Cambodia and Vietnam Adventure

Judy and Peter Bird travelled on our Bike and Hike through Cambodia followed by our Trekking the Limestone Trail: a two-part Selective Asia adventure separated by volunteer activity near Hanoi.

Introduction

Awesome, no other word for it. Looking back, what are our most treasured memories? Above all, our wonderful local guides. Spending days at a time, just Peter and me, with people who soon became more like friends than tour guides, added enormously to our experience. They were friendly, enthusiastic and extremely knowledgeable – we learnt so much about Cambodia and Vietnam from our discussions with them and the places they took us, often way off the beaten tourist track. Apart from that… wonderful friendly and gorgeous people, dazzling smiles. And the food… a gourmet spread 2 or 3 times a day, every day, fresh produce everywhere with real flavour – dragonfruit, mangosteens, rambutans, lychees, greens and peppers of every description… My mouth waters again just thinking about it.
Some more specific highlights, in random order…

Cambodia Highlights

- Fantastic temples: the mother of them all of course, Angkor Wat – at sunrise, at sunset… and scaling the steep and narrow steps to reach the highest level. But also the discovery of so much more, dating from the brilliant Khmer civilization, an empire that endured for six centuries, and which we barely knew existed. Scattered over a vast area are wonderfully preserved temples, both Hindu and Buddhist, with incredible carving, each one different from and as impressive in its own way as the last – from the early 7th century Sambor Prei Kuk, isolated in the jungle at the end of a bone-shaking “dancing road”, to the biggies of the late 12th - early 13th centuries, such as Angkor Wat itself and the fascinating Bayon with its 37 “face towers”. Travelling between them by a combination of bike, van and foot, we were particularly delighted to find ourselves the only tourists at some of the more remote sites (Sambor Prei Kuk, Phnom Bok, Beng Mealea).

more Cambodia

- A stop at a small village on our trek where the question “Would you like a coconut?” took on a whole new meaning. On receiving a positive response, one of the local boys skinned up a tall palm tree, barefoot, no restraining device of any description, and proceeded to break off and throw down coconuts. Out came the machete to slice off the top, a straw to insert in the hole and…. voilà, a most refreshing drink. And we couldn’t miss the pièce de resistance at the end – cut open the coconut, slice off a piece of the hard skin and use it to scrape out the soft, white flesh with a consistency something like very thick custard. You won’t find this in a Western supermarket!
- The most unusual camp site we’ve ever had – inside a new and, as yet, undedicated pagoda at Svay Leou village, where our beds and mosquito nets were erected under the watchful eye of a large Buddha and the painted murals provided bedtime stories from Buddha’s life.
- Another stop at Skuon village to try the local delicacy – deep-fried tarantulas, followed by a second course of crickets.
- Memorable for more depressing reasons, but unavoidable: the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng Prison – grim reminders of the devastating period of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot.

Vietnam Highlights

-The 5-day trek in the Mai Chau valley, west of Hanoi – without a doubt the highlight of an amazing variety of experiences in Vietnam. The trek was billed as “off the beaten track” and it was certainly that – not a single other tourist/Westerner until the last night when we encountered a group of French backpackers. It took us through the mountains from village to village in the land of some of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities (H’mong, White Thai, Muong).
Stopping and overnighting in local homes along the way, we learnt a whole new meaning of the word “hospitality”. Then there were the children – timid at first, but a couple of brave ones gradually approaching and soon inciting more of their friends to join in… their delight at seeing themselves photographed on the digital camera… an impromptu “choir” led by Tuan, our guide, singing us their songs… And of course the awesome scenery, both natural and cultivated – sweeping vistas of rice terraces extending up and up among the mountains… incredibly picturesque villages and rice paddies, like Kho Muong, nestled in deep valleys… ingenious uses of bamboo for everything from irrigation systems to rice-husking devices…

more Vietnam

- Being rowed in a sampan between the cliffs of the beautiful Van Long Sanctuary and the excitement of finally spotting Delacour’s Langur monkeys (“white shorts”) playing around on the peaks.
- Another sampan ride on a peaceful river, heading for a climb up the mountainside to an enormous cave housing the Perfume Pagoda… and learning that in the peak pilgrimage period (following the Lunar New Year), the river is gridlocked with sampans carrying over 400,000 pilgrims.
- Halong Bay at its most mysterious, with the thousands of limestone “karsts” jutting straight up out of the water, shrouded in heavy mist and clouds – and the enormous Cave of Surprise, which lived up to its name in spectacular fashion.
- The richness of the architecture in the historic cities of Hue and Hoi An – and the locals’ fascination with Peter’s body hair on the beach at Hoi An!
- The traffic in the cities, condensed in the narrower streets of Hanoi and expanding to fill the wider boulevards of Saigon… unbelievable numbers of motorbikes and bikes carrying incredible loads, cyclo- and moto-taxis and, in Saigon particularly, increasing numbers of cars… the initial intimidating prospect of crossing the street, weaving one’s way through the never-ending stream, and our guide’s instructions, “Walk slowly so the drivers can see you, don’t run, don’t flinch, and the drivers will weave around you”, and our amazement when it actually worked… the sight of an apparent army of female bandits riding motorbikes, and learning that the complete facial cover-up was less an attempt to avoid breathing polluted air than one to avoid undesirable darkening of the skin in the sun.

and finally...

- And finally, in and around Saigon / Ho Chi Minh City, the haunting reminders of what the Vietnamese refer to as “the American War”… an unexpectedly (for a British-Canadian) emotional visit to the old Presidential Palace, as vivid memories returned of all the media coverage in the 1970s – the communist tanks storming the gates, etc… the horrors of what could be called the “American Atrocities Museum” (actually the War Remnants Museum), which Thuyen, our guide, left us to visit alone because even today it’s too hard for him to view… and the incredible 250 km network of tunnels in the jungle at Cu Chi in which many thousands of Viet Cong guerillas lived (and died) during the war. A sombre note on which to depart this amazing country.