Our second day we visited Prasat Kravan, a brick temple with its relief carvings – very interesting on how they did it.  One temple we visited was fully built but as they started the carving process, it was struck by lightening, a bad omen, and it was immediately abandoned.  It was interesting to see how rudimentary the temple looked without any carvings.

Then straight out of the Temple of Doom, we visited Ta Prom that was abandoned and swallowed by the jungle.  It looks now how most of the temples appeared when the were discovered by the Europeans in the 19th century.  The trees are so integral to the structure now, it is impossible to restore.  The trees are massive and in several cases, a ficus tree grew around another tree and killed it.

Siem Reap is clearly “Temple City” , the most significant (and well known) being Angkor Wat, a beautiful, large 3 level temple.  As expected, it draws large crowds even in the hot weather (“Real Feel” temperature was about 110).   All of the temples have detailed carvings covering substantial portions of the walls telling the stories of war, life and beliefs.  We would estimate that the carvings took longer to create than the actual building of the temple.

The temples were primarily built in the 10th – 11th centuries and were abandoned around the 16th century for 200 years.  They were rediscovered by the French beginning in 1860.  Most of the temples are under renovation plans funded by various countries under the UNESCO umbrella.

The Bayon temple (our favorite) is the “face temple”.  Large faces are carved into the towers as well numerous other story carvings.

At an exquisite gourmet dinner, we were treated to an hour of Khmer dancing.

The Royal Palace compound is a grand example of great Cambodian architecture (other than the French style building built by Napoleon).  It was one of the few trappings of a non-agrarian society that Pol Pot let stand.  It was probably because the king, after he was deposed in a military coup, called on the Khmer Rouge for assistance.

The killing fields were depressing.  During Pol Pot’s 4 year reign (1975-1979), over 3 million Cambodians died from starvation, government genocide or medical problems as he attempted to change Cambodia into a pure agrarian society.  Schools, hospitals, banks and the monetary system were destroyed.  Phnom Penh was abandoned and it’s 2.5 million residents were transported to the country to farm, build waterways, etc.  Those former city residents and other elites had to work 18 hours daily as the country people were only required to work 12 hours.  The killing fields were where the “enemies of the government” (including their whole families) were shipped for torture & murder.  The memorial at  the killing fields contained almost 9000 skulls on display.  Only 4 people were ever tried and convicted for these atrocities.  Pol Pot died of natural causes years after he was overthrown.

The speedboat from Chau Doc to Phnom Penh took 5+ hours, including a visit to the Cambodia border facility.  A payment of $34 in USD is required which included a $4 “extra payment” above the required fee.

The river really quiets down north of Chau Doc.  There are far fewer boats, ships and people.  By the time you reach Cambodia (1 1/2 hours), commerce on the river is almost non-existent.  Instead of houses crowding the river, you begin to see more farms, orchards, cows with less single dependence on the river.  There are clearly pockets of river- dependent folks; but, it is  not at all like Vietnam.  This  may be due to population and  other income earning opportunities, etc.

At the end of our river journey, Phnom Penh was an island of bustling activity.  Cranes are scattered across the skyline as buildings rise.  The city is full of “tuk-tuks” – small trailer taxis for up to 4 people pulled by a motorcycle.  Tuk tuks are incredibly cheap.   Phnom Penh is very “westernized” compared to any city in Vietnam.   It almost felt like it could be a city in the U. S.  The thousands of motorbikes of Vietnam make any other city seem slow.  There are plenty of bikes but clearly not the volume of Hanoi & Saigon.

There are also a lot more cars in Phnom Penh.  Interestingly, during our walk to the Russian Market, we probably saw 50+ of the large Lexus SUV’s (like mine).  In SLC/PC, we are lucky to see 3 in a week.  Lexus clearly has captured the market.  MBZ’s are few & far between.

Last night we had a fantastic Cambodian dinner at a restaurant called Malis.  It was in a beautiful garden setting not far from our hotel.  Cambodian food is much spicier than Vietnamese fare!

An overnight cruise on the Mekong Delta allowed us to better understand the life of the area’s citizens. The rivers feeding the Mekong Delta start in Nepal and by the time it reaches southern Vietnam, the rivers & tributaries are wide and brown.  It is clearly  an important commercial waterway.  The rivers are filled with large & small barges, ships & boats.  The floating market near Can Tho, is a vibrant market of farmers, wholesalers & small distributors.  Fruits, vegetables & meats are all available.  Each boat has a pole with an example of the products that it is selling attached.  Some boats only sell minimums (example – 100 kg of watermelons), others will sell any amount.  Small boats collect their produce and chug upstream to sell in their village or supply their restaurant.

Noodles are an important food staple.  The hand-made noodle factory we visited produced 400 kg (sales price $1 per kg) of noodles daily for local sales.  Other than the motorized mixer & cutter, all of the work is by hand.  Rice husks are burned to produce steam which cooks the round pancake-like flat dough.  The thin disks are sun-dried on bamboo mats, then cut into strips.  The employees work from 4 am to 2 pm daily in a very hot environment for $150 a month – about 50 cents per hour.  Clearly machines produce the instant noodles for substantially less costs, but these noodles are organic and are more-prized among families.

After a night in Chau Doc, we are heading by boat to Phnom Penh.

We stayed in Saigon (officially Ho Chi Minh City) for 2 nights.  We figured out how the city was organized and visited the limited number of “highlights” – the most depressing of which was the War Remnants Museum – the Vietnam War revisited (a bit of the 1945 revolution against the French also) mainly focused on Agent Orange & bombs.

We visited an organic farm & took a 3 hour cooking class in Vietnamese cuisine.  It actually was a lot of fun.  Our guide is clearly ambitious – she wants to work for an organic farm in the US for a year so that she can bring more expertise back to the Vietnamese farmers.  She learned her great English in one of Saigon’s parks – a great example how an entrepreneur  provided classes & experiences to Saigon’s youth in a more cost efficient manner than the university system.  She also took us to the tunnels of Cu Chi where the Vietnamese built 250km of underground tunnels to fight the US and the South Vietnamese soldiers.  It was interesting  but not great.

South of Da Nang is Hoi An, a great resort town.  Our hotel for our 2 night stay was near the Old Town Historical area which abounds in restaurants, bars, tourist shops, & tailors (over 400) that can make your custom clothes & shoes in just a few hours.

The historical district is decorated in bright lights, lanterns and has numerous street vendors.  The district is separated by a river and you can buy floating candle boxes to bring you good luck.  There is a Chinese as well as a Japanese section.  The architecture is influenced by these two groups as well as the French.  There were the usual temples & historical houses within the district.

The restaurants are great and the street life at night is never ending.  During the day it was nice to relax by the pool.

We moved south by plane on Thursday and began a tour of Hue & the city of Da Nang.  We are stayed in Hoi An for 2 days, a resort city south of Da Nang.

Hue is a relatively small city on two rivers 300 km south of Hanoi.  It is most known as the capital of the last king of Vietnam.  The historical sites include his palace and related grounds that are being slowly restored after being destroyed during the Vietnam war.  His grave is also grandiose and was mostly completed before he died.

It is interesting that we saw many more pictures of Uncle Ho on public buildings in Hue than in the north.  Hue is in the former South Vietnam where Uncle Ho was not as well accepted. As we sat on the rooftop bar of our hotel, we were entertained by Vietnamese, US & French songs from a very loud sound system at Hue’s city hall. You could clearly hear the music a mile away.

The drive to Da Nang is beautiful as it goes over one of the highest Vietnamese mountain passes with views of both Hue in the north and the modern (and obviously re-built) city of Da Nang in the south.

The marble mountains south of Da Nang consist of 5 small mountains whose fruits caused farmers to turn to higher earning careers in sculpture.  The number of carved Buddhas, animals and other figures (in all sizes) is amazing.  A cave has been transformed with images of Hell.

After our 9 hour overnight train ride back from Sa Pa, we drove the 4 hours for our 2 day cruise on Halong Bay.  It is a one of the 7 wonders of the modern world and quite amazing even in the rain & cloudy weather.  There are almost 2000 islands in the Bay.  Pictures don’t do it justice.

Kayaking was great and Jodilyn (our Trainer) would be proud.  Limestone caves are abundant with one particularly large one very interesting.  Cruise “junks” abound as do the large crowds exploring the caves.

Sa Pa is high in the mountains on the Chinese Boarder (the train station is 2 km from the border) and the area is home to several of the 54 ethnic minorities recognized in Vietnam.

Our two days in Sa Pa (before our long overnight train ride back to Hanoi) consisted primarily of hiking to several villages.  This is the primary activity as there were probably 15 similar groups as ours on the same path.  The Muong women (dressed in hand-woven black hemp clothing) walk up to Sa Pa in the early morning and walk back with the tourists using their English to befriend and hopefully, sell something.  One of the more interesting sights was a woman whose 5 year old daughter was carrying her infant brother on her back while the mother carried other items.

It is harvest time for rice now and the methods date back hundreds of years.  Cutting, drying, beating the stocks against a box to release the kernels, and smashing the kernels to break the husks.  All of the local rice is for the farmer’s individual consumption.

Off to Halong Bay for a 2 day cruise.