Biking in Hanoi

Today was a pretty good day. I visited Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum. It was a little bit weird for a couple reasons. The first is that this is as far from Ho Chi Minh's wishes as could be. He wanted to be cremated and his remains put in three different places. Instead, they decided to embalm him and put his body on display presumably forever. The tour is very short, maybe 1 minute at the most. Most of it is walking outside, into, or leaving the mausoleum. Inside, you walk 3 side of a square, with his body in the middle. It's all surrounded by glass and temperature-controlled. To be honest, it could be a wax museum and I'd never know the difference. But this is the man who brought his country back to his countrymen.

The Army museum was also interesting. I'll write about it more (and my bike ride and the rain) later, but my taxi is coming in 15 minutes.

See you state-side in about 24 hours...

I'm going to miss Hanoi.

Halong Bay

Halong Bay was a bit of a wash for me. It's extremely touristy which means people arrive in bulk and are stuffed into "junks" which are more like cruise ships made up to look like old-fashioned junk barges. They served us every 3 hours a ton of food, (all seafood) and there was a definite itinerary. It was all fine, but it was so different from the other experiences I was having, and I wanted to ride that wave a little longer.

The people on the boat were exteremely nice and I hit it off with a couple from the UK. I told them that I wished there was a catalog of UK accents organized by region and class so I could identify where someone was from. They wanted that as well. Justin was pretty good at imitating the different ones.

I also ran into some people from Walnut Creek who had relocated to Malaysia for work. Apparently, the manufacturing part of Silicon Vally is fast going overseas and with it, people from Silicon Valley. India is also having a go at it and they are recreating SV local shops (like Whole Foods). It's like they are creating a Palo Alto in India with the intent of attracting SV folk. Very interesting.

Halong Bay is FANTASTIC. It's full of cliffs jutting out from it. There are areas that are completely secluded and the only way in, is through a tunnel in the rock. Inside, you are surrounded by cliffs. Honeymooners, start taking notes.

The water is a wonderful green color that contrasts well with the blue and there are some massive caves in the cliffs around that have only been discovered as recently as '96.

I arrived back from the boat this afternoon and checked into my hotel. This is my last night here, I'm afraid. Tomorrow, my flight leaves at 11:35pm so I've got most of the day to finish up last minute odds and ends.

I'll miss Hanoi a lot, but I've got a good life back home that I'm also looking forward to continuing.

I'm a multi-millionaire

Today I withdrew money from an ATM. I took out a couple million which makes me a millionaire.

There are about 16,000 đồng to the dollar right now so withdrawing any amount of cash seems huge. It's kind of fun but it takes a lot of getting used to in terms of what things cost. Today an elderly lady tried to sell me gum on the street. I gave her 1000 đồng for a pack and she (understandably) scowled and just about threw it in my face. The exchange rate is so weird, every thing costs thousands and thousands.

Today was a day of just hanging out in Hanoi's Old Quarter because tomorrow I am taking a tour to Halong Bay and won't return until Wednesday. My flight leaves Thursday night so there's really not too much to do except find things in Hanoi.

I had a few errands in the morning which were to a) mail some gifts back to myself b) get a coffee and c) get a pork roll. C was easy and accomplished in mere minutes as there are women selling those every 20 feet outside my hotel. A just took a long time and B was accomplished shortly thereafter by a woman in a small doorway to a cafe that looked like a small laundromat.

I had forgotten that I wanted one of the Vietnamese coffee makers so I asked her where I could get one and she directed me to a street where there is a ton of metal-making. It seems everyone on that street is making gutters and watering cans and teapots. I picked up a small vietnamese coffee maker which makes a really strong, STRONG brew. If you ask for the coffee with milk, they will put it over the top of a small layer of condensed milk, and then pour it into a cup of ice. It's one of my favorites.

After that, it was shopping and wandering around. I decided to take the walking tour described in my guidebook. It was fun and I took a bunch of little side tours to see things. I had my recorder on the whole time because the traffic and horns are nonstop, 24/7, 60 minutes an hour, 60 seconds to the minute. It's a fun swirl of motors and beeps.

I was hungry and ended up in a place where they serve one dish only: grilled fish. They bring out a "hot pot" of stone full of red hot coals with a pan sitting atop full of fish and veggies. It cooks and grills right at the table. The best part though was the Japanese guy next to me who started up a small conversation. He was part of a large family group that was taking up three tables. We toasted Vietnamese beer every 30 seconds and he told me he was Japanese about 5 times. His nephew kept trying to jump up and feel the air conditioner so I coaxed him over and held him in front of it for about 30 seconds. That got a laugh all around. It was fun.

Hanoi really feels a lot like Paris in some ways. The architecture is very similar but even the streets smell the same. It's bizarre but I found myself thinking of Paris a lot.

The funnest thing I've done in Hanoi by far was the motorbike ride I took. The traffic here fascinates me because it is so dense and seems to have few rules; the overall rule being "don't hit anyone". Everything else seems to almost be a total free-for-all. Californians run "orange" lights quite a bit and sometimes they might even be quite red. Motorbikes in Hanoi run fully red lights that have established their color for about 5 seconds. It blows my mind.

I decided to see how this worked (and I wanted the rush) so I hired a motorbike taxi to take me around. It took a while to find. I wanted a younger guy who I thought might be more willing to take some risks and break some ruled (it turns out that doesn't really matter). He asked me where I wanted to go and I said, "anywhere, all around, and we'll come back here". I'm not sure he understood but when I kept directing him into deep traffic and laughing when we got there, I think he got it.

At one point, I really wanted to make sure he understood so I got out a pad of paper and drew a street with a few motorbikes and a street packed with them. Then I crossed out the sparse street. Then I drew a motorbike going slow and one going fast and crossed out the slow one. He smiled and nodded. The trip was much better thereafter.

I laughed a lot and made beep beep sounds and he caught on and started to do it as well. I can't believe how the stream of bikes threads into other perpendicular streams without stopping and yet no one hits anyone. I was taking photos non-stop, holding the camera up above my head and hanging off the back holding the camera about a foot off the ground. Who knows if any of them will turn out (I'm on film now, remember?) but it was FUN.

Afterward, I asked him to take me to this Phở place I'd read about and invited him along. We sat at the table and tried to talk but his English was very limited as is my Vietnamese. I tipped him heavily.

One last adventure: The bank machine ate my ATM this morning but not because something was wrong. It was because there is a fail-safe in the machine that if you don't grab your card about 5 seconds after it spits it out, it takes it make sure it's safe. It ended up making sure I had a major pain in my ass. I had to talk to the bak person and she asked me to rendezvous at another bank later in the day. I did, but the lady at the new bank didn't know where the ATM was that I had used and I didn't either (I was just wandering around).

I had to call my lifeline, Steve Pham from my cell phone. I put him on the line with the teller and he was able to tell her what I was thinking and tell me what she was thinking. We got it all sorted out and he reminded me to get her something nice afterward. Very thoughtful. Thank you for saving my bacon Steve.

Last Day in Cambodia / Hanoi

Today was my last day in Cambodia. In the morning I saw a few more temples. During one of them, a man who helps restore them was hanging around and asked me if I wanted to see what he does.

Quick aside: There are a lot of "unofficial" tour guides in Cambodia. Many people desire to be them for a career. Tourism is springing up left and right so jobs related to that field are lucrative. Most people pay $20 a day for a dedicated tourguide/driver. That is a lot of money for Cambodia.

The man I met was getting $40 a month for restoring the temples but it was steady work and he enjoys it. He works at the base of the temple, but the people who work at the top, on the scaffolding, make $60 a month. He took me up the scaffolding to the very top of the temple so I could see up close what he did. They were rebuilding bricks and using mortar made from Palm Sugar and cowhide (it never occurred to me until now that the Elmer's Glue cow might have some twisted significance).

The restoration they were doing on the statues isvery impressive. They look like they have been replaced with new ones poured from cement. He actually gave avery good tour. He mentioned some of his family members that were killed by the Khmer Rouges in the 80's and that he was one of the few survivors in his family. I don't know whether to believe him or not because the kids often use sob stories to get tourists to give them more cash. The thing is, 1/4th of the country were killed so there's a pretty good chance he's telling the truth.

After the temple, I went to The Cambodia Land Mine Museum. The road to get there curbed any ideas that I had that Cambodia was doing all right in the paved road department. There were huge road-width puddles fullof muddy water from the previous night's rain. The people living along the road were trying to fix it by dumping rocks, rubber tire bits, and broken pottery in the holes to fill them. It was a bumpy ride but were I driving, it would be worse. I have to give my driver a lot of credit for this.

The museum is more like a few wooden open-air shacks with empty, defused landmines in piles all around. That's its charm though. There are diagrams on the inside of the shack next to each pile which give the history and statistics about the mines. There are short biographies of the children (all landmine victims) who live there and how they came to be injured. Finally, there is a yard off down a path which is set up with a bunch of mines planted (defused ones of course) so you can see what a forest filled with mines looks like.

Afterward, I went back to the hotel and took a nap. The taxi ride back to the airport was harrowing. It was windy and started to rain. Plus Bo Vinh (my driver), had my *entire* backpack in front of him on the motorbike. At one point, he took out a poncho to put on so he wouldn't get wet. He put it over both of us, but there was only one hole for a head which he got so he could see the road. I could see nothing and I said so. He said, "OK, no problem" and we took off. After about a minute, I threw off the whole thing. I'd rather be wet and see than dry and blind.

I'm in Hanoi now and the traffic here is amazing. It's like a video game where you fill the road with motorbikes going 50 miles an hour. No one pays attention to the lanes, there are no lights, and no one slows down at intersections, not even cross traffic. They just thread in-between each other as they reach their destinations, kept from colliding only by the frequent sound of their horns.

I had a bowl of chicken noodle soup from a family on the street and now, belly full, I'm headed off to bed.

Same Same, Only Different

Today was basically more temples. I was really hot and tired to appreciate them as I approached "temple burn-out". Instead, I decided to observe and talk to people.

First of all, Capone, Frank Abagnale, Ken Lay, all con-artists. I'd give them about a 3 on the con-artist scale of 1 - 10. I'd give the Cambodian children in Angkor an 11. They have got it DOWN and I have the tape to prove it. They know exactly which buttons to push. They can turn on the tears and puppy-dog faces and are full of hardship stories for every deflection. And they are relentless.

I can't really blame them though. Gordon Sharpless of "TalesOfAsia.com explains it best when he says:

Deal with it. Most of these folks live within the Angkor Archaeological Park and have a lot of restrictions placed upon them as to how they can farm, build their houses, keep their chickens, hang their laundry, and so forth. The villages within the park existed in some form during the time these temples were built and the kid trying to sell you a cold drink may be a direct descendent from someone who built Ta Prohm or served as a concubine to Jayavarman VII. If anyone has a right to exploit these temples for personal gain, it's these folks. Unfortunately, due to the fact that regulations significantly curtail what they can do in their villages and that life is inherently unfair, these folks have been screwed every which way and selling souvenirs and cold drinks is about all they can do. That said, go easy when it's time to buy a drink or a t-shirt. Save your hard bargains for somewhere else. There is absolutely no reason why you should try to knock 500 riels off the price of a bottle of water from someone who makes a profit of $1.50 a day. Even more so when you consider you'll probably drop $10 in a bar later that evening never considering to bargain the price with the British bartender serving you the drinks. If there was ever a place to pay up or shut up, it's here.

I spent an hour today with a kid who charmed the socks off me. We wrote the alphabet in Cambodian and English, she drew me pictures, I drew her some and she sang me a song. We laughed and just had a great time playing and I took her picture a bunch of times. I gave her the little flashlight on my pack since I wasn't using it and she liked it a lot. I thought that was really cool until she bounded off to an old guy and showed him what she got. I was kind of bummed about it because I don't think they were related and the first thing I thought was "they are pimping out these kids to get trinkets or money from tourists. And they're GOOD." It made me kind of sad because I thought we were having a great time (at least I was) and I'd like to think her smiles and playfulness were genuiune.

Today, I took many photos (with a new POS film camera bought this morning) of people as we motored to the temples. There were people carrying unbelievable amounts of wood on the backs of bicycles, there were 4-person families all stacked neatly in a row on the top of a motorcycle and there were brother and sister pairs, riding the same bicycle built for a person who's knees are at the level of their eyes.

Every road is like the backroads of Oregon's route to the coast. Forests on either sides (or palm trees) with little houses nestled in between. The air smells fresh in the evening and heavy at mid-day. Everything in green and fertile. It's gorgeous.

This is Angkor

Today was my second day in Cambodia. I stayed up late last night at a bar called Warehouse which as it turns out, is the local expat bar which opened in February. The people there are extremely nice and have a lot of knowledge about the area which they were very generous with.

At any rate, for that reason I didn't get up when I thought I would :) I was back out to the temples at 8:00 in the morning. Let me try to describe these temples...

Pick up a pen and start drawing a lot of pictures on the walls of your house. Start in a corner of the living room and just draw small, detailed figures. A completed image should be about 18 inches high and at most, 3 feet wide. You can draw patterns too for decoration, just make sure everything is covered. Oh and make these images the history of your family and the wars in your country. Make all those images blend into each other. Cover every wall, all the floorboards, don't forget the walls inside door openings and don't forget moldings. Don't spare any space and remember, be detailed, no cheating.

Done? Okay now do all the furniture. Do your couch and your chairs, your cabinets and shelves, your table and countertops, your dog dish and your garbage can.

Is EVERYTHING covered?

Step back and look at it... Look at the thousands of images you have drawn. Look at the story they tell, look at all the patterns they make. Look at how the images blur to form a pattern from far away. Look at how much ink is on the wall.

Now here's a chisel. We're going to chisel all those images into stone.

Now we're going to do it to the entire town.

This is Angkor.

Please text me!

You can text me (and please do!) by sending an email to this address: 5103904549 at mobile mycingular com . I get this faster than I get email. Please remove any footers and quoted text.

Cambodia

A few quick words: I lost my camera between Thailand and Cambodia. It's unfortunate for two reasons. I took 3 days worth of wonderful photos that I will miss dearly (sorry Jim, it includes our Thai friend). Two, Angkor Wat is indescribable. I have never seena nything like it before. I'm spending way too much money on disposable cameras because I want to bring back as much of it as I can.

As soon as I left the plane, I had a good feeling. Cambodia is calm, simple, and beautiful. There are so many bicycles, motorcycles, and pedestrians. The whole area is just like the biking roads I road in McMinnville. It is hot here, but in the shade it's fine.

If you want to take a look at what I'm seeing everyday, go down to your video store and rent "Tomb Raider" NOT for Angelina Jolie (though i will easily forgive you for that) but for the scenery. Much of it was filmed here. It's not a hollywood stage. That place really exists and I've been walking around in it for most of the day.

Cambodiais exactly what I wanted this experience to be. If I had my digital camera, I could show you why.

I need to split because my motorcycle driver has been patiently waiting for me for the past half hour.

More to come...

Itinerary for coming days

I just thought I'd post this so people know where I am...

Friday, July 28 - Fly to Siem Reap, Cambodia
Bangkok Airways - PG940 - Arrives SR at 8:20am

Stay at:
Bou Savy Guesthouse
261 Group 17
Khum Svay Dangkum
Siem Reap, Cambodia

Saturday, July 29- See Angkor Wat

Sunday, July 30- Fly to Hanoi in evening
Vietnam Airlines Flight 842
Arrives Hanoi 7:55pm

Stay at: Hong Ngoc Hotel

Monday, July 31- Hanoi

Tuesday, August 1- Boat Trip in Halong Bay

Wednesday, August 2- Return from Boat trip to Hanoi
Stay - ??

Thursday, August 3- Leave for USA

Bangkok transportation

There are very few bicycles in Bangkok (but much more in the rural areas). The streets are too packed and are clogged with motorists. There *are* a lot of motorcycles, either attached to a tuk-tuk, have a fruit stand as a sidecar, or have a regular sidecar as a sidercar. They are mostly small with thin tires and look almost like scooters. On the street, you will often see many men grouped together with yellow mesh vests indicating they are taxis.

I was also surprised to see that the cars are full-sized. I'm kind of surprised the cars wouldn't be smaller like Japan or Europe due to the price of gas. They are mostly Hondas and Toyotas as far as I can tell. The Honda Fit (I want) is called "Jazz" here.

Walking in all of this can be a challenge. The sidewalks are small so often I'm partway in the road but I don't feel unsafe. No one wants to hit anyone else, it's just that the amount of air between me and something else is smaller than in the states.

No one stops for pedestrians unless they are going to hit you. This means that if you are waiting at the side of the road for traffic to stop and let you through, you will be waiting a long time. It's better to wait for a small gap or slowdown and then confidently cross looking in all directions. It's not quite as bad at major intersections which have pedestrian lights (a green man that's animated is for "go").

The blocks are *massive* which makes it very confusing to read a map. You see that something is only a few blocks away but when you start to walk it, you realize it is very far away still. The size of the buildings adds to this illusion. They are huge and wide which means that even from far away, they seem closer than they really are.

Luckly, there is a decent subway system and skytrain that can get you around to most areas of Bangkok. For the skytrain, you can get a ticket that you slide through an entry stall (like BaRT) and for the subway, you can buy a magnetized token. When you enter a stall using the token, you actually tap it on a certain area to tell the machine to read it. I like that you have to tap it. It's like putting your quarters down on a arcade video game to "reserve your play"

It's pretty smoggy overall but the humidity also makes the air seem thicker and heavier.