Vietnam and Cambodia

After quite a long delay, here is a short report concerning my Christmas trip to Vietnam and Cambodia in South-East Asia. This trip was somewhat different from my usual roadtrips in that it is not possible to rent any car in Vietnam. And I guess this is the best thing that could ever happen since driving there is similar to playing the Russian Roulette: from fanatic drivers, to frantic tidal-waves of bikers there is no way to return a car in the same state it was let-go. So I changed and travelled aboard minibus and trains. And honestly the forty five hour train journey from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) was a well worth adventure in itself.

It took about twenty five hours to reach Hanoi from Atlanta with a stop in Seoul in South Korea. That includes my longest flight ever: Atlanta to Seoul was an impressive fifteen hours nonstop leg aboard a Korean Air Boeing 747-400. But I have to praise Korean Air for providing a spotless aircraft, a dedicated cabin crew, some quality inflight services and last bit not least a lot of legroom. Korean Air is definitely not in the same league as Delta Airlines, American Airlines, Air France and the likes... The next leg was aboard an intra-asian configured Airbus A330-300 and that was quite pleasant too.

Once in Vietnam, I travelled for a couple of days around Hanoi before heading South to Hue and Ho Chi Minh City also known as Saigon. After spending a few days in Ho Chi Minh City, I travelled due-West to reach Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia. I later returned to Ho Chi Minh City where I boarded my flights back to Tokyo and Atlanta.

The 45-hour train journey from Hanoi to Saigon was ridiculously insane but awesome nonetheless...

While landing in Hanoi and despite having a window seat, I was puzzled by the lack of lights outside. It was about midnight and we were literrally rolling on the runway before I could see any light outside. I was wondering: what the heck, I thought they had electricity over there... Soon enough I realized that during the Winter season, the Northern Part of Vietnam is swamped in a dense haze layer that precludes any visibility over a few miles and I guess this is what prevented us from seing any form of human activity around the city during the approach.

The next day I was awaken to the sounds of busy streets where honking is just a language amongst others. I initially headed towards the monumental Mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. Ho Chi Minh and the VietMinh first booted the French out of Vietnam in 1954 before engaging against South Vietnam and their American allies. So as could be expected in a Socialist Republic, there was a lot of propaganda about how oppresive and treacherous the Colonialists and Imperialists were and how the local nationalists successfully kicked them out....

The Mausoleum with the exposed corpse of Ho Chi Minh

We then proceeded to the Hanoi Hilton, the other name given by Americans to the Hoa Lo prison that was initially built by the French at the end of the nineteenth century. Once again we were greeted with a profusion of state propaganda explaining with all kind of pictures and details how the prison was atrocious and how the jail-keepers were brutal while under the rule of the French (there is even a guillotine exposed). Of course they also explain how all this changed and how the jail transformed itself into a pleasant place for happy and well-treated American prisoner of war. As a trophy, there even exhibit the uniform of Senator John Mac Cain who spent quite a few years over there as POW. And let me add that surprisingly he seems to have very different memories concerning the quality of his stay at the Hanoi Hilton...

Anyway, the next day we headed to the countryside and more precisely to Halong Bay, a World Heritage site that features thousands of limestone karsts and isles of various sizes and shapes. In the middle of these isles and far away from the continental coast, several floating fishermen villages may be found featuring schools, markets....

Early sunrise over some limestone formations in Halong Bay

Once I returned to Hanoi, I headed to the train station for one of the most exhilariting moment of the trip: the rail journey from Hanoi to the city of Hue approximately in the middle of Vietnam. Hue is famous for its Forbidden City which used to be the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty until 1945. It is well-known for its monuments and architecture but unfortunately the historic city has been heavily damaged by American bombings and the Forbiden Citadel is in the process of being reconstructed.

The Citadel of Hue with yet another picture of the national hero...

During the afternoon I set up for a little cruise on the Perfume River to discover a bridge made by French engineer Gustave Eiffel, the Thien Mu Pagoda and the Minh Mang mausoleum. Later in the day I went for a little shopping exploration at the local market and I got treated with all kind of colorful fruits, meats, fish and other interesting artifacts. And because life is insanely cheap, I got into a serious shopping frenzy...

The next day, I headed towards the railway station to complete the second part of the journey that would lead me to Saigon. This part of the journey was much more interesting with the train crawling along the coast and on the slopes of mountains. I finally reached some lowlands filled with rice fields which indicated that I was now getting close to the Mekong River delta.

Winding tracks squeezed between the China Sea and the mountains

Reaching Saigon late into the night or early in the morning shall I say, I headed to the city center to visit a few monuments including the Post, the Opera and the Cathedral all of them designed by the French. Next I headed to the Chinese part of town towards the infamous Cho Lon district in order to visit the Thien Hau temple and to take a tour of the marketplace. Once again, a lot of interesting fruits including dragonfruits, mangoes, pineapples, pomelos, lychees, longans, durians, jackfruits, coconuts, papayas, mangosteens, rambutans, guavas and watermelons.

The Opera of Saigon at night is awesome

During the following days, I continue my exploration of the Mekong River delta going to My Tho, Can Tho, Long Xuyen and Chau Doc. During this time, I visited several floating markets and a stork wildlife reserve. From Chau Doc, I took the speed-boat to Cambodia sailing up the Mekong River.


Upon entering the Kingdom of Cambodia, it is obvious that this little country is completely different. Their political system is no longer socialist and the differences between the poors and the wealthy are outstanding.

It also seems that the people are less active in the fields and this is because unlike Vietnam, Cambodia has not set up an irrigation system and therefore nothing happens during the dry months of the year.

The city of Phnom Penh is also very different and displays a Khmer architecture that is similar to the one found in Thailand. The Royal Palace is absolutely gorgeous with its yellow tiles and golden roof.

Pointy architecture...

After a short stay in Phnom Penh, a city that seems to attract a lot of Westerners, I headed North West to Siem Reap for some more jungle adventures. The main attraction there is the city of Angkor. Angkor is the name of the ancient capital city of the Khmer Empire that flourished from approximately the ninth century - when Jayavarman II declared himself the Universal Monarch - to the fifteen century when Thai invaders sacked the Khmer capital. The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmlands to the north of the Tonle Sap lake. It is believed that Angkor had been the largest pre-industrial city in the world sprawling over three thousand square kilometers and supporting over one million inhabitants. Ouch!

Angkor Wat during a grey, hot, humid and sticky afternoon

There are over one thousand temples in the Angkor area, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubbles scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat said to be the world's largest religious monument.

The most famous archeological ruins include Angkor Thom (Bayon being the most prominent temple of this site), Ta Prohm, Kbal Spean (Valley of 1000 Lingas), Angkor Wat, Phnom Bakheng, Ta Som, Preah Khan...

I truly believe a visitor could spend a whole week there without ever visiting the same temple twice. There is so much to see that staying more than initially planned is tempting.

Buddha is overseing the Eastern gopura of Ta Som

Another gem and my personnal favorite is the temple of Ta Prohm. Ta Prohm was founded by king Jayavarman VII as a monastery and a university in the thirteen century. Unlike most temples at Angkor, Ta Prohm has been left in the condition it was found and the inter mixing of ruins and surrounding silk-cotton and strangler fig trees is absolutely gorgeous. In fact it is even a little bit more than that: the trees are actually growing out of the ruins and this gives a very atmospheric landscape which will leave the visitor speechless.

Silk Cotton trees and ruins seem to cohabit to please the eyes of puzzled visitors

In Ta Prohm, nature and man-made ruins seem to provide a perfect aesthetical combination that is seldom matched. Such a picturesque landscape was bound to be used for movies... did I say....Tomb Raider... After spending a couple of days deep in the Cambodian jungle, I had to call it off and I took the plane to return to Ho Chi Minh City and enjoy a few days on the beach of Mui Ne.

Mui Ne is one of the few resort station that Vietnam offers.

There are very few Westerners there since Vietnam is not a very popular destination for Australian tourists. And I like the way it is: very genuine and different from the usual tourist traps.

The beach of Mui Ne

After spending two days relaxing on the beach of Mui Ne, I was ready to go back to Ho Chi Minh City and visit a few other landmarks such as the Cu Chi tunnels. The tunnels at Cu Chi are a symbol of the Vietnamese resistance to the American imperialism. Communist fighters would hide themselves in these tunnels during the day and sneak out at night to harass American forces.

And that's about it concerning the adventure in Indochina. I took a Boeing 767 flight to Tokyo where I spent a whole day and then caught another flight headed to Atlanta. After flying with some of the best airlines in the world (Korean Air, Japan Airlines) and getting accustomed to their top-notch customer-services, I was once more appaled by the low level of services offered aboard american airlines...

I hope you enjoy the trip report and as usual a short movie full of flavors from Indochina is available here. Enjoy!