Cambodia/Vietnam

Why am I discussing Vietnam and Cambodia at the same time, you ask? Well, SAS has a rule that forbids its students from going to countries that the <i>MV Explorer </i> does not dock in unless there is an SAS trip that goes to a different country. This is what happened in Vietnam, and so it was through an SAS trip that I went to Siem Reap in Cambodia and toured the ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples there, including the World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat. I’d been looking forward to the trip since the beginning of the voyage, and it was definitely an awesome trip. Angkor Wat wasn’t even my favorite temple – Ta Prohm was. Part of the movie Tomb Raider was filmed there, and it definitely had the feel of some temple in the middle of the jungle that a character in an action movie would stumble across. There were literally trees growing on top of the temple walls and parrots flying and squawking overhead. All of the temples were neat in that we were able to walk through them. There were certain areas that were fenced off, but for the most part we were free to explore (although we had to stay with the tour guide so we wouldn’t get separated). A lot of them were HUGE and had intricate carvings all over them. Among other things, the walls depicted scenes from Hindu myths and sagas, Apsara dancers, buddhas, demons, and snakes. It seemed like every wall had some sort of decoration on it. Oh, and some of the temples had giant Buddha heads everywhere. You could say that the whole experience was pretty sweet.

Another exciting experience in Cambodia I had involved getting a “Dr. Foot Massage.” Along the streets of Siem Reap (the nearest city to Angkor Wat and many other temples) there were several shops that had a pool of fish outside. If you paid from $1 to $4, you could put your feet in this lovely tank and have the fish inside eat the dead skin off your feet. It was a disgusting, hilarious, and strange experience. There were dead fish floating in the water, and the water itself was definitely not very clean, but the sensation of having little fish nibble on your feet (and the idea that this is therapeutic) was so bizarre and hilarious that I’m really glad I did it. The place I went to even threw in a coke or beer with the deal. The signs were also hilarious - one of them listed "tick lishness" and "differentiate experience" as reasons to get a Dr. Foot Massage.

The other highlight of the Cambodia trip was a visit to a water village by boat. This water village was a lot cooler than the one in Ghana, namely because the people lived in floating houses in the middle of the river instead of houses on stilts, we weren’t standing on top of their doorsteps, and they didn’t seem to hate us. Not to mention there are what I like to refer to as pirate-vendors that stalk tourist boats that cruise along the river. Basically what they do is that they drive next to the larger, slower tourist boats in their tiny speedboats and have someone (usually an adorable little kid – Cambodians have definitely figured out how to manipulate the cuteness factor to their advantage) jump onto the tourist boat with something to sell (usually cold sodas). After the vendor has tried to get everyone on the boat to buy something, he or she jumps back on the speedboat (which has been following the tourist boat the whole while) and continues on his or her way.

Oh, there was also one night where we went to a buffet where there was traditional Cambodian dancing and music playing. It was definitely a huge tourist trap, but the food was good and it was cool to see the dancing, so I'm glad we went.

Another interesting thing about Cambodia is that none of the ATMs will give you riel, the national currency. Instead, they give you U.S. dollars, and they’ll accept U.S. dollars for everything in Siem Reap. I assume in the areas without any tourism this isn’t the case, but it still says something about their economy.

I also liked Ho Chi Minh (our port in Vietnam) a lot. Granted, I only really went to the huge indoor market  and to a tailor to get some dresses made with some fabric I’d gotten in India, but I still enjoyed it.  The market was REALLY cool – you could buy cheap knock-offs of just about anything there, get fresh food, buy awesome trinkets, or buy nice clothes for good prices. I don’t even like shopping, but I really liked the market. Just like in Cambodia, the locals gladly accepted (and seemed to prefer) U.S. dollars, but here at least the ATMs would give you dong (the national currency - many a joke were told relating to this word). Interesting fact: One U.S. dollar is equal to 20,000 dong or 4,000 riel. Definitely not my favorite conversions – too many zeroes.

The other thing of note that I did in Vietnam was visit the Mekong River Delta. I was pretty excited for this SAS trip, because I was forced to read a terrible book called L’Amant in French class freshman year about a girl in French Indochina, and she had talked about sailing on the Mekong Rover in it, so I was excited to see something I'd read about in person. The river itself was really dirty, but we took a boat to Unicorn Island where we rode in canoes and heard some Vietnamese music. I enjoyed this a lot, because my freshman year I took a class on the music of Asia and I was really excited to see the things I’d learned about in person. After that we had a DELICIOUS lunch that was probably one of my favorite meals I’ve had so far. First, a giant cooked fish (still completely whole and caught in the river, which makes me wonder about how safe it was to eat, but oh well) was set in front of us, along with some rice paper, water, noodles, and fresh greens. We made spring rolls out of these by dipping the rice paper in the water and then rolling the other aforementioned ingredients inside. There was also fried rice, pho (a kind of noodle soup), bread, chicken, pineapple, and probably some other things that I’m forgetting. It was amazing.

Oh, I almost forgot to add that I was hit by a motorcycle in Ho Chi Minh. It wasn't serious at all - the motorcycle wasn't going very fast - but it still makes for a good story. Or a terrifying one for my parents. Anyway, crossing the street is sort of terrifying. You have to go across really slowly and the traffic will find a path that goes around you. I, however, decided to dash across part of the road, which is what resulted in the collision.

And I guess that more or less sums up my experiences in these two Southeast Asian countries. As usual, you can email me if you have any questions or comments or if you want to get in touch with me at n d mylastname @semesteratsea.net. Just be sure to remove the spaces and use my actual last name.