Q: How was the food?
A: It was great, mostly. We had one weird meal in a rather nice place in Saigon – the food was gummy, fishy, meaty, slimy, all the things we did not want it to be. I don’t think this was bad food, I think the mistake we made was that this was a specialty restaurant. Their menu said they served the cuisine of Hue – and we had no idea what that was. We have terrific Vietnamese food in Seattle (andThai) so most of the time, the choices were surprisingly familiar. Khmer food (that of Cambodia) was a little dull, stewy and mushy, compared to the bright flavors of Vietnamese and Thai.
Breakfast could be a little challenging. It’s hard to make your belly psyched for fried rice or noodles at 7am. Pho (a Vietnamese soup) was commonly served and sometimes, if it smelled good, I went with that option. We ate a lot of omelettes, fresh fruit, and perfectly awful white bread toast. The coffee in Vietnam was usually great, in Cambodia, not so much so.
Q: What were the hotels like?
A: Crappy. We stayed in one nice place where the breakfast was first rate, the bed was comfortable, and the room was quiet, but that was the exception. In general, they were the crappiest of crappy roadside motels. Fourth use bedding and towels, damp bathrooms with questionable sewers, rooms that were mildewed, musty, noisy, and not very nice. But totally within expectations. This was a budget trip and we were not expecting anything better than what we got, so we were never disappointed. It’s not like they sold us a luxury hotel and we ended up at the No Tell Motel. They were exactly what we thought they would be. I hear there are lovely hotels in Asia. I wish I could say I’d seen some of them.
Q: How did you get around?
You name it. In the cities, we walked, mostly, with the occasional taxi or tuktuk ride. We spent a fair amount of time on private buses, we took an overnight train and slept four to a prison cell cabin, we took a few flights, we used the tuktuks, rode in a cyclo, and did some boat trips. Planes, trains, automobiles, bicycles, boats, scooters… we did it all.
Q:Was it scary? Did you fear for your safety, ever?
A: The scariest thing, no contest, is when you cross the street for the first time in the city. You have to go contrary to everything you have learned and step off the curb into moving traffic. It’s insane and terrifying. As for personal safety, threatening behavior, fear of thieves and pickpockets, any of that? I never once felt like I was at risk, and I like to think my radar is fairly tuned. We were told that Phnom Pehn turns nasty at night, but we didn’t experience it directly because we listened to advice and didn’t roam the streets after dark. Hanoi, Saigon, and Siem Riep were all lively at night – again, the scariest thing was crossing the street. Think stepping out in traffic is scary in daylight? Try it after dark when there’s barely enough lighting to see anything but headlights. Damn.
Q: How do the Vietnamese feel about Americans and the war?
A: The only time the war came up at all was at the Cu Chi Tunnels War Memorial Theme Park and Shooting Range. (My renaming scheme.) A crazy percentage of the population is below 30, so they don’t remember the war. Vietnam is barreling towards Western style capitalist consumption at a breakneck pace, so I’m pretty confident they aren’t even thinking about “The American War” as it’s called there. You’re surrounded by a population of 20 somethings in t-shirts with bad English on them (I saw one girl in a pink “Brittney Spear” shirt), they’re wearing knock off Western brands – Dolce & Gabbana, Addidas, Nike, you name it, they’re toting cell phones and hauling flat screen TVs home on the backs of their scooters so they can watch MTV Asia… the war?
I think it would be totally different if we’d had the chance to talk to anyone that had lived through the war. But everyone we encountered was young, young, young. I talked to a nice kid in a coffee place that was studying English and IT. I’m guessing he thinks about eating my job a lot more frequently than he thinks about the Johnson/Nixon years. We were walking opportunities for capitalism, not “the enemy.” People were really nice to us.
Q: How did you like the tour? Did you enjoy traveling with a group? What were the people like?
A: We had a very congenial group. Sure, they drove me nuts from time to time, but they were totally fine to travel with. Our group skewed old, to the disappointment of the two 20something girls who were along, I’m sure. There were two other demographics, ours, and retirees. We had great travelers, experienced, adventurous, easy to get along with, good company at breakfast, and sometimes, incredibly funny. It wasn’t the people that made me dislike group travel.
It was the schedule. I am a glacially slow traveler. I love to sit and watch, I like to fuss over the visual details. If I like a place, I spend an extra day, if I don’t, I get the hell out. While we did have plenty of free time – this was not an obsessively controlled journey and everything, from breakfast to bedtime, was optional, there just wasn’t enough time at the places I enjoyed to satisfy me. I wanted more time in Hue, Phnom Pehn, and Siem Riep and that was just not going to happen. I could deal with the crappy hotels, the personalities, the odd breakfasts, and any number of other trials, but I was very frustrated with what seemed to me like rushing about. The pace may have been quite reasonable, but it was too fast for me. Solo, I’d do the same trip in two or three times the amount of time.
Q: Wow, your pictures are awesome. What’s in your kit? What’s the trick?
A: Aw, shucks. Okay, enough modesty, they RULE, don’t they! I’m totally psyched about the photos! No, thanks, seriously.
We travel with two cameras, a Lumix DMC-TC3 – a fantastic little point and shoot – and an older Canon Digital Rebel with the now retired (aka broken) Sigma 28-300 lens. We carry loads of memory and extra batteries, always. J carries the Lumix, I shoot with the Canon. The Sigma lens isn’t great, but I will absolutely replace it because it is perfect for traveling light.
Sometimes I’ll get a technical question about how we shoot, but the honest truth is that we don’t focus as much on the technical as we do on being active about taking pics. What’s that mean? It means the camera is always handy and we take a ton of photos. A ton. When everything is moving, I take several frames in sequence – that increases the odds that I’ll get what I want – and if the light is low, I often hand the SLR to J because he has a steady hand. We’re a good team.
Q: Did you have a great time?
A: It was intense. It was overwhelming, exhausting, and sometimes, after six hours out and about, I just couldn’t take it anymore. Yeah, of course, we had a great time, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
Q: Where are you going next?
A: Well, I’m going to do some technical work for a client downtown, so I think I’ll go to the bus stop on 35th. We’re going camping on the Washington Coast in April, but that’s all we’ve got planned for now. I’d say that I think we’re done traveling for a while, but I really hope that’s not true. It doesn’t look like I’m winning the Martinique popularity contest, so I don’t think we’re going there. <Sigh.>
Any more questions? I’ll happily answer them; just leave them in the comments.
[tags]travel, Vietnam, Cambodia[/tags]
Well, I’ve enjoyed every step of the way. Thanks for all the pictures and the writing.
Hey, thanks SO much. It was super fun.
But don’t go away yet, there are a few more days left of the Southeast Asia series before the wrap in Bangkok.
I second the patient. It’s been such a treat to read about your travels in Hawaii and then Southeast Asia. Thanks for taking the time to post during your trips, and for the photos. (And for all the fish, of course.)