Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
March/April 2017
March/April 2017
"One of the great joys of life is riding a scooter through Vietnam, to be part of this mysterious, thrilling, beautiful choreography. Thousands upon thousands of people — families, friends, lovers — each an individual story glimpsed for a second or two in passing, sliding alongside, pouring like a torrent through the city. A flowing, gorgeous thing."
Anthony Boudain
Thursday, 16 March
 |
George enjoying a glass of
champagne and a chocolate
in business class
|
We did not mind the delay too much as we were in the
Business Class lounge where the seats were comfortable and they had a variety
of snacks to munch on to help us pass the time. We went to the departure area
at the appointed time and the time again had been changed to 1:00 PM. No problem, that is just a little while later
but we started to worry about our connecting flight to Ho Chi Minh City. We finally got on the plane and it started to
pull out to take off when the pilot announced that there was an engine light
that they were going to have to call the ground crew to check it out. We sat there and sat there then they
announced that we were being returned to the terminal and they were going to replace
the plane and crew. They said that we
would most likely be reboarding within an hour.
Laura and I headed back to the Business Class Lounge to see
if the agents there could rebook our flight to Ho Chi Minh City because there
was no chance now of getting there in time for our scheduled flight. The agent that helped us was Marva Block who
was the ex-wife of Laura’s first boss at Block Travel. She was very helpful, she got us rescheduled
on a flight leaving Saturday morning and gave us a pass to the First Class
Lounge (which had better food) to use or $40 in food vouchers in the airport
restaurants.
Our flight now has been scheduled to start boarding at 5:00
PM which turned into 6:00 PM. When we
finally boarded, turned left and found our sleeping pods.
When we took off we were over 6 hours behind schedule. It was a long flight; we were entertained by
two young children who alternated between screams and shouting or the ever
popular crying their hearts out. This
insured that neither of us got any sleep to speak of during the flight. We arrived at about 9:30 PM Tokyo time. We had to claim our baggage, go through
customs and immigrations and then were loaded on a bus to take us to a hotel
that the airline had booked for all the passengers who missed their
flights. We got to our room about 11:00
PM and went to bed.
Saturday 18 March
In case you are checking, we lost a day by crossing the
International Date Line. So Friday did
not really happen for us. We awoke
refreshed after about 7 hours sleep. We
had to catch a 7 AM bus to the airport so when we saw the line for the hotel
breakfast we opted to go to the airport a little earlier than planned and get
breakfast there. Check in at Vietnam
Airlines was a breeze because they had just opened. The down side was that security did not open until
7:30 and the restaurants did not open until 8:00. We finally did find a place to get breakfast-
Laura had pancakes smothered in whipped cream and chocolate sauce and sliced
bananas. I chose the less exotic pancake
breakfast with bacon and scrambled eggs.
It was good but the scrambled eggs had a weird texture like they had
been run through a blender. |
| War Remembrance Museum |
 |
Ho Chi Minh statue
at end of walking mall
|
Dinner was very good.
We had a fixed price sampler plate that included a spring roll, steamed
clams, 3 rolls containing beef, seafood and pork, beef Pho (soup). It also included a banana fritter and a scoop
of vanilla ice cream for dessert. This
dinner including drinks came to 1,300,385 VND or about $45 US.
We returned to our hotel fairly soon after dinner stopping
briefly to watch the kids play in the mall.
Bedtime was early, Laura dropped off by 11 PM and I followed shortly
thereafter.
Sunday, 19 March Good
Morning, Vietnam
We awoke at 6:30 AM and went up to the dining area which was
an outside patio looking out onto the river.
It was a buffet style breakfast with a varied selection. Tomorrow, I think I will go with the omelet
for a change of pace. We started early
this morning because Long was meeting us at 8 AM to take us to the Presidential
Palace and then down to the Mekong river to visit the floating markets and some
other stuff.  |
| Students celebrating their graduation |
 |
| Floating markets on the Mekong |
It was a two hour drive from Ho Chi Minh City to the area
where we got on the boats to visit the floating markets. That turned out to be a bit of a rip off as
the floating markets are busy from 4 AM to 9 AM and then there is not much
going on because they are the wholesale markets where the people come to
purchase for resale. We did see several
boats loaded with watermelons, sugar cane and pineapples.
We also pulled into shore and visited several shops, watched
them make rice paper which is used for wrapping of spring rolls. We watched them make coconut candy, puffed
rice cakes and then popped rice. We were
also given a sample of rice wine which was like drinking vodka. They even had some with snakes pickled in
it. We passed on trying that.  |
| Making rice candy |
We also stopped to listen to several Vietnamese folk songs
and to have a cup of tea and some fruit.
We also visited an establishment that had beehives and was selling honey
and royal jelly.
We then took the long ride back to Ho Chi Minh City and to
our hotel. We had an hour or so to relax
and then we wandered out to find a place to eat and to watch the activities on
the walking mall. After dinner on our
way back to the hotel I met my new best friend, Max, an 8th grade student who
walked and talked with us for about 15 minutes.
He spoke very good English and was proud that he received A’s in school
for his English. He liked the chance to
practice on an American because he complained that in school some of the words
were not pronounced the same as we use them.
Then it was back to the hotel and to prepare for our departure for Hue in the morning.
Monday 20 March
We awoke again at 6:30 AM to get ready for breakfast and to
pack for our departure for Hue. We did
not have as good a nights sleep as we had the night before. The cough that has been hanging on since last
week when we had colds; came back with a vengence. Fortunately our bark is worse than our
bite. We had breakfast at the
hotel. The omelet was alright just a
little more soupy than I would have liked it.
We collected our bags and caught a taxi back to the airport. This time it was a domestic flight so there
was not many delays. No TSA pre-screening
here. We had to take off belts, remove
shoes, take laptops and e-readers out for inspection. The interesting thing was that Laura’s
artificial knee did not set off the metal detector. She missed not being patted down all over
like usual. Our flight departed at 11 AM
and as we took off, I thought of all differences from my first trip to
Vietnam. So if you don’t mind, I am
going to talk about my first visit to then Saigon.
When I came here in April of 1971, it was on
a large Military Airlift Command flight.
It was a commercial airlines plane but all the passengers for the most
part were young men. We landed in Ton
Son Nhat. The difference from now was
the number of US warplanes and helicopters on the ground. Large groups of soldiers lining up to board
planes or to load onto helicopters.
There were jeeps with machine guns patrolling the edges of the
airport. Checkpoints with sandbags,
razor wire and chainlink fences were a common sight. The 7 of us who came over as part of a Navy
team were loaded onto a bus with our seabags to be delivered to the Navy’s
temporary quarters. We were a sight in
our summer white uniforms compared to all the Army in their green
utilities. Of course, people who had
been in country could always tell who were the newbies because of how the new
uniforms looked. We got to the old hotel
which had been converted into our temporary quarters. There were bunkers on the corners, razor wire
on the walls and chain link fence over all the windows to prevent RPG’s from
getting into the building so they would explode outside. My first experience with the Vietnamese
people was when we had to walk about 2 blocks down the street to where they had
set up the dining facility. I was jumped
by one of a half dozen street children.
He snatched my wrist watch and I snatched him. So he dropped the watch and kicked it into
the street where it was run over by a 2 ½ ton truck. My first purchase in Vietnam was for a Seiko
watch with a non-expandable wrist band.
I remember the heat, no air conditioners in the building; just lots of
bunkbeds with no sheets or pillows. The
next day we were issued our greens and drew our weapons. The following day, we flew to Danang on a
C-130 Cargo plane with 4 rows of nylon mesh seats.
That is enough
memories for now. Our flight today was
much more comfortable. Laura had said we
were flying to Hue but when we landed we were in Phu Bai which had been the
base for the 101st Airborne. We then
took a taxi to the Pilgrimage Village.
The trip from Phu Bai to Hue was north along Highway 1. It was much different than what I remembered
from 45 years ago. It is now a 4 lane
divided highway and there are businesses and homes all along the road. I did spot several bunkers that were at
bridges as we drove north.
We arrived at the resort about 1 PM; they offered us a cup
of ginger tea which was very good but very strong. They then told us that we had been upgraded
from the deluxe room to a villa but since they were overbooked starting
Wednesday would we consider moving to their sister resort in Hoi Ann. Since the purpose was to spend some time in
Hue, we refused their offer. Our villa
was not going to be ready until 2 PM so we wandered through the several small
shops on the property and then returned to the reception area to wait.
The resort is a large one and our suite is almost in the
back far corner of it. The room is nice
so we unpacked and rested for a while before going to meet a taxi at 4:40 PM to
take us to a hotel in Hue where we would be met by a guide to take us on a
cyclo tour of a selection of local restaurants.
 |
| George on a cyclo |
 |
One of the dishes
on our street food tour
|
We ended the evening with coffee at a shop of the walls of
the Citadel. While Laura is not a coffee
drinker she had a ginger tea. The
Vietnamese coffee was good but a little stronger than what I am used to
drinking. We then took a taxi back to
the resort and called it an evening.
Tuesday, March 21
We had a rough night or should I say a rough early morning. The chickens that we beat up when we were
leaving Chula Vista called their cousins here in Hue and they serenaded us from
3:30 AM until after 7:30 AM. When we
went to the reception desk to meet with our tour guide, they asked how our
night was. Laura told them about the
chickens and they said that they would move us to another room when we got back
from our tour. |
| Seven Step Pagoda |
 |
| On the grounds of the Minh Mang Tomb |
 |
| Our motorcycle friends |
We looked around the area for a little bit when it started
to rain. We crossed the street to a
coffee shop. I had a Café Latte and
Laura had a Bailey’s Cream Frappuccino.
It continued to rain so we decided to take a taxi over to the restaurant
and if we could not get seated early, we would have a drink in the bar.
Getting seated was not a problem and our dinner was very
good. The picture shows me with one of
the local beers and our main course which was chicken that had been flattened,
stir fried in vegetables which included some bamboo stalks which were a little
too woody for my taste. It also had the
Vietnamese red peppers which are very hot.
We pushed them off to the side.
It did infuse the meal with a spicy taste but there was also an
aftertaste of ginger.
It was still raining so we had a wet ride back to the hotel
by taxi. We were dry inside the taxi but
it was sloppy outside.
We turned in fairly early because the humidity had sapped
our strength.
Wednesday 22 March
We slept in a bit this morning because we had nothing
scheduled for today. We had a late
breakfast and then Laura went to the pool to swim for a while. I stayed in the room reading or checking out
the Facebook entries.
Laura came back from the pool and announced that she had
scheduled us for another 3 hour tour.
This one was of two separate garden houses. At 2 PM, we reported to the reception area to
meet the driver and we headed out. It
turned out the first house we were heading towards was in the area of the Seven
Step Pagoda. The house and gardens are
the property of Camille Huyen and her husband, Truong Dinh Ngo. Camille was a resident of Hue and left in
1972. Her husband was living in France
and Germany. They moved to Switzerland
where he was a Swiss banker.
They returned to Hue about a year ago and started building
the gardens and the house. We had a
lovely visit. The gardens were peaceful
and looked out onto the Perfume River.
Our hosts were gracious and very pleasant to talk with about their home,
family and even the Vietnam War. The
home also serves dinners, has poem readings and has concerts of classical music. Camille is an accomplished artist and also
designed much of the home.  |
| A section of the private home and garden |
 |
| Our hostess Camille at her house |
When we first arrived they served us a cool papaya drink and
then later we had a cup of green tea and a sweet of a white bean in a coconut
sauce. It was very good. We left to visit the second home. We were disappointed in it. The gentleman who met us was very gruff and
seemed only interested in getting our admission fee of 40,000 VND. The garden turned out to be mostly a yard
filled with trees. We spent about 10
minutes and then left. We returned to
the resort to prepare for dinner.
We went down to the lower bar and ordered our drinks. Since it was “Happy Hour”; it was buy one
drink and get the other free. I ordered
a gin and tonic and was informed that Gin was one drink and the tonic was
another. So I ordered a Mojito and Laura
ordered the local beer – Huda. While we
were there we kept hearing what we thought was a dog barking but were told that
it was a frog.
We went up to the restaurant and ordered our dinners. It was a good meal and very convenient to
where we were staying. Laura ordered the
special Beef Pho. She has Pho quite
often at home, but found this to be quite different. There was no soup in it. It was noodles – 2 different kinds, lots of
beef slices, and lots of veggies. It
even had 3 crispy egg rolls on top and peanuts, but no soup. It was quite good, but just different than
what she was used to.
On the way back to our room, we passed one of the pools and
saw the frogs swimming and I think having a little froggy sex. They were about the size of our hand so it
was not a small frog.
We soon turned in as we have to be up, packed and ready to
meet our driver at 9 AM. Tomorrow we are
driving to Danang and then on to Hoi An.
I have driven the road many times during my year here in Hue so I am
interested in seeing how much it has changed.
Thursday, 23 March |
| Heading for the Hai Van Pass |
Danang has really grown just like Hue and every other place
that I have visited. We drove past China
Beach. Laura did get out to take a
picture of a statue of Buddha that was across the bay from us. It may have been the statue that I would pass
when I was leaving Danang to return to Hue when I came down to pick up our pay
checks at the Naval Support Activity.
 |
| Pagoda on Marble Mountain |
We were also allowed to take an elevator up to a Pagoda on
Marble Mountain which the Vietnamese call Water Mountain. We then climbed up marble steps to see a cave
and then rested with a cold coke because we were getting overheated.
We then drove to Hoi An to the Ha An Hotel. It is a small hotel but is very
pleasant. They even offered us the use
of free bicycles which with the traffic around here would have been
suicidal. After waiting an hour to get
into our room, we freshened up. Laura
went to the pool and I went to the shower.
A bit later, we walked out into the town, wandering past the shops and
into the city market. It was an
adventure between everyone trying to sell you something, the cyclos,
motorcycles and just the other people walking around trying to run into you.  |
| Hoi An Market |
 |
| Hoi An Vendor |
We returned to the hotel with about 2 hours to kill waiting for the driver. Laura took a swim in the hotel pool and I sat in a sling chair in the shade by the pool reading.
 |
| Dragon Bridge in Danang |
The trip to the Danang Airport was not really exciting. There was lots of construction of hotels,
restaurants and such throughout the city.
Our flight to Siem Reap was delayed about an hour so we had
a bit longer to wait around the airport departure lounge. Any longer and I think I would have developed
terminal waffle butt from sitting on the metal seats in the lounge. The flight was about an hour and went very
smoothly. When we landed, we processed
fairly quickly. When we got to the
Customs station, the alert, hardworking government employee was engrossed in
his cell phone. I stood there for a
while and then said “Good Evening”. He
looked up, grabbed our papers and off we went.
Our hotel had sent a car to pick us up so it was just a matter of
finding someone in the crowd with a Le Meridien Hotel about 8 PM. We took our bags up to the room and then
headed down to the buffet for dinner since we had not eaten much since
breakfast. Dinner was aright but
certainly did not measure up to other meals we have had on this trip.
After dinner, we were sorting out our belongings and got
ready for bed.
Saturday, 25 March
Breakfast was a buffet provided by the hotel. There was a good selection but again nothing
really that stood out. Although Laura
was impressed with the bacon she found.
As many of you know, she is a connoisseur of bacon. It has to be just so or she can’t eat it.
We had scheduled a Tuk-Tuk to take us to the Angkor Temple
complex at 9AM. A Tuk-Tuk is a
motorcycle pulling a small covered trailer with seats for 2-4 people. Our driver took us to purchase our tickets to
gain access to the temples. A one day
ticket is $37 per person. It was
interesting that when they printed the ticket it had our picture on it to
insure that only you could use that ticket.
 |
| Ta Prohm Wat |
The first area that we stopped at was Ta Prohm. The driver dropped us off and said he would
meet us when we came out. We went into
the temple area and climbed around looking all over. It was very hot and humid so we thought we
would move on so we walked out of the temple area. We looked and looked and could not find our
driver. We then found out that were two
gate – one on the west and one on the east.
The problem was we had been dropped off at the west gate so we were one
the wrong side of the complex. We were
both overheated, Laura was beet red and dripping sweat. One of the security guards and a vendor offered
for $5 each to take us on their motorcycles to the other side. We took them up on the offer. The motorcycle ride was nice because the
breeze helped cool us off and when we got to the other side; our driver was
there and had iced cold water for us to drink.
We continued our tour visiting the Elephant Terrace and
Angkor Thom. China, India, Germany and
the US were all mentioned as countries that were helping to restore the temple
complex. Still there are a lot of piles
of stone.  |
| Us in our tuk-tuk |
We returned to the hotel about 12 to cool off and because
Laura wants to visit Angkor Wat at sunset the driver will return at 4PM to pick
us up again.
The Tuk-Tuk driver picked us up at 4 PM and took us to the
Angkor Wat temple site. It is the
largest of the temples in the area. It
was quite a bit warmer this afternoon than it had been earlier, so we found
that we had to stop and rest quite often.
We kept up our fluid intake because we did not need to succumb to heat
exhaustion. The monks who built this place
really wanted to get close to the heavens because there were certainly enough
stairs to climb. The good thing was that
the stone steps had for the most part been replaced with 2” by 12” plank steps
which while they were steep; they were nothing like the original stone
steps.  |
| Angkor Wat |
 |
| AngkorWat at sunset |
I think I will take
another flight of fancy and talk about how things are different and how some
things are just the same. One of the
many things that I remember being the same was the trash fires on the streets
in Hue and Danang. Trash and leaves all
swept up and then set on fire. The
burning leaves made the air smoky and at times made your eyes water. The sidewalks were covered with motorcycles,
sometimes in order to pass them, you had to walk into the street. There were many more motorcycles and fewer
bikes on the road than in 1971/72.
Highway 1 that ran from the DMZ to Saigon, was a two lane road, it is
now a 4 lane divided highway. The route
I took to go to Danang is completely different as they have dug tunnels through
some of the lower mountains. Garbage is
still a problem, trash is thrown everywhere.
Plastic products float in any of the waterways that we crossed. The rice fields, fish farms and corn fields
all looked the same. It was a very
pastoral setting seeing them. When I
flew from Danang to Hue, I remember seeing numerous perfectly round lakes
spread out across the landscape. I
commented to one of the flight crew about them and he informed me that those
were bomb craters left over from earlier bombing runs. I wonder if we had flown this time, if they
would still be there as a reminder of the war.
Speaking of bombing, I can remember sitting in the hotel in Danang
listening to the Arc-light bombing raids in the mountains north of Danang. It sounded like a distant thunder storm. We are in Cambodia now; I was never here so I
have nothing to compare the past with the present. They may be 5-10 years ahead of Vietnam in
the development of their tourist trade.
Street vendors around the world are almost all the same. We were invited for many “free looks” today.
It is now 9:30 PM, the cat skinning has stopped so I think I
will call it a night and head off to bed.
Sunday, 26 March
Today’s adventure was a car ride to see the Reclining Buddha
on top of Kulen Mountain and the Banteay Srei temple. Our driver was Mr. Kak Sokheng who was the
driver who picked us up at the airport 2 days ago.  |
Posing below the steps up to the
Reclining Buddha
|
The trip to the mountain took about an hour. When we got there we found that there was about 400 yards of stairs to get to the main area and then another set of stairs up to the Buddha.
 |
| Sweet Noodles |
 |
| Kulen Mountain Waterfall |
After we left the top of Kulen Mountain, we stopped along the river to view some Hindu carvings from the 9th Century in the riverbed. There were quite a few people visiting the site from India. Our next stop was to go to the waterfalls and Laura planned on taking a dip to cool off. We walked to the upper falls which were about 15 feet high. The area was jammed with people. We learned that the path to the lower falls was very steep and included a series of stairs. Because of the large number of people, the heat and humidity, and the difficulty of not only getting down but getting back up, we decided to pass on the falls and swimming. Mr. Sokheng offered to go to the bottom and take some pictures for Laura. That was nice of him, we sat on a rock and watched all the other people struggle up the stairs. About 10 minutes later, he had returned and as a reward we asked him to join us for lunch.
Lunch was good. We
had a Cambodian soup with chicken in it that was pretty tasty. The chicken was tough and they chopped the
bone and all into the soup. Laura fed
the chicken pieces to the cat that was hanging around the restaurant.
After lunch while we were walking up to the car, we heard a
motorcycle coming up behind us. All of a
sudden it crashed into the side of the trail and the young lady who was riding
as a passenger had her leg trapped under the motorcycle. People rushed over to help and we could hear
her crying. It was sad but nothing that
we could do to help.  |
| Banteay Srei Templ |
Our next stop was at the Banteay Srei Temple. It is advertised as the most finely carved temple in Cambodia. It is also different in that much of it is carved in pink sandstone. We agreed that the carvings were much more detailed and in much better condition than the other sites we have visited.
The nice thing about this temple was that there were no
major stairs to climb. Everything was on
the same level.
After our visit, we returned to the hotel. Laura headed for the pool for the refreshing
swim that she had planned to take earlier.
Shortly later she returned because of lightning and thunder that was
occurring. It was strong enough that the
lights went out in the hotel for about 10 seconds. We were safe and sound in our hotel
room. We had dinner at the hotel’s
buffet, once again it was not the most exciting meal but it was
convenient. We have returned to the room
to start repacking for our departure tomorrow.
Monday, 27 March
If it could go wrong, it seemed like it occurred today. The hotel had told us that the flight was at
8:45 AM, when we got to the airport we found that the driver had dropped us off
at the wrong terminal. We pushed the
cart with our luggage down the street until we found the domestic
terminal. We found that the flight we
wanted was not leaving at 8:45, it was going to leave at 11:35. So we found a place to sit and waited. Finally at 10:30 they opened the gate for
check in. We went up to check in only to
find that our tickets had been voided by Vietnam Airlines. The gate crew was trying to contact them to
get it straightened out but when it was 11:15, we went up to the window to ask
what we could do. We ended up purchasing
another set of tickets and got on the flight with minutes to spare. Laura was concerned about if our luggage
would make the flight. When we landed in
Sihanouk Ville, our luggage was off loaded with the rest, so we were
relieved. We went out to the front of
the terminal to find our driver who was to take us to the hotel, nobody holding
a sign for us. Shortly there were no
passengers at the airport, they had all been picked up and gone their
respective way. Laura went into the
terminal and found a taxi company and asked if they could call the company that
was supposed to pick us up and see what was happening. He tried but there was no answer. So he offered to take us to the hotel for $20
and to come pick us up 3 days later and bring us back to the airport. |
| Sokha Beach Hotel |
Tuesday, 28 March
It is a beautiful day.
We arose early and went to breakfast.
Laura had an appointment at the Spa to have a massage. She returned limp as a noodle. She said when she first laid down the attendant
push on her back in three places and each time there was a loud snap as her
spine when back into place. She said it
was the best massage she has had in her life. |
| Sokha Beach |
For dinner we took a ride up to the other end of the resort
to the Deck Restaurant. I had an Aussie
steak while Laura had a pasta and seafood plate. Both were quite nice but the best part of the
meal was the location. We were just feet
away from the beach and the surf line.
We watched the sun set into the west.
Again not one of the best sunsets but it was nice. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and
stopped at the bar, ordered martinis and listened to a female singer and 2 man
backup band. It was a pleasant way to
end the day. While we were sitting
there, we started to hear thunder and lightning off in the distance. Soon the lightning was happening right over
head. We went up to our room and sat on
the balcony watching the light show until we started to get hit with large rain
drops.
 |
| Dragon at Sokha Beach Resort |
Wednesday, 29 March
 |
| Sihanoukville Market |
 |
| Father picking up his 4 kids from school |
 |
| Dinner at Mick & Craig's with a friend |
Thursday, 30 March
After a hearty breakfast, we went back to our room to pack
up everything. We arranged for a driver
to take us to the airport at 11 AM. We
got to the airport with no problems but when we got to the check-in counter, it
looked like we were in trouble again.
Laura explained everything and gave them a telephone number of the
gentleman who was supposed to get everything in order for us. They asked us to step out of line and about
10 minutes later to our great relief, we were given our boarding passes. Tomorrow when we go to the airport to fly to Laos,
the gentleman is supposed to have money to refund to us for the tickets that we
had to purchase.
The hotel sent a driver but he was late, he got there just
as we were loading into a taxi that we had paid for. He got our money refunded and took us to the
hotel – Memoire D’Angkor. It is a pretty
nice hotel, not as fancy as some that we have stayed in but it is certainly no
Motel 6.
After we got unpacked, we ventured out to the Old
Market. We wandered through  |
| Sien Reap's lively night area |
After dinner, we walked back towards the Old Market, and
then turned up Pub Street which was wall to wall bars.
 |
| Fried Tarantula anyone? |
After spending a little while in the Night Market, we hailed
a Tuk Tuk driver to take us back to our hotel.
We got the grand tour as our driver took us to the wrong hotel. After showing him the tourist map with the hotel’s
name posted on it, he said he knew where that hotel was also.
We returned to our room and started to get ready for bed
when Laura spotted a large bug on the ceiling.
I was dispatched to the reception desk to get assistance in ridding the
room of the unwanted guest. They were
very nice and a few minutes later, we were certified bug free.
Friday, 31 March
We arose this morning and went down to have breakfast. The staff at the front desk told us that
since we had an afternoon flight, we could stay in the room until 2 PM instead
of clearing out at 12PM. We thanked them
and then went on a walk up the street in the direction of the City Market. When we went there yesterday, we rode in a
Tuk Tuk so we did not have much of a chance to see the shops along the
way. After about a half mile we decided
that the shops were not that interesting and it was hot, so we crossed the street
and started walking back to the hotel.
We had almost gotten back when the Tuk Tuk driver from yesterday spotted
Laura and said for only $5, he would take us on a city tour. What the hell, it was only $5 so we
agreed. We climbed aboard his Tuk Tuk and
off we went. We saw quite a bit but it
was at 25 mph from the middle of the road.
After about 30 minutes he dropped us off in front of our hotel. We lounged in the room; Laura booked another massage to kill the time until check out. At 2:30, they drove us to the airport, we had directions to see a gentleman from Vietnam Airlines as he was going to straighten out our problem with the booking and reimburse us for the tickets that we were forced to buy. He sent us to see a man from Cambodian Air and he refunded our money.
We went to Vietnam Airline to check in for our flight to
Laos and the clerk said, “There is a problem, please step to the side.” We thought “Oh, crud. We are on the Cambodian No Fly List.” It turned out that they just wanted to do was
make sure that we got our refund but it took ten minutes of telephone calls
before an airline official showed up to clear us.
The flight to Laos was uneventful. The plane was about 2/3rds full so we were
able to slip over and have a seat between us.
When we got to the Luang Prabang airport, the driver from the hotel was
there to pick us up in an old Mercedes sedan.
We arrived at the hotel, were we received the customary welcoming drink
and were taken to our room. It is
located above the dining area and reception desk. It is all wooden with cute little steamer
trunks turned into a chest of drawers and a bedside table. It appears that we may have an uninvited guest
sharing the room with us. As we were
sorting things out we kept hearing loud chirps which sounded like a gecko. If it is a gecko, that is no problem because
if you have geckos, you don’t have bugs.
 |
| Luang Prabang Temple |
After unpacking, we wandered out to explore the Night Market
which was about a ten minute walk from the hotel. We saw many interesting shops, met a dog
named George, and visited a temple before we finally came to the Night
Market. Laura also made friends with a
black cat on the temple wall that promptly jumped off the wall, grabbed a gecko
and had a late dinner.
The night market is interesting and very large. It is filled with things for tourists to
purchase. We saw so very beautiful
things but could not figure how we could get them back home without having them
damaged.  |
| Our friend - George |
After breakfast, we were picked up by a guide for a half day
tour of the city. We were loaded onto an
electric cart which zipped down the road.
Our guide pointed out the different types of architecture that was
present here. Some of the buildings were
old French Provincial style, some were old Laos buildings with woven bamboo
walls and some more were Laos style but
they used more modern materials such as cement instead of buffalo skins to
cover the walls. We walked through a
morning market where the locals were buying their fresh meats, vegetables and
fruits for the day. We saw taste treats
such as chicken feet, duck heads with bill intact, several different insects
and larva along with buffalo skin which was boiled to make a soup.
We also visited the main temple in Luang Prabang. Since in the olden times this had been the
capital city there had been over 65 temples but now there were only 32. This temple was the one that the king came to
worship at during the Lao New Year. So
the monks were busy painting the buildings and the trim work. We learned that the small Buddha statues in the temple were
from the temples that had closed. Laura bought a small bamboo cage with 2 birds, which she let fly free. This is suppose to guarantee that her spirit will be free in the next life. She just wanted the birds to be free.
We stopped at the home of a 65 year old Hmong man who
explained about the culture of the hill people and showed us how they made
their flutes. He also played the flute
and a violin like instrument. We also
saw the bamboo toll bridge to the other side of the river. It has to be rebuilt each year because the
high water during the rainy season washes it away. Our guide took us back down to where the
Mekong and the Nam Khan Rivers meet. We
stopped at a riverside café for a light lunch and something to drink. I was able to obtain my second beer glass so
I am a happy camper.  |
| Morning Market |
 |
At the temple Laura bought 2 birds
which she freed.
|
We returned to the hotel and rested awhile and then ventured out once again. The plan was to sit in a riverside café having a drink and watch the sunset. The weather did not cooperate. It was too overcast for a sunset. But it did decide to rain for about 40 minutes. We didn’t get soaked as we took shelter during the worst of it but we were certainly damp. We found a restaurant that looked like it was acceptable to eat at. Laura had a chicken satay and I had chicken sweet and sour fried rice. After dinner we walked down to the Night Market but because of the rain, many of the sellers had not set up shop so we returned to the hotel to prepare for tomorrows adventure with the elephants.
Laura beat the chickens up this morning and went up to the
main street above our hotel to watch the parade of monks getting their rice
from the local citizens. She was nice
and let me sleep in.
The monks would stop at each person and receive a little bit
of rice from each and then continue on to the next person. We learned that the monks eat twice a day –
breakfast and a big lunch. After that
they only drink water until the next morning.
 |
| The early morning parade of monks through the streets of Luang Prabang. |
After our breakfast, we were picked up by a guide in a van
and taken to the Elephant Camp which was about 30 minutes out of town. The Elephant Village is home to 12 adult females
and two infants. We learned the language
of the mahouts so we could communicate with the elephants while we were riding
them. It was a little exciting sitting
up on the elephant’s neck right behind her ears. It was difficult to keep your balance; I kept
expecting to fall off at any time. We
rode them down a trail to the river and then they waded down river several
hundred yards to a rocky island. We
crossed the island and then went back into the water again to get back to the
shore. You can see how deep the river
was by the high water marks on the elephants.
They took us upriver on a boat to visit the baby elephant
nursery. The babies were 4 and 5 years
old.  |
| George and Laura on the elephants |
We saw some little farms on the way to the babies. Laura got to feed them some bananas which
they really enjoyed. We watched a local
farmer and his wife plant corn in the flood plain of the river.
They then took us back to the camp for a buffet lunch and to
change our clothes because we had to give the elephants a bath after they had
taken us for a ride. Now that was a
trip. The elephants got wet but so did
we.  |
| Elephant and George having a bath |
After the elephants bath we were taken back to the camp and
given an opportunity to relax at the swimming pool. It had a shower so we were able to rinse off
the elephant odor and the river water.
They then brought us back to our respective hotels. We took another shower and got dressed up to
go out to dinner. We walked down the
street to the area were the Mekong and the Nam Khan River join and had a very
nice dinner in a riverside restaurant.
They gave us a ride to the Night Market, so we walked through it and
then stopped for dessert at the Novelty Café and to say goodbye to George, the
dog.
Monday, 3 April
Today is our last day in Laos. After breakfast we checked out of the hotel
but they were willing to store our bags until they take us to the airport around
4:30 PM. We had booked a boat trip up
the Mekong River to the Pak Ou Cave which is home to 4000 statues of
Buddha. We also got to stop at a village
that makes Lao Whiskey and had lunch on a floating restaurant across the river
from the caves. The entire trip took
about 5 hours so it was a great way to spend the day. |
| Our boat trip up the Mekong |
 |
| Rice Whiskey with scorpions included |
We had been told that there were two caves. The upper cave was a pretty steep climb while
the lower cave which had more statues in it was an easier climb. I guess those estimates were based on young
people because while the upper cave was a long climb, the lower cave was not an
easy climb.
One mile along the Mekong looks pretty much like any other
mile but we did see people fishing, digging for clams, mining sand and loading
onto their boats, and just general village life along the 10th longest river in
the world. |
| Pak Ou Caves |
We did arrive in Hanoi with no difficulties. A driver was there to pick us up and deliver
us to the La Siesta Trendy which is located in the Old Town Hanoi. We were checked in rapidly, given our
welcoming drink and a plate of dried apricots.
We dumped our bags in the room and dashed to the hotel restaurant
because they stop taking orders at 10:45 PM and it was after 10, and we did not
feel like going out into the town to get our dinner. After a very good dinner, we returned to the
room and crashed.
Tuesday, 4 April |
| Ho Chi Minh's Tomb |
While we were there we learned that the Vietnamese honor 4
animals – the Phoenix, the tortoise, the lion and the dragon.
 |
| Pineapple vendor in Old Hanoi |
After the tour, we were brought back to our hotel and we
went up to rest our feet. After a couple
of hours, Laura felt rested enough to venture out on our own. So armed with a hotel map, we headed out;
blithe spirits bound for adventure.
After a short time, we were hopelessly lost. One of Laura’s goals was to go visit the lake
in the center of the Old Town. A nice
man on a Pedi cab said he could take us there for 20,000 VND. When we got there he demanded 350,000
VND. So we learned not to trust Pedi cab
drivers. We walked around the lake,
visited a temple on a little island in the lake. Afterwards we went to a hotel to ask them to
call us a reliable cab to take us back to the hotel.
We had to hurry to get back to the hotel because we were
scheduled for a street food tour at 7PM.
It was another walking tour and our feet had just about had it.  |
| Sword Lake in Old Hanoi |
 |
| George passed on the chickens foot |
I can’t remember what the first taste treat was, I passed on
the boiled chicken’s foot, the dumplings with shrimp, pork and beef, and the
papaya salad with dried beef were all good.
The tour took us to 7 different shops.
We sat with the locals and enjoyed a taste of some dish as we travelled
along. We also stopped twice to have a
beer. We had a Hanoi beer and then a
special beer that is brewed daily and anything not drank that day is thrown
out. It is only good for one day. We got back to the hotel late and went to bed
because we had get up and check out of the hotel by 7 AM in the morning.
Wednesday, 5 April
Morning came early, we packed up and took our bags down to
be stored because we were coming back the next day. Our ride to the airport was on time and we
were dropped off without any problems.
When we went to check in for our flight on the seaplane to Ha Long Bay,
they told us that we had been switched to the second flight which was leaving
10 minutes later. That did not seem to
be a problem.  |
| Street Food Tour |
When it came time to board, they informed us that the plane needed to get fueled and it would be 15 minutes delay. No problem, it is always better to fly in a plane with a full tank of fuel. We boarded and then taxied out to the runway. When we got to the runway, the front left tire went flat. Now that is a problem. We sat on the runway for about an hour while the aviation company and the airport tried to figure out what they were going to do. Finally they had us get off the plane and they bussed us back to the airport. They were going to tow the plane back and change the tire.
 |
| Our seaplane being towed |
They were very sorry for the inconvience and arranged for us
to go into the Business Class Lounge where there was some snacks and drinks
which we could eat if we wished. Now the
flight that had been scheduled for 9 AM was going to leave at 1 PM. That is a problem, the ship we were meeting
pulled out of port at 12 PM. The company
told us there would be a speedboat to take us out to the ship. The story continues to get worse, when we
finally were told we could go board the plane.
They drove us out to the plane but the company had decided to fly the
plane that had it’s flat tire fixed at 12 PM but now needed to be
refueled. So they turned us around and
sent us back to the airport. We did
finally get out but it was one little thing after another and people were
getting angry.
One of the reasons we wanted to take the plane other than the
fact that it was a 3-4 hour drive by car; was that we would see Ha Long Bay
from the air. Mother Nature was not
cooperating with us. It has been grey
and overcast for the past 4 days. The
temperture here is in the mid 60’s to mid 70’s and we are not fighting the
humidity like we did down south or in Cambodia.  |
| Flying over Halong Bay |
 |
| Our ship |
 |
| Cua Van Floating Village |
We returned to the ship for happy hour on the sundeck and to watch a cooking demonstration on how to make Spring Rolls. After that we were to dress for dinner, in outfits provided by the cruise. After dinner we each had a free half hour massage, which was given to us to make up for all the problems we had getting to the boat.
 |
| George in his dinner dress |
Thursday, 6 April
 |
| The local 7-11 |
We returned to the ship for breakfast and to settle up our
bills prior to the ship’s return to port.
We were met at the Tuan Chau Marina by a driver and driven to Hanoi with
only one stop at an Arts and Crafts Center for the Disabled. The driver had his lunch and we wandered
around and finally purchased an ice cream bar.
We arrived back at the La Siesta Trendy and were greeted
like returning family. They had upgraded
our room for our final stay. We ventured
out into the neighborhood trying to locate a beer mug for a local Vietnamese
beer. We did not have any luck but we
were able to find our hotel again with minimal difficulty. The streets run every which way which really
makes it interesting for individuals who do not know the area. I know from our taxi rides that some of the
streets are one way, not that it matters to the people on motorcycles; so to
get to some where you might have to weave back and forth.  |
| Surprise Caves in Halong Bay |
We had dinner in the hotel and talked with a couple from
Carlsbad who had just arrived. Then it
was back to the room to pack and to bed.
Friday, 7 April
After breakfast, Laura went down to the front desk to see if
they could call the airlines to see if we could get on an earlier flight. The way it is scheduled now, we have 40
minutes in Japan to change planes for LA.
It could get interesting.
The concerns that we had this morning did not manifest
themselves as problems. We were picked
up and taken to the Hanoi International Airport and we boarded our plane and
departed as scheduled. We landed in
Tokyo and while we only had a short time to get from the gate where our plane
dropped us to the gate we were departing from; we made it with time to
spare. For the flights home, we were in
Economy but the airlines put us first in seats while they were not Business
Class, they still had more room than the Economy seats. The flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles was not
too full so while we were in Economy, we did not have anyone sitting next to
us. We arrived in LA and were expedited
through customs and immigration so we could catch our flight to San Diego. Laura switched seats with a woman who wanted
to sit in an aisle seat which was my seat but had a window seat, in doing so;
Laura got to sit next to me and we again had a seat empty between us. So the flights home went well. Our baggage all arrived and nothing was
broken inside.
Kim and James picked us up at the San Diego Airport and took
us home where we were greeted by a very happy schnauzer. It was hard to tell who was the happiest –
Baxter or Laura.
So the trip is over, but I want to share some other thoughts
on what was different from 45 years ago.
I wrote earlier about the traffic. There were many more cars than in 1971. I saw fewer bicycles and many more
motorcycles. The motorcycles are all
small 90 – 150cc. I did see one Harley. We were told that there were 35 motorcycles
for every automobile registered.
People’s attire had changed. Many
of the people wore western style clothing.
The traditional Ao-Di was not as prevalent, and when it was worn it was
fancier than the plain ivory colored silk with the black pants. Men wore a suit and tie if it were for
business otherwise it was slacks and a polo shirt; sometimes jeans and a tee
shirt for the younger men. The people
were friendly. School aged children
often spoke with us to practice their English language skills. Construction of hotels, resorts and all the
support business for the tourist trade is booming. Some things were unchanged. General sanitation is lacking. Trash is dumped on the street waiting for
someone to come pick it up. There were
lots of plastic bags and containers along the roads. With the exception of one
pedi cab driver, no one took advantage of us.
We were warned about taxi companies that were not reliable and in Laos
we told to keep a close eye on the money exchange as tourists were often short
changed. It was interesting dealing with
the money. In 1971, the only money we
had was MPC – military payment certificate because the government did not want
the US dollars going onto the Vietnamese black market. During our trip the Vietnamese Dong was $1 US
to 22,675 VND. So getting a bill for
over 1,000,000 VND was exciting it meant that you spent $44.10 for dinner. In Cambodia they took the US money but in
Laos the exchange rate for $1 US to 8.190 kip. The hotel in Sihanoukville
thought it was in Los Angeles when it came to charging for our laundry. They charged $5 to wash a pair of jeans but
in Hanoi we were charged $1.20 for 2 pair of jeans.
I wonder if in 45
years, American veterans will go to Afghanistan or Iraq to see what has changed
since they were there last.
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