights for both of us (we've discussed this..) have been:
- getting crayons at the restaurant last night and decorating the table cloth (it was paper and yes we did ask first..)
- the Prison museum
- walking around the lovely lovely lake in the middle of the Old Quarter, and the Pagoda/temple in the middle which you access by a bridge: it's just so peaceful round there and a very welcome respite from the bustle of the streets
- the ice-cream. There's a place called Fanny's, which seems to be the equivalent of Baskin Robbins. We are planning to hit it up for dessert later.
- seeing chickens in the road -- this was Ricky's; I wasn't fazed after the cows wandering the streets in India :P
So now we're off to catch a show, it's a Ha Noi speciality of water puppetry - I gather that it's in Vietnamese so we won't necessarily grasp the whole plot, but it's accompanied by traditional Vietnamese music and hey, we need a bit of culture! We didn't get to the Mausoleum to see Ho Chi Minh unfortunately [along with Lenin, Stalin and Mao, he's one of only four leaders to be embalmed], but I've tried to make up for it by learning all about him. Fact: it was his last wish to be cremated. Oops!
Looking forward to a rest on the train later, and catching up with some reading :)
Lots of love,
Louise (with Ricky) xxx
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