Mekong River Day 7 (Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam): The Last Day

The last day of any trip is always a bittersweet one. 

We only had one excursion to a local garden and a candy factory today. We took a smaller boat down the most scenic route of this trip, hiked through a village out to a boat dock, got onto a canoe headed out to a local garden. This garden grew a wide variety of fruits and hosted a gift shop with traditional Vietnamese clothes, alligator and snake skin goods. The candy factory was really interesting. We were shown how a fresh coconut was turned into a candy and sampled a few. The workers there were extremely fast!

This trip has been amazing! I’ve learned more about Vietnamese and Cambodian culture than I ever thought I would—Their religion, their history and the way they lived. The people we traveled with have also been phenomenal which makes traveling half way around the world so much more enjoyable. Meeting new people is always one of the highlights of my travels.

Here’s to many more!

Until my next adventure, Cheers!

Mekong River Day 6 (Long Khanh A): A Textile Workshop, A Catholic Church and A Couple of Craftsmen

Today we went to a textile workshop, explored a village by motor cart, went to a Vietnamese catholic church, visited a family that makes traditional conical hats and another family that makes boats.

On our first excursion this morning we headed out on those smaller river boats and took a motor cart out to a textile workshop. The motor carts we took were carts pulled by small motorcycles. Each cart accommodated up to 6 people. I don’t know how such a small motorcycle can pull so much weight but we managed to get where we need to go with out any major problems. The architecture in the village we drove through had similar layouts to the ones in Cambodia but the houses were mostly more stone, marble and cement as opposed to wood. The textile workshop was a small operation that made scarves, bags, hats and other cloth products to sell to a distributor. They had 6 automatic looms that produce 20 times more fabric than a manual loom. They kept a manual loom just to show curious visitors but it wasn’t working today.

The Cu Lao Gieng church was the first Catholic church we’ve seen the whole trip. Built in 1879 This church is the oldest church in the southern region of Vietnam and the final resting place of a French priest, Gazignol.

After lunch we headed back out to the village to visit a family that makes conical hats, Non La. This family makes most of their money farming but they sell hats for extra income. Each hat is made with palm leaves fastened to 16 bamboo rings for structural rigidity.

Before we headed back to the boat, we visited another family that made boats. The craftsman showed us how he shaped and treated the wood to make a 4 person vessel. He was very enthusiastic and was more than happy to show us how he worked.

When we got back, we attended the nightly cocktail hour, had dinner and retired for the night

This trip is going by pretty quickly

Mekong River Day 5 (Chau Doc, Vietnam) “GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM!”

Today was our first day in Vietnam. We went to a very crowded wet market, took a trip down the backwaters, went to a temple and a supermarket.

Our first excursion was a city hike out to the local wet market. A wet market is a street market that sells mostly produce, meat and some cooked food. On our way there we passed some interesting shops and vendors. This market was way more crowded than the other ones we went to. Not only were the aisles narrower we had to share the space with bikes, mopeds, motorcycles and scooters. Yeah! People somehow drive their motorized vehicles through there. It was absolutely phenomenal. We were shuffled through the market at a pretty quick pace so we wouldn’t get in anybody’s way. While shuffling our guide was telling us about some of the produce that we don’t normally see in the US. It was hard to keep up with all the information while trying to navigate through the busy aisles. In my street market experience, you’re always going to be in someone’s way, there’s no avoiding it, especially in a space that crowded.

On the next excursion, we took a boat ride out past the fish farms in the backwaters of the Mekong River, to the temple of Ba Chua Xu near the bottom of Sam Mountain. Ba Chua Xu is a powerful protector and a supporter. She is known to give assistance freely but it is extremely important that she is repaid for her assistance and the promises that are made to her are kept. She is not forgiving and there are horror stories about those who have tried to swindle her.

Before heading back, we stopped by a supermarket but it was just like ours back home so there isn’t really much to write about on that.  

We attended cocktail hour, ate dinner and headed to bed when we got back.

Today felt exhausting

Mekong River Day 4 (Phnom Penh, Cambodia): The Palace, An Interesting Museum and A Street Market

Today we’re back where we started in Phnom Penh. We visited the Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda and the National Museum. We also made our way to another street market. Today was a pretty short day. We weren’t out and about nearly as long as we normally are.

We traveled to the Royal Palace by cyclo this morning. A cyclo is like a rickshaw pushed by a bike. I’m not quite sure how to describe it so you might have to google that one. The first place we went to at the Royal Palace was the throne room. This room was mostly used by the royal officials to conduct business but now it’s used for ceremonies and celebrations. We weren't allowed in but we were able to peek inside the open windows. We're not important enough to get invited in. The next building we went to on the property is the Silver Pagoda. This Pagoda holds most of Cambodia’s national treasures. The floor of this pagoda is made of silver. I’m not sure why that is but there has to be some rhyme or reason to it. The most notable treasures are the Maitreya Buddha and the Emerald Buddha. The Maitreya Buddha was constructed as the future Buddha and nobody knows when this Buddha will arrive. Cambodia’s national museum is the largest in Cambodia and we wouldn’t have had time to go through it all in the time allotted so our guide showed us the most significant exhibits. This place didn’t really feel like a museum. There weren’t any barriers between us and the artifacts or plaques with descriptions of any of the items. The artifacts didn’t seem to be organized in any way either. They were just placed on displays. Most of the artifacts on display were also replicas. They kept the originals locked up, away from the museum guests. I really liked the gorgeous pond in the center. In conclusion, the museum simply seemed like a collection of really cool stuff.

After our morning excursion we had time to explore the city on our own so we decided to go to the Central Market. The way this market is set up makes it seem really big but it isn’t. There are so many twists and turns that it was easy to end up in places you've already explored. It was similar to the night market we went to last night but this was much more a market than a social event. All of the vendors seemed to have the same merchandise so once you’ve found something you like you can try to use that to your advantage and shop for that item at the other vendor’s stalls and negotiate to get the best price.

When we got back a group of kids for a local orphanage performed a traditional Cambodian dance for us, we were briefed on tomorrow’s activities and went to bed. The kids weren’t half bad!

This blog entry seems pretty long for a short day

  

Mekong River Day 3 (Kampong Tralach, Cambodia): An Entrepreneur, Killing Fields, A Genocide Museum and the Most Interesting Night Market That You'll Ever Read About

Today we took an ox powered wagon up to a village, visited a silversmith’s workshop, went to a genocide museum and an amazing night market.

On Our first excursion we took an ox pulled wagon out to a village to meet a family that runs a lot of the businesses in the area. They even own the ox’s that pulled us up there. Aside from the ox cart business they own 2 houses and 5 cattle, which seems to mean that they’re pretty successful. From the village we took a buss to a silversmith’s shop in a small rural business district. This business seemed to be family run too. Everything looked beautiful but it was very hard to distinguish which of the pieces were silver and which were silver plated.

After lunch we headed out to the Killing Fields and the Genoside museum back at Phnom Phen. The Choeung Ek Killing Fields is where the victims and political prisoners of the Khmer Rouge were executed. Mass graves have been excavated and about 9 thousand bodies were found. The center piece of the site is a Buddhist Stupa, a memorial built by the Municipality of Phnom Penh where the skulls of the victims can be seen behind acrylic glass. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum was a secondary school that was converted into Security Prison 21 (S-21) by the Khmer Rouge. It is unknown how many people were held at this detention center but the facility can accommodate 1,500 prisoners at one time. The prison was captured by the Vietnamese army and reopened as a museum by People's Republic of Kampuchea.

If you’re only going to read one thing about my time here in Cambodia this next paragraph should be it!

The highlight of my day was the night market down the street from our dock. It was a little after my bed time but we decided to go to the local night market after dinner and it was an absolute blast. The market itself wasn’t that big but the aisles were narrow and packed corner to corner with merchandise. Half of the market was a food court that was set up like a food truck event. The food looked amazing! There was a giant stage in the middle of the market where people performed karaoke. Now this wasn’t your typical karaoke at your local dive bar but a full professional grade production with lights and equipment to match. I was impressed. This isn’t just a night market but a social event that both locals and tourist go to! They take karaoke seriously around here.

Today was a rollercoaster that I was more than happy to be on

Mekong River Day 2 (Angkor Ban, Cambodia): A Temple, A Village and A School

Today we hiked up to a temple in Angkor Ban, Wat Hanchey, explored a small village and attended the school at the village.

Our hike up to Wat Hanchey was very scenic. There were gorgeous hills decorated with traditional structures and bridges. When we got to the top, we participated in a traditional Buddhist blessing and explored the grounds around it. There were a lot of food venders up there. Apparently, it’s a very common place for locals to come and picnic. We learned that there is a separate school system for monks in Cambodia. They have to learn the same subjects everyone else does in addition to Buddhist scriptures and customs. A lot of natives that become successful in life credit their success to the community and give back by building dormitories, schools or donating in one way or another.

After we got back, we had some downtime and headed out to a rural village and their school. We conversed with the students one on one and talked about their school work for a little while. Then, they introduced themselves and we introduced ourselves in front of the class. They haven’t learned much English yet but they were able to ask and respond to simple questions. They were able to tell us how old they were, where they were from, what their favorite color was and what they wanted to be when they grew up. Most of the questions that they asked us was about our occupations, where we were from, our family members and what our favorite color was. Most of the students were between the ages of 10 and 15.

When we got back, we attended cocktail hour and got briefed on our activities for tomorrow, had dinner and headed to bed.

Today was exhausting!

Mekong River Day 1 (Phnom Penh, Cambodia): We’re Here!

Today we started our journey along the Mekong River.

Our travel day was pretty ordinary. The first leg of our trip was San Francisco, the next was to Taipei then we finally arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

We were the first ones on the ship so we had the ship to ourselves for a few hours. The plane the other passengers were on was delayed and they won’t be in until early evening. We later encountered a couple of other passengers that had arrived last night. They had already been around the area a few times.

The ship we’re on is a very small river boat. There are only 18 rooms! Word has it that there’s only 26 people traveling with us on this trip.

We boarded the boat, unpacked, ate lunch and headed out to explore the port. Most of the businesses here are restaurants, gift shops, corner stores and tours. We didn’t spend much time out and about because it started raining. So it was back to the ship for us.

We had some downtime because our little mini adventure was short and the rest of our tour group’s flight was delayed so we explored our little ship and lounged around for a bit. When the rest of us finally arrived our tour director briefed us on upcoming activities, we had dinner and then it was off to bed.

I’m liking how easy and laid back this trip is so far.