Day fourty-three 2/23/2010

We went out to a Vietnamese place for dinner, it was good and I got a beef dish that tasted similar to many beef dishes served at lunch in China. But if you told a Vietnamese person that I think they would get pissed as their history with China is quite rocky. We went out after dinner to grab some beers on the street corner as many people do. There are little corner shops in the old section of the city converted into bars for the night but putting outside of them on the sidewalk and street kidy sized tables and chairs that people, especially westerners, gather around till the wee hours. While sitting there we started talking to some Dutch guys who were traveling Asia, they asked about what we were up to and us them, they had some confusion why we were called westerners and we had to explain how really Europe was to the west and Asia the east but the terms had become synonymous with Caucasians and Asians as larger groups. We helped them find their hotel as they were a little turned around in the old tiny streets then began heading back to our own. On the way we stopped at a backpacker hostel and grabbed another beer and smoked some hookah. I talked to some kids from Waterloo there but they were too old to know my friends Matt and Peter that studied abroad in Denmark with me so the conversation focused mostly on Vietnam. We also talked to some Scottish girls that lived in Hong Kong recruiting lawyers, they didn’t have quite the same take on Hong Kong we did as their salary was clearly a good amount higher than ours, but they knew China so it was fun to see their faces when we told them we were living at a factory in Guangdong. We went back and passed out shortly after that.

The next day we got up went out and grabbed some street food. It was this strange steamed wrap that was made by pouring batter onto what looked like a drum head secured to the top of a boiling vat of water, this was then filled with dried mushroom, chopped up into pieces, sprinkled with dried onion, then served with a sweet soup that you dipped the concoction into. We then trekked of to a series of attractions that were closed due to the New Year such as the temple on the lake that normally has a puppet show of some sort, the temple of literature, and the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. We did manage to get over to the still open Hanoi Hilton as it is called, the prison where John McCain was held for years during the war. This was a suggested stop by the San Francisco couple we were on the Halong Bay boat with as we ran into them on a street corner while wandering around. This is apparently the flying suit he was captured in, but I don’t know how truthful that really is. The whole museum was a big piece of propaganda, it basically read like this: the French came and imprisoned pro-communist people who they then ritualistically abused and killed, after the communists took over the prison they successfully battled of the American war machine and took as political prisoners those downed pilots that survived crashes, these people were treated extremely nicely and may as well have been at summer camp. A bit of a lie, but judging by our stance on the incident still, no one likes to admit their faults. We then grabbed some snacks for the train ride at the supermarket and headed back to our hotel.

Before getting to our hotel we again say the San Fran couple sitting about a block from our hotel at one of the street bars grabbing a beer. We dropped our stuff at the hotel and came back to join them for some drinks. After a couple hours of chatting we exchanged info for when they may come to Hong Kong in March and they headed to their hotel for the night and us to dinner. We ate at the same place as earlier in the week after our bike ride and I got clay pot prawn soup, it was good but a little light on the meat. After that we decided to get an early jump on our 11pm train and head their at 9:15pm to ensure we got a taxi as the new year meant many taxis would be off duty by 11pm. This was a good move in the end because the train began boarding at 10pm and left right at 11pm. Our roommate, we only had one but there was room for two, was a small Vietnamese girl leading a tour group of middle aged Australians. I felt bad as they seemed to complain quite a lot but I guess they are just not used to lack of amenities in Asia yet. She told us to go down to the first cabin for a “Vietnamese party” which as we expected was people getting drunk on the train. It was fun and we toasted to the New Year many times until things simmered down around 1am. We then spent another two hours as the remaining stragglers talking with two British girls and an Aussie guy from Brisbane who were traveling together. The Aussie had been on the road for about a year and a half and had already gone through Europe, North America, and South America. The Brits lived in Africa near Madagascar doing whale shark research, which I thought was super cool. Apparently most of their funding currently comes from some Saudi Prince who is really into sharks, so I guess some of that oil money isn’t going to pure extravagance. We stayed until we were being told the front food cart area was closing and we then returned to our cabins and passed out with the help of the many drinks we downed by this time.

We managed to sleep a surprising amount for being on a train, a luxury that would come less readily the next night. When we woke up the train was approaching the stop for Hoi An, we’d hoped to visit but it had been bumped from our itinerary by the lack of bus availability due to Tet (Lunar New Year in Vietnam). We continued on until about four in the afternoon playing cards and reading, I finished up Hell’s Angels and started on a book we picked up in Ha Noi called The Sorrow of War, a Vietnam War book written by a Northern Vietnamese Soldier. At 4pm we stopped in a town I am not sure of and a man came into our cabin, apparently our new cabin mate, he would end up being the bane of the remainder of the journey. I will now describe him and his continuous actions as it was nothing he said or did specifically that caused issues, but instead he elicited from Sam and me a constant disgust. When he got on the train we could see on his arm what appeared to be three large boils, upon further observation and noting the scars on his legs I deduced these were most likely bone tumors cause by a genetic issue, this alone was off putting but uncontrollable. He proceeded throughout the trip to remove a small bottle of mint scented liquid from his pocket, drip it on his finger, rub it on the back of his ears and neck and hold it under his nose after that for an additional minute. This was a once a half hour routine that also could have been ignored if it wasn’t serving as the intermission for the constant coughing, hacking, and scratching that the man saw no point in subduing in the closed courters he was sharing. Additionally the man had an odd habit of wiping his face with the same napkin at random intervals as if to remove some unseen sweet that had accumulated there. All this combined made the remaining time quite uncomfortable for Sam and me as we tried to keep our distance. I did manage to sleep at one point for a few hours but shudder at the thought of the amount of germ activity swarming me during this time.

We ended up getting into Saigon around 4:30am and caught a taxi to our guesthouse where we were brought to the 6^th floor, the ceilings were at sporadic heights as the building had clearly been added onto upwards and I managed to hit my head a good amount of times during our stay, 5’ 11” is tall for Asia so they don’t always design to accommodate. Our room was quite nice with windows on 3 walls, we slept until 10am ensuring we would miss the Cu Chi tunnel tour, but we needed the sleep. We spent the day visiting a few places of interest, Reunification Hall was a bit of a bore, but the Vietnam War Museum was interesting. It had some cool guns and planes from the time, but most of the museum focused on the atrocities committed by the Americans with little to no mention of Vietnamese fighters or weapons. This made sense as it is simply supposed to derive a sense of sympathy from its visitors I suppose. We went back to the hotel after sitting at the river for a while and showered again as the heat of southern Vietnam beat us down and left me pitting epically.

We went out for dinner after a bit to a little street full of bars and restaurants and sat down with next to a few foreigners who began talking to us. They were from a mix of Australia and Europe but were all ex-pats who had been living in Vietnam for some time. They all seemed to love the country but like many westerners they seemed to have become a little jaded with the people at times as their relentless urge to rip-off westerners becomes annoying quickly alongside other small annoyances unique to each country. We sat and drank with them for a while, listening to their stories of their time in Vietnam. I managed to eat two dinners in the six hours we hung around the restaurant thanks to the consumption of a decent amount of beer. Finally around 1am we made our way back to our guesthouse where we passed out quickly in prep for our long journey from Saigon to Siem Reap starting at 7am the next morning.

We woke early and I grabbed us some bread and cheese from a street vendor before getting on the bus to Phnom Penh. This involved crossing the border to Cambodia so after about two hours we spent another hour sitting at the border waiting to leave Vietnam and get Cambodian visas for those without the e-visa’s we had picked up before the trip. Another three hours, which mostly involved talking politics with some Canadians living in Korea while teaching English, landed us in Phnom Penh. We were told we would have to wait for the 5:30pm bus to Siem Reap, which was bullshit given we were taken off the bus to get our luggage and not allowed back on once we had it because they oversold the bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap. All the same we agreed and ate lunch at a local western restaurant in a restored French building. We then grabbed a Tuk Tuk (motorcycle pulled rickshaw pronounced touk touk) and toured the city for a bit seeing some local temples and the development occurring around the edge of the city. After that we went back to the bus station and grabbed a drink at a little place across from it while waiting. There we met some locals who showed us Cambodian chess, different from normal chess, and one of them called his brother to pick us up from the bus when we reached Siem Reap.

We then got on the bus where we were soon told that by not “transferring” our tickets from the bus we were not allowed on to begin with we had not reserved seats and would be sitting on the floor for half the trip, total shit. We got on the bus and managed to get seats until the half way point. During this time I talked extensively with a local Cambodian twenty year old who works for a pepper company in Cambodia growing high quality organic black pepper. He gave me a good run down on Cambodian history and the current situation which was quite interesting given my lack of knowledge. We stopped at a side of the road food shack where we picked up the remaining passengers and got kicked to the floor. We spent the remainder of the trip talking with our Cambodian friend and an Indian guy from Dubai who was in the spice trade, but much larger quantities than what the Cambodian guy dealt in. He filled us in on how Dubai seems first hand currently and how speculation crashed their economy. He seemed to be doing fine though showing us pictures of the cars he has had recently and described them as being changed like clothes in Dubai (Lamborghini, Nissan GTR, and BMW 6 series). He said the excess of super cars makes the used cars very cheap, he bought a used Lambo, new at $250,000, with 18,000km for $70,000. We finally got to Siem Reap at midnight and were picked up by the tuk tuk we had arranged. We gave a Colombian kid (Felipe) and a Chilean kid (Christian) a ride to our hotel to see if they could get a room there, they had sat on the floor with us on the bus. They had a room and we all called it a night agreeing before we parted ways to all grab bicycles in the morning at 8am and head to Angkor Wat together.

The next morning we got up early and rented some bikes for $2 for the day and headed to Angkor Wat. There really is not much to say about it, big cool temples, jungle, tons of pictures included here. We biked around until 5pm checking out the main temples, the heat was blistering and coupled with biking it was a constant stream of sweat. I got a bit dehydrated from all of the water loss so when we finally headed back to the hotel it was a welcome relief. We spent the whole day with Felipe and Christian so we decided to get diner together after grabbing a shower and some beers. We went to a Cambodian BBQ place which involved an odd shaped grill on the table that allowed the cooking of soup and meet at once because of its sombrero design which kept the meat on the high ground. None of us remembered a camera which sucked, but we chatted with the waitress for a while and she helped us cook as the place slowly cleared out, we were late comers. About half way through the meal the power suddenly went out in the open air restaurant. They seemed to make an attempt to fix it, than just gave up after messing with the circuit breaker located on the nearest telephone/power wire pole. We ate and cooked the remainder of the meal via cell phone and candle light all along joking with the local Cambodian waitress who was holding the cell phone and checking the meat for us. After finishing up there we headed back and hit the sack, we all planned on an early 4:30am wakeup for the sunrise over Angkor Wat so we slept very little that night.

We woke up and met our tuk tuk driver at 5am we were then taken to see the sunrise. The day was slightly overcast and overall it was a bit of a disappointment from the grounds of Angkor Wat as you don’t see the horizon but instead just the sun over the building. If you had a higher vantage I am sure it would have been quite nice, but as it was it wasn’t worth waking up so early for. We then saw a few more temples including one far away from the main temple which was the reason for getting the driver; this temple had a lot of detail still intact. But, like many of the other temples, without the roof intact the grandeur of the building is slightly lost. Although with a little imagination it is not hard to see in the mind’s eye what the building could have once looked like as a giant stone monument in a jungle filled with exotic wildlife.

After the outer temple we began heading back but detoured to a personal pick of mine, the shooting range. I shot an AK and got to hold some of the more serious firepower kept on hand. The shooting range is at an army training facility but it was clear by the unhurried style of the camp that training is not a priority. Instead it was more a tourist stop to fire off guns, especially popular with those Europeans who come from countries where guns are not widely permitted. Our driver said it wasn’t a normal stop at Angkor Wat, but for those who inquire its available (It is far more popular in Phnom Penh). I have some pictures of what they have there, what they didn’t have which I was told is available elsewhere for a high price was the option to fire RPG’s if you feel inclined. But I wasn’t willing to spend that much and holding a functional bazooka filled my heavy weapons requirements of the trip I think. (Update: asked in Phnom Penh about the RPG and they said it is $300 to shoot it once, too rich for my blood)

After shooting we bought our boat tickets for the next day and ate lunch at a Thai restaurant. We agreed to meet the tuk tuk driver at 6am the next day for the boat and hit the hotel for a nice nap around 2pm. We woke up around 6pm and went off and ate some Cambodian food for dinner at a nearby restaurant. It was quite good and the mojito I got was quite good as well. We stopped by the corner shop and grabbed some snacks for the next day on the way back to the hotel, which is where I wrote the majority of this lengthy entry while watching the Thomas Crown Affair.

We woke up the next day and 5:30am and met the driver at 6am, we headed to the boat and made it there at about 6:40am for a 7am departure, or so we thought. When the boat finally left at 7:40am it was filled up seats and roof, riding on the rood was one of the attractions of this boat over the bus. We napped in our seats for the first three hours in mostly uncomfortable positions limited by the tiny leg room. After that we got out and sat on the roof and absorbed the sun. This seemed like a wise move to even out the tan/burn I had but instead it just exacerbated the fresh skin beneath the initial peal from my earlier burn so currently I am in quite some pain. We did see some cool sights along the way and I have thrown some pictures here of what we were seeing boating through Cambodia.

When we got to Phnom Penh we were picked up by another tuk tuk driver who our previous one had arranged for us. We hit a restaurant first and foremost as the boat had lacked any food options. Normally there is a food stop but as no passengers were being picked up or dropped off there it was skipped entirely. We grabbed some Cambodian dishes and sat around in the shade reflecting on the severity of our respective sunburns. Upon finishing we hopped back in the tuk tuk and headed to the killing fields. This famous Cambodian mass grave site is now one of the many monuments to those lost in the war. This was an execution site used by the Khmer Rouge during their rule over the country. Most of the executions although occurring recently were in barbaric fashions such as using axes, machetes, and strangulation. The most brutal descriptions posted where of the babies killed on the ground. This was done by swinging them by their feet and bashing their heads into a tree, the tree is still there and noted by a sign. During the still ongoing trial of four of the leaders of the Khmer Rouge the only remorseful one who admits to the tragedies occurring said this was done to avoid the children of those killed seeking vengeance in the future. The bones and skulls are displayed throughout the facility and the holes of the excavated graves are left in an attempt to show the scale of what occurred there only 40 years ago.

We left the killing fields and headed to the airport where I continued to write more of this blog during my planes delay. I have not been able to post this yet because of some internet and proxy issues. But hopefully today that will change. So I will pick up from the airport.

Our plane finally left around 9pm and after a bumpy flight and weighting for luggage we had to check this time around we got out of the airport at midnight. The weather difference was extreme. We had left tropical heat which as was becoming more apparent had left me badly burnt after our boat ride, and arrived in winter weather hanging around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. We got in the taxi line after throwing on our light sweatshirts still wearing shorts. We grabbed a taxi and showed him our address written down. While at first he claimed to know where to go it was clear by the repeated phone calls he made mentioning the town that he was some what unsure. We called Steve to give him directions in Chinese and he began heading in the correct direction. We hit some bad traffic for about an hour that we came to find out was caused by a broke down bus blocking two out of three lanes. This entire time I was freezing in the back as the driver insisted on having the window open to make sure the windshield didn't fog. Approaching the 24 hour mark on little sleep I was irritated by this to say the least.We finally got to Dongguang region around 3:30am or something of the sort. We agreed to switch taxis to a local one to allow our driver to return to Guangzhou and so we could find a local driver who knew his way. After switching taxis we felt a bit more confident, and with the windows finally up a bit more comfortable as well. A little less than two hours later we found our way to the factory gate. It may have cost us $100usd to get their from the airport, but it was worth every penny.

We hobbled to our dorm the sunburn now in full swing hurting every step I took. I made it upstairs somewhat delirious from lack of sleep and proceeded to talk to Anna, my Australian friend from DTU and Line, for about another 45 minutes. Anna was heading home and Line had gone out for her send off party, as I know leaving Denmark sucks. I passed out finally sometime after 6am and woke up sporadically only to take ibuprofen to combat the sunburn until 6pm.

To skip over any further description of my sunburn I'll give a rundown here. To start almost everything hurts. My back is peeling, my face is peeling, my arms are peeling, and my legs are peeling. My right knee which had already peeled re-burned and bubbled up something disgusting. I am limping around currently because of this. I really can't say I have ever been so burnt in my life, not in this scale, and not close to the degree my knee currently is. Sleeping up until last night has been horribly painful as has most other activities.

I spent the remainder of the weekend barely eating and only managed to go out long enough to grab noodles and some other food sporadically. I did get up the brawn to go out and shoot off fireworks and drink beers with Sam and Austin Sunday night. But I think the beers covered up for the sunburn pain that quickly returned when I lay down later.

Monday brought the arrival of Melissa Davies, previously the woman who got me this job in the NEU international coop office, and now of Eastek fame. It was nice seeing her and everyone else again. After work I skipped heading back to my room after grabbing dinner and headed straight to the pool place with Austin. I played remarkable well and some local kids came around after we had a couple beers so I gave them money to go get fire works. Of course they buy the big strand similar to the one in the video I posted instead of anything really cool like aerials, I let them set it off near by figuring they'd enjoy it more than me. Soon after one of them comes up with one of the larger firecrackers from the strand that hadn't gone off. Having lit off many duds from the company strand I whip out a lighter and touch it to the fuse, nothing, so I try it again and BOOM. Right on my hand the thing explodes. Luckily I had an open palm so besides getting startled there was no damage done. But had my hand been closed, or it been one of the larger grenade like fire crackers you can buy individually, I would most likely be missing some fingers or a whole hand right now.I am sure my grandparents will love reading that as well lol. We finished up pool around midnight and ate some fried noodles from a side stand place sloppily. After that we headed back to grab some sleep after tossing a couple more of the "bombs," as we started to call them, into the road. Here are both pictures of the ridicules box the bombs come in depicting young children killing fish with them and one in my hand for an idea of size.

Today, Tuesday, has been a light day. Worked all day with a bit of a stomach ache from last nights activities. Grabbed dinner with the boys at the "little hat noodle place." And headed back here to get the pictures up in this blog crap cause I have been getting harassed by multiple people over the lack of updates.