Vietnam/Cambodia Day 6. God(s) and Men

Spent the last evening in Indochina hunting for the perfect rice paper rolls for DSJ and the perfect pho for me. Both searches came up short. Then had drinks with Jeigh at a place near our hotel. The next day was the first time I slept in during our entire trip.

The past six days were wonderful. I recommend it to everyone with a SEA passport. Cheap and soul-filling. For Vietnam I’d mostly remember the food. The food is fresh, clean-tasting; complex and hearty. Healthy too. I hardly saw any fat people. For Cambodia it’s the temples. Built hundreds of years ago for God. How often does a person get to be so close to something like that? Touching those rocks, seeing those buildings feels like you’re seeing God himself.

Then there’s the people and their histories. Both countries are pained by war and have come out of it differently. Vietnam emerged strong and proud, you can feel it. There’s an air of possibility, of momentum. In three years their economy is predicted to overtake ours, if it hasn’t already.

Cambodia had two decades of war. You can see the damage it has done. The people, with their open faces and smiles, are charming; but you can feel the tragedy just underneath. They have these temples, these awesome temples, hundreds of years old. Maybe just being around this magnificence will affect them; some kind of osmosis can happen and they can regain their past glory. In their territorial waters they recently discovered oil and natural gas. Maybe change is a-comin’.

You can’t help but think, what about us? We look so much like them all but we’re so different. Twenty years since our destiny-changing “revolution” and the same mistakes are repeated with comedic frequency. Is it us, as a people? Or maybe our freedom didn’t come at a costly enough price, like the Vietnamese or the Khmers’. “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly,” Thomas Paine said. Maybe that’s why we’re wasting our freedom away. Visiting them, meeting them makes me wonder if there’s a chance for our turn at greatness.

Cambodia/Vietnam Day 5. Banteays and Wats

Gorgeous wide lens photos courtesy of DSJ. So-so digital shots courtesy of Adi and Tracy. Sucky low-res phone cam pics by me.

Collapsed into bed the night before and woke up late, oops. Kim was there by 5:20AM and I woke up at 5:19. Ten minutes later we were in the van and Kim was talking about how little property Cambodians own in Siem Reap. All the big hotels were owned by foreigners, Cambodians only owned guest houses. Even the Angkor Park is administered by the Vietnamese, paying the government a couple million dollars a year.

Our flight back to Ho Chi Minh is this afternoon at 6PM, so the plan is check out of the hotel, catch a few temples then off to the airport. Our stay in Siem Reap is BITIN. DSJ says she’ll be back and stay a week, by herself; I think it would be good for her. Good for anyone actually. Already I’m making plans to come back.

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Attempted to see Angkor Wat for the much-touted sunrise, but clouds obscured the view (as you can see above). We’re off to Banteay Srei, a 20 minute drive from AW. Kim insists on bringing us early, skipping breakfast, to avoid the crowds.

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Which was an excellent move. Banteay Srei (Citadel of the Women) is a magnificent sandstone temple, very grand and intricate but in a stunted scale, like someone Apple-T’ed it. Its maker was not a king and therefore his temple can’t be larger than the king’s.

The temple complex is under a canopy of jungle trees. It is made of pink sandstone, though the top parts are covered in green moss; giving the shrines a stunning color. Its miniature scale made it look like a giant dollhouse. We were alone there, and with the jungle sounds around us, it was incredibly soothing.

On the lintels and pediments are very intricate carvings of Hindu myth. The detail is astounding. All in all, it was a wonderful visit. It’s DSJ’s favorite temple.

One of the towns en route to Banteay Srei used to be under Khmer Rouge control. In 1999 a Western journalist was captured and killed by the Rouge while we was on his way to Banteay Srei.

As we left the temple to have breakfast, the hordes came, busloads. Good move Kim.

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Next up was Banteay Samre (Citadel of the Samre), near Srei. The book I had been lugging around says it’s only a middle-important temple, so I wasn’t expecting much. Outside it looked like your usual big Khmer temple (hehe sanay na daw) but when you enter, it’s surprising. It was almost complete (thanks to restoration), with deep courtyards and big imposing shrines.

It’s relatively isolated (ie, not much tourists), which was great. We even had time to sit around and take in the sights, enjoying cigarettes (we kept our litter, don’t worry).

Sweat was an issue for me. Here’s Tracy putting a towel on my back like in Grade 2.

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Pre Rup (“Turning of the Body”) is a laterite temple that scholars guess was used for cremation. We climbed to the top.

View from Pre Rup top.

Also because it was too hot to move, we sat around for a while, taking in the jungle scenery. In the distance you can see trees and farms and some of the other ruins. It was very peaceful. Getting down though was a minor problem for the girls.

Later, Kim took us to the Landmine Museum, put up by Aki Ra, a former teenage Khmer Rouge soldier who left. The Landmine Museum is a sobering testament to Cambodia’s painful recent past. One in four Cambodians died during the genocide, most of whom were the educated. Now they struggle to get back on their feet. The irony of these people being surrounded with the most magnificent structures ever created by man is inescapable.

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And then of course, Angkor Wat. Tanghaling tapat when we arrived, it was scorching hot. This was part of Kim’s strategy, there’s less people at this time. Angkor Wat is the 2nd biggest city in the park, but its temple is the largest and most famous.  To enter the city you walk on a walkway that spans across a moat surrounding the city. After the gate it’s another walk to the temple itself. Which is HUGE.

I dunno if it was temple burnout but I wasn’t especially amazed, except for its size and the extraordinary bas-reliefs on the walls. At this point I was acting tour guide, with my trusty book. I planned out the route, which is around the first level first, looking at the bas-reliefs, working our way to the top.

Bas-reliefs adorn all the walls of the outer wall of the temple.

Bas-relief detail of King Jayavarman in royal procession. Originally the bas-reliefs were all painted red.

The bas-reliefs showed either royal life or Hindu myths, such as the Sea of the Churning of Milk. This is a shot of princesses chilling about.

Halfway through though, we were just beat. Had to sit down for a while and rest, have some (one dollar! one dollar!) Coke. DSJ gets the distinction of being the only tourist who ever fell asleep in the Angkor Wat.

Made it to the second level but couldn’t go to the top (damn) because of an ongoing restoration. It was okay, we’re done. It was great.

Ang mga pasaway. Hahaha

apsaras

Apsaras are my favorite thing. They are all over the temples. Apsaras are celestial dancers who attend the gods. They are also your sensual reward if you die heroically in battle, or if you are a king. Bought myself a sandstone statue of an apsara.

Me and Kim

This is Kim our guide. Whenever we would yak in the Starex about how beautiful the temples were, he would say thank you, as if the temples where his; which they are. I like that about him.

We ended our temple viewing by having a few beers just across the AW, hastily cleaning up for the plane trip back to Ho Chi Minh. Kim brought us to the (nice) airport, respectfully said goodbye. We’ll be back, we said.

Vietnam/Cambodia Day 4. Temples, Temples.

Really nice wide lens photos by DSJ
Other pics by Adi and Tracy
Crappy low-res phone pics by me

We stayed at the Bou Savy, a nice, family owned house that’s comfortable, clean, with friendly service. It’s a tuktuk away from the action and near the airport road. Price is USD 15 a night. Highly recommended.

I also recommend Kim Soryar, our tour guide. USD 25 a day (shared among four people) for a nice, comfortable, airconditioned Starex with free water and cool towelettes. Good deal. The airconditioning and water is especially necessary because putang ina ang INET. USD15 for a tuktuk, but that’s just dumb.

So the Angkor Archaeological Park is huge, and Angkor Wat is actually just one set of ruins among many. The Khmers built their capital cities around this area from the 8th to 13th centuries frequently moving them around; until they permanently moved the capital to Phnom Penh to the south. Of these cities the only buildings that survived are the magnificent temples, mostly Hindu but some Buddhist.

9 AM and Kim was there to pick us up. A brief talk about the proposed itinerary and we’re off. The park itself costs USD 40 for 3 days.

The first day was a whilrwind as we visited around a dozen ruins.

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I like what Kim did, he would take us to the temples at times where there are less tourists. He arranged our itinerary in a way that we started small and ended biiig. First up is Prasat Kravan (Cardamom Sanctuary). PK is a brick temple, and its unique features are its brick bas-reliefs, the only one of its kind in the park. It being our first we were all excited, clicking away, which I guess is understandable because all we have in Manila is Intramuros which is just a hundred years old.

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Banteay Kdei is our first huge temple, so amazed were we that we stayed a long time. Kim tells us later that we spent more time there than other people. There’s a perimeter stone wall with the four-faced towers at entrance, then a path leads to the temple. Actually it’s a monastery, and initially it was Hindu, then the new king came along and changed the whole thing to Buddhist.

At every temple there is a group of pretty girls selling things like guide books, fans, scarves, etc all for one dollar. We’ve come to call them the One Dollar Gang. They can speak many languages and are very sweet and friendly. Later on in the day though they got a little tiresome, and Tracy’s always-interested gaze ensured they would follow us around for the trip.

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Ta Prohm is the third largest city in Angkor. It was purposely left in semi-ruined state to show visitors how the temples looked like when they were discovered. Hence, silk cotton trees and strangler figs (what a cool name for a plant) grow out of temple corridors and walls, rubble litters the ground. This temple is also known as the Tomb Raider temple.

This place is huge. Takes your breath away.

At this point it’s almost noon, and it’s HOT. Strangely enough if you stay in the temple corridors it’s quite cool, almost like airconditioning. It’s amazing getting lost in the temple. At times, you’re completely alone and you can imagine what it was like eight hundred years ago…

A defaced Devata (goddess). Throughout the centuries thieves constantly stole relics from the Angkors.

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Ta Keo is a huge unfinished temple, our first experience with the impossibly steep steps, ostensibly to mimic Mount Meru, the mythical home of the gods. We were too daunted to try climbing higher than the first level.

It was fun watching the girls go up and down the step, especially Tracy, as you can see above. Madali tumaas, mahirap bumaba. The best way to go up and down the temples, for me, is on all fours. Like a spider.

In front of Ta Keo was Srah Srang, which is a dock on the edge of the royal bathing pond.

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Thomannon are twin temples just several yards away from each other.

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The city of Angkor Thom

This is the biggest city in the Angkor complex, active in around the 12th century. It’s 3 square kilometers and at its height a million people lived in it. Now the only surviving buildings are the temples and structures around the royal square.

This is the Terrace of the Leper King, so named because the Buddha on top of this structure was in such a state of ruin that they thought it was a representation of the Leper King, a Hindu myth. It’s walls and walls of excellent bas-reliefs.

This is the Elephant Terrace, a long terrace connected to the Royal Palace (now gone except for the foundations). On the walls are bas-reliefs of Airavati (Indra’s elephant), Garudas (Vishnu’s mount, half-man half eagle) and there are naga (multi-headed serpent) balustrades. Kim says kings would watch elephant fights on the fields in front.

The Bayon

This is the Bayon. HA. NEP.

Tang inang hanep.

Kim saved the best for last. Nothing beats this, not even the Angkor Wat the next day. This is the state temple of Jayavarman VII, the rockingest Khmer King, and the temple has passed through both Hindu and Buddhist worship. There are around 30 four-faced towers, all in the likeness of Jayavarman VII, with the center being the highest. Below is a maze of corridors, with lingas (phallic monuments for Shiva) and “libraries”, which are smaller shrines. Along the sides of the temples are amazing bas-reliefs telling Hindu myths, daily Khmer life, and some history. We spent a long time on Bayon, completely overwhelmed by the majesty of the place.

lingas

bas-reliefs

I broke off from the group to just walk around and get lost in the corridors and stairs, to examine the bas-reliefs, then to just sit and watch the towers. It was late afternoon, the temple caught the golden sunlight just beautifully.

Astounding really. You have to see it to believe it.

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One of the entrances to the city of Angkor Thom is the Victory Gate. The balustrades on a bridge atop the moatare demons and gods pulling on a naga, a reference to the Hindu creation myth. The gate itself looks like one of the Bayon face towers.

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Phnom Bakheng. Baduy. It’s a temple on top of a hill where all the tourists congregate to watch the sunset. It’s a steep climb, although we kept laughing on the way to the top. On top were all the tourists in all of Cambodia watching the show.

Watching the sunset was I guess ooookay but not really. We left right away in order to avoid the stampede on the way down.

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That evening was dinner at the magnificent Karo Restaurant (Sivatha Road), just off the night market. Food was dirt cheap (USD 1-2 per dish) and excellent. And the sign says they proudly DO NOT serve rat, snake, cat, dog. That’s a relief.

Vietnam/Cambodia Day 3. Saigon – Phnom Penh – Siem Reap

Bus ride (USD 22) leaves Sinh Cafe, HCMC at 6:30 and arrives in Siem Reap at 8:00 PM.

Historically I hate buses. And long rides. This combines both. One, I can’t fit in regular buses (I’m six feet tall) and two, I just hate buses. But budget dictates we take it. Also I figure I can take a look at the countryside and sleep.

Wrong.

Tracy and the others managed to sleep the whole trip. But aside from a 20 minute nap I was able to take as soon as the ride started, I WASN’T ABLE TO SLEEP. Not a frakkin’ wink. Thank God for podcasts.

At the border between Vietnam and Cambodia, Adi and DSJ had a bit of trouble when the DFA finally caught up with them and held them up at the border, billing them the P1600 they thought they can get away with in Manila. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam doesn’t tolerate such disrespect for the government and proceeded to encarcerate them. Thankfully my diplomatic skills saved the day and we went into Cambodia with the two.

The border crossing was actually nice. Well manicured, statues, et al (can’t take pictures though). Funny thing was as soon as you got into Cambodia, ten feet from the border, it’s dusty, dirty, with rundown buildings.

We stopped every two hours or so for food and to pee; there was major traffic at the ferry crossing over the Mekong.

So while my companions are drugged and sleeping, I watch the countryside. I’m not kidding anyone though because it looks exactly like the Philippine countryside, except they have Buddhist accents. Also, their soil is reddish and their homes are on high stilts (which I learned later was to protect them from floods), and their ceilings are generally higher.

2:00 PM was the Phnom Penh stopover. Not excited about that, glad we decided to skip it. Though we wanted to visit the Genocide Museum, there was just no time. In any case Phnom Penh looks like a more depressed Manila.

At the stopovers, we learned with relief that Cambodians spoke English better and understood us. Yipee! That’s much better. Also there’s something about the girl vendors. They’re actually very beautiful. Chinese features but sharper noses, nice dusky skin. The girls were also very friendly, and not just cause they want to sell something. At one point Tracy told one girl, “you’re very pretty”. The girl shook her head, “no, no, no.”

6:00 PM, two hours to go and my ass HURTS. We stop over at another restaurant. There is a pot of food. Me, Tracy, DSJ, a Swiss backpacker and his hot girlfriend stand over the pot, trying to decipher what it was.

“I think they’re turtles,” I say.

True enough, they are turtles that look like they’ve been boiled whole, shell and claws and Pong Pagong heads intact. Cherry tomatoes on top.

“Are they turtles?” Switzerland says.

“Awwwww….” we all say.

8:00 PM, we arrive in Siem Reap. Can’t really see anything yet cause it’s dark, but it looks like QC but less populated and a lot dustier. We get picked up by our hotel. Excited, we troop out to the night market to have dinner, shop a bit. I make arrangements with our tour guide the next day.

The next two days comprised two of the best days we’ve ever had.

Vietnam/Cambodia Day 2. Cu Chi Gang

Next morning was off to the Cu Chi Tunnels, a little over an hour out of town by bus. The Cu Chi Tunnels are an extensive network of underground tunnels that the VietCong used to launch guerilla attacks against the Americans. Entire villages lived underground in these small, cramped, suffocating tunnels.

Prior to the tour there was a short presentation about the VietCong. I thought it was interesting seeing a memorial to the VC as heroes, all we are bombarded with is the American side of things. In the War Memorial we see statues of VC, the booby traps they used, etc. and I have to say, they’re genius. They used what they had to defeat a seemingly superior force. These people are a strong, proud people. Astig.

The video in the beginning was a little awkward, in fact the whole slant of the memorial was strange. The video was a documentary. Shot: nice looking peasant girl. Voice-over: “You think that this is a cute little peasant girl, but in truth, she is an American Killer Hero! She has killed 16 Americans.” Further on in the video the narrator kept calling Americans names, like “crazy devils”. On the walls of the booby trap museum you see paintings of Americans being killed by the traps in a lampoon sort of way. The guide says, “you know chicken burger, ham burger? These traps make American burgers,” then he laughs.

It may be comical, and it goes against what we know (from all those movies and TV shows), but one thing he said put everything in perspective: in the war, American casualties were at 80,000. Vietnamese casualties were two million.

We went into the tunnels ourselves and I didn’t last longer than 100 meters in. That was less than 10 minutes. These people lasted months, years in these tunnels. And they won.

After the tunnels I was so sleepy so I crashed while the others went to a pagoda and a zoo. Then it was off to dinner with Pinoy friends based in HCMC, Jeigh and Anne; both TVC producers. But before that, another discovery: Ban Mi (sp?)!

It’s a make-your-own baguette sandwich stand. Great for baon.

Vietnamese barbecue! A grill in the middle of the table on which there were various meats (beef with cheese, goat’s breast (which was awful… the texture really felt like you were chewing on a nipple and not in a good way), prawns) and veggies. The omnipresent vinegar-chili-fish sauce dip that I swear I can chug down, it’s that good. A shellfish salad appetizer that you put on kropek flakes. It was the best meal of the entire trip.

The restaurant was on the rooftop of an old French colonial building, downstairs was a pastry shop where we had dessert. I don’t really care for dessert in general but it was a nice place. The area was also pretty; it was in what I’m guessing is the city center, with the palace and more French colonial buildings. Nicely done.

Off to bed early, as the bus for Siem Reap leaves at 6:30 AM. Bracing myself for that.

Vietnam/Cambodia trip Day 1. Travel Tax

Some photos swiped from Adi’s blog because my phone cam is stupid.

So, four of us: myself, Tracy, DSJ and Adi decide to go on a hardly-planned trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. It realized I haven’t had a vacation in almost two years, so I was really looking forward to this trip. Even if it’s 34 degrees there.

Booked only our first two nights and Saigon and decided to just wing the rest of the itinerary when we get there. Took PAL, which is actually only 1k more than the much-touted Cebu Pacific flights, and you land at a more decent time.

At the airport, DSJ and Adi managed to escape paying travel tax, but Tracy and I didn’t. Obviously, I will make them pay.

First impressions of Saigon:

-Nice airport. In fact, NAIA is very embarrassing. It has got to be the worst airport I’ve seen so far.

-Motorbikes. Lots and lots of them, swarming you like ants. We saw office workers and girls dressed in Friday night best, complete with heels; all on bikes. Jeigh and Anne, friends in Saigon, tell us the strangest things they’ve seen loaded on motorbikes: things like plasma TVs, live pigs, and a refrigerator.

-It’s very hot. Like Manila. But the air is cleaner.

-Nice city. Streets are narrow and just right. Streets spread out around rotondas, and the buildings are a mix of new and old French colonial. The buildings are narrow, with shops of all kinds on the ground floor and apartments on top. I could imagine Escolta was planned like this, but we weren’t able to maintain it.

-You’re a millionaire as soon as you convert your money. Our cab fare was 100,000 Dong.

Our hotel is just outside the touristy Pham Ngu Lao area, in District 1. The Holiday Hotel (complete with the aaalmost font of the Holiday Inn chain) was nice. It was new, clean, with complete amenities. It’s a little pricier than the Lonely Planet-type backpacker places nearby, but I figure at this age we deserve a little comfort. It’s USD 25-35 a night. Not bad. The service is good too.

After a bit of rest we set out to book our itinerary, plane trips, and such at Sinh Café which I recommend; it’s a chain of travel agencies across Indochina. At that point we were starving, and there are a lot of restaurants around including many street vendors (“ambulant squid! Ambulant squid!” Tracy yells at one point to one of them), and because we had no idea, we just followed our noses to the most fragrant, most masarap scent.

We had a plate of bun cha and bottles of Saigon Green. At least that’s what Jeigh called it when we described it to him later. After googling it though, bun cha didn’t look like what we ate. What we ate were flat rice noodles, with pork, mint, cilantro, chili, some nuts, veggies; and a dipping sauce which to my unrefined palate’s opinion, had vinegar, fish sauce, lime and more chili.

Sarrrap.

In fact the best part about our Vietnam stay was the food. Very clean, tasty, and healthy. I didn’t see one fat person there.

I didn’t even care about Benh Thanh, the huge night market down the street from our hotel, full of Vietnamese souvenirs and fake Louis Vuittons and Rolexes. The girls had a time but I was just waiting to get hungry again and eat. Dinner was there at the market, my appetite almost killed by a couple of live, strung up frogs. Almost. This particular dinner wasn’t that great for me, it was like something I’d eat in Dampa.

After drinks at a touristy bar reminiscent of Boracay, we had a midnight snack at a pho place a couple of buildings from the hotel.

That. Was. The. Best.

Huge bowls of noodles with pork (at least I hope it was pork), tasty and just soul-filling. Ridiculously spicy but that’s how I like it; Adi’s lips were red and swollen.

Tomorrow: more Saigon!

Hearing

Stumbled upon an amazing Pulitzer-Prize winning article about context and art.

I only know Joshua Bell, possibly the greatest violinist alive, as the soloist in the musical score of the underrated film The Red Violin (Le Violon Rouge). He provided some stunt violining as well. During morning rush hour on January 12, 2007, Joshua posed as a street musician and positioned himself at a Washington DC subway station, and plays for 45 minutes.

He played some of the most beautiful, most difficult music ever written; music that has endured hundreds of years. He was playing a 3.5 million dollar, 300 year-old violin. And this is a man who can make up to US$1,000 a minute playing.

It was a social experiment. Would people appreciate beauty in the most vapid of situations? Would we even notice?

The results are astonishing.

The full article written by Gene Weingarten, is here.

Almost everyone, save for a few, actually stopped to listen. One of my favorite parts is how there was no ethnic or demographic pattern as to who stopped, except for one group: children. Every time a child would pass by, each of them would stop and watch. Except their parents always dragged them away. I guess we were born with the ability to appreciate art and see beauty, but somewhere along the way we lose it.

That’s What I Think.

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery– celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: “It’s not where you take things from– it’s where you take them to.”

-Jim Jarmusch