I was waiting for
Airasia to fly to Cambodia, after reading the article from newspaper regarding
the announcement of landing permit obtained by the airlines recently, so that
it could cut down my budget. However, after few weeks of waiting and it was
getting closer to our travel schedule, a colleague of mine advised me to look
for other airlines, such as Tiger Airways. Luckily I managed to book the seats
and the air fare was within our budget in such a short notice, however, we must
travel to Singapore to board the flight and reach Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
One of our team members has friends staying in Singapore, and we could put up a
night there before the departure. After a week of our booking, Airasia then
only announced their flight to Phnom Penh and Seam Reap. What a miss!
We took an express bus to Singapore. There were total of four of us, however one of our team members went down to Singapore first to settle some personal matters. Three of us met at the KFC to have our quick lunch before boarding the bus in the afternoon. The schedule bus was delay due to some technical problem on the way to Kuala Lumpur. After half an hour delay, the staff of the bus company leaded us to another bus that was about to leave in few minutes. The journey to Singapore, with one stop along the North-South Highway, was very smooth and comfortable.
We reached Johor Bahru during rush hour, I saw many Malaysian walking out from the immigration building and many were on motorcycles on the opposite side of the roads. We had no major problems passing through the immigration checkpoint, but I had the problem that the machine couldn’t read my passport and I had to do it manually at the counter. Anyway, I won’t be surprised of this kind of unpleasant experience in our country, where this is the norm of our daily practice.
Even though we were on the opposite flow of the traffic, we still encountered traffic jam at the entrance of the Singapore Immigration Building after crossing the bridge. We had to walk into the building with our luggage following the flow of people who were rushing towards the immigration check counters. After filling up the form, we walked to the counters passing through a lengthy zigzag lane that could easily make me dizzy. The officer was chatting with her colleague and looking at me with indifference while checking my passport. I seriously hope that not all Singaporean has such indifference attitude towards our people. Right after the counter, another round of passing through the lengthy zigzag lane that almost made me lost control. I seriously felt that I was treated like a fool, or not better than a primary school kid that need such regulation to guide me how to walk.
Right after the checkpoint, on the way leaving the building, I saw papers everywhere on the floor. There were two young ladies giving out leaflets to those whoever passed by. Those leaflets were purposely dropped to the floor and overflowed all the dustbins along the way. I even saw empty bottles and cans on the floor too! It definitely doesn’t sound like a normal practice of a Singaporean, as they claimed to be the cleanest city in the world.
The traffic was bad during rush hour near immigration area. However, we didn’t waste too much time on waiting our friends to fetch us. We then went to a MRT station to meet our team member who reached Singapore earlier. Due to communication problem, he went to another place and we had to wait for him at the MRT station. While waiting, I could enjoy observing the people who passing by and hanging about at the station. I could feel the different environment as compared to ours. Of course there were more Chinese and the architecture was not much different from ours, but the most important fact that distinguished the differences was the temperament of the local people. I could feel the highly educated and self-disciplined civilization in this country.
After the dinner, we had a short walk to the nearby community centre. The residential area was really quiet and peaceful; we don’t have the worry and nervous walking on the street in the middle of the night. Even though I don’t really like Singapore due to its strict laws and regulations, but no doubt, life in Singapore is definitely the best in this region.
Day 2, 16 November 2005, Wednesday (Singapore – Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
Our flight leaving for Ho Chi Minh City, departing from Singapore Changi International Airport at about 11:35am. Our friends fetched us there after a simple breakfast at a community centre. We passed through the immigration check counters more than one hour early than the scheduled time. The airport has free Internet access for passengers at the waiting area. The usage of the Internet access is limited to one hour for each round and user has to be standing while surfing the net. Anyway, it was good enough for me to check and reply any mails urgently.
We came to a taxi
counter right before the arrival gate. After query on the taxi fare, we then
tried our luck to get cheaper fare outside the building. The staff over the
taxi counter advised us that the outside taxi would be much more expensive, and
it was true enough, those taxi drivers outside the building were charging us
double than what was quoted from the counter. This is totally opposite from
what is practiced in my country.
We had a lady taxi
driver, and she was really polite and pretty but could only speak few words of
English. We were trying to talk to her, but eventually we gave up, as it was more
difficult than having our master degree examination.
The journey to our
online pre-booked guesthouse at Pham Ngu Lao area was quite interesting. We saw
those old buildings along the way, with lots of motorcycles, and the
traditional bicycles, few ladies with traditional Vietnamese costume, and most
motorcyclists didn’t wear a helmet. The sky was cloudy and rained during our
journey. This would be my first time experiencing left-handed traffic system.
Our guesthouse, Hong Hoa
Hotel (http://www.honghoavn.com/), is located in a small
alley and it is difficult for taxi to drive through. The lady driver then
dropped us on the main road and politely asked for US1 for tips. I don’t really
like it but I guess this would be their culture. The alley has few more other
guesthouses, but I personally felt that Hong Hoa Hotel is much better in terms
of environment and cleanliness. Furthermore, the room rates are inclusive of 2
hours of free Internet access.
After the inspection of
rooms and check-in, we left our luggage in the room and without further delay;
we passed through their Internet room and a small convenient shop to reach the
main road on the other side of the building. We then came to Sinh Cafe (http://www.sinhcafevn.com/), which is just 2 blocks next
to our guesthouse to book our transport to Cambodia and a tour to Cu Chi
Tunnel. After paying for the booking, we quickly went out for our late lunch.
The very first thing we
learnt in Vietnam was: crossing the roads, what a cultural shock we ever had!
The traffic system was a mess and flow with lots of motorcycles, bicycles and
cars. Some junctions don’t even have a single traffic light at all! We had no
choice to follow very closely with the locals while crossing the roads; it was
really an amazing experience.
The motorcycles and bicycles passing by us left and right without slower down their speed. It was really scary and we almost panic in the middle of the road. Later we found out that, those cyclists will definitely avoiding the pedestrian while crossing the roads, therefore in the travel guidebook did advise that we shouldn’t run while crossing as this would confused the cyclist and causing the accident. Thus we had to walk slowly in order for the cyclists to avoid us. But this rule doesn’t apply to buses. So, when we saw the bus coming, run!
The motorcycles and bicycles passing by us left and right without slower down their speed. It was really scary and we almost panic in the middle of the road. Later we found out that, those cyclists will definitely avoiding the pedestrian while crossing the roads, therefore in the travel guidebook did advise that we shouldn’t run while crossing as this would confused the cyclist and causing the accident. Thus we had to walk slowly in order for the cyclists to avoid us. But this rule doesn’t apply to buses. So, when we saw the bus coming, run!
The development of Ho
Chi Minh City was way out of our expectation, the progress was pretty fast and
the city was quite modernized. I even saw a huge electronic billboard on top of
a building at a main junction and some latest branded names everywhere on the
streets. However, the lifestyles of the locals mostly were still lagged behind
time.
We had our lunch at BenThanh Market, one of the famous tourist markets. There were Vietnamese words
everywhere and we had problem to read those words on the menu. Luckily there
were few stalls equipped with simple English menu. We had our first Vietnamese
rice noodles soup at one of the food stalls. The ingredients and dishes were
clearly displayed on the stall and some of them were hardly seen in our daily
cooking.
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There were hundreds of
stalls at this market selling variety of products, and the sellers were so
aggressively promoting their products. There was once a lady seller was pulling
and holding my friend’s arm and keep on sweet talking and bargaining so that
she could get some business from my friend. What an experience!
We walked around the
market and it was really fascinating to see those nice and beautiful clothing,
handicrafts, foods and fruits. The pricing was really reasonably cheap. Anyway,
we decided to survey on the pricing first and would buy some clothes and
souvenirs before we leave Ho Chi Minh City. We were in the market for few hours
and we had not even finish visiting all the stalls. We saw a banner hanging high
written in Vietnamese but the only words we can understand was: H5N1.
We tried to find a place
for our dinner around the market. There were quite a number of food stalls
around. However, those food stalls seems like selling seafood and those high
pricing staff, or else the menus were in Vietnamese. So, we decided to walk
back to our guesthouse and hopefully to find one on our way back.
There was a restaurant,
not far away from our guesthouse, it seems like more cater for the locals. We
were lucky that there was a lady who can speak simple English. She leaded us to
the rooftop, which is the first floor where we can view the street easily, and
handed us the English menu. We looked around and tried to find out what other
people eating. Then we decided to try the Vietnamese spring rolls.
The order came with quite a big portion of rice papers and vegetables with a plate of fried pork meats and a small bowl of fish paste. We had to manually roll them by ourselves. I chose and picked those vegetables that I usually eat, as there were other vegetables that I had not even seen before. The dinner was really full and healthy. I think I have not had so much of vegetables in my lifetime, so far. The dessert, which was a plate of mixed fruits, came after we finished our dinner. It was free of charge.
The order came with quite a big portion of rice papers and vegetables with a plate of fried pork meats and a small bowl of fish paste. We had to manually roll them by ourselves. I chose and picked those vegetables that I usually eat, as there were other vegetables that I had not even seen before. The dinner was really full and healthy. I think I have not had so much of vegetables in my lifetime, so far. The dessert, which was a plate of mixed fruits, came after we finished our dinner. It was free of charge.
On the way back to
guesthouse, we passed by a local bakery and attracted by the mouth-watering
smell. The shop was selling so many varieties of breads, cakes and other
pastry, and full of customers. The most deadly one was the pricing was so
cheap, but unfortunately we had our dinner already. However, friends of mine
still bought few.
We also passed by a shop
selling electronic products, with few huge speakers playing pop songs at the
entrance outside the building and the volume was extremely high till my heart
almost burst. We went in to have some air-cond. and browsed through the pricing
on the products. We found that the electronic products sold there was not
cheap, maybe this could be the situation for the whole market there, and i.e.
the electronic products were more expensive than that of sold in our country.
Later that night, we had
our fruits bought from the market. It was really juicy, sweet and tasty, and
the most important thing was cheap.
[View Ho Chi Minh City
Photos, click here]
Day 3, 17 November
2005, Thursday (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
Early morning, we went
to the nearby local market, Thai Binh Market for our breakfast. Along the way,
we saw many hawkers selling foods on the walkway beside the main road. Some of
the hawkers were wearing the traditional Vietnamese hat, and the customers were
sitting on the small wooden chairs.
Most of the customers there were men, who sitting and having their food and drink, smoking, reading newspaper and chatting with their friends. There was a story saying that most of the works were done by women, including the housework, raising the children and earning the income, while the men spent their time doing nothing but reading newspaper, chatting with friends during the daytime and rest at home during the night. Thus, nowadays many of the Vietnamese ladies would not like to get married with the locals and they don’t mind to be the mail-ordered bride and lived in a foreign land.
Most of the customers there were men, who sitting and having their food and drink, smoking, reading newspaper and chatting with their friends. There was a story saying that most of the works were done by women, including the housework, raising the children and earning the income, while the men spent their time doing nothing but reading newspaper, chatting with friends during the daytime and rest at home during the night. Thus, nowadays many of the Vietnamese ladies would not like to get married with the locals and they don’t mind to be the mail-ordered bride and lived in a foreign land.
The Thai Binh Market was
crowded with locals during our visit. We saw plenty of local foods and
products. Some foods looked very delicious but we don’t know what those were
and dare not to try. The vegetables and fruits were so fresh and attractive. We
then came to a corner where those food stalls served with tables and chairs
located. Most of the seller could only speak little English, and we tried our
best to communicate with them. I was really surprised with the local coffee,
very small cup that slightly bigger than that of an espresso coffee but the
taste was very strong and nice, and only cost about fifty cent of our currency!
This was the first time I ever had the cheapest espresso in my life!
After the breakfast, we
walked back to Sinh Cafe and waited for our trip to Cu Chi Tunnel. There were
lots of western foreigners crowded in front of Sinh Cafe and also quite a
number of buses lining up for picking up the tourist to different destinations
and tours. We were quite lost in the middle of the crowd but the staff advised
us just to wait at a corner. Finally, we were called to board the bus and a
local tour guide doing the commentary about the city and Cu Chi Tunnel.
According to the tour
guide, their nation hero, Ho Chi Minh was never pass away but just falling in a
long sleep indeed, and his body was nicely preserved. The citizens of Vietnam
highly respect to him and appreciate the efforts that he put in to unite and
protect the whole country. Therefore, they named this city under his name,
previously was known as Saigon.
The
Cu Chi Tunnel was the stable resistance zone of the Party Committee Military
Zone, the Command of Sai Gon, Gia Dinh, the Party Committee of Cu Chi District,
and of all Cu Chi people. It is the place where versatile tactics were used in
the resistance and unification of the country. The tunnel network is about 70km
Northwest of Ho Chi Minh City. It is built on many levels and has a lot of
winding ways like a giant cobweb of 200km. It includes sections for living,
dining, and meeting, as well as fighting. The tunnel network represents the
undaunted will, intelligence, and pride of the Cu Chi people. It is also a
symbol of the revolutionary heroism of the Vietnamese people. Due to this, Cu
Chi has been bestowed the honorific title of “The Steel Land and The Bronze Citadel”. (http://www.cuchitunnel.org.vn/)
When we arrived at the
ticketing office and while waiting for our tour guide to lead us the way, we
saw a guy looked like Tom Cruise! Friends of mine were so excited and even
snapped his picture quietly.
After waiting for a
while, we were then leaded by our tour guide going into the jungle. We stopped
at a small wooden hall where a documentary show on TV about Cu Chi Tunnel and
the living of Cu Chi people during wartime, and a location map of the whole
area, with a small model of the tunnel displayed. After the show, we went
further into the jungle to see those holes, tunnels, camps, etc. There were
some displays on Cu Chi people’s costume, place of living, dining, weapon
making, traps making, and so on. We even sampled the sweet potatoes dipped with
mixture of minced groundnuts and sugar, and a small cup of Chinese tea, where one of those common foods during wartime.
Some could even try the gun shooting by paying one US dollar for one bullet.
The most amazing
experience was the passing through a small tunnel of 50m long. Everyone has to
line up and enter the tunnel one by one. It was really a small tunnel, and we
had to walk like a duck. It was in total darkness and the air was quite thin.
The feeling inside the tunnel was not comfortable at all and very stressful.
Nobody for sure would like to stay any longer. I just couldn’t imagine how
these people living in such tunnel during the wartime.
Another shock of culture
was the medicine sold at the souvenir shop, where snakes, lizards or scorpions
were soaked and mixed with alcohol and herbs into glass bottles. We really
doubted that they are drinkable. The shop also displayed many types of souvenir
made in the mould of weapons, such as bullets and grenades. Unfortunately, I
couldn’t bring those back to my country, it is definitely illegal to import
those thing.
The trip finished at
noon and the bus returned us back to Sinh Cafe. We then without any delay
continue our journey to Cholon, the Chinatown area. According to the map, it
would be quite a distance from where we stayed. However, we decided to talk a
long walk to have a closer look on the city and pick up our lunch along the
way.
We passed by a hawker who is an old lady selling Banh Mi Thit (Vietnamese Sandwich) and we bought one of those and the taste was so delicious. Then, we passed by a pastry shop selling fresh baked pastry with plenty of variety to choose from and all of them looked so colourful and tasty. We were so happy and bought some for our quick lunch.
We passed by a hawker who is an old lady selling Banh Mi Thit (Vietnamese Sandwich) and we bought one of those and the taste was so delicious. Then, we passed by a pastry shop selling fresh baked pastry with plenty of variety to choose from and all of them looked so colourful and tasty. We were so happy and bought some for our quick lunch.
Unfortunately, there was
heavy rain poured during our walking tour. We had to stop at a restaurant for a
coffee break. Yes, Vietnamese coffee again! Meanwhile, we could enjoy watching
the rain on the street and how locals handle it. The cyclists still moving on
the street under the rain covered their whole body with plastic, and steadily
crossing the cross junction without banging into each other. No traffic lights,
but with lots of horn.
The rain didn’t seem to
stop but we had to continue our journey. We couldn’t continue walking under the
rain, so we decided to take the local bus to Cholon bus terminal. We stopped at
a hawker who selling Chinese herbs tea with Chinese words on the menu. We
assumed the old man could speak Chinese. However, he called for help and
another woman came but could not do much, as both cannot speak Chinese. Then,
the woman leaded us to a car dealer who was sitting at the showroom in the shop
lot.
Unfortunately, we could
only hear them speaking in Vietnamese, none of us could understand. It was so
funny that, all of us are Chinese, but we could not communicate at all! Later,
there came a guy who can speak Chinese. We were so happy, but he did not know
which buses to take, and he suggested us to take the taxi instead. Immediately,
he run out to the roadside and stopped a taxi under the rain. He even asked the
taxi driver to drive into the shop lot to pick us up. We were so touched and
couldn’t say any further. The rain was quite heavy. We told the taxi driver
where we heading to and agreed on the price. We thanked all of them for helping
us in this foreign land.
While the taxi
approaching the Cholon area, we could see lots of Chinese signboards on the
street, those familiar faces, decoration on the shops, products displayed on
the windows, and so on. We stopped at the entrance of Thien Hau Temple.
The rain was still very
heavy, we run into the temple. We saw few old mans sitting outside smoking,
perhaps they were waiting for the rain to stop. The temple was pretty old, and
typically a traditional Chinese temple with old structures, deco with old paintings,
craftworks and hanging with lots of circles of incense. Due to rainy day, the
temple looked very dark but peaceful. The smoke from the incense made it looked
mystery and unreal. The most interesting thing that attracted my attention was
the long pieces of pink colour papers hanging on the wall, row by row, stack by
stack, they were like flying when the wind blew over them and it turned up like
a wave, flowing from one side to the other. Those pink colour papers were
written with the names of the persons that donated money to this temple.
The building annexe to
the temple was a Cantonese association. We saw many old mans were sitting in a
common meeting hall. The place was decorated with those Chinese old wooden
tables and chairs, the walls were hanging with meaningful Chinese writings
framed with nicely crafted wood. A huge mirror hanged in the middle that could
reflect all of us. Friends of mine were then chatting with few old mans in
Cantonese.
They were just finished a regular gathering meeting and were waiting for the rain to stop. According to them, the properties in the city was extremely expensive, they were measured by using weight of gold for each inch square of land. The people there have to buy the land first then only construct the house by their own. Therefore, most of them can only afford to buy a small piece of land and build a few storeys building on it. That’s the reason why the houses here have a very narrow entrance but long in depth, and have different design of its own comparing to their neighbourhood.
They were just finished a regular gathering meeting and were waiting for the rain to stop. According to them, the properties in the city was extremely expensive, they were measured by using weight of gold for each inch square of land. The people there have to buy the land first then only construct the house by their own. Therefore, most of them can only afford to buy a small piece of land and build a few storeys building on it. That’s the reason why the houses here have a very narrow entrance but long in depth, and have different design of its own comparing to their neighbourhood.
The conversation was
good, like a feeling of chatting with someone who stayed in our country. The
sky was still very dark; we continued our journey under the rain. Our next stop
would be Binh Tay Market.
Due to the heavy rain,
the main streets in Cholon were so messy with some potholes filled with water
everywhere. We had to be extra careful whenever any cars or motorcycles passing
by, or we might step on them. When we reached at the market, it was almost the
closure time. Certain part of the market was flooded and hardly for us to pass
trough. We then took another entrance into the building. When we reached inside
the centre of the building, it was a roofless patio decorated with pots of
flowers, statuses and a pond. There were some benches for people to take a rest
when busy shopping in the market. The structure of building was heavily
influenced by the traditional Chinese architecture.
Later, we were looking
around for our dinner. After the heavy rain, some of the streets around the
market area were badly flooded, and they looked like a river to us. It was very
unpleasant experience walking around on such condition and the streetlights
were not bright enough. We couldn’t find any food stalls, and we decided to go
back to the local restaurant that we had our dinner last night. We stopped a
taxi at the roadside, and it was really a small and cute car that could only
fit in four of us.
While we were inside the
car passing through some streets, we saw some nice decorated restaurant with
variety of foods. We were wondering why we couldn’t find one just now. The
traffic on the road was really scary, and I don’t think I could ever drive on
this kind of condition. The streetlights were dimmed and it was full of
cyclists on the road and mostly without a traffic light. It was really an
amazing experience having a ride inside a car on the street. But the trouble would
be the noisy horn everywhere.
We stopped at the area
near Ben Thanh Market, as this was the only place we could get the taxi driver
to understand where we heading to. We had a small conflict with the driver as
he claimed that we didn’t pay him enough money as per the meter indicated,
whereas my friend argued with him that she paid him a big note and should get
back the right amount of money. After few rounds of explanation, and the driver
could only understand very little English, we gave up and walked out from the
taxi as we had paid the right amount, and left the miserable driver still
counting his money and wondering why the amount was not tally. We didn’t turn
back and just walk straight.
We came back to the same
place for dining, and we met the same lady. We walked up to the rooftop again.
We were really tired and didn’t know what to eat. The restaurant was crowded
with the locals and quite noisy. We ordered rice congees and fried lotus
rhizome. Tiredly we finished our dinner.
[View Ho Chi Minh City
Photos, click here]
Day 4, 18 November 2005,
Friday (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)
We decided to walk
around the city. According to a travel magazine, there was a very famous rice
noodles soup at Mang Thang Tam Street, so we decided to have our breakfast
there. The streets were full of cyclists and the roadside was busy with the
hawkers selling their products. We were trying very hard to locate the
restaurant, but we failed. Friend of mine attracted by a local pastry shop and
bought some and eating them while walking. We stopped at an entrance to some
kind of foods exhibition held at the Cong Vien Van Hoa Park. Friends of mine
were thinking to go in to have a look, and who knows that we might have free
foods samples for our breakfast. However, the exhibition was not opened yet at the time we visit.
We gave up looking for
the restaurant, and just grabbed whatever we could find along the way. Luckily,
we found a roadside food stall selling rice noodles soup. They had few metal
tables and chairs. We sat down on the small chairs, and ordered our rice
noodles soup. We were served with two plates of different type of fresh
vegetables besides the noodles soup ordered, and later we were giving a big
basket of vegetables for replenish. The soup had little cooking oil and meats
too. I guess the locals like to eat vegetables more than meats, which is a
healthy lifestyle. I noticed that the locals like to sit on one side of the
tables and face to the main road. That’s why all the chairs were parked on one
side of the table.
We continued our journey
to the War Remnants Museum. On the way, we passed by few hawkers selling
snacks, and one of them selling barbeque sweet potato pancakes and the smell
was so attractive even from far. Friend of mine bought few and we all tasted
it, it was really delicious.
Right before we turned
into the lane leading to the museum, a lady who holding stack of postcards
stopped us at the roadside and asking us to buy from her. We were not
interested and replied with a smile. However, she was following us all the way,
even crossing the road and still persuading us. It was so scary!
The War Remnants Museum
was formerly known as the Exhibition House of American War Crimes. The museum
has several halls that labelled with alphabets, and visitors can easily follow
the flow to visit all the halls without missing anyone. Those photos shown in
the exhibition halls on the American-Vietnam war were so touching and full of
miseries and sadness about the war. There was a section on those photographers
who died during the wartime while carrying out their duty. A broken camera with
a bullet hole on it; the photographer was killed while taking a photo. There
was another section on the voices from the American armies during the wartime
showing their sadness and anger at war.
One of the famous photos of war, that a child without clothing crying and running on the road was displayed in one of the hall. Another photo, that a young mother who was carrying and holding her children crossing the river, also shown in this museum.
One of the famous photos of war, that a child without clothing crying and running on the road was displayed in one of the hall. Another photo, that a young mother who was carrying and holding her children crossing the river, also shown in this museum.
A simulated "tiger
cage" prison was shown in this museum too. It was really quiet and scary.
A real guillotine was also displayed here inside a dark room with little
sunlight. While we were visiting the simulated prison, amazingly we found some
giant bats hanging on the roof of the building.
There was a visitors
book placed in the last hall set with table and chair for whoever would like to
pen down one or two lines of how they feel after visiting this museum.
Apparently, nobody would like to have war, no one wants to suffer war again,
and everyone appreciate the peace around us. The person who initiates war is
the devil of all mankind. We should not let this happen again in future.
Next, we proceeded to
Reunification Hall. On the way, we passed by a secondary school that having some
kind of celebration and all the girls were dressing in Vietnamese traditional
costume in white. We could see that the textile material used for the cloth was
very fine and smooth; it could be quite expensive for making such uniform for a
secondary school child. The cutting of the cloth was also very fit to the body
of a girl, and it was really sexy and dignified. Friends of mine were really
dream of having such dress and yet they were worry that the dress might not be
able to fit them well.
The palace, was formerly
known as South Vietnam's Presidential Palace, has a very huge compound. Due to
lack of time, we only visited the main building. While we were visiting the
building, there were few tour groups already arrived and visiting the building
too. Thus, it was quite crowded at some areas in the building. But the
advantage was we would be able to following the groups and listened to the
commentary by the tour guides about the building and the president, usages of
the different rooms, the items displayed, and so on. We walked up from ground
floor to the rooftop, visiting floor by floor. The decoration for each room or
hall was really grand and rich with lots of antiques and paintings.
There was a room
displayed with few traditional musical instruments, and the staff demonstrated
how to play those instruments. It was really fascinating that such unique
instruments could play beautiful music. There was another room where a souvenir
shop located and lots of handicrafts and paintings displayed for sales. As
usual, I don’t have the money to buy those lovely souvenirs, and what I do is to take the pictures of them, luckily the
salesperson over the counter didn’t stop me doing that and I could take quite a
lot of photos on the unique and attractive handicrafts and paintings. The
rooftop of the building had very nice scenery on the beautiful compound with
the huge fountain near the entrance, and some sky-high buildings at the end of
the busy road.
Next, we took the
staircases all the way down to basement. The basement was quite old, dusty and
dark at certain places, and the air was not really well ventilated. There were
many war rooms in the basement served as different functions during wartime.
Those equipments and machines used were still there. We could even visit the
old kitchen with those old cooking machines.
Right outside the
palace, we bought and had fresh coconuts from a hawker at the entrance of the
palace, before continued our journey. Later, we passed through a recreational
park full with very talk and big trees. Surprisingly those trees, as well as
those on the roadside of streets, usually painted with while colour on the root
portion of the tree. Some said it was purposely painted to prevent any vehicles
bang into the trees at night. We saw a happy couple well dressing with wedding
clothes taking their photos at the park with all the big trees as the
background.
The Notre Dame Cathedral, the huge
redbrick edifice with twin spires, was located in front of a busy roundabout.
We had to cross the busy traffic in order to reach the roundabout to take the
nice picture of the church and the statue of Mother Mary. The roundabout where
the statue was situated in the centre was nicely paved and planted with lots of
lovely flowers. The pure white statue with the charming red church as the
background under the sunny blue sky, were so picturesque.
Next to the church was
the Central Post Office.
The interior design of
the building was really wonderful and it was well preserved. The picture of Ho
Chi Minh was hanging high on the wall and whoever walked into the building
could easily spot. Those old design of telephone booths were on the two sides
of the lobby, with two huge old maps hanging high on the wall above them.
Before reaching the rows of servicing counters, there was a souvenir counter in
the middle selling postcards, books, envelopes, etc. They were selling variety
of different designs of postcards about the scenery, buildings and people of
Vietnam and the price was reasonably cheap. I bought quite a lot of postcards
there. Friends of mine even wrote and posted some postcards to their friends
back home. There were few long wooden tables and benches for anybody who would
like to rest or write letters there.
Next, we were going and
passing through the famous street of Ho Chi Minh, Dong Khoi Street.
“Saigon
has the most determined thieves in all of Vietnam. The pickpockets in the Dong
Khoi St area are so good that they can snatch your underwear without you even
noticing. Beware of the ‘under the newspaper trick’, practiced by cute little
children who want to sell you maps, postcards, newspapers and magazines. The kids
can relieve you of your wallet while playing with you too. Snatch thieves on
motorbikes may steal the sunglasses right off your face. Ben Thanh Market is
nother favourite venue for pickpockets.” [Lonely Planet, South East Asia
on a shoestring 1997]
Once we stepped into
Dong Khoi Street, we could see the different view of the city. It was so
modernized and heavily influenced by the western culture. Those structures of
buildings alongside the street were heavily influenced by the France
architecture. There were many nicely decorated retail shops and restaurants or
café targeting high-end market, and also some sky-high modern commercial
buildings. Those working adults were nicely dressed with smart office wear,
which were so much different from what we saw previously. We saw a newly opened
Parkson departmental store there, while friends of mine were looking for a
toilet. The products sold there were highly priced as compared to that of sold
in our country.
We made a turn to visit
the People Committee Hall and City Opera House, and took some pictures.
Friends of mine were
surprised seeing a painting of Mona Lisa by the local artist hanging and
selling at a small paintings gallery that showing a funny chubby look of her.
We also noticed that there were quite a numbers of high-class classical hotels
around that area.
Right after we took some
pictures of the City Opera House, the sky turned dark with strong winds and
would be a heavy pour soon. We quickly moved on to find a restaurant for our
lunch. The rain started to pour when we turned into a lane and luckily we found
a rice noodles soup restaurant there. The set up of the restaurant was quite
nice and the pricing was also on the high side. We went up to first floor, trying to find a window
seats as we could have a look on the street, but couldn’t find one. We placed
our orders and waited quite some time before the foods served. We saw a group
of Taiwanese ladies sitting next to us talking non-stop and apparently their
local friend accompanied them to this restaurant.
It was really a heavy
rain outside, but luckily we had our lunch indoor. We still preferred the rice
noodles soup at the roadside stalls than those at the restaurant; the taste was
nicer and much cheaper. While we were having our dinner, suddenly there was a
power failure. Luckily the restaurant had some emergency lights on so that it
won’t be in total darkness. We quickly finished our lunch and left the
restaurant.
.jpg)
During our stay in this
city, we did encounter two times power failure when we were at the guesthouse.
However, it didn’t cause us any major problems, as it was just a short while.
We could understand as why power failure was so frequent in this city, as the
power cables were hanging high from streets to streets and the system was
really messy. It could be very dangerous if it ever falls down. At one time I
went down to the reception area to check as what actually happened to the power
supply. I noticed that the staff had closed the main door and standby for any
emergency. They thought I wanted to go out and advised me that the whole area
was in darkness, and the power would be back to normal in a short while.
The sky was still dark
even though the rain had stop. We continued walking and had a quick
window-shopping along the street. There were plenty of unique and nicely
decorated retail shops selling colourful and trendy clothing, footwear,
handbags, handicrafts, etc. There were also plenty of romantic and lovely
restaurants and cafés along the street, few were fine dining restaurants. I
bought some souvenirs at a shopping centre, while friends of mine bought some
from an antique souvenir shop that was opposite the famous classical Majestic
Hotel. If it is not due to rainy day and short visiting time, walking,
shopping, dining or even staying along Dong Khoi Street was really a wonderful
experience.
Friends of mine standing
at the roadside taking lots of photos on the people: the cyclists and the
pedestrian.
Next, we crossed the
busy main road by following a group of primary school children to the nearby
jetty. We saw the huge Saigon River, with brownish water and strong waves. We
saw the cyclists and the people loaded into a ferry and crossing the river. One
of the most interesting things was the parking lot that full of motorcycles,
hundreds and hundreds of them!
We decided to walk along
the riverside for a while, and later made a turn towards the direction of Ben
Thanh Market. We stopped at a small simple restaurant for drink and rest for a
while. The restaurant was quite old and quiet, and luckily they had English
menu. Later, we passed by a local gym at the ground floor of shop lot, where
the muscular guys were carrying the heavy metals and sweated all over, cramped
inside a small workout area under the fan and visible to the street.
We saw few bakery shops
opposite the road, and crowded with customers. They were selling variety of
cakes, pastries and snacks. The smell of the foods was really tempting and
irresistible; we were so undecided what to buy. There was a market nearby and
selling local products and fresh vegetables and foods, with few stalls selling
really fresh seafood.
After a long walk, we
finally reached Ben Thanh Market. This time we decided to buy our souvenirs and
clothes, as next day we will be leaving this city. We must have very good
bargaining skill in this pricing battle, as the locals were really good in
persuading you that it would be already very low price. Anyway, we really had a
good time doing our shopping there.
At night, we had our
dinner and hanging about the area around our guesthouse. We had the local foods
at a nearby restaurant, but we still found that the roadside food stalls were
much better in taste. We visited few shops and bookstores, and friends of mine
bought those pirated lonely planet travel guidebooks that selling by those
street sellers who carried stack of 20 to 30 books. The quality of the printing
was not bad and the pricing was really cheap. The nightlife at Pham Ngu Lao
area was really happenings.
“If clubbing until the
sun rises is what you are after, there is no late-night alternative to Pham Ngu
Lao, the heart of the backpacker quarter. Make new pals at this happening party
street, and mingle with the night owls until it’s time to hit the sack.” [Tiger
Tales, Nov/Dec/Jan 2006]
[View Ho Chi Minh City
Photos, click here]
Day 5, 19 November 2005, Saturday (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
We went back to Thai Binh Market for our breakfast. I had Mì Quang (a very popular yet extremely complicated egg noodle soup dish) and Vietnamese coffee. There were many other delicious foods and snacks sold in the market. Friends of mine bought some Vietnamese coffee maker as souvenir.
The Bulgarian man had a Thai wife and always complaining that the Thai food has too much sugar. His kid was so cute and actively climbing up and down the seats in the bus. I was so shocked and touched that the Japan Chinese guy handed me a beautiful map of Phnom Penh. He was a student studying in Phnom Penh and had a short holiday trip in Ho Chi Minh City but it was a really miserable one because his room was broken in one night.
The two-hour bus journey was a comfortable one and had a stop at one petrol station before reaching the border. The bus dropped us at a shop lot area, and we had to walk with our luggage to the border.
The immigration checkpoint at Moc Bai was a beautiful concrete building with very basic facilities. We were queuing up for our passport to be checked and stamped. It was really slow and we were waited like ages. We met a couple from Switzerland who already travelled to this region for about 2 months, and they planned to fly back to their country from Bangkok.
After a long waiting which was about one hour, I was so tired but yet I had to put on my smile when came to my turn. I handed over my passport to the officer who had a very serious face again, mechanically checked and scanned my passport into the computer system. The reason caused the long waiting queue was the scanning process, and it was really slow. After the check counter, we had to walk crossing the border to Cambodia under the hot sun. We witnessed the different degree of development for two countries: it was nicely paved roads leading to the border from Vietnam, but the road condition turned very badly when come to the land of Cambodia, which was muddy, dusty and dirty.
The immigration building of Cambodia was very simple and run down. We had our form filled in inside a big wooden hall on a huge dusty wooden table without chairs. There was lots of people waiting and gather around the one and only one counter, mostly standing because there were hardly any chairs. All the tourists gathered their passports in groups and handed the stacks of passports to the counter at the same time, and waiting near the counter for their names to be called. I was so worry about our passports that left on the table together with so many others, so I was standing quite near to the counter to have an eye on them. The process of checking the forms, passports and finally with stamps on them took us about 40 minutes to get back all our passports and board the small van to continue our journey.
We had to cramp inside the small van under the hot sun from the checkpoint to a nearby restaurant for lunch break and change to a small bus to Phnom Penh. We really lost our appetite after the long wait at the border and under the hot weather.
The bus journey to Phnom Penh was quite tiring as the air-conditional was not well functioning, and there was no luggage compartment that we had to placed our luggage at our seats and the walkway, so the whole bus was stuffed with passengers and luggage that we couldn’t get down from the bus. We saw plenty of paddy fields along the way and villages with many simple and run down wooden houses. We did cross over few bridges that there were many workers who maintaining the bridges/roads as the soil was too soft for any structures built on it.
When we reached a small town beside the Mekong River, Neak Loeung, we had to wait for our turn to board a ferry crossing over the river. The locals carried their foods and handicrafts trying their best to persuade us to buy from them, they were knocking our window, showing us their product, and telling us the price. We had to keep on saying no to them and keep them away from bothering us. They were quite poor and few of them just came to beg for money.
After quite a long wait, we finally boarded on the huge ferry that can carry a number of heavy vehicles at one time. The river was quite huge and the boat journey was quite smooth, but we didn’t get a chance to have a look on the river because we had to stay in the bus that sandwiched between the vehicles that was parked very close to each other on the board. A short while later, we were on the land again and continued our journey.
Friends of mine were chatting and learning some simple Cambodian words with the Cambodian Chinese guy, as he could speak some Mandarin. I really gave up learning the language, as I found it too difficult for me to remember so many different languages, as we had to visit three different countries with three different languages, and end up I spoke simple English to the locals throughout the whole journey.
At late afternoon, we reached Phnom Penh, where we finally saw many old buildings and vehicles on the roads. The city was really old and dusty. The bus stopped at the Capitol Guest House, Tour and Restaurant (http://www.bigpond.kh/users/capitol), and while we getting down from the bus, it was crowded with lots of people offering taxi and hotel. As I already booked the rooms via Internet, I approached the counter located inside the restaurant with the printout of our reservation. I then realised it was a tour counter and a guy leaded us the way to the guesthouse, where a staircase leading to the first floor just beside the restaurant. Apparently the counter staff also couldn’t understand our reservation, and they don’t even know whom did I made the reservation with.
Quickly after we left our luggage in the rooms, we went down to the street to look for our dinner. The sky was dark, and the streetlights were much dimmed, we hardly could see the area clearly. It really looked scary if one ever walks alone on the street at night. There was busy traffic on the streets around Capitol Guesthouse.
We decided to walk over the street opposite the guesthouse where there was a hawker centre next to Phsar Orassey at night. Most of them selling the same fried noodles and fried rice, and we were undecided that one to take. Suddenly, we were so surprised that someone spoke to us in Mandarin, and we decided to order our dinner with this stall. I hardly saw what was I eating as there was no lights but only few candles. The drink they served was Chinese tea and we found it the taste was funny, which was free of charge. As we were so hungry, we just ate what was served and it was tasteless.
We then went to a nearby departmental store, Big A Super Store, at the main road to buy the drinking water (as the mineral water was really expensive) and some snacks. We noticed quite a number of Malaysian products sold on the shelves, and priced in US dollars and quite expensive. Without any delay, right after our quick shopping, we went back to our guesthouse walking under the dimmed streetlights and the area surrounding was quite dark. Most of the shops closed very early and the area turned very quite at night.
“Cambodia is a pretty safe country to travel these days. Remembering the golden rule – stick to marked paths in remote areas. Cambodia is something of a lawless society in which arms are often preferred to eloquence when settling a dispute. Phnom Penh is arguably one of the more dangerous places in Cambodia; it is here that the most guns are concentrated and the most robberies take place. Should anyone be unlucky enough to be robbed, it is important to note that the Cambodian police are the best that money can buy. Any help, such as a police report, is going to cost you. The current pickpocketing hotspots are crowded pick-up trucks on popular tourist routes such as Siem Reap to Poipet or Phnom Penh, and the markets of Phnom Penh.” [Lonely Planet, Cambodia 2005]
[View Phnom Penh Photos,
click here]
Day 6, 20 November 2005, Sunday (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
The streets around Capitol Guesthouse turned to a busy one when the sun raised. We decided to have a walking tour around the city.
“Central Market (Psah Thmei). This unique, art-deco building is a Phnom Penh landmark. Prior to 1935 the area was a swamp/lake that received the runoff during the rainy season. The lake was drained and the market constructed in 1935-37. Wet season flooding in the area around the market of the market is a vestige of the old lake. The entrance to the market is lined with souvenir merchants hawking everything from T-shirts and postcards to silver curios and kramas. Inside is a dazzling display of jewels and gold. Electronic goods, stationery, secondhand clothes and flowers are also in ample supply.” (http://www.canbypublications.com/phnompenh/ppsights.htm)
We found a food stall where a Chinese woman selling noodles soup that can speak Mandarin. Friends of mine ordered some other food from other stalls as well. Basically the foods here were not so tasty and unique like what we had in Ho Chi Minh City. Shopping at the market was not easy, as it needed very good bargaining skill and the people there were not so aggressive like that of the markets in Ho Chi Minh City.
Next, we walked further north of the city to visit the Railway Station. Surprisingly, we thought the building was closed down as it was locked. However, when we saw the train schedule stated on the platform, there were only 2 timeslots i.e. one departure in the morning, and another one arrival in the afternoon. There was no other service for the rest of the day. Apparently, the locals, as compared to the bus service, did not commonly use the train service.
While we were leading to the next stop, we passed by an educational institution and was stopped by a guy with a photographer and he claimed that he is a professor came to visit this place and would like to take a group photo in front of the building together with us, assuming we were the students there. Right after the photograph, while we were still in the shock and doubt, we quickly left the place. What an experience!
We then came to a very grand and luxury hotel, Raffles Hotel Le Royal, after crossing the busy road. We went to their washroom and took a look around. They had a very lovely garden and beautiful architecture, and of course the pricing for the rooms were very expensive too.
“A small hill crowned by an active wat (pagoda) marks the legendary founding place of the Phnom Penh. The hill is the site of constant activity, with a steady stream of the faithful trekking to the vihear, shrines and fortune tellers on top, and a constellation of vendors, visitors and motodups at the bottom. The legend of the founding of Wat Phnom is tied to the beginnings of Phnom Penh. Legend has it that in 1372 Lady Penh (Yea Penh) fished a floating Koki tree out of the river. Inside the tree were four Buddha statues. She built a hill (‘phnom’ means ‘hill’) and a small temple (wat) at what is now the site of what is now known as Wat Phnom. Later, the surrounding area became known after the hill (Phnom) and its creator (Penh), hence ‘Phnom Penh.’ The current temple was last rebuilt in 1926. The large stupa contains the remains of King Ponhea Yat (1405-1467) who moved the Khmer capital from Angkor to Phnom Penh in 1422. She is said to be of particular help to women.” (http://www.canbypublications.com/phnompenh/ppsights.htm)
The admission fee to Wat Phnom was US$1 but we couldn’t find any ticket booth. We were surprised by a lady came out from nowhere holding a stack of tickets and asking us to pay for the entrance when we reached the temple on top of the hill. The temple was a small one. I bought my postcards on Cambodia from a vendor there and it was not cheap.
We walked around the area and saw quite many small wooden stalls selling petrol in bottles at the roadside. Later, we passed through a lane that we saw many workers assembling and polishing cars. We later found out that those cars were used cars that imported from neighbour countries, after some touch-ups they could be sold as new cars, as the tariff on importing brand new cars to the country was very high.
We then came to a junction where we saw few local food stalls located. We decided to have our lunch at one of the stalls that looked clean and more variety of dishes. We found that the owner had little understanding of English, and we had difficulty to order our food. Immediately, the owner called upon his son, and surprisingly this little cute boy could speak fluent English. He was doing his school coursework at the food stall while we were having our lunch.
Next, we continue our journey passing through the small road, Street 19, instead of using the main road, as we would like to have a closer look on the locals’ living. We saw beggars and the poorest people along the road, the shop lots with small retail shops, and the locals hanging about at the entrance of their shops or houses. We saw a Chinese shop selling biscuits and snacks, we chatted a little bit with the owner in Mandarin and bought some snacks.
When we turned into Street 178, on the way going to the National Museum, we saw plenty of beautiful paintings and drawings sold at the local arts galleries on one side of the road, so called the “Artist’s Street” and the opposite was the Royal University of Fine Arts. We went into Reyum Gallery (http://www.reyum.org/) to look at those exhibited works of contemporary Cambodian artists, before visit the National Museum.
“The distinctive rust-red National Museum next to the Royal Palace was dedicated by King Sisowath in 1920. Over 5000 objects are on display including Angkorian era statues, lingas and other artifacts, most notably the legendary statue of the ‘Leper King.’ Though the emphasis is on Angkorian artifacts, there is also a good collection of pieces from later periods, including a special exhibition of post-Angkorian Buddha figures. Visiting the museum after rather than before a trip to Angkor helps lend context to the Angkorian artifacts.” (http://www.canbypublications.com/phnompenh/ppsights.htm)
The museum was worth of paying for visit. The collections were really amazing, especially the items from Angkor Wat and the Buddha statues. Due to lack of time, we couldn’t look at those collections in details. The museum had a pair of magnificent huge ancient wooden gate door overlooking a very nice outdoor lotus pond in the centre of the building. It was quite a lot of visitors around during our visit. I bought a book about the Angkor Wat, however later I found out that the same book sold by the street sellers was pretty much cheaper, even thought it was a pirated one, but the print was really in good quality, similar like the original one.
Due to running out of time, we quickly proceeded to the next stop, the nearby Royal Palace and “Silver Pagoda”. Only me with another friend went to visit this palace, as the rest had little interest on visiting the palaces and temples.
“The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh was constructed over a century ago to serve as the residence of the King of Cambodia, his family and foreign dignitaries, as a venue for the performance of court ceremony and ritual and as a symbol of the Kingdom. It serves to this day as the Cambodian home of King Norodom Sihamoni and former King Norodom Sihanouk. The Royal Palace complex and attached 'Silver Pagoda' compound consist of several buildings, structures and gardens all located within 500x800 meter walled grounds overlooking a riverfront park. Marking the approach to the Palace, the high sculpted wall and golden spired Chanchhaya Pavilion stand distinctively against the riverfront skyline. Inside the Palace grounds, street sounds are silenced by the high walls and the various Royal buildings sit like ornate islands rising from the tranquil, manicured tropical gardens. Except for the area of the actual Royal residence, the Khemarin Palace, most of the Palace grounds and Silver Pagoda are open to the public.”
(http://www.canbypublications.com/phnompenh/pproyalpalace.htm)
We had a quick view and took some photos on those pavilions and temples from far, and then we searched for the silver pagoda. At first we were confused as where were the silvers gone, after few search we then only noticed the floor of the temple was paved with huge and heavy squares of silver. Unfortunately, we couldn’t look at the temple in details and we couldn’t see the gold and diamonds mentioned in the guidebook, as we were rushing of time. We also noticed the locals were queuing up in front of a small fountain where water flowed from the rocks into a small pond, and everyone using the water to wash their hands and faces.
“The ‘Silver Pagoda’ the ‘Temple of the Emerald Buddha.’ It is known as the ‘Silver Pagoda’ for the 5329 silver tiles that cover the floor. Each tile was handcrafted and weighs 1.125kg. The vihear serves less as a functioning temple than a repository for cultural and religious treasures, containing over 1650 precious objects. The primary Buddha, sitting on a gilded dais above all others in the temple, is the Emerald Buddha, reported by different sources to be made of emerald or baccarat crystal. In front of the Emerald Buddha stands Buddha Maitreya (Buddha of the Future,) a 90 kg golden standing Buddha encrusted with 2086 diamonds including a 25 caret diamond in the crown and a 20 caret diamond embedded in the chest.”
(http://www.canbypublications.com/phnompenh/pproyalpalace.htm)
Before leaving the palace, there were exhibition halls on the traditional costume, history of the country, and live traditional music and dance performance. Again, there were lots of visitors there during our visit. Next, we walked over to the riverfront to meet our friends there.
The locals were hanging around at the riverfront, it was nicely paved and concrete built alongside the river of Tonle Sap, with a row of flags of all different countries of the world. There was quite windy and crowded with lots of locals for relax and lazy evening. We were wondering how to locate our friends amongst the crowd of people along the riverfront. We walked alongside the riverfront, and saw quite many hawkers selling drinks, ice cream, snacks and some other thing, and the most disgusting were the fried giant spiders, ants, grasshoppers, maggots and other insects.
After the shower and we waited at the restaurant downstairs, finally we managed to meet this local friend of mine. We were sending messages instead of phone calls, as the roaming charges in Cambodia was extremely expensive, anyway the messages were not cheap either. He brought us to a local restaurant that he usually visited with family members and friends, and would like us to try the local dishes. He was riding a bike, and rented a motor trishaw for us.
The restaurant was not very far from our guesthouse, it was a wooden and simple with fans catered for locals. The dishes ordered was very much like Chinese cooking, and friend of mine ordered one more Thai dishes. The servings were so big that we couldn’t finish them. We had a good chat for a while before sending us back to our guesthouse. He was so kind that settled the bills for the dinner and the trishaw. Friends of mine were saying he was quite handsome looking as compared to those locals. Basically, the people there were quite tan and unlike Vietnamese, especially the ladies where Vietnamese was very fair and skinny, as they believe this would be the standard for beauty.
[View Phnom Penh Photos,
click here]
Day 7, 21 November 2005, Monday (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
Friend of mine was not feeling well last night after the dinner, as she might have eaten something that caused her vomited few times. I was having stomach upset not in particular due to the dinner; it should be the foods I took since the first day in Cambodia. Therefore, we decided to take the motor trishaw to Toul Sleng Genocide Museum instead of walking.
“Prior to 1975, Toul Sleng was a high school. When the Khmer Rouge came to power it was converted into the S-21 prison and interrogation facility. Inmates were systematically tortured, sometimes over a period of months, to extract confessions, after which they were executed at the killing fields of Choeung Ek. S-21 processed over 17,000 people, seven of whom survived. The building now serves as a museum, a memorial and a testament to the madness of the Khmer Rouge regime. Much has been left in the state it was when the Khmer Rouge abandoned it in January 1979. The prison kept extensive records, leaving thousands of photos of their victims, many of which are on display. Paintings of torture at the prison by Vann Nath, a survivor of Toul Sleng, are also on display.” (http://www.canbypublications.com/phnompenh/ppsights.htm)
The motor trishaw owner did suggest us to go to The Killing Fields which was about 17km away from city. But due to lack of time and the long journey under the hot weather, we don’t think it is worth for going. So, we would just visit the museum will do. The compound of the museum was quite large and quiet. There were some visitors during our visit but mostly just keep quiet and not dare to make any sound, as a respect to the death. Some of them paid for a tour guide to guide them around with the commentary about the place and history.
It was a high school, with the classrooms that converted into prison cells and now displayed the tools and equipments used for torturing the victims, exhibited the photos of the victims row by row, the drawings of how they had been tortured with the equipments displayed side by side, some photos on the Killing Fields, two cupboards full of skulls, and so on. There were many children caught as victims, and many victims were tortured to death and the remaining would send in groups to the Killing Fields for execution.
There was a larger classroom displayed with the stories about the victims and the family, so sad and touching. There was a visitor book placed on the old wooden table with chair for anyone who had something to pen down. I was roughly gone through few, and the messages revealed their sadness about the victims and anger about the madness of the Khmer Rouge regime. I just couldn’t imagine how the human beings could be so cruel to its kind. What a sad history after all!
I went to watch a documentary about the Khmer Rouge regime in a darkroom, which already started showing. It was really dark inside and hardly found a seat, as there were so many visitors already there. I was sitting on the wooden bench on the second last row, having the slide show on the screen about the interviews of the victims’ family and friends, the shooting on the fields where they worked, etc. I was there just for a while as I really couldn’t stand with the sadness, and I knew my friends were waiting downstairs beside a tree for a rest. While I was walking down the staircase alone, the old building walls and staircase with the rust handrail, I felt something was squatting down at a corner of the staircase but I just couldn’t see anything there. The feeling was unpleasant and I quickly passed through.
Friends of mine after visiting the museum had nightmares for many nights. The experience of the visit was really unpleasant and sad but it is worth for paying a visit.
Next, we continued our journey to the nearby market by motor trishaw, Phsar Toul Tom Poung (Russian Market).
Along the way, there was busy traffic on the streets and of course hot weather and dusty too. The market was a very simple wooden structure covered with zinc roof but with huge compound. The stalls were well arranged but some areas with very narrow pathways, and we could easily lose our direction, as there were so many stalls everywhere with different exits; it really looked like a maze. We had a nice shopping over there.
He drove us around the city to have a quick look on the areas surrounding. We passed through the Japanese Friendship Bridge to the other side of River Tonle Sap, to have a look on the local residential areas. I saw a statue built in the middle of a roundabout a symbolic for the locals to disarm their weapons, according to my friend that previously the locals had guns and pistols to protect their life due to unsafely situation after the war. But later, government encouraged the people to disarm their weapon and most of the people followed the act but still there were minority yet to surrender them. Sometime, in the middle of night, it is not surprisingly that we could ever hear gun shooting sound in the dark from nowhere. That’s why he advised us not to hang around at those unfamiliar places. He did advised us be extra careful with our belongings wherever we go, as snatch cases were quite common there, as well as some other crime cases.
We even passed by the new casino resort built near the riverside but mainly catered for tourists. We also passed by a local fun fair and food stalls usually crowded with people at night. We did stop at the Independence Monument to have photo section before heading back to our guesthouse. As he was busy at work, therefore we could only have a short drive about the city.
We had our lunch at a proper restaurant that selling rice noodles soup near our guesthouse as we really scared of the roadside foods. Then, we visited the Phsar Orassey, which was just opposite the road. This huge market was apparently catered for the locals, selling daily groceries, cooking utensils, spices, fresh and dried meats on the ground floor, and textiles, clothing, accessories, electronic products, etc on the second floor onwards. There were plenty more outdoor stalls surrounding the building selling vegetables, fruits and fresh meats. We were so shocked and scared whenever we saw the stalls that selling chicken, as the H5N1 was affecting many countries at that time.
Friend of mine was still not feeling well and couldn’t take in any food even plain water, as she was so weak. I was so worry about her health and I really had no idea on what to do next. I then messaged my friend and he was so helpful, came and sent her accompanied with her boyfriend to a Chinese hospital. Later, I received his message saying she was all right and will be back in a couple of hours. I felt so grateful to him and lucky that we had friend like him in a foreign land.
Later, I received a message from my local friend that we met last night inviting me for a drink. We decided not to tell him what had happened to my friend who was now admitted to hospital due to the dinner, as we really don’t want to upset him. He came with bike again and took me to have a short drive around to view the night scene of the city. The city was really dimmed with so few streetlights and most of the area was quite dark. I saw the Independence Monument at the middle of the roundabout, spotted with colourful lights, the local fun fair and food stalls were crowded with locals and I noticed that the locals like to rest on hammocks while having drinks or chatting, the riverfront was also crowded with locals under the dark, and the restaurants and pubs facing the riverfront were so happenings with neon lights and music. Then, we stopped at a bar at a lane nearby the riverfront area for drinks, and chat. As it was quite early, there were not much customers around, the bar girls were joining us for the chat too.
I was told by this local friend, as I noticed there were quite a number of motorbikes and cars had no number plates running on the roads, the reason being was the registration office having problems to get all the vehicles registered. Therefore, they allowed the new vehicles on road while processing the registration. Thus, it could be very difficult to trace back the vehicle if it ever get stolen and due to this reason the problem of vehicles stolen was quite high. The government was just started to implement wearing helmet for the motorcyclist, but there were still many people driving without one.
As usual he insisted to pay the bill as he just received the salary for the month. I felt so grateful of having an honest friend like him to make me felt comfortable being a guest.
I was shocked that friend of mine still not yet back from hospital when I returned. I then messaged the other guy who accompanying her for the treatment in hospital, and was told that she was still having the intravenous drip. I was trying to get some sleep while waiting for them to come back as we need to catch the bus leaving to Seam Reap tomorrow early morning, however I couldn’t sleep well and always awaked to check if they ever sent me messages. Finally, they were only return from hospital almost close to midnight. We were so thankful to this friend of mine for all his help.
Initially, she and the other guy were planning to take the speech boat travelled along the Tonle Sap to Seam Reap, whereas me and the other friend travelled by bus. But, due to her health problem, they decided to take the bus too, and luckily the counter staff was so friendly and changed the ferry tickets to bus tickets without any extra charges, even there was one day before the departure. However, we were on different buses but departing at the same time.
[View Phnom Penh Photos,
click here]
Day 8, 22 November 2005, Tuesday (Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Seam Reap, Cambodia)
We had our noodles soup at the food stall opposite the guesthouse and bought some breads and cakes from a hawker in front of the Capitol Restaurant. There were so many people waiting and boarding the buses queuing up in front of the restaurant. While we were waiting for our bus, and trying to get a seat at the busy restaurant, we met this couple from Switzerland again there having their breakfast and they shared the empty seats with us. I had to go near to the crowd whenever a bus came to the restaurant and showed the staff there the bus tickets just to check if it was going to Seam Reap. I even noticed that the locals were carrying lots of huge luggage or parcels, and quickly stuffed in their luggage or parcels into the compartment once the bus reached.
When the buses came, I quickly handed the bus tickets to my friend and ask her to get into the bus to look for the seats, while I was trying my best to put in my big rucksack into the compartment when the locals rushing to stuff in theirs. I was lucky as there was no more space right after I put in mine. What an experience! My other friends didn’t have this problem as they carried small rucksacks that could be easily placed at their seats in the bus.
The buses departed punctually at about 7.30am and the bus journey was quite smooth with two stops along the way. At the first stop, somewhere in the middle of nowhere, with a restaurant and few food stalls, a Malaysia Chinese guy who taking the same bus with us approached us, as he noticed that we were talking very familiar dialect spoken in our country. He took the direct flight from Kuala Lumpur to Phnom Penh by Air Asia. I didn’t dare to eat anything from the restaurants where we stopped for a rest, as I was still having stomach upset. My friend was feeling much better after the treatment from the hospital, and I did scared her by saying we would send her home instead of allowing her to go Seam Reap with us, if she still not feeling well. She was arguing that she wouldn’t go home if she never visits Angkor Wat.
Along the journey, the bus played some local MTV on the television and we found that all the songs were almost the same music, slow and sound monotonous, we didn’t even notice whether it was still playing the same song or already the next one.
Before reaching the second stop, the bus driver suddenly stop at the roadside, opened the front door and ran down to the roadside, then some guys on the bus were also following. We found out that those guys were having pee there facing the paddy field. Surprisingly, there were few ladies were doing the same on the other side of the road, of course covered with sarong! I would not dare to do that; I rather waited till we reach the next stop.
We reached at a restaurant of a shop lot of a small town, and we had rice for lunch together with our new friend, rest and chat till the bus continued the journey. The road condition from Phnom Penh to Seam Reap was not really good, as some parts were nicely paved, but some were muddy, dusty and lots of huge potholes that the bus need to avoid falling into one. The distance between the two places was actually not very far but due to the road condition, it took long hours to reach.
Eventually we reached Seam Reap, a very dusty town under the very hot weather. The bus stopped at a very old bus station that crowded with lots of people holding notice boards with names on them. There were few officers holding them back from approaching the bus when it stopped, but they wouldn’t stop shouting to offer taxi ride or hotel accommodation to the tourists. After we claimed our luggage from the bus compartment, we were then quickly leaded to a small van, apparently only for the foreign tourists and us. The small van drove us to a guesthouse cum as the Capitol Tour branch office.
As we already have made a reservation online with the other guesthouse (but yet to receive any confirmation), and also we would still like to look around for any other accommodation, there were two motor trishaw drivers offer us the help to search around for other guesthouse, and also offering few guesthouses on their list. After checking few guesthouses and budget hotels, and also went to the guesthouse that I placed the reservation, it was either the price was out of our budget or we don’t really like the environment, or it was fully booked.
The motor trishaw drivers who took us around to look for guesthouse offered us the tour to Angkor Wat for sunset and the whole day tour around the historical site. As they were so friendly and helpful, we happily accepted their offers. After we left our luggage in the room, and had a drink and rest for a while, we went for the sunset tour at Angkor Wat. We stopped at the entrance and ticket booths to purchase our one-day pass for tomorrow and it free for entrance of the evening one day before.
Friend of mine was asking if there was any discount for the entrance fee as it was really expensive. I quoted what Lonely Planet said in their travel guidebook of Cambodia 2005: “Senior travelers and students are not eligible for discount in Cambodia – all foreigners who are rich enough to make it to Cambodia are rich enough to pay as far as Cambodians are concerned.”
[View Seam Reap Photos,
click here]
Day 9, 23 November 2005, Wednesday (Seam Reap, Cambodia)
We had to wake up very early in the morning in order to view the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Our drivers were waiting for us at the guesthouse before dawn, and they did advise us last night to bring along sweater, as it gets very cold in the early morning. The town was in dark but the wind was really cold when it blew to us while we were riding the motor trishaw. We returned to the same place after passing through the entrance and ticket booths and checked our tickets by the officers, and we walked in the dark with some help of our torchlight (http://www.canbypublications.com/maps/TempleMapaap2.htm). We waited at the side of the road leading to the main building of Angkor Wat and noticed that there were so many people all over the place, sitting and standing, just to wait for the treasure moment; it was like the whole world of people were here to witness the important moment in life.
The sky was quite cloudy and we didn’t really have nice sunrise. Later, we went to the lotus pond side where beautiful lotus flowers were all over the pond with the reflection of the Angkor Wat on the surface of the pond. It was so picturesque and we took lots of pictures. We saw few children playing with their doggies near the pond, and a couple was taking picture with them. Suddenly, right after taking the picture, the children were chasing them for money. “One dollar, one dollar!” they were keep on asking. As we did snapped their picture from far with the background of the lotus pond and Angkor Wat, we were so scared that they would turn to us and asking us for money, we quickly left the place at once.
We continued our journey to Angkor Thom (http://www.canbypublications.com/siemreap/temples/temp-angthom.htm). Our drivers dropped us on the South Gate, and let us walked on the path and passed through the gate. The path leading to the South Gate had two rows of statues on the side, represented the angels and devils. The top of the gate had the smiling faces. Our drivers picked us up right after we passed through the gate and transferred us to Bayon (http://www.canbypublications.com/siemreap/temples/temp-bayon.htm). We had took quite a lot of pictures at this place as there were so many smiling faces everywhere and the structure of the temple was so interesting, and we were so amazed with the stones as how they were arranged in such shapes, and also the crafting of different pictures.
Then, we talked to the next temple and passed through some souvenir stalls (http://www.canbypublications.com/maps/TempleMapaap2at.htm). The Baphuon was under some kind of renovation, and we then walked to the next temple, Phimeanakas. We climbed up the steep staircases and really regret of putting so much of efforts and yet there were nothing interesting thing to see up there, except three westerners were sitting on the stones and having their chat. Furthermore, the staircases were so dangerous indeed, we couldn’t imagine if we ever fall down.
After walking around the area, witness some of the amazing crafting on the walls, we walked to the local food stalls, which were near to Bayon. They were simple wooden structures with tables and chairs. Our drivers were playing shuttlecock with the locals on the field outside the food stalls. Surprisingly, we met the couple from Switzerland having their breakfast there. I had banana pancake and coffee for my breakfast, and the serving was really huge and so filling like having my lunch too. The children were trying their best to ask the couple to buy their postcards and handicrafts, speaking very good English, and they only bother the couple not us, maybe they knew westerners’ money is bigger than the Asian. It was really sad that the children was educated and used for commercial value, what they knew was the dollar sign that they could get from the tourists.
After the breakfast, our drivers transferred us to the famous temple of Ta Prohm (http://www.canbypublications.com/siemreap/temples/temp-taprohm.htm). We were dropped at the entrance of temple, and we had to walk through a path leading to the temple surrounded with tall and huge trees. On the way, we saw a simple hut that few guys were sitting there playing musical instrument, they were the victims of land mines. The temple was really fascinating, the huge giant trees were growing within the walls, rooftops, inside the temples, and all over the place, causing certain parts of the temple were terribly damaged and falling apart, and some areas were restricted and danger for anybody to go in. We were trapped inside the temple while we were visiting the place, as we tried our best to look for the exit and couldn’t find one. There were trees everywhere, stones everywhere; till we were so confused and ended up our impression about this whole historical site is only trees and stones.
Later, we were transferred to Ta Keo (http://www.canbypublications.com/siemreap/temples/temp-takeo.htm), another temple with long, high and steep staircases. Me with another friend gave up climbing all those staircases again. Another impression about Angkor Wat is non-stop or lots of climbing. I noticed that our drivers were studying some kind of materials while waiting for us to visit those temples. I saw them reading the fact sheets about the temples and ruins in this historical site, as according to them, they had exam for allowing them getting the permit to take the tourists around. I think the authority has done a good job on this to educate their people on how to treasure this place and preserve it for the future, and be proud of what they have and offer in their country.
Next, we were then brought to any other temple, Thommanon (http://www.canbypublications.com/siemreap/temples/temp-thommanon.htm). After snapping some pictures on the crafting, we sat on the stones under the trees for rest, as we really tired of walking, climbing, and all the trees and stones around. We decided to have lunch and rest at the food stalls instead of visiting some other temples. While we were walking back to our motor trishaw, a little girl came to us and say: “one dollar”, all of us were so surprised and scared, and quickly left without turning back after saying no to her. Why should all these children asking for money from the tourists everywhere? I seriously don’t think this is a right way for the child to do so.
Before we returning back to the food stalls, we stopped at the public toilet near the Victory Gate. There was a counter and the staff there requested us to show them the entrance ticket before using the toilet, otherwise there would be a charge for it. The toilet was no lights at all, and quick dark indeed. But I had no other choice as I got the stomach upset again.
We were so tired when we returned to the food stalls. Friends of mine were playing card games with the lady owner, while I went to look for a hammock and had a nap. There were plenty of hammocks at the food stalls. I truly had a nice nap that afternoon, and this was the first time I sleeping on a hammock in my life.
We were waiting at the food stalls for the time to have another sunset. We had to admit that we don’t really have the knowledge and great interest on the historical aspects of the place, but rather than just to fulfil our curiosity and the need to be able to tell others that we did also visit the wonders of the world.
We went to Phnom Bakheng for viewing the sunset. As usual, we climbed all the way uphill till the top of the temple. There were visitors riding the elephants going uphill too. There were lots of visitors standing and sitting on the stones and waiting for the sunset. We really felt bored with the temple, as there was nothing interesting up there, and the area was not that wide but the groups of visitors kept on coming here and it would be easily crowded soon. Thus, we decided to go back to Angkor Wat to view the sunset.
After the sunset and the sky turned dark, lots of tour buses, motor trishaws and tourists leaving the place, it was so busy, noisy and with all the vehicles’ lights on along the road. We did pass by few very luxury resorts and upmarket restaurants at Seam Reap town on the way to Angkor Wat. We went back to our guesthouse and walked around the area at night.
[View Seam Reap Photos,
click here]
Day 10, 24 November 2005, Thursday (Seam Reap, Cambodia – Bangkok, Thailand)
Early morning, after our breakfast and packing our luggage, our taxi was waiting for us to transfer us to Poipet, the border town of Cambodia. Our journey for today would be traveling on road for long hours.
After a long journey of bumping and shaking ride, we finally reached a very small and dusty town of Poipet. The taxi stopped at a taxi station where we had to wait there and take the shuttle van to the immigration checkpoint, and the ride was a very short distance and free of charge. The officers at the taxi station were so friendly and I even heard they were playing Thai song inside the van while transferring us to the immigration building. However, the immigration officer at the counter were still very straight and fierce looking, and I saw they were using the webcam to snap our photo while we were standing and waiting in front of the counter for our passport checking.
Then, we walked over the border to Thailand. Along the way, we saw sky-high buildings consisted of hotels and casinos, and the road was busy with heavy vehicles transporting goods and few beggars sitting on the roadside asking for money. We were advised on the bad situation at the border from the travel guidebooks, and therefore we walked quickly and without any stop or visit on the roadside stalls. After a short walk, we came to a direction point where we had to cross the road to the other side, as the traffic system changed from left-hand side to right-hand side.
There was a long queue at the counters of Thai immigration, and we were waited for very long with no air-conditional and under the hot weather. We were so tired of standing and waiting for our turn for passport checking. After the passport checked and stamped, we followed the flow of people turning right towards a busy street with many hawker stalls on the roadside and a local market at the end of the road. After the turn at a convenient shop to the left, we saw many motor trishaws were parked there waiting for passengers. Again, after a hard bargain, we squeezed ourselves with our luggage on a motor trishaw and going to the bus station at Aranyaprathet. It was about 10 minutes ride. We reached at the bus ticket counter and bought the tickets to Bangkok, and then quickly we went to have our lunch inside the bus station.
We had very simple lunch, as we need to catch the bus that leaving soon. We had difficulty to communicate with the old man that taking down what we ordered. Anyway, I felt much safer to eat any food in Thailand. Our bus to Bangkok was a very comfortable, spacious and air-conditional new coach. Along the journey, we watched the movie of “Tom Yam Kung” that played in the bus. I must comment that the movie was really well filmed and the technology using was mush better than what we had in our country, and the standard was similar as those international films. Within the region, we always compared our standard of living with the neighbouring countries, especially Thailand, and we always think that we are among the best after Singapore. However, from what I observed during our trip in Bangkok, our development was way far from that of in Thailand.
The road to Bangkok from Aranyaprathet was nicely tarred and it was a high standard highway, it was really an extreme different as compared to the road condition in Cambodia just separated by the international border line; the extreme different between the rich and the poor.
Along the way, we had a toilet break at a petrol station in a town. We entered the city area at evening, with busy traffic flow on the roads and buildings alongside. The city area was so huge that the sun was already gone and the sky was so dark, and yet we still have not reached the bus terminal. While the bus was traveling on a high-rise highway, I saw many new sky-high large buildings everywhere as compared to my previous visit about 2 years ago, and the traffic now was much busier than last time.
After we reached the Mo Chit Bus Terminal (Northern Route Bus Terminal), the touts were waiting at the door side while we were getting down from the bus. They were kept on asking where we wanted to go, whether we need taxi or not, and so forth. Luckily we did read about this problem, and we knew that there was a taxi stand just next to the bus terminal complex. We walked over to the taxi stand, and were really shocked that it was a really huge covered area with few platforms and queuing up with lots of taxis. There were also few officers to help and control the traffic flow of the taxi there. All the taxis here were on meter basis and the condition of the cars were excellent. The traffic was really busy and we took quite a long time to reach Khao San Road.
We had no problem for looking food around Khao San area, as we all love Thai food very much. At night, Khao San Road was so happening with all the restaurants, pubs and bars opened to service the tourist and locals, and lots of hawker stalls selling variety of products, and also few street performers showing their talents on the roadside. It was so relaxing and fun that nobody was worry about the time passed and just hanging around with snacks, smoke and beers.
Day 11, 25 November 2005, Friday (Bangkok, Thailand)
Early morning, friends of mine placed a booking with a local travel agent opposite our hotel for a half day trip to floating market tomorrow morning. We then went to the information booth near the junction of Khao San Road, to ask about the public bus going to Chinatown and to get some city maps. We took the bus but unfortunately we missed the bus stop that closed to Chinatown area, and we ended up getting down at a bus stop next to Lumphini Park.
There was an open market on the roadside next to Lumphini Park, and crowded with locals for breakfast and daily groceries. We walked around the market and found a place to sit down for our breakfast. Then, we walked all the way towards the direction where World Trade Center located. Friends of mine went into a building where there was an airlines office that they would like to find out some fares on the air flight.
We came to the junction opposite the World Trade Center located, we saw there were many people at Erawan Shrine, which was one of the most famous temples in the city that almost everyday crowded with people, not surprisingly there were many foreign tourists from Asia countries also. Then, we crossed the road to Gaysom Plaza where most of the world branded products could be found here. After a short walk around, we crossed the bridge to World Trade Center, and friends of mine went to the King Power, a duty free shop to get the free gift. We did also visit the shop that selling branded products and the pricing was really expensive.
Next, we came to Siam Square by using the pedestrian walkway above the busy traffic road right below the skytrain trail, I could say this facility showed the concern of the government on the safety of the pedestrian and I had not seen this during my last visit. Within the past two years, the city was really undergone huge development and recovered from the economic crisis. We had another round of shopping and friends of mine found a small lane where lots of local Thai food stalls. They had their lunch there but I didn’t have the appetite to eat. After the meal, we took the taxi to Hualampong railway station, as two of us needed to buy the train tickets back to our country.
The Chinatown area was very near to the railway station. We crossed the busy road into the area and found many Chinese signboards. We walked around the area and came to a busy main road with lots of Chinese shops alongside, selling edible bird’s nest, shark’s fin, gold and jewelry, medicine, vegetables, seafood, and home displayed items. We stopped at a restaurant that selling Chinese rice or noodles with pork meat and herbs or vegetables soups. I had my lunch there.
We went into a small lane where most of the wholesalers located. Friends of mine bought the Thai dried chilli powder from a grocery shop, as they truly love the spicy taste of the chilli powder. We were thinking of buying some souvenirs there but most of the shops were selling them in bulk and they were not willing to sell only one or two pieces. There were so many stalls to visit and we spent quite long time shopping there till late afternoon. We were so tired of walking and finally we had our dinner at a porridge shop at the roadside.
After the dinner, we were asking around the locals at the Chinatown where to take the bus to Patpong (one of the famous red-light areas). The locals were either had the difficulty in speaking English or they don’t know what bus to take. Eventually, a shop owner told us the nearest bus stop to catch the bus. The problems of taking the public bus were there were no English words displayed and the buses usually stop and go immediately when they came to a bus stop. It would be very difficult to stop a bus and ask the bus conductor about the places we leading to. Anyway, we managed to talk to the locals who were waiting at the bus stop on which buses going to Patpong area and stopped and jumped into the bus. We tried our very best to make the bus conductor understand to prompt us when we reached the bus stop that nearest to Patpong area.
We were dropped near a junction, next to Silom Road and Patpong was the other end of the road, so we had to walk quite a distance along Silom Road. We stopped at a fruits hawker at the roadside to buy some fruits. It had been always so cheap and big serving in Bangkok for fruits at the roadside hawkers. When we came to the another junction, while waiting for the traffic to turn green for the pedestrian to cross the road, I saw a metal box very much looked like a rubbish bin and written in the Thai words with small print that we all don’t know what they meant. It also looked like a recycle bin and might be also a mailbox too, and we almost threw our rubbish into it.
On the way, we met an old westerner walking so fast like rushing for something stopped and asked us the direction of Patpong. As we were walking towards the area, right after we pointed the direction, he was like almost running towards it. We were wondering as why he was so in hurry, and friend of mine was saying might be he just couldn’t wait any longer. We all laughed like hell.
There were many stalls at the roadside mostly selling t-shirts and souvenirs. As it was still early for the night, there was not so crowded in Patpong Street. The whole row of shop lot on one side of the street where the bars with pretty girls wearing bikini holding with the steel pipe and dancing on the bar table, and outside were the staffs in uniform who inviting the people passing by into their bars. There were so many of them along the street, and I could only differentiate the different bars by the colour of the bikini wore by the pretty girls; there were red, white, purple, red-dots, and so on. The staffs outside the bars were so aggressively getting the business by touching and holding the hands of whoever passing by. Some were showing cards or asking if we were interested to watch the Thai girls’ shows, and surprisingly they could speak in Mandarin too.
At the end of the street, we were thinking of going back to Khao San, as we were not interested to visit any bars or pubs there or buying any souvenir as usually the pricing there was more expensive. We had tried to stop few taxis but all of them not willing to go Khao San area, and I assumed it must be the traffic jam problems. Then, we decided to take the skytrain to other places in order to avoid the traffic problem. We took the skytrain from Sala Daeng station to the station that was relatively nearer to Khao San area, i.e. National Stadium station where the MBK shopping mall located. From there, we asked the locals on what bus to take. We boarded the bus and dropped at the bus stand near Democracy Monument.
Friend of mine surprisingly recognised the two emcees of a television series from Singapore, which related to introducing the places of interest at this region, walking at the Khao San Road, followed by their cameramen.
[View Bangkok Photos,
click here]
Day 12, 26 November 2005, Saturday (Bangkok, Thailand)
Early morning, friends of mine went for a tour to floating market. As I did visit the floating market last time, therefore I didn’t join them but I went to visit the places nearby instead.
I went back to the hotel to pay the room rental for that day, and then went to have my breakfast at the noodle soup stall that I had during my last visit two years ago. The lane, Soi Rambutri, was now nicely paved with more shops and hawkers alongside and more visitors as well. The noodle soup stall was still there the same owner selling noodle soup at the same price with the same small tables and chairs on the roadside. However, the portion of noodles served was lesser, and the taste was not that nice compared to last time.
Next, after the breakfast, I went to the park near to Phra Sumen Fort next to the Chao Phraya River. There were very few visitors around there and the park ranger was talking to the locals. The river was still the same whenever I came to visit it, and I felt calm whenever I saw it and reminded me the stories behind this river and the angels that protecting this city.
I returned to the hotel, on the way back I bought the cold orange juice in bottle that so sweet in nature and a bit sour from the hawker at the roadside, which was my favour drink in Bangkok. I rested and waited in the room for my friends to come back. They were back from tour about noontime. Then, we went out again to take the bus to Chatuchak Weekend Market.
Taking the public bus in Bangkok, was really an unforgettable experience, as the buses came to a bus stand dropped passenger and immediately picked up passengers then run away quickly; the buses only stopped for seconds. Therefore, we had to look for the bus that we would be taking from far before the bus stop at the bus stand, and once the bus appear within our eyesight, we had to run towards it and jump on it before it move away, otherwise we would miss the bus. I was the one who always shouted: “Bus is coming, bus is coming! Quick, run!”
We stopped at one of the many entrances to Chatuchak Weekend Market, which I never been to before. This entrance was nearer to souvenirs and handicrafts shops. Friends of mine were so excited with so many stalls around and couldn’t wait any longer for shopping, so we decided to split up and shop around personally and would meet up again later at the clock tower. I bought a guava fruit as lunch and it was too big that I just couldn’t finish it at one go, and it was really cheap. Most of the time, I was hanging around at the souvenirs and handicrafts area and I even bought some as gifts.
As usual, I had to wait for my friends to finish their shopping, and they returned at late afternoon and were carrying bags of clothes, souvenirs and handicrafts. We went to the tourist information centre to ask about the buses that going to Khao San area, and surprisingly I met this same old man who could speak Mandarin and telling us the same advises about the thefts and pickpockets at the market, and also as helpful and informative as last time I met him two years ago.
We took the bus back to the bus stand near to Democracy Monument. After we left our shopping stuff in the room, we went to the nearby area for dinner. Surprisingly we met the couple from Switzerland again having their dinner at the open-air area in front of a restaurant. They were in Bangkok yesterday night travelled by bus all the way from Seam Reap to Bangkok, and they complaint that the road condition was terrible, and the bus ride was very uncomfortable. We were lucky that we took the taxi, as advised by the travel guides, Tales of Asia (http://www.talesofasia.com/).
[View Bangkok Photos,
click here]
Day 13, 27 November 2005, Sunday (Bangkok, Thailand – Kuala Lumpur)
Early morning, friends of mine went to visit the area around Grand Palace, Sanam Luang and the riverside. I didn’t follow them as I been to those places before, so I rather hanging around Khao San area for my last minute shopping. I went back to the noodle soups stall for breakfast, and the taste was not much different from yesterday and it was still not as tasty as last time. I bought fruit from the hawker stall next to the noodle soups stall. There was still a second handed items stall on the roadside, a second handed bookstore, those guesthouses around that previously we were asking for vacant rooms from door to door.
We packed our luggage and walked to the nearby bus stand to catch the bus to airport about noontime, as in view of the bad traffic condition in Bangkok nowadays due to the rapid development, we left for airport early. Two of us leaving by afternoon flight to Kuala Lumpur, while the other two leaving by train to Butterworth in the same afternoon too. The bus to airport was quite smooth but was caught in the traffic jam few times, but we still manage to reach the airport early after all.
After having my quick lunch, we quickly entered the immigration check point as I had the bad experience of long queue while rushing for flight last time. However, this time the crowd was quite ok and we didn’t have much problem passing through the immigration checkpoint. Our flight was a bit delay, but it was not really much affected our journey back home.
We decided to try the way of saving our money by changing the airport train halfway instead of all the way from KLIA airport to Kuala Lumpur. We bought the ticket from KLIA station to Putrajaya station, and bought another ticket from Putrajaya station to Bandar Tasik Selatan station. Then, I changed to Light Rail Transit to the station near to my house. The whole journey saved about 10 ringgit, but the time spent was about one hour more. As we were not rushing for time, it was still worth of saving the money.
At last, after the long journey of 13 days of travelling crossing four countries borders, I was finally back to my home sweet home.
