Gefiltesushi: Lena and Ari's Life

Perhentian Islands

We are back on the mainland now.  We had hoped to post stunning pictures of the beautiful natural landscape at the Perhentian Islands but unfortunately, the only internet cafe we could find in Kota Bharu does not have the capacity for us to download our pictures.

We had a fantastic time there - definitely the highlight of the trip.  The scenery out our front door was incredible - sparkling clear water washing up on a white-sand, palm-fringed beach, with a green forested island across the channel.  You will have to wait for the evidence.

I did some of the best diving I have experienced - 30 meter visibility in one place, with huge, multi-colored fish swimming about.  Lena also did her first dive!  A 'Discover Scuba Diving' dive - she took a short course in the basics and then went underwater, swimming around a reef at 10 meters.  She fully enjoyed it, and is looking forward to more.

Tomorrow, we are off to Borneo.

Heading to Malaysia

Today we head to the Malaysian border on a 20-hour train ride from Bangkok.  Once we get there, we'll take a short ride to the port city of Kuala Besut and then a boat to the Perhentian Islands, where we'll be spending the next 6 days at this hotel.  Since it's on a remote island, I am not sure about our access to Internet, so there may not be any updates for the next week.

Last night, we saw the movie 'The Wedding Crashers' at a nearby cinema, where we bought 'Gold Class' seats.  They have a separate luxury theater with insane seats and service.  We had a double-seater reclinable leather couch with built-in massage (which Lena got annoyed at every time I turned on because of the noise it made...).  They provide a blanket, socks, and pillow as well.  It costs $15 a seat, but what the hell, we are on honeymoon.  The movie, which we knew nothing about beforehand, and just picked because it was playing, was completely hilarious and highly recommended.

More Angkor

Angkor is the most photogenic place on earth.

Angkor at sunrise

From the former royal palace, the Terrace of the Elephants

and the Terrace of the Leper King

Some recurring themes:

The Naga's Head (the mythical serpent)

Ruins

Lena admiring a lion's tush

...and the fierce lions guarding the temple gates

By popular demand, a picture of us together...

I was in Siem Reap 8 years ago, and I've never seen a place change so much.  When I was there last time, it was shortly after a coup which saw some shots fired and set back the country's fledgling tourist industry.  I had the temples at Angkor practically to myself.  I remember watching sunset from the top of the Bayon - the second-most visited temple at the complex - and being the only one there.  The town itself was a sleeply, dusty village with a few cheap guesthouses and some merchants selling t-shirts at the market. You could walk down the middle of the street, and the few motorbikes and bicycles would maneuver around you. 

Since peace has come to Cambodia, the town has exploded.  There are now literally hundreds of hotels, in all ranges.  The Grand Hotel d'Angkor - built by the French in the 50s for well-heeled tourists, and which was under reconstruction when I was last there - has been joined by dozens of luxury hotels from all the brands - Sofitel, Le Meridien, Raffles.  In addition, there are rows of new flash hotels lining the road to the airport, just one after another - mainly for the Korean tour groups who now crowd the park.  In addition, there are restaurants, travel agents, souvenir shops in all the town's regions, plus the hundreds of tuk-tuk and motorbike drivers who tout their services to anyone walking by.

While I wonder how a rural third-world town infrastructure can handle the demands on resources that all these accomodations bring, the town surely deserves its fame.  Though now packed with tourists - mostly Asian - Angkor hasn't lost any of the magic that I found there 8 years ago.  The temples are serene and beautiful, and their construction mind-boggling.  For a country as poor as Cambodia, a tourist attraction like this generates income for thousands of families.  And Cambodia has to be admired for the way it has managed the temple complex, despite the pressures to totally commercialize it. 

It was a good trip back - eye-opening and rewarding.  I haven't lost any of my wonder at the place, and I plan on returning as soon as I can.

Bangkok

Today's trip from Siem Reap was long.  Very long.  We woke up at 6:00 for a 7:00 taxi to the border.  About 20km outside of town, the paved road abruptly ends and becomes a dirt path strewn with small stones and full of meter-wide potholes.  It continues like this for about 2 hours before resuming 'road' status for a few kilometers and then slowly transferring to 'former road' for the last hour and a half. 

At one point, we came upon a long row of parked trucks.  'This is interesting,' we thought.  Upon reaching the front of the line, we realized why.  'Bridge broken,' our driver informed us.  Some trucks were trying to detour around the small metal-plank bridge, but got stuck in door-deep mud. 

After a few minutes of thinking we were never going to get across, though, some people standing on the bridge fixed a make-shift track for cars to go over, and we sped across and on.  We arrived at the border a little after 11.

We got through the border procedures on both sides relatively hassle-free - just the usual surprise on the part of the Cambodian official on seeing an Uzbekistan passport for the first time.  (He kept reexamining the passport cover, trying to make out the name of the country, I guess.)  The Cambodian border town of Poipet is a dusty market town, with a few travel agents selling bus tickets and some roadside stands selling fruit.  But right after passport control on the way to Thailand are several enormous luxury casinos.  These towering edifices are totally incongruous in the surroundings - dirt roads, rice fields, and two aluminum shack border posts.  Apparently, the Cambodians built these to attract gamblers from Thailand, where the pastime is illegal. 

From the Thai side of the border, we took a tuk-tuk to the bus station and then got on a bus for Bangkok - supposedly a 4-hour trip, but we apparently got the milk run, which stopped everywhere, and arrived into Bangkok's standstill traffic only at 5:30 in the afternoon.  We thought we'd get a quick taxi to our hotel - strategically located right on the 'skytrain' line, a lesson from April's visit to Bangkok when we spent half our time in traffic.  This took another hour...crawling in the gridlock right under the skytrain tracks.  We have no Lonely Planet for Bangkok, so I didn't know our orientation when we arrived, but once in the traffic, we had no choice but to ride it out, despite the temptation to get out and just get on the train.

We'll be in Bangkok two days before getting on a 20-hour train ride to the border with Malaysia, from where we'll move on to the Perhentian islands.

Return to Angkor

Yesterday, we toured the temples.

Entering the South Gate to Angkor Thom (the ancient capital area) in the morning.

The demons and guards leading to the South Gate.

Exploring the Bayon, the main temple within Angkor Thom.

Ta Phrom, a temple that's been encompassed by the jungle.

Back to Angkor Wat - retaking a picture I have from 8 years ago.

We climbed up a precariously steep and narrow staircase to get to the top level of Angkor.

And in the evening, at a temple on top of a hill overlooking the whole ancient city, Lena found a stone lion whose butt she thought was cute.

Different moods throughout the day.

Siem Reap

I first travelled to Cambodia 8 years ago, after finishing my year teaching English in Korea.  After dreams of visiting Angkor Wat kept me going through a tough year in Seoul, I arrived here backpacking through China and Laos.  The site was worth the wait and the labor I had to endure to get here.  Angkor is one of the most amazing places on earth - a huge park of giant stone temples intricately carved with stories from Hindu and Buddhist mythology, located in the jungle.  For someone who grew up on Indian Jones movies, this place was like a fantasy come true. 

I had always hoped to come back here, and, to be sappy, especially with someone I loved.  To get here this time, the trip was hardly any easier.  We travelled overland from Vietnam, all the way down the coast, and then from Saigon by bus to the border with Cambodia.  The travel agent through whom we booked the bus told us to be there at 8:20.  When we arrived, the bus was "on its way".  Half an hour later, it was also "on its way".  More than an hour later, it finally ambled down the street, only to make more stops at other hotels and agencies, then a stop only an hour out for some meal or another.  At this point, one group of passengers realized that they didn't know how much a Cambodian visa cost, and inconvenienced all the other passengers when one of them hopped on a motor bike to find a nearby bank.  We sat, steaming, wondering why they hadn't bothered to ask at one of the 50 travel agencies located in the backpacker region of Saigon, where we boarded. 

4 hours after we were supposed to leave, we finally arrived at the border, and cruised through - though not after a moment of nervousness while all the Cambodia border authorities examined Lena's Uzbekistan passport, having never seen one before.  We got on another bus on the Cambodian side of the border, which took us through the poor but lush countryside, on a ferry across the Mekong, and finally, about 4 hours later, to the guesthouse in Phnom Penh.

 

(A woman selling fried insects near the bus as we board the ferry across the Mekong.)

We got up at 6 this morning to board the bus to Siem Reap, a 7 hour journey on mostly-paved roads.  When I was here 8 years ago, it was impossible to take this trip - both because of the presence of bandits on the road, and the lack of a road itself.  That time, I took a boat on the Tonle Sap lake. 

We arrived this afternoon to a roaring downpour, and lunched then wandered the streets until the weather cleared just before sunset, when we hired a tuk-tuk to take us to Angkor Wat.  It officially closed at 6 - exactly as we arrived, but a $1 bribe took care of that, and we walked down the long stone causeway to one of the most beautiful ancient monuments in the world.

 

We have three days at the temples, and are getting up early tomorrow to start.  This is a truly exciting event for me - to come back to this place after so much time and so many changes.

Last Night in Vietnam

So, we have completed the first leg of our trip, and tomorrow morning we leave for Cambodia on a bus that should take more than 8 hours.

Today, we spent most of the day wandering around the downtown area.  There are streets full of shops selling Vietnamese handicrafts, and though most sell a lot of the same, we found a few selling unique items which evoke the diverse traditions of this ancient country.  We also bought a pile of pirated DVDs.

We also found a camera repairman, who instantly identified the problem, and offered to replace the dying chip with a new one for $90.  Expensive, but worth it when compared to the option of finishing our trip without a camera, or buying an entirely new one.

I think both of us have really enjoyed this country.  The food is fantastic, and despite the frusturations inherent in travel anywhere, travelling has been relatively effortless. 

Vietnam is a difficult country to make close contact with the population.  Our interaction has mostly been limited to those with whom we've conducted business - either at stores, hotels, or cafes.  It would be stretching it to say that our experience is that the Vietnamese are especially friendly, or at least more friendly than those of any other country.  As in most places, there are those who are warm and welcoming, and those who can't be bothered by your presence, and make sure you know that. 

However, for us, this has been mainly a time of relaxation.  For both us, after two years of working in an international organization in Uzbekistan, we just needed time to decompress, and wandering around cities and lying on beaches without any responsibilities or schedules has fit the bill. 

Tomorrow we leave for Cambodia, and will be spending one night in the capital Phnom Penh before embarking to Angkor.

Saigon

This is our second day in Saigon.  It's always interesting to return to a faraway place having been there before.  In my previous trip to Vietnam a year and a half ago, I was in Saigon, and we headed to the hotel I stayed at last time.  Their only room available was one with a broken bed, so we moved to another hotel nearby.

Even in only 18 months, one can see that the city is clearly growing and becoming an Asian capital.  There are new stores and cafes everywhere, more highrises of glass and steel.   With even more cars and motorbikes than on my last visit, this city is a constant game of Frogger.

Packed curb to curb with motorbikes, your only option in crossing the street is to walk out and, step by step, dodge the incoming riders.  Miraculously, we have survived two days. 

For dinner, I took Lena to a restaurant I remembered from my last trip, one of the most popular sites for Vietnamese barbeque.  Here, you grill the marinated beef on a bucket of hot coals placed on your table.  The meat was absolutely delicious, soaked in spicy soy sauce and sprinkled with peanuts and chilis.

During the day yesterday, we visited the War Remnants museum.  The exhibits are powerful and nauseating at the same time.  While it, of course, presents the Vietnam war from one side only, much of the material is irrelevant to the conflict itself.  It focuses much more on the human cost of the war, with graphic photos of children, families, the elderly suffering from a war in which they had no wish to be involved.  There are particularly moving displays of the effects of Agent Orange, even 30 years later.  The children of those who were exposed to the toxin are prone to debilitating birth defects.  Interestingly, however, the exhibit is presented as a testimony to the victims' perseverance, rather than with the intention of making the viewer feel sorry for them.  They are shown overcoming their handicaps, rather than suffering.  Still, one is left with a sense of horror - how could someone have done this?

We took the afternoon yesterday to shake off the effects of the museum and wandered around the city, stopping at the Russian market to do some shopping. 

Lena also received her Thai visa (after some initial nervousness when they wanted to see our tickets) and got a vaccination at an international clinic that she needed to have one month after the first.

My camera has decided to malfunction recently, marking the second time this has happened in Vietnam, where my first digital camera died.  As we head to Angor Wat on Thursday - perhaps one of the most photogenic places on earth - this is not an ideal time.  I am not sure what to do - even if I decided to buy a new camera here, its warranty would only be valid in Vietnam, and given my recent experience with digital cameras, that could be a poor decision.

From when the camera was working, here's a picture of the rarely sighted double bicycle:

Last day in Nha Trang

This is our last day in Nha Trang, we're heading out to Ho Chi Mihn city tonight on  the train that with lots of optimism we expect to be only and hour and a half late....

We went to the mud bath today to experience the true Vietnamese pride here mineral mud and water baths, and also a lot of Vietnamese people getting out there for their weekend baths...

It was truely a ritual. We first went for about 20 minutes into a bath filled with mineral mud. After which spent about 10 minutes drying out in the sun bath. After that we were escorted to the mineral springs, finishing up with the great hot mineral water bath.

And all this was finished up with a great 45 minute massage.

We really tried to take it easy today, since we had such a busy day yesterday with all the diving/snorkelling we did.

Yesterday we went on a half-day diving/snorkelling trip, which wasn't that bad. But due to low visibility and presence of too many other divers/snorkellers, seemed like all the fish were either gone  or lost, looking for the others, who were gone by then...

It was funny, that when I went snorkelling, I kept seeing schools of divers, when normally you expect to see those schools of various pretty fish...

In the afternoon we went to the house of one famous photographer here in Nha Trang to see his photo gallery. Black and white pictures, capturing the life of daily routine of Vietnamese people, woking on the rice fields or just taking care of the family.

this would be all for now, we'll try to post more pictures once we get better connection....

More Hoi An Photos

We've posted more photos from Hoi An, including our visit to the old Chinese congregation halls where the Chinese merchant community would discuss and debate, and our second visit to the beach, where we enjoyed fresh pineapple.