Hunan Province: Changsha, Zhangjiajie and Zhuzhou

Hunan Province was wonderful – we saw some familiar faces, ate some delicious food, went to a cool avatar-esque national park, walked up a mountain, saw a huge statue of Mao, and even performed at a Chinese wedding! But here is a more detailed log..

We took the fast train from Beijing to Changsha and our friend, Kavana, picked us up. Changsha is the capital and largest city of Hunan Province. We immediately got some food and then went to Taiping Street for some shopping. We had some traditional Hong Kong style desert, bought an ocarina (who knew it was a traditional Chinese instrument!?), bought tea and some Hunan spices to bring home. Now that we are nearing the end of our trip, we are stocking up on gifts for others (and some for ourselves).

By the end of the night we were so full and sleepy. We’ve noticed that Chinese food portion sizes are very similar to the states, and being away for the past 7 months we aren’t used to that at all! Kavana took us to meet some of his friends from the radio business (he’s a DJ!) and then we went right to bed.

The next day Kavana picked us up for lunch with one of his colleagues at a place famous for serving “interesting food”. Basically, that meant that I wouldn’t be eating because I’m still not used to the idea of eating snakes and fermented eggs and such… but David had some snake.

From there, we went to another lunch (all we do is eat in China!) at the bottom of Yuelu Mountain. The mountain is in the city but provides such a rural escape from buses, motorcycles and constant cars beeping at each other that we felt far away. We hiked up, walked around and saw a great aerial view of the whole city and then took a cable car down. For dinner we had our favorite – dumplings!

The next morning we had the opportunity to tag along with Kavana for some work and meeting with friends – basically just a “day in the life” for him. He’s a DJ and programmer at a radio station in Changsha and designed the broadcasting system used at over 37 stations throughout China! So impressive. At the station, we took some corny photos of us pretending to be recording on the air and met more of his coworkers. He also runs a guitar shop/studio in another part of town. At the shop, we had tea with a great friend of his – and though he didn’t speak English, through Kavana we had a wonderful conversation about the differences between parts of the US and parts of China, religion (he was so interested in Judaism) all while sipping some delicious and pesticide free (they were very proud of that fact) tea. After checking out the radio station, we visited Orange Island – famous for the huge statue of Mao Zedong.

David at Kavana’s radio station

 

Our last dinner in our short trip to Changsha was at a very well known restaurant there, serving “Old Changsha” food. They only have a few dishes -which I think makes it all the better as the focus is on those specialties. The decor was really interesting, too – it was a very large area for seating and then along the walls was what looked like the front of traditional homes, which you could eat in for a more private setting! We had some rice cooked with soy sauce (so simple yet done in a delicious fashion), a huge platter of craw fish/ prawns, a cold mashed up fish soup and for desert a fried caramelized banana dish!

 

 

Part 2 of our Hunan trip: Zhangjiajie

After a quick overnight train ride we found ourselves at ‎Zhangjiajie National Forest Park (henceforth known as ZJJ). According to the tourist information provided by the Chinese government, ZJJ is the inspiration for the movie Avatar. While James Cameron has disputed this claim, ZJJ’s famous sandstone karst pillars are stunning and bare more than a passing resemblance to the movie Avatar.

On our first day at ZJJ we took an outdoor elevator (supposedly the world’s largest outdoor elevator) to the top of a mountain and proceeded to hike around the tops of various karst pillars. It was a little bit rainy and overcast, but there were still plenty of beautiful views. We past over a large natural bridge and saw many unique rock formations. As it started to get darker we headed home for the evenings. The next day we woke up early and headed around parts of the park we hadn’t seen on the first day. It was raining harder than the day before so we took a slow monorail ride through a ten mile scenic area. At the end of the monorail ride there was a big cage with about half a dozen monkeys. The cage was open so the monkeys were climbing in and out of it trying to stay dry and play with their friends. We spent a little more time wondering around the park before we had to head to Zhangjiajie City about an hour away so we could catch an early morning train back to Changsha.

 

Part 3 of our Hunan trip: Zhuzhou

On our train from ‎Zhangjiajie City to Changsha we sat across from a nice Chinese couple who had just moved back to Changsha after living in Houston for more than two decades. Like most of the Chinese people we have met they were extremely nice, offering us food and eventually walking us to the bus station and helping us buy bus tickets to Zhuzhou, our next destination. Zhuzhou is a small city (by Chinese standards that is) south of Changsha, mostly known for industry and as a train station hub. We would have never visited Zhuzhou if it weren’t for David’s cousin, Ari, who has been teaching English there Since August. Our goal for our time in Zhuzhou was simple; a few days in the life of Ari.

After our bus dropped us in Zhuzhou we met up with Ari and headed to his apartment. On the 11^th floor of a fairly busy street, Ari’s apartment was quite a bit different from Lucky Mansion. We relaxed for a little bit before heading to a small market at the bottom of his building. David and I were amazed to hear Ari whip out Chinese as we bought some vegetables and meat for Dinner. It was our first home cooked meal since leaving Kalasin, and it was delicious. After cleaning the dishes we went to bed early to get ready for a busy day.

The next day we woke up early, grabbed some steamed buns for breakfast, and headed to Zhuzhou Middle School #2. Ari had to classes that morning and he kindly let us sit in on them. David and I were both shocked by the English ability and behavior of his students. The students seemed much more eager to learn English and it showed. After Ari’s two classes were finished we left the school got lunch and headed to a nearby park to walk around. As we wrapped our walk in the park we headed over to Ari’s friend’s house to watch Ari’s band practice. There first gig is in a two weeks and we got a great sneak peak. When band practice was over we got dinner and headed back to Ari’s place to relax.

Zhuzhou had a special culture night held in an underpass in the city center. We had expected some traditional song and dance perhaps, but we were met with a skateboarding show and then a beat boxing/break dancing competition. Zhuzhou rocks!

The next day we went into Changsha by a quick 1 ish hour bus. We were so glad Ari was there to help us with any Chinese we needed and it was even better to actually know what we would be eating! 🙂

We all met up with Kavana again, had a great lunch and then went to one of Ari’s friends apartments. He also is an English teacher and actually lived in an apartment on his schools’ campus. We chilled and then went to a birthday all you can eat hibachi style dinner at a Japanese restaurant. At the restaurant, we met all of Ari’s teacher friends from all over Hunan Province. Dinner was great and we went to a fun bar afterwards.

Back to Zhuzhou late at night and then up early to take part in a Chinese wedding. Ari was good friends with the bride and groom so he was able to score invites for us as well. It was surprisingly similar to weddings at home, except with all Chinese food. At the wedding, we performed Outkast’s Hey Ya song for them (the first song we thought of that we all knew the lyrics and that Ari could play on the guitar). The guests loved it and everyone said we did great, although I don’t think they knew what we were really singing. It was a lot of fun to be a part of and a great cultural experience to be a guest at the affair!

From the wedding we caught an overnight train to Shanghai, where we’ll take you to next!

Beijing, China

Beijing, China’s capital city, is in the northern part of the country and home to over 20 million people! Beijing has effectively been the countries hub of political and cultural activities making it a perfect mixture of sightseeing, shopping, eating and learning.

We flew from Chengdu to Beijing because we waited too long and missed on the train tickets… though I’m not too upset to have taken a 3 hour flight instead of a 26 hour train 🙂

Our first day in Beijing we went to the Temple of Heaven, where during the Ming and Qing dynasties emperors visited to pray to Heaven for a good harvest. It is a huge park – full of trees, many gardens featuring different flowers, terraces for picnics and the temple itself. Though you couldn’t go inside it, the colors, design and architecture of the temple was unique and beautiful.

There was also a fashion shoot there!

Not sure if this was a fashion shoot as well, but I’m going to pretend it was real…

Now the best part of traveling – food!

My cousin Adrienne, who is currently studying in Beijing took us to her favorite dumpling place. I got a photo of the cute menu and not the food because it was devoured too quickly!

And here is a man making hand stretched, home made noodles…. my bowl is not pictured because I clearly can’t wait long enough to take out the camera.

And the most famous dish from Beijing would be the Peking Duck. My first time having duck and I really liked it! We did some research for a few days for a reasonably priced place, and found that down the street from our hotel is the oldest Peking Duck restaurant in the city – and great prices. They even made a little show of serving the duck and showing us how to eat it with the side dishes it comes with.

And for the most common reason to stop in Beijing… The Great Wall. Contrary to what some people may think, the Great Wall is not one giant wall but rather sections of a wall. Each section is so large and has a lot to it, though, so you wouldn’t really notice much that it’s not one wall until you look in the distance and suddenly it ends. A childhood friend from Hull is in a Masters program in Beijing and on a day off from class she came with David and I to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. Constructed in the mid 6th century (Wow!!) this section of the wall has 22 watchtowers over the course of its 2,250 meter course. On both sides of the wall there is an amazing view of forests and mountains – giving an otherwise smoggy and dense city an eco-friendly feel! We chose to visit the Mutianyu section for the green space and to be able to toboggan down the mountain after we hiked!

At night, we visited the site of the Olympic games in 2008. Olympic Park wasn’t that exciting or informative, but the architecture and lights sure make a bizarre sight at night! I wonder what the buildings are used for now..

The next day started with a visit to the Forbidden City. Though we could have opted to pay a little and have a recording explain to us the significance and history of the area, we didn’t and ended up not really liking the visit. The buildings were surely beautiful but nothing extraordinary, and the grounds were so large and filled with what felt like millions of people pushing to take photos of themselves next to every building (that looked the exact same). I regret not spending the money to learn more and get more out of the visit there, but after over 70 days on the road I am just so exhausted sometimes!

Didn’t buy this shirt but HAD to take a photo…

The next day, our last in Beijing, we checked out Tiananmen Square. The square is well known for its political and student protests over the years. The main one that comes to my mind when I think of Tiananmen is the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, but there have been many over the years where the protests often turn violent. Self immolation and the killing of civilians have made this square a somber event for visitors where protests have occurred as recently as 2013.

Beijing was great – so good to see some familiar faces, have delicious roast duck, climb the Great Wall and use the most efficient (and cheap) public transportation system I’ve ever seen. From here, we took a train to Changsha in Hunan Province – which I’ll write about in the coming days.

 

Chengdu, China

We arrived in Chengdu after a comfortable ride (the train bed was more comfortable than our hotel in Kunming) and were met by our friend Zhang Jie. She taught Chinese in Kalasin at the same school as us and is from Chengdu. We were so happy to see her waiting for us when we got out of the station! She’s such a great friend, incredible with languages, a great cook and we soon found out a fun tour guide, too!

She took us to get dumpling soup and then to drop our bags off at our hotel. After a big bowl of soup and 18 hours on a train, it was definitely time to shower and rest for the rest of the evening at the hotel.

The next morning, we went with Zhang Jie to the Wuhou Shrine. It is essentially a giant park with temples creating a museum of famous ministers from the Three Kingdoms. It has existed for over 1,780 years!

 

Then, we went to the Tibetan District. There are many ethnically Tibetan people in Chengdu, even though Tibet itself is actually a really long train / bus ride away. We wanted to check out the Tibetan shops and traditional food for a bit. Unless we went to the wrong Tibetan district, there really isn’t anything there. We saw a lot of Tibetan monks, though, and it was interesting to compare the religious clothing to that of Buddhist monks we saw in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

We got lunch at a Tibetan restaurant and though I couldn’t stomach my vegetable stir fry (it was literally in a soup of butter), David liked his yak meat!

With the beautiful weather in Chengdu (so glad to not be sweating in 100 degrees anymore!) we went to People’s Park. It was a huge park, filled with locals singing, dancing, exercising, eating, a lake with row boats, and an area with hundreds of signs and photos of eligible bachelors!

David and I had fun joining the dancers for a little! Thankfully Zhang Jie was there to capture the moment.

 

These “classified ads” in the park were so great! They show the photo of the person and descriptions such as their job, educational background, salary, if they own property or a car and even the specifications of what they are looking for in a spouse! There were many people reading and taking notes of their phone numbers, too. Traditional match.com!

The next day we got to visit… pandas!!! We set out early in the morning to see the pandas while they ate because shortly after, they sleep most of the day away! Here are a few photos from our visit to the Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center.

They are soo cute and fun to watch! The center also had Red Pandas.

 

The next day we lazed around and got some things done for the next few stops of our trip. We’ve realized how important it is to book train tickets early after all the tickets to Beijing were sold out so we had to buy expensive flights!

Once we had a few train tickets in hand, it was time for some shmying and shopping. We went to the Song Xian Qiao Antique Market, known for it’s jewelery, random eclectic decor and communist relics. We bought some propaganda posters and had fun just looking through things. Everyone wanted to sell us Mao’s “Red Book”!

Next stop: Jinli Street, otherwise known as “Snack Street”. Filled with expensive snacks and touristy shopping. We didn’t buy anything but it was so fun to people watch, check out some food ideas to buy later outside the market and look at the beautiful handicrafts. Traditional buildings, Chinese lanterns and spicy smells lead us through the street.

The next day, as if we haven’t walked, looked at or eaten food enough we went to Kuanzhai Alley, otherwise known as “Big and Small Alley”. It is less known than Jinli Street it seems, and for that reason the food was much cheaper! We ate at the little stands all down the alley (I don’t understand how it was both big and small, though). It was so fun to check out the traditional snacks… and boy, do Chinese people love their snacks!

For our last dinner in Chengdu we had to have the famous Sichuan style hot pot. Perfect way to end the time there!!

We loved seeing a good friend, watching the pandas, trying the new food and getting purposefully lost in the alleys throughout Chengdu. It was a city with much to offer – especially spouses if you check out the park! 😉

Now – onto our flight to Beijing!

Kunming, China

From Bangkok, we flew to Kunming, capital of Yunnan province in Southwest China. Kunming, nicknamed “City of the Eternal Spring”, has one of the mildest temperatures in China. Located on a subtropical highland climate, the weather is nearly always spring-like with lush flowers and vegetation year round.

Our flight landed at around noon and we hopped onto a subway line that took us to the city center and from there we walked around lost, found someone who spoke English and could write our hotel name in Chinese, took a taxi to the area, couldn’t find the hotel, walked some more, and finally found it. I deserve to have a run-on sentence here – it was a long, hot and heavy 2 hours trying to find the place with all of our luggage! After we checked in, we had some dumplings and tea (shocking), a shower and began exploring!

 

This beautiful flowered arch we saw on the way to a market proves the “City of Eternal Spring” nickname.

 

 

We found our way to the Bird and Flower Market… where we of course saw birds and flowers.. but also pigs, puppies, rabbits, turtles, fish, and souvenirs.

How could you not want to learn calligraphy after seeing this stand?

 

We also ran into a panda and Hello Kitty, because…. China.

 

Here, we sampled Kunming’s famous “Across the Bridge noodles”. It is a dish that you sort of create yourself. First, you are given hot soup broth and plates of various meats, vegetables and a bowl of noodles. You add the ingrediants in order of meat, vegetable and finally noodles and give it a big swirl to mix it up. Though this may seem like a simple bowl of noodles, the name comes from an old Chinese tale that a man used to walk over a bridge to work everyday and his lunch would always be too cold by the time he got to it. His wife, being the crafty Chinese woman thousands of years ago, figured that if the broth was really hot and the other ingredients added only right when about to be eaten, it would stay warm. Thanks to this ingenious idea, we enjoyed our soup – but our wallet didn’t!

It even had flowers in it!

 

The highlight of our trip to Kunming was the visit to the Shilin Stone Forest. Located just 2 hours away by bus, the stone forest is a huge natural park of limestone formations. The tall rocks, similar to stalagmites, make this a UNESCO World Heritage Site believed to be around 270 million years old!

 

 

 

We also met the friendliest group of businessmen on a trip to the park. They invited us on their private tour of the park, took us to 2 tea tastings, a delicious lunch and then drove us all the way back to the city to our hotel instead of us taking the bus! They were so nice and we spent the whole day learning from them about Chinese culture and answering their questions about the states. It was a great experience to be with locals and actually know exactly what it is we are eating! 😉

 

Our trip to Kunming was overall a perfect entrance city to all that China has to offer. The weather was great, we tried some new food, made new friends, saw the coolest natural park, and in the end took a 19 hour sleeper train to our next stop to be profiled soon: Chengdu, in Sichuan Province! Come back soon to hear about it and see some adorable pictures (of both us and the pandas we saw).

 

 

Koh Lanta, Thailand

Beautiful, relaxing and hot Koh Lanta (Koh = island in Thai) is in the Andaman Sea and Indian Ocean off the coast of Thailand near Malaysia. This paradise held a mix of Thai and Malay culture featuring delicious Muslim food, Thai kindness and an Italian B&B owner turned friend.

After celebrating the Thai New Year festival in Bangkok, we flew to Krabi in southern Thailand. We stayed there for a night and then took the ferry first thing the next morning so that by lunch time we’d be slathering on sunblock, trying southern Thai food and catching some sun! We stayed at a great B&B with delicious breakfast, company and 5 minute walk to an almost empty beach. We spent 6 days in Koh Lanta – and our plan was to not do more than swim, nap, read, write, snorkel and plan our trip to China.

 

 

We even swam inside a cave that had a lagoon!

 

We couldn’t have asked for a better island trip to end our time in Thailand. From the island, we took the ferry back to Krabi on the mainland and flew to Bangkok. We were only in Bangkok for 2 days before we left for China where we are now. Running behind because of internet availability but hope to post tomorrow for Kunming – our first stop in China!

 

Songkran in Bangkok, Thailand

We left Cambodia and made it back into Bangkok just in time for Songkran, Thailand’s New Years celebration. Songkran officially takes place every year from April 13 to April 15 (yes we’ve been running a little bit behind on the blog), but festivities sometimes last well into the next week. Throughout the world, Songkran is perhaps most famous for the water throwing activities where people use water-guns, buckets, and whatever else they have to dump water on each other. People also cover one another with the clay like mixture of talc and water. During Songkran, it is almost impossible to walk around outside without getting covered in water.

We began our Songkran festivities by meeting our friend Scot in downtown Bangkok. Scot taught with us at Anukoolnaree and is currently living in Bangkok. We put our phones and other valuable into a waterproof bag and walked out into the madness that was Silom Road during Songkran. Thousands of people were crammed together on a small road covering each other in water and talc. It only took a few minutes for us to be completely soaking wet. While the water was welcome on a maddeningly hot day, the super cold ice water still manged to shock us even when we were already soaked. While we were too wet to take our camera’s out there were some souls braver than us who were able to capture the madness.

After roaming around Silom road for a while we decided to check out the action on Khao San Road, Bangkok’s notorious backpacker haven. Rachel and I had never been to Khao San Road and we figured Songkran would be a good time to check it out. Khao San somehow managed to be even more crowded than Silom and as expected contained quite a few more farangs than on Silom. Khao San was a little bit too crowded and after a little bit we attempted to make our way out of the tightly packed crowds. Unfortunately for us, every turn we made seemed to trap us in an even smaller, more densely packed alley. We eventually made our way out of the madness where we found a bus back to our hotel. The bus was packed with other soaked revelers, and every-time it stopped the open doors and windows were pummeled with water from people waiting at the bus stop. The bus ride was quiet the experience itself, and I’m certainly glad I didn’t have to drive that bus.

Overall,  Songkran may have been pretty hectic, but it was a lot of fun. We were both really happy to enjoy such a unique cultural experience and catch up with an old friend.

Siem Reap, Cambodia

Siem Reap, situated in the northwestern part of Cambodia is most well known for its proximity to Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat being the largest religious monument in the world (bucket list check off!) sees thousands and thousands of tourists a day. Siem Reap boasts colonial and Chinese style architectures, delicious Khmer food, a strong nightlife and more handicraft stores than you can count.

We arrived in Siem Reap after a cramped mini van ride from Phnom Penh and after a quick shower, we went to Angkor Wat for sunset. We are so thankful that our friend Adam, who has been to Angkor Wat a few times and knows his way around basically every country we’ve asked for advice on, let us in on the Angkor Wat ticket secret. And now I’ll tell you! It’s $20 a day to enter the complex, which is a great price because it is 203 acres of beautiful Angkor architecture and the occasional monkey. Now for the trick- if you want to go to Angkor Wat for just one day and see the big sites (our plan) you can go the day BEFORE you wish to spend the day there, come at 4:30 PM and buy a ticket. At 4:30, the tickets sold are written as for the next day but you are allowed to go into the park right then until it closes after sunset. So thanks to Adam- we saw the sunset at one of the temples the first night and then were still able to spend the whole next day there, too.

 

 

Then, we went to the downtown area of Siem Reap – known as “Pub Street” and had dinner. We really enjoyed Khmer food- a lot of spices, creamy curries, peppers, lemongrass, turmeric, garlic, etc. My favorite dish was Amok Chicken – a dish with a creamy coconut curry mixed with vegetables, chicken, pounded shallots, lemongrass, garlic and kaffir lime. Delicious and most likely impossible for me to replicate.

We did not eat the fried snake or tarantula nor did we pay the 50 cents we were told we must in order to take the picture. I’m rather sneaky..

 

The next day we set out early to Angkor Wat with a plan to hit up just a few of the major sites, as it was around 100 degrees and so crowded. A picture says a lot more than I can, so here are the photos of the most iconic temples at Angkor Wat: Angkor Wat itself, The Bayon, Ta Prohm and Banteay Kdei.

 

There are plenty more up on my Facebook page, so I’ll try not to seem too repetitive now. They are all so beautiful and incredibly old-  telling stories of the Angkorian people, their beliefs, and bringing that into modern day Cambodian traditions as well.

Our time in Siem Reap was short but we really enjoyed it (except for a day the whole city lost power and it was 100 F outside….). We loved to see the temples and I love walking around old market places. I may have gotten a few gifts made out of recycled bullets and UXO’s found after the war, as well. Now, back to Thailand to celebrate the Songkran festival (Thai New Year) in Bangkok! Check back again soon for the update of how our celebrations went, and please accept my apologies as I am still playing catch up (we are on an island and pretending we have no internet access feels great for the mind). See you all in 5 weeks now!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

This is David here again to write about our time in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital and largest city. Situated on the banks of the Mekong, Tonle Sap, and Bassac Rivers, Phnom Penh is home to a little over 2 million people. In many ways, Phnom Penh, which was once known as ‘The Pearl of Asia’, is similar to Ho Chi Minh. Both are bustling cosmopolitan cities with plenty of French colonial buildings and boulevards.

On our first day in Phnom Penh, Rachel and I woke up early and went to Psar Toul Tom Poung or the Russian Market as its referred to in English. Although it mostly contains various nicknacks and some fresh produce, the Russian Market is best known for carrying designer clothes that were to be sold in the USA and Europe before minor flaws were detected. We walked around the market browsing through the different clothing stalls, but much to Rachel’s chagrin two backpackers on a budget can’t really buy much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Russian Market

Our next stop in Phom Penh was a decisviley darker one. Following the end of an almost decade long Civil War, in 1975 the Khmer Rouge headed by Pol Pot stormed Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge sought a totally agrarian society and forced people out of the cities and into labor camps. Former government officials, teachers, professionals, intellectuals, ethnic minorities, and city dwellers were immediately purged. Later the Khmer Rouge purges grew greater and greater. Today it is estimated at around 3 million people or a quarter of Cambodia population at the time. Following a series of boarder skirmishes Viet Nam invaded Cambodia in 1979 ending the Khmer Rouge’s reign, and beginning their own ten year occupation of the country.

Rachel and I made our way from the Russian Market to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Originally a school, Tuol Sleng was converted into a concentration camp called S-21 in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took over Phnom Penh. S-21 was perhaps the Khmer Rouge’s most notorious and brutal concentration camp. Between 1975-1979 as many as 20,000 people were imprisoned in S-21, and only 12 were known to have survived. Today all the buildings in the S-21 compound have been preserved as they were in 1979. There are four main buildings in the complex (a,b,c,d) containing prison cells (each with a picture of how the cells were found by liberating Vietnamese forces in 1979), displays of the various torture tools used, displays of the ‘confessions’ that victims signed, and perhaps most haunting thousands prisoner intake photos. For me and Rachel the complex was particularly disturbing because the school buildings which were turned into prison cells were very similar to the classrooms that we taught in. After our sobering trip to Tuol Sleng we headed back to our hotel for a little bit of relaxation.

 

Intake photos from S-21

The next day provided Rachel and I another opportunity to reflect on Cambodia’s horrific past as we traveled 17km south of Phnom Penh to Choeung Ek, one of Cambodia’s infamous Killing Fields. During the Cambodian Genocide, prisoners from S-21 were taken to Choeung Ek and murdered before being dumped into mass graves. Since bullets were expensive most of the victims were bludgeoned to death. Throughout Cambodia there are an estimated 20,000 mass graves just like Choeung Ek. Today Choeung Ek is a memorial and museum.   When we entered Choeung Ek we were given a listening device which provided us with a tour of the grounds. There are around two dozen numbered stops in Choeung Ek and each is accompanied with a piece to listen to at the specific stops. The audio tour included a history of the Choeung Ek, stories from survivors and former Khmer Rouge, and other interesting information (including a piece about how Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were supported by the UN and the USA as a government in exile during the 1980′). Much of the tour consisted of walking around large holes in the ground where mass graves were exhumed, and the tour finishes with a visit to the large memorial stupa which contains skulls and other bones from the almost 10,000 people who murdered at Choeung Ek. The tour finished with the narrator speaking about the importance of remembering the genocide, and other recent genocides (such as the Holocaust, the genocide of Indigenous people in America, and Rwanda among others) in order to build a more compassionate world. Choeung Ek was immensely powerful place, and although parts of it our very hard to look at/listen to it is an important place to visit and reflect on.

The memorial stupa which contains some of the unearthed remains of victims

There is more to Phnom Penh than the Cambodian Genocide, but Rachel and I had a short time in the city, and we both felt that it was important to visit Teoul Sleng and Choeung Ek. Phnom Penh is a cosmopolitan city with lots to offer.

Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam

Phu Quoc Island, located in southern Vietnam in the South China Sea, Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Thailand is a secret paradise.. but not for long. Phu Quoc is the largest island in Vietnam with an economy sustained by fishing, agriculture and an up and coming tourism sector. Due to its proximity to Cambodia, there has been a lot of territorial contention between the two countries. In 1982, the two countries came to an agreement but once Vietnam withdrew from Cambodia the agreement was quashed. To this day, both countries lay claim to the island and its surrounding waters, but after being there we can say that it sure seems like Vietnam (needed a Vietnamese visa, the people spoke Vietnamese, etc).

We flew from Ho Chi Minh City to the island for only $40 for the 50 minute flight. We had barely buckled our seat belts on the plane before we were descending to the Phu Quoc Airport and within an hour we were settling in on the beach! 

Our first day, we just rested under an umbrella, swam in the too warm water and continously covered up in sunblock. It was around 100 F outside and the water felt even hotter! Though it wasn’t refreshing, it was the clearest water and most beautiful, secluded beach I’ve ever seen. (Nantasket Beach is still my favorite, though!)

I had a great time hunting for seashells, too.

The next day, we took a full day snorkeling tour of the surrounding islands. After the tour guide picked us up at our hotel and stuffed us in a van with 10 other tourists (both Vietnamese and foreign), we made our first stop at the pearl factory. Phu Quoc is also known for its pearls – and we got to see first hand how they open the oyster and cut out the pearl. I forgot to ask what the difference is between the oysters we eat and the kind that have pearls.

 

After this quick visit at the pearl farm, we got to the boat and started the best part of the tour – snorkeling around three different islands on the coast of Phu Quoc. It was my first time snorkeling and now I’m hooked! It was incredible being so close to the brightly colored fish and coral. I wish I had an underwater camera to show how surreal it looked! But, I do have a photo of David and I before we got in the water and might I say… we are looking great.

We spent the day cruising the waters, making stops to snorkel, a final stop at a secluded beach and then back to our hotels. Unfortunately, we ran out of sunblock during the tour and no one else had any to lend us. Only the back of our legs got burnt, though! I guess that’s just another plus side to having your face and front of your body in the water for hours 🙂

The night after the tour was full of rubbing coconut oil on our burns to soothe the pain and eating mangoes, of course. The next day we left at 7:30 AM to catch a boat to mainland Vietnam that took 2 hours, and then a bus that took 30 minutes, and then entered Cambodia, got a visa, waited an hour, and then took a 2 hour bus, switched buses, then a 4 hour bus, and then a tuk tuk to our hotel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city. We’ll be back to report on the chaos of Phnom Penh in just a few days! See you all stateside in under 2 months now.

 

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, is the largest city in Vietnam. HCMC is in the south of Vietnam and has been through a lot of changes. In the 17th century, it was an important port for the Khmers (Cambodians). Under the name Saigon, it was the capital of the French colony of Cochinchina and later of the independent republic of South Vietnam from 1955–75. South Vietnam was an anti-communist state that fought against the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War with the United States. In April of 1975, Saigon fell and the communists won. On July 2nd, 1975, Saigon merged with the Gia Dinh Province and was re-named to Ho Chi Minh City (after Ho Chi Minh himself). It is still commonly referred to as Saigon around the world and has approximately 9 million people. Today, the city is sprawling, hectic, loud, cosmopolitan and sweltering hot this time of year.

We flew from Hue to HCMC because the flight was the same price as the train ticket we were planning on taking, though the flight is 1 hour and the train is 16! Glad we checked to compare prices and saved ourselves 15 hours). We landed late at night and just went right to the hotel to sleep. The next morning was our first full day in the city. After a quick breakfast, (noticeably more expensive than everywhere we have been so far in Vietnam – and Asia actually) we went to the War Remnants Museum. Established in 1975, the museum mainly shows the American phase of the Vietnam War (here known as the American War). The museum is set up in different themes consisting of: Historical Truths, Requiem of War Photography of Journalists Killed in the War, Japanese Documentaries, Imprisonment Conditions, Aggressive War Crimes and the World People in Support of Vietnam’s Resistance. It was an incredibly informative and important museum to visit. Here are a bunch of photos from it:

We also enjoyed people and traffic watching. I could never get my camera out fast enough for the crazy traffic, but I got one good shot:

This man sells flowers and delicious fruits from his bike. Perfect splash of color and taste in this hectic city.

No visit to Vietnam is complete without going to a Water Puppet show. Watter puppetry is an ancient Vietnamese tradition that dates back to the 11th century in the Red River Delta of Northern Vietnam. “In ancient Vietnam, the rural Vietnamese believed that spirits controlled all aspect of their lives, from the kitchen to the rice paddies. The Vietnamese devised water puppetry as a way to satisfy these spirits, and as a form of entertainment, using what natural medium they could find in their environment. In ancient times, the ponds and flooded rice paddies after harvest were the stage for these impromptu shows” (Eckersley. M.(ed.) 2009. Drama from the Rim: Asian Pacific Drama Book. Drama Victoria. Melbourne. 2009. (p46).

Modern water puppetry is performed in a stage with waist deep water. The puppets are made of wood and then lacquered to withstand the water. The puppeteers are in the water behind a split-bamboo screen controlling the puppets with long bamboo rods and strings. Musicians played beautiful traditional folk music during the performance.

On our last day in HCMC, we took a day trip to the Mekong Delta. The Mekong Delta is in Southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River empties into the sea. It is an area of fertile rice land and fishing port. The delta is home to a startling amount of 17 million people. It was also the scene of many battles during the Vietnam War. The 2 villages we visited in the delta were My Tho and Ben Tre. We took row boats between the two villages as they are on different islands.

Of course, I had to get a selfie in the hat our rower provided:

On one of our villages tours, we went to a honey farm. Here are the bees that sweetened my tea.

Before heading back to HCMC, we had the chance to go for a quick 20 minute bike ride around the island. It was beautiful and surrounded with pineapple and coconut trees! Here is David leading the way.

Apparently the island also has alligators… which we didn’t notice until the end!

Overall, HCMC was an interesting trip. It was around 100 degrees the whole time there – far too hot to do as much exploring as we would have liked. The War Remnants Museum was very informative and heartbreaking. The Mekong Delta was really fun and we met a lot of nice people on the trip – from the Italian man who we spoke to only in Spanish, the man from Myanmar we spoke to in broken Thai and the Chinese girl we spoke to in English because we only know a few words of Chinese (so far!).

We left HCMC on April 2nd and flew to Phu Quoc Island – check back in a few days to hear about it! Off to the beach now 🙂