Onward to Phnom Penh

Despite Sinh Tourist's repeated overatures to get us to leave Ho Chi Minh City at 8:30 (I counted at least 3 attempts), we stuck with our 6:30 am departure time for Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We heard the trip could be any where between 6-8 hours, depending upon the border dealings. We only planned one full day in Phnom Penh & thus wanted the extra afternoon. We arrived at 6am to Sinh tourist where no one was checking us in. Someone arrived at 6:20 to start checking us in, I got "in line" and heard our names paged overhead. 

We were rushed into a van & taken to another bus company's station outside of town where we got on the 1/2 full bus. I could at least read that it said Phuong Tran Cambodia. There wasn't a whole lot of explaining. We got to keep our shoes on and just placed our bags at the back of the bus. We were off & on our way to Cambodia!!!

The bus assistant came by & collected our passports & money for visas. My passport was out of my sight-and I had no explanation as to what was going on. Rule of traveling #1: keep your passport in your sight at all times. Everyone else gave up their passport, so in the sake of peer pressure we complied and off went our $70 & two passports. 

I promptly fell asleep for about 2 hours & woke up at the border where the entire bus unloaded and entered passport control-without our passports. I felt naked. I wanted my passport even if it took longer. 

We were stamped out of Vietnam, given our passports & we got back on the bus. We drove 5 minutes, handed over our passports again. We got off the bus, walked through the Cambodian border (no one stopped us or asked us anything) and got back on the bus, without passports & drove away. Again-me & my passport were not together. Now I am in a new country without my passport and we're driving down the road.....

A French guy across the aisle explained that his friends crossed the border yesterday & the bus goes to a cafe to wait until our visas are all processed. I didn't like it, but at least I knew what was going on. 

The wait was just enough for Chris' and I to have a cheese & cracker breakfasts and back on the bus. I was joyfully reunited with my passport-and now it has a new visa! 

We continued on our journey into Cambodia. Chris watched the movie, I looked out the window. 

We noticed several mini temples-at residences and structures. We later discovered these are places of worship. We still need to do some more research on them. 

Chris soon discovered that although he could not download the maps for Cambodia, the tracking aspect still worked. We had no idea where this new bus company would stop & we didn't want another Saigon disaster. When we let a couple locals off, Chris determined our location & asked the bus assistant to let us off. Good thing our bags were stashed in the back of the bus! We got let off on a street corner 10 blocks from our hostel. We were in flip flops & opted to take a tuk-tuk. 

In Cambodia a tuk-tuk is a motorbike with a carriage attached. Being in traffic, we hopped in without taking decent photos. We tried to negotiate, but failed miserably as we were standing on the side of the road with backpacks. For $3 we took a ride to our hostel.

 We booked online via the Hostelworld app and accidentally got a room without air con-no wonder it was only $10 a night!! We promptly added air con for $4 and got settled in-to our room in the 4th floor. 

I find Phnom Penh cooler than Vietnam. Could be our "late in the day" arrival or the impending rain that our hostel warned us about. 

The hostel had a restaurant with decent prices and we had lunch. I had chicken curry & Chris had fried rice with egg. Mine was really good & for the first time I was uncomfortably full. Being female, I needed my knees covered for our next site-the Royal Palace. 

I cheated & looked at photos online before we went to the Royal Palace. Some of the advice we gleaned at "family dinner" in Da Lat was that it wasn't worth going inside. I wanted to know-and after looking at online photos, decided I wanted to see these buildings with gold roofs for myself. Online reviews said to pay for a guide, but by the time we arrived at the Royal palace we only had 90 minutes and thought the $6.50 entrance fee per person was enough expenditure. 

Our first visit was the "throne room." This structure was simply beautiful from the outside-I've never seen such opulence on the outside of a building. Photos are not allowed inside-nor were we. We simply looked inside via the open doors on either side. Let's just say I wish I was born a princess. 

(Note the monks in the background.)

Being tight on time, we made our way to the Silver Pagoda, the Temple of the Emerald Buddah. We were allowed to go inside after removing our shoes. Now this place has opulence inside. There was a 91kg gold Godess statue with ~10,000 diamonds. The highlight was obviously an emerald Buddah on top of 13 layers of gold. The temple was thick with incense. 

The other distinctive feature of this temple was the silver floor. Yes, floor tiles made of silver. Although much of it was carpeted, we could hear the metal tink as we walked across the floor. I stepped off the carpet so I could stand on a silver floor!!

The complex consisted of several tall concrete structures called stupas. Stupas are structures that contain the remains of loved ones. 

We saw a model of Angkor Wat which is the whole reason we're in Cambodia. I pretended I was a giant dinosaur, come to attack the ruins. 

Must be my new pose, as I also pretended to be a dinosaur on the miniature temples. 

Chris spotted a monkey, just roaming around the grounds. Then there were two!! And I thought monkeys were my spirit animal. 

At the end of the Royal Palace grounds were several exhibits. The king still makes appearances on palanquins and elephants. 

Across the street from the Royal Palace is a park where locals were gathering. We sat down on some steps & people watched. When our tummies started to growl we walked South along the Tunle Sap River (photo where it meets the Mekong river) to dinner at Sovanna, for some Cambodian BBQ.

Dinner, was as always, an experience. We didn't know if we should order, sit down, how it all worked. Thankfully they had an English menu and we each had a $3 steak, $1 Coca-Colas, and a side of French fries & green beans. Once again, a local showed us how to eat. You take a pinch of pepper & squeeze in the lime juice. You can add raw garlic or chilis if you like. BEST stake. I'll be taking this #whole30 recipe home with us!! They also gave us free dessert. You'll note the "gel" again. This time it was cold & included a sweet cornbread sphere in the middle and wrapped in banana leaves. Much more palatable cold.

Our observations about Cambodia this far:

1. Monks-they're a regular citing. Most of who we've seen are young teenagers. They horse-around like all teenage boys. (They also take in the sites like tourists.)

2. There are A LOT of tourists. We've seen families, young adult groups, and quite a few older tourists. 

3. I can't read a thing. Nothing-not even letters. Cambodian letters looks like this from our dinner receipt:

4. Cambodians are not afraid of the sun. We've seen face masks & foot stockings, but there are a lot more forearms exposed to the sun. 

5. Money-USD and Cambodian Riel are used interchangeably. We paid for our hostel with USD & got a combination of change back. Cambodian only used paper money, so if your change is less than a dollar, you'll get riel. Exchange rate is 1:4000

5. We compare prices in Cambodia to Vietnam dong. "That's like 11,000 dong-that's a decent price for water."

Our room has one window, to the central staircase. I've noticed that our double en suite rooms are quite often the first room off the stairs, which is quite noisy. Let's hope we sleep well!

I'll leave you with Chris' fun photo. 

And a foreshadowing of what's to come. 

Good morning Sai Gon

We have one day to see Saigon and want to see two major museums. It was supposed to rain at 10am-let's go!!

 INDEPENDENCE PALACE 

(Reunification palace)

This is where the North Vietnamese Armt drove a tank through the gates & symbolically ended the war. 

The symbolism of this palace was incredible. It was built to reflect Chinese symbols. For example, the building, with the flag above, resembles the Chinese word for leadership. I should've taken a picture of the plaque displaying all the symbolism. 

The guide books said this palace was a blast from the past as nothing inside had been changed since 1975. 

Maybe so, but I liked how this was a museum not about the war. The descriptions talked about what the rooms were used for & their last uses in a very matter of fact way. It was the most neutral museum we saw in Vietnam. We toured all the stately rooms. I might now be a fan of mustard yellow-it really is versatile. 

I enjoyed the presidential quarters-frozen in time complete with toiletries from the 1970s. 

Chris and I finally made it on a dance floor. The builder had intended for this space to be for meditation-but one if the presidents turned it into a party room. I like him. 

Other "fun" spots included the helipad, game room, library, shooting range, and radio equipment. 

We were able to go underground to the bunker.  I finally found the HCM trail!!!

And Chris learned how to duck & cover. 

I even got to go to work. 

(It was only after I saw the no touching signs. So many buttons & dials-how could I not touch?!?!)

As you can tell, we quite enjoyed ourselves at Independence Palace. I think the guidebooks underestimate this place!!

WE'RE SUCKERS

Once on the street, headed to our next museum, we had a local vendor walking alongside us. He gave Chris his load to carry & I snapped some pics. 

He then stopped to cut open a coconut for Chris-before we could stop him he opened another-and then wanted $5 for them!!!!!!!  

That is 1/4 of our daily food budget. We paid it because we're suckers & then continued to talk all day about the expensive coconut water. He was an excellent salesman & had great tactics. We did notice that while drinking the coconuts every single vendor came up to us. We needed to hurry up & finish our sucker drinks & go back to being regular tourists. 

WAR REMNANTS MUSEUM

This was a hard place to be an American. Most everything was our fault and we broke rules of warfare by using agent orange. I'll spare you the photos of the effects of agent orange & of the tiger cages used for torture. Again, my overwhelming sentiment: Vietnam was a war where you never knew friend or foe-that's enough to give anyone PTSD, let alone the sights encountered. 

Outside had a wonderful collection of fighter jets & tanks. I recognized many of these from a collection my brother used to have. He knew the differences, I just knew there was one camouflage one-and it was my favorite. 

As we've been in Vietnam we have questioned how a Vietnam Vet would feel coming back to the country & seeing the country as a tourist. We were using our selfie stick when an older man offered to take our photo. He immediately asked if either of us were in the service-and when we asked him, he served in Vietnam. He said it was odd to need a visa to enter and aside from not wanting to go North of the DMZ, he was delighted to be in Vietnam. He was a bit hard to understand-otherwise we would have asked him more questions. This is the photo he took for us. 

This is a museum that actually closes for lunch (12-1:20). The good news-our tickets were valid all day!! We headed out in the Saigon mid-day heat for some lunch. Given that our budget was incredibly tight due to the coconut water, we had a lunch special for $1.64. No photos as it wasn't worth noting. 

We later realized that we did the museum bottom to top when it was designed to go top to bottom. Thus we started with agent orange & our POWs. I didn't take very many photos-as the point of view was hard to stomach at times as well as the atrocities of war. War is ugly. 

When I saw these statistics-I wondered how the North won. (Yes, I know how...)

The museum has an exhibit on the photographers of the Vietnam war-both sides. They told the stories of photographers, those who served for years with regiments and those who lost their lives. These were the stories-they inckuded many Pulitzer Prize winners and the collections had photographers from both the North & South. Color photographs had just come out towards the end of the conflict-there was a Life magazine spread. I found a photo of the trenches at Khe San-the same trenches I stood in. 

And the hill where Marines landed helicopters. The sights of our DMZ tour became real as we walked through the museum. I was proud to be an American. 

I spent a bit of time outside the exhibit rooms-just taking a minute. I wondered what the museum at Pearl Harbor is like or the memorial at Ground Zero. I'd like to think that America honors the sacrifices of those who served as opposed to vilifying the enemy. My memory of Washington, DC was that of honoring those who served & sacrificed, not pointing fingers at the enemy. By the second round of Agent Orange exhibits, I was ready to leave the museum. 

We returned to our hostel, our room was ready-air con fixed, so we checked in & cooled down. Saigon is noticeably cooler than other cities, but Chris wants it known that it was in no way pleasant (I thought it was just fine-provided I wasn't in direct sunlight for too long). I can't honestly say if the temperatures were lower or if we've adjusted to constant sweating. But you can tell the focus of our blog posts is no longer on the heat. 

I wanted springrolls with fish sause before we left Vietnam. Our hostel recommended a food stand in the alleyway but it wasn't there tonight. Right next door was a restaurant and we had dinner to a cheesy romantic soundtrack which included When a man loves a woman. I should take this opportunity to mention the odd music we've heard in Vietnam. One restaurant in Hue played every single song from Pitch Perfect, even the songs that were remixed together. My memory of Hoi An is going to bed to the Titanic theme song. I danced down the street to lady Gaga's Pokerface in Saigon (yes, I busted out dance moves). They played Celine Dion as we had our last meal in Vietnam together. 

In the midst of the busy day of museum-going Chris' sunglasses broke at the hinge. We had to finish off our last evening with a trip to the night market. There was one stall that bad sunglasses-he started at $12, we paid $4.50 and Chris got a free sunglasses case. As we walked back to the hostel on this Saturday night the park was full of families and kids. 

A frisbee came was sent over a kids head and I reached out to grab it. Although it bounced out of my hand, the youngster giggled with joy that I tried to even catch his frisbee. Those are the moments of travel that I love, that a camera will never capture. 

Good night Vietnam. Early tomorrow morning we are off to Cambodia. 

I'll leave you with this photo of a day well spent in Saigon. 

 

Finally on the HCM trail

We took a bus to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). However, in Vietnam, the buses don't run to HCMC, they go to Sai Gon (Saigon). After reunification Saigon was officially renamed HCMC, but it is still referred to as Saigon by locals. I have a friend who told me his family is from Saigon & he was born post reunification. 

We took a different bus company (Sinh tourist was sold out), Phuong Trang, the orange bus company. For $1 more per person they picked us up from our hostel, which we later realized was because the bus station was far outside of Da Lat. We wouldn't have been able to reach it otherwise. At the bus station we learned that Phuong Trang is in conjunction with Futa bus lines. They had a nice bus station and offered tea before getting on the bus. They had staff who spoke enough English to direct us to the proper bus. 

We had first floor seats, but at the back of the bus. The back row was 5 sleeper seats across. I had to keep a seat belt on to keep from shooting down the aisle. We didn't sit up in our seats for fear of decapitation had there been an accident. 

However-we really enjoyed this bus line. At each stop they set out a bucket of flip flops so we didn't have to keep putting our shoes on & off. Futa also had really large blankets. They provided great coverage-that's probably why we slept so great. 

There were multiple down pours on the road to Saigon. We slept for most of the 8 hour bus ride & caught up on blog posts when we were awake. We arrived into Saigon and drove an hour into the city before reaching a bus station. We were disappointed as where we were & were we were told the bus would drop us off were about 45 minutes apart. The bus station we were told we would drop off at was only 2 km from the hostel-we were let off much farther. 

I heard another couple speaking Engligh & asked if they wanted to share a taxi. The ride was 200k dong-$9!! Thankfully we split the cost, but that was the cost of a bus ticket from Da Lat to Saigon. The hostel in Da Lat was right-book with their private company that drops off in the tourist part of Saigon. We saved zero dollars by booking ourselves. I am continually thankful for the comraderie among fellow tourists. 

We checking into our hostel-it was recommeded by fellow traveler at our Da Lat hostel (we gained great traveling insights at family dinners) as its on the tourist strip but off a back alley so it's more quiet-my kind of hostel. The hostel then told us the air con in our room was broken and we would be spending the night at another place, her sister's hotel. It was two buildings away and it certainly is more hotel than hostel. Chris said he'd looked at the hotel but it was more expensive & didn't include breakfast. We got the nicer rooms (included a free towel) and breakfast at our bargain price. 

Our room is on the 5th floor. We take an elevator to the 4th and walk up skinny little steps around the elevator shaft to the 5th floor. It's a good thing we are skinny & have small packs. Had we brought rolling luggage we'd be carrying it up. Our room does have some weird aspects (aside from the two twins rather than a double): there is a window in the bathroom that opens to the 4th floor hallway & there is a window in the bedroom that opens & goes all the way to the ground floor. And there are no sheets-again. There is a fitted sheet on the mattress and a blanket, but no sheet. This has been a recurring theme since Hue. I'm glad we brought travel blankets. 

We set out at 5pm to see the city. Saigon is huge and busy busy busy. As we walked in Friday night rush hour, we frequently had to share the side walks with motor bikes-either because they wanted to go opposite traffic on a one way street or because they could bypass the stopped traffic at the light by using the sidewalk. The walk felt rather chaotic-but fascinating. I am often content to just watch Vietnamese traffic. 

We saw some familiar sights (did not partake) and I finally got a picture with Pasteur street!!

We made our way to Notre Dame cathedral. It was closed & in my disappointment, Chris offered, "you've seen one Catholic Church, you've seen them all." This was my response to seeing outlying tombs in Hue & temples in Hoi An-we really are growing more similar. 

Across the street from Notre Dame is the post office which was designed by Eiffel. Seeing the Eiffel Tower is on my bucket list, but I'm saving it for a group tour when they can transport my walker for me. The post office was worth the walk-they've converted the phone booth stalls into ATM kiosks.

Our guide books are from 2014 & we know from experience, that restaurants often no longer exist (or have gained in popularity and thus are beyond our $10 per person per day food budget). As we walked to Notre Dame we noticed our choice for dinner no longer existed and so we went to Quan An Ngon for dinner. 

The building was reminiscent of Hoi An with the dark wool, ceiling and mother of pearl inlays. This restaurant is set up with multiple food stall on the first floor, but to be tourist friendly you can order off a menu. I had cao lau again and this was every bit as lovely as the dish Chris had at Ms Vy's in Hoi An (maybe even better and certainly cheaper). Chris had pork rolls. 

Although we had an easy day by touring standards, we both were tired & had head aches. The pollution/ exhaust is palatable in Saigon. I'm sure my carbon monoxide levels are higher than they should be. Chris even jokes about wanting his own fabric face mask. Would that come out of the "experience" budget?

We enjoyed the sights (not the smells) as we walked back to the hotel. We saw people doing exercises in the park, the streets were lit up, and we were passed by several runners. Tomorrow will be one busy day, as we have one day to see Saigon.