Cambodia and Vietnam: Images and Thoughts

I just got back to Thailand after a month-long trip through Cambodia and Vietnam. I didn't write much about the specific places I visited, as there are dozens of decent blogs that can tell you all about them (i.e. Angkor Wat, the Killing Fields, Sa Pa, etc). Just google whatever peaks your interest in the pictures and captions.  I'll save myself the time and you the boredom.

For good measure, I wrote a bit below about the journey, but please take everything with a grain of salt because it was a relatively short trip. I don't think I can really paint a fair picture in such a short span of time.

CAMBODIA

CLICK HERE TO VIEW CAMBODIA PICTURES

Some Observations

Cambodia is as lawless as I anticipated. For example, I've seen police officer go into "inspect" a certain venue just so he could get drunk for free. After this, he rode off on his motorbike. Pharmacies hand out generic versions of valium and xanax like its tylenol—only cheaper (almost free). Many tuk-tuk drivers will offer to sell Yaba (more or less methamphetamine, and the literal translation is "madness drug").  

You can do just about anything if you're willing to dish out some money. Some travellers speak of firing a bazooka at a cow or throwing a grenade into a pen of chickens (I've heard even crazier things involving homeless men and orphans, but can't verify them). Some travellers just go to ranges to fire an AK-47, which is a weapon that is known not only for its use by Soviet-supported countries during the Cold War, but also one that is still being used by soldiers (often children) to kill innocent civilians in several ongoing African conflicts. Needless to say, I skipped these attractions.  

Despite the "wild west" nature of the country, I was impressed with the people. I kept hearing about thieves and blackjack scammers (especially in Phnom Penh), but I encountered more people warning us about them the thieves and scammers themselves. Also, the infamous tuk-tuk drivers were just plain interesting. Overall, they were next-level annoying (some even tried to offer rides as I was getting out of another tuk-tuk). This is likely due to the poverty and the necessarily aggressive work ethic that comes with it. Cambodians don't have the type of government that will just hand them money if they can't find work. Even though I had to decline most drivers' offers, I learned that saying "no thank you" with a smile was a great way to open up some small talk or even a long conversation. 

What was most impressive was the fact that the Cambodian people seemed to move forward from the genocide (1975-79) with an incredible amount of resilience and even forgiveness. Roughly a quarter of the population was killed, and everyone seems to know someone who was involved. Still, relatives of perpetrators (many of whom had little choice in their role) work side-by-side with relatives of victims. 

Also, I was able to get a Vietnamese visa in Phnom Penh for $65. This is a steal given that in Canada I'd have to drive to Ottawa a couple of times and pay even more. In Cambodia, I just paid someone at the hostel and waited a day. 

The Route in Cambodia

- Two nights in Siem Reap
- Seven-hour bus to Phnom Penh

- Two nights Phnom Penh 
- Three-hour bus to Kampot
- Four or Five nights in Kampot (I originally planned for 2 nights; if you've been there, you know what I mean)

- Bus to Vietnam. It took just an hour to the border (Ha Tien), and a few more hours to Ho Chi Minh City/ Saigon

VIETNAM

CLICK HERE TO VIEW VIETNAM PICTURES

Some Observations

Vietnam was more or less what I expected: great food, interesting history, lots of socialist/communist propaganda, and ridiculously chaotic city traffic. 

In theory, everyone in Saigon should have suffered fatal or life-threatening injuries just from the driving. The chaos, particularly in Saigon, was surreal. Crossing the street is probably more adventurous than anything I can do back home.

The art of Saigon road-crossing is like a cruel video game. To cross most roads, you need to take a deep breath, walk slowly (you can even close your eyes), and the traffic will go around you. Just don't walk too quickly or do anything spontaneous. You'll probably get hit by a motorbike. 

One of my favourite aspects of the country is the prevalence of "easy riders." These are guys who will give of custom motorbike tours throughout the country. They know the cities, the countryside, the backroads, and all kinds of incredible places. You can either get on their bike, or have them lead the way. There is some debate about which ones are "real" and such, but it wouldn't matter to most visitors. Whether someone is a "legit easy rider" or not, the odds are he will be awesome just the same. Most of the easy riders I met had a great sense of humour and were just plain fun. Some sit on the curbs, look at tourists, and say "I am easy rider."     

I was tempted to ride up the Ho Chi Minh trail to Hanoi, but time was running out. Also, the prospect of dying or being severely injured is not high on my to do list. I've become fairly experienced riding motorbikes in Asia, but I've heard more than enough stories from travellers to dissuade myself from any kind of long-distance motorbike journey. 

The Route in Vietnam

- Two nights in Ho Chi Minh City (still commonly called Saigon)

- Seven-hour bus ride to Da Lat

- Three nights in Da Lat

- A long bus ride to Hoi An (somewhere between 12 and 15 hours) 

- Two nights in Hoi An

- Three-hour bus ride to Hue

- Two nights in Hue

- One-hour flight to Hanoi (seat sale ftw) 

- One night in Hanoi

- Overnight bus to Sa Pa

- Three nights in Sa Pa

- Overnight bus back to Hanoi, which somehow arrived four hours ahead of schedule. It just dropped us off in an irrelevant part of the city at 2am. I think the driver was just trying to give us to his cabbie friends. 

- Another night in Hanoi. 

POPULAR THINGS I DID NOT DO AND PLACES I DID NOT VISIT (in both countries)

- Islands (i.e. Koh Rong)

- Marble Mountain (Hoi An)

- Caves

- Halong Bay

- Nha Trang

- Crater lake

- Ride an ostrich

- Eat a poisonous snake/drink venom/take a shot with a beating snake heart in it

- Eat dog

- Fire an AK-47, M60, rocket launcher etc

- Ride the Ho Chi Minh Trail or the epic roads near the Chinese border

- Train Rides  (the sleeper-busses were just cheaper, and I've grown to like them)

I don't regret not doing these things. Most of the choices were between awesome, awesome, awesome, cruel, and ridiculous. 

There is a lot to experience no matter where you go, and I can't do it all in such a sort time. Honestly, I didn't want to do it all.

LESSONS LEARNED

Lesson 1: hosteling is not always conducive to budget travelling

I'm a big fan of backpacker hostels, but many involve a food/alcohol trap—especially in Cambodia and Vietnam (I'm sure the Thai islands are similar). In many hostels the food is very expensive, and all kinds of tactics are employed to encourage visitors to drink (i.e. free beer on arrival).  Many hostels even have scoreboards listing the nationalities of the people who were crazy enough to drink record numbers of whatever concoction that particular hostel produces.  I guess this is why the rooms and dorms are so inexpensive; the money is made elsewhere. Fortunately, there are always other options. I've learned to wander out a block or two and find cheaper (also better) food and a more sober and genuine atmosphere. I'm 29, and have had enough fun for two lifetimes; there is more to backpacking than staying with the in-crowd, although I certainly wouldn't discourage the younger travellers from doing so. In both scenarios, you meet people from all over the world and learn a lot about travel recommendations and people's home-countries.  

Lesson 2: if a place is full of tourists, it does not necessarily mean that it's "inauthentic" or not worth visiting.

Before I went to Sa Pa, a traveller told me that it is too touristy, and that I should go to some remote village 200 kilometres away instead. I've gotten over my "off the beaten path syndrome" because I learned something important in Thailand: if you pick up some of the language, the dynamics of social interaction change no matter where you are. For example, the ladies bugging tourists to purchase bracelets in Sa Pa are no less "authentic" than the people in the smaller villages. Just try to speak some Vietnamese or Hmong (a friend did this), and people seem to open up to different types of interactions. There is an impressive plethora of smartphone apps that can help with this. Yes, places like Sa Pa have their share of things to "make the white people think they are doing something genuinely different" (i.e. trekking and home-stays),  but the locals are still locals, just trying to make a living in a different way than the rice farmers down in the valley. In a way, I'd rather talk to them than bug the people who are working on their farms.

That's all for now. 

Stay tuned... 

Thinking about freedom in Vietnam

This is me with Dung, a former school teacher and ARVN veteran.
Tolerate of this entry for an explanation. 

This is Titi, another vet who took on some hard work after the war. He has since "retired" and now gives motorbike tours in Da Lat.

Throughout these past few months in southeast Asia, I've repeatedly found myself talking about how much more alive and free I feel here—even with Thai martial law, a confusing Burmese government, severely corrupt Cambodian police, and a pompously "communist" system in Vietnam. However, in any of these places, you can find food and friendly people virtually anywhere at any hour. If I want to open an all-night food stand in Toronto, well, I'll have better luck playing Lotto Max. 

You can (especially as a traveler) do almost anything you want with little consequence in much of Southeast Asia. If you want to sit on a curb in Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City till 5am and drink cheap beer with locals, nobody will stop you (you might get mugged in an alley on the way back, but it's still probably less likely to happen than in places like Barcelona and Rome); if you get into a motorbike accident (and live) or break a minor law, a few dollars will likely cover the other party. Fewer lawyers, less paperwork, and less nonsense. If anything, you might help someone send their kids to school in the process. In Canada, we pay extra if we want our passports processed more quickly ("express service"); perhaps this is no less corrupt than paying someone for special treatment / express service in the eastern hemisphere. 

For some reason, I keep viewing Canada as a more restrictive place than those I've recently visited. I can't help but see it as a country controlled by lawyers, bankers, bureaucrats, and capitalists, just to name a few. I also have a place in this mix, and I feel I have no choice. Of course, these influential entities are perfectly suited to a democracy in which political loyalties and reciprocated favours are the norm.  

Where I'm from, more and more people are living in the suburbs (increasingly out of necessity), and the housing prices are rising grossly out of proportion with wages. Average car insurance prices in the GTA are just plain criminal. 

We also have citizens who purposely abuse the welfare/employment system with relative ease, while others work two jobs to keep a roof over their heads. The latter pays the taxes. Yesterday my less-than-proud view of Canada's civic infrastructure intensified when I found out that someone who murdered a friend of mine got a 10-year prison sentence. Guess who pays the bill?

It all just seems kind of bizarre, and most travellers I tell this to seem to agree. 

Anyway, you get the picture.  I've repeatedly said that I'd take 50 years in Asia over 90 years in an Ontario Suburb.

Then today I was walking around Hue and met a man named Dung. He was sitting against a fence beside the sidewalk, and was wearing a military veteran hat with an American flag on it, which is pretty rare here. It turns out he is a 61-year-old former schoolteacher.  He also happened to fight with the pro-American ARVN forces during the Vietnam War. I suggested we go for lunch, and we did.  

Here is what I learned from him:

When Saigon fell to the communists in 1975, Dung and all other known non-communists were forced to report to the new authorities and were subsequently banned from their previous professions (especially if they were "white collar"). Dung was sentenced to 3 years of hard labour and near-starvation in a prison camp near the Chinese border. After his time in prison, he and others like him have been spending most of their lives farming instead of returning to their professions as teachers, doctors, lawyers, and other such careers. They had—and still have—little choice. Even his children's career prospects suffer because of Dung's association with the anti-communist forces. He is also not allowed to leave the country.

Here are some other interesting facts:

-Vietnamese citizens have to pay for health care or insurance
-Vietnamese citizens have to pay for some of their "public" schooling
-Speaking publicly against the government is a punishable offence 

The brand of communism here is not exactly in keeping with theory. There is, however, a ton of propaganda everywhere, which I expected. Massive red flags and Ho Chi Minh banners are ubiquitous. There is also no shortage of suspicious government buildings and military compounds. Just a few days ago I walked though a gate to see what was up with the beautiful gardens.  A man with an AK-47 swiftly came out of nowhere and kicked me out. I still have no idea what the place was. 

I'll conclude by reminding myself and you wonderful readers that no system is perfect. I still feel more alive here, but it is refreshing to regain some perspective on the other types of freedom Canada offers. 


Stay tuned....    Pictures and a more detailed a posting about Cambodia and Vietnam should be up at the end of the month.