a Striking Empire from way Back

Hue, Vietnam

A view of the streets of Hoi An, the cutest town we've been to so far.

Noah at his cooking class while I was at the beach. He also got a tour of the market and explanations about the various types of food available there.

Noah had to communicate with the instructor in regards to my aversion to cooked tomatoes and pork. He was shocked to know that the instructor removes all the tomato seeds before she cooks any tomatoes because they are 'bad for you'.

Our first day in Hue (pronounced H'way) we rented bicycles to tour the surrounding areas including many of the tombs of the old emperors from the time when Hue was the capital of Vietnam.

We rode for hours until the road we were riding on became a paved path, then an unpaved path, and finally single track. Since we did wanted to do a loop, we paid to get ferried across the Perfume River by two women who live at the end of the trail we were riding on. They even loaded our bikes onto the boat for us.

After crossing the river we were able to make it to the tomb of Nguyen emperor Tu Duc. This was a peaceful oasis where the emperor went to spend quality time even before he died.

Sitting in front of the tomb for the minor wives (those weighing less than 135 lbs?).

The moat winding through the buildings of the tomb and the park.

Today, we visited the citadel (the walled part of the city). The walls enclose a huge area, inside of which is a separate walled city called the "imperial enclosure." This is where all of the royal family lived. The best preserved parts are those that were used by the queen mother (Emperor's grandmother).


There was also a shrine painted bright red on the interior, dedicated to the most patriotic of the former Nguyen Emperors.

Vietnam by Rail, Micki's 2nd 29th Birthday

Hoi An, Vietnam

We apologize for the delay, but we've been having some difficulty accessing our blog here. We can't tell whether this is due to inadequate technology or inadequate civil liberties, but no matter because today we somehow got it to work. Here's the summary: We left Cambodia on an all-day bus ride and arrived in Saigon (Technically Ho Chi Minh City) late in the evening of the 16th. Pretty much the first thing we did was head out for Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) to remind us of one of our favorite Harvard Square haunts. The comfort food hit the spot, but somehow a huge steaming bowl of soup seems better suited to Boston in February than swealtering Saigon.

Our next stop was the War Remnants Museum (tactfully renamed from the American War Crimes Museum) where all the atrocities of the war, disfiguring napalm injuries and agent orange birth defects are catalouged (icluding a collection of preserved fetuses). Despite the strong note of propagada in the exhibits, this was a sobering window into another perspective on the history of American Imperialism. They had a bunch of war planes and tanks too.

Everyone in Vietnam rides scooters, or 'motorbikes' as they call them. Cars are in the minority and most of Saigon had separate roads for the motorbikes. Score one for efficiency, but take two points away for the choking fumes resulting from all the two-stroke engines. I wonder what they do when it rains?

Day two in Saigon (the 18th) we wandered into some kind of flower fair on our way to Reunification Palace. The fair was pretty entertaining, with ribbons for the best orchids, bonzai trees, and tropical fish. The palace was interesting as well, pretty much untouched since the tanks rolled over the gate in '75. A "classic example of 1960's architecture" they said. It sure reminded me of the engineering quad at Cornell.

We decided the best way to get around the country was by train, and the sleeper trains are a good option to minimize the amount of time "wasted" in transit. Our first leg was from Saigon to the beach town of Nha Trang. We got on one of the plush "traveller" trains where Micki read up on our next destination.

Nha Trang is a busy touristy beach town filled with Vietnamese sojourners ejoying their new-years holiday. One very generous woman on the train gave those of us sharing her berth red envelopes wen we arrived in Nha Trang. Karma for her, breakfast for me, everyone wins! The the surf was high, our first couple days and we were a bit nervous to swim. We did have a great time sitting on the beach though, enjoying the nice breeze off the water. The third day was a bit calmer and Micki got to bob in the waves on her birthday!

The evening of the 21st we boarded another overnight train, but this time we got the express (a step down from the travellers coach). It wasn't quite as comfy, but we made it this morning to Hoi An, a cute town that served as a major international port before the harbor silted up. Now it's a tourist draw that features a bustling market and many historical buildings, including a Japanese covered bridge from the 16th century.

We explored around the town for a while and then rented bikes and rode out through a few rice patties to the beach (China Beach as it happens). It's a lot less crowded than Nha Trang, and has a lot less garbage as well. We may head back that way tomorrow.

Say Waaaat?!

Siem Reap, Cambodia

We arrived yesterday evening in Seim Reap, Capital of the ancient Khmer Empire and host to a huge number of wats, or temples. These were built by various kings to glorify themselves, the empire and the gods. There are dozens of them, most close to a thousand years old clustered together in the jungle outside of town. We got an early start, and had a power-packed day, visiting 5 mega-wats and a handful of smaller ones before dinner. The first was the famous Angkor Wat, an enormous structure, claimed to be the largest religious building in the world. It is surrounded by a moat 100 yards across that is over 2 miles long. The walls and buildings were made out of sandstone, so many of the intricate carvings that once covered them have suffered from exposure, but it's amazing how much is still intact.
Our second stop was the Bayon, centrally located in the ancient walled and moated city of Angkor Thom. This one was built by a particularly powerful king, Jayavarman VII, who reminded people he was watching them big-brother style, using 216 giant heads carved into the towers of the temple, said to resemble the great king himself. The Bayon also featured carvings on the outer walls depicting various military events.


The nearby Baphuon is a slightly older relic, disassembled for renovation prior to the rise of the Khmer Rouge, who subsequently destroyed all the documentation, leaving a giant jigsaw puzzle. It looked like it is still unfinished. The next stop was Ta Keo, a tall and steep but unadorned temple that gave us a bit of a workout. Then we moved on to Tevoda, a temple where giant trees have grown over the aisles and sent roots into the cracks between stones, threatening to tear a wat, or even kill a wat by destabilizing its buildings. We are told that this temple was featured in the Tomb Raider movie, so I guess we'll have to check that out.

Some Rotten Eggs

Vientiane, Laos

Yesterday was an up and down day for us. We rode off in the morning to a site where a school is being built in the hopes of volunteering, unfortunately the hippies running the show were completely disorganized and could not figure out anything for us to do. Luckily for us, the site was only 1/4 mile from a cave and blue lagoon so we enjoyed that for half the day.

There were so many butterflies during our ride, and they seemed to be playing tag. Here is a big group we saw by the river.


As we rode back into town, Noah started feeling sick so we headed to our guest house (image below from our balcony). We think it was really bad food poisoning from a hard-boiled egg sandwich, which ironically we bought at the cleanest place in town. I felt a little guilty as Noah had a double portion since I was expecting a scrambled egg sandwich as we have been eating the past few days and have an aversion to hard-boiled eggs (and of course Noah ate both). We were worried he wouldn't be able to handle the bus ride to Vientiane to catch our flight tomorrow to Cambodia. Fortunately I was able to convince them to let us take a later bus and got here just fine. Looking forward to Angkor Wat in a couple of days.

Second Waterfall's the Charm

Vang Vieng, Loas

the street our guest house was on in Luang Prabang

Our second attempt at finding a waterfall was a bit more successful than the first. This one had water, ropeswings and bears! oh my! Check out the pics:



In the evening we picked up some Lao Kip and became millionaires (1MK=$114). We spent the whole million in one evening though, booking tours and paying for our room. Oh well, easy come easy go.


Today we hopped a bus south on a windy road through stunning mountains to Vang Vieng, and I discovered the magic of dramamine! This place features a tube ride down stream past bars blasting pop music. We're still deciding whether that sounds like fun or not.

We worked really hard, so use your imagination...

For our first day in Luang Prabeng, we decided to rent bicycles and ride to one of the three waterfalls nearby. After passing over some cruisers, we decided to rent "mountian" bikes so that we would be able to change gears for the hills. We rode 15km out of town to the closest waterfalls with a lot of hard work as the ride was almost all uphill, and our back gears did not really work. Noah also had a seat that could not be raised, so his legs had extra work.

With all that, the ride was not nearly as bad as we thought, it was made fun by all the kids waving to us from along the road. We made it to the village where we thought the waterfall was, and they had us pay to park our bikes ($0.20 each) and then we went up the river in a boat for about 5min. When we did make it to the waterfall, we were a little disappointed to see it was almost completely dry, so use your imagination when looking at the photos.

Today we will go to the other waterfall (that most of our travel buddies went to yesterday), so hopefully we will have better pictures tomorrow.