Last day in HK, headed to Beijing

I'm about to hop on the plane to Beijing. But a few more notes about HK: It's interesting to be in a city where everyone starts by speaking to me in Cantonese, then when I stare at them blankly and say "Pardon?" they switch fairly seamlessly to English. That also explains why I picked up so little Cantonese in my four months here as a student; it is simply too easy to get around knowing only English. Cherry said that they start learning English in kindergarten, though Mandarin is also on the rise.

My birthday dinner at Lei Garden last night was very enjoyable, but we had some major envy of the table next to us. I'm not sure if they ordered a set menu or just many courses, but everything about their service/food was superior to ours. Our tea was served in standard fashion -- tea cups -- while theirs came in large wine glasses. (I'm assuming that it was tea and not hot wine with steam rising out of it.) They got what looked like jellyfish as their first course. Then they had a massive tureen of soup -- the broth was served in bowls and the meat/bones was elegantly ladled onto a big plate in the middle. (We, meanwhile, waited over 10 minutes for a tea refill.) Then they each had a small dish with what looked like abalone. (After surveying the size of our three dishes we decided that we wanted steamed rice after all.) Then came some poultry -- it looked like chicken or duck -- accompanied by wet naps. Then they each got a lobster-sized prawn. They were the biggest prawns I've seen in my life and about 10 times larger than those in our braised prawns casserole. After the prawns they had a huge plate of greens and some unidentifiable clear mass -- glass noodles, perhaps? Or maybe shark fin? (Peter, meanwhile, handed over the coupon that he'd picked up just outside the restaurant entitling us to a free dessert of what essentially turned out to be fried wontons doused in honey and sesame seeds.) After the prawns they were each given bowls of tea with lemon to soak their fingers in. (We made do with our napkins.) After they'd paid their bill (well into the triple digits, I wager) the waiter came around again and poured them what appeared to be hot water -- though if I had to guess it was probably 1,000-year-old water filtered through gold.

One of my birthday perks involved being pedaled around Cheung Chau island, a little fishing island. (It was basically a small seat/cart pulled by a bike.) In Vietnam Peter had refused to go on a cyclo (a chair pushed by a bike), saying he didn't like the image of a lazy white man being wheeled around by an elderly Asian man. "What about a striking young Asian woman being pulled around by a strapping white man?" I asked, brightly. He looked rather despairing but the birthday trump card proved too much, and I got to see the island with minimal effort. (If only they had such a contraption in Siem Reap, my endurance for viewing the temples would have been vastly greater.)

HK, continued

I started my indulgent multi-day birthday celebration with my former HK roommate Cherry and her friend last night. They took us to two dinners (noodles with shrimp wonton soup; then a mega-feast with crab, lobster, fish, fried squid, fried rice and greens) then we ended the evening with chocolate and mango cake at McDonalds. (Peter got the cake from a bakery but we went to McDonalds for drinks and utensils.)

Today we had cake for breakfast, dim sum for lunch, a fancy Chinese dinner (roast pork, eggplant with squid, braised prawn casserole) and a totally theatrical dessert at a sweets shop (the sweet tofu with sago and lotus was served in a larger bowl filled with dry ice).

Tomorrow we head to Beijing. I still have 1/3 of a cake to finish before we hop on the plane.

HK Day 4

Yesterday we met my former professor at the University of Hong Kong. He took us to lunch on the on-campus restaurant that has amazing views of the city and dropped us off in Soho, which like NY's Soho has lots of fun art galleries and restaurants.

We walked around HK Island more in the afternoon and I visited Shanghai Tang, one of my favorite stores here. I think they've undergone some dramatic inflation in the past eight years since hardly anything seemed affordable, but it was still fun to walk around and look at the silk jackets and other Chinese goods with a Western touch.

In the evening we saw the HK orchestra perform. They used a bunch of instruments I'd never seen before and played Chinese and Western music. Very enjoyable.

We ended our evening in Mongkok, a super busy area with lots of late night shopping and young people milling around. There's a chain called "Healthy Dessert" that relies heavily on mango, coconut milk, sticky rice, glutinous rice balls (really mini mochi) and we had a late night snack of black sticky rice with coconut milk, taro and glutinous rice balls as well as a turnip cake (savory, not sweet). Since that wasn't indulgent enough we then had a jumbo sesame pearl tea (with the gigantic tapioca balls you suck up with a big straw) at Saint's Alps Teahouse.

Hong Kong day 3

I reduced my chocolate consumption considerably when I was a student in HK, but apparently I still ate enough to make an impression on my roommate, Cherry, who brought me some Mrs. Fields cookies as an early birthday present. It was great to see Cherry, who remains as youthful as ever, and who took us to a delicious Chinese feast for dinner. We had jellyfish with cucumber, bbq pork, seafood soup, tofu with fish, Shanghai soup dumplings, sweet and sour shrimp, mixed mushrooms and egg custard with bird's nest for dessert. She taught us how to say "soup dumplings" in Cantonese but our pronunciation could use some work. I'd forgotten, but she reminded me that when we roomed together my mom sent me some care packages with food (probably Trader Joe's dried fruits and nuts). She said she was surprised my mom sent me food since there is so much food available in Hong Kong.

Earlier in the day I returned to Chinese University of Hong Kong, where I spent a semester my junior year. It's built on a mountain and my old dorm was at the very top. (In fact once you reached the top of the mountain you actually walked down 20+ steps to enter the building, which was maddening after spending 20+ minutes climbing to the top.) The cafeterias are much spiffier, with some of them now serving "Western food" -- mostly sandwiches.

Tomorrow we'll be meeting up with my former Hong Kong University professor who taught my task force. We'll probably take the Star Ferry there, which must be the most beautiful and affordable public transportation in the world, offering stunning views of the harbour for about $.25.

In a positive development, Peter finished reading another Economist today (one of six he lugged from L.A. and not counting the two New Yorkers or the copy of Jane Eyre or extensive biography of Hirohito). That makes three magazines he's gotten rid of. He had envisioned reading most of them on the plane to Singapore, but somehow that speed reading session never materialized and we've been carrying that ballast all around Asia. (Lest I seem overly accusatory, I should note that the three sunscreens I brought proved overly cautious as we have yet to finish the first bottle.)

Hong Kong

The place we're staying at has "Mansion" in the title but it looks like a slum from the outside. It doesn't get much better in the lobby, where lots of men are milling around, offering to show their cut-rate rooms. The elevators (one goes to even floors, the other to odd) have cameras in them, presumably to prevent any shenanigans. Our room -- other than being minuscule -- is fine, though. The bedroom is about 6.5 by 10 feet, not counting the relatively spacious bathroom, and it's clean and includes cable TV, though sadly no wifi. The location is the incredibly convenient Tsim Sha Tsui, on Kowloon, and it's a five minute walk from the Penninsula, one of Hong Kong's premiere hotels. It's rather inexplicable why such prime real estate has been reserved for the dumpiest, cheapest rooms in Hong Kong, but it's allowing us to visit Hong Kong affordably so I have no complaints. Chungking Mansions is actually composed of a bunch guesthouses with a modest number of rooms (many sharing a floor with other guesthouses). I don't know whether Jackie Chan -- whose presence is everywhere in HK -- has ever shot a movie here but it seems like a prime location for showing the city at it seediest.

The money we saved on our lodging we ended up blowing at a delicious dim sum lunch today at City Hall Maxim's Palace. The restaurant is a huge room with a harbor view, and it serves very refined Cantonese dishes. We had bbq pork in pastry, stuffed eggplant, pork soup dumplings (the soup broth was in the dumpling), fried cuttlefish legs (salty and delicious), fried rolls with shrimp and greens, shrimp with pepper and coconut milk with tapioca balls and watermelon. Fortunately, tonight I was able to find a favorite Vietnamese restaurant that I frequented as a student at Chinese University of Hong Kong, Mini Paris, and we were able to sup for under $8. Just before returning to the hotel we went to a dessert shop and had sesame soup, which bears a striking resemblance to tar/oil.

Today marks the first full day in HK; we arrived from Macau yesterday by ferry. It has been wonderful to be back. Tomorrow I'm going to be meeting up with my local CUHK roommate, who I haven't seen in over eight years, so I am very excited about that. I'm also going to spend some time in the New Territories (the part closer to mainland China). The weather has been too bleak to visit Victoria Peak, which offers a magnificent view of the island, and Kowloon, but we'll probably go there Saturday.

Bird's nest

Looking through my photo archives I found this one of a seafood dish we ate in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was served in a "bird's nest" made of fried taro.

Yangshuo (China)

We're departing Yangshuo tomorrow for Guangzhou, and possibly Macau if we can get a late enough bus. We cruised by bamboo raft down the Li River from Yangdi to Xingping village today. Guilin/Yangshuo is famous in China for its beauty and there's a spot at Xingping that is on the 20 yuan note.

Last night we attended the Liu Sanjie show on the river, which was directed by Zhang Yimou (Hero, House of a Thousand Daggers, Beijing Olympics Opening and Closing Ceremonies). It was rather pricey, but his eye for visual spectacle is unmatched. The cast numbered around 500 and included 100+ fishermen on bamboo rafts raising huge red banners on the water to simulate waves and around 180 women in glow in the dark costumes (the show was at night). One amusing unscripted part occurred when a guy brought out two water buffalo and the young one jumped off the platform and into the water. The bigger buffalo seemed a bit perturbed and looked as though it wanted to jump in too, and the handler had quite a job persuading it not to while getting the smaller buffalo back on the platform.

We were lucky to share a raft with a German living in Shanghai who speaks Chinese and who was able to get us a discount on the rafting trip. We might meet up with him in Shanghai if he's back from his travels around China by then.

We are debating whether or not to try to squeeze in a short trip to Beijing before Shanghai. After our breakneck tour of Vietnam because of our expiring visas we have a couple extra days, so if we fly we could probably do it. But we might opt for just spreading those days out in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Macau should be interesting too; it has become the Las Vegas of the East since I last visited, with huge casinos being opened all the time. I believe that the gaming revenues now exceed Vegas. It's similar to Hong Kong in that it's a Special Administrative Region (formerly a Portuguese colony, just as HK was to the Brits). The official languages are Cantonese and Portuguese, but you can get around with English/Mandarin (and Spanish helps for reading signs).

Singapore and Borneo pics

Still having camera difficulties but here are a couple pics from previous cities.




Singapore has a Ministry of Manpower.











The cacao plant, which I tried in Borneo. It was actually quite delicious and tasted nothing like chocolate.

Guilin (China)

I hope the next hotel we stay at has internet because we spent a good hour walking around Guilin tonight looking for a wireless connection. We found one on our last try so I was able to put up my two previous posts. During our search we went to a fancy hotel (Waterfall Guilin) where they had seated toilets, toilet paper and hand soap, things that I typically take for granted but was overjoyed to see. They also appeared to be having a beauty pageant of sorts in the atrium, with sparklers onstage and confetti. We looked rather uncouth compared to the gussied up guests, but since Peter is obviously a foreigner that works to our advantage because he can fall into the unkempt westerner category who could be a hotel guest. I just look unkempt, apparently, because almost everyone at restaurants and other places we visit try to speak with me in Chinese.

We have seen very few non-Chinese tourists in Guilin. Logistical challenges aside, it's been nice to visit a city that the locals can afford to visit. There were scarely any Thai tourists on Phi Phi Island in Thailand, for example, probably because all but the wealthiest Thais would be priced out of the hotels there. After the cacophony of Vietnam with its millions of motorbikes, the relative quiet of Guilin is quite welcome. They even have large bike lanes and the cars and bikes generally seem to follow the traffic rules.

Today we went to a big park that had a huge, impressive limestone cave and a dismal zoo. I've been somewhat scandalized by the high admission prices to the various sights -- $7.50 for the park and cave, for example. The four hour boat ride from Guilin to Yangshuo is about $70 if you choose the English guide. To my knowledge, most of those prices apply to Chinese nationals, too, and aren't just higher prices for foreigners. (In a number of places we've visited we've thought that we were probably overcharged compared to the locals, but the most blatant case occurred in Cambodia. Our bus stopped at restaurant and one of the locals paid 3,000 riel, or about $.75 for an ice cream bar. Another western tourist then tried to buy the same bar and they wanted $1.50.)

We've been eating well -- eggplant and tofu for lunch and sweet and sour fish and sizzling rice cakes for dinner. I've gotten a little squeamish walking past some of the restaurants near our hotel. Most of them have live fish swimming in front; several have chickens and/or ducks, and one of them has furry animals (I'm not sure what animal it is, but Peter thinks it looks like a weasel). I'm excited to visit Hong Kong again, where they have great Chinese but also superb Asian food in general. It's also easy to order as most of the restaurants have English menus, which allow for a greater selection than my point-to-dishes-of-other-diners technique.

Longsheng, China

The rice terraces of Longsheng are a surreal clump of mountains that look as though twenty-foot high giants decided to cut notches into the hills and create five foot high steps. They're basically the result of rice farmers with a lot of time, determination, and no flat land. March is not the best time to visit them since it was quite misty, but they were still spectacular. The guesthouse we stayed at in town was run by an English teacher who offered to call ahead to her daughter at the rice terraces who also had a hotel and who would meet us at the bus station. Happy to have those logistics taken care of, we agreed. She also asked offhandedly if we wanted to keep our bags at the hotel, but since the lobby looked a bit grimy we said we'd take them with us. Had we known more about the next hotel was we would have happily left them encased in a pile of dirt.

We were greeted at the bus station by a number of women from the Yao minority group who tried to sell us their handicrafts. The Yao gained notoriety after making it into the Guinness Book of World Records for having long hair. They only cut it once or twice in their lifetimes and their hair -- which they wear in a bun near their foreheads -- is between one to two meters long. After fending off their offers for 15 minutes our greeter arrived. She looked at our bags and asked if we wanted help since it was a forty minute (uphill) walk to the hotel. We agreed to hire one of the women (who was tiny) to carry my big backpack and we schlepped the remaining four bags up the mountain. Another Yao woman followed us for 10 minutes and repeatedly tried to carry our other bags, skeptical that we would be able to make it all the way ourselves. At one point we rested and the woman with my bag charged on ahead. Shamed, we finished the trek without further rest. I spent that time pondering why we hadn't yet eaten the crackers we'd bought in Malaysia or the snacks from Cambodia and whether Peter could have cut down on the number of long sleeved shirts he'd brought on the trip since his clothes require so much more material. (My conclusion: the crackers have the miraculous ability to not get stale and have bailed us out at various points when we haven't had food; the Cambodian snacks we should definitely have given away in Cambodia; and Peter's six long sleeved shirts could certainly have been whittled down to three.)

I'm actually in Guilin at present, headed to Yangshuo tomorrow, an hour or so south of here. Lots of fun snacking today: a bubbly drink with tapioca balls, a pumpkin tapioca coconut drink and some plain but delicious yogurt.

We're experiencing technical difficulties with the camera, so we've switched to the backup one and I hope to have pics soon.

Journey to China

I skipped over my epic journey into China but I think it bears noting.

The first leg of our journey to take the international train from Hanoi to Nanning, China. They used to run that route only twice a week according to Lonely Planet, but started a new daily international train in January, which we found out from this very helpful site if you ever need to travel overland in Asia: www.seat61.com. Buying the tickets tested our fortitude since the first day we went the window selling those tickets closed at 4 p.m. and we arrived too late; the next morning they asked for our passports (which the hotel had taken); the third time the woman had just gone to lunch.

Getting to the station was another adventure. In Saigon we'd gotten a cab with a trick meter than ran at two or three times the normal rate; so we were careful to take a cab from a company that Lonely Planet said was one of the more reputable times this time. We showed the driver on the map where we wanted to go (unfortunately the station itself was off the map by a couple of kilometers, but it was clear we had to cross a bridge to get there) and he repeated "Gia Lam Train station." He managed to get over the bridge, then looked back at us expectantly, as though to say "where next?" We drove onwards a couple of kilometers till he finally called a friend that ostensibly spoke English, but who wasn't even able to repeat back the spelling of "Gia." So we had the cab turn around and on the way back there was a sign to turn off to a station. The driver was very excited and we were very relieved. Unfortunately, once we'd gotten out and gone into the station it became evident that it was a bus station only (the Lonely Planet book had been ambiguous on whether they were separate stations). By then our extra time we'd built in to get there was rapidly eroding so we started asking everyone where the train station was. Someone who spoke some English pointed in a direction so we set off, ignoring offers of motorbikes from drivers who clearly spoke no English. Fortunately, the train station was only a few hundred meters away; a dinky station that we accessed via a very small street.

The train itself was quite impressive. There were about ten cars with conductors standing at attention at each entrance. We'd only shelled out for a hard sleeper but it was actually quite comfortable with a thick, big comforter. We left promptly at 7:25 p.m. and I managed to fall asleep easily till we'd reached the Vietnamese border crossing. It was there, at about 1 a.m., that we learned that the entirety of the train included seven passengers (two Russians, one Irish, a Chinese man with a sleeping infant and us) and about 20 train employees. The Vietnamese border official handed back the passports very dramatically (we gathered around as he called out names) then we shuffled back on the train. We were awoken again at 4 a.m. to go through the Chinese crossing. The Irish woman was the first to go through and the border official gave a cursory inspection to her handbag. The rest of us got to pass through, bags unchecked. (My fears of our guidebook being confiscated because it shows Taiwan as a separate country proved unfounded.)

It's fortunate I got so much sleep on the international train because the local train to Guilin could not have been more chaotic or crowded. They sell A LOT of standing room tickets on that train because there were people standing, leaning, squatting and sitting in the aisles and well into our legroom space. About every half hour attendants would pass through the aisles with their carts of food and drink and everyone in the aisle would have to crowd into the space of those fortunate enough to have a seat. The mass of people talking made it very loud, and the noise was compounded by the Hong Kong movie they played overhead. It was only supposed to be four and a half hours but ended up taking six and felt like 12. It was a lot of China all at once.

The bus to Longsheng was relatively comfortable -- no one in the aisle and only two hours. In all, about 24 hours of almost continuous travel.

China

Just a quick note that I made it to China after a full 24 hours of trains and buses. I'm at the man-made rice terraces near Longsheng in S. China. They are quite spectacular. My $8.50 room has satellite TV (and they claim) hot water. There's also a computer with internet access in the lobby but it's got limited hours so I'm about to be kicked off.

One funny thing: when I turned on the TV I saw Harry Reid at the mikes and my former co-worker, Alan Ota, lurking in the background.

Tourist pic

This map was in Hoi An, by the China Beach. I thought their depiction of a tourist was pretty funny and not that inaccurate.

Hanoi/Halong Bay

The camera is acting temperamental so I'm not sure when I'll get pictures up.

Anyway, our race through Vietnam ends (hopefully) tomorrow since our visas will expire then. If you ever plan to visit Vietnam but will be traveling to a neighboring country first, hold off on getting the visa. We paid $85 for a one month, multiple entry one in DC but could have gotten one for cheaper if we'd waited and gotten it in Thailand or Cambodia. And since we took extra time in Borneo we arrived in Vietnam later than we anticipated so we didn't have quite as much time as I would have liked. Sometimes planning ahead ends up costing more.

Before our two-day trip to Halong Bay we spent the day in Hanoi, visiting the prison where Sen. McCain was imprisoned (nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton). Previously the French used it to imprison the Vietnamese, and apparently treated them quite badly. The displays were clearly written from a Vietnamese perspective, though; I was surprised to read about how American prisoners received care packages from home, got to exercise, attend Christmas services, receive prompt medical care, etc. It didn't quite jibe with the image of the place that McCain stayed at (where he was tortured and now can't raise his hands above his head).

Halong Bay is Vietnam's scenic gem -- a thousand plus limestone karts/islands rising dramatically in the bay, plus some huge limestone caves. It's become enormously popular -- the guide told us that there were 550 boats in 2007 and 1,000 boats today to take tourists around. Lonely Planet likens it to Krabi in Thailand and Guilin in China, which we visited and will be visiting shortly, but more spectacular. My memory of Guilin would rank it slightly higher than Halong Bay, but that was also my first time to the land of huge limestone cliffs, very green rice paddies, water buffalo and people wearing conical hats. We'll be visiting Guilin in a few days so it will be fun to compare the two.

A funny/maddening note about Hanoi: they could seriously use some copyright protection here, as popular companies are endlessly ripped off and copied. We are staying at Especen -- one of three within 30 meters. One is a legitimate copy of the first Especen and the other is a fake, but I'm not sure whether we're staying at one of the legitimate ones or not. And every -- literally every -- guesthouse/hotel here offers their "Sinh Cafe" tour. The dive we stayed at the first night (Tam Thoung Guesthouse, we thought, but as it turned out, Tam Thoung Backpackers Guesthouse) offered their two day/one night Halong Bay tour for $35. Based on the quality of their $8 w/out AC room we decided to spring for a Sinh Cafe one, as Sinh Cafe is one of the companies recommended widely. We went to the actual Sinh Cafe using the Lonely Planet map and booked our tour for $63, though when we returned to the room and found the Sinh Cafe brochure we'd picked up in Saigon their Halong Bay tour was in the $45 range. So I'm not sure if the brochure price was totally out of date or if the person who sold it to us scammed us or whether we weren't actually on a Sinh Cafe tour or what.

But the good news is that the Especen we're staying at is generally good value (except for the mattress, which I think is actually a boxspring), and the "Sinh Cafe" tour was quite nice: seven course lunch and dinner on a very attractive boat, hot showers, comfortable beds, kayaking, etc.

We're going to be meeting up for breakfast with a Vietnamese couple we befriended on the boat who are up visiting from Saigon. I think a benefit of doing one of the middle-of-the road tours was that there were actual Vietnamese on our boat, most of whom spoke decent English.

Assuming all goes well I'll be posting next from China. We'll be touring S. China then heading to Hong Kong, where I studied in 2000. I haven't been back since then so I'm very excited to return.

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)

I never posted about Saigon (as it's still referred to by the locals), which I visited prior to Hoi An. According to the guidebook it's the city of 3 million motorbikes. Crossing the street seems impossible at first, but eventually you get sort of used to dozens of motorbikes swarming around you.

Vietnam has been a great place for eating so far; more to my liking than Cambodia. The first night we were planning to have Vietnamese for dinner but then we passed Franny, a well-known ice cream shop, which just happened to be having an ice cream buffet since it was the first Friday of the month. So instead I had sesame, chocolate, lime, raspberry, passionfruit, chocolate chip, cinnamon and various other flavors of ice cream and sorbets along with fresh fruit and crepes. That should satisfy my ice cream cravings for the rest of the trip.


On Saturday we were more adventurous and had stuffed snails (the pork and snail meat were mixed together) for lunch. We shared a table with a couple of locals and they ended up ordering the dish after we got ours.





















We also had this great drink full of colored gummy things topped off with coconut milk and ice. The green worms are made out of pea flour, the yellow is bean and the pink blobs are water chestnuts with a jelly-like coating.















We splurged on a nice French dinner at Augustin: baguette! fresh salad! duck! fish!













Some motorbikes at an intersection. There were this many motorbikes at pretty much every intersection at all hours of the day and night.







One of the meeting rooms at Reunification Palace. The painting was done by the architect. Reunification Palace was built for the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War and was then named Independence Palace. But North Vietnamese tanks crashed the party April 30, 1975 and it was later renamed Reunification Palace.

Hoi An pictures

I managed to catch the plague in Hoi An and haven't yet kicked it since arriving in Hue, a 3.5 hour, 120 km bus ride north of Hoi An. One thing I've noted about the buses here is that they will invariably stop for a meal no matter how short the journey is.

Anyway, here's a few pics from Hoi An.








The water buffalo.


















The bathtub that made me swoon.













I haven't seen much public art in my travels so far; Hoi An was an exception. They had a bunch of animal-themed sculptures on the river.









The dish on the right is called "white rose" and is a specialty of Hoi An. It's basically a shrimp dumpling with the wrapper folded to look like a rose.

Hoi An (Vietnam)

Five weeks of budget travel have had their effect; when I walked into the current hotel room which has a massive bathtub I swooned and declared that we were remaining here for the rest of the trip. The guidebook says that Hoi An has the best budget rooms in Vietnam, and possibly Southeast Asia, and my experience has done nothing to disprove that.

In addition to the enormous bathtub, we have a fridge, in-room wifi, free shampoo/soap/toothbrushes, AC, daily cleaning service, clean sheets (many of the places have just a threadbare blanket and I try not to think too hard about how often they wash it) plus a swimming pool. The bed is quite comfortable too, which was particularly nice when I got a brief bout of illness and spending a lot of time on it. All for $22/night.

The town of Hoi An is quite charming as well. It's one of the few towns that was spared bombing during the Vietnam war so it has lots of historic buildings. They're known for their tailored clothes (with something like 500 shops) and shoes. I ended up getting a pair of shoes made yesterday. After she promised me that she'd have them ready in five hours and charged less than $10 I ran out of excuses. They also make lanterns, which dot the streetscape.

We walked to a beach a few kilometers away yesterday and on the way spotted a man riding a water buffalo in a rice paddy. Peter started taking pictures but then a man standing by the buffalo gestured at us to come closer; before I knew it, I was riding the buffalo too. We should have guessed that we'd have gotten the shakedown for money afterward, but at least I can add to my list of animals I've ridden on this trip.

Siem Reap (Angkor Wat)

I haven't said much about my visit to Angkor Wat, which I enjoyed very much despite some logistical obstacles. We ended up visiting for three full days but did it by bike so it was a much slower pace than the more common mode of touring, by tuk tuk (a motorcycle-pulled cart).

The first day Peter's bike chain came off and a very kind Cambodian and fellow American tourist from Oregon came to our rescue after it derailed. We were pretty tired from our 20-hour bus trips from Chiang Mai to Siem Reap so we ended up getting a late start the first day and, in retrospect, embarking on a far-too-ambitious "grand tour" by bike of various temples. The sun set when we were halfway through the loop so we had a rather grim couple of hours biking in almost total darkness back to the hotel with aching legs.

The second day was a little better, though we still had to bike in some darkness. We visited Angkor Thom and Bayon (known for the many faces) and Ta Prohm (with nature winning the battle over the temple).

The third evening we went to a show at Angkor Wat, which promised "death defying stunts" and "beautiful dancing" among other things. I can't say I was terribly impressed with the show, but I enjoyed walking around the temple at night without any crowds. (The $15 admission weeded out most tourists.)

A few pictures:







Angkor Wat at night.












Happy birthday to my sister!














Many of the staircases were amazingly steep. I usually held on to the side wall going up and down as the Cambodian kids ran up and down them at twice my speed.










Ta Prohm, where trees have overtaken the place. Tomb Raider (Angelina Jolie movie) was apparently shot here.

Phnom Penh garbage dump pictures

One of the workers picking through some of the older trash. The haziness came from the smoke emitted by all the small fires.









Some of the people actually live on top of the trash dump. There were also shantytowns right at the edges of the dump.













When a trash truck arrived people clustered around it to get a shot at the new garbage.












There were some awfully young children there, many of them working.














This kid was lugging a bag of stuff bigger than himself.










They weren't all working. One of the kids (white, unbuttoned shirt) was blowing bubbles.

Phnom Penh, day 2

In Angkor we visited Cambodia's great historical temples; in Phnom Penh we saw evidence of some of the more recent troubles. We weren't initially planning to go to Cambodia's capital, but at the suggestion of my friend Lori we decided to pay a visit.

In the morning we visited the Tuol Sleng museum, a former school that was used as a prison/torture center by the Khmer Rouge. It's astounding to think that the prison, referred to as S-21, was closed just three decades ago. (It served as a prison from 1975, when Pol Pot swept into power, to 1979, when the Vietnamese took over Phnom Penh.) They have a film interviewing some survivors that they show twice daily (really a TV in a sweltering room, but knowing what happened there you really can't complain) and various exhibits, including pictures of the prisoners, human skulls, torture instruments and paintings by one of the survivors illustrating how they were used. They've also kept a lot of the tiny wood and brick cells as they were and it is open to the public.

In the afternoon we visited the Stung Mean Chey garbage dump, which is just outside the city center. I'd first heard about it when I read a Nicholas Kristof column extolling the benefits of sweatshops (versus living and working at a trash dump). He talked about the people who live and work there, scavenging for plastic and other recyclables for around $1 a day. Our friend in Singapore mentioned it as well, jarring my memory, so I decided to add it to the itinerary if we could figure out the logistics. We weren't sure that we'd find a tuk tuk driver willing to take us there, but the first one we asked agreed to take us there and back (and wait for us) for $10. In researching how to visit it, I came across a couple of organizations aimed at trying to keep the children at school and away from the dump, including A New Day Cambodia, founded by Americans, which provides a shelter and education for the children. There's also the Centre for Children's Happiness, which was founded by an orphan and survivor of the Khmer Rouge and a French organization, Pour un Sourire d'Enfant, which provides medical care and education, including vocational training, to the children. They also give the families of the children rice in an attempt to offset the lost income and keep the kids in school.

It's hard to draw any definitive conclusions from my brief visit but my sense is that those aid organizations and the media publicity from Kristof and other organizations, like the Chicago Tribune, have helped. We went to the dump around 3:30 p.m. and most of the children we saw were under six years old -- we didn't see many primary school aged children. (Not that seeing a five year old pull a huge bag of plastic bigger than himself while barefoot isn't its own tragedy.)

The first area of the dump we visited was mostly older trash, but it's easy to see why it's also called "Smoky Mountain" since the air was hazy from all the small fires burning everywhere. There weren't as many people there since it had already been picked over but there were still a half dozen people in that area, all adults.

The second area we visited was where the garbage trucks were dumping the fresh trash, and it was abuzz with activity. One big contrast with the touristy areas of Phnom Penh we visited last night -- where we were constantly asked to buy something or for money -- was that the people working there barely acknowledged our existence. It makes sense when you consider they get paid by the weight, not by their contact with foreigners. It was hot, smelly and there were swarms of flies, but they kept on picking trash as diligently as if they were packing chocolates in an air-conditioned Godiva shop. We saw maybe a couple dozen children. A lot of them were working, but some of the very, very young ones were just playing around. A couple of them looked at us curiously, but they mostly did their own thing.

I'm glad that the NGOs and publicity seem to have improved the situation, especially with regard to the children. But there's still hundreds of people living and working there, and that visit helped give a sense of how big a challenge Cambodia faces more generally.

The computer connection is incredibly slow, but hopefully I'll be able to upload some pictures of Angkor and Phnom Penh in a couple days.

Phnom Penh

We made it to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Didn't have much time to do anything besides walk around town a little. It's sad to see so many mothers on the streets with babies; plus amputees and kids begging and selling stuff. There was literally a mom with an occasionally crying baby on the ground outside of the restaurant that we ate at and kids came to our table a few times during dinner to try and sell pirated Lonely Planet guides.

That poverty contrasts with the status symbol car we've seen around: huge Lexus SUVs. The handy local dining guide we picked up highlights a few restaurants and one of them -- which is very private and has its own swimming pool -- has entrees in the $30-$40 range and an extensive wine list. The owner said that most of the clientele are Khmers who spend $500-$600, which is a lot by almost any standard but staggering compared to what the average Cambodian is earning. (The guy who collected tickets on our bus from Siem Reap and ended up talking to us the entire journey to practice his English said that he earns $30/month.)

Some pics from Chiang Mai

We got to feed the elephants.
















They also picked us up.


















I ate a water bug in Chiang Mai. It was very salty and huge. The wings were too chewy so I didn't eat those.

Siem Reap

note: I haven't had internet access for a few days so I'm adding a couple posts, written at different times.

Siem Reap has a surprising number of upscale hotels. I guess it shouldn't be that surprising given that Angkor Wat is the cultural gem of the country and attracts visitors from all around the world. It also has a small but thriving late night bar/restaurant scene. The tuk tuk drivers aren't quite as aggressive as in Bangkok in trying to get you to take a ride, but they still call out, "Hey lady, you need ride?" when I pass by.

Moreso than any other country we've visited are the children on the streets -- occasionally begging, but usually trying to sell you something. We ended up buying 10 postcards/$1 from a girl at a temple yesterday that guessed our origins (USA and Korea), told us the capitols of each, then showed us the 10 postcards in the set, counting off in English, Spanish, and several other languages. When we asked, she said that she went to school in the morning. Yesterday was Sunday so it will be interesting to see if there are any less kids out and about during the day. Motorbike/regular bike riding is apparently taught at a very young age in Cambodia a well. We passed lots of kids riding on bikes with other kids. One of the bikes had a small boy of no more than 4 years old hanging on to his even smaller sister on the back of the bike as his mom pedaled.

The Cambodians have been very friendly. Some of it is related to trying to sell you stuff, but much of it is truly genuine. And it was fun to watch a small band of kids playing around, with one of the older ones (about 5 years old) helping out one of the younger ones (about 2) navigate the big steps of the temple.

Our first evening in Siem Reap we ended up having a tuk tuk take us to Angkor Wat for sunset. Angkor is quite spectacular, and at night they light it up and it looks quite majestic. It turns out that they have nightly dinner/shows, so I think we'll go tomorrow evening. I imagine the food will be average and I'm not sure how authentic the show will be but you can't beat that for a setting.

Yesterday, our first full day here, we rented bikes and rode around the grand circuit (a collection of their greatest hits). I hadn't ridden a bike in over a decade so was rather wobbly at first but it turned out to be a nice way to visit the temples. The guidebook had recommended leaving at 5am and coming back by 11 to escape the heat, then going again in the afternoon. But our vision of waking up at 6:30 a.m. quickly went by the wayside as my tired body rebelled from having spent a not-very-restful-previous-night on the bus and I ended up sleeping in till 10:30 a.m. Fortunately, it wasn't too hot, so even being out at midday wasn't too terrible. Because we started so late we had to do the latter portion of our riding at night, which got a bit nerveracking at times when it was difficult to see the road and with cars and motos passing on the side. My ten years of non-bike riding also meant that my thighs got a bit cramped.

It's amazing the number of temples here. Angkor is the one that everyone knows but there's easily 70 other relatively nearby temples to look at, many of them hugely impressive in their own right. We only saw about six yesterday so we have a lot more to see today.

Getting to Cambodia

After 20 hours on buses and a shared taxi with non-working AC we made it from Chiang Mai (N. Thailand) to Siem Reap (which, incidentally, means Siam conquered), the city base for visting Angkor Wat.

Chiang Mai was a delightful city -- small and easy to get around with plenty of cultural stuff and a higher temple to person ratio than perhaps anywhere I've visited. The last day we rented a motorbike and rode to the top of a hill to visit one of their big Buddhist temples. I was a bit scared having only ridden on a friend's scooter once around the block but after seeing entire Thai families riding them, or watching 8-year-olds drive their 4-year-old siblings around, I decided to get over my fear. I had the easier role of just being a passenger.

The day with elephants was quite fun. We made friends with a British couple at the cooking class and joined them for elephant program they'd signed up to do. Jungle treks to visit the Hill tribes are a big thing, and often combine riding an elephant, white water rafting and other activities, but we preferred to spend our whole day with the elephants. We wanted one where the elephants were treated well, and didn't spend all day ferrying people up and down the mountain. I wasn't thrilled with their conditions (one of their legs was chained up when we arrived) but they seemed reasonably happy. I think they were happier than elephants in zoos, though not as well-off as ones on reserves. We ended up riding them and giving directions in Thai (though there was one actual trainer per elephant to help), bathing them and having a water fight (they won with the unfair advantage of their trunks). Elephants used to be used by Thais for all sorts of things -- fighting wars, logging, etc., but logging was outlawed a few decades ago so the need for them has declined. Most of them are are used for tourist purposes. Our particular elephant, Pailin, was 14 years old and liked to dance around and flap her ears. We took turns riding on her neck and back. Since she was one of the smaller ones we weren't very high off the ground but it felt plenty elevated when we were headed downhill.

In order to save time we took the overnight bus from Chiang Mai back to Bangkok, and were once again roused for a post-midnight dinner. We'd downgraded to VIP 36 (36 seats) from VIP 24, which turned out to be the bus that Thais take. They showed Dark Night but unfortunately it was dubbed, not subtitled. We arrived at the Mo Chit bus terminal in Bangkok at 4:30 a.m. and were on our way to Aranyapathet(?), right at the Thai-Cambodia border, half an hour later. Unfortunately, in my bleariness I managed to fall smack down on my face, but the kind people at 7-11 gave me some free ice.

We arrived at the border about 4.5 hours later and were immediately send on a tuk tuk to the border crossing. However, before we could get there, our tuk tuk driver took us on an unsolicited trip to a cafe, where someone came out and told us he was Cambodian (basically he wanted our money). We had discovered a great web site with information on how to get through the border crossing and avoid scams -- this being one of them. Although the guy got angry and said we'd be going back to Bangkok when we refused to engage, the driver eventually brought us to where we needed to be. We made it through the Thai side easily enough -- the line for foreigners was quite short -- but at the Cambodian visa application place they managed to get an extra $5 per person for us (it was supposed to be $20).

By then we were feeling rather harried and wary when a "tourism official" spotted us as we were leaving the visa place and clung to us as we went to the arrival office and rode with us as we took the free bus to the bizarely modern and nice taxi/bus terminal. According the the web site on border crossing, the cost for a taxi is supposed to be $45 (you can share with up to four people per car) though if you can manage to get one of the non-tourist buses a kilometer a way it's more like $20-$25. But since tourists are supposed to take the tourist-association one, they could get the driver/passenger in trouble if you take one and since we were the only two people there when we arrived, with half a dozen-plus cabs waiting and no idea which way to catch the cheaper cabs, we were essentially stuck. Our minder continued to hover, too, which was annoying. But we did manage to pay only $13/person for the cab instead of the $15/person they at first demanded, even if that was more than the $45 we should have paid.

The ride from Poipet to Siem Reap involved a lot of swerving, honking at people on motorbikes and pedestrians and riding on dirt/unpaved roads. The Thai-English couple kindly shared their chicken and sticky rice with us, so at least we weren't hungry. We ended up at the "No Problem" guesthouse -- the same that the other couple had booked in Bangkok. For $12/night (paid in U.S. dollars since that is the preferred currency almost everywhere) we got an air-conditioned room with two full beds and HBO.