Clarewalsh's Blog

The adventure has come to an end. Its been a great journey; discovery of new places, new people…although far from the adventures of Marco Polo or Shackleton!!

However, hopefully I’ll be back on the road later in the year. Where to, I’m not sure, but maybe I’ll see more of Asia, spend some time in Malaysia, or maybe to South America. The choices are endless!

So, would I do anything differently if I had my time back? Just a quick reminder of the ground covered…eight days in Cambodia from west to south-east, taking in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville.
17 days in Vietnam from the most southern tip of Vietnam – Phu Quoc Island – to the Chinese border at Lao Cai in the northwest and then over to the north-east taking in Halong Bay. Nine days in Thailand – 3 in Bangkok, two in the beginning and one at the end, five in Koh Phangnan.

In total I covered about 3,200 km over the course of this journey, not excessive distances when you consider I was on the road for five weeks. Of course, these are overland journey’s only. I’m glad I decided not to fly while there (except from Hanoi to Koh Phangnan). The bus and train rides were great experiences…I’d recommend both as a way to travel.

I didn’t make it to Laos this time, but from stories from travellers I met, it sounds like a wonderfully laid back and nice place to visit. It seems to lack the big, commercial tourism outfits of Vietnam and Thailand. If I had my time back, and knowing what I now know, there’s not much I would change. If there was one thing, maybe to have spent more time in Cambodia and less in Vietnam. I would go back to Cambodia in a heartbeat, but for Vietnam, I’m not so sure. I feel that I’ve been there now, and nothing inspired me enough to want to go back.

South America, Here I Come……..

Leaving Hanoi on the overnight train, I end up sharing a cabin with three guys from Israel. They have been travelling four months and covered a lot of ground. They spent a lot time in India, which they really enjoyed, although it was very challenging. Like me, they agree that travelling in Vietnam is far too easy. The most challenging thing is to avoid getting ripped off! They are spending a few days in Sapa trekking and then heading for Laos.

We arrive in Lao Cai, which is the last stop before China. Sapa is about an hours drive from there. It’s a truly beautiful mountain area, located in the northwest of Vietnam. By the time I arrived it was about 7.30am and the whole area was shrouded in fog, spectacular! The region is home to many minority tribespeople. They wear traditional clothes and their main occupation besides subsistence farming is making clothes, bags, purses, scarves – all very colourful. The children are very good marketers, and of course, after two days there I leave with more scarves and stuff I don’t need. However, at least the money they make goes straight to the families. The day flies past, as I wander through the town and its colourful markets and take a walk down to a local tribal area. The locals are more than happy to escort you there, explain their way of living and talk about life in the mountains.

By the end of day, I can hardly keep my eyes open. Two nights of travel are taking their toll! I’m in bed by 8pm. My original plan was to spend three days here, but as usual, I change my mind! I decided to take the night train the next day back to Hanoi and make an effort to get to Halong Bay! It would be a shame to come this far north and not see this beautiful place. Before I leave though, I organise a trip to Ha Bac Market, which takes place every Sunday. This Market is where all the local hill tribes come to sell their wares, including horses, pigs, chickens and cows. It’s amazing and a photographers heaven! The afternoon takes in a visit to a hill tribe and we get to see their way of living, from saving the corn to cooking. It’s a great insight. Finally, we go back to Lao Cai where I depart for my train, but not before taking a quick trip to the Chinese border, where we see the friendship bridge. China, so near! But with no visa organised and no plans to visit in such cold weather, it’ll have to wait for another time. I have a few hours to kill before my train, I have a look around the town, but it has little to offer. Lucky for me, I bump into two Japanese girls I met in Hoi An. They are also waiting for the train, so we pass the hours together.

With just over 24 hours in this central coast town, I took a quick afternoon tour of the city. Usually, I just walk or take a moto to the sites I want to see. Hue is a World Heritage Site, where the main attractions are the crumbling Citadel, tomes of emperors past and of course many pagodas! The afternoon finishes with a dragon cruise up the Perfume River, where the floating tin can of a boat breaks down and we have to swap boats mid river! The second boat has a small mechanical problem, but it is fixed quickly – imagine all of this on a short 4km stretch of river! The next day I take in some of the city sites on foot, while waiting to take the 4.30pm overnight train to Hanoi. One of the young guys who works on commission for the hotel (trying to encourage tourists to stay at the hotel when they arrive by bus or train). It’s a competitive world, he walks with me while he waits for the next bus. He’s paid 1 dollar for each person he takes to the hotel, some days he may get one or two, other days, none. He has aspirations to improve his English and become a tour guide and eventually own his own hotel. He’s only 22, but big on ambition. We have coffee sitting on the street with some of the other guys who do the same work. Girls, for a reason I don’t know the answer to, don’t do this work. Unfortunately, there is no equality rights here, so women do hard manual labour like building and road construction, because they are cheaper!

My young Vietnamese friend departs to go to the next arriving bus. He promises to take me to the station, which he duly does. He has ambitions to travel outside of Vietnam, however, this is highly unlikely for him. While the dong – the Vietnamese currency – remains valueless in the face of the dollar and euro, it is only the rich and privileged of society that have such good fortune. The children of wealthy parents are fortunate to be educated abroad, with Australia very popular due to its close proximity to Vietnam. Again, Vietnam suffers the same fate as their Cambodian neighbours in that the state teachers are poorly paid and have no incentive to provide any standard of education. It’s a shame.

The 12 hour train journey rolls in the new year. The start of 2010 rocking away to the gentle noise of the train. I’m the only foreigner on my coach, which is nice. Welcoming in the new year surrounded by lots of people, but nobody really. Thats traveling.

Vietnam’s premier diving destination – Nha Trang is also the beach capital. It lacks the charm of Mui Nui, which was a stop on the 11 hour bus ride from Saigon. Mui Nui is a charming little town, with a real resort feel to it, minus the high-rise hotel set. Nha Trang, on the other hand, is a strong hold of high-rise hotels, including the Sheraton and construction of some other big names is underway. This buzzing little town – population of 340,000 – has plenty to offer the tourists, primarily sea based activities.

The journey from Saigon was visually stunning, leaving the low lands of the Mekong Delta and rice fields, the journey makes for the amazing sand dunes surrounding Mui Ne, however, stunning and all as they are, they are juvenile in comparison to the amazing Gobi Desert dunes.

The landscape changes further on up the coast to take in the mountains of the central highlands, the road skirting between the coast and the mountain.
Although the journey is only 440km, it takes 11 hours. The single carriageway paved road slows the journey down, although the drivers overtake slow lorries at every opportunity. The incessant beeping of the horn serves as a warning to all the bikes on the road, along with animals at times! This I block out by listening to some of my favourites – The Killers, Tom Baxter and a few others – all reminders of the long journeys in Argentina. Them and ear plugs!

After arriving at 7pm, it’s dark and there’s not much opportunity to look around. One full day here, and it’s time to move on. The day is taken up with looking around the town, booking onward travel and of course relaxing by the beach!

One day was enough for me, unless you are interested in diving or just lying by the beaches, there’s not much else to do. Of course there is a pagoda and some other relics of worth. Moving onwards, I take the 5.30am train to Hoi An, described as the historic jewel of Vietnam. Time will tell. In the meantime, I look forward to the train ride and the beautiful scenery the coastline has to offer.

Also formally known as Ho Chi Minh City, this place is buzzing with the hum of motorbikes. With a population of approximately 7 million people, it is estimated half of them own a motorbike, although the stats say that there are only 900, 000 licenses.   The bikes are often packed with people (I’ve counted four on one) and piled high with merchandise. However, for all the motorbikes on the road, there appears to be few accidents and everyone appears to be good humoured when it comes to navigating the streets and roundabouts. The motorbikes move like a shoal of fish, ebbing and flowing around the obstacles. It’s remarkable to watch. It’s daunting trying to cross the street though, with motorbikes not only going against the traffic but regularly using the footpath too. The only way to cross the street is to walk while keeping your eyes peeled, there can be a wall of ten to eleven bikes coming towards you at one time. But if you stand your ground and keep moving the bikes will flow around you.

I spend three days here in total, too long in the usual scheme of this travel, but I wanted to spend Christmas day somewhere peaceful and not on the road. The city is easy to navigate as it is divided into 16 districts and many places of interest are within walking distance of District 1, which is the main backpackers area. I got in some of the sights including the Reunification Palace, War Remnants Museum and the Notre Dame church. The Pham Ngu Lao area has plenty of western type restaurants, but you don’t have to travel too far to find a traditional Vietnamese eatery. Many of the Vietnamise don’t speak English, unlike the Cambodians. However, while trying the decifer the menu in a Vietnamese restaurant – which wouldn’t be a problem if I wasn’t a vegetarian – a Vietnamese English teacher kindly stepped in to translate and then stayed with us for a chat. He wanted to practice his English and I was delighted to talk to him about teaching and life in Vietnam. Good food and great lesson in Vietnamese culture.

Christmas day was great, relaxed in the peace and quite beside a pool, which I had to myself all day. My companion for the day was a great book – Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – a fantastic gem of a book.

After three days here it really is time to move on. With the main aim of getting to Halong Bay in the north, I have to get my skates on. Next destination – Nha Trang on the south central coast.

The tear shaped island lies in the Gulf of Thailand, 15km south of the coast of Cambodia. This is Vietnam’s largest island and is deemed to be everything a tropical island is supposed to be – white sand beaches and turquoise waters on the coast and dense tropical jungle inland. The main resort area is Long beach, just south of Duong Dong town. The resort area consists of accommodation catering for all budgets. I set up camp here for a couple of days. The area is very peaceful, I arrive just before the onslaught of those wishing to spend Christmas on the island, it’s a very popular place for families and couples.   It’s easy to while away the time sitting by the beach, but I want to see some of the island as well.

This island is my first real experience of Vietnamese people and culture. My first impressions are built around the vast difference between these people and their Cambodian neighbours. I’m interested to see if these first impressions are correct. Time will tell.

My two full days on the island involve long walks on Sunday, right down beach – there is no time for lying by the beach! A trip to the town in the evening and I take a walk through the market, which is amazing. I’m the only traveller there. Monday is taken up with a snorkeling and fishing trip, both of which I have little interest in, but it’s  a great way to see some of the islands located around the south. Known as the An Thoi archipelago, it consists of 12 islands. The trip very much caters for all types – families, couples, groups and so on. However, it appears that there is little concern for the environment here. These independent operators make a living from the local environment, but there appears to no thought given to protecting this beautiful area. The anchor is thrown down into the coral with little regard, snorkelers and swimmers are given no guidance on responsible behaviour and the rubbish is just thrown overboard. These actions are not sustainable long-term. Who knows what this island will be like in ten years time! While I was there, there was major road construction and building works going on.  This place will be the Puket of Thailand in time.

After two days it’s time to leave. Taking the 8am ferry to Rach Gia, the trip takes three hours in rough seas. I managed to keep all thoughts of nausea out of my mind, although many others didn’t. The fast ferry was battered by high winds and big waves for two of the three hours. I was glad to see the end of that journey. A seven hour bus ride takes us all the way over the Mekong Delta, where at one stage, we cross over this vast river in a car ferry.   There are many private bus companies, and the competition between them makes bus travel very affordable. Five dollars for the trip. I meet a group of English lads en route and go District 1  of Saigon which is equivalent to Bangkok’s  Khao San road area of the city. This is real backpackers territory, with a wide range of accommodations to choose from. By the time I arrive, I’ve been on the road for 10 hours.

After a day and half, it’s time to move on. I’ve spent a week in Cambodia. I didn’t make it to the northeast, but I must continue onwards or my time in Vietnam will be cut short. Leaving at 8am, I take a shared minibus with five others, three of which are travelling to Kampot, while myself and a French man I met in Sihanoukville travel together. The journey gives interesting views of the countryside as we travel on mostly back roads that take us to the border crossing of Prek Chak.

This trip brings back memories of Boris, traveling on red coloured dirt tracks, but instead of six we are two. We pass through many rural villages and also through Kampot & Kep. I’m very happy to bypass these towns…more of the same. The driver is careful but speeds along where the track is straight and without holes.  The trip in total to the border takes 3 hours. Passing through this sleepy border takes a short time as there are not many using it. The vietnamise officials are mostly concerned with encouraging us to take a taxi – as recommended by them – there are not many options as the town we need to travel to – Ha Tien – is about 10km away. The air of corruption is rampant and almost funny. The border requires you to deal with three individuals. One of them demands a dollar from each of us crossing as he processes some paperwork. Immediately, the dollar goes into the said officials pocket! They do well in the few minutes it takes us to get through. Myself and the French man, while a Canadian couple come behind us. Four dollars in as many minutes… easy work if you can get it. For us, we just shrug our shoulders and laugh, what’s the point in arguing over a dollar.

With no bookings for the ferry or indeed the island, we are keen to move on and make our way to Ha Tien. This town serves daily trips to and from the island. We arrive in plenty of time for the 1pm ferry, which leaves about 1.30, the trip taking 1 1/2 hours. As usual, I feel nauseous a few minutes into the trip and have to spend most of the journey standing outside beside the smelly noisy engines! I rather be deafened than vomiting! Finally, after travelling for almost 6 hours we arrive on the island and begin the task of finding somewhere to stay – an easy task as there are plenty of people willing to recommend places. The usual, drivers on commission.

Moving eastwards, I head to the coastal town of Sihanoukville, which is located in the south-east of Cambodia. I have no particular reason for stopping here other than it’s on my way to somewhere else. The LP describes it as ‘Cambodia’s premier sea-side resort’, which should be enough of a giveaway!

The four-hour journey is spectacular. Leaving the city, we drive through numerous markets, where the locals and businesses are buying fruit and vegetables for the day. I want to shout at the driver to stop and let me off so I can take some photos!! The colours are amazing, the dirt spectacular. The countryside changes from the flat rice paddy fields of the northwest to hills and forests. The buses usually stop after a couple of hours to let travellers off for a snack. As normal, I’m traveling on a public bus, with only two other travellers –  people I bump into in my stay there. Unfortunately, I haven’t got the stomach of Asians, and cannot bear to eat noodle soup or rice at 9am. I go for the fresh pineapple, which is located beside a giant tray of fried spiders! These are largest things I’ve seen and put my resident spiders to shame!

Arrival in Sihanoukville my expectations in terms of the town are met. Sprawling and unkempt. We have just arrived at the tail end of a huge storm, with the water cascading down the streets. The smells are far from fresh!

Sihanoukville consists of a sprawling town, the livest area of which is the Serendipity area. The beach strip is home to a host of bars and restaurants, although the beach itself is very narrow, only about a metre wide. Relaxing here for the afternoon, it is evident this is a party zone at night-time. By 4pm, there is evidence of those, maybe worst from wear from the night before, covered with a range of plasters and bandages from falls on the rocks.

With plans to spend only a full day here, I book a trip to Ream National Park. The park consists of 150 sq km of forests. The ranger led trip involved a boat trip up the Prek Toeuk Sap estuary, a trek through some forest that leads to white sandy beaches. We don’t see any wildlife of merit, but we do walk through a small village where the local kids are playing outside the school. By law, all the kids are supposed to attend school, but by all accounts the schooling they receive is minimal due to the fact that teachers are paid 30 dollars a month. There is no incentive for them to make an effort, with many of them letting the children do as they please. Hence, Cambodian families that can afford to, have their children schooled in the private education centres after finishing their day at public school. The same teachers take these private lessons!

Later I meet some of the people from the trip and we wander around the town and find a nice local Khmer place for dinner.  The next morning, I’m up early to travel onwards to Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc. I decide to skip the towns of Kampot and Kep. Goodbye Cambodia, hello Vietnam!

The Cambodian capital is home to some 1.3 million people, I feel like I touched shoulders with at least half of them in my short stay in this city. The former French colony has interesting architecture, if you are into that. The grid system makes navigating the city simple enough. The first port of call on arrival is to haggle a good price to the guesthouse, there seems to be a mafia situation at the bus depot, but I negotiate the best deal I can. Travel by tuk tuk allows good views of the city, with the drivers six deep on most roads, with every driver for himself on the cross roads. Only major junctions have traffic lights, which makes travel through the city interesting to say the least!

The noisy polluted city has a range of sites catering for many types of visitors. The must see unique sites however date back only 30 years to the Khmer Rouge period. This devastating period in Cambodian history, where it is still not known how many died during the three years, eight months and 20 days of Khmer Rouge rule. Figures are estimated that at least 1.7 million people perished at the hands of the Pol Pot regime. Many more died in the ensuing famine following liberation by the Vietnamese.

Phnom Penh is home to Tuol Sleng museum, also known as Security Prison 21 (S21). Once a centre of learning, Pol Pot took over the school and transformed the classrooms into torture chambers. It was an incarceration to some 17000 men, women and children and the largest of its kind in the country. Most of these people were executed in the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Like the Nazi’s, the Khmer Rouge kept meticulous records of each prisoner. S21 displays at least 200 photos of some of men, women and children that passed through. This place leaves the visitor under no illusions on the horrific genocide that took place. The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek is located about 15km south-west of the city, the journey there gives a good view of local life. Again, a vist to this killing field, one of 380 in the country, leaves you under no illusion of the atrocities carried out. With only Duce alive to stand trial for crimes against humanity, the hearings are expected to wrap up in March 2010. One final point to put this whole period in context – 189 prisons, 380 killing fields, 19,403 mass graves, over 1.7 million people slain. Many were bludgeoned to death, due to a shortage of bullets.

The primary reason for the day and half stop was to visit these two sites. I also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Royal Palace, and see some of the notable areas of the town. Unfortunately walking around this city is near to impossible, the footpaths are taken over street vendors or in such terrible repair, that more than often you are forced to walk on the street. Every second moto or tuk tuk driver stops ‘you want tuk tuk’, after a while, it’s easier to travel with them than saying ‘no thank you’ one million times!

After a busy day, it’s to bed early (9pm after a 5am start) it’s time to catch some sleep before the four hour bus ride to Sihanoukville.

Escaping on the early bus out of Siem Reap and heading for the Cambodia capital, some 300km away. The main route is paved, so the journey is comfortable. My travel companion –  a young American guy – I already know as we stayed in the same guest house. I know part of his story, as he quickly divulged it the night before. The twenty one year old uncertified music teacher is in Cambodia to meet his biological father for the first time!

By 8am my companion has also casually shared with me that he has already taken a couple of Valium and dislikes social situations….all elements of a condition he describes as Aspergers.  Drinking a can of Angor beer and munching some fried crickets, my travel friend – with the most Irish of names (RP) – tells me of the daily difficulties he faces.  The five hour trip flies by – the well read Ross telling me, amongst other things, that he can see many comparisons between himself and Raskolnikov, the main character of Dostoevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment. The tortured soul.

He gives me some useful advice on some good sights and we part ways at Phnom Penh bus depot.  I only have to deal with getting the best deal from a tuk tuk driver.