On our flight to Hanoi, we had a few hours at Pudong Airport. Waiting for our flight to Hanoi, while traveling from Vancouver to Vietnam, we had a few hours in Pudong International Airport. For something to do, we took the Maglev to check it out. “What’s the Maglev?” you ask.
At 429km/h it’s a little hard to hold the camera steady!
It’s a high-speed train propelled by magnetic levitation. That’s science folks! And, this train doesn’t just leisurely roll along, it moves at a speed of more than 430km/h. That’s no typo…FOUR HUNDRED THIRTY! (FYI: Max speeds during testing were over 500km/h.)
It’s the World’s Fastest Train!
We made the 30km trip from Pudong International Airport into Shanghai in approximately 7 minutes. Not too shabby for a commute that long. Google maps estimated it would be about an hour by car.
For the layover in China on our way home from Bangkok to Vancouver, we opted to do some sight-seeing.
Yuyuan Gardens, Shanghai
The Westin Bund Centre, Shanghai
Yuyuan Gardens, Shanghai
Old City, Shanghai
Yuyuan Gardens, Shanghai
In the short few hours, the two of us visited Yuyuan Gardens, took photos of The Bund (from afar), and made it back to the airport in time for our flight home.
Where’s Waldo of sorts. We’re waiting inline to check-in at BKK for the flight to Shanghai.
What do you do to break up the lengthy airport layovers?
~j
For years my only knowledge of Cambodia was that there was a need for landmine removal. In the late 90’s, an uncle of mine was stationed there for landmine removal, and at the time, I thought nothing of it. Cambodia was a country that I never dreamed I’d be visiting. To have that opportunity now, so amazing!
Fast forward a decade and half…I’ve learned a lot more! From 1973 to 1997, Cambodia was under the terrorizing rule of the Khmer Rouge. Almost 2 million people died from starvation, exhaustion, lack of medical care, and execution. Between ’75 and ’78 approximately 100,000 people were executed.
People who didn’t conform to the “Peasant Ideal” were systematically executed. That means doctors, professors, lawyers, artists, business men, musicians, etc, etc. all killed. All traces of any unique thought or creativity were erased. Children, young children, were trained as soldiers. The Khmer Rouge was still in power until 1996 when the first elections were held, and weren’t removed until 1998. That said, Cambodia is relatively new to tourism.
Aki Ra and his organization devote all of their donated funds to clearing Cambodia’s rural “low-priority” villages. These villages, populated primarily by poor farmers, do not always receive first dibs for minefield clearance projects because of their remoteness and limited traffic. At times, they’re completely overlooked.
Over 5 million landmines were dispersed all over Cambodia. It is estimated that it will take about 100 years to clear them all. About 1 in 300 people is affected by landmines in Cambodia today. We visited the Cambodian Landmine Museum and spent a bit of time there, just trying to process what we were seeing. The story of Aki Ra was particularly moving. If you have time it is worth watching the video and reading the article.
Speaking to people our age, who had such uplifting, positive personalities was awe-inspiring. Many of our contemporaries are orphans with indelible psychological scars. And yet, Cambodians were some of the happiest, kindest, most welcoming people we’ve ever encountered.
The country is on the way to recovery, and it will be a long road still. A huge emphasis was placed on education and literature. The writing coming forward is a lot of personal accounts of survivors. One that I read on the flight home was a heart-breaking read– First they Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers.
Anthropologists believe that the Khmer Rouge managed to do away with approximately 80 percent of the country’s literature, even using the National Library of Cambodia as a pig stall. Of the few remaining texts, most were saved because copies were stored outside the country, especially in ex-colonialist France, or by refugees who fled the country.
From: Granges et al. National Geographic Traveler Cambodia 2010 edition.
If you are in Cambodia, and spend any time in Siem Reap Town, be sure to visit the Landmine Museum. You’re able to donate to the cause at the facility. There’s a wish list of items on the website that you can pick up in any of the markets to deliver when you’re there too!
During our time in Siem Reap, we allotted two days to explore the temples of The Angkor Complex. The Angkor Complex and surrounding area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most people call the entire area Angkor Wat, but in actuality, Angkor Wat is just one of the many incredible temples in the area.
From: http://www.tourismcambodia.com/
Because we had a lot of ground to cover, we had to decide how to best plan our visit. There are many options for transportation through the temple grounds–cycling, tuk-tuk, car. You would be extremely inefficient and ridiculously limited without transportation. The complex is gigantic and spread out.
Monkey’s like Tuk-Tuks!
We decided that day one we would use a car, and day two we would use a tuk-tuk. Our driver, Dora, was quite possibly the nicest person ever! He gave us so much information about the area, about himself, and about Cambodia in general that we decided to scrap the tuk-tuk day two, and go with him again. He was awesome! (FYI: It really was nice having the air-conditioning. We were spoiled Day 1, so that was a definite bonus!)
The Temples
The temples were built between the 9th and 15th centuries AD, starting with Preah Ko (AD 875-890), and ending with Bayon (AD 1175-1240).
Of all of the temples in the complex, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom are the most impressive. Angkor Wat is the said to be the world’s largest religious structure. It is definitely the most famous and most ornate. We started the day at Angkor Thom.
One of the many faces of Bayon Temple of Angkor Thom
Angkor Thom is more like a city of temples, (see the map above) including Bayon, Baphuon, Phimeanakas, the Terace of the Leper King and the Terrace of the Elephants. Our first impression was of the massive causeway and gates. The Asura statues lining the causeway are all slightly different than each other.
Each one is different!
Asura statue at the Victory Gate, Angkor Thom
Scars of war – This Asura statue has been shot; that’s a bullet hole.
The temples are filled with details, from panels depicting various scenes of day to day life, to bas-reliefs of apsara dancers, to walls and walls of carved writing. It’s overwhelming, and impossible to see all of it in two days. Even writing this now, I’m finding it difficult to focus on just one thing. Let’s let the pictures do the work!
Here are some of the lovelies we saw:
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Reconstruction & Restoration
Angkor was “rediscovered” in the 19th century, having been abandoned for centuries, and was once again lost to the world during the 70’s due to war. Since the collapse of the Khmer Rouge in the late 90’s, the temples have undergone massive restoration efforts. Mines (unexploded ordinance) had to be cleared from the area, not to mention an overgrowth of vegetation.
Restoration efforts were prominent, and globally funded. Given the importance of Angkor archeologically, and to the Cambodians economically, conserving the site is of utmost importance.
Banteay Srei Conservation Project, Cambodia
West Gopura Restoration Project, Cambodia
West Gopura Restoration Project, Cambodia
Angkor Wat Causeway Restoration Project
Phimeanakas Temple Conservation Project
Scaffolding at Angkor Wat, Cambodia
There is so much to say about our time at the Angkor Complex. So much history, so many interesting things and people that the photos will have to do a lot of the work.
If you have the opportunity to visit Cambodia, you won’t be disappointed. The people were the most gracious hosts, and the small bit of scenery we saw was unbelievably gorgeous.
We’ve seen countless shows about how many scams there are in Bangkok. It’s true! Although it is an intriguing city, there are certainly some things to be wary of. The scam we encountered was at The Grand Palace. Note – The Grand Palace is open every day!
WARNING: Do not trust wily strangers!
At the first entrance we encountered “wily strangers” who told us the temple was closed for the morning due to monks being on the premises. Only, we’d just seen a whole tour bus of tourists let in! He said women weren’t allowed in at that time because it was too distracting to their prayer. The official-looking man tried to get us into a Tuk Tuk for other sight seeing. We didn’t go with it.
At the second entrance we encountered the same thing, only the story was slightly different, same Tuk Tuk scam though. Again, we didn’t go with it. Unfortunately there was no avoiding them and just walking through the entrance anyway as they are quite forceful and have great scam technique. Luckily, at the third entrance we finally got into the Temple. It really was a waste of time just trying to get into the Palace.
Phra Sumen Fort
We stayed near Phra Sumen Fort which gave us the opportunity to explore on foot. We were able to visit the impressive Buddhist temples of Wat Pho, Wat Saket, and Wat Arun. While we were there Songkran festival, Buddhist New Year in Thailand, was taking place.
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From what we learned, there are several things to do as a Buddhist during Songkran festival. Washing Buddha, and pressing gold leaf on to Him asks for forgiveness and fortune in the coming year. Making sand “castles” in the temple also returns all of the dust carried out from the temple on the soles of the feet during the year. There were offerings of colourful fabric, money and bells as well.
For a first look at Buddhist temples and practices, Bangkok was a great start.
Just about half way through the trip, we left Vietnam for Cambodia. The flight out of HCMC was delayed, our gate was changed 3 times, and then the power went out to the entire airport–pitch black, power outage. It. Was. Out. After an hour or so, the power came back on, and our gate was changed back to the one we started at…seriously?!?!
Eventually we landed in Siem Reap. We arranged to be picked up at the airport through the guest house we were staying at. SO AWESOME! Our tuk-tuk driver introduced himself as Batman, and we were off!The Siem Reap Garden Inn was a tiny little piece of paradise. (The pool is new since we were there.) Everyone we dealt with seemed genuinely interested in making our experience the best possible which is not something found everyday. The level of service was probably something we won’t see again.
Siem Reap is one of the most welcoming places we’ve ever been to. It is an oddly dichotomous place in that is a major tourist hub with a 100% tourist related enterprise as the main focus. And, then there are obviously Cambodians going about their day to day business. Kind of like Las Vegas – there’s the Las Vegas strip, which most people from Vegas would avoid like the plague, and then there’s normal Las Vegas where people live, work, go to school etc. We were lucky enough to see both sides Siem Reap.
As we had limited time in Cambodia, we had a lot of ground to cover. Our first day was spent with Ta from Peace of Angkor tours. This has got to be one of the most memorable vacation days we’ll ever have. He took us to Kompong Khleang and along the Tonle Sap. We also visited Beng Mealea, and climbed along the walls of the ancient temple. Ta was fortunate to be one of first people to “rediscover” the temple, and said at the time, there were actually tigers on the temple grounds.
As promised quite a while ago, here are some of the photos from our day with Ta.
Cashew fruit and nut
The kids were super excited to have their photos taken. This grandmother wanted hers taken as well. Just before she posed for the camera, she was hacking away at the edge of the bowl with a machete. At 78 years old, she was still sharp as a tack. We had a great time visiting Kompong Khleang. The stilt houses were absolutely fascinating. The residents were insanely hospitable to us. Due to Ta’s kindness, we were invited inside a stilt house to roast cashew nuts picked right from the tree.
We were privileged to see a wedding, where they asked us in closer to take photos of the bride and groom. And, we also saw/followed a funeral procession for a while. Richard, a person we were with, said we almost had “hatches, matches and dispatches,” covered.
We had an extraordinary tour through one of the villages outside of Siem Reap, and we were fortunate enough to float on the Tonle Sap River (which in itself is a crazy thing–yep, I’m a nerd!). None of this experience would have been logistically possible for us without our guide, Ta. He really made the day one we’ll never forget.
The second half of the day we were at another UNESCO Site, Beng Mealea. This temple has collapsed walls, and jungle-ish overgrowth that gives it an appeal unlike the other temples we saw in Cambodia. We were able to climb on the walls and take pathways that would definitely not have been acceptable in the bubble wrapped North American tourism sector. It was pretty fantastic. See for yourself…
We decided to do the first trip on the Mekong to get away from the hustle of the Ho Chi Minh City for the day. We booked a tour to take us to one of the floating markets. Now, when I say floating market, I picture ladies with conical hats in boats selling flowers and pineapples etc…NOPE! This was a HUGE out on the open water, with large boats, floating market. It was like wholesale for the tiny markets–basically the Costco of the floating markets, and definitely not as visually appealing, but still cool to see. Because there are so many boats, merchants display whatever they’re selling at the top of poles. You see the veggie you like dangling way up in the air, and you know that’s the boat you want to see. FYI: Buyers had to make some serious purchases of serious quantity.
The tour also took us through the process of making puffed rice, rice paper/wraps, coconut candy, and fed us a bizarro lunch, complete with live traditional Vietnamese singing. The fish looks kind of disturbing in the picture, but it was “crusted” with puffed rice, and was actually tasty. The fresh Vietnamese spring rolls were not my favourite, but Jon ate them–cucumber, pineapple, fish and all!
Fish with popped rice “crust”
Making rice paper
For me, the most interesting part of the day were the stilt houses on the delta, and the different styles of housing, methods of fishing, and strategies for gardening we saw.
Seeing a different lifestyle, and how it all just falls together made the day trip worth doing, even if being on a tour was slightly cheesy.
For our sixth day in Vietnam we found ourselves in the bustling Ho Chi Minh City. It was a super hot, very humid day for wandering around. The buzz of scooter traffic and constant honking of horns does. not. stop.
Luckily, walking around to see the sites in Ho Chi Minh City is easily done (if you’re able to get over the fear of crossing the busy streets!). There are several historic buildings close proximity of each other. I wasn’t able to find our tourist map, but this one will do nicely for you. I’m sure the hotel that provided it on the internets is lovely.
We visited the Reunification Palace to try to escape the heat for a bit, but that plan didn’t work. FYI: None of the buildings had air conditioning, so it was just as hot inside as out! Reunification Palace, though not as cooling as we’d hoped, was worth the visit.
As headquarters for the South Vietnamese during the war, there were a lot of maps, and historical memorabilia on display. *(The elephant leg trash cans were uber-creepy!) April 1975, the civilians and employees at the building were part of Operation Frequent Wind, with an escape taking place minutes before the building was overrun. On April 30th, 1975, a tank from the North Vietnamese army rammed through the front gate, and ended the Vietnam War, and reunified Vietnam into a communist state.
Reunification Palace, HCMC
A few of the other sites we managed to see were the Saigon Notre Dame or Basilica of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the Rex Hotel and the Saigon Post Office. The basilica is beautiful inside, but I may be biased–if you know me, you know I LOVE visiting churches…yes, still after seeing hundreds!
The Rex Hotel was nothing to marvel at, but was significant to the Vietnam War. The first guests of the hotel, before it was even opened in 1961, were 400 soldiers from the US. During the war, the roof top bar was the place to be for correspondents and military alike. And, the Saigon Post Office, with its impressive arched ceiling, was where you might have received some of your post cards from if you were lucky enough to receive one.
Day 5 in Vietnam we left Hue, and drove to Hoi An for a day of sight seeing before heading onto Da Nang airport to fly to Ho Chi Minh City. As we had a deadline for the day, we arranged for a car as transport. Our driver, Van, didn’t speak much English, and I have very very basic garbled aka horrendous Vietnamese at best. Luckily, the trip wasn’t an unusual request; so, despite the language barrier, we were able to stop at a lot of sights along the way.
The drive from Hue to Hoi An took us over Hi Van Pass, or Ocean Cloud Pass if you prefer the translation. The lengthiest stops were at Lang Co Beach and Marble Mountains. (FYI: At Lang Co Beach while we were taking photos, a guy appeared out of no where and tried to sell me old/out of circulation Vietnamese coins. I declined. Then he tried to sell me a loonie. Random!)
Marble Mountain Buddha
Lang Co Beach
Marble Mountains caught my interest a while ago. The Departures team ended up visiting the caves on one of the Vietnam episodes. The photos below are of some of the Buddhist shrines sculpted/carved into the mountains. Word is that the cave was used by the Viet Cong as a field hospital during the war. The photo doesn’t do the temple justice. It was as large as any fantastical cathedral, only this is a natural marble cave that has been a Buddhist shrine for centuries.
Marble Mountain Buddha – field hospital
From Marble Mountains, we continued on to Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is a gorgeous little place! If you have time, and want to have clothing custom made for yourself, this would be the destination. There are so many amazing design shops it is indescribable. The core of Hoi An is really small, maybe three or four streets, so it is easy to visit with just a few hours time. The Japanese covered bridge is at the far side of the historic area.
Japanese Covered Bridge – Hoi An
Boats on the Thu Bon River
Here’s a little googled tidbit of history for you:
According to local folklore, the bridge was erected after Japan suffered a series of violent earthquakes which geomancers attributed to a restless monster lying with its head in India, tail in Japan and heart in Hoi An. The only remedy was to build a bridge whose stone piles would drive a metaphorical sword through the beast’s heart and fortuitously provide a handy passage across the muddy creek.
Inside the bridge’s narrow span are a collection of stelae and four statues, two dogs and two monkeys, which suggest that work began in the year of the monkey and ended in that of the dog. The small temple suspended above the water is a later addition dedicated to the Taoist god Tran Vo Bac De (“Emperor of the North”), a favourite of sailors as he controls wind, rain and other “evil influences”.
Once we returned to shore from Ha Long Bay, our next destination was Hue. To get there, we flew from Hanoi, in Northern Vietnam, to Hue, in Central Vietnam. It was a nice change to leave the bustle of Hanoi for the slightly less bustling Hue It was also a fantastic break in car sickness to fly instead of drive.
Our first interaction – we were scammed by the airport shuttle that was to take us to our hotel. Vietnamese culture is to avoid answering no, but it is kind of inconvenient when the question is, “Will you take us to the hotel?” and the shuttle driver answers, “Yes.” but really means, I’ll take you to somewhere near the hotel and then say get out, and leave you to figure out the rest of the way. The rest of the passengers with us were NOT impressed.
Unfortunately, the names of the hotels are confusing , eg: Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn 1, Holiday Inn 2, Original Holiday Inn. And #1 and #3 might be across the street from each other, while the original is around the corner. You get the picture. We did find the place, but what a rainy nightmare that was.Hue is a beautiful city. We visited several temples, tombs and the Imperial City. We also did a short river boat trip on the Perfume River at the end of the day.
Imperial City, Hue Vietnam
The Imperial City of Hue is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Construction started in 1804 during the reign of Gia Long, and was completed in 1838 under Minh Mang. The Imperial City served as the center of government and court life throughout the Nguyen Dynasty. It has been damaged by natural disasters over the years, and still has visible scars, damage, bullet holes etc, from wars in 1947 and 1968.We went to the Minh Lau – Pavilion of Light, and Khai Dinh tomb. The Khai Dinh Honour Courtyard is probably one of the most recognizable with the stone sculptures of Mandarins, soldiers, elephants and horses.
Khai Dinh Tomb
Tu Duc Tomb grounds
The Tu Duc tomb probably had the prettiest grounds and walk ways. When we set out for the day, I figured the sites we’d see were ancient, but most of the construction was done in the late 1800’s. For the Tu Duc tomb, construction began in 1864 and was completed in 1867.
Tomb grounds, Hue Vietnam
Tomb grounds, Hue Vietnam
Lotus flower
One fantastic site for the day – the MASSIVE Buddha statue that was visible from Tu Duc Tomb. We never did get to visit it, but He fits right in with Cristo Blanco and Our Lady of the Rockies.
Adventures of a couple seeing the world 2 weeks at a time.
On our flight to Hanoi, we had a few hours at Pudong Airport. Waiting for our flight to Hanoi, while traveling from Vancouver to Vietnam, we had a few hours in Pudong International Airport. For something to do, we took the Maglev to check it out. “What’s the Maglev?” you ask.
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