A Little Vietnam and a Lotta Cambodia!

Day 1:

We rolled into Ho Chi Minh City a little differently this time around – instead of just plopping our ship in the ocean as if we were a misplaced block in Tetris, we actually had to maneuver our way into the country by traveling up the Saigon River! I woke up at 6:30 to see our ship cruising down a chocolate milk colored river surrounded by mangroves, stilted homes, and miniature (compared to our vessel) wooden boats complete with a rower wearing a rice hat. What a peculiar feeling it was to be on a cruise ship heading down a river in Vietnam…

That morning I had a trip with SAS to the Cu Chi Tunnels leaving as soon as the ship was cleared. Before arriving at the Tunnels we stopped for a traditional Vietnamese lunch at a gorgeous restaurant overlooking a tiny river with the occasional fisherman floating by. The meal was full of no-name food, but it was all delicious. The Cu Chi Tunnels were created by the Vietnamese as an effective war tactic. The network runs deeply underground with several floors and rooms made for storage, cooking, meeting, preparing for battle, etc – some of them running up to 200 km in length. We were first taken to a miniscule hole in the ground meant to be an entrance way into the tunnels – the hole was probably 1 ½ feet by 2 feet, way too small for a normal person to fit in, right? The first girl to go in was definitely smaller than me, so it was no surprise that she slid in and out like butter. It wasn’t until our guide Mai convinced a guy in our group the size of a football player to squeeze himself in there that I knew I could probably fit. The trick wasn’t getting in, however, it was getting out .

We saw some pretty insane, elaborate traps set up to, you know, kill Americans. It was a little strange to have her say things like, “this one was used to kill you by puncturing your foot and trapping your leg”. After seeing that joyous display of artifacts, we shot off some guns! Yes, I shot an M60 machine gun! Another strange feeling to be shooting off M60s and AK47s with huge smiles on our faces while realizing these guns were probably used to kill American soldiers a few decades back. I kept my casings, so hopefully I will be able to get back into the states with them. Lastly, we actually went into a tunnel. Now, here I go again make presumptions and having expectations. I envisioned the tunnels being quite spacious, at least with enough room to walk upright. Oh, it makes me laugh inside at how mistaken I was. The tunnels were tall enough to crawl and wide enough to touch your elbows to each side. Wearing shorts, flip flows, and having to hold a flashlight while trying to inch my way through the bat and rat infested tunnel was a challenge, to say the least. 50 of us squeezing through a 20 meter tunnel meant there was no turning back once you were inside. I had a brief feeling of Closter phobic nervousness…so I couldn’t imagine how the Vietnamese felt crawling through tunnels 200 km long! It was definitely something to experience. We arrived back at the ship around dinner time – I chose to stay in to rest up for the next few days.

Day 2:

I had another SAS trip to the Mekong Delta leaving at 8 a.m.. A few of my good friends were on this trip so it proved to be a darn good day, despite its failure to meet a few of our expectations. We drove 2 hours and stopped at a market for about ten minutes and a random temple with a gigantic Buddha. They like their Buddhas big in Vietnam. We finally reached the river and climbed into a large river boat meant for tours. I had pictured the river to be lined with wooden stilted houses and bustling with small boats selling various fruits and veggies, but it was more like a highway for big boats like ours. Apparently you have to drive another 2 hours to get to that part of the river and wake up at 6 a.m. to see what I saw in my head. Oh well. Our boat stopped at a coconut-candy-making factory, and then we took burro-drawn carriages to smaller river boats made for 4 people. That was the authentic, relaxing experience I was looking for on the Mekong. We met back up with the big boats and floated off to lunch…which was amazing!! The first thing they brought out was a deep fried whole fish stood up on a stick complete with eyeballs and all! My initial thought was, “Holy crap, I can’t eat that”, but what would Semester at Sea be if I didn’t do those things that scare the poop out of me? The Vietnamese woman peeled the meat off of the fish and stuffed it in rice paper with noodles and greens. I have to say, it was quite good. We also had the most phenomenal shrimp I have ever tasted in my entire life! It was super fresh (she peeled it right in front of us) and you dipped it in a mixture of salt, pepper, and lemon. Dad, you would go crazy for this! The meal was complete with a trip to a fruit farm where we stuffed ourselves with mango, pineapple, and lychaes.

As soon as our bus got back to the ship, my friends and I freshened up and took the next shuttle back into the lively center of Ho Chi Minh City. We ate Vietnamese Pho (a traditional noodle bowl), went to the Night Market where I bought a duffle bag for 8 dollars to pack all of my gifts in! We topped the night off with some ice cream and a tip to the grocery store. I said goodnight to Vietnam as I was leaving the next morning for Cambodia.

Day 3:

I had a leisurely morning as our Cambodia trip didn’t leave until 10 a.m.. Despite the fact it took our bus two hours to drive to the airport, our flight was the fastest yet. I had barely finished my box lunch and we were already landing in Phnom Penh. As soon we arrived we piled into a stifling tour bus with air conditioning that had the power of a new born kitten. We went straight to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda where we walked around, took some pictures, and sweated our way back to the States (China’s not half way around the world anymore!). We then visited a museum full of remnants from Angkor Wat, which was not too exciting seeing as we were visiting Angkor Wat the next day. We took a soothing, breezy sunset cruise on the Mekong Delta then headed to an orphanage. None of us were informed ahead of time that we would be visiting an orphanage and hadn’t brought any gifts with us, so we made a stop at a convenient store to buy candies, pens, and trinkets. Take a moment and imagine 60 students piling into a convenient store the size of a Mini Mart gas station (actually smaller) with no air conditioning trying to buy virtually the same thing! It was all worth it.

As we came up on the orphanage a young girl greeted us with a glowing smile saying, “I am so happy you are here. Welcome! Please, come in. We are so happy you come!” I knew immediately these kids were something special. The orphanage is called the Palm Tree Center – it was founded in 2002 by a man named Ouch Syphalla (Mr. Pole). The center serves both as a dormitory for kids orphaned by AIDS and a school. I was befriended by a 13 year old boy who gave me his personal guided tour. All of the kids spoke English very well, which was a bit ironic because many of the elders working there spoke very little English. He first showed me the girls dormitory. I saw an empty room with cubbies lining one side for the girls clothing. I asked the boy, “What do the girls sleep on?” and he replied, “I don’t know, I sleep in boys room.” So I asked him what he slept on and he told me he had a bed to sleep on – later I find out that a bed to him is a plank of wood propped up off the ground. The girls must sleep on the floor. He showed me the classrooms and some artwork he had done, and then he took me up to the music room. About 5 of us (SASers) watched as the students fiddled with cords and equipment. One strapped on a guitar, one grabbed a bass, one sat at the drums, and one got behind the keyboard. I was blown out of the water to hear such a sweet, harmonious, rockin’ sound come from these kids! They were brilliant! The evening ended with kids asking for our e-mails, hugging us goodbye. I even heard one girl saying to a SASer as we were leaving, “I will never forget you my sister, my sister”. If I ever adopt a kid, I know exactly where it will be from.

Day 4:

Our second day in Cambodia was just as crammed as the first. We woke at 6:30, had a pleasant breakfast, and made our first stop of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The Museum was originally a high school before it got taken over by the Pol Pot clan and transformed into a prison. The classrooms on the ground floor in Building A were individual cells where most of the torturing took place. The second floors comprised of either wood or brick cells used for mass detention. In each cell there was a tiny tin box to do you “business” in. The railings were blocked by barbed wire so that the residents weren’t able to commit suicide. One of the torturing devices was a tall pole where the victim was hung upside down until they lost consciousness, and then the head was dipped in a large pot of fertilizer water. The first floors of Building B and C were full of pictures of the genocide victims taken before they were taken to the killing fields to be killed. The victims were “suspects” of being a part of the CIA or KGB – they were students, doctors, monks, teachers, basically anyone thought to be a little too smart for their own good. They were told they were being taken to a reeducation camp. The pictures were the most gripping and heartbreaking aspect of the whole thing. Their faces communicate to you their feeling more than any statistic or piece of writing ever could. Some had the look of complete horror, some looked utterly exhausted, some looked as though they had just given up, some looked furious, and some looked torn to shreds.

Many died right in the prison from torture or starvation; the others were taken to the killing fields. They were blind folded and driven out to the fields where their heads were smashed in with whatever tool. The fields had a temple to honor the victims that was filled with thousands of skulls and piles of clothing found at this site. It was interesting to see a temple like this…I’m not quite sure how I felt about it. The whole area was a somber sink hole.

Later in the trip our guide talked to us about his childhood and it turns out that he was deeply affected by the Genocide. When he was nine years old his father was taken by the Pol Pot clan into the jungle – they assume he was murdered because they never saw him again after that. His mother took him and his 5 brothers to the country. They had to travel by foot – when they came to the river full of crocodiles his mother had to pass through one by one with each child. Many people died of malaria that way, but his brothers ended up dying of starvation. It was astounding to heard our regular Joe guide talking about this, but that is who the genocide affected – the regular Joe.

After the killing fields we hopped on a flight to Siem Reap, the home of the Angkor temples. We went straight to Angkor Wat, the most renowned religious site in the world. (Look it up on Wikipedia) The whole scene reminded me a lot of the Taj Mahal – lots of tourists snapping pictures and lots of hawkers. We explored for about 2 hours and spent the last half our looking at the vendors’ merchandise. I guess the temple was originally built to worship Shiva, the Hindu god, but somehow over the years it has become a Buddhist temple. We left just before sunset, had a delicious Vietnamese buffet with incredible spring rolls, and left before the cultural show to go to the night market. The market was definitely not what I’m used to – it was really clean, sheltered, and clearly catered to tourists; there was even a westernized bar inside of it. We then went to an internet café where I got to talk to my mom, dad, and sister. We took a tuk tuk, a motorbike attached to a carriage, back to the hotel for one dollar. It was a splendid evening.

Day 5:

I woke up at 4:00 a.m. to my roommate coming back from talking on Skype all night at an internet café. I had to get up at 4:30 anyway to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat, so I lied in bed until then. There were very few people at the temple at this time making it an extremely calming and serene morning. We all lined the man made pool of water to take that perfect reflection picture as the sun rose through the pink sky behind the symmetrical temple. It happened all too quickly. After watching the sun rise we walked into the temple and enjoyed the cool air and vacant premises. We could already start to feel the heat at 6:45 when we left the temple to grab some breakfast.

At 8:00 a.m. we went to a different area of the temple complex to see Ta Prohm and Preah Khan. Ta Prohm was out of this world! This was the temple that appeared in Tomb Raider with the gigantic tree growing in and around it. There were heaps of stone that had fallen from the temple with signs saying, “Do Not Enter” or “Dangerous”. These signs, of course, were really trying to say, “Come climb on us, we are fun and we have great picture opportunities”. And so we did just that! We climbed all over those babies – we were real live tomb raiders! We were all wearing flip flops which proved to make the trekking rather difficult once the dirt combined with the sweat. It was a tid bit challenging and way too much fun. The second temple, Preah Khan, was similar to Ta Prohm, but not as cool. We happened to make it cool by climbing to the top where we got to overlook the whole temple. It was fantastic! We then went back to the hotel for lunch where I had the whole restaurant sing Happy Birthday to my friend Teagan who was celebrating her 21st birthday!

After lunch we checked out of the hotel and drove to the South Gate of Angkor Thom where the entrance is a symmetrical arch with faces on all four sides. Bayon was my second favorite temple with hundreds of faces peering at you from all different directions. I feel as if I could have enjoyed this place much more if I weren’t experiencing minor symptoms of heat exhaustion. Our last site to see was the unimpressive elephant terraces and we were off to the airport for our flight back to Ho Chi Minh City. Right as we were arriving at the airport it started pouring rain! Not only did we get to experience the refreshing rain, but there was also a Dairy Queen!! Could the day have gotten any better?
We arrived back at the ship just in time to watch a bunch of people get dock time! We were immune to dock time since we were on an SAS trip. It was pretty amusing.

All in all, Vietnam and Cambodia were equally phenomenal! I cannot wait to return and see more of the countries.