week eleven

it's gorgeous day in danang as we wait for our train to arrive this evening... (new photos up)


Nov 12th.

make our way in the afternoon to a famous park containing hundreds of hindu and buddhist statues. the most amazing piece is a giant sphere topped by a bodhi tree. and containing 3 levels within, each with hundreads of statues inside. the lowest level seems to depict hell, with statues impaled, hung and being eaten by others.

wandering around we're approached by a monk who speaks some english and he's happy to show us around and provide the mythical context of the art. his name is bang (pronounced bong) and he invites us to his monastery to continue our conversation and practice his english.

when we arrive after dinner, he is waiting for us and takes us into his quarters which he shares with one other young monk. there is a desk and one chair with a tiny wood frame bed. there is no indication of his roommate apart from a small stack of linens as he sleeps on the floor, and uses the same desk. bang's belongings are stored in a row of buckets along the wall and he has a stack of books on english grammar and translation dictionaries -- he wants to teach english when he graduates university and is clearly passionate about it.

we're joined later by 2 other monks who spotted us through a crack in the door and at 10pm we say a farewell as the monks all awake at 4am and we didn't want to overstay our welcome. we left with smiles on our faces and agreed it was a milestone evening for the trip.


Nov 13th.

having decided to change our route to head to cambodia on the chance of catching a wedding we'd been invited to in siem reap, we fly from vientiane to phnom penh, the capitol of cambodia.

we took a luxurious vehicle with four wheels that was labelled "taxi" to our guesthouse.. something we hadn't seen since malaysia and briefly in bangkok. our room had cable tv and the restaurant attached delivered us dinner in our room while we watched the movie/discovery channel.


Nov 14th.

the national museum of cambodia, much like that of laos, was poorly organized and lacked any comprehensive documentation. many of their relics were defaced with numbers, whether painted or engraved for indexing. and most surprisingly, there was no recent history included at all (from the past 2 centuries).

from there we head to the chillingly dubbed "killing fields of choeng ek. a disturbing tour explained to us the executions and mass graves found at the site. an estimated 20 thousand people had been subject to brutal murders with axes and bamboo stalks while babies were bashed against one huge tree trunk that was marked to that effect. this was all done by the hands of the "ultra communist" khmer rouge soldiers in the mid 1970s. it was uplifting however, that the area seemed flooded with butterflys.

at the internet cafe, i become engrossed with technical difficulties and leave my camera unattended for 20 minutes on one of the desks and i'll never see it again. at least 50 pictures lost.. mainly nisha restaurant, buddha park, and the killing fields of the same day.

on our way home we got totally lost, both jumped on the back of a motorbike with a man who didn't speak a word of english and somehow arrived back at the hostel after a thorough tour of the rest of the city.


Nov 15th.

determined to move on to siem reap, we visit a detention camp in the morning and plan to take a bus in the afternoon.

formerly a high school, the site bears a chilling account of what horrible acts we are capable of inflicting. at tuol sleng, under the khmer rouge, tens of thousands of cambodians were interrogated, abused, raped and tortured until they provided all information about their lives as well as false testimony against themselves. afterward, they and their entire families were sent to be executed at killing fields.

not wanting to visit angkor without a camera, i use an hour before our bus trying to find something suitable. as if a gift from buddha or vishnu, i find the exact same model i lost, and switch from black to silver for the cost of a new camera. c'est la vie.

as i pay, i realize i still have our room key that danielle must have needed to check out of our room. the clock was ticking on our bus and i frantically find a motorbike back to the hostel to find danielle waiting. our room had no spare key and she'd been out looking for me in the market, but there was no time for talk and we arrived back at the bus station by moto right on time to sit on the bus and wait as it departed 30 minutes late.


Nov 16th.

at 4:50am we snap to and toss ourselves out of the room. why? to get to ankor wat for the highly recommended sunrise. our tour involved the largest sites of the ancient city of angkor including the temple (wat), the royal palace (in angkor thom), the university (preah khan) and a few others.

the stone structures are enormous and intricate, but are only a shadow of their former glory. the restoration of some parts gives an impression of the majesty in the detailed stonework. i make immediate use of my new/familiar camera and in 5 hours, i'm already running on low battery.


Nov 17th.

not having heard from the friends we made in luang prabang about where we could find their wedding, we decide to leave the very expensive, posh city of siem reap in favour of extending our time in vietnam to 2 weeks. a bus takes us back to phnom penh and we stay the night to catch the morning bus to ho chi minh city (saigon).

on our way to phnom penh, our in-transit entertainment is a music video dvd featuring cambodian(?) r&b and hip hop. a local man on the bus offers us fried frogs and we chow them down like troopers.. when i declined on seconds, danielle picked up the slack and ate another.


Nov 18th.

a long, but comfortable bus ride sees us into HCMC by 3pm. we are quickly snagged by a hotel pusher and wisked into the backalleys between the streets. the narrow passage is lined with people cooking, lounging, gabbing... doors to the street are wide open and provide glances of the male domain either lying on the floor, hammock or couch, invariably watching football (soccer to you).

for just over $7/night, we take a gorgeous room with 2 large beds and french doors opening to a balcony overlooking the alleyway with a view of the sunset. we test out the local beer with dinner and call it a night.