Fast Forward

The thought of catching up for the last 2 weeks is far too daunting... knowing that I have to think of witty things to describe Saigon, the Mekong Delta, Phnom Penh and now Sihanoukville is so overwhelming that I'd rather just read someone else's blog than jog my memory. So, unfortunately for you, you're getting a shortened, fast-forwarded version of my last 2 weeks so that we can all be on the same page.

From Mui Ne, I headed to Saigon, with a bit of worry as to how I'd handle the traffic and noise that I've heard so many complaints about. I actually really liked Saigon - I was happy to have some decent coffee shops again and I thought the chaotic traffic was rather entertaining. I spent a lot of time walking around the city during my time there. I wandered through the ritzy area of town, full of big colonial hotels like the Continental and the Riverside Hotel. The Sheraton, Versace, GUESS, L'Eccotique and Prada shops collided with ladies in conical hats selling fresh fruit and disfigured beggars, who I assume suffered from the effects of Agent Orange. The War Remnants museum in Saigon was certainly one-sided, but provided an informative insight into the Vietnamese take on the "American War." I felt guilty, overwhelmed, confused and angry by the end of it. In any case, I learned a lot from hearing out the Vietnamese perspective on the war and trying to understand how the American War is still very much a part of the Vietnamese psyche.

I went against better judgment and booked a 3 day tour of the Mekong Delta. I would have liked to have had more time to organize a trip myself, but for about $50 including transport, accommodation and ease of planning, I figured I'd just go with the best tour company I could find. I lucked out. I had a great time and met some really great people as well. I paid a little bit more to do a boat cruise on the first day, which resulted in spending most of my time in the Mekong, actually ON the Mekong. Most other tours just get around by bus, which would be like trying to show someone life the Fraser River in BC by driving around the city of Richmond. We passed many houses teetering precariously over the river, rice paddies and farms along the riverbanks, and tons of houseboats selling "Froos an vegTAYbles" according to our hilarious guide, Phu. Phu really made the trip, despite his constant reminders to pronounce his name correctly: "P-H-U, like "Foo," Not Pho, Not noodle soup." Phu also made all travelers call the toilet the Happy Room and tried to make really lame jokes about "singing a happy song" which no one ever fully understood. One of the highlights of the Mekong trip was a visit to the floating market outside of Can Tho. Unlike "floating markets" in Thailand, this one was for the locals, not the tourists. Big boats advertise their products on long bamboo poles and small paddle boats or long-tail boats puttered between, shopping. Upon walking through the local market on land nearby, I spotted pig faces, heaps of pig eyeballs and feet, Frogs being butchered and skinned alive, and chunks of beef covered in flies in the midday sun, all out on display. I have since stopped eating all Quadrupeds. Only chicken or fish for me now. One night of the Mekong trip was spent in Chau Doc, near the Cambodian border. With free time on our hands, a group of people and I headed into town to find some cheap local food. Most of the few restaurants were closed, but we managed to find a local place with some really great items on the menu, including:
"Miscellaneous Food with rice"
"Fried Swamp Eel"
"Fish flushed with pork fat"
"Fried Frogs legs with pepper"
I stuck to rice and steamed veggies.

After one recovery day in the cafe's and markets of Saigon I took another one day trip out to Cao Dai Temple and the Cu Chi tunnels, both extremely interesting. I still can't get over the propaganda video shown at the start of the Tunnels tour - I've posted a Youtube link below. That evening I was happily reunited with Megan, Arainn and Breanna in the backpacker part of Saigon where we grabbed some food and sat in a Cafe for hours exchanging travel stories. We visited the Reunification Palace and some temples in Chinatown the following day before having dinner in a Movie Theater turned Cafe & Restaurant and watching Slumdog Millionaire. Fabulous Movie, by the way.

The following morning I caught a bus to Phnom Penh and painlessly hopped the border to Cambodia. The bus broke down 3 hours in - Welcome to Cambodia - but I managed to get into PP at a reasonable hour and found a cool backpacker place with air-con to escape the heat. I met up with the two British guys (Both named Tom) who I had met in Nha Trang to check out the National Museum, Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda. None were particularly amazing, though I think we were all feeling a bit ripped off by the steep entrance fees. We finished off the day with a couple big bottles of Beerlao overlooking Boeng Kak lake in the other backpacker district before I fell into bed in my gloriously cool, air conditioned room. Did I mention that the temperature in Phnom Penh has been in the high 30's?

Day 2 in Phnom Penh was a tough one, though I knew it would be. I went to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (or S21) and the Killing Fields, both in one day... and it was certainly overwhelming. I still feel rather speechless and don't really know how I feel about it all. What got to me the most was the meticulously archived photos of the victims of the Khmer Rouge, taken just before they were to be taken to the killing fields to be executed. There were many photos mothers with infants and young children's photos among the thousands of 5x7 images. They killed toddlers, little kids. If prisoners died (from the inflicted torture, starvation or illness) in the prison before being taken to the killing fields, they photographed the corpses in a similar mugshot fashion. Much of the prison cells were left intact, the barbed wire still covering balconies to prevent victims from committing suicide - and all of this inside of what used to be a high school. S21 was very graphic, confrontational and overwhelming. I found it all the more haunting because all of this occurred almost within my lifetime - in 1980 the international community started to unearth the atrocities that happened, and even now, they are finally going through the tribunals for one of the Khmer Rouge leaders responsible for S21. The Khmer Rouge killed an estimated 3 million of their own people within 4 years. After seeing Phnom Penh and these two sites, I feel like this entire country has demons lurking beneath the surface. Every adult over the age of 30 has survived the Khmer Rouge and has experienced something almost unfathomable to me. I feel like this city is still healing, and the poverty and street kids colliding with the well-meaning NGOs, riverside cafes and big hotels don't match up. Seeing S21, the Killing Fields and then hanging out in Phnom Penh has left me feeling like this is a bit of a strange place, with a certain 'edge' to it.

I'm back here now after a break on the beaches of Sihanoukville, and confronted once again with the multifaceted layers of Phnom Penh. Even after reading a couple books about the Khmer Rouge, I'm still not too sure how I feel.