Saigon

Rooftop Bar - Lief Hotel, Saigon

Kate and I visited Saigon, Vietnam (now known as Ho Chi Minh City -- I'm not sure which is the preferred name) in February of 2017 at the end of our Mekong River cruise. We were there for three nights arriving shortly before noon on the 23rd and flew out to continue our adventures in Darwin on the 26th.

We have a photo album of our visit which you might want to visit.

At the end of our river cruise we were dropped at one of the big hotels in the central business district. A posh hotel outside of our price range. We grabbed a cab to the "Lief" Boutique hotel which is just a little outside of CBD. Cabs were reasonable and a good way to get around the busy streets. There's a major construction effort ongoing in the city to build/extend the underground system but we never took any public transit.

The traffic in Saigon was simply shocking -- it made Bangkok, Songkhla, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh all look like a walk in the park. Streets were packed with cars and many small motorbikes which seem to take no heed to any traffic rules. You'd find them zooming down the wrong side of the street driving against the traffic. You'd see them loaded with impossible parcels -- we saw one guy packing a mattress and box spring onto the back of his bike, I wonder if he made it home? Another time we saw a fellow with a rider on back holding onto a full sized door and frame perched between them. I wonder how that went. And when they weren't parked on the busy sidewalks blocking all pedestrian traffic you'd sometimes see them zooming down the sidewalks to pass stalled traffic! Near the cathedral we witnessed a motorbike being bumped by a car as everyone tried to merge through an "anything goes" intersection. He just righted his bike and continued on. It was amazing, I couldn't imagine driving in the city. Fortunately we had hired a guide and driver to help us along.

We booked our hotel through the Agoda web site: it's one of those booking agencies like hotels.com, priceline.com, expedia.ca, etc. However, they seem to have better penetration in that part of the world. We booked the hotel under it's old name "I am Vietnam", it has only recently been rebranded as "The Lief Boutique hotel". We were on the patio one morning as they installed the new signage. It is a newer, modern, stylish, fresh, well equipped, low-rise hotel in a French colonial/Art Deco style with a ground floor restaurant and patio (I enjoyed my breakfasts on the patio every day, we had a late lunch on the patio another day) and a roof-top open air bar. It's down a narrow alley off a side street and a little hard to find -- fortunately the taxi got us there safely but he had to ask for help. We were warmly greeted by the staff on duty and treated to a cold drink (some kind of sweet iced tea) while we awaited our room. Our large front corner room on the third floor had a curved floor to ceiling window overlooking the neighborhood with a small balcony off the side of a small eating area. We had a comfy king sized bed, nice bath, a small kitchen facilty, and air conditioning! We were happy, we really enjoyed our room. The hotel also hosted a roof-top happy hour on the 7th floor (I think that's the floor number -- it's not a great tall building) which had good views of the surrounding neighborhood and the city center off in the distance. We took advantage of the sunsets from the roof top on several occasions. I would not hesitate to recommend this hotel. And, as it was outside the CBD, it was much cheaper than the down town hotels.

Since we were only in the city for a few days, and it's a huge city not so easily managed by folks like ourselves, we had arranged several tours ahead of time. On the Thursday evening when we arrived we were picked up at our hotel by our guide Lin (we had her for Thursday and Friday) and taken by car to the Saigon Opera House to see the "Teh Dar" show. The opera house is a classic French colonial building and a landmark in the city. We were encourage by our friends, Paul and Sandra, back home to see a different, but similar, show  -- the AO Show which was on tour at the time. Both are visual spectaculars with lots of very athletic actors performing well choreographed feats of coordination and acrobatics -- something like the Cirque du Soleil troupe in North America. The "Teh Dar" show is a celebration of the culture of the hill people of Vietnam and the performers were dressed accordingly -- none of the fluff and neon of Cirque du Soleil. In fact often times they reminded us of primitive cave men. We enjoyed the show -- it's all spectacle with rhythmic chanting, banging of drums and acrobatics on huge sticks that they formed into moving patterns that they clambered about on. There is no language issue, it's visual and rhythmic.

That night we were shown the Notre Dame Cathedral which is very near the Central Post Office -- both of these and the Opera House are well preserved buildings from the French Colonial period. Lin told us the cathedral is an exact replica of the one in Paris -- I've seen both, it's impressive yes, but no where near as big or impressive as the real Notre Dame! After the show Lin took us to our late night dinner at the "Time Bistro", a second floor restaurant nearby specialising in Vietnamese Cuisine. It was nice enough but not very spicy. The local wines in SE Asia are usually pretty awful, the imported stuff is very expensive. The street nearby was quite busy with lots of neon lights in celebration of the Chinese New Year. A pedestrian mall between the two streets was busy with people enjoying the evening. The sidewalk was a bit of a danger with motor bikes parked and sometimes driving on the pedestrian right of way. Lin was happy to take us for a walk to see more but we decided to head home.

The next day, Friday, Lin (our guide from the night before) picked us up at our hotel in the morning with her driver. Our adventures for the day involved a trip out of the city to see the Chu Chi Tunnels (Viet Cong tunnels from the war) and a return to the city for more sites. On the way out of the city we stopped at another lacquer and handicrafts factory. This factory was special as the workers were all handicapped -- all victims in one way or another of the "War of American Aggression" (land mine victims, birth defects because of Agent Orange). The Chu Chi Tunnels is quite a large complex of huts and hidden tunnels which would have been constructed to hide Viet Cong and North Vietnamese "insurgents" who were trying to unite their country. In some measure it's a pretty sad place, but you'd never know that by the tourists who seemed to be having great fun posing with tableaus of incredible hardship during a nasty war.

We had a spicy lunch on our return to the city (Lin had taken our comments from the night before to heart), then vistited the very old Jade Emperor Pagoda (a Chinese Temple that Obama had visited in 2016), then the War Remnants museum, and finally the Independence/Reunification Palace. For us the whole day was an insight into the Vietnam War. The photo exhibit at the War Remnants museum was particularly moving -- the "Napalm Girl", who now lives in Canada, is instantly recognisable.

On Saturday, our last day in Saigon, we went on "Sophies Art Tour" which is billed as a journey through Vietnam's art history. This was recommended by Paul and Sandra (they also recommended the Opera House show) and it's well worth recommending to the reader. It's a small, no more than a dozen, conducted tour with an "art consultant" (ours was a Brit named Stu) -- "tour guides" must be from Vietnam -- who takes you around to some of the very small private galleries to show you art works and explain their historical context. The tour starts at a downtown restaurant where we met -- we took a cab from our hotel. We're given some of the historical context starting around 1930 when a school of art hosted by the French started -- before that "art" was more "crafts" than art. For example, the lovely works at the lacquer factories are crafts where a fairly static work is repeated by craftsmen. Art for arts sake is apparently a rather recent notion (it might also have something to do with the affluence of the culture -- to be wealthy enough to be idle).

We visited private galleries. There is a City Museum of Fine Arts, which I understand is well worth a visit.

Of the works we saw there were a couple that impressed us. At the "Lotus Gallery" we were taken to an upstairs office and shown some examples from a folio of drawings made by a North Vietnamese soldier during the war of "American Agression". The Viet Cong/Vietnamese documented the war with patriotic sketches of life in wartime much the same way that photographers would. The art works were in pencil, chalk, carbon from burnt sticks, etc. .... from whatever was at hand. Photography wouldn't have worked as well with the heat and humidity, besides, the equipment at hand was pretty primitive. You could carry a pencil and paper pretty easily, a dark room would have been hard. And the artist was a soldier as well who would have been involved in fighting as well as documenting the war. Some of the works are obvious propaganda of the time but others were more thoughtful moments of soldiers at ease captured in a quick sketch. I'm ashamed to admit I can't remember the artists name. I know that I was saddened to see their deterioration into brittle, yellowed, aged paper. I asked why these had not been digitally scanned to preserve them. Apparently, in Vietnam, there are no copyright laws and they are concerned that the artist's ownership will be lost to a digital world.

Another exhibit at the "Hien Minh Company" (antiquarian and gallery) was the art of Nguyen Thi Hien. A woman whose work seems to have been very much inspired by Europe. One was like a Modigliani, another like Picasso. A lovely, but fading, portrait of a young girl was painted on a piece of wood from a dresser drawer. And on the other side a landscape painting. A patriotic painting of a woman soldier on burlap was sadly falling apart. Her work would have been condemned as "decadent" during the early communist regime and we're lucky that this much has survived.

The final galley was "Salon Saigon" located down an alley in what had been a private residence -- formerly the home of Henry Cabot Lodge during his stay as ambassador to South Vietnam. This was a very modern gallery, well lit and cared for with a performance space as well as exhibition halls with very modern works of art. There were some lovely pieces there -- contemporary and sometimes a bit edgy.

Sophie's Art Tour was an informative tour that we thoroughly enjoyed.

The tour dispersed in the early afternoon and we got a ride home in the tour van with Stu -- it turned out he lived down the street a bit from our hotel. We had a late lunch on the patio of "pho soup", enjoyed a final sunset evening at our hotel roof top bar, and a final night time stroll through our neighborhood.

The next day, Sunday, we left Saigon and flew to Darwin via Kuala Lumpur. We enjoyed our visit to Saigon and may return another day. Kate tells me there's things to see in Hanoi and it would be nice to see some of the countryside too.

Mekong River

Life on the Mekong River

Kate and I explored some of the Mekong River on a cruise aboard the RV Mekong Prestige II in February, 2017. We were on an 8 day/7 night guided trip from Siem Reap in Cambodia to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) in the former South Vietnam. We have a large photo album from the trip if you are interested in following that link. Here I'll try to document the day to day adventures.

The cruise travelled with a sister ship the Mekong Pestige I (both are flagged out of Vietnam). The older ship had only French speaking travellers while ours had 41 German speakers and 14 English speakers with a bilingual German guide Matthias and excellent helpful staff who all had a good command of our two languages. Each day there would be some interesting town and sights to explore. Some days there were morning and afternoon excursions; some days we were travelling the river. Every night there was a lecture, film, or some other event on board. And it was a cruise so they take care of you and when all else fails there’s always food and drink to keep you entertained.

Thursday, February 16

We met our cruise at the Sokha Angkor Resort on the morning of Thursday, February 16. This very large and posh resort was a short Tuk Tuk ride from our much smaller and more modest digs at the Green Leaf Boutique hotel where we had stayed while exploring the Angkor Wat (and several others). During high water rainy season, when the Mekong floods Tonle Sap Lake,  it’s a short bus ride to meet up with the ship at the pier in Phnom Krom on Tonle Sap Lake. That’s nice as you get a day to explore life on the lake. It's the largest fresh water lake in all of South East Asia and in many ways the life blood of the Cambodian economy – the rice fields and fishing being the obvious.

We were travelling at the start of the dry season at low water when Tonle Sap drains back into the Mekong and unfortunately low water levels meant the ships could not navigate into the lake so our first day involved a bus trip to meet the ship down river at a town called Prek K'Dam. I think high water would be interesting as the flooding is extensive and crucial to the rice farming.

The bus trip did make a couple of stops. Once for a box lunch at a modest lakeside dining room, another at a village market where you could try (but not recommended by our guide) fried bugs of various sorts, tarantulas, spiders and other such "local" cuisine. Both had crappy crappers which required a coin to enter (who carries Cambodian coins?). Kate was not at all keen about the porcelain hole in the floor. How can you squat over these and keep your clothes clean. Men had it much easier -- they'd just piss discretely against an outside wall and not pay anything.

From Prek K'Dam, where we met our ship around 3:00 pm that afternoon, we navigated up the Tonle Sap river and anchored overnight near the town of Kampong Chhang which is very near the lake. 

Along the way we saw  lots of the daily life along the river: fishing with nets from narrow long boats, floating homes, livestock (like oxen and water buffalo), water pumps hammering away to flood rice fields, homes on stilts, homes on boats, homes on bamboo rafts, lots of little ferries that cross the Mekong (bridges are few and far between) and the daily rituals of bathing, cooking, etc. for those who live on the river. And there are lots who live along the river.

Friday, February 17

Friday morning breakfast we sit with a German couple at one of the tables by the window of the dining room. We ask "Do you mind if we join you?" and are met with silence. Hmm... this doesn't bode well. Was it something we said?

In Kampong Chhnang City, on the morning of Friday, February 17, we explored by our narrow long tender boats the very large floating Vietnamese fishing villages that populate the river. The town itself was very busy with crowded active streets, overloaded vehicles with passengers precariously perched on top, street vendors hawking food, farm workers winnowing rice and Buddhist monks out begging for their daily meal. Kate had the misfortune of yet another hole in the floor pissoir. We used to see these a lot in parts of Europe, they're still common in Cambodia.

Down river at Kampong Tralach the afternoon excursion involved an Ox cart ride to Wat Kampong Leu (one of the oldest temples in Cambodia that was abused by the Khmer Rouge) where a monk blessed those who wished to be blessed. We then had a bus ride to to Oudong (the former capitol) and visited the hilltop complex of the Vihara of Vipassana Center for another temple (this one far grander) and more blessings by monks. There's a reclining Buddha at that site that's comparable to the one in Bangkok (but not gilt with gold leaf).

Kate, who was still recovering from her cold that she brought with her from home and had already seen far too many Buddha’s in Thailand, stayed on board and missed the afternoon excursion.

Saturday-Sunday, February 18-19

At Phnom Penh, where the Tonle Sap River meets the Mekong Kate explored the Silk Island and the city while Reg nursed the cold that he had got from her. Back on board the staff insisted on nursing me back to health with hot ginger tea.

Kate tells me of a distressing encounter with on of the Germans at breakfast (I'm too sick to get out of bed). She's gone back to the buffet and picks up a piece of bread. A German fellow scolds her "Nicht mit der hande!" Hmm... this doesn't bode well either! Do you think we're children in need of etiquette lessons?

On the Silk Island: Kate and the rest of our troup visited a small grade school and met young children who were keen to practice their English; a silk weaving factory where the weavers worked manual looms (unlike the card-punch jacquard loom silk factory we visited later); road in rickshaws and enjoyed the scenary. In Phnom Penh that afternoon they had a free day to explore the city. The next day they visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda; toured the National Museum and visited the art-deco Central Market. Back on board we were entertained with some traditional Cambodian music and dance while at dinner Reg celebrated his 65^th birthday and the staff surprised him with a birthday cake. Matthias, the tour director, has everyone’s passport so birthday celebrations can’t be kept secret!

One of the not so nice things about Phnom Penh was the docking. Our two ships were lashed together at a floating dock. That meant that our balcony was right up against the balcony of the other ship and hence not very useful.

Monday, February 20

On our last day in Phnom Penh Reg felt well enough for a brief morning walk in the city (so he could really say that he had been there).  We didn’t see much and were almost run over by a Tuk Tuk driving on the wrong side of the road – you need to look both ways when you cross the street! Traffic in Phnom Penh was pretty wild but nothing compared to what we later found on the streets of Saigon.

Back on the sun deck we're on a pair of lounge chairs talking when a couple of chairs down a German woman scolds me (in German) for my snorking and snivelling (I guess she's never had a cold). I don't understand German but it's clear that she's telling me I'm "disgusting", ruining her day and to go get a Kleenex or better yet that I should go back to my room. This doesn't bode well at all! As the ever polite Canadian I apologize but I am pissed off. This won't do.

So, I write to my German speaking friends back home (we have a spotty internet connection on the ship) to learn how to politely tell a German to "Fuck off!" in preparation for the next encounter. They encourage me to not venture there, or, if I do, to stick to my native language. We decide that an informal "Maginot Line" is required and prepare our trenches. Fortunately we find comfort with our English speaking allies and no further hostilities are worthy of reporting.

Another struggle in Phnom Penh concerned our visas to enter Vietnam. Reg had purchased these on line and got the dates wrong by one day!  The staff on the ship handled this problem at the embassy in the city. It ended up that we had to pay for new visas. That ate up some of our American cash (I recall it cost around $75 each for the visas).

The rest of that day was a leisurely travel adventure down on the river into Vietnam with a stop anchored at the border while some of the ship’s staff went into a small port to deal with Vietnam’s customs and immigration.

Along the way we saw lots of fishing villages, fishermen in small narrow long boats, dredging for sand, modern boats laden with sand and older wooden boats laden with rice. Reg and a few others had a tour of the ship’s bridge – it’s quite a modern ship and well equipped with all the navigational aids one might need but navigation is largely by sight. Interestingly the bridge uses a joy stick rather than a wheel to steer the ship!  Others went to a chef’s carving lesson in the dining room but most of us spent the day on the sun deck enjoying the view and drinks from the bar. Kate and I played a lot of Scrabble on the sun deck.

We crossed under one of the very few bridges on the Mekong and anchored that night near the Vietnamese town of Tan Chau which we toured the next day.

Tuesday, February 21

Tan Chau is a large town on the Mekong in Vietnam with many ferries busy shuttling people back and forth across the river – there are no bridges. Morning finds us taking a tender into town where we meet up with bicycle powered rickshaws that take us on a long, but fairly quick, drive along the river to a silk factory where we have a lesson on silk production and the industrial weaving on mechanical jacquard looms where the pattern is controlled by punch cards. These are noisy old machines that clatter and bang away (you really need ear plugs) as the silk is weaved into lovely patterns controlled by the punched cards (they’d be about 2’x3’ big).  Jacquard looms are famous in the history of computing – there’s the story of the Luddites who rebelled and destroyed the looms back in the 19^th century.

At the store of this silk factory we bought some silk shirts for our men friends and some silk kimonos for our women friends back home.

After the silk factory another rickshaw rides takes us to a sedge mat weaving factory – the mats are used as sleeping mats. The weaving is mechanical but a person is manually inserting strips of sedge as the loom hammers away – a tedious job for sure. From there we walk through backyards and green gardens to the river where we meet up with our tender. The tender takes us to one of the many floating fish farms on the Mekong where we have a good look at our dinner – Kate is not keen about fish farming and even less so now.

The rest of the day is a leisurely trip south on the river to the Mekong delta town of Sa Dec. Along the way we now recognize the many fish farms we see on the river.

Wednesday, February 22

At the Mekong delta town of Sa Dec, the morning excursion by tender takes us to a Cao Dai temple. It’s low tide and more than a little awkward getting off the tender as there is no dock or pier at the temple. Some of our group could not manage the rough, rocky shore and waited while the rest toured the temple.

Cao Dai (literally the "Highest Lord" or "Highest Power") is the supreme deity, believed by Caodaists to have created the universe. The symbol of the faith is the Left Eye of God which looks very much like the symbol over the pyramid on the American dollar bill. This uniquely Franco-Vietnamese monotheistic religion sees itself as a merger of everything that’s gone before. One of the oddities is they consider Victor Hugo (the French author) as one of their three founding saints. The religion was founded in South Vietnam in 1926 and, not too surprisingly, was persecuted (perhaps it still is). Currently it’s an accepted religion in Vietnam and recognized by the government since 1997.

The temple is colorful, very garish with lots of neon – a bit of Las Vegas meets Buddha at a Chinese Temple with a Hindu fruit offering thrown in to keep it real. There’s a very FALSE story that Charlie Chaplin is revered as well – that’s simply not true! ... or if true it's only partly true. The Wikipedia article on Caodaism says:

"Reports that Winston Churchill and Charlie Chaplin were also "saints" are based on an inaccurate 1956  Time magazine article, since both of them were still alive at the time (and lived for several more decades)".

Afterwards we walked some of the downtown streets of Sa Dec including the busy market area and then visited the “Lover’s House”. This is an ornate home from the French colonial period where the French writer Marguerite Duras lived between 1928 and 1932. Duras as a 15-year-old schoolgirl met Huynh Thuy Le, 27, the son of a wealthy Chinese family and a love affair followed. Neither family approved of the relationship. She later wrote about it and the story was made into a film.

Downriver that day at Cai Be we passed through a floating market and visited a Catholic Cathedral  – a reminder of the French Colonial past. From there we walked a short distance on village streets and visited a candy factory where they were making popped rice candy squares and coconut toffees.  This was a busy family affair with everyone involved from toddlers through to adults. Along with the candies, they were also brewing and distilling rice liquor and selling the ubiquitous snake wine -- we men sampled some (apparently it’s a good tonic for men).  Reg was reluctant to try it but did.  The snakes are supposed to be venomous but we understand that many of them are in fact just plastic toys.  We also saw a lady making rice paper (the kind you soak in water to make spring rolls). After our tour we had some time to sample the candies and tea ... to help wash the snake liquor away!

That evening was the last night on the ship. We had a lovely dinner with our Norwegian friends. The dinner was plated inside the typical straw hats you see so often in pictures of Vietnam (our friend Inger had bought one from a street peddler when we visited the cathedral that morning). Dessert was a “Baked Alaskan” with a chocolate “Thank You” written across the plate.

The evening entertainment was a final goodbye from all the staff and crew on the boat who had taken such good care of us.

Thursday, February 23

The last day of the tour, February 23, had us disembarking at My Tho on the Mekong delta for a morning bus tour to Ho Chi Minh City (or Saigon), Vietnam. This part of the tour had a couple of stops along the way.

The first stop was an ornate Chinese temple with colorful , huge and interesting incense burning away (some were huge smoldering sticks, others where large hanging spirals and of course lots of the smaller incense stick we see here). We took a group photo there of our English speaking friends.

The last stop, before being dropped at a downtown hotel, was a lacquer factory where they make that highly polished furniture and art work with inlays of egg shell, mother of pearl, etc. There were several “Picasso” inspired pieces that really impressed me.

The bus tour ended shortly after noon at the Sofitel Plaza in the central district of Ho Chi Minh  City – another posh resort well beyond our means. We took a taxi from there to the “I am Vietnam” hotel (now renamed the “Lief”) not far from the central city.

Siem Reap

Siem Reap and the Ancient Sites

Kate and I spent a couple of days in Siem Reap, Cambodia in February, 2017 after visiting with Paul and El in Songkhla Thailand. We arrived on the 13th and met up with our Mekong river tour on the 16th.

If you are interested we have a photo album of our few days visiting the city and the historical sites.

But first we have an interesting story about our arrival at the Siem Reap airport. You need to queue up and get an entry visa at the airport - it's pro-forma process but has to be done. In the line behind us was a young English woman and behind her a middle aged American. Of course the conversation ends up on Donald Trump (what new crazy thing has he done today) and the American starts to regale the English woman with how great the Donald is, and how he'll make America great again, and how he had won with the largest electoral majority ever (I recall him saying that over 80% voted for the Donald -- which is just a ridiculous bold faced lie). Kate and I over hear all of this and are rolling our eyes at one another when he tells the English woman that the Donald is against abortion and he'd vote for him on that alone. Now, how could any male in their right mind ever say that to a young woman? You don't have a right to choose what happens to your body! It really blew our minds. He's sees we're reacting and tries to engage us in conversation on his side of things. He sees Kate is wearing a T-shirt from the Niagara Wine region which has a slogan "Winning the war on terroir" (that's terroir as in wine region not 'terror' as in terrorist) and says that we must be Republicans as everyone in upper state New York is and aren't we ever so pleased that the Donald is in office. We explain that no, we're from Canada and we have an entirely different view of things. In particular the Donald has promised to gut health care and what will people do then? Oh, well I'm covered and I'll be much better off with lower taxes. This was the point when we recognized the futility of debating with a table leg -- I told him to go away, do not talk to us!

Anyways, back to the travel adventures ....

Siem Reap is one of the largest cities in Cambodia (after Phnom Penh of course) and is most famous for the Angkor Wat (and the many other similar structures) built by the Khmer Empire back around 1100 or so. That's around the time of the Battle of Hastings. The Khmer were a very advanced civilization by comparison if these structures are anything to go by.

The first full day we visited the Angkor National Museum and then Angkor Wat that evening for sunset. Angkor Wat is a huge and very busy complex of nested courtyards. We never got beyond the first before closing time at dusk. It's the most popular Wat to see but they're all impressive and all very crowded with tourists like us.

The next day we visited Ta Prohm which is famous for the strangler figs and banyan trees which envelope the ruins. And then we saw Angkor Thom (the Banyan) which first appears as a jumble but as you explore the site the organization becomes clear with the many 4-headed towers in a regular geometric pattern.

All of these temples have had lots of work done to try to restore them towards what they might have looked like a thousand years ago but there is a ton of work to be done. Both are famous from Hollywood movies made here -- Laura Croft's "Tomb Raider" and Indiana Jones' "Temple of Doom" (see this article which has some lovely pictures).

We stayed at a lovely oasis of a hotel off the busy streets and down a dusty alley called the Green Leaf not too far from the "Pub Street" area. I would highly recommend the hotel, the swimming pool, the helpful friendly staff, the excellent food and service, and especially the two house cats -- Oscar and Ginger who welcomed us! We read about the hotel in the Toronto Star -- it's a non-profit owned by Canadians. Their mission is to train locals and get them into work in the hospitality industry.

We loved our Tuk Tuk experience with Mr. S.B. -- these little motorized rickshaw affairs powered by small motorcycles are a cheap and fun way to explore the city and country side.  ..... once you've learned to trust that you're not going to be killed in the busy traffic! There are very few "managed" intersections.

Songkhla

Reg, El and Paul - Songkhla

In of February, 2017 Kate and I visited for a few days with my brother Paul and his wife El in Songkhla Thailand where they run "The Blue Smile Cafe" in the old part of town - a funky little restaurant with great sunset views of Lake Songkhla from the rooftop bar.

We have a photo album of our visit you may want to visit.

Unfortunately El's dad had only recently passed away in Bangkok and she was rightly still very much in mourning. So the restaurant was closed to customers for a few weeks. But we had some sunsets to enjoy from the roof top bar together when she returned during our visit. The restaurant reopened just after we left and seems to be doing very well.

We stayed at the Baan Nai Nakhon, Boutique Hotel, in Old Town Songkhla which was just a short block or so walk away from Paul and El's place. Like the Blue Smile Cafe this was also a funky little place and only recently opened. We had a very nice room -- air conditioned! Breakfast was included and there was a courtyard oasis in which you could enjoy it but usually we'd be up very early and have something with Paul and El instead. One day they insisted we have something and sent a Curry and Roti breakfast with us that we shared with Paul and El. Often times we'd have fresh fruit from the market for breakfast. The Jack Fruit was particularly interesting -- we'd never seen them before. It's an large odd looking lumpy fruit with a stringy yellow inside that you sort of peel apart.

We explored "Old Town Songkhla" where the restaurant is located, the mermaid on the sea shore at Samila beach, several street markets as well as the nearby city market, a hill top view of the city complete with some clever monkeys that mooch peanuts, several Buddhist temples and retreats, a sea side dinner, a drive around the lake and back by ferry boat, and of course enjoyed the sunsets and the company of Paul and El.

But gosh was it hot! The trick we learned was to get up early before it gets too hot, take an afternoon nap and enjoy the cooler evenings. Paul tells us that you need to change your clothes several times a day and take a shower to cool down and wash away the sweat. Especially during the rainy season when it's particularly hot and muggy with rain every day -- I can't imagine what that must be like.

Paul did give me a nice traditional Thai cotton shirt that was much cooler to wear than a T-shirt. They're effective but deem to have fallen out of fashion -- locals wear T-shirts with English/American brands and slogans. We brought them some souvenirs from Canada -- more funky art for the walls of the cafe.

At the Samila Beach seashore we tested the waters the first day with Paul and marvelled that no one was swimming. The water was warm and seemed to be very clean -- fishermen were casting nets right there by the shore. Paul tells us that it's just not the culture of Thai people to swim in the ocean. We weren't aware of any risks (sharks? jelly fish? pollution? strong currents?) that would prevent one from swimming and decided to try it another day. They day we came back to the water with our bathing suits the wind was up and the waves were very rough so we didn't get in at all. I guess that's the one that got away ... Paul tells me he's never been in the ocean in all the time he's been there. And he's a good strong swimmer!

One day we asked Paul and El to take us to a super market (a north american style market rather than a street market) and we visited a Tesco at a local mall. We were after packaged foodie things to take home as souvenirs. We had an interesting lunch at a restaurant in the mall where we cooked our own "Pho". The table has a hot plate with a vegetable broth bubbling away and you order plates of vegetables, noodles, etc. to add to the broth. You cook the vegetables just a bit in the broth. It worked very well and was some fun. Throughout our trip to South East Asia, that style of food made a big impression on us. When we got home we discovered that our local super market carries a "Pho" soup broth and we've been making that a lot with udon noodles, baby bok choy, mushrooms, shrimp and/or tofu, and whatever else is at hand. It's also good practice at using chop sticks and pretty healthy too.

It was good to see my little brother who turned 59 in May and his wife El who keeps him on the right path. Every good Buddhist needs a partner to remind him that "In Peace and Love We Trust" is more than just a slogan.

Bangkok

Kate and Reg at the Grand Palace

Kate and I were in Bangkok Thailand for a couple of nights on our way to visit our brother Paul and his wife El in Songkhla in February, 2017.  We have a photo album of our adventures in Bangkok which you may wish to view -- click on the photo to browse our pictures.

We stayed at the Centre Point, Pratunam in the central business district -- it's a modern high rise hotel with most of the services one would want. Some notably lacking -- we'll get to that in a bit. We had a large room with a balcony and a view of the green space around the Indonesian Embassy. We especially liked the breakfast buffet with the introduction to many Thai foods at the pool level of the hotel.

It's a long flight over the pole to get to Hong Kong and from there a relatively short hop to Bangkok but at the end of the travels you're twelve hours out your time zone and have had a very, very long day without sleep. We had arranged with a private tour company to meet us at the airport and to show us around the city the next day as we were on a very short stay over (and would of course be somewhat jag lagged by it all). At the end of the day we're glad we had arranged a guide and driver for Bangkok -- we could not have figured things out without their help and navigating the city is difficult even with a driver. Although it was rather rushed, we saw about all we needed to. Or at least when it comes to the many Temples and Buddhas.

Our original intention had been to fly back home through Bangkok after the Mekong river tour and to visit the city and sights then but events with Kate's work in Australia changed our plans so we only had only this brief visit to the city at the beginning of our adventures.

Bangkok is a huge and crowded city. Modern but with lots of history to explore. We had a tour guide and driver for a day and visited some of the landmarks -- the Grand Palace with all the gilting and the small Emerald Buddha (it's jade not emerald) where the last king Rama IX is on view (the nation is mourning his death back in October of 2016), a long boat tour of the canals, Wat Arun (the Temple of Dawn) with the much larger Golden Buddha (there's some restoration work at that temple), Wat Pho with the stunningly huge Reclining Buddha gilt in gold, and finally the Jim Thompson silk house where we packed it in and asked to be taken home. We had the driver and guide for the day but needed to rest.

The death of the King was and is a significant event for all of Thailand. At the time of his death he was the longest reigning monarch in the world having served for over 70 years. In spite of the many titles he was most often referred to simply as "our beloved king". Clearly he was well loved, if not revered, and many Thai showed their respect by dressing in black to mourn his passing. Many, like our guide, were committed to wearing black for a year! Not any easy thing to do in a country where it's very warm with a relentless sun.

There were long lineups to view the king's body which was resting in state at the Grand Palace when we visited.  Our siste- in-law El (she's a native Thai from Bangkok) told us that she had stood in line at least twice to view the body and pay her respects. We did not stand in line but were told that on at least some days people were in the queue for 8 hours or more! We asked why the long period of resting in state and were told that everyone in Thailand should have a chance to pay their respects. As a technical issue, a crematorium for the king will have to be built (he cannot be cremated in any ordinary crematorium) -- but were they not prepared that the king would die? Further, the new king (his son) would not have a formal coronation until after the king was cremated. That might take a year or so! While everyone loved the king who had died there were reservations expressed about the new king. He's young and has big shoes to fill.

Jet lag, and the heat of the day, had caught up to us at the Jim Thompson silk house by 3:00pm so we cut our explorations short having seen perhaps one too many Buddha's -- little did we know what would await us in the rest of South East Asia. Like the Catholic churches in Italy, Buddhist temples in South East Asia are found on every corner and in every community no matter how small. Not to complain, as religions go, it's pretty a good one -- no one ever went to war over the Buddha. Our guide told us that while most people profess to be Buddhists, few actually practice the religion and follow the various tenets -- most importantly the ban on intoxicants. He had recently vowed to be a better Buddhist and had forsaken alcohol. Not us though!

After our day out in the hot sun with our driver and guide we returned thirstily to our hotel at around 3:00pm and asked the concierge at the front desk where we might buy some alcohol with lunch or where we might find some to take back to our room. They kindly pointed us to a mall across the street that had a couple of restaurants (sadly none of them served alcohol) and a lot of technology shops -- if you're looking for smart phones that would have been the place to shop. We asked for help at an information desk in the technology mall and they pointed us to another mall across the street where there was a small market in the basement which sold a bit of wine and some chilled beers. A very limited selection but when in Rome.... I had picked out some cold beer and Kate wanted to ask the clerk about the limited wines that were available behind the counter. We approached the clerk who had a limited command of our language (we of course know nothing of the Thai language) but he managed to communicate clearly "No sale! No Sale!". We didn't understand what was up and he handed us a laminated card in English, Thai, perhaps Chinese and more which basically said that they respect the law of the land and don't sell alcohol outside the designated hours 11:00am to 2:00pm and 5:00pm until midnight. So, at 3:00pm, we were out of luck. There was a similar issue that cropped up when we were with Paul and El later in our trip -- one of the days was the Buddha's birthday and you couldn't get any drink then either.

As for Bangkok we figured: Ok, we can handle this. We'll go back to our hotel and either go to the the restaurant, or the bar, or order a bottle to our room. Sadly our hotel informed us that there was no alcohol at the restaurant, no bar in the hotel, and no alcohol of any sort to be delivered to our room or to be found in the hotel. I felt like we were caught in a Mormon hell of some sort -- was this Salt Lake City, Utah all those many years ago?

We ended up in bed early that night after a room service meal without any drinks. The next day we were off to visit Paul and El flying out around noon.