We arrived by bus in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). It was as congested as you can get with motorbikes everywhere. You take your life in your hands when crossing the road. On our first day we went to the Ho Chi Minh Museum and then off to the Reunification palace. The Ho Chi Minh Museum was rubbish. We thought it was going to actually be about Ho Chi Minh but it turns out they just renamed it after him. Ho Chi Minh is the man responsible for defeating the Americans during the Vietnam war. Before the Americans he had also beaten the French in 51 days. As you can imagine the Vietnamese people love Ho Chi Mihn. They call him Uncle Ho.
The Vietnam war sounds like a complete waste of time from this side of the story. Apparently when the French left there was a conference in Geneva. The conference granted that Vietnam could be independent. However because Uncle Ho was a communist, the Americans didn't like it. Geneva said that they should hold free elections. The Americas placed their own president in the South and got him to stop the free elections from taking place in return from them providing him with cash and military aid - that's democracy for you! Of course this pissed off Uncle Ho and he sent his Northern troops to the south to fight the Americans and the South Vietnamese government troops in order to make Vietnam one country again. Of course the Americans lost so it was all pointless.
The Reunification palace was the president of South Vietnam's house. However Ho's troops stormed into gates in 1975 and the president surrendered. Apparently on his deathbed Ho Chi Minh had said that he missed the south like he would miss a member of his family. Unfortunately he died before his troops stormed to success. They turned the Palace into a tourist attraction and named it the Reunification Palace.
The next day we went to see the tunnels that the Viet Cong (Ho's troops) fought in. They lived underground all day and only come out of night. The tunnels were so small. We both got in them and you had to stand inside with your arms in the air and then go down on your knees so you could then get your arms in. It was amazing. We went into the tunnels for 100 metres. We had to bend down so low that the pressure on our knees was really hurting. Emily ended up going through on her hands and knees. Some of the guys in the group were quite big so they didn't do the full 100 metres and got out as soon as they could. The Viet Cong managed to do this for 4 years or so. We were then shown all the traps they set. They were evil and impaled someone as soon as they stepped on it. The Viet Cong were really clever. They had spies who would warn them when the Americans or South Vietnamese government troops were coming. They would make sure the traps were set then get underground. Only coming out occasionally to shot and to collect and capture the people who had been caught in their traps. The Americans sent dogs out to try and sniff out the tunnels so the Viet Cong lined them with pepper to put the dogs off the scent. It turns out our guide was in the army and he fought for the South Vietnamese. He told us the reason they lost the war was mentality. The Viet Cong had a strong mentality that they were fighting so that the country could be one again. They believed in the cause so much that they would happily risk their lives. He said that the South Vietnamese didn't really know why they were fighting the North. It was just because the Americans and the government in the south was telling them too.
After the tunnels we went to see the War museum. Again this showed the devastation that the Americans caused. Not that the Viet Cong are completed innocent but of course this was not mentioned in the muesum.
However there was no need for some of the things the Americans did. They shot at five year old kids and massacred villages full of women and children. Clearly the Americans have no morals and have a lot to answer too. Dropping chemicals on civilians should never happen! The country was devastated and even now kids are born with mutations. Not small mutations - it looks bloody awful. Its all down to their father or mother being exposed to the chemicals that the Americans dropped even if they were born three years after the war. It is forever in their bodies and is being passed down to their children even now. The Napalm bombs burnt people alive. Understandable sometimes people are going to get caught in the cross fire but aiming the bombs on small villages isn't right. The truth of it was that the Americans didn't know where the Viet Cong were or even how to distinguish them from ordinary people not unlike the current war. A famous quote was from a American pilot telling the press that he advises the Viet Cong to surrender or they will send the whole country back to the stone age - how very professional! The Americans had no right to be there in the first place.
The museum showed photos of all the countries in the world where people were protesting on the streets that the Americans should get out of Vietnam. It included Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Italy, Poland, Germany, Russia, Finland, African countries, even the US people themselves. There was also a section outside that showed people where suspected Viet Cong were tortured.
Our next stop in Vietnam was Hoi An. We had a bit of grief with a taxi driver but Emily was in no mood to give in. The airport taxi service had written down that it cost 260,000 dong. On the receipt it said that the airport taxi service was made to stop taxi drivers from riping you off. So as we got out of the cab the man told us it was 370,000 dong according to his meter. We are fully aware of the fast meter game. Emily read the back of the receipt loudly quoting the cab drivers ripping you off part and generally gave him a gob full and threw the correct cash fee at him. We walked off and into a hotel. Apart from the bad start we loved Hoi An. It was a gorgeous place. It is protected by world heritage.
In Hoi An we did a self constructed city tour. We visited an assembly hall of the Chinese, an old house owned by a Vietnamese merchant and a culture and history museum as well as seeing the Japanese bridge and a temple. We also saw a traditional music show which was really good. In addition it was mega entertaining because one of the musicians looked like a Vietnamese version of Adam Oliver - how we laughed!
Other activities we did in Hoi An was MySon which is a very very small version of the Cambodian temples although these temples were meant to be older. Then we cycled to the beach. We got caught in the rain so we just jumped in our hotel swimming pool on return. You might think we are splashing out with the hotel but it cost us 5 pound each a night. This included a double room with a huge bathroom and air-con with a swimming pool. Heaven compared with the crap heaps we have been getting.
We then traveled by train to Hue. The scenery was amazing. We visited some royal tombs. They weren't so much tombs but massive complexs. Nobody knows where the actual kings are buried because they believe people might try and dig them up to get the jewels that they were buried with. Then we went to the forbidden city where only the royal family and the rich associates could live. It was so beautiful.
After Hue we went to Hanoi, the captial city. We thought that Ho Chi Minh city was bad for traffic!! Oh dear nothing compared to Hanoi. You can't even walk on the pavements as they are hundreds of motorbikes parked up and the constant beeping does your head in! On our first full day we went to the La Hoa prison. This is where the French used to torture the Vietnamese who wanted the French out of their country. It was later used to house American Pilots that were shot down during the war. In fact John McCain (the guy that run for president alongside Barack Obama) was imprisoned there when his plane was shot down.
Then we went to the Women's muesum. In Vietnam it appears that the women are far more switched on than the men. In the war the women fought, built roads, feed troops and looked after the kids. Ten times more that the men. Even now the women go out to work and the men do sweet FA! Why do the women put up with it?
We also went to an exhibition on street vendors which was really sad. The government has made it illegal for them to trade as it makes a mess of the streets. It does but they can't afford to educate their kids if they don't do it. Now they run from the police and get fined. It is a hard life for them. We get pestered all the time by them trying to sell us something. We try not to be rude as they are so poor and desperate but there is never anything we want.
We then went off on a excursion to Halong bay. Two days on a boat. On the first day we were taken to a cave and it was so funny. The female guide would say 'oh look at that rock its a monkey' It could have been anything! Then we got back on the boat and got out on the kayaks. We were in first place in the group in true British fashion. The guide told us we could swim later but because it was so hot we wanted to swim immediately. Therefore we kayaked into a little clove where they couldn't see us and then all jumped in the water. Its a fact that most Asian people can't swim. One Thai couple capsized their kayak meaning that it was full of water. To tip it out one of the guys used the front of our kayak and the front of another one to balance the kayak and tip it upside down on ours. This only filled our kayak with water. In the end we rowed back and the kayak wouldn't go in the right direction because it was full of water. It completely lost its steer and whenever we got some speed it went in the other direction and we had to stop it to turn it. We were knackered by the time we got back to the boat. The rest of the evening was spent jumping from the boat into the sea. We spent the night talking with our guide. She was so lovely. We asked her if she thought all Westerners were fat but she said that she wants to be bigger because she thinks the Vietnamese women look weak. Not that weak if they kicked the Americans arse. She smiled at that! The next day we sailed back to the port.
The next excursion we did was trekking in Sapa. It was so beautiful. We trekked to see the H'mong tribe. They wear traditional dress and work in the fields all day. It is a difficult life for them. They tried to sell us everything and sometimes we had a hard time saying no. Sapa is rich in rice and the rice paddies are a lush green colour and there are buffalos everywhere. Here in the mountains it rains all the time so we got wet! It was freezing! The second day consisted of a really long trek and the H'mong tribal people followed us all the way to the end (11 kms) just in hope that we would buy something. We had a really good time in Sapa especially as we had such a great group and the Vietnamese lady that was our guide was so sweet.
Our final day in Vietnam we went to the the Ho Chi Minh Complex. People from all over the world come here to see Uncle Ho's embalmed corspe. We queued up for ages and Tony got so frustated with the Vietnamese that he decided to leave and wait for Emily outside. The Vietnamese don't queue, they push in front of you. We have learnt from travelling that forming a queue only happens in western countries! You shouldn't really take offense they just don't do it. Emily eventually saw Ho Chi Minh's corpse and it didn't look real. He was a bit yellow and it looked like a waxwork! The position his body was in was a bit too rigid.
At the other end Emily was told to pay for something. The guy didn't speak English but a man from Japan saw that she didn't understand what the Vietnamese man was telling her so he come across and told Emily that the man was trying to tell her that she needs to buy a ticket because you have to go through Ho Chi Mihn's old house and workplace to get out! Thank god Tony left her with some cash.
Vietnam has been one of our favourite countries. It is such a shame that it has got a bad reputation because of American propaganda. We would most definately recommend it to anyone.
Sunday, 17 May 2009
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Thursday, 7 May 2009
Cambodia
We had to get a 6:00 am flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia, which meant checking in at 04:00 in the morning. We don't know how we managed to do so much on our first day. Everybody goes to Siem Reap to see the temples of Angkor and you can get a one, three or a week pass. We went for the three day pass and got a tuk tuk as soon as we arrived in Siem Reap.
Our first stop was to see Ta Prohm which used to be an ancient palace over 1000 years ago. It is the set of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider film. This was one of our favourite stops. The ruins were amazing and the trees were now growing through the cracks in the wall so it was completely consumed by trees and vegetation. It looked amazing. We spent around an hour here.
Next we went to see the famous Angkor Wat. This was a temple back in Khmur history. It was huge with five massive towers. There are certain parts of the temple where only the king could go and worship. The temple is huge and the delicate drawings carved onto the stone wall took four years to complete!!
Finally we went to Phnom Bakheng to see the Sunset. We had to climb up the hill and there were some smaller ruins up there. We watched the sunset and come back a little sooner as there were too many people and we had just climbed up these small steep steps on our hands and knees so we definately wanted to avoid the masses on the way down.
The next day we went to Angkor Thom to see some other temples. First was Bayon. Bayon was the kings state temple. It was quite a big ruin and there were faces carved in the towers. It was really very skillful for people to do 1000 odd years ago.
We saw the Terrace of Elephants & Terrace of the Leper King. The first is a 350m wall with carvings of elephants all the way along it. The terrace of the Leper king was the palace where the King lived. After this we went to see Preah Khan which was an old housing complex where over 1000 Buddhist teachers lived so it ws massive! Tony got pestered by little girls trying to make him buy off them because he is so nice he kept saying 'but they're only little kids maybe we should buy something'. Emily was ruthless as she hated the hard sell so therefore didn't want to buy anything.
Our final day was spent at Kbal Spean where they was meant to be thousands of phalic symbols representing fertility in the river. So we went expecting to see thousands of penis's and there was not even one!!! Emily was most disappointed. We climbed up rocks for thirty minutes to get there as well and all there was were carvings of women etc. Rubbish. We walked back and went to the Banteay Srei which is a small temple but with the most intricate carvings. It was so beautiful. Our driver than took us to the Landmine mueseum and it was devastating. The USA are responsible for leaving landmines through the whole of Cambodia as they believed that Vietnam was using them as a route into the South. Even today people walk down the street and suddenly they go up!! A lot of people even kids in Cambodia have died and lost limbs and they are innocent so congratulations to the USA for another prize cock up! An agreement has been signed not to use them. As we could have predicted the USA have refused to sign it. Russia is the only country in Europe that hasn't. Other countries include Isreal, China, North Korea - need we say more.
The next day we travelled to Phnom Pehn. We went to the mueseum on our first day but there wasn't anything that we hadn't already seen. We started talking to a Monk and he was so troubled. He told us how he wanted to carry on his education but that would mean leaving his 150 plus kids to go off and do it. He was clearly concerned for their welfare. He said there was only three teachers including him to look after them. He explained that they range from the age of 7 to 14 and how the 7 year olds are bouncing off the walls and the 14 year olds have settled. He said it is such a pity as he gets some of the 14 year olds telling him that they must leave and earn money. He said he always thinks but you are too young and how can you survive. He knows that they will end up begging and that will mean going against all the things he has taught them in their desperation for money. There was nothing we could say to this monk to settle his thoughts. We asked him about the orpanage as we would like to go and it turns out he runs one. We asked how we could help.
The next day we went to the shooting range. We shot AK47's. Tony was so excited and kept looking around to tell people how great it was. Emily was unfazed, it was too similar to weapons she had used before. After the shooting the guy that instructed us went on to say how Emily was the better shot and so she bloody should be. Tony hadn't had any training!
We went onto the S21 prison. Back after America had devasted Cambodia during the Vietnam war it lead to a revolution and Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. He wanted to introduce Utopia and wanted everyone to start at zero. He drove everyone out of the city and killed everyone that was educated, people that spoke languages even people that looked intelligent and wore glasses! He had political opposition taken away and abolished reglion, music, currency and freedom. The S21 prison was where everyone started off. The Khmer Rouge would take them there to torture them. We stepped inside the prison and there was a metal bed and a picture on the wall of someone tied to it. The vietnamese invaded Cambodia in the late 70's and smelt such a bad stench. They came into the prison and found these 14 dead tortured bodies and took photos - just as they had found them. There was one woman along the other 13 dead. The photos were horrific. The beds were metal so they could run electric through them to torture victims. They whipped them, pulled their finger nails out and poured alcohol over their wounds. They had an instrument outside where they would tie them up by the legs until they fell unconscious and then get a bucket of cold dirty water to dip their head in to bring them back around. This was interrogation to make them admit the crimes they were supposed to have committed. Of course most of them had crimes made up against them. How can being clever be a crime!
The Khmer rouge were sick. They did this to over 20,000 children as well. If you look at the picture of the children above. The little tot in the bottom centre couldn't be more than three years old. The poor little one probably didn't understand what was happening to him. Kids were held for 2 to 4 months as they died quicker than adults. We walked into another room and they were photos with the prisoner's mugshots and photos of them being beaten. One guy had half his face smashed in. You could see his skull. This prison used to be only open to foreigners when it was first turned into a mueseum but sometime later they let Cambodians in. Thousands of Cambodians came in and were seen desperately searching the photos for their missing loved ones. How sad and if they did see a photo of their loved one, would they wish they hadn't?
Once they were dead or the prison was getting too full they were taken to the killing fields. If they were still alive then they would be placed in the mass grave next to all the other dead bodies and have a sword put through their head or if they were lucky they would be shot. They had chemicals held at the killing fields. This was cover up the smell of dead bodies so nobody would know what was going on. Also it would kill a person if they were not quite dead. Occassionally people would be buried alive. We went to the killing fields after the prison and saw all the mass graves. It was sick. This is worse than the holocaust. Its very bad that the Jews got gassed but having a sword through the head is worse. We were shown a tree where a loud speaker used to be hung. This was so nobody outside could hear the sound of the victims screams. We walked pass a tree where their clothes were still there and a pile of bones. It was so gross. They hadn't even moved their clothes. A board on the tree informed us that this was the place where the executioners would beat the children before or to their deaths. In one of the mass graves they found all women and childen. Women's skulls with little babies skulls next to them. It was truly awful. We went into a stupa where they had stacked all the skulls up that they had found. There was loads. All stacked up. We couldn't see to the top. Over 2 million Cambodians were murdered. The thing that pissed us off the most was that Pol Pot was never brought to justice. He is dead now and the current Prime minister was a friend of Pol Pot!! A Cambodian man said that everyone tries to vote the current prime minister out but for some reason he is still here. (corruption) There is no hope for these people and it could happen again.
Next we travelled to Sihanoukville where we just relaxed on the beach. There were loads of Cambodians on holiday here.
We went back to Phnom Pehn after and went to an orphanage. We were armed with bouncy balls, colouring books, pens, pencils etc. They were so excited!! It was their day off today so there wasn't so many kids there. They were so beautiful. A lot were sleeping but Tony managed to play football with some. They were mega hyper and whenever they scored they would jump into Tony's arms. This orphanage is only running by donations. There are 17 children that need to be fed and clothed. They only have volunteer teachers otherwise there is only three staff! Hopefully when we get home we will be able to help.
Our first stop was to see Ta Prohm which used to be an ancient palace over 1000 years ago. It is the set of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider film. This was one of our favourite stops. The ruins were amazing and the trees were now growing through the cracks in the wall so it was completely consumed by trees and vegetation. It looked amazing. We spent around an hour here.
Next we went to see the famous Angkor Wat. This was a temple back in Khmur history. It was huge with five massive towers. There are certain parts of the temple where only the king could go and worship. The temple is huge and the delicate drawings carved onto the stone wall took four years to complete!!
Finally we went to Phnom Bakheng to see the Sunset. We had to climb up the hill and there were some smaller ruins up there. We watched the sunset and come back a little sooner as there were too many people and we had just climbed up these small steep steps on our hands and knees so we definately wanted to avoid the masses on the way down.
The next day we went to Angkor Thom to see some other temples. First was Bayon. Bayon was the kings state temple. It was quite a big ruin and there were faces carved in the towers. It was really very skillful for people to do 1000 odd years ago.
We saw the Terrace of Elephants & Terrace of the Leper King. The first is a 350m wall with carvings of elephants all the way along it. The terrace of the Leper king was the palace where the King lived. After this we went to see Preah Khan which was an old housing complex where over 1000 Buddhist teachers lived so it ws massive! Tony got pestered by little girls trying to make him buy off them because he is so nice he kept saying 'but they're only little kids maybe we should buy something'. Emily was ruthless as she hated the hard sell so therefore didn't want to buy anything.
Our final day was spent at Kbal Spean where they was meant to be thousands of phalic symbols representing fertility in the river. So we went expecting to see thousands of penis's and there was not even one!!! Emily was most disappointed. We climbed up rocks for thirty minutes to get there as well and all there was were carvings of women etc. Rubbish. We walked back and went to the Banteay Srei which is a small temple but with the most intricate carvings. It was so beautiful. Our driver than took us to the Landmine mueseum and it was devastating. The USA are responsible for leaving landmines through the whole of Cambodia as they believed that Vietnam was using them as a route into the South. Even today people walk down the street and suddenly they go up!! A lot of people even kids in Cambodia have died and lost limbs and they are innocent so congratulations to the USA for another prize cock up! An agreement has been signed not to use them. As we could have predicted the USA have refused to sign it. Russia is the only country in Europe that hasn't. Other countries include Isreal, China, North Korea - need we say more.
The next day we travelled to Phnom Pehn. We went to the mueseum on our first day but there wasn't anything that we hadn't already seen. We started talking to a Monk and he was so troubled. He told us how he wanted to carry on his education but that would mean leaving his 150 plus kids to go off and do it. He was clearly concerned for their welfare. He said there was only three teachers including him to look after them. He explained that they range from the age of 7 to 14 and how the 7 year olds are bouncing off the walls and the 14 year olds have settled. He said it is such a pity as he gets some of the 14 year olds telling him that they must leave and earn money. He said he always thinks but you are too young and how can you survive. He knows that they will end up begging and that will mean going against all the things he has taught them in their desperation for money. There was nothing we could say to this monk to settle his thoughts. We asked him about the orpanage as we would like to go and it turns out he runs one. We asked how we could help.
The next day we went to the shooting range. We shot AK47's. Tony was so excited and kept looking around to tell people how great it was. Emily was unfazed, it was too similar to weapons she had used before. After the shooting the guy that instructed us went on to say how Emily was the better shot and so she bloody should be. Tony hadn't had any training!
We went onto the S21 prison. Back after America had devasted Cambodia during the Vietnam war it lead to a revolution and Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia. He wanted to introduce Utopia and wanted everyone to start at zero. He drove everyone out of the city and killed everyone that was educated, people that spoke languages even people that looked intelligent and wore glasses! He had political opposition taken away and abolished reglion, music, currency and freedom. The S21 prison was where everyone started off. The Khmer Rouge would take them there to torture them. We stepped inside the prison and there was a metal bed and a picture on the wall of someone tied to it. The vietnamese invaded Cambodia in the late 70's and smelt such a bad stench. They came into the prison and found these 14 dead tortured bodies and took photos - just as they had found them. There was one woman along the other 13 dead. The photos were horrific. The beds were metal so they could run electric through them to torture victims. They whipped them, pulled their finger nails out and poured alcohol over their wounds. They had an instrument outside where they would tie them up by the legs until they fell unconscious and then get a bucket of cold dirty water to dip their head in to bring them back around. This was interrogation to make them admit the crimes they were supposed to have committed. Of course most of them had crimes made up against them. How can being clever be a crime!
The Khmer rouge were sick. They did this to over 20,000 children as well. If you look at the picture of the children above. The little tot in the bottom centre couldn't be more than three years old. The poor little one probably didn't understand what was happening to him. Kids were held for 2 to 4 months as they died quicker than adults. We walked into another room and they were photos with the prisoner's mugshots and photos of them being beaten. One guy had half his face smashed in. You could see his skull. This prison used to be only open to foreigners when it was first turned into a mueseum but sometime later they let Cambodians in. Thousands of Cambodians came in and were seen desperately searching the photos for their missing loved ones. How sad and if they did see a photo of their loved one, would they wish they hadn't?
Once they were dead or the prison was getting too full they were taken to the killing fields. If they were still alive then they would be placed in the mass grave next to all the other dead bodies and have a sword put through their head or if they were lucky they would be shot. They had chemicals held at the killing fields. This was cover up the smell of dead bodies so nobody would know what was going on. Also it would kill a person if they were not quite dead. Occassionally people would be buried alive. We went to the killing fields after the prison and saw all the mass graves. It was sick. This is worse than the holocaust. Its very bad that the Jews got gassed but having a sword through the head is worse. We were shown a tree where a loud speaker used to be hung. This was so nobody outside could hear the sound of the victims screams. We walked pass a tree where their clothes were still there and a pile of bones. It was so gross. They hadn't even moved their clothes. A board on the tree informed us that this was the place where the executioners would beat the children before or to their deaths. In one of the mass graves they found all women and childen. Women's skulls with little babies skulls next to them. It was truly awful. We went into a stupa where they had stacked all the skulls up that they had found. There was loads. All stacked up. We couldn't see to the top. Over 2 million Cambodians were murdered. The thing that pissed us off the most was that Pol Pot was never brought to justice. He is dead now and the current Prime minister was a friend of Pol Pot!! A Cambodian man said that everyone tries to vote the current prime minister out but for some reason he is still here. (corruption) There is no hope for these people and it could happen again.
Next we travelled to Sihanoukville where we just relaxed on the beach. There were loads of Cambodians on holiday here.
We went back to Phnom Pehn after and went to an orphanage. We were armed with bouncy balls, colouring books, pens, pencils etc. They were so excited!! It was their day off today so there wasn't so many kids there. They were so beautiful. A lot were sleeping but Tony managed to play football with some. They were mega hyper and whenever they scored they would jump into Tony's arms. This orphanage is only running by donations. There are 17 children that need to be fed and clothed. They only have volunteer teachers otherwise there is only three staff! Hopefully when we get home we will be able to help.
Monday, 4 May 2009
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