Indochina part 2

I left Cambodia in direction of Hanoi in northern Vietnam. I requested a 30 day visa not knowing how long I was going to stay for. I had been waiting to get the go ahead on a project from one of my client. If my quote was accepted I had to leave relatively quickly which ended up to be the case.

Here’s my account of my short but memorable visit of Vietnam:

Prior to my visit, I had a preconceived notion that Hanoi was this quite little town, culturally rich and full of old french colonial architecture….Wrong! I had the culturally rich part right but Hanoi is far from being quite. It’s population outgrew it’s capacity for decent living. The city was design for less then 1M inhabitants but now holds a bit more then 3.5M. There is close to 5000 persons per square mile. The streets our overly crowded. Cars, motorbikes, cyclos and pedestrians battle for whatever space there is left to circulate. There is so much motorbikes parked on the sidewalks that it’s practically impossible to use them for their intended purpose. People smile a lot less then in Thailand and tuk tuk drivers are persistently annoying.

I stayed a few days in Hanoi and I manage to have a good time overall. The hotel where I was staying had the most friendly staff ever. They invited me to eat with them each time I happened to be around during the serving of a meal free of charge should I add. Too (the name of one of the staff) practically lives there…no sorry she lived there. She goes to bed around midnight or when all the guest are in, sleeps on the floor of the dinning area and wakes up around 6am to open the place. She has 2 days vacation a month and spends them with her family. Despite the grueling work hours she manage to always smile.

Beside eating and chatting with the staff I wondered around the city hunting for nice communist propaganda poster. They are all well crafted and full of meaning, graphic design at is best. It was hard to choose just a few. I finally bought 7 to put up at Station C.

After a couple of days in Hanoi I booked a 3 days 4 nights tour of Sapa. Two of those nights where on a train, one at the hotel and one with a local Black Hmong Family. Sapa is a frontier town and district in the Lào Cai province. It is one of the main market towns in the area, where many ethnic minority groups sell their hand made products. Most of the hill tribes people who live in those villages rely for subsistence on swidden cultivation. They grow rice and maze and some own opium cash crops. With the growing numbers of tourist visiting the area they also manage to generate a bit of income selling hemp clothes and accessories or serving as guides for tourist like me. Unfortunately the tour operators are privileging profit over giving them decent pay. Sapa reminded me of the Swiss Alps… with an Asian twist obviously. The scenery is breathtaking, but unfortunately I do not have any pictures to show you because my camera was stolen the day I left. No worries I loved it so much that I am going back before the end of my trip. I befriended a Black Hmong guide called Lang and will spend a few days trekking the mountainous region as I document her daily life. I will write more about my video project later this month.

The third and last place I visited during my trip to Vietnam was UNESCO World Heritage Hạ Long Bay. The bay is filled with more then 500 old junk ship built to cross oceans but now used as tourist transport and accommodation. Although the thousands of limestone karsts are impressive the overwhelming amount of boats on the water make’s it less remarkable.
If they continue to carelessly exploit the region this way they will have to rename it UNESCO World dump because their is an increasing amount of an other kind of junk floating on the water. Conclusion Ha Long was nice but not as enriching and heartwarming as Sapa.

Photo of Lang by Elizabeth Willes

Indochina part 1

I’ve been in Chiang Mai for 9 days now and I’m planning on being here at lease an other week. I’ve been working from my friend Simon’s office on some new projects I’ve been contracted with. As expected I was lazy and did not write as often as I had intended. It’s been close to six weeks since my last post and guilt got the best of me. I will take time each morning before work to write about the past few weeks. This is part one.

After my trip to the south of Thailand I spent close to a month traveling in the former French colonial Indochina. I left Bangkok by bus heading east to Siem Reap. The bus took 5 hours to get to the Cambodian border. After the long and grueling paper work I managed to get my visa without being extorted and walked across the border to the city of Poipet. This post apocalyptic town is known as the gambling capital of Southeast Asia and as nothing interesting to offer aside from transport out of there. I swear I saw Snake Plissken past by me on is motor bike. I did not want to spend 10 hours in an other bus so I shared a taxi with 2 nice American I met earlier that day. 4 hours later I was checking in Pavillon d’Indochine one of the nicest hotel I had the pleasure to stay in during this trip. As you might have guest the hotel is own by an French expat.

Siem Reap is 5.5km south of UNESCO World Heritage Angkor Wat. I spent 3 days visiting these impressive Khmer temples who’s construction were initiated in the first half of the 12th century. The people of Cambodia are amazing. They have suffer so much and yet they are smiling all the time. Cambodia has one of the highest rates of physical disability of any country in the world. 40,000 Cambodians are estimated to have suffered amputations as a result of mine injuries since 1979. It’s not rare to see children with missing limbs on the street. There are still many active land mines, laid by the Khmer Rouge, spread across Cambodia and most often they are discovered by children playing in the forest or in filed close to their home. After my 3 day cultural immersion in ancient Khmer history I chose to visit the nearby floating village of Kompong Phhluk settled on the fringe of Tonlé Sap, the largest fresh water lake in south-east Asia. People there live on a boat or in a floating house. They play basketball on a floating courts and get educated in a floating schools. Most of the people are poor and manage to subsist through fishing. Although school is free, most parent can’t afford school supplies. My tour guide ask me if I was interested in helping out. I said yes without any hesitation. We stopped at a floating convenience store where I bought 40 note books and 40 pencils and we then went directly to the school to give them out. It’s incredible how such small things as books and pencil can make a difference in a kids life. The smile on their face was worth a million dollars.

I spent 7 wonderful days in Siem Reap but unfortunately I did not have the time to explore any other regions of Cambodia. I will have to go back for a extended period of time to visit the rest of this beautiful country.

Next destination Hanoi, Vietnam…

INIS

j’avais oublié, je n’est pas été accepté

Cinque Terre

Salut tous le monde! Je suis désolé de ne pas vous avoir donné de nouvelles plus tot mais je dois profiter de mon voyage avant tout. Je vais probablement écrire un peu moin d’ici la fin de mon voyage.

Après plus de un mois en France j’ai quité il y a 2 jours pour l’Italie. Je suis maintenant à Riomaggiore dans les Cinque Terre (ce prononce Chinqué Térré). C’est magnifique ici, il fait beau, chaud et le paysage est d’une beauté Inégalé depuis le début de mon voyage. Je pratique mon Italien, je déguste les délices de la région et je fait de la rendonné pour garder ma ligne.

Lors de ma visite a Arles j’ai fait d’agréable rencontre. Je devais quitter Arles seul pour allé faire de la rendonné dans les Calanques près de Cassis, mais j’ai convincu mes 2 colocs (Omar et Case) de venir avec moi pour l’aventure. Omar est Espagnol et Case British. Moi et Omar avons laissé nos gros sac à dos dans un casier à la gare de Marseille car je savais que nous devions faire près de 2hrs de rendonné avant d’arriver à l’auberge. Case n’a pas voulu et il a regreter. Gros soleil, 35 degré, 200m d’altitude, 2h30 de marche plus tard nous étions rendu au paradis. Nous avons jouer à la pétancle, souper en regardent le coucher de soleil et on a fini ca avec une game de Kanasta.

J’aurais ecore plein de chose à vous écrire, mais je dois profiter du soleil un peu et garder quelques histoirs pour mon retour. Je vous écrit d’ici 2 semaines.

La France en photos

La France