Travels in Asia: 2005

Post 12a: Tam-Coc
Completely forgot to mention this part in the last blog, so figured I'd do an add on here.
From Hanoi we took an evening bus to Ninh Binh - a town where we wanted to spend a day to visit the "Halong Bay of the rice paddies". Next morning the plan was to rent a motorcycle and check these things out -along with some floating villages.  Well - I've never ridden a motorcycle and didn't feel confident enough to try, but I figured that my mom would be able to handle it. The guy explained that it was a semi-automatic with no clutch to worry about and mom went to give it a try.  Problem is as it turned out - that motorcycles and her don't mix. You know how you have to sort of rev the handles towards you to add gas?  Well, she kept on having the impuls to do it in the opposite direction. Hence, after a bunch of bunny hopping, a manual turn around (with feet) and an attempted breaking with her legs because instead of letting go of the gas she would add it and a concluding roll-over where the bike ended up on top of her - we decided to go witht he safer option of renting two motorcycles with drivers.
Sure made for an interesting mornign though and for quite a bit of enterainment for the locals.
But yeah -with drivers we headed to the Kenh Ga Floating Village were we took a very peaceful boat ride through some canals.  Lime stone rock formations similar to those of Halong Bay and Guilin in China were all around us. The locals here also row their boats using their feet rather than their hands. They lean back and basically peddal with the oars. Really neat to see.
From there we went to Tam Coc where we took yet another boat ride through the rice paddies. This was even prettier but a lot more hassle -they try to sell you drinks -you say no; they try to sell you drinks as a tip for the person rowing - you say no; then they try to sell you their handicrafts all of which you do not want; so finally since you didn't buy anythign from them - they ask for a tip - no no no no no. Seems like it's the only word you're ever using.
Some Vietnam Facts:

• Monthly Income: $100 - $500 US
• Land in Saigon in a couple of districts costs: $30,000 US per sq. meter (hence buildings are sometimes less than 2 meters wide but have 7-9 stories)
• there are 80 million motor cycles??? - something like that
• motorcycles cost anywhere from $300 - $500 for a bike that will break within 6 months, to $1000-$7000 for a good Japanese motorcycle
• school is from 8:30 - 11:30

Post 13 Proper: Cambodia

Whoever said a motorcycle is not a family vehicle was WRONG!!!!!!!!!  Motorcycles can easily fit from 3 - 4 people. And it's even doable with 5 plus 6 big bags of grocieries and some more in the basket at the front.  Tell me how many people have a 5 person family that goes grociery shopping? Why would you need any bigger form of transportation?  (We actually saw a family of 5 with precisely those grocieries riding by).
Also - fish do not necessarily need fresh water - not even salt water.  Mud is sufficient.  Imagine driving along a main road -however it's not main in the sense that we would think -not a paved highway. But rather a road that at some point or another may have been paved but now is a muddy dirt track with increadible pot holes. Now picture yourself in a mini-bus bouncing around to the ceiling while driving down this road and the driver stopping all of a sudden in front of a bigger one of these water filled pot holes, climbign out and returning to the car with a 30 cm cat fish in his hand - still trashing and flip-flopping everywhere.  Why bother going fishing? All you have to do is drive some tourist and stop along the way in a puddle on the road. (TRUE STORY)

Mekong Delta trip was alright. A lot of transport - bus and boat. But we got to see some neat things such as floating markets, floating houses, and a lot of other floating things.... did I mention floating boats, kids, and gas stations.  A lot of floating.
Border check was uneventful along the river.
Phnom Penh is a big and not so pretty city. Cambodia however is a country with a very disturbign past and we got to see glimpses into it today. The Khmer Rouge committed attrocities here that are comparable if not even worse than those committed during WWII by the Nazis. Over a 4 year period of Pol Pot reign 2 million out of 7million cambodians lost their lives. Odds like that are staggering. Pol Pot not only arrested/tortured/executed those opposing his ideology, not just intellectuals and officials, but even his own party members, soldiers, peasants. Money was abolished, as was religion, the post, hospitals, schools, education. Phnom Phen was basicaly evacuated and people were sent to work in the fields 15 - 18 hour days. They weren't allowed to talk. They weren't allowed to have children. They were not allowed to do anythign except work and be quite.
We went to see the Killing Fields today - which were their equivalent of and execution site.  129 mass graves out of which 86 have been unearthed. Over 17,000 people lost their lives there. This is only one out of 324 such places in this small country.  S-21, a former school, was convered into a prison where no one lived longer than 4 months. Out of over 14,000 prisoners there, only 7 survived.  And all this took place 30 years ago.  You would think that people would learn from the attrocities committed in the past.  Unfortunately the lessons of the past are lost on some - just as they were lost on the Americans participating in the "�merican War"- (Vietnam War), or those here in Cambodia.
But depressing things aside - it is worthwile to learn something about the countries, especially about somethign so recent, but there are also other things to see, such as their religious complexes. One of the most amazing is the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda here in the capital.  This temple has over 5000 silver tiles on the floor - each weighing a kilo.  And the 3 main statutes are made respectivaley out of pure bronze, silver and gold.  The Gold one weighs 90kg and has over 2000 diamonds decorating it - the biggest one having 24 carats.
But that's Phnom Penh for you.  Tomorrow we are off to Siem Riep and Angor Wat.  I'll let you know how the roads are because contrary to everyones advice to take the boat -we are daring to take the bus.

Kasia