We like to fly by the seat of our pants! While we had landed on the idea of travelling to Southeast Asia for this winter's adventure a few months back, our decision to start with Cambodia was based on finding the best flight in early December prior to our anticipated departure in mid-December. Not an overly long flight with long layovers, arriving at a decent time of day, at the best price - all factors in our decision. Phnom Penh for Christmas!
With flights booked, we found an Airbnb to stay at for a week, applied for Cambodian visas, and we were ready to go. Our sense of adventure would guide us. Our visas were approved and we headed to the airport for our 24 hour flight. Had some panic at the airport when Donna couldn't find her phone and it was discovered to be in the Uber we took to get there. While Uber support was not at all helpful, the next rider in the Uber answered the phone and was our HERO for the night by getting her own ride turned around so they could come back to the airport to bring it to us. After an hour of freaking out and Jon going through security three extra times (the final time with hands thrown up in triumph!), the phone was back in our possession. Ready to go!
After a quick flight to Vancouver, we had just enough time to transfer to our next flight to Taipei, Taiwan. At 13 hours, this was our longest flight of the journey but it actually didn't feel that long. We both managed to get some sleep, had a couple of meals, and then we were there. Transferred to our next flight going to Phnom Penh and before we knew it we were landing in Cambodia. With our e-visas in hand, we had the fastest customs experience ever and a few minutes later located the driver our Airbnb host had arranged for us.
We were glad for a driver as the driving in Phnom Penh was insane, and driving around there over the next week will be a lifetime memory for us! The vehicles are a mix of cars, motorbikes, and various tuk-tuks. Donna's observation was that it was like the show Whose Line is it Anyway? where the rules are made up and the points don't matter. There are lanes, but they don't drive in them and they don't signal to move over. Signs and lights are unimportant - if you need to go, you just go. They yield to others when we would expect to have the right of way, and they barge through when we would expect to yield. Add in what seems to be random honking. And yet somehow, it works. We had many delightful moments in tuk-tuks, and many when it was better to just close your eyes :)
We tried all sorts of different food, explored their grocery stores, and made a stir-fry for Christmas dinner at our apartment. We also visited:
- Central Market - what do you want to buy? They have it. Clothes, food, electronics, household goods, jewelry, knockoff North Face backpacks? All there. And yes, we now have another backpack. And artwork. And new "Beats" headphones.
- Aeon Mall - modern mall with quite the food court
- Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S21) - a secret center where the Khmer Rouge tortured prisoners in the late 1970's before bringing them to the Killing Fields. This site alone imprisoned between 12,000 and 20,000 prisoners and there are only 12 confirmed survivors. Such sites exist all over the country.
- Riverside - a miles long walkway next to the Mekong River, full of shops and restaurants and things to see, including the Royal Palace.
- Royal Palace - home of Cambodia's king Norodom Sihamoni, where we explored much of the expansive grounds, buildings, and towers.
- Wat Phnom & Mongkol Serey Temple
- Silk Island where silk is harvested from silk worms and turned into beautiful silk scarves, clothing, purses, and more
We also took a sunset cruise on the Mekong River one evening, seeing much of the Riverside from the water, watching fishermen out in their boats, and picking out our building from the boat.
With a good mix of rest time and sightseeing, we were ready to move on to the next place. We found a fellow Canadian who hooked us up with a private driver - next stop: Siem Reap!
We're going to Asia!
The drive from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was about 5 hours and we were glad for a private vehicle and driver. Our driver, Ra, offered to stop by what we thought would be a place with spider monkeys but turned out to be a spider market! Vendor after vendor with nuts, fruits, and creepy crawlies for sale. No bugs were consumed by us or Ra. He also stopped to show us a bridge that was built around the year 1200. By mid-afternoon, he was dropping us off at perhaps the swankiest resort we have ever been at - Donna found a last minute deal for a fraction of the usual price so we enjoyed an unexpected week of luxury in Siem Reap.
We had a few ideas of things to do for the week, the obvious one being a visit to Angkor Wat, the 8th wonder of the world. Angkor Wat is 400 acres of ancient buildings and temples, mainly built between the years 900 and 1200. It's obviously impossible to visit everything or absorb all the information but we walked until our feet couldn't take anymore. We climbed many stairs (and stairs that were more like ladders!) and certainly got our steps in for the week. We did hire a tuk-tuk driver for the day, so he drove us between some of the sites and brought us to a nice restaurant for lunch. We got up at 4am in order to take in the sunrise and while it wasn't the most dazzling sunrise, it was still a neat experience and we were glad for smaller crowd sizes first thing in the morning. Insert Angkor Wat photo dump here! (stories continue below).
While the visit to Angkor Wat was amazing (and Jon's favourite), Donna's favourite experience of the week was a trip to the Phare Circus. We went to a show our second night called Sokha about a young girl haunted by war, with her memories of surviving the Khmer Rouge. The story was based on the experience of one of the people who started the circus and the school for the arts that it supports. While it was a dark story, it was broken up with lighter moments and amazing circus feats. The story, music, and stunts all came together in a magical way. There was also street food there to try before the show. Such a great experience that we went back again our last night in Siem Reap for another show for its opening night, called Same Same But Different. This one was much more lighthearted, poking fun of the differences between the Cambodian people and the foreigners who visit. Another wonderful night and a great way to end our time in Cambodia.
Midweek we went to Apopo Mine Action Centre, where we learned about how rats are trained to help with the demining effort in Cambodia. After the Vietnam War, there was civil war in Cambodia that resulted in unexploded ordnance throughout the country. The rats are trained to detect TNT so that areas can be demined and once again safely used by the people without the risk of injury or death. We were able to watch a demonstration of one of the rats with its handlers to see how they work and then Jon also held one of the HERO rats.
We also did some exploration on the downtown area of Siem Reap and its markets, and indulged in some Thai/Khmer massages. $11 for a 90 minute massage! (Donna may have had a few...) Add in some work time and relax time at our hotel, sipping smoothies by the pool...and that was our week! Next up, Vietnam.
Spider Market
Goodbye Cambodia, hello Vietnam! The next part of our journey was visiting Hanoi, the country's capital city in the north. Our first impressions were: smog, and then holy traffic batman! Near the airport it was mainly cars but as we got further into the city, the amount of motorbikes was astounding. This only increased as we approached the Old Quarter, a historic neighbourhood that was once the city's commercial, manufacturing, and residential center. There, it was strange to see a car.
Exploring Hanoi's Old Quarter is a whole cultural experience in itself. It's crowded with so many narrow buildings, many only 6-8' wide but often 5-6 stories tall. Shop after shop, too many to see. There are many streets that are all the same type of store, so you would have blocks of metalworks, and then cardboard, and then party decorations. In addition to shops, restaurants, and nail/massage spas (so many!), there were food vendors all over cooking on charcoal grills or in big pots on the sidewalks in front of the shops. Everywhere you look, people sitting on small plastic stools crowded around little plastic tables holding a hot pot to cook soup. When it wasn't meal time, the vendors would be washing food or dishes in big bowls of soapy water right there on the sidewalk. With the sidewalks pretty much filled up, that meant pedestrians were on the road with the motorbikes: they say the first touristy thing to do in Hanoi is learn how to cross the street, moving with the flow of traffic as drivers don't stop to wait for you. Many, many hours were spent wandering around the Old Quarter, sometimes knowing where we were, sometimes getting delightfully lost just taking it all in.
Some Hanoi highlights: trying Banh Mi sandwiches at the famous Bahn Mi 25, visiting the Water Puppet Theater, chatting with students wanting to practice their English, checking out a grocery store that seemed tiny but was actually 5 floors(!), visiting St. Joseph's Cathedral (styled after Notre Dame), visiting Train Street (although at the wrong time of day from the train), night market, and street food.
From Hanoi, we also took a 3 day tour to see some surrounding areas: Halong Bay and Ninh Binh. Halong Bay is a UNESCO world heritage site and is known for its emerald waters and towering limestone islands topped with thick jungle vegetation. There are about 1,600 islands in the bay so everywhere you look there are multiple islands in your view. We spent about 24 hours on a little cruise ship in our first ever balcony cabin. They offered an afternoon excursion of kayaking in the bay which we jumped at. We watched as they launched kayaks for the people ahead of us from the back of the shuttle boat, a lineup of kayaks paddling off around one of the islands. But just as we were about to get into our own kayak, some authorities pulled up next to the boat and said that kayaking was no longer permitted in that area so the last 6 people had to sit and wait in disappointment for the other kayakers to return without getting a chance to go ourselves. But other than the no kayaking, it was a wonderful and relaxing time out on the bay.
When we returned to land, we were shuttled off to Ninh Binh / Hoa Lu about 4 hours away, called the Halong Bay on land because of its limestone mountains. Our shuttle driver there was a wee bit on the aggressive side, to the point where he actually ran into an arm at a toll booth because he didn't slow down at all, and at one point another passenger asked him to please slow down! With all the different rides we've had on our trip, I guess we've become desensitized to the craziness. Once we arrived, we had some free time to explore during the evening and spent it in the Old Town area, a beautiful spot with two pagodas and restaurants and shops lining the waterfront. The next day was spent cycling through the countryside, visiting the historic capital of Hoa Lu, a boat tour in Trang An which included going through some caves, and climbing 480 steps to the top of Mua Cave to get a great view of the valley and river below.
Spent one last night in Hanoi once again in the busy streets and night market, with one last visit to a restaurant we enjoyed. Now on to Central Vietnam....
The streets of Hanoi - Old Quarter
Our cruise ship on Halong Bay
We were tempted to stay longer in north Vietnam as it is SO BEAUTIFUL, but the beach was calling us and with the hope of some hotter weather, we set our sights on Da Nang in central Vietnam. Because Vietnam is such a long, narrow country, it was easier and much quicker to fly there rather than driving or taking a train. When we were booking the flights, the cost to upgrade to first class - aka SkyBoss with VietJet - was not much more so we decided to splurge. We've always wanted to enjoy a first class lounge but have been too cheap to pay for it. Now was our chance. We arrived to the airport earlier than we normally would to relax and have lunch in the lounge before making our way to our gate. To our surprise, SkyBoss passengers didn't board the plane first - we were asked to wait while the rest of the passengers boarded. When they did finally call us up, we realized that there was a shuttle bus out to the plane and so we thought, "Oh, that's nice, we don't have to wait as long on the shuttle bus as the other passengers I guess." But no, we didn't have to take the shuttle bus at all. They had a private air-conditioned van for the three SkyBoss passengers that took us out to the plane separately, where we waited until there was no lineup on the stairs into the plane so we could go directly to our first row seats. And while everyone else received no food or beverages for the 1-hour flight, we were able to pick anything we wanted from the food or drink menu. When we arrived in Da Nang, the flight attendants had all the other passengers remain seated while they retrieved our carry-on bags and let the three SkyBoss passengers off the plane first, to a waiting private van of course. We had checked our carry-on suitcases for this flight, and they were the first bags that appeared on the baggage carousel with their little "priority" tags. We could get used to this!
After getting settled into our hotel, we picked a restaurant that looked good on the beach and just as we were finishing up our dinner, a show with fire dancers began. What a great surprise! After dancing and performing stunts with fire, they made their way through the restaurant spinning fire around people's heads, very exciting.
With Da Nang being a smaller city, it was a nice change of pace from Hanoi, much less crowded and busy. We enjoyed walking on the beach, going for smoothies, relax time, and another 4-hands massage for Donna (the best massage yet!). It was also a great jumping off point for daytrips to Hue, Bana Hills, and Hoi An.
Bana Hills is a theme park of sorts perched on the top of a mountain, with a full size French village, theaters, rides, gardens, and other attractions. However, the #1 attraction is the Golden Bridge. We arrived right as the park opened at 8am hoping to have as few people as possible on the bridge, and we certainly didn't have to fight any crowds. After ascending about a dozen escalators, we boarded the world's longest non-stop single track cable car to the top of the mountain (nearly 6 km). At the top, it was foggy and drizzling but we decided to go straight to the bridge anyhow even if the visibility wasn't great. That turned out to be a great decision as the day only got rainier and the crowds bigger. After getting some pictures, we wandered our way through most of the park but it was hard to see much with the weather. When we took the cable car back down the mountain, we returned to warm, dry weather, no sign of the rain from up top.
Hue is a little further away and we had heard it was a very scenic drive up the coast, so we took a train from Da Nang to Hue to visit there for the day. It was a slow moving train with jaw dropping views as the train was perched right on the cliffside. We had seats on the right side of the train and when you looked out, it was often straight down hundreds of feet to the ocean - you couldn't see any ground right beside the train. It was luscious and green, with many waterfalls making their way out to the ocean. Absolutely stunning. We arrived in Hue around lunch time and spent the remainder of the day seeing the big sights: Hue Imperial City, the Mausoleum of Emperor Khai Dinh, and the Thien Mu Pagoda. The Imperial City was amazing: it contains the palaces that used to house the imperial family, along with gardens and shrines, all within a walled complex. After getting some of the history of the Nguyen Dynasty there, we went to the tomb of the second last emperor, Khai Dinh. The complex took 11 years to build, longer than his 9 year reign. After a visit to the Thien Mu Pagoda and a walk along the Perfume River, we found some supper before catching a (much faster) train back to Da Nang.
About 20 km south of Da Nang, we spent a couple of days in Hoi An, a sweet city with a well preserved Ancient Town. We loved the more laid-back vibe here - even with plenty of tourists, it was easy to walk around to see all the shops, art galleries, night market, and other highlights like the Japanese Covered Bridge. On our second night, we took a ride in a lantern covered boat up one of the canals that runs through Ancient Town and launched our own lanterns into the water. A nice way to end our time in Hoi An.
With our final day in Da Nang, we decided to go to another theme park in the downtown area, Sun World Asia Park. From what we had seen online, it's usually not very busy - as in, nearly deserted. This turned out to be true! It was like the scene from National Lampoon's Family Vacation where they get to Wally World and the parking lot is empty, except the park was open, no need to coerce a security guard to let us in. Some of the rides were closed including three of four rollercoasters but we rode most of the ones that were open. There was no wait on any ride, you could just get right on (or they would start the ride for you). We weren't sure about going on the bumper cars with just the two of us but it seemed to be one of the more popular rides so we ended up riding a few times with enough other people to make it really fun. Donna even coaxed the not-a-fan-of-heights Jon onto the massive 377 ft Ferris wheel to get some great views of the city. It turned out to be a riot and totally worth the $15 ticket price. The final item to check off our Da Nang to-do list was watching the show at Dragon Bridge. It's a regular driving bridge but with a dragon woven into the design that breathes fire and sprays water a couple evenings a week. We arrived nice and early to stake out a good spot for viewing and we ooh-ed and aah-ed along with thousands of others as the fire warmed us all and the water sprayed those close enough. It was the cherry on top of a fantastic, action-packed week.
Now we are off to Phu Quoc, an island off the southern coast of Vietnam - WE WILL GET OUR BEACH TIME! And yes, we are flying SkyBoss again, haha!
Da Nang Beach
While we've enjoyed non-winter weather these past weeks in Cambodia and Vietnam, we've had more smog then actual sunshine, resulting in zero change in our skin tones. Time to remedy that! From Da Nang, we took a flight to Phu Quoc, an island off the southwest coast of Vietnam - actually not that far from Phnom Penh, our original starting location. With an overall population of about 100,000 people, it was considerably less busy than the cities we've visited. On the drive from the airport to our hotel, we noticed that a lot of buildings seemed to be empty inside and that was also the case with our hotel complex. Dozens of buildings with the exteriors complete, but mostly empty inside - a little odd, like walking through a ghost town. However, it had two things we really wanted: a big pool with plenty of lounge chairs, and less than a block to walk to get to the ocean. Very little to tell other than plenty of lounge and swim time (surrounded by an extraordinary amount of Russian people) and a definite change in skin tone!
After that, it was off to Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon. This was the capital of Southern Vietnam before it reunited with the north and moved its capital to Hanoi in the north. The main draw for us was visiting the Cu Chi Tunnels, part of the immense network of connecting tunnels that underlie the country, used by the Viet Cong soldiers as hiding spots during the Vietnam War. We decided to book a tour for this and had a fantastic tour guide for the day who gave us loads of information from the perspective of someone from South Vietnam. There is still a lot of division within the country and it was helpful to have a third perspective on the country's history besides our own Western view and the communist Vietnam government's. The visit to Cu Chi was very interesting, seeing different types of entrances into the tunnels, learning about how they would camouflage entrances, air holes, and even dispersing smoke to look like it was floating on the surface of the ground rather than giving away its original location. We learned about many different traps that were used to protect the tunnels (yikes!). There was also the opportunity to crawl through some of the tunnel, which has been expanded from its original size. It started out large enough to walk hunched over, but soon shrunk so that you had to crawl on your belly to get through. Jon was brave enough to go through two tunnels going down a few levels, while Donna chickened out midway through the first tunnel and used an escape hatch after just 40 feet.
After a traditional Vietnamese lunch, our tour continued with a visit to the Mekong Delta, where the Mekong River splits into many tributaries before emptying into the sea. We crossed one tributary to an island within the delta, where we rode a tuk-tuk around the island and were offered moonshine brewed with snakes and scorpions - no thanks! Our final activity was taking a peaceful ride on a sampan rowing boat before crossing back to the mainland for our return back to Ho Chi Minh City. It was a fitting end to our time in the country - we started our trip on the Mekong in Phnom Penh and returned as our visit to Vietnam comes to a close.
With our final day in the city, we visited the Imperial Palace which was basically the White House of South Vietnam prior to reuniting with the north - interesting to see how history was presented - eg. the "liberation" of capitalist South Vietnam by the communist North Vietnam, especially after the information given by our Southern tour guide. The Palace was the site of a lot of historical events before being stormed by Viet Cong tanks during the liberation after the U.S. left Vietnam. We also did some more wandering and hit one last Vietnamese market. While we didn't get to all the regions we had hoped, we covered a lot of ground and with our visas expiring, it's time to move on.
Step outside our room and there is the ocean!
There was a lot of deliberation about where to go next...our original thoughts included Thailand, but we also entertained Bali, the Philippines, Fiji....and ultimately decided on Malaysia and Singapore as the final leg of our journey. After nearly two months of adventuring, we were starting to be ready for the comforts and familiarity of home, even if that meant coming back to frigid winter temperatures. Our day at the airport began with finding an iced coffee for Jon, who had finally tried Highlands Coffee in Saigon after seeing them throughout the country and becoming instantly addicted. And with that, we were off to Kuala Lumpur.
Our initial impression of Malaysia was that it was definitely more western, nice roads, organized traffic, very clean. We had booked an Airbnb that was in-between two major landmarks - the Petronas Twin Towers and the KL Tower - and we admired the view of both from the 40th floor rooftop of our building. We had wondered which one we should visit and the answer was neither after we saw them from there!
The next day we decided to try out Kuala Lumpur's modern transit system to visit Batu Caves, a cave complex containing Hindu temples with a colourful staircase to make your way into the caves. Our journey was a little more complicated than expected, having to switch trains and walk to different stations but we finally got there after a few hours. But most people in Malaysia speak English so that was a nice change - much easier to ask for help! Because it was a holiday, the trains and the site were packed. Making our way through the crowds, we climbed the 272 stairs to get into the caves, stopping a few times to admire the view on the way (or maybe catch our breath!). It was an interesting place to build a temple but we didn't linger long as there were a lot of people and it was sweltering out. We opted for a half-hour car ride on the way back instead of another 1.5 hours on the train.
What better way to beat the heat than to go to a waterpark, so that was our plan for the following day. We got there before opening, ready to spend our day on the slides! We were able to get in line quickly for the most popular ride, the Vuvuzela, the world's largest vortex ride. We can't explain it better than they do: "Launch from a tower 11 stories high, plunge through turbulent water-like rapids with twists and turns, then plummet into the vortex where you'll be gobbled up by the beast that is Vuvuzela." We were one of the first riders for the day and got into a giant tube with three other people and were soon launched into this monster ride...so wish we had video of us screaming like little girls! It was like the big toilet bowl slide at WEM but so much bigger and on a tube. It was awesome! Next up was Congo Challenge, riding sleds down slides while racing against other riders. Afterwards we checked out the wave pool, surf zone, and lazy river. We thought there were more water rides but that seemed to be it so we went back for more at the Vuvuzela and Congo Challenge, with Jon riding the sleds probably a dozen times while Donna watched from below. However, we were feeling quite conspicuous in our modest-by-Western-standards swim attire as most of the other people (Malaysia is largely Muslim) were much more covered up - full arms, legs, and even head coverings for the women. It almost felt like we were walking around naked! So we changed out of our swimwear at lunch to go explore the other areas of the theme park - other rides and a wildlife park. What we soon discovered was that there were more water rides in the other areas of the park as well, but we didn't want to walk all the way back to our locker to get changed back, nor did we want to walk around the whole park in our swimsuits. So we checked out what we could and rode some other rides before heading back home. Word to the wise: if you're ever going to go to Sunway Lagoon in Kuala Lumpur, wear clothes on top of your swimsuit!
With our final day in KL, we decided to create our own walking tour - visiting Sultan Street, Central Market, Petaling Street Market, and Mahamariamman Hindu Temple before making our way to see the Petronas Twin Towers as our final stop. We gave the trains another go for the day as we didn't have as far to go this time.
Then it was on to Singapore! We decided to spend just one day and night there to see the sights, but our plans were waylaid by flight delays which put us into Singapore at 9pm. That was a bit late for these two adventurers to head into the city and with no hotel booked, we decided to wing it at the airport for the night. Jewel Changi Airport is one of the nicest in the world and was part of the attraction of going to Singapore in the first place. With a tropical rain forest, waterfall, jungle canopy, mazes and other attractions, 24 hour movie theater, restaurants, shopping, and snooze lounges, there are definitely worse places to be for the night. We made our way to the Jewel, the center hub of the airport where the world's tallest indoor waterfall is and caught our first glimpse of it. There were tons of people around but the crowds soon thinned and we realized that shops and restaurants were closing at 10pm and we needed to eat after being stuck at the KL airport for hours with no food or drink (another story for another day!). We found a Shake Shack that was open until 10:30 and filled our stomachs. After wandering around the terminals, we determined that the snooze lounges and free movie theaters were all inside the secure area and we were not. With no availability at the hotel in the airport, we went in search of a comfortable spot to hunker down for a few hours before we could get checked into our flight. We found it next to the waterfall which was off for the night - not the most comfortable concrete benches, but it was quiet and dark and almost magical looking up at the geometric ceiling and shadows of palm leaves. It was one of those moments when you can choose to be grumpy and cranky or you can choose to relax and soak in the moments that make great stories later on :)
When 5:30 rolled around, we changed and freshened up before making our way to Terminal 2 to get our boarding passes. Soon we were on a 14 hour flight to Vancouver which somehow felt so much longer than our 13 hour flight from Vancouver to Taipei. We also found out just as we were about to take off that our flight to Edmonton had been cancelled, and when we landed in Vancouver it felt like we were actually in Edmonton with how much snow they had! While we were originally rebooked by the airline to fly out the following day, we were able to get onto another flight to Calgary the same day and we were thankful to get home that night after two straight days in airports.
What a journey it's been!
7 weeks, 4 countries (does Singapore count?)
12 planes
9 train rides
4 bus rides
10 boat rides
4 cable car rides
60+ Grab rides (think Uber but also includes tuk-tuks)
A LOT of walking
A lifetime of memories...
Highlands Coffee - the Tim Hortons of Vietnam?
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