Somewhere in the Middle

    Somewhere in the middle of Vietnam, lies the beautifully historic town of Hoi An. Jenny and I had the pleasure of staying in Hoi An for the 5 days, and loved every relaxed moment of it. It was nice being able to settle in a bit and get to know a town, instead of the constant moving between cities, ups and downs in planes, back and forth in vans, and never really being able to feel comfortable in a place. We planned our trip together in a way that allows us to experience a bit of both. Unpacking in Chiang Mai, Luang Prabang and Hoi An, and being on the move throughout all the cities in between these stops.

    Where we stayed in Hoi An was located just outside the Ancient Old City, which meant hopping on the complimentary bikes everyday and cycling into town. Hoi An has in place a great initiative to see some of the historic sights - purchase one ticket, that gives you access to whichever 5 sights (of the 23) that you'd like to see. Majority of them are quite similar, and we found the ticket takers were sometimes not at their post, so we managed to see a few more than 5!

    Throughout our 5 days there we were able to cross off the Japanese Bridge, the Old House of Phung Hung, Nguyen Tuong Family Chapel, Hoi An Museum of History and Culture, Museum of Folk Culture, Quang Trieu Assembly hall, Phuc Kien Assembly Hall, AND we caught a traditional Folk Game of Breaking Pots. My favorite spot was the Museum of Folk Culture as it displayed a large number of artifacts and information giving insight into music, dance, home life, work life, etc of the people of Hoi An. A number of the highlights in Hoi An were unfortunately filled with people selling gifts and souvenirs, directly inside the sites, which took away from the experience. For instance, the Old house of Phung Hung, which was beautiful with it's wood carvings, traditional furniture and lantern-covered balcony, had almost completely been turned into a shop and the history of the house was left in the background.

    Hoi An turned into a magical town at night. The streets in the Old City were covered with lit lanterns strung across the roads and the area around the canal had even more lights, dragon-lit bridges, people sending off Wish Candles into the water, and a plethora of restaurants and cafes to choose from. It was exactly how I had imagined it and identical to the pictures I had seen before arriving. Even the famous Tailors of Hoi An kept their doors open into the wee hours of the night. Which proved to be quite useful as I ended up stepping into one after dinner and came out having been fitted and measured for a dress to wear to my brother's Big Day!  

Exploring the famous Mui Ne Sand Dunes...in a typhoon!

    Following Hoi An, it was time to make our way into the final, busy, non-stop 12 days of our trip. We hopped on a plane down to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) for a night, had a very cool 'Sleeper Bus' take us to the beach town of Mui Ne (2 days), jumped back on that Sleeper Bus to Saigon where we explored the history of Southern Vietnam for 2 days, got on another bus to Phnom Penh, Cambodia where we put our things down for only 2 days before getting on our LAST bus to Siem Reap. We are now saying goodbye to Cambodia and getting ready to experience the last leg of our trip together, with a flight to Bangkok, where we will be for 3 days before Jenny heads back home.

Notre Dame Cathedral

    Ho Chi Minh City was bustling and filled with historical sites we wanted to see. Not as hectic as Hanoi and we enjoyed the contrast between the big city feel, while still having the chance to feel like we were in nature with the heavy number of parks, boulevards and huge tree-lined streets. The amount of history I have learned about Vietnam is more than I ever could have imagined. Which I suppose is to be expected when you have the chance to be standing right where history took place. The cities we have been to have done an incredible job preserving sites and building museums to inform people, remember, and commemorate what happened during the war. While in Saigon, Jenny and I visited the Reunification Palace, War Remnants Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral, the Central Post Office, Saigon Opera House and a few historic hotels in between.

    The highlight for me, though extremely depressing, was the War Remnants Museum. The exterior of the museum includes a heavy display of old US Army helicopters, fighter planes, cannons and tanks, while the interior has a number of exhibits, explaining in great detail and providing photos, what led to the war, what took place during it, what was left after and the effects of Agent Orange. The graphic accounts brought me to tears and it leaves me speechless to think about how people were treated and how human beings can treat other human beings.

    While still in Saigon, we took a day trip to the famous Cu Chi Tunnels to further our history lesson. There, we learned about the Viet Cong soldiers and the incredibly intricate tunnels they constructed to survive the war. The tunnels go 3 levels down, are over 200km long, included kitchen areas, and sleeping quarters and once upon a time could hide up to 9,000 people! 150m of the tunnels are open for tourists to experience and crawl through, following a guide, which Jenny and I both tried but after the first 50m, opted to get out through the short-cut route as we were feeling extremely claustrophobic already.

Found a piano shop in HCMC willing to let us sit down & play for a bit! (Missing my violin)

 
     Next stop, Cambodia. Phnom Penh was a very interesting city. Right away, I felt the warmth of the people there, their openness to foreigners, their kindness, and all without knowing much about the history of their country (which I am not too proud to admit). I was completely in the dark about the genocide that took place between 1975 and 1979 but after a 2-hour, audio-guided visit to The Killing Fields Museum and the S21 Prison, I now feel like I know everything. The Museum is located directly on the fields where thousands of Khmers were killed and buried across 86 mass graves. The leaders of the Khmer Rouge believed 'to keep you is no gain, to lose you is no loss.'

Royal Palace - Phnom Penh

   We took the most interesting road to get from the center of the city to The Killing Fields, which really stressed why I found Phnom Penh so fascinating. Dusty, dirty roads lined with piles of garbage, tiny shops (very similar look to Rambukkana) and warehouses/factories that appeared to be sweatshops and all the while Range Rovers and Mercedes were passing us in our Tuk Tuk. There is such a huge divide and obvious extreme between poverty and wealth in Phnom Penh - more than any city I've seen. Not only with the cars, but in the center of the city, one could easily walk down the street and pass a mega mansion or one of the many over-the-top Ambassador Residences and right next door find a metal shack, waiting to fall apart.

5AM crossing the moat into Angkor Wat

    After a 7-hour bus ride, we arrived in Siem Reap and are now just about to leave! We have done a good job at packing in as much as we can, which in this case means a long day at the temples of Angkor Wat. I was so excited to see Angkor Wat (the 8th Wonder of the World and the second Wonder I have seen on my trip!) as it was one of the things I have been looking forward to since leaving home. We were up at 4AM yesterday to make it to Angkor for sunrise and 7 hours later, we came stumbling out ready for bed but completely amazed at the incredible size and detail of the temples. We saw the 5 main temples, plus a few of the smaller ones, leaving me to understand why some people can spend a whole week there but still feeling like we saw a good chunk for the time we had. The detail in the construction and the time it would have taken to construct this city of temples is so hard to grasp. Sanskrit and images of the story of Buddha could be found carved on almost every column and wall. Stones that had been carved into faces of the King or elephants were another bit that amazed me. And finally, the way nature has grown around the temples was extraordinary. Ta Prohm, in particular (where Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones were filmed), was the best place to see huge, overbearing trees that have started to swallow the walls of the temple.

    Following our day at Angkor, we finally treated ourselves to a South East Asian treat of getting our fish 'massaged' by FISH. Well, sort of. We attempted the famous Dr. Fish Fish Spa, but after a few too many minutes of being too ticklish to submerge our feet in the water, we opted out. At least we can say we tried.

    Back to Thailand now, for the 3rd time, followed by my adventure over to Hong Kong!

XOXO Nicky