[boostindoubles]

Looks like I am taking a trip next week. Going to be spending two weeks between Hanoi/HaiPhong/Saigon/Siem Reap/ Phnom Penh. I have a busy schedule but also have downtime in all the cities we are staying in.

Who's been there? All the vets I've been talking to were based around Danang. At any rate their experience should be different than mine. I do know I can shoot a cow with a bazooka in Cambodia for roughly $300.

Pho for breakfast every day is standard operating procedure I am told.

What else should I know/see/do while in South East Asia?

 

[jonKranked]

 

[boostindoubles]

The killing fields are on the list of places to visit.

 

[boostindoubles]

South East Asia is pretty cool... Didn't spend too much time outside of the cities unfortunately. Motor bikes rule the roads, especially in Vietnam. Cambodia is all about the tuk-tuk and if your super-rich its the Lexus SUV. Cambodia reminded me alot of Mexico. In the tourist area's (Seim Reap) its high end and swank but a quick dash down any side street shows the 3rd world side of things. Saw many sad situations... In Phnom Penh the genocide Museum and killing fields are real testaments to what is happening currently. It seems surreal to walk on mass graves which have cloth and bone coming out of the ground. Cambodia is more or less lawless. We met a cop selling 'police beers' at the Angkor temples. The temple complexes are amazing! If I get back there I will be renting a mtb and taking the trail tour of the temples rather than a tuk-tuk or bus tour.

Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City is booming. So much going on. Went to a Salsa club with some Indian businessmen and ended up chillin with some Colombian 'farmers.' haha. Found a micro-brewery run by some Boulder, CO folk. Vietnam currency is the Dong and they only take Dong. The Dong rules all in Vietnam. Thankfully a lil dong goes a long way. $50 USA equals roughly $1,000,000 dong. In Cambodia they use USA currency for everything and it all costs $1 dollar. Or in increments of $1.

Hanoi

Saigon

coconuts

snake wine

photo from the Vietnam War at the American atrocities Museum in Saigon

Wilton Bullet vises in Cambodia (I counted over a dozen of these vises in one craft workshop)

Angkor Wat (tourist land)

best bacon and eggs ever $1 plates

rented a bike for $2 for a half day

motor bike land

lastly, standing on a mass grave

 

[Pesqueeb]

Saigon

I bet that smelled terrific.

What took you out there?

 

[Westy]

I bet that smelled terrific.

What took you out there?

An airplane.

 

[Pesqueeb]

An airplane.

I just flew to Cambodia, and boy are my arms tired!

 

[binary visions]

Cool! I take it you did not try the snake wine?

$2 for a half day rental seems crazy - the bike itself can't be that much cheaper there, can it?

 

[jonKranked]

What took you out there?

an airplane

 

[boostindoubles]

Yes that pickled seafood crap smelled wonderful. In fact all of Asia had this delightful odor which balanced between raw seafood and raw sewage. Such a potent odor...

I was traveling with a large group. We are all employees of agriculture and natural resources here in Washington state and took an economic and social issues tour of Cambodia and Vietnam. We met the new USA ambassador to Vietnam and toured some sea ports. We visited orphanages all over vietnam.

BV the actual cost of the rental was 5 for the day but I threw out the 2 dollar half day to secure it for a few hours. They pay pretty much the same price as we do for the high end new model bicycles. There were a lot of poor people renting jalopy bicycles for 1 or 2 dollar per day. I went with the 'high end' rental because I was hopping curbs and darting around in traffic. The sides of all the roads in Seim Reap are all sandy and it was fun in traffic!

I did not drink the snake wine but it was consumed by some on the trip. Wine isn't the right word more like grain alcohol. I did eat a bbq snake though and some delicious frog kabobs.

 

[boostindoubles]

A 747 gave me a lift out to and from Seattle/Taipei. Giant plane with lots of movies to watch. Shitty shitty food. Hot Asian stewardesses

 

[boostindoubles]

The guys who rented me the Cannondale were pretty cool dudes... They love bicycle like we love bicycle. I had a copy of the new Bike Bible in my bag and donated it to their work table. They were flipping through the pages saying... so expensive... wow... and I said yea those bikes are $$$$$. They responded by saying, no, the magazine costs so much here! I think he told me that hardtail Cannondale costs them between 800 and 1100 US dollars. So no price breaks for 3rd world bicycle sales.