Asia Archives - Page 10 of 12

Asia Cambodia South East Asia 2013

Siem Reap

We arrived at the airport in Siem Reap the other morning after a 45 min flight from Phnom Penh and quickly arranged a tuk tuk to take us to our hotel – the Golden Temple Villa. The hotel is lovely with a courtyard filled with tropical plants and palms, pools of fish and statues of Vishnu and Buddha. The service is impeccable, the room is simple but charming, the wifi is good and it comes with swell perks like free coffee, tea, and bananas, and a 1 hour free massage (of which Betty Lou has already availed herself), all for the princely sum of $24/night.

After getting settled we went out to explore the town. It feels much smaller and while the traffic is still madness and there are even more hawkers, it is much quieter than Phnom Penh. We are staying a few blocks from the hub (at least as far as tourists are concerned) of Siem Reap – the market and streets lined with colorful and inviting shops and restaurants. There is a river running through the town and which connects it with Phnom Penh.

We had a lovely time exploring and browsing at the market for spices, tea, fruit and clothing before settling in to a lovely outdoor eatery for some amok. The rest of the day was spent exploring the town, including popping into one temple to listen to the monks in prayer, chanting, which was very peaceful.

In the evening, we sat at one of the many bars/restaurants on “pub street” for some people watching, which was alright. There are so many tourists here. It is to be expected i suppose, but they are really concentrated into this one area. It is a nice area though. After exploring and eating Betty Lou enjoyed her massage and i enjoyed some relaxation of my own variety at the hookah lounge across the street from our hotel which was crowded with locals and thick with shisha smoke.

It feels a bit hotter here than our other stops – hotter and more humid. It is still fine, but you have to accept that you will never feel cool or clean and makeup is impossible. We did get some laundry done (cleaned and pressed for $1.50), but those clothes are already filthy.

Here, as in our other stops, people in the business of catering to tourists speak decent English. Our attempts at speaking Khmer are simple at best. We noticed in Phnom Penh that many locals who spoke no English, also had little ability to read Khmer. A few times i used my phrase book to point to sentences written in Khmer (like, ‘do you have vegetarian food’) but they were unable to read them. The same goes for maps. But one can always make one’s self understood.

We are here for about four days and plan to spend about two of them visiting temples.

Asia Cambodia South East Asia 2013

Phnom Penh by Tuk Tuk

On our second full day in Phnom Penh we hired a tuk tuk driver, who went by the the name of Johnny, to take us to the “Killing Fields” and a couple of other sights. It was strangely relaxing being driven though the city traffic, which seems chaotic but actually has a bizarre flow which works well and did not bring about the least amount of apprehension in either of us. We weaved between buses and tuk tuks and motor scooters carrying their multiple passengers, bushels of bananas, sacks of something, and in one case, a large dead pig. The exhaust and dust from the barely paved roads grew string as we carried in and out driver offered us each a surgical mask. It was very useful for keeping the grit out of one’s teeth, but not so conducive to smoking.

We arrived at the Killing fields of Choeung Ek, which are really very peaceful, due to the their rural setting and despite their horrific past. We did the audio tour of the sight, which was very good and informative, giving the history of the otherwise nondescript spots along the walk. After Choeung Ek we went by tuk tuk to the Tuol Sleng prison, where so many people were held, tortured and executed. It was a sobering pair of sights, but certainly worth visiting.

Finally, we had our driver take us to the “Russian Market”, large market, very similar to the first, but more labyrinthine and containing more crafts and souvenirs. We had some vegetables, noodles and fried ginger at a food counter and took the tuk tuk back to our hotel.

Yesterday was the first day that it felt really hot to me. All the other days so far were hot, but in a totally bearable, humid, Miami sort of way. Yesterday afternoon though it felt very hot as I went for an afternoon walk. I visited a couple more temples and walked to an area which was quite fancy, which I promptly left, as I felt too dirty and shabby to be there. All around the streets local people were setting up for the next day which is a holiday, and flags were hung above the streets.

In the evening, we dined and people watched before making our way back to the hotel along the wildly uneven and dark paving stones, sidestepping holes, garbage, and sleeping families.

That was yesterday. Now we are at the airport about to board a 45 minute flight to Siem Reap.

Asia Cambodia South East Asia 2013

Soggy in Phnom Penh

Our first full day in Phnom Penh began with a lovely breakfast at our hotel underneath the palm trees. After that we decided to walk to a couple of temples along or near the waterfront. The walk started off well enough but then the rains came – slowly at first and then they were a full tropical deluge. By the time we were able to procure a couple of umbrellas we were drenched from socks to scarves. The thing is though, once you are that wet you can’t get wetter so we relished in it and enjoyed splashing though the puddles in our sopping shoes and smiling and declining the offered from tuk tuk drivers to take us dryly to our destination.

Our first stop was Wat Ounalom, which is the head of Buddhism in Cambodia. It is more that one building but a complex of temples and graves and shrines. One such shrine, guarded by an old man in sunglasses and chain smoking cigarettes, contains an alleged hair from the Buddha’s eyebrow. The sunglasses man beckoned us and unlocked the shrine and had us sit on the mat in front of the Buddha while he lit incense and candles and then mixed scented oil in a bowl and used some sticks to flick the oil on us while he chanted (prayers or blessings I assumed, but for all I know if could have been a curse). No sign of the eyebrow, but apparently it is in there.

After that wat we walked further north to Wat Phnom, which is a temple atop a hill. We climbed up the stairs which were pouring with water and spent some time inside, on the floor, admiring the gilded Buddhas and drying out.

The rain began to let up slightly as we walked back south to the Central Market (the Psar Thmei), a large, domes, Art Deco building which houses a large market. The inside sells mostly jewelry, clothing, electronics, and other goods, while around the market are the food stalls selling fresh produce and vegetables, eggs, fish and seafood, and meats – so many means being carved up, from chickens and teeny tiny birds to frogs, grubs, and who knows what else. It was smelly and colourful and fantastic.

We sat at one of the counters in the food selling area and ordered a couple of soups (mine without meat). They were very tasty and with some added spicy chilis, they were delicious (and about $1.25 each). After that we bought some tasty pastries and mangosteens and a small white coconut and walked back to our hotel, now in the sunshine.

After a bit of a rest we walked back down to the waterfront and had a tasty dinner of Thai food with a fellow we ran into who had been on our boat in Vietnam (an Australian fellow who was a jackaroo turned hot air balloonist – there are a couple of careers I never considered).

It was a satisfyingly full day and we slept soundly.

Asia Cambodia South East Asia 2013 Vietnam

Holiday in Cambodia

Yesterday morning (whatever day that was) we stepped out the back of our hotel in Chau Doc and onto a speed boat bound for Phnom Penh. It was a comfortable boat, covered except at the back and the front and with wonderful breezes blowing through. The entire journey, including the stop at the border was about 6 hours, but it was pleasant. Alongside the shores we saw more jungly trees and fields with people tilling the soil by hand, houses on stilts or just corrugated metal shacks built right along the shore, people fishing with poles or giant butterfly nets which the scooped into the water while balancing on the edge on small wooden boats, and, once we crossed into Cambodia, small herds of skinny white cows.

We stopped at the border leaving Vietnam, then reboarded and stopped again at the border entering Cambodia where we got our new visas.

Finally we saw the skyline of Phnom Penh and we pulled up to Sisowath Quay. We both immediately loved it. The buildings were an interesting mix of French inspired architecture, dilapidated low rises, and stunning temple peaks. We boarded a tuk tuk (our first) and we snaked through the traffic, which was similar to that of Ho Chi Minh in terms of its style and composition but was slightly less frenetic.

Our hotel, the Blue Lime, is pretty great. It has a South Beach feel to it, with its beautiful pool surrounded by Palm trees and lazy cabanas. Our room is perfect and has a modern design and there is an outdoor bar and restaurant by the pool, perfect for relaxing with a passion fruit juice (as I am doing now). All this (and breakfast) for about $45 night.

After getting settled we went for a walk in search of food. The streets are very pleasant for walking (despite having to walk in traffic much of the time), as there are so many appealing and interesting street side eateries, shops, vendors, and whatnot to look at. The poverty though is evident, as steps away from the main temples and restaurants catering to tourists are people living on the street or naked kids picking through garbage.

We found a restaurant and had our first Cambodian meal – the de facto national dish ‘amok’, a mild, steamed curry. Betty Lou had fish and I had I had a vegetarian version. It was delicious and for two of us it was about $6. A few small kids came up to sell us things, but I didn’t feel bothered. The place is crawling with tourists, but that didn’t bother me either. It is all a pleasant atmosphere.

After lunch we visited the Royal Palace, which is really a serene complex of stunning temples and pagodas decorated in intricate and ornate design; the peaked roofs glitter like dragon scales and Buddhas sat amongst the greenery. Walking among the trees and the buildings were many monks, dressed in their beautiful saffron robes. It was all lovely.

We retired to the room for a bit and then I decided to go for a walk to see what the nightlife was like. It was all really the same, but it felt even livelier (and that is certainly true of the bars and restaurants). I was having a fine time wandering until the skies opened up and it began to pour. I tried to wait it out in a bookshop but became restless and decided to head back to the hotel which was 3-4 blocks away only. In those few blocks however I got drenched; my eyes blinded by the torrential rain and my shoes transformed into pools. I returned though in one piece and enjoyed a wonderful sleep.

Asia South East Asia 2013 Vietnam

Journey up the Mekong

We left Ho Chi Minh in the morning on a minibus bound for a town on the Mekong river, where we joined about two dozen others on a small boat which took us out further onto the river where we boarded our proper boat – the “Mekong Eyes”, a lovely wooden converted rice barge turned into a fairly posh cruising boat. It was simply lovely. We had a well appointed room and the boat had a dining room and a wonderful top deck with places to sit and take in the view. It almost felt too fancy for me, but I guess sometimes it’s nice to travel in style.

We began sailing and we relaxed on the top deck watching the lush, green jungly landscape pass by, with its occasional small, ramshackle houses on the shore. Various other boats passed by – mostly fishing boats and small sampans rowed by women and men standing atop them and rowing with long oars. It was very peaceful and pleasant (and perfect for cigar smoking).

After a delicious lunch, we took small boats to a village along the river where we were able to wander past rice paddy fields dotted with above ground graves, tiny houses with open air rooms and families resting in hammocks, chopping wood for the stove, and cooking and eating meals, and past trees growing papayas, jack fruit, coconuts and bananas. After returning to the big boat we spent the rest of the day watching the shore slip past until it was dark and the sky was dotted with migrating bats.

We had a wonderful sleep on board, delayed only slightly by a fantastic lightening storm, which lit up the night sky.

This morning after breakfast we again took a small boat to the floating market, where countless boats crowded together on a wide part of the river to sell all manner of produce and hot coffee and tea. The boats, which ranged from small canoe-like contraptions to larger boats displayed their wares by way of tying them to masts on their boats – the pineapple vendor, for example, had a pineapple hanging from a stick, high above the boat so that others would know what was for sale. The market was so lively and colourful as the boats all paddled and motored their way amongst each other to connect vendors with buyers. Along the shores we had excellent views of people’s houses and could see people going about their daily lives on the water.

After the market we took in some other sights on foot and then after a meal of delicious fruits, we left our boat and travelled by bus about three hours to Chau Doc; a small but busy city near the border with Cambodia.

Our hotel in Chau Doc is ridiculously fancy. It is the Victoria hotel and is this posh establishment on the water with a beautiful outdoor pool, restaurant, and beautiful rooms. We went for a walk though the city, which was buzzing with motor scooters and has a bustling, colourful market. We walked though the market, looking with wonder at the many unidentifiable fruits and vegetables and taking in the sights and (pungent) smells. The evening has wound up with a cigar on the hotel grounds, looking out over the water.

In the morning we are catching a speed boat to Phnom Pehn, where the second leg of out trip shall begin.

Asia South East Asia 2013 Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh

What can we say but…

We arrived yesterday late morning after two flights and a layover in Taipei. We were greeted by the roar of motorcycles and horn honking as we took a car and zoomed to our hotel through the chaotic traffic – mostly motorcycles/scooters, often with multiple passengers (the most we saw on one was a family of five). Our hotel – the Bich Duyen – is on a quiet back lane off one of the main streets in the backpacker area. It is a great location and the hotel is clean and cheap and pleasant.

We went out yesterday walking through the city. We quickly learned how to cross the street against the traffic, which seldom stops. The key is: just step out into the street, keep your eyes open, but just walk ahead and trust that the hundreds of motorcycles will just part around you. So far it has worked. One time though we must have hesitated too long before crossing, as a tiny, old woman crossed the street towards us, took me and my mother by the hand and walked us back across, me laughing with fear the whole time.

The city, for the most part, is not attractive, but is very interesting. We wandered down narrow back lanes lined with what appeared to be one room houses and people cooking on the street over open coals, all manner of meat, vegetables, and tofu. There is a wonderful assortment of street snacks here – all of which looks delicious, but little of it vegetarian. Women are everywhere in their conical hats, carrying food for sale and other trinkets.

We visited the Ben Thanh market which was a maze of items for sale, including textiles, clothing, household items, and food. We sat at the low, plastic (child-sized) tables and stools outside one of the food stalls and had a bowl of vegetables and noodles, and a thickly sweet iced coffee.

We also visited a couple of temples/pagodas. The Jade Emperor Pagoda had ponds outside teeming with fish and turtles, which people fed with needlessly large amounts of bread, which floated on top of the water appetizingly. The inside was beautiful though – small and dark with carvings of Buddhas and tigers, with two altars of gold Buddhas and dozens of people making offerings of flowers and incense. The incense was thick and filled the room with an atmospheric haze. We visited a similar temple in the Cholon (Chinatown) neighborhood where we were charged by a brave rat, which sent us off on our way prematurely.

In the evening we went out for dinner and sat on a patio on a busy street, with a cigar, watching the traffic and people. It was a pleasant evening. The weather has been nice; it is hot and humid, but not oppressively so. i think it is nice.

We have just had breakfast at our hotel and will now go on a walk in the neighborhood before catching a bus to the Mekong, where we will tranfer to a boat, taking us north.

Asia South Korea Uzbekistan

Tashkent to Seoul

One final note about Uzbekistan: If you are leaving the country by plane (as I was) and you have some s’om left over (as I did) and you plan to spent it at the airport on snacks and souvenirs (ditto), don’t do it. Take the last of your s’om and spend it or give it away before going inside the airport, because once you’re in there, they won’t take it nor will they exchange it. It’s Euros only at the Tashkent airport. Now what am i going to do with the 24,000 s’om burning a hole in my pocket?

I arrived in Seoul at about 7am on Saturday and took the Arex train to Seoul Station. (A word of advice, if you are doing this, take the commuter train, not the high-speed train. The high-speed train is about 4x the price and is only 7 minute faster than the commuter train.)

Once downtown, i was hit with the brutal humidity of Seoul. It was not nearly at hot as Uzbekistan, but was so humid that it felt a million times worse. I had rivers of sweat running down my face into my eyes and into my kimchi. Hideous.

Anyway, i visited the grand Gyeonbokgung Palace – an enormous complex of pagoda-roofed buildings separated by a network of courtyards and with a large, lily pad covered pool. It was originally built in the 14thC, but has been destroyed many times over the centuries, so it has been entirely restored. With the misty mountains in the background, it was all quire serene and lovely. There were masses of tourists there, but the place was large enough that I could look around without feeling overwhelmed by people. As I haven’t been to far east Asia, it was quite unlike anything I have seen before and i really enjoyed myself.

After that, i went to the very touristy Insadong neighborhood. I had walked through there on my previous visit to Seoul, but as it had been so early, everything had been closed. This time, however, it was teeming with people. It is lined with lovely tea shops and souvenir stores and curious restaurants. I finally found a restaurant that had a vegetarian bibimbap on the menu, so i ate that, which was very good (especially after 2 weeks of Uzbek vegetarian cuisine).

I then walked many blocks, stopping to sample food from street vendors or poke around in shops, before returning to the Namdaemun Market, where i spent an hour or two walking and browsing and making a few purchases.

Back to the airport 2 hours before my flight home. It was a delightful day. It is amazing how much looking around one can cram into a 12 hours layover.

I am home now and am resting and trying to get over the illness that has been recurring since Samarkand.

Thank you for keeping up with my Uzbek adventure.

Dale R. North

Asia Uzbekistan

Miscellaneous Uzbek Trivia

I thought i would post a few random observations that have previously been absent from my posts – Just a few things i found interesting:

Gold Teeth: Many women and men (but mostly women) of abut middle age or older here have a few or all gold teeth. I have been told that it is fashionable. It is quite strange the first few times a women smiles (not at me – they seldom smile at me) and you see her gilded smile. I guess it isn’t any stranger than people in North America getting their perfectly healthy teeth capped. I tried to explain to one guy in Bukhara that in certain sub-cultures in North America, gold teeth are popular (i.e. rap culture), which he seemed to think was very funny.

Car Theft: Apparently care theft used to be a big problem in Uzbekistan (mainly in Tashkent), so the government changed the law so that now, the first time one gets caught stealing a car he gets 15 years in prison. The second time one gets caught stealing a car one gets either life in prison or death by firing squad. (One Uzbek told me life in prison and another told me execution, so i don’t know which is true.) Now car theft is virtually obsolete.

Questions: Every Uzbek with whom i speak asks very soon upon meeting how old i am, whether i am married and how many children i have. They cannot understand that i am single and childless and thing it is even funnier when i say that i want neither marriage or children. Everyone here seems to have many children very early in the twenties. Kids are everywhere, like rats.

Cigars: If you are coming to Uzbekistan and are a cigar smoker, bring enough for your trip, because they seem to be nonexistent in the country. My cigars have attracted a lot of attention (in Bukhara they even became the subject of rumor); had i brought more i could have given them away to the curious smoker.

Vegetarians: Like most countries, Uzbekistan is not a great place for vegetarians. Breakfasts are usually ok and then it is pretty much bread and cheese and fruit for the rest of the day. There are lots of yummy looking bready/samosa-y looking things for sale on the street, but they all contain meat. On the plus side, the bread and fruit are really very good. And the tea is excellent.

Tattoos: I have been told that if you want to see people in Uzbekistan with tattoos, you must visit the jails. Muslims, of course, are not supposed to get tattoos and that rule (unlike the drinking rule) seems to be well-respected. I have worn long sleeves on this trip, but sometimes a tattoo peeks out from my sleeve and it always gets questions. Many people have asked me what they are and asked to take pictures of them. One guy said, “You are like pop star” because i had so many tattoos. I have nopt gotten any negative reactions, just curiosity.

Poverty: There are definitely many poor people here, but i have seen no one sleeping on the street and very few people begging for money.

Animals: Aside from birds and working animals like donkeys, horses, goats and cows, i have seen very few. I saw four cats in Bukhara and i have seen a total of three dogs. I don’t know where they all are.

Safety: Other than my little run in with the police, i have felt perfectly safe the whole time i have been here, even at night and walking alone. I feel the need to mention this because i know many people have other ideas about the country.

Reading: If you are visiting Uzbekistan, bring your own reading material and do not count on finding more. I brought one book (the hilarious and appropriate “Absurdistan”, which i recommend) and then was fortunate enough to trade it for another English book with the girl i met on the train to Bukhara. I read that and then read the one English book a my Bukhara hotel. Now i am without reading material and cannot find more. Because most travelers here are not native English speakers, it is difficult to find books to pick up along the way. I am even down to my final NY Times crossword. It may be a long flight home.

Asia Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan: The Final Day

As it turns out, my crumby day yesterday did not last even one full day.

After my post, I returned to my hotel, the Gulnara Guesthouse. It is on the edge of the old town near the bustling Chorsu market. I cannot comment on the rooms, because, as I mentioned, my reservation was screwed up and the only room they had for me wasn’t really a room, just a cot and electric fan, but I must say that I am quite happy with the accommodations. The owners are friendly and the rooms are all located around a pleasant courtyard with a huge apple tree and laundry strung up everywhere.

It is definitely a backpackers’ place, with everyone there being young and traveling with large backpacks or by bicycle. Almost everyone there seems to be French, although the Japanese girl i met in Samarkand (and saw again in Bukhara) is staying there as well.

Anyway, after my post, I went to my room and spent about 4 hours napping and listening to repeats of Bill Maher and Ricky Gervais podcasts on my ipod, which cheered me up immensely. After that, I went for an evening walk and had tea and a cigar on a busy corner, where I was joined by some Uzbek construction worker with some basic English skills. He said he had only seen cigars “in films”. He asked to buy one from me but I had only one left, so i didn’t sell.

All in all, it was a pleasant end to what started out as a crumby day.

This morning, after breakfast, I walked up to the Khast Imom, which is the holiest part of Tashkent. It is a collections of newish mosques and mausoleums and a small museum that houses a massive and old copy of the Koran. Surrounding the buildings were some very well manicured park areas, which were also home to many large stork-like birds (like storks, but bigger and with more intimidating beaks).

I then walked past many large and largely unattractive apartment blocks to Navoi Park, which is a big park containing some odd Soviet structures and a man made lake with beach areas, little paddle boats and small fair area with rides. I wandered there for a while and had some ice-cream-like frozen substance. I have on this trip mastered the pronunciation of the Russian word for ice cream, which had previously eluded me.

Now I am just sort of pleasantly killing time. My flight is at 9:00pm, but i plan to get there nice and early, as I could not check in on-line. I plan to stroll through the market again, see if i can spend my remaining Sum and then I will probably just hang around in the courtyard of my hotel and smoke my final cigar.

I may post again either from Tashkent or Seoul, internet access permitting.
d

Asia Uzbekistan

Night Train to Tashkent

My last day in Bukhara was pretty relaxing. I just went for walks and read a book and went out for lunch at an Italian restaurant. I know, Italian food in Uzbekistan sounds like a bad idea, and i’m not sure that it was all that authentic, but the vegetarian pizza that i nibbled at (usually i would have gobbled it down, but i am still feeling ill), was actually ok. They best part though was sitting at a proper indoor restaurant and smoking a cigar; it’s just so civilized.

They evening came and i caught the 7:40 night train to Tashkent. It takes about 12 hours, so i had booked a bed in a sleeper car, each of which holds four. Unfortunately i shared my car with four men. There wasn’t anything wrong with them, but sleeping in close quarters with 4 strange men who don’t speak English doesn’t thrill me.

The beds were comfy and it was nice to lie down, but the air conditioning that was allegedly flowing failed to cool me down at all. I spent the whole time lying in a pool of my own sweat and praying that some sort of a breeze would come, but my bunk mates kept the door to the car and the window closed, so no breezes were to come. Plus, i had a terrible case of food poisoning and had to urgently get up often to use the disgusting bathroom. Needless to say, i got very little sleep.

On arriving in Tashkent, feeling relieved, i caught the metro to my new hostel. Unfortunately, as i waited for my car to arrive, a police man or solider (I can’t tell which are which) with a machine gun took me off the platform and to a small room with a table, two chairs and another uniformed, heavily armed officer waiting. I had a moment where I was certain I would be raped. Neither of them spoke English and i refused to speak any Russian, lest i accidentally implicate myself in some crime. They inspected my passport, visa, registration papers, my money and searched my bag. Of the questions they asked that i understood were “why are you in Uzbekistan?”, “Do you have family here or in Russia?”, “What is your job?”, “How long are you here?”, “Are you married?” and “Do you have any children”. But most of the questions were just nonsense Russian to me. I think they wanted a bribe, but they didn’t ask and i didn’t offer. Finally, after about an hour of questions in Russian (no matter how many times i said i only spoke English, they kept speaking to me in Russian), they let me go.

I now know that it wasn’t a big deal, but in the moment, i found it unnerving and upsetting. Being interrogated for no reason by two men in a language you don’t understand is not a good feeling. I felt like i was in a Kafka novel or a movie where an innocent girl traveling ends up in a foreign prison.

Then, i finally arrived at my hostel, where frankly, all i wanted was a shower, a nap, and an hour or so of watching the BBC, but i found out that they had lost my reservation and were fully booked. The only room i could get was a tiny room with a cot and a fan. No AC and a shared bathroom. I really wanted something better, but couldn’t bear the thought of trudging around town popping into hotels, so i took it. It is a cozy little place and my room, such as it is, is only about $6 or $7 dollars a night.

Tomorrow night i fly to Seoul.
On every trip i have one day where i feel tired and fed up. Today is that day. Tomorrow will be better.

Wandering North

Tag: Asia

Siem Reap

Phnom Penh by Tuk Tuk

Soggy in Phnom Penh

Holiday in Cambodia

Journey up the Mekong

Ho Chi Minh

Tashkent to Seoul

Miscellaneous Uzbek Trivia

Uzbekistan: The Final Day

Night Train to Tashkent