Phnom Penh

So clearly there's no shortage of scooters in Phnom Penh. No shortage of crazy things to load them up with either:Yes, that's a man bringing a few dozen live chickens to market on the back of his moto. And it's not even close to being the craziest sight there:Fried insects. Rich in protein, I'm told.
Among the non-dietary discoveries was the Royal Palace. The buildings here were similar to those we had seen in Bangkok and somewhat less ornate. I did take about twenty pictures of lotus flowers, possibly because I could stand in the cool mist of the sprinklers while doing so.






My most lasting impressions of Phnom Penh came from our visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, which is housed in the former S-21 prison. Only 8, of the more than 14,000 people brought here, survived. The rest were tortured and taken to the Killing Fields, just outside the city. Walking through the cells, under the gallows, and among the pictures of those who were held here was overwhelming. The museum also detailed the experiences of Cambodians who fought for the Khmer Rouge. Essentially, there were only victims here. Phnom Penh was not my favorite stop. After Vietnam, things felt a bit overpriced and hassled, but that's partly due to the difference in the standard of living and lack of any social safety net here. Regardless, I'm glad I finally came here to judge for myself.xoxo Jessie

Ho Chi Minh City: Bangkok reloaded

If they'd buried Ho Chi Minh like he asked he'd be rolling in his grave. These days Saigon seems about as communist as the Mall of America. The intended statement in the scene above (a statue of Uncle Ho holding a small village child in front of the Hotel de Ville turned Communist Party Headquarters) gets a tad murky when you cross the street and walk past Marc Jacobs and Tag Heuer. I was never one for ideological purity anyway, but I'm just saying...Ironies aside, Ho Chi Minh City is a booming metropolis, complete with Times Square-rivaling billboards, and the densest moto traffic imaginable. Apparently, the power grid is still playing catch-up though. The prevalence of scooter drivers has spawned an moto fashion that was previously unknown to me. They've got helmets disguised as sun hats and Hello Kitty embroidered face-masks among other things. We visited the city's main sights, including the War Remnants Museum, which documents American atrocities and weapons in Vietnam. I found the exhibitions on Agent Orange and press casualties the most interesting. We also took a day trip out to the Cu Chi Tunnels (while you're mulling that over consider that there was a bus line there called Phuc Duc, and we paid in dong, so I've already heard every bad pun I care to). Our guide there had flown Huey's for the South Vietnamese and offered a slightly more nuanced version of events than was on offer at the Museum. He also explained that because he fought against the north his children will cannot pursue higher education or work for the police or military.
We combined our trip to the tunnels with stop at the bizarre Cao Dai Temple in Tay Ninh. Cao Di combines Taoism, Buddhist, and Confucian teachings with a worship of number of saints, including Victor Hugo and Sun Yat-sen. I kid you not.






The food in Vietnam was generally some of the best of the trip, and the fare available in the capitol was no exception. Minced pork spring rolls and avocado juice at Bahn Cuon were especially good. Bean paste buns from a street stall were a bit bland, but they had these cool stamps so they get a shout out nonetheless. Finally we enjoyed DIY BBQ amid the twinkly lights. You know that's a recipe for success with me.

xoxo Jessie

Hội An, how do I love thee?

Let me count the ways. I love the bougainvillea (but I think I full addressed that back in Luang Prabang). I love the silk lanterns. Hội An is a small town comprised of lovely french colonial buildings, which now house bakeries, artisans' shops, and cafes - each is lit with these hand-painted beauties.





Speaking of bakeries, I love the pastries! This mango tart (along with the passion fruit cheesecake, not pictured) was the perfect meeting of east and west as far as I'm concerned.I love the lunar festival: the locals fill the sidewalks with small altars and come out to float votives down river, play a giant game of street chess or bingo, and catch a school-recital:I love the culture of the river. The docks in town are lined with bright fishing boats - some hemi-spherical, most flying the Vi. A woman paddled with her feet while she downed a quick bowl of rice and snails for lunch. The produce market in town has a section devoted to river snails (eaten live).






I loved the sights. Hội An was a resort community for foreigners long before I got wind of its charms. Check out the Japanese covered bridge:And one of my favorite Chinese assembly halls. I LOVED the food. We had excellent meals at every single establishment we visited. But the local fare at Mr. Son's street stall was the highlight. We ate white rose dumplings (steamed with pork filling), cao lao (noodle soup in beef broth), and many many fried wontons with chicken:






OK so that's seven ways by my count. And I still haven't really said how nice it was just to stroll around each evening, stopping in for 3000d "fresh beers"and generally enjoying the view. Love it.
Enough with the poetry. I didn't love the ruins at My Son. But they still merit a mention. Basically they were a hot and sticky preview of the wonders to come in Angkor. But we did see some great butterflies and lizards.









xoxo Jessie

Huè

We stopped in Huè for a day to see the citadel, the base of the Nguyen dynasty. Despite intense bombing campaigns during "the American War" this complex of temples, palaces, and government buildings was a great place to spend the day. More than half the originally structures are either gone altogether or damaged beyond recognition. So in between two lovely pagodas will be a large expanse of grass, rubble, and ceramic shards, but in some ways the site is all the more interesting to visit because of the damage. If nothing else, there was a sense of history and adventure to the place that would have been lacking had things been more manicured.One of the more famous images from the citadel are the gigantic copper pots on the site (see both above and below). More impressive to us though were the design of the pagodas. The structures constructed from massive wooden beams, and jointed without hardware as far as we could tell. The pagodas themselves were lit with silk and rice paper lanterns and full of incense smoke. Inside Buddhist visitors read prayers aloud from scraps of parchment and made offerings of food and money at the altars. Outside, the pagodas are decorated with really intricate ceramic tiles. Even the moss-covered roof-tiles are patterned and painted.All in all a well-spent afternoon and a lovely, if somewhat somber, piece of history. Though it wasn't the main attraction in town, the produce market was nearly as picturesque as the citadel. Everywhere in Vietnam we saw women carrying heavy load on these shoulder-mounted baskets . Men carried these loads by bike or moto.






From Huè we headed south by bus to Hoi An, driving through fishing and farming town as we went. Here you can see houses along the water, each with its own rice patty.xoxo Jessie

This episode brought to you by the letter H

Hà Noi, Haiphong, Ha Long Bay, Huè, Hoi An, Ho Chi Minh City. We didn't plan it that way, but those are the places we visited in Vietnam. We skipped the packaged tour and opted to make our own way from Hà Noi, through Haiphong (where we lucked out and got excellent pork and morning glories from a woman who spoke no English), to Ha Long Bay. We stayed on Cat Ba Island in the cheapest room yet ($5), though you wouldn't know it from the view: From Cat Ba town we rented a scooter (Aaron drove, no more repeats of my performance with the standard transmission) and tooled around the deserted beaches that line the Island's coast.We spent our second day in the bay itself, on a "junk"- a traditional fishing boat. From there we visited a number of floating villages in the bay, as well as some island caves, and a rambunctous monkey colony. The outcroppings in the bay are striking enough on their own, but we saw them through some dense fog, which made the view all the more dramatic. At night we dined on fish from the bay. I'm getting much better at taking the meat off the bones and ignoring the fact that my dinner has a head. xoxo Jessie