Catching up -flying to HoiAn, Sunday, October 26, 2015

From

While at the ChuChi Tunnels this butterfly landed on one of our group.  It was a good thing to see where so much that was not good happened

That night we were picked up at our hotel by Loc and Vy. Betsy has had a Vietnamese couple clean her house for many years.  Loc is the mans sister.  She recently visited in SF and she came to lunch at Betsys house.  She speaks no english, but her 20 year old daughter Vy is quite fluent.  Vy is studying english at university.  They had hired a driver to bring them into the city in their car.  They own the car but do not drive.  Vy does drive a motor scooter.  They ordered many dishes for us.

This is the pot on boiling broth.  We had a pork and noodle soup.  First the pork, noodles and some vegetables are put into your bowl. Then the broth is added.  The broth is delicious. We don't know what it is. Below is the finishes soup

Below is where our dessert  came from. Mine was from the yellow bowl.  It is a corn mixture.  First the corn goes into your bowl, then a coconut sauce is poured over the top.  Quite good.  Betsys started with a bean mixture and then got the coconut sauce.

Bit of a traffic jam on the way back to the hotel.  Not many rules of the road.

Below is Saigon post office where we changed money.  I was rejected at the first atm I tried and found out after a bit of a panic that it didn't take master card.  I needed to move two machines down.  $1 = 20,000 dong. I became an instant millionaire. 

The short building in the front is the old American embassy where evacuation took place at the close of the war.

We visited a workshop where wooden pieces are decorated with paint or egg shells (duck)   We preferred the egg shells. 

Below done with egg shells. After decoration, 14 layers of lacquer are applied

On to the airport. Flying to daNang. Plane delayed. Heard again that flight was delayed further so betsy got us approval for meal voucher.  We took our two new friends from SF with us to the restaurant. Before ordering Tim said he was going to back and check the the departure board to make sure what we heard was correct.  While the three of us left were try to decide between the leg off chicken and the stir fry, tim came running back to say that our flight was boarding.  Lunch then became mini bananas and cookies from the stash.  

Above is famous bridge in DaNang. The yellow on the side is actually a giant dragon.  This area was one of the worst affected by agent orange.

Staying in HueAn. 

Dinner with our SF friends

Below is custard apple provided by Tran. He also shared jack fruit, durian and another ball like fruit we don't remember the name of.  

Saigon - Cu Chi Tunnels, ho chi Mihn city (Saigon), October 24, 2015

Today was an interesting and emotional day visiting the CuChi tunnels near HiChiMihn City.  These are the tunnels used by the Viet Cong during the war.  Below is a rubber plantation. During the war the plantation was American owned and our government agreed to not fight in it, so it became a site for Viet Cong to hide out.

 Our guide said we lost the war because of corruption in the government of the south and these tunnels. There are rules while visiting.

This is the entrance to one of the tunnels. They were very well hidden.

We also saw examples of the various types of booby traps used in the jungle

The one just above is hooked to a door so that when you open the door, a wall of spikes hits you

Below is a look into the jungle. These trees have all grown since the war because this area was  heavily bombed and burned

The man below is making sandles out of old tires.  They made some of the sandles to be worn backwards to the tracks looked like you were going the other way.

This a crater left from a bomb

Here betsy goes into the tunnel. There is no way you can stand up in the tunnels.  I got part way through, but got to a point where the tunnel went down two ladder like steps while the top of your body had to go back.  I tried to turn around so that I could go down backwards, but there was not space enough to do it so I backed out of the tunnel.  It pays to be small and agile. Many in our group made it through.

Betsy emerges

My failed attempt

The main attraction on the way back to town was the traffic. I tried to figure out the rules of the road and finally decided it is survival of the fittest. There are scooters everywhere.  At each big intersection the motor bikes make there way to the head of the pack and blast off as the light changes.  It looks like a free for all. We saw no accidents, but we're told there are many.

Riding the ox cart and the floating city, October 23, 2015

LWhat a fascinating day.  By bus we went through the Cambodian countryside past many rice paddies. This guy is not working a rice field.  He's cutting grass

We made a stop along the side of the road to sample the local insect delicacies   I didn't even consider trying them as I was just starting to come back to life after my morning of sickness.  I like to think I would have tried them if I felt better, but can't say for sure.  I can say for sure that betsy ate them all. Below are grass hoppers.

And silkworms

And cockroaches

Yummmmmmmm!

We arrived in a rice growing area and had a ride along the rice paddie in an ox cart.  2 oxen and two passengers to a cart

One of our working oxen had a baby who followed along the whole way.  

Then the barber shop along the way

We traveled down river by boat down a river to Tonal Sap Lake to a floating fishing village.  

Life here is simple and grim.  Good health is difficult.  All the water they have comes from the river which is also their sewer and garbage disposal. This is a pretty typical house 

The village moves to different parts of the lake a few times each year.  Some homes have a separate raft on which they plant a small garden. When they move the house, they move the garden. One fisher mans foot.

We went from this outing to the National Museum. It was a nice museum, but after seeing 100 buddahs, we were so tired we went to the coffee shop to get a jump start.  While there we did a three day checkup of our $2 manicures

On to the airport where Vietnam Airlines took us to HoChiMinh City. A bit of excitement at passport check. Betsy had glued her visa into her passport and they wanted to stamp the back of it.  She was put in the corner for about 20 minutes, then offered a new visa for $15 which she refused.  She peeled half of the visa off the page and presented it to them to stamp..on we went to our beautiful hotel. 

The tired tried to get us! Siem Reip, Cambodia

I'm so late writing this post because I was almost sidelined by the heat.  This day was spent visiting both Ankor Thom in the morning and Ankor Wat in the afternoon.  Both involved lots of walking and stairs in 90+ degree heat with humidity so high my glasses steamed when I stepped outside.  Hot as it was, these places are not to be missed.  They are designated as one of seven wonders of the world with good reason. Both of these sites were built in th 15th century.  Ankor Wat is the largest Hindu temple in the world at 800 meters long. Both these sites were abandoned in the 16th century and totally grown over by the forest. They were lost and forgotten to be discovered centuries later and uncovered

The picture below shows how the trees took over the buildings while the temple was abandoned.  The roots held the buildings like snakes. 

Above a happy Buddha carved in limestone blocks.  Below kissing the Buddha. 

One of the last things we did at Ankor Wat was climb up the highest tower for a look at the whole complex.  It was worth the climb, because we both survived, as the view not only allowed us to see the whole layout, but to look into the jungle.  I was thinking about soldiers, and our fallen classmate Fred Heriaud, during the Vietnam war in those jungles with their heavy gear,the oppressive heat, and the task they were charged with.

This shot of my face at the end of the afternoon show how we were feeling. The next morning I woke up with a splitting  headache, a rash on my legs and an upset stomach. Betsy gave me two well aged pepto bismol which I chewed up and quickly threw up. I cautiously approached the breakfast and had dry toast and coffee.  Miraculously, as the day went on, I felt better and better.  We have a couple of times promised to take more time during the day to rest and get out of the heat. Ain't worked so far

Flying with Bangkok Air and the $2 manicure

Time to leave Bangkok and head for Cambodia.  The Bangkok airport is quite spectacular. Took 25 years to build with Hugh cost overruns.  This piece of art is in the lobby. 

Buddha is traveling some pretty rough seas.  Flight is just over an hour, but we were served a meal.  

When we landed at Siem Reip airport in Cambodia, we exited from the back of the plane to the tarmack.  There was no one directing traffic, so we all stood around and guess for a minute.  Finally we were ushered into a building where we got our travel visas for Cambodia.  We had to supply a photo and our passport and $30 and 10 minutes you got your passport back with a Cambodian sticker inside.

Outside our local guide was was holding a sign so we could find him.  The bus we are using here has very colorful and pleated curtains

Before checking into our hotel we went for lunch.  After all we hadn't eaten for an hour.

Our banana flower salad contained some chopped banana flower and was served on a banana flower petal and was yummy. The little red flower is a hot pepper stuck into a skinny green onion. Main course below was a pork dish served in a palm leaf formed and held into shape with toothpicks

Betsy enjoyed a cashew shake

After checking into hotel we wandered down the road to a local market. Heavy duty cultural experience.  Rice for sale

Babies sleeping

And a manicure. No extreme hygiene here. Lime killed germs.  Cost $2

Our evening meal was coupled with traditional Thai dances.   This first course is morning glory salad below.

The main course had a variety of meat and vegetables. The pork was served on a palm leaf cut like a butterfly. 

Check out the hand gestures of the dancers. Rumor has it the Dancers start training quite young so that they can bend this way