Angkor Wat

Well, here we are. Definitely far from home. Angkor Wat is THE temple in Cambodia, the most well made and most famous. It is a Hindu temple, but many gods crossover into Buddhism and are still worshipped today. Here's Vishnu, much restored and in modern garb--one of the first things most people see past the moat.

A rare photo at a usually hectic entrance

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The temple and a reservoir still used today.

One of many great things about Angkor Wat is the huge reliefs telling the epic battle in the Ramayana of demons vs. monkeys. The monkeys are obviously winning. I had to enhance the photos like crazy to see the reliefs, the rock is very flat. Here's my favorite, Garuda taking out 4 horsed riders at once and Hanuman beating up two lions.

Another wall of reliefs, new to me, showed various levels of heaven and hell. This guy had it the worst, only an adulterer. He's literally getting nailed.

Tomb Raider

Cambodia has temples like New York has mailboxes. They are pretty hard to keep track of, especially since the Khmer keep switching between Hinduism and Buddhism. Angkor Wat is the most famous and well built temple, so it is used as a sort of focal point. I don't even remember the name of this temple (feel free to google it), so I call it Tomb Raider like most tourists because it was a setting for the movie. It's pre Angkorian and pretty small, but has huge character thanks to the fig trees growing around it, sometimes pulling it apart and sometimes holding it together. Like other Buddhist temples, it was defaced by a late king who converted Cambodia back to Hinduism. He only ruled for 5 years, but long enough to carve out every Buddha on every temple and put a third eye of Shiva (not even a very pretty eye) on the large faces. The temple walls had plates like a Stegasaurus all along the top, thousands and thousands of them, with a little seated Buddha, now all gone. Still, I feel that only adds to the history of the place, and this is one of my favorite temples.

You can see the third eye carved in this temple entrance.

Vacation within a vacation (Part 1)

So I'm living in a prolonged vacation in Vietnam. Where do I go for vacation?

Thailand.

Right off the plane, the weary expat is thrust into temptation. I hadn't been exposed to old animal fat, oversized pretzels and congealed dough for over a year. But, not being into that sort of thing anyway, we pushed on to Phuket.

Phuket can be appreciated before you even land. It is a karst landscape, not unlike Ha Long Bay but way more spoiled, with tiny islands and inviting crescents of tiny beaches.

7-elevens dominate the market infrastructure. Outside of the US they are vital resources--not just for trusted gooey snacks but also for phone cards, information, drug and hygiene supplies. Elsewhere we are left to haggle, and Phuket is not generous with tourists.

Phuket is a fairly large island topped by "The Big Buddha." It's a Buddha and it's very big. Anyhoo...

We were extremely fortunate to stay at Mom Tri's Boathouse. It has an excellent restaurant and is in a busy part of town, yet faces its own beach.

Thai food is better in Thailand. Thankfully, it is possible to avoid too much spice. Here we gorge on perfect Tom Yum soup and an incredible pepper-fried soft-shelled crab, served by one of many lady-boys.

Our trip was dominated by a day-long island-hopping tour on a fairly frightening and loud speedboat. The scenery is spectacular and the snorkeling is pretty decent. But it took sometimes around an hour between islands, and once we get there there's not much to do and no escape from the pummeling sunshine. We can take pictures of pet iguanas for a fee--even sitting under an umbrella will incur a charge. Shortly after this picture I got the camera wet, which really put a drain on the trip. Not shown is the beach famous for the movie "The Beach," which was nice but overcrowded, totally without shade and the mountains were reverberating with engine roar.

As a mixed blessing, our room was upgraded to a sumptuous and huge villa with private swimming pool. The day tour gave us no time to enjoy it, and the next morning we were off to Bangkok.

After Phuket, Bangkok was a shopper's paradise. A hot that cost us $8 in Phuket (the same as a day's motorbike rental) cost only $2.50 in Bangkok, and shirts cost from $1 to $3 dollars. A new camera cost about the same as in the US, which would cost more in Vietnam.

Our view from the new and ultra-modern Novotel. Bangkok is a huge, not-so-attractive sprawl with glassy skyscrapers shadowing rows of slums. The train system was extremely appreciated. Walking is not easy along traffic-dominated streets, but you can easily walk under the raised trail platform.

The King is everywhere, but he's always caught in the middle of a candid pose.

Shrines are also everywhere, sometimes surrounded with a mini-carnaval for tourists. There are cages crammed with munias that you can release for a donation, a sight that makes me think very non-buddhist thoughts about the captor.

The street food is interesting, but we didn't try any. This street smelled like a pig toilet, so we weren't very hungry.

Green spaces are hard to find, but I made a journey to a decent sized park (actually an overgrown golf course). After the commute, I had about 40 minutes of birdwatching--not ideal for any trip, but I got a few new common birds. I'd read about these contraptions in the inflight magazine. They are little waterwheels that oxygenate the water, but the magazine used the word "King" in every sentence, even credited him for designing the prototype.

Time for dipping our toe in an extremely modern pool on the 9th floor, then we're rushed back home. It was a time when we really, really needed to relax. We didn't get to to that at all--not a well planned trip. Oh well, we'll have to go back.

One more time in Hoi An

Too much working--time for a break. Off we go to Hoi An.

There are tons of classy resorts near Hoi An (and we stayed in the best one), but I must recommend the Hoi An Hotel. The rooms are comfy, the grounds are beautiful, and it is in the heart of Hoi An. Save yourself the hassle of scheduled shuttle buses.

The lights of Hoi An seen from the uneventful An Hoi Islet.

Hoi An is all about silk. Here is one of many silk-lantern shops. Don't you want to take home a few dozen?

Speaking of silk, here we are at the huge silk emporium Yali. They give a nice silk-weaving demonstration and have a mini museum of tribal clothing. Jenny's scarf wasn't bought here, we got it at a steal from a local shop. Of course, I hid behind the corner until the price was settled on. Wow, you should see the shopkeeper's face when a foreigner walks in and pays the tiny local fee.


Very hard to resist the urge to collect absolutely everything. Somehow we managed, though I still regret it.

We had the most amazing dinner at Morning Glory. Jenny's travel perks were enjoyed even here, and we got a 6 mini-course dinner including some damn good banh xeo.

Picture ds..

But beat it we did! Across the street we got a lovely passion yogurt and chocolate mousse cake for much less ($1 as opposed to $2). I think Tam Tam was the place.So cute I almost risked serious illness to play with it. Strange about the tail--I think Vietnamese do this for fashion purposes.

There are many temples in Hoi An that squeeze money out of foreigners. You have to buy tickets, and like everything else in Hoi An, tourists pay more than double.

A little bansai sculpture at the temple. David tricked me into thinking this was shot from the plane :)

Having lunch with Vinh, who was David's favorite guide last trip.

Pretending to be a total weakling. Could have pulled this thing all over town if it wasn't nailed to the ground.
I ate the unborn duck and David said "This is Jenny, love of my life, eating an unborn chicken. And with every sign of enjoyment too".


The beautiful views from Cam Nam bridge. Locals offer boat rides here. Next time.

A trip to Randy's Book Exchange in Cam Nam Island is a must.

The Japanese Bridge. It is a functional temple, and a huge tourist spot--you need a ticket to climb on, or just wait until a crowd of people get on.

There are plenty of centuries-old houses that are now museums. They are pretty neat to visit. You can usually see the waterline--Hoi An floods up to a meter or more about once a month.

Time for some fresh squid on the way to Da Nang. Those are basket boats, which I haven't tried yet. Doesn't sound like a great idea to me, given the many options for building boats.

Going home too soon! Or are we? Hoi An is perhaps the most beautiful little city in Vietnam. However, I find a couple of days is quite enough as it is shamefully over-touristed--as I said, seeing white folk spoils my adventure, and I haven't seen as many white folk in NYC. You can't go for a nice quiet stroll without someone calling and pleading and practically dragging you by your sleeves for you to buy something, and if you fall for it you will pay well over half price for the "Tourist Tax." And there are far too many cyclos and xe om's following close on your heels. What is neat is there are many more bicycles and electric bikes than anywhere else and there are streets where motorcycles are banned.