March 30, 31, 2015, Monday, Tuesday, Ho Chi Minh City

Monday After a morning free to catch up on blogging, we transferred to the airport and flew to Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.  Right away we saw that this city is much more developed than Cambodia or Thailand. Soliid buildings and storefronts, regular roads.  Motocyclists outnumber cars, but they wear helmets and our guide said there are relatively few accidents.  There are about 9 million people here and 4 million have motorbikes they generically call Hondas.  We drove by the palace which is now a museum where the tankers smashed into the front gates. 

Streets of Ho Chi Minh

 We drove through the main city and saw a huge skyscraper.  We drove by two or three nice shady city parks.

After returning "home" to the ship we had a quick dinner and went to the Majestic Hotel for our Magic Minn Cultural Show.  The hotel is owned by the government.  Viet Nam is communist, but now only 30% is govt owned.  The show was okay.  

He reminded me of Alan Akaka, but this lap instrument had only one string.

Mostly I enjoyed seeing and hearing the unusual instruments.  One had only two strings and played sort of like a violin, ie with a bow.  Another had one string which was attached to an antenna and could make every note.  the antenna could make the sound warble. 

 Then there was a xylophone made out of bamboo.  

And lastly was a xylophone made out of stones.  They said this was a small one.

March 31, Tuesday.  We were off early for our excursions.  David went to "Good Morning Viet Nam".  He went to the Museum of Remembrants, (sic), the unification palace, and the Cu chi tunnels.  He bought a book, "Bare Feet Iron Will".  His camera and iPhone ran out of gas.

I went to the Mekong River Cruise.  

First we stopped at a temple built in 1849 with a seated "happy" Buddha.  

Behind was a new Buddha lying down, built only 2 years ago.  

In front was a standing Buddha 12 years old.  This was our happy stop, ie restrooms.  Then we drove an hour or so to the river bank and got into a boat with about 20 chairs and a canvas roof and motored on the Mekong River to an island.  Mekong means Mother.  We passed a rice factory.  The chaff is sold as fuel.  There were also fish farms, and houseboats.  

There were barges carrying up to 40 tons of rice The fish are called kangaroo fish.  Our guide said that when the white man came to Australia they asked what was the name of the animal with the pouch and were told kangaroo.  Later they found out that kangaroo means "I don't know", that is why the fish is a kangaroo fish. 

inside a home

We got off the boat and walked around one of four islands on the river.  First we had a honey demonstration.  We were served tea with bee pollen and honey.  I bought candied ginger.  Then we walked to another area and had fruits and a concert.  I had jackfruit.  Then we walked along and saw a typical home.  

TV, lots of hammocks, clothes hung on a rope, but all the essentials, even a small frig.  Then we had another boat ride in a small boat holding 4 people and the two women who steered and paddled along this narrow channel.  

After we got off we went to a rich gentleman's home and had our photo taken with him.  He was a Viet Cong but is now 86 yrs old.  He had mother of pearl inlaid furniture and large rooms for him and his wife.  The kids visit on the weekend.  He showed us through his home and kitchen.  You have to remove your hat to show respect.

Then we went to a restaurant for our lunch.  What a beautiful feast.  There was a whole fish displayed, laarge shrimp in a coconut, and spring rolls displayed on a pineapple.  You wrapped the fish with thin cucumber and pineapple in a rice paper.  Delicious.  Then they brought out a hot pot of broth with veges.  The surprise was a big balloon they cut and folded.  Inside was sweet sticky rice.  Just cut it with scissors in triangles for dessert.  After lunch we took the first larger boat back to the dock and drove back to our very big boat.

We've seen these large desert rose plants before but not so many at once.

House boat

Woman on our smaller boat

We left Saigon at 4:00pm during my stretching class.  We all liked Viet Nam.  It was hot, but it cools down in the evening with breezes from the river.  It is clean and friendly and more developed than anywhere else David and I have been.  Someone on my tour said they were here 20 years ago.  It was a government tour, the only kind you could do.  It was not as nice as this is now, they said.

David's Good Morning Viet Nam photos

A small entrance to the Cu Chi tunnels

What it was like inside

A disguised entrance to the tunnels

March 28, 29, 2015, Sunday, Monday, Angkor Wat Cambodia

March 28, 2015, Sunday

We took all day to get to Siem Riep and Le Meridien hotel.  After check in we went to another hotel for a special dinner.  

They had an ice sculpture, fans to keep the bugs away, several stations for food, and a beautiful performance of Apsara dancers, as well as the 

monkey and the beautiful lady dancers which is a legend of some sort.  I had jackfruit for the first time.  It tasted like grapefruit and orange but a different consistency.

March 29, Monday

First I have to say that it was slightly overcast so the heat, which I was most worried about was not too bad, considering the humidity was almost 100%.

Our guide took us first to Wat Thom.  This temple complex was dominated by the large faces of Buddha decorating all four directions of the pillars surrounding the main temple.

  These temples all have moats surrounding them, which in a few months will be filled with water, so much so that they may have to close some of the temples.  Then there is an inner wall with gates in each direction.  Then another inner area with the largest temples.  

There are 4 in the 4 corners, and then one in the middle.  There may be side temples as well. 

 We walked around Wat Thom for 45 minutes.  There were so many doorways and corridors.  We climbed up onto this main area and could climb down into narrow hallways with tiny rooms off the corridors.  We were told to go in and out the West entrance.  I thought he said there was only one entrance.  

David did too, but got lost because he went out another entrance.  He finally walked around the outside grounds until he found our bus.  That was a very large outer wall to walk around. 

 I got a photo with some beautiful girls in the apsura costumes for $1.00.  Thank you, whichever gentleman gave me the $.

We had a chance to use the facilities before we were off to Ta Prahm temple complex where Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie was filmed. 

A wall along the road full of elephant sculptures called the "elephant wall"

Elephant wall

Entrance to Ta Prahm

They are supporting the huge root of this tree on the temple

Yes, I was there

These trees normally grow on rock, so they are very happy, unlike me at this point

It almost got me

We walked around the outside walls where the Spung trees were growing into the temple, and entered the inner courtyards.  The first thing we saw was scaffolding holding up a huge root on top of a wall.  We wound around and came to the most famous scene in the movie and all had our photo taken there.  There were many more examples of tree roots growing on the rocks, but not as many as I had thought.   David found us after this complex and we were not delayed, but I didn't get a photo with him here.

We drove to a hotel for our lunch buffet.  We could take food from our buffet, or the one outside for the Asian guests.  Our buffet had some surprising dishes.  Somehow they ruined several.  So David and I partook of the strange delights of the other buffet like tiny shrimp in a ball fried like tempura, a taco shaped crispy pancake which looked like it was made out of egg.  Barbecued pineapple spears were the best.

Dessert was interesting.  There was a custard on squash which could only have been cooked if it was inside the squash.  Coconut milk with wiggly hearts of palm served warm.  

We next went to a craft coop which had a demonstration of silver decorating using a hammer and special chisels to press the silver into designs.  A woman was hand weaving a silk scarf.   I didn't take any money with me, but we managed to buy two scarfs and a beautiful silver ring.

Silver bowl using a hammer and tool to make dents, like working leather

The afternoon then we drove 45 minutes to Banteay Sirei. 

 Along the way we could see typical Cambodian homes on stilts.  Mostly we dozed.  This complex was relatively small in area, but it had very fine examples of figures with detailed carving.  

I was here also

Very well preserved temple complex

Someone saw Nancy Pelosi visiting vendors as we got onto our bus.  Bill Clinton and Marinda Modi, Prime Minister of India, among others, attended the funeral of the President of Singapore.  Australia won the World Cup of cricket.  

Our last stop was the most famous temple complex, Angkor Wat.  They say they have 10,000 tourists here a day.  I believe it.

This is tremendous in scope.  The moat is like a lake in size, when it is filled.  

The causeway is very long.  We were told to go to the back where we could climb to the top of the tallest temple.  No hats, no shorts.  The steps were very steep. At the top, we could walk around a very large temple area with 4 large courtyards.  All of this is up really high.  

The top area

More details at the top

We spent awhile up here looking down on the whole temple grounds and observing the detailed stonework.  

David purchased a book about the whole area.  It showed pictures of detailed carvings on the walls depicting the churning the ocean of milk, and battle scenes.  We asked our guide where they were.  We went through a door into a corridor where the bas relief scene was displayed.  

Churning of the milky sea

detail of another long wall with battles

more long wall with sweeping scenes of incredible carvings

The figures were so lifelike.  Each individual had a different face.  I took a movie which was the only way to show how long it is.  Then we turned a corner and a whole other corridor appeared with another scene spanning the whole wall.  Over a passageway and on the other side is another expansive scene.  Around the corner again appeared the most famous battle scene.  The detail is amazing. 

 Little star decorations on umbrellas.  Beads.  Some of the relief had been rubbed so that it shined and had a darker color which showed the contrast better.  Most of it was hard to photograph otherwise.

We left by the side with shops and had a coconut.  Then we took our photos at the reflection pool showing the famous temple silhouette and its reflection.

Back at the hotel we are on our own for the evening.  David booked massages at the hotel spa.  We got traditional Khmer massages.  No oil, just cotton pants and a towel and they did the massage on top of that but manipulated your joints as well.  I think they got onto the table most of the time, but they did not walk on our backs.

I woke up this morning with my left ankle itching like crazy.  There is a red blister on my heel.  The ship doctor wisely said wait 2 days and see me again.