Saigon - Vietnam

6/8/05
We left Phnom Phen (Cambodia) in the morning for Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). The trip took 3 hours to the border. The road and the bus were good so there were no surprises. The only remarkable thing was the fact that the driver kept snacking crickets the whole trip.

We crossed the border (cities: Bavet on the Cambodian side and Moc Bai on the Vietnamese) on foot and one thing worth mentioning is that when the immigration officers saw our passports they put a big smile on their faces and said 'Ahhh, Ronaldo and Zidane!', that was funny.

After the immigration we gathered in a small cafe in Moc Bai just by the official building to wait for everyone to pass, because it is not a fast process, there are only two counters. From there we took a bus to Ho Chi Minh City.

The second leg of the trip, from the Moc Bai to Ho Chi Minh took 2 hours and it was 'really managed' by a tour agency (Happy Tour). They take it very professionally. There was a girl that gave us some information about Ho Chi Minh City and she even sang in Vietnamese and in English for the entertainment of the passengers, wow!

Ho Chi Minh is a huge city with 5.5 millions of people, but despite all the all bad things we read about it in Lonely Planet regarding robbing, hassling and other annoyances, the city was very easy and pleasant to visit.

We were brought to Pham Ngu Lao, an area that concentrates cheap mini hotels with hundreds of restaurants and bars with excellent food. We found a nice and cheap hotel very easily and went for dinner. Since we didn't want to walk too much we went to Far Far Away, a restaurant that was just across the street from our hotel. This cozy little place, with a Shrek 2 theme, served an unbelievable meal for 1$. Also, we checked for tours for the following day and ended up scheduling a visit to Cu Chi tunnels. The great thing also is that by booking a tour you get free Internet.

6/9/05
The Cu Chi Tunnels, in the town with the same name, is 30 kilometers away from the city. We left at 8 am with a tour group and again we had a very entertaining and informative guide.

He explained that although everybody in Vietnam likes Ho Chi Minh, in the south, nobody likes the name Ho Chi Minh City. Saigon is, in fact, the name around here, so I won't talk about Ho Chi Minh City anymore.

The guide showed to us hi necklace. It was the tooth of his father that got killed in the war before he was born. Also we learned that what the whole world knows as The Vietnam War is referenced here as The American War.

Although he didn't fight the war, he grew up during the post-war time and suffered the consequences, so when he speaks about it, it has a bitter taste that sends a chill down the spine.

He explained how people fled to Saigon because many of the fields and farmlands were transformed in a Swiss cheese by B52s.

To find a job today, he explained, the resume must contain information up to three generations back. They want to know on which side your parents/grandparents were on the war and that will have a considerable influence on your chances.

At the tunnels site, we watched a brief documentary that explained its complexity and importance during the battles.

Visitors can also try some of the tunnels. We went through two of them. The first one was only 13 meters long but the second was really a claustrophobic nightmare.



It was 120 meters of absolute darkness that takes a good fifteen-minutes to cross; there is enough room only for a Vietnamese-size person, luckily Angie and I are small.



Half way in the tunnel, a girl in front of Angie started to panic and stopped. We couldn't go forward neither backwards, because there was a row of tourists behind me. There wasn't enough room, there wasn't light at all, there wasn't enough air; we were stuck there and things were getting scary. The temperature must have been around 30+C.

Now imagine all that, plus carrying a rifle or a machine gun, plus a rain of bombs on the surface... And if someone was coming in the other direction? I have no idea how they did.

Angie started to talk to the girl to make her feel better and I managed to get my flash light out of my backpack. She finally moved again and we reached the exit.

Outside, looking at peoples faces, we could see who had fun and who regretted deeply the experience.

We moved on to a shooting range where it is possible to fire a famous Russian AK-47 or a M-1, M-3, M-4, M-14, M-16, M-30, M-60. The cost is 1$ per bullet. We didn't shoot.

There is also a good collection of replicas of many of the bamboo traps used in the forest in the battlefields.



After this experience and all the information we went back to Saigon for lunch, which was included in the tour, and then the guide left us at the War Remnants Museum and we had the rest of the day free to visit it.

War Remnants Museum

Lately, our tours have been a hard thing to digest. In Phnom Phen we visited the Akira Mine Action gallery and the S-21. Then we visited the Cu Chi tunnels and to complete the tourism on the disgrace of war, we spent a whole afternoon in the War Remnants which was, for us, the hardest one to visit.

The museum pinch on Americans, but it is not difficult to understand why, once you see the material exposed. The former name of the museum was Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes, but it changed recently in order not to offend Chinese and American visitors; nonetheless, the exhibition focus on the former name.

The collection is not for inciting hatred, but just for learning lessons from history. (Although we have a war in Iraq going on as I am writing and 'maybe' 20 years from now we'll know what is going on there)

In North Vietnam bombs destroyed or heavily damaged 2,923 school buildings -from primary schools to colleges- 1,850 hospitals, wards, nurseries, 484 churches and 465 temples and pagodas.

Nearly 3 million Vietnamese were killed, and 4 million others injured. 58,000 American armymen lost their lives, states the flyer given at the entrance.

Outside the museum there are many artifacts captured in combat such as a CBU-55B, a bomb that, when exploding, can destroy oxygen in the radius of 500m and was used in 1975. There is also a fighter, a tank and other military vehicles. There is also a guillotine - used by the French on Viet Minh 'troublemakers'.

Despite the relative one-sideness of the exhibits, there are few museums in the world that drive home so well the point that war is horribly brutal and that many of its victims are civilians.

There are pictures of children mangled by US bombing and napalming; deformed babies - you need a strong stomach to see this section of the museum - result of chemical weapons. There are also many scenes of torture, including a guy being thrown out of a flying helicopter after refusing to collaborate with the interrogators. American soldiers smiling posing for pictures holding the heads of beheaded Vietnamese combatants.

We will never understand how some body could smile for a picture holding a bloody head of somebody else.

In terms of weaponry, Vietnam was turned into a lab for testing new experimental and chemical weapons, such as the Agent Orange, the most lethal toxic ever produced by mankind. Agent Orange is counted in milligrams to kill one kilo. That means that just a few milligrams are enough to kill one person, yet, whole forests and cropfields were pulverized with this toxic.

Within a few days nothing is left, everything dies; trees, all kinds of vegetation and also the fish in the rivers. Not being enough damage it will affect and deform babies of future generations.

There is material revealing that the attacks to farming villages were well planned in advance. On March 16, 1968 a mass massacre took place in Son My (My Lai) village where 504 people were killed. Nobody was spared, elder, women, kids and even babies lost their lives.

Ironically, one of the walls has a big frame holding the following words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights., that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The declaration of Independence in congress, July 4 1776. The unanimous declaration of the thirteen United States of America.

We left the museum quite down.

6/10/05
We started the day by visiting the much less popular Ho Chi Min City Museum. They had a good account of the Vietnamese revolution against the French rulers, a subject that we missed in the War Remnants Museum.



They take it much easier on the French and its content does not make you feel like puking, even though the French displaced a lot of people and exploited the labor force of Vietnam.
Ho Chi Min City Museum doesn't take much time to visit and we left still in morning to walk around in the district number 3, considered the most French part of the city.

There are so many motorbikes on the street that is almost impossible to cross, but surprisingly we found a corner where they actually stop at the traffic light.



Also we walked in front of the historical museum where we stopped for a coffee in a local place.

The coffee shops in Vietnam have a strange concept of using tiny chairs, like the ones for kids, but in the other hand the coffee is delicious. They use what they call a dripping system. Coffee powder is placed in a filter on the top of the cup and hot water is poured in front of you. The result makes an Italian Espresso looks like a watery tea. After the coffee, they serve you tea for free to wash away the strong taste of coffee.

Well awake after the bang of the Vietnamese coffee, we kept walking up to the Jade Emperor Pagoda, built in 1909.

Then we took a tuk-tuk back to Far Far Away for some good food.

Phnom Pehn - Cambodia

6/6/05
Battambang has not much to offer and the only thing we were really interested was the boat trip to get there, so we left at 7:30 A.M. in a bus for Phnom Pehn.
The trip took four hours and the road was much better than the one from Poipet to Siem Reap.
We were the only tourists in the bus and oddly all the other passengers were teenagers.

We stopped on the way in a place where women were selling again grilled bugs, but also lotus seeds. Angie tried them (of course) and they tasted like raw green peas. Here are two of the numerous sellers.



Phnom Pehn is not an easy place for the tourist. When we got of the bus the hotel hawkers were almost fighting among them to get us as clients. They grab you by the arm in all directions, it is quite annoying.

Angie and I knew already where we wanted to go and just ignored all the hawkers walking away on our own. We left on foot and a guy followed us for at least two blocks insisting hard to carry our backpack.

After we finally checked in the hotel and had some rest, we left to visit the capital of Cambodia.
The city is big and crowded with French-like houses and large boulevards.
The traffic is crazy and some of the crossing boulevards don't have traffic lights, thus crossing it becomes a real challenge.

They cross it though by osmosis process. Hundreds and hundreds of small motorbikes (honda dream and alike) cross each other but nobody ever stops, it is miracle that we did not see any car crash.

While wandering around in this pleasant city, we found a very modern Mall that sells Ipods and big screen TVs at 10,000 US dollars. I don't know who is buying all this, since the average income of a Cambodian is 20 US dollars a month.

In the mall we also found out that there is no ATM in the whole country where you can withdraw money from a foreigner account. The first ATM of the whole country got installed in this mall a few months earlier, but it only works with the debit card of the local bank. An explanation was hanging next to the ATM to tell people the purpose of an ATM.

Luckily, it is possible to get a cash advance in dollars from a credit card at Canadian bank, otherwise we would have been in trouble.
For dinner we went to a restaurant that had only a continental menu, but Angie wanted to have Cambodian food. When Angie asked about that to the waitress she offered to Angie the food her family was eating, but not available in the menu.

Angie entered their kitchen and chose a couple of different things and came back to the table. That was a really authentic Cambodian dinner. I was happy with spaghetti. Angie also wanted to try Amok which is a typical Cambodian dish, fish cooked with herbs in coconut meal. The girl said she doesn't serve that dish but would cook it specially for Angie if desired, but for the next evening and we agreed to come back to try some more authentic food.

6/7/05
Angie started the day with some local food again. Even though Cambodian would only eat for dessert. She had an odd yogurt with corn and red beans. She enjoyed it! :D

Our first stop of the day was the Royal Palace with the silver pagoda. Both are located within the same walled grounds just off the river front. The Royal palace was built in 1866, and many of other buildings and shrines were added in the following decades. The name of Silver Pagoda comes from its silver tiles. They cover the all floor surface and weight one kilogram each.



There are also many golden and silver buddhas with precious stones inside the pagoda.
After that we walked along one of the four rivers of Phnom Penh where we met many monks walking around with umbrellas.



Our next destination was Phnom Wat. On the way we stooped in a French bookstore to exchange a book. Across the street there was a magnificent building which actually was the post office. There were many Internet cafes with Wi-Fi and the latest flat screens. It is quite strange to see these new technologies in the cities of Cambodia while the countryside still lives so basically with even no water supply or garbage collection.

The temple was crowded with pilgrims. We then headed to the mall to get some money. From the top floor of the mall there is a great view of the city.



We then stopped at the Central Market in an art-deco type building, which by the way is one of the landmarks of Phnom Penh. Its dome ranks among the largest in the world.



There again they were selling bugs and in front of a grasshopper seller, we met a Cambodian guy, that was one of the people that was in the boat that got rescued by the French Red Cross and stayed then in France. It was his first time back in Cambodia and confessed us, that even though he used to eat lots of bugs during the war, he can't do it anymore.



We then hired a tuk-tuk who took us to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum, also known as S-21.

Prior to 1975, the building used to be a high school. When the Khmer Rouge came to power it was converted into the S-21 prison and interrogation facility. The building now serves as a museum, a memorial and a testament to the madness of the Khmer Rouge regime.



The prisoners were kept in very small cells and shackled with chains. Thousands of people were tortured there and then driven to a field outside of Phnom Penh where they were executed. The Khmer took pictures of all the victims and the photos are exposed in the Museum. Lots of people were really young and some were even kids. Around 12,000 were killed while only 7 survived.



After such a depressing museum we walked back to the hotel. We crossed some poor neighborhood. Red dust was flying around since the streets were not paved. The people were really friendly. Here is a typical Cambodian woman with the Krama, the traditional piece of cloth that woman use to cover their head.



Guys were pulling wooden cart and selling ice that they were cutting of a bigger ice bars. This is a legacy from the French which, during the colonization time, opened several "ice factories" with a water treatment systems. Cambodian people still use them.

In the evening we went back to the restaurant where Angie ate Amok. The family of the girl had already eaten but the girl kept for Angie a nice portion. It was really good and it could not be more authentic. It is really amazing how friendly and devoted the South-East Asian people are.

Battambang - Cambodia

6/5/05
A minibus picked us up at the hotel at 5:40 A.M. drove to the pier through a dirt road crossing some interesting villages. The houses were made of bamboo, all on stilts on the side of the dirt path. There were made of only one small room (2x2) with no door where entire families where living with no belongings besides the cooking ware. The kids under five years old were running around naked.

Because we were only at the beginning of the raining season the level of the water was still low and thus the pier was a bit far; so the drive took around one hour.

At the pier we moved to a tiny boat that took us to Battambang in an eight hours trip. There were at least 10 other passengers including tourists and locals squeezed in the small compartment, two Spanish guys even travelled on the roof of the boat as there was not enough space. The trip lacked in comfort, but undeniably it compensated in sights.

First we went slowly through the harbor of the village, where trading was going on, then we crossed a floating village that seemed out a National Geographic documentary. The houses are all within the margin of the river and the water was turned into an avenue.

Here the people not just look different ...



... they live differently.





Fishing is, obviously, the main activity of these families. They have developed a technic to fish that uses a bamboo crane system.



The river has hundreds of these all long. There is a big fhishing net under the water that can be lifted by the bamboo crane at any moment catching the fish.

When we reached the Tonle Sap Lake the boat speeded up and the trip turned into a splash festival. Our backpacks got quite wet too. It was quite surprising to see floating houses in the middle of the lake far from any coast. The lake is 160 kilometers long and 36 kilometers wide.



On the other side of the lake we entered again another river, the Sangker River, with similar villages.



The boat stopped in these villages picking up more passengers and also their goods. We could not believe that there were still able to fit people on the boat.

In some points the river was completely covered with Water Lilies and we had to go very very slow.





We crossed many villages along the trip and the houses on the river bank were also very basic. There were also many kids playing around naked and they always waved to us from the river bank.



We made a stop for lunch in a stilt house on the water, but we didn't have the courage to eat after seeing that the dishes were being washed just next to the basic toilet that flushes all the waste into the river. Not only do they use that very same water from the river for washing dishes, but also to bath, to wash their clothes, in summary it is their only source of water.



We arrived in Battambang around 3 P.M and were received by a group of hotel hawkers, so it wasn't really difficult to get to the hotel as they all offer a free transfer from the pier to the accommodation.

We had lunch at the hotel and walked around in the city. The place is completely different to Siem Reap, as it is not so touristy and much easiear regarding hassling and beggars.

This is the second biggest city in the country.

Siem Reap - Cambodia

6/3/05
On our first day in Siem Reap we just visited the city and spent a quiet day since we were still a bit tired from the trip of the day before.
The first thing we noticed is that the French baguette is a very common bread in Cambodia, they were available in every food stall along the streets.

The center of the city is full of bars aimed at western tourists. They sell burgers, pasta, pizzas, and steaks and only list the Cambodian and Khmer food at the end of the menu.

Many bars play the Buddha Lounge music and Project Gottham and the restaurants reminded me very much of the ones in NYC. They even had a Zanzibar.

In the center is the Old Market were we had lunch, but it is not really big, neither interesting.
Walking around, just few meters from the market, we found Akira Mine Action Gallery.

Aki Ra is a former Khmer Rouge conscripted child soldier who has now devoted his life to making Cambodia safe again in addition to providing assistance to his country's numerous landmine survivors through a number of humanitarian programs.

Indeed I have to say that we saw many of these poor innocent landmine victims begging on the streets. It really breaks your heart to see KIDS that lost their hands, or arms, feet and/or legs because they were playing on the fields and triggered a landmine. These mines make no distinction between a tank, a soldier, a peasant worker or a kid. Another terrible thing we learned about landmines is that they are not designed to kill, but to maim, because a wounded soldier costs MONEY to the enemy.

To add more to this depressing experience, we learned about the Mine Ban Treaty created in 1997 (www.icbl.org), which was signed by 122 countries. The treaty deals with everything from mine use, production and trade of mines, to victim assistance and mine clearance, and also destruction of stockpile. But 42 countries still refuse to join it; among them are the United States, China, India, Pakistan and Russia. Some of these countries still produce landmines and have huge stocks in warehouses ready to be placed in new location!!!

Cambodia still had conflicts until 1997; the country is freshly out of serious trouble and it is now trying to get back on track.

When we left the Akira's Gallery we met Udi on the street, another year-traveller that was on the same bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap. There were also two other girls with him and we went for a beer in one of the bars.

From the bar they went somewhere else to have dinner and Angie and I walked all the way back to the hotel.

At the hotel, at night, we met Udi again and we scheduled to visit Angor Wat the next day by bicycle.

6/4/05
Udi, Angie and I, left early at 7:15 A.M. on rented bikes. Angkor Archeological Park is just 8 kilometers north of Siem Reap; the road is good and the terrain is plain, perfect for a pleasant bike ride.

The site is designated a World Heritage by UNESCO and its artistic, archeological significance and visual impact is paired with the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, Machu Picchu and the Taj Mahal.
This place was the capital city of the Khmer Empire that existed between the 9th and 12th centuries of the Christian Era.

We tackled our way to the temples and made a first stop on the south gate of the most famous construction, the apex of the Angorian existence, Angkor Wat, a massive three tiered pyramid crowned by five beehive-like towers rising 65 meters from ground level. Nearly 2000 distinctively carvings adorn the walls describing stories and characters of from Hindu mythology.





The temple is the world's largest religious building with its external walls extending 1300x1200 meters. The temple itself is 1 km square. One can easily spend a whole day walking in its corridors.

We looked around, met a monk and witnessed a group of Korean tourists in a religious ceremony worshiping Buddha in the center most tower of the temple where from there is also a nice view of the surrounding forest.

But we had to move, so we took our bikes and pedaled to the next place, Ta Prohm Kel, a tiny temple, actually a chapel, but the most interesting thing was the little village behind it and a furious little monkey fighting a dog and attacking people; we had to keep one eye on it while visiting this place.



Then we moved on to Baksei Chamrong, a 12 meter-tall pyramid that we obviously climbed up. :D



Another 5 minutes of biking and we arrived at the south gate of Angkor Thom.



Even after looking at the map of this site I couldn't realize how big this place is. This one has a 3 km square wall surrounding a moated royal city. Inside there is a temple called Bayon with over 13.000 carvings.





From there we went to Preah Khan and then a long bike ride, 10 kilometers to Ta Prohm, the temple with one of the most famous postcard pictures of Angkor, where there are huge banyon trees growing over the walls.



On the way there was what seemed to be a school and the kids came for a greeting when we stopped to take a picture of the boy on the car pulled by oxes and offered us flowers.





By then it was close to the end of the day and we biked to Phnom Bakheng, a temple on the top of a hill where it is possible to have a nice view of the Tonle Sap Lake and the distant Angkor Wat in the middle of the jungle.

We saw so much but there was still a lot left unseen ... this place is amazing!

Some other unexpected things can also be quite amusing. Imagine a traffic sign like this in Manhattan.



The sun was gone and we had to bike back to the hotel in the dark. Before going to the hotel we stopped in a tour agency to by a boat trip to Battambang for the next morning.

Bangkok II - Thailand

6/1/05

This was our last day in Bangkok. We went to the National Museum and on the way we got to try something weird. They call it ice cream sandwich but I would call it cold dog, since it is a hot dog bread sliced and filled with lots of ice cream.
The National Museum was very interesting; we watched a short very well-done movie about Thailand's history.

From the Museum we went to check the city's recreation place, the Lumphini Park. Although it was so hot that you could fry an egg on the sidewalk, we were very very surprised to see so many bodybuilders exercising hard under the killing sun. While we could barely walk, they were lifting weights.

Next to the park is the Night Bazar which was obviously closed.
From there we went to Patpong, the Place Pigalle of Bangkok. I was really curious to see the ping pong show but at end we did not go.

From there to Chinatown was a long walk but also a good way to see the non touristy neighborhoods. When we were approaching Chinatown we crossed a neighborhood that is probably the destination of all stolen cars in Bangkok. There were hundreds and hundreds of shops disassembling engines of all kinds on the sidewalk, there were piles and piles of car parts and alike.

From Chinatown we took a bus back to Khao San Rd.

6/2/05

Our time in Thailand was over. Nepal and Thailand are two favorite countries so far. Actually we loved the South of Thailand where people were so friendly and welcoming whereas Bangkok is full of hasslers. We left at 7 A.M. on a bus heading to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

We knew from other travellers and from some blog on the Internet that the trip from Bangkok to Siem Reap wasn't going to be easy because on the Cambodian side the road was quite bad. Also, we bought the trip from one of the tour agencies in Khao San Rd and it is well known that they play many tricks on tourists to make money, selling the bus ticket initially very cheap. But the ticket was so cheap (200 Baht - 1 US$=40 Baht) that we decided to take it anyway.

The first half of the journey was easy with no surprises. We were first brought to a restaurant close to the border but far from everything else. There the food is overpriced and also a 'helpful' guy came to help with the Cambodian visa, also an overpriced service.
Prepared, we had food with us and we had made our visas back in Malaysia, so we were not that profitable for them.

From the restaurant, where we had to wait for more then 1:30 hour, we were all put on the back of a truck that took us to the border. At the border we had no surprises, we walked across, into Cambodia, where a couple of motorbikes were waiting for us. We were brought to a kind of cafe and waited a bit more until everyone was done. Then they offered us to change money on an unfair rate, which we did not do either. From here we were split into two other mini-bus, much worse then the aircon bus used in Thailand.
Once we got to the road we understood why a nice bus can't travel here. There is no pavement, just a dirt path full of pot holes.

After 2 hours of shaking, we stopped for dinner, also overpriced, but we still had some fruits and we didn't have to touch cash again. Instead of going to the restaurant we walked around.


Cambodia is much poorer than its neighbors. From the two first hours of ride we could see from the window the basic houses in which they live. Most of the houses have a small open tank of water next to it; since there is no water supply they have to manage themselves.



What you see below is a gas station. There are no pumps; they keep the petrol in disposable soda bottles. There are many station like this in Cambodia.



When it got dark we noticed that many houses had blue and green lamps around the house, like the long fluorescent ones, and we found out later that it is used to attract and catch crickets and other bugs for eating. The green light is used to attract snakes, another delicacy.

Arriving in Siem Reap, we had another shock. It was such a contrast with the countryside we just crossed. Everything looked nice, luxury hotels were all over, the streets were paved and well illuminated. Unfortunately those places aren't for Cambodians, there are all waiting for the tourists.

The driver stopped lots of time on the way and made us wait on the way to make sure we arrive late in Town exactly as told by other travellers. Then, they tell you that the streets are very dangerous to walk around at night and bring you to a hotel where they get a good commission for each guest that stays there.

Well, we checked the room, why not? And it was cheap and clean, so we stayed right there. It was around 10 PM by then.

Around Bangkok - Thailand

5/30/05

Ayuthaya is 86 kilometers north of Bangkok and it served as the Siamese royal capital from 1350 to 1767.
33 Kings of various Siamese dynasties reigned in Ayuthaya until it was destroyed and conquered by the Burmese.
The city has over 50 temples in ruins which makes it impossible to visit them all in one day; but we got to see some of the most important ones according to our guide.
The first one we visited was the Wat Yai Chaya Mongkol (The great Temple of Auspicious Victory). The laying Buddha and the Stupa were once covered by gold but it got stolen by the Burmese.









We then visited Wat Mahathat that was built in the 12th century. It was burned down almost completely by the Burmese, there are only few walls left.

Though an interesting thing is a Buddha head wrapped in Banyan roots.



Then we moved to another site with another laying Buddha. The laying Buddha in Wat Pho in Bangkok is actually a replica of this one.

After that we went to see a monument for the victory of the Burmese (I can't remember the Thai name). Later the monument got destroyed and rebuilt in Thai-style, with square corners instead of round. This is the only Thai-style Stupa in Ayuthaya.

We went for lunch, nothing really special, and then stopped by the Royal Palace and its temple named Wat Phra Se Sanphet. From the palace, there are only the foundations left.

The temple got built in the 14th century and once contained a 16-meter high standing Buddha covered with 250 kilograms of gold melted down by the Burmese.




Next to it, in Wat Mongkhon Bophit, there is still a 15th century bronze seating Buddha.

The temperature in Ayuthaya, and Bangkok as well, was unbearable. The heat strikes in such a way that makes it hard even to think.

We went back to Bangkok around 4 P.M. and we were dying for some cold drinks.

5/31/05

The lively floating markets on Khlong Damnoen Saduak in Ratchaburi Province, 104 kilometers south west of Bangkok, is a must see, so we went to check it out.
We went with a tour package in a mini-van where we met a nice French cook from Metz that works for a Sheraton hotel in Luxembourg. The chatting made the 1:30 hour trip seem shorter :D
To reach the market we took a little boat and had a nice fifteen-minute ride through the village.
The place was very interesting; canals were built in a way that one has the impression that the streets were just filled with water and the cars were replaced by little canoes. The houses had little entrances with stairs facing the river decorated with nice plants and flowers.



The market is a bit touristy but still worth a visit. As it was expected, there were boats selling everything that you can find in a normal street market, from fruits to souvenirs.





Around 11 A.M. we were heading back to Bangkok. We relaxed the whole afternoon as it was extremely hot and we didn't feel like walking around the city.

At night, when it was a bit cooler :) we went to Khao San Rd first for my dinner. Angelique wanted something more local, so we went to some other streets where she ate a rice porridge with meat and vegetable from a food stalls. The interesting thing is that they wash their dishes on the sidewalk.



Then we saw some real local food, fried crickets and cockroachers, but Angie did not dare trying this time.

Bangkok I

5/28/05

We arrived in Bangkok at 5:30 A.M, coming from Krabi. The name Bangkok comes from Bang Makok, meaning 'Place of Olive Plums', but many other guides mention that Bangkok means 'City of Angels'. Whatever the name means, not to create any confusion, below is the official name of the city. It is a real tong-twister.

Krungthep mahanakhon amon ratanakosin mahintara ayuthaya mahadilok popnopparat ratchathani burirom udomratchaniwet mahasathan amonpiman avatansathit sakkathattiya witsanukamprasit.

The bus dropped us next to Khao San Rd, the street that concentrates budget hotels and guesthouses and it is packed with people, bars, pubs, travel agencies and shops.
At 5:30 in the morning there was still people in the streets partying from the night before.

We found a place to stay and went to catch up with sleep. We took a nap until 10 A.M when we left to tour around in Bangkok.
Angie had a Thai breakfast, a rice chicken soup.
We looked into some tours with travel agencies just to have an idea of the prices.
After that, while walking around, we were approached by a hawker that offered us a free tuk-tuk ride to visit the city but in exchange he asked permission to bring us to a jewelry store. Knowing how these things work, we decided to have a deal with the driver; he took us for free around the city in exchange of a stop in a store chosen by him. The surprising thing is that it was openly explained during the negotiation.
We left on a tuk-tuk ...



... and made the first stop at Wat Indravihan, also known for its huge standing Buddha image that is 32 meters tall.



Next to it there was a nice wat, which means temple in Thai.



From there we went to see Wat Sommanatwiham which is lso known as the lucky temple.

Our third stop was our deal with the tuk-tuk driver. A Jewelry store where we spent maybe 3 minutes.
Our free ride kept going to another 2 travel agencies in a search for information for trekking around Bangkok.
Our final stop was the Grand Palace, we just had a quick look from the outside because the building was about to close.



Nearby was Wat Pho, a site that carries a long list of superlatives. It is the oldest and largest Wat in Bangkok. It also features the largest reclining Buddha and the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand and was the earliest center of public education, Wow!



Wat Pho is also the national headquarters for the teaching and preservation of traditional Thai medicine, including Thai massage. Indeed, it is possible to do a 10-day massage course.



The colossal reclining Buddha is 46 meters long and 15 meters high.



When we were out of Wat Pho we were again approached by another tuk-tuk driver. The negotiation for the ride was again clear, he openly said it would cost 50 bath to go to straight to our requested destination with no stop or 5 if we were ok to see a jewelry store. Well, why not?

We made a 30 seconds stop at the jewelry store and then were droped in Chinatown's night market. We saw no tourists there. Later I tried to look for the name of that market in the Lonely Planet but I just couldn't find it. Would that be a mere coincidence? (later I found the name in the Bangkok tourist map - Thief Market)

The market had everything one can imagine, from the latest Playstation (PSP) to pre-owned worn out stinky boots.The food was also good and cheap.

From Chinatown we started to walk back to Khao San Rd. and on the way we stopped by Wat Saket, or also known in English as Golden Mount.
From there we passed by the Democracy memorial and the memorial for the king Rama III where we were again approached by tuk-tuk drivers. But this time, it was too late and we didn't want to go anywhere else, so we headed to Khao San Rd.

It was already night and we could see this famous street at its full steam. It was absurdly busy. It looks like all the Western weirdos gather there. We found a bookstore where we exchanged our Malaysian Lonely Planet for a Vietnam one and finally headed back to the hotel.

5/29/05

We left with plans to see the Emerald Buddha in Wat Phra Kaeo and the Grand Palace but the fact that tourists have to pay 250 Baht (1 US$ =40 Baht) versus free admission for Thais got us by the guts. There is even no children nor student price. But in all the Asian countries we have visited so far, it is normal practice. We walked around from gate to gate and saw what we could for free :)

Then we went to see Wat Arun which is also called temple of dawn. It has been built in the 17th century.



The place is really nice, it is just across the river (2 Baht) and the gate is guarded by two Chinese soldiers.



Just next to Wat Arun there was another beautiful temple.



The temperature in Bangkok was so high and the heat was so strong that going into a mall (air conditioning) wasn't a bad idea. We jumped in a public bus that crossed Chinatown before getting us to Siam Square, the area with all the designer and brand-label shops. All the western trendy stores are here, Benneton, Quicksilver, Chaps, Esprit, Lacoste, Timberland, Calvin Klein, Yves Saint Laurent, Armani, you name it, they have.
One weird thing is that even though the market is Thai the models in the ads are all white European-looking people.

From Siam Discovery Center we crossed the street and went to the cheaper and bigger MBK; here is where the sales are really happening. The building is huge and you can walk for hours from store to store.

When we got tired of walking we decided to go for a movie. Although Angie wasn't really excited about it, I really wanted to see how Anakin turned into Darth Vader and we watched the last of the Star Wars in Bangkok. . Angie slept almost the whole movie :D Before the movie everybody had to pay respect to the king and stand up during a short movie about him.

After the movie, it was already night and we headed back to Khao San Rd.