Cambodia and Part 2 Vietnam

We left Vietnam for Cambodia on Tuesday, February 4nd.  Our only stop there was Siem Reap, which is located in Central Cambodia.  The capital, Phnom Penh, is about 4 hours south on some pretty rough roads.  We thought there might be the possibility to meet up with some friends, Ken and Sally Hollenzer, who are serving an LDS mission in family history in Cambodia.  However, their schedule and resources were such that we could not connect. 

We found Cambodia to be quite different than Vietnam.  This poor country has suffered from years of abuse by tyrannical governments and hostile neighbors.  It is doing much better economically in recent years but still has a long way to go.

Siem Reap is one of their prized tourist resources.  It attracts millions of tourists year round.  This place was the center and capitol of a significant civilization in and around the 12th Century AD.  The ruins are quite spectacular and are located very near the city.  We got on the bus at our hotel, and we would be at the site in about 10 minutes.  This made it possible for us to visit a place, take a break at the hotel, (and it was a nice hotel), and then go see something else in the afternoon.   We all enjoyed a short nap or a quick jump into the pool.  Both of us ended up with the "flu" bug during our stay, along with about half of our group, but we managed to see most of the attractions and staying at the same place for three days was wonderful!

This pool at our hotel in Siem Reap was "nice."

 

 The breakfast area at our hotel in Siem Reap, Cambodia.  You can see the swimming pool waterfall in the distance.

 

Display of flowers in the lobby in Siem Reap

 

The two major ruins in Siem Reap are Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat.  Angkor Thom, "Great  City", was the ancient capitol of the Khmer Empire.

Entrance to Angkor Thom

 

 Nancy is standing at the entrance.  How do you like her hat?

 This picture was taken at the Elephant Terrace.  You can see the elephant figures behind Stan.

Angkor Wat taken from the air (internet) so you can get an idea of the overview.  The enclosed wall represents the mountains at the edge of the world and the moat is the ocean beyond.

 

Two Buddhist monks enjoying the view.  This is also an important place of worship.  We also learned some Buddhist women, who reach about age 65 and feel like their life is ending, often shave their heads and come here to pray frequently.

 

 

 These five towers represent Meru's five peaks and are also shown on the Cambodian flag.

 

 

 

 Some of our group, including us, climbed to the top of the steep stairs of one of five towers.

 

 

This is a common method of transportation in Siem Reap, called a "tuk tuk".  Instead of physical power like a bicycle, there is a gas powered scooter.

 This was a performance at a restaurant in Cambodia.

 

 Prasat Kravan is another temple in the area and has unique brick sculptures.  Various countries have helped restore it throughout the years.

 Lara Croft Tomb Raider movie was filmed at this location, Ta Prohm Temple.  Notice the tree roots growing right in the temple.

 

 Not the best picture, but you can see the "brick" formations.

 Notice the face right among the tree roots!

 

This appears to be a carving of a stegosaurus dinosaur.  No one knows why it is here on the temple site.

 

Near Angkor Wat is the largest man made swimming pool, although the water level is down during the dry season.  It is 800 meters x 1200 meters.   It was originally used by the ruler for ritual baths, picnics and boat races.

 

Gerald and Sharon Thomason having a picture on an elephant just before sunset at Phnom Bakent, near Angkor Wat.

 

On Friday, February 7, we visited a floating village on Tonle Sap Lake, south of Siem Reap.  There are about 1600 separate homes, often made of bamboo.  About 6,000 people live in the area, many are refugees from Vietnam.  The people make their living from fishing.   During the rainy season, the water rises to the tops of the mangrove trees and during the dry season you can see "trash" caught in the tree limbs.

This was our captain on the boat on our way to the floating village.  He said he was 17 years of age???? 

 

The floating village

 

 

 This was one of the nicer homes with flowers at the entrance.

 

This is a "concoction" - snake oil (?) being sold at the souvenir floating barge in the floating village.

 This young lady would charge to have her picture taken with the snake.  She posed and would turn around if someone was trying to take her picture without giving her any money, quite the entrepreneur.

 This is a cemetery on the banks of the lake.  It would be underwater during the rainy season.  In most Asian countries, it is important to honor you ancestors and have them close to you.  Often they are buried in the rice paddies on the farms.

 

 On the way back to the hotel at Siem Reap, we passed some homes located on the river bank.  Notice the contrast in construction.  On one bank of the river the people are living on government land.  On the other side, they own the property.  The government is trying to reinforce the river bank as flooding occurs every year.

 

On Saturday, February 8 we were in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon.  It is quite modern and there seems to be more scooters than cars.  The scooters do not need to obey the traffic signals so that becomes a real challenge when trying to cross the very busy streets.

 A dinner cruise on the Saigon River.  This was not our boat, but all are decorated with lights.

 

 Entertainment on the dinner cruise.

 We took some boats from Saigon on the Mekong River to a nearby island to visit a farmer's house and garden.  We also stopped at a bee farm and coconut farm.

 

 The Mekong River has many plants floating on the water.  Our guide said that during the Vietnam War, the plants often disguised mines.

This was the vegetation growing in the Mekong River.

 

 We visited a coconut candy business.  Now days the "juice" is stirred by machine, but the candy is still packaged by hand.

 

 You can see we were in the "tropics" and enjoyed the warm weather.

 

 A donkey excursion on the island of the Mekong River.  Stan is on the left and Nancy on the right.  We had to balance the cart to not overload the donkey!

 

 Entertainment at the bee raising farm.

 We were served honey tea and various fruits with chili salt at the bee farm.  The fruits counterclockwise are: dragonfruit (with the black specks), pineapple, jack fruit and rose fruit.  We also had watermelon, but we had eaten that before we remembered to take a picture.  You are supposed to start with the most tart fruit....rose apple and then finish with the jack fruit.  The jack fruit was sweet but sort of fibrous.

 Another sampan boat ride to another part of the island.  Wayne Clarke is in front with Meredith Smith.

 

 Stan and I in the sampan boat.

 

 We did feel like we were in a "jungle".  We appreciated the shade since it was approaching noon and getting warm!

 

The boat driver had coconut juice waiting for us.  We don't mind the taste, but it is not our favorite drink.

 

 This was the lush vegetation at the restaurant where we ate lunch after our boat trip.  Our BYU tour group had a separate '"cabana".

 

 The fish is usually served in this manner, however, this time the waitress came with gloved hands and pulled the meat from the bones.

 

 This is a wholesale market in downtown Saigon.  It was very busy with everything from trinkets to food items. 

 

 An elderly lady at the wholesale market.

 

 This was the opera house in Saigon, only a block from our hotel.  There is obviously a European influence in the architecture. 

 

One of the BYU couples found some entertainment on Trip Advisor and it was called "The AO Show".  It was performed at the opera house.  Since we had a free evening, we attended and got a 4 start restaurant dinner coupon also for the next evening.  (see pictures later in the blog post.)  The show was wonderful.  It had acrobatics and music with bamboo baskets and poles as props.

 

 

Our group visited the Imperial Palace where the South Vietnam President lived during the Vietnam War.  The original palace was built in the 1870's, but it had been restored several times.  Once a North Vietnam bomber got through and destroyed one of the wings.  There is a bunker in the basement with old office and communication equipment.  There were extensive living quarters for the family also.

 

 The major conference meeting room in the palace.

 

Stan is posing near an elephant tusk at a room in the Imperial Palace.

 

 This was an reception area where ambassadors would present their credentials to the President.  The painting in the background is made from 40 small panels and depicts "Declaration of Victory over the Ming" during the reign of King Le Loi. 

 

 Several of these heads and tails were on display.  They are supposed to represent  "good beginnings make good endings." 

 

 The helicopter pad at the Imperial Palace was an escape route for the first family during the war.

 

During our visit to the Imperial Palace, we noticed an American couple who appeared to be senior LDS missionaries.  They were touring with relatives who were on a cruise and had one day to spend in Saigon.  Their tags indicated they represented LDS Charities and they are doing humanitarian service under the direction of the Cambodian mission president. It was fun to talk with them and learn about the LDS Church in Vietnam, since we were not able to obtain any information from the general church website.  Vietnam does not formally recognize the LDS Church, but allows young missionaries into the country if they are at least 50% Vietnamese (from any country) and if they only teach those interested in a home or at a church location.  There are two organized branches of the church in Saigon and they have Vietnamese leadership.  We thought it a "tender mercy" that out of 12 million people in the city, we encounter the only LDS senior missionary couple!  (There is one other couple in Hanoi.)  Since we had the afternoon free, they tried to explain the location of the church so we could attend services.  However, there was no real address and we would have had to travel via taxi.  Following lunch, one of the BYU couples was returning to the hotel and "ran into" this same missionary couple saying goodbye to their relatives and heading to church.   In literally one minute, the BYU couple was in a taxi with the sister missionary and they followed her husband on a scooter through alleys, side streets, etc. to attend church.  They came back and reported about their wonderful experience meeting in the Vietnamese branch.

 

 

A large amount of US military equipment was left behind at the end of the war.  Many pieces are on display at the Vietnam War museum.  The exhibits tell the Vietnam War from the Communist point of view and display the horrors of Agent Orange, etc.  It was difficult seeing pictures of the war, a reminder of what we viewed on television each evening as teenagers.

This is an operating Catholic Church in Saigon.  Everything used to build it was imported from France.

 This is the post office in Saigon.  The influence of the French is quite evident.  To us it looked like a train station.

 

As mentioned earlier, we ended our 3 week trip in Saigon with a nice dinner at a four star restaurant, "Mandarin".  There is a picture on the wall of former US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, eating at this restaurant and posing for a picture with the owner.  He very proudly showed us his wine cellar, which included some selections at $10,000 per bottle!  The meal was wonderful and the service was excellent.  You would take a sip of water and they would fill your glass back up again!



 



 Some of the BYU group who ate together at the restaurant.  You might notice there were flowers and candles at every table.

 

 Spring rolls with a beet flower for decoration

 

Rice served in a lotus leaf.

 

 This was a beef stew served in a bamboo tube.  The meat was very tender.  We were wondering how we were going to dish it up when the waitress came with tongs and turned out the contents onto a serving platter.  The fresh mango juice was also a highlight.

 

 Usually fruit is the last course served - as dessert.

 

 This is one of the buildings in downtown Saigon, Vietnam.  You might notice the horse.  2014 is the Chinese Year of the Horse, but most Asian countries have the same custom.  Many places were decorated for the Chinese New Year mid-January until February 15.

 

 

 

 

The is the tallest high-rise in Saigon.  You can see a heliport about 2/3rds up.  The city is quite modern.