Day: September 28, 2011

September 28, Wednesday Siem Reap to Saigon

Today has been a day of ‘hanging around an airport’ for a 46 minute flight to Saigon or, Ho Chi Minh City.

We met at the foyer of the Victoria at 10:15am after another enormous breakfast.  We have Anne to blame for the extravagant breakfast ideas.  Yesterday, it was champaign.  Today it was Waffles with Chocolate Fudge Topping.  After breakfast, I went to a main intersection just to watch how the traffic behaved. Amazing! Tuc tucs everywhere.  A smile came to my face as a pushbike went by.   The mother was riding with her baby slung in a hammock between the two handlebars; delightful.  One motorbike had Dad driving, then mother with small baby in arms and daughter on the back holding an intravenous drip, which was attached to the baby.  Perhaps they were the ‘family ambulance on the way to hospital from a clinic.

We arrived at the airport 3 hours before departure for Saigon.  A couple of ladies enjoyed a foot and leg massage while waiting.  Vietnam Airlines was very comfortable and full of Koreans on their way back home to Seol.

It is amazing how each customs or immigration officer, has a sad face – you can tell them a mile away.  Saigon is no different.  However, it was great to pick out our guide who is to travel with us for the whole time we are in Vietnam.  I recognized him in the crowd from pictures Lyn had taken on last year’s group tour.

The weather here in Saigon is around 28 degrees C with cloudy conditions but at least it is dry.  Saigon is made up of 9 million inhabitants and 6 million motorbikes.  Wow!  The traffic here is different to Siem Reap.  The adventurous motorbike riders are so game.  I stood on the corner outside our hotel http://www.majesticsaigon.com.vn/ for 15 minutes just watching the traffic go by.  I counted 53,643 motorbikes.  Very few of the riders checked out the stream of motorbikes they were joining.  It was just a matter of, “get out of my way.  I am joining the traffic.”

Tonight we had a delightful meal on a Bonsai junk on the Sai Gon River.  The traditional music had an entertainment value to it that enabled us to enjoy the evening.  This guy had a xylophone made of rocks and banged them with a mallet to make his music.  Good value!  The magician had some tricks that made the eyes wonder if they were seeing what was happening.  The singers sang 60’s music as if we were back in the Hard Rock Cafe.  Everyone enjoyed the evening and are ready for a long sleep.

Today’s “Senior’s Moment”.  One of our guests got excited about the security in his room and has wrecked the safe. (He read the distructions instead of the instructions)  Poor guy!

September 27 Tuesday Siem Reap

Today has been a raincoats and umbrella day.  Yes, lots of rain with flooded streets and roads.  Tut-tuts galore plowing through muddy waters that just never seem to subside.

After yet another brilliant breakfast (some have tried the champaign breakfast and want it tomorrow too), we took a 37km trip out of town to see more temples.  Banteay Srey, loosely translated “Citadel of the Women”, has beautiful intricate and delicate yellow sandstone carvings everywhere, especially over the doorposts.  This is the first time that flooding has occurred in this temple so we walked through ankle deep waters to see the place.

Banteay Somrei was yet another different type of temple.  Within the outer walls, is a moat, then a wall and a second moat before coming within the area of the temple itself.  This temple had been covered over by previous dynasties, and only recently, the early 1900’s, archeologists dug out what is now, a very interesting temple.  To position such large pieces of stone with intricate carvings, up so high in the structure of the buildings, must have been a grand engineering feat in its day.

For lunch, we were taken to a village place for eating.  Within a short period of time, we had quite acceptable dishes of eastern type food.

The ‘free’ afternoon, started at 4pm.  I had a ‘four hands’ massage on the floor.  Young therapists certainly know how to ‘get in deep’ in this country.  I think I will be bruised for a few days, especially in the calves.

With an afternoon off, three members decided to go shopping. The streets of Siem Reap were awash from the rain and the water level varied from nothing to knee height. One of the three had managed to keep her footware dry all day. She had managed to dodge every little puddle and mini lake all morning. However things were to change! The three decided to return to the Hotel by what seemed to be an almost new Tuc Tuc. On their way they waved to fellow guests and took photos. They rounded a corner for the final approach to base camp, to be confronted by a very flooded street. The Tuc Tuc zigged  and zagged a bit and then plunged into a very deep pot hole. After the initial shock of the sudden drop, rising water level and one handbag floating down the street. The driver of the sinking Tuc Tuc gave the command of “abandon ship” I mean Tuc Tuc. Two managed to make it to ankle depth, while the third tried to upright the damaged machine. The final 100 metres home was done wading through below knee deep water. The shoes that had been kept dry all day are traveling Saigon in a plastic bag, hopefully they will be dry by the time we reach Melbourne.

Others took a $10 for one hour ride around town in a tut-tut.

The evening was taken up at a large entertainment complex where we ate from an eastern smorgasbord and were entertained by some traditional dancing – beautiful costumes and bead gear.  I’m told the local beer wasn’t too bad either.

After a coffee in the bar at our colonial hotel http://www.victoriahotels-asia.com/eng/hotel-in-cambodia/angkor-resort-spa we are ready for a good rest before our flight to Saigon tomorrow.

Today’s “Senior’s” moment.  Lyn put in a strong request for me to include myself (I said, “Why not?  Then it’s out of the way.”)  I left the room with back-pack on shoulders smiling as if I had all my bases covered as far as being organised goes.  We met together before boarding the bus.  As we were boarding, I remembered that I didn’t have tripod and video camera with me – oh rats!  Back to the room and collect what is usually attached to me with an umbilical chord.