wishafish

Gallery: Combodia/Vietnam

wishafish — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 14:11:00 GMT

pics

One last thing

wishafish — Thu, 9 Mar 2006 13:53:00 GMT

Before I left for this trip, a lot of people asked me if I was adopting a baby, and I said "No, of course not". But as we were leaving the last stall in the market this morning I saw the most beautiful baby, and I bought it. It was so cute, I got one for all my friends. They will be a handful to get home, and might pose a problem in customs, but I hope you will all enjoy them!

Last day

wishafish — Thu, 9 Mar 2006 12:28:00 GMT

Today's our last day here. The car comes for us at 1pm but we have to check out of our hotel by noon. That will be interesting. I have visions of sitting on the street and beating off the street venders with a stick. What we'll probably do is have lunch in the hotel and pile our bags and packages all around us.

Deb and I have been up since around 4am. I can't get used to the time difference, but early is better here. Everyone starts going to work very early and comes home by 1pm for lunch, then back to work by 3, if they go back at all. It's dead inthe shop in the afternoon due to the heat, but the mornings and the evenings are very busy! The streets are very full up till midnight.

Well, off to Taipei and then on to LA!

Vietnam tour

wishafish — Wed, 8 Mar 2006 19:47:00 GMT

Today was our first full day in Vietnam. We had arranged a half day city tour, and our guides name was Nguy (pronounced Gee), but he said to call him Willie. He was an interpreter for the American soldiers during the Vietnam war and that's what the soldiers called him.

Our hotel is right on the Saigon River in a very beautiful district. It's very safe here and it has lots of shopping nearby. Willie picked us up at 8am and took us to the Chinese market in the Chinese section of town. It's a wholesale market. Everything we're going to see in the stores later this year, I saw today. It was very cheap but we didn't shop much because we were off to...

The War Remenant Museum. It's basically a big propoganda museum set up after the fall of Saigon by the communists, giving the communinst side of the Vietnam war. Since then, it has been edited to make it a little more friendly to the American tourists. It was very moving. The war is still very much a part of the peoples lives here, and everywhere you look, you are reminded of it. We couldn't stay long, though, because we were going next to ....

The Reunification Palace. This used to be the home of the president of Vietnam but the capitol was moved someplace else further south (I don't remember where- it will come to me later). Lots of history and rooms with furniture(yawn). By now it was 600 degrees outside and I was having a hard time caring. And then we got to go to the car with the wonderful air conditioning and our warm bottles of water, and went to the ....

Handicapped Handcrafts Market. It's a local craft marketplace where people injured by the war practice local crafts. Our course, we were all feeling guilty about the war, so we bought lots of stuff. Some of it is quite extrordinary, and some of it was just stuff. They have no air conditioning there, either, and I was ready to go back to the hotel, but wait, there's more....

Next stop, the Ben Thanh Market. Much more open than the Russian Market in Phnom Pehn, but still, it's not air conditioned and it's almost 1pm. My clothes were sticking to me by now, but we kept crawling through markets, with Willie showing us great places to eat that I couldn't find on my own if my life depended on it, and great bargains. If you wanted it, it was there. From fine silk and wedding dresses to ready made clothes to dried shark fins, loose gems, "Rolex" watches, snake wine. Whatever you wanted. I bought some snake wine, because I didn't think anyone would believe me when I told them about it. It's Vietnamese viagra. I hope I can get it through customs.

Finally back to the hotel, where we peeled off our wet, stinky clothes and burned them. No not really. I rolled mine in a ball and put it into my stinky suitcase. We leave tomorrow and will probably stroll the streets this evening after it's cooler, and look in shop windows. I hope we can find a restaurant where I know what I'm ordering. The food is great, but I'm ready for macaroni and cheese. Or meatloaf. Or mashed potatoes. Anything but rice!

On to Vietnam

wishafish — Wed, 8 Mar 2006 02:06:00 GMT

We left Cambodia early this morning. Pot and Tay met us at the hotel and drove us to the airport. About halfway there, I realized that I had left my camera at the hotel. I was just sick over it, but we called Mandy from the car and she and Pot both called the hotel trying to locate it. We thought that she could Fedex the camera to me in the US when it was found. It was all I could do not to cry over losing all those pictures, and a camera that I can't afford to replace. I left money with Pot and my address and expected to never see the camera again. As we were waiting to board our plane, an airport official came over and asked if the camera he had in his hands was mine. Pot had raced back to the hotel and gotten my camera in time to make our flight, then had used the money I had left for Fedex to bribe someone into getting the camera to me!I was so happy to see the camera again!

The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. Vietnam customs was very easy- they didn't even look at our bags. Our guide met us outside of customs and took us to the nicest hotel I have ever been in. It's called the Renaissance, and it's right on the river. The view from our window looks like a postcard. I took lots of pictures- because I have my camera.

This evening we went on a dinner cruise up the river. Lots of traditional Vietnamese food and music. Well, some of the music was traditional Vietnamese, and some was what they thought we wanted to hear. "Rhinestone Cowboy" is horrible in any language! There were a lot of Australians on the cruise, who were having a very good time.

Tomorrow we're off on a half day city tour, but all I want to see is the market. Lots of gifts to bring back!

Seeing Hands

wishafish — Sun, 5 Mar 2006 20:49:00 GMT

Deb and I went over to the Seeing Hand for our massages after lunch. My masseuse was named Sotey. I was curious as to why he was blind but I didn't know if it was polite to ask. The place doesn't look like much from the outside, and didn't look much better inside. The front entrance was open to the street. It looked like a concrete room with a desk and two plastic chairs. An old gramdma lady told us to sit down so we could wait our turn. While we were waiting an Australian came in for his massage. He was the most peculiar looking man, with tattoos all up and down his legs. When it was our turn we were shown into a larger room, given a pair of rather too large pajamas, and told to change behind curtains. There were four tables in the room where other people were currently getting massages. When a table became free, our masseuse had us lie down.

Up to this point I wasn't very impressed. The one thing it had in it's favor was the massage room was air conditioned. I've never had a massage before, so I don't have anything to compare it to, but this massage felt wonderful. I didn't know how stiff and sore I was from the flight until I wasn't sore anymore. I would recommend this place to anyone!

After our massage we took a ride in a little motorcyle cab. The motorcyle pulls this little wagon with seats in it. Ours was covered so we were in the shade and with the breeze from the ride it was very refreshing. We went to the Center for Disable Persons, which was open even though it is Sunday. It was a little frightening riding in the motocab, as there don't seem to be any traffic rules. Mostly, everyone keeps to one side or the other on the road, but every now and then someone will just drive the wrong way. There are lanes painted on the road, but everyone treats them as a suggestion, instead of a rule. They just go where they want to without any regard for traffic rules. Our driver seemed very concerned that we keep our cameras out of sight and hand onto our purses, as people will just grab them away from you. It was probably a very stupid thing to do, riding the motocab, but it was fun!

I'm very tired but having a wonderful time.

The Russian Market

wishafish — Sun, 5 Mar 2006 16:21:00 GMT

We went to the Russian Market this morning. It's dark and very hot inside with stalls and booths set up in little aisles, very much like an American flea market. They sell just about anything you could want there. I bought all sorts of gifts for my family and friends. Our guide, Pot, dickered for us but I was embarrased by how litle we paid for some things. They sell beautiful silver jewelry and silk clothing. Even heroin pipes! I didn't buy any of those, of course. It's very different from American. Pot and our driver, Tay, wouldn't let us carry anything, and everyone addresses us a madame. I'm going to be very spoiled when I get home.

This afternoon we are having massages at a place called Seeing Hands. All the masseuse are blind and the massages are suppose to be heavenly! Then we thought we'd go over to a little Wat(temple) we toured this morning. They have a group of monkeys that live there, and are just waiting to be fed. There are lots of beggars also. It's very disturbing to see the great wealth and beauty of the temples, and then the beggars waiting outside.

We had dinner ;ast night with a couple, Mandy and Matt, who have been trying to adopt a little girl, Pesey, for almost four years. Adoption here isn't legal anymore, but they don't want to leave without her so they have stayed. They work at the International School. It was a very traditional restaurant. We sat on the floor(ouch!) and had foods I've never heard of before. We had Banana Bud Salad which was bery good, and Papaya Salad, which was good, but also dangerous. It was like eating fire. I've never had a salad burn before. Also this wonderful soup that I can't remeber the name of and something else with shrimp and noodles. The food is so different and I want to try everything, but quite frankly, some of it is so different I'm afraid of it. More tomorrow!

We're here!

wishafish — Sat, 4 Mar 2006 21:22:00 GMT

We finally made it to Cambodia and it's about 12:30 here. I have no idea what time it is back home but I'm dead. We don't want to sleep yet though, because then we'll be up all night. Our guide, Pot, took us shopping this afternoon to a place called Tabitha's. It seems to be a place where underpriveledged women can put their sewing skills to use. I purchased some beautiful things there. Then we went to the grocery store. We wanted bottled water and some candy to take back for Deb's daughter Hannah's classroom. I have no idea what some of the stuff was. Driving is hair raising. So many motorcycles just jammed with people all going in different directions. Cars always seem to have the right of way, I guess because they are bigger. I saw three Buddist monks all jammed together on one little motercyle- only they don't call them motorcyles, they're cyclos, but they pronounce it seekloes. They push what look like rickshaw(only they are called tuktuks) and pull wagons. Gasoline is much more expensive here so the cyclos help keep down costs. More tomorrow- I'm off to eat God knows what for dinner! Mmmm-pickled squid!