SEA - Part2

SEA

Cambodia (Siem Reap) highlights (for those who can't go through my verbose travel prose):

• Don't bother converting currency in Siem Reap - the entire city works on USD. Even ATMs dispense in USD! I converted Thai Baht to Cambodian Riel and wasted a lot on conversion - totally unnecessary. USD is the most accepted and cheapest way to pay at Siem Reap
• Never stay at any other place apart from "Pub Street" in Siem Reap - no matter how fancy the hotels describe themselves, unless they are in Pub Street, simply avoid it. Coz this is the most, and pretty much the only, touristy (read: light on the pocket) place in Siem Reap
• There are 2 local beers apart from the typical SEA types of Tiger, Singha and Changs, called Cambodia Lager and Angkor (ya, they are actually named after country and temple!), but avoid Cambodia Lager altogether as it really sucks. Stick with Angkor and the others.
• While we are on the topic of alcohol, avoid any other local drinks. I tried a whiskey called Label5 and it reminded me of Bagpiper. Got me just as high as well. So stick to Angkor beer as the only local drink to have
• if doing Siem Reap by road from Bangkok then be very careful of the Tuk Tuks that take you from Aranyaprathet (border town of Thailand) to the immigration office. Most will take you to an official looking travel agency that will charge you for cab/bus/bellboy, all of which is totally unnecessary. Tell the Tuk Tuk to take you straight to immigration office only from Aranyaprathat
• The sunrise and sunset at Siem Reap is fairly overrated as it depends on the weather and stuff, so don’t stress too much about getting it done
• Definitely definitely try the local Khmer cuisine. It’s supposed to be the oldest cuisine in the world, and some of the dishes prepared in Khmer sauce are brilliantly flavourful - Amok fish, Beef loc lac, Prom fish, Frog legs in Khmer, Cambodian rice and noodles are some of the top dishes
• the people of Cambodia love Indians. Some like Geet get enough attention across SEA for having looks that these guys seem to really appreciate (so much that she's even had to prove to be above 18 to enter a club!), but in Cambodia, even the guys get a lot of attention. I had a bunch of Cambodian aunties taking a photo with me in Siem Reap - so just be prepared for this kind of an assault!
• Songkran is a good time to visit Cambodia. It is their New Years and you get to be a part of their holi-like celebrations with dancing Apsara's, but it is also the time that many of them are on leave, leaving long waiting times for cabs and things. But that apart it’s a good time to embrace their culture

Vietnam (Hanoi highlights):

• Just like Pub Street in Siem Reap, the place to stay here is Old Quarters
• Do a cruise, preferably for 3 days even - it's totally worth it. Paloma cruise is highly recommended
• Vietnam is to Australia as Thailand is to India. So you would meet a lot of Aussies here
• Across SEA you tend to notice 3 things - friendly people, cheap shopping, and good food. All of these are amplified in Vietnam. People here are the friendliest we have met, shopping is cheaper than Bangkok, and the food is top notch - I would rate Vietnam as the next best country after Italy for food now.

April 12
the trip started with a flight to Bangkok at 7 in the morning, so we had to wake up at after just 3 hours of sleep. This was pretty much the norm last few days as there was so much work both of us were trying to complete so as to go on the trip without our laptops and actually get a real break. There hasn't been a weekend since this new role that I haven't spent working, and we were both desperately craving a break.
Anyway, we got to the new Bombay airport well in time to admire the awesome construction that was this Bombay international terminal, and headed into our jet flight which was just like a regular domestic flight. No in flight entertainment, no booze. It was a sad flight for an international one. Anyway, I hoped to get some sleep at least, but it just didn't work out. So it was the most boring flight for me. Geet at least managed to sleep through most of it.
Once we reached Bangkok, we had a bit of a jolt at the visa processing counter, where the 2 ladies sitting there completed my visa and then decided to go on a break. So Geet and I were at opposite sides of immigration waiting for them to return, and once they come back, they call the person after Geet and don’t agree to process hers. It was so silly of them. Geet had to explain that she has been waiting here for them and cannot take a fresh token to start at the back of the big line that was built. Thankfully they agreed after some time and we went through. Bit of a scare that was, but soon we were on our BTS to phaya thai, and met a friendly pilot on the train, who helped us plan the next part of the journey to the hotel, by writing down our hotel address on a paper and asking us to just show it to a cab as the hotel wasn't too far from phaya Thai.
We did just that, but I was starting at the meter to see how much the damage was, and it just cost 83 baht. I gave him a 100 which was effectively 200 rupees, which was probably cheaper than Bombay even given the distance covered. With this discovery of Bangkok cabs being reasonable, the next few short trips for the day was in cabs itself.
Once we reached the hotel, we were quickly taken into our studio apartment room which was an upgraded version of what Naan had booked for us since the regular room was not available. So we got twice lucky with the hotel. Once with Naan booking it for us as he was getting a good deal, and next for the upgrade.
So this was far ahead of expectations, given this was the Hangover hotel. We planned to visit the sky bar in the night where the movie was shot, and for the time being, caught up on some much needed sleep.
We stepped out at 7, me headed to Hua lamphong to figure out a way to travel to siem reap the next day, and Geet to MBK to shop. En route we saw people celebrating Songkran, Thai New Year falling on April13-14, where people spray water over each other through water guns. Unlike holi though, they don't use colours. Locals and tourists were having so much fun spraying water over all passerby’s. We were just thankful we were inside a cab. After going our individual ways, we caught up an hour later with her college friend Swati at a bar called Zanzi in Sukhamvit.
This was my breaking of lent moment, and we ordered a full non veg platter for me to go berserk on. And I was enjoying everything on offer, including the chicken satay that I'm normally not a very big fan of. Downed the food with Red Label, and then came to our room after being joined by another of Swati's friends, to quickly change and hit the sky bar. But our hotel room luck finally ran out as it began to rain and we only got to see the bar from a distance. Anyway, decided to make the most of the night by buying some beer from a nearby 7/11 and having it in our beautiful big room.

April 13
once again woke up with hardly any sleep. It was lot tougher this time, as I was drunk the previous night, that too with alcohol in the system after nearly 40 days. So I struggled to pack up and leave to Hua Lamphong station on time. It sucked that we weren’t able to enjoy Hotel Lebua to its fullest by even skipping their breakfast in the morning, after having skipped their sky bar the previous night because of the rain, but we had to leave early to make it to siem reap on time.
Our train journey from Hua Lamphong began at 6am, and we thankfully entered the train by 530 it as we managed to get seats. The train was completely crowded the rest of the journey and with wooden seats, no AC, and absolute rustic scenery throughout the journey, Geet kept saying this is like a trip to Mugaltor!
The train journey sure was anything by comfortable, but it got us to Aranayprathet, the border town of Thailand by 12 noon (half hour delayed) for only 48 Baht each. Definitely a cheaper option that the bus, and more importantly a surer way of reaching the border, as the hotel staff had mentioned that getting buses to siem reap would be tough given we were booking last minute and it was Songkran here.
Anyway, we reached Aranyaprathet and took a tuk tuk to the visa office. He brought us to an official looking place, and I assumed this is where our immigration would be done. the guy who spoke to us gave us departure cards and the ambiance looked very official with some other firangs also filling departure cards there, but it was only later when we got to the actual immigration department did we realize this was a sham. anyway, the guy there gave us some good tips about Siem Reap and sent a guide with us who turned out quite resourceful in taking us through the Thai immigration where we quickly stamped out our passports, and then led us to the Cambodian section where he bribed one of the cops to process our visas faster for a VIP fee of 300 baht. We didn't mind it as the line was really long inside a sweltering hot room. So we waited outside drinking Cambodian minute maid while our visas came though. It was here we noticed that the vehicles passing through an Angkor arch that signified the border between the 2 countries move from left to right as Cambodia followed the American system unlike Thailand. Over the rest of the trip we realized the American influence spanned more than just the traffic in Cambodia - the currency in all of Siem Reap was just American Dollars! Even the ATMs dispensed cash in USD.
Anyway, once we got our visas, we headed to a shuttle bus that took us to a bus stop kind of place where we were waiting for a cab for which we booked 1000 baht to the travel agent on the Thai side of the border. We agreed to pay for a cab as he said buses would depart much later, but cabs were anyway not available sonic drivers were on Songkran leave. So we asked the guide with us to refund the money so that we can just take a bus, but he was acting funny by saying he wasn't carrying any cash. Geet found a policeman there and complained to him, and then this guy borrowed from someone and paid us. So after that small adventure we entered the bus at 1pm, a good 1 hour after reaching Aranyaprathet, and then waited inside for 2 full hours before the bus made sure the last seat was filled before starting off. This really delayed our journey and we finally reached Siem Reap only at 8pm. The entry into the city was only more Mugoltor like, and we were worried how we would fine our way to the hotel. Thankfully the bus conductor helped is with a Tuk Tuk who took us straight to the address I wrote and gave the conductor a whole back, and finally we felt relieved after a whole day of travel as
the hotel - Saem Siem Reap looked really nice and comfortable. Lots of trees, wooden floors, swimming pool in the middle, and really friendly staff made us feel completely relaxed.
Soon we checked in, freshened up, and came down to the hotel restaurant for our first Khmer dinner, where we had Cambodian fried noodles with Angkor beer, a beer I had began enjoying over the next few days here.

April 14
Our first day of the trip was going to actually start today, a good 2 full days after leaving Bombay. Though many people recommended we catch the sunrise at Angkor wat, we just wanted to catch some rest before starting our day. So we peacefully woke up and stepped out only by noon. Our hotel had its own tuk tuk service and we got a really friendly guy taking us around the temples for the day.
We started with the main Angkor temple after buying a day pass for 20usd each, and spent the most time at this place taking tons of photographs. There were a lot of people visiting the temple given the new years they were celebrating, so it was quite a challenge to avoid them while snapping away. We were quite surprised to find that in spite of 95% Cambodians being Buddhists, and this being their biggest temple, there was just no place for worship inside, it was just like visiting an ancient ruin. But the name Siem Reap, which means Siem destroyed, made sense, given the shambles the place was in.
Next we headed to Prasat Kravan, a tiny 5 pillar temple compared to Angkor dedicated to Vishnu. Here we first observed the way idols are carved into the stone walls itself. Something we observed in many other temples following this. Next we went to bantaey kedai, the most dilapidated of the lot. Apparently shivaites destroyed the Buddhists statutes when they were built over the original Hindu temples, and to this day excavations are in progress to unearth the buried Buddhist statutes. Here we even saw a Shivling. Really nice to see both religions weaving into each other in these temples.
Next we visited 2 temples that were on opposite sides of the road, Chao Say Thevada, and Thomanon. Finally here there was an old bald lady monk who did a puja for us and tied a thread on our wrist and demanded money. It was funny that she wasn’t accepting Riels and kept asking for Dollars. Unbelievable how nobody here uses their own countries currency.
After this we went to Ta Phrom, the next biggest temple here after Angkor and bayon, and this one was a tree temple where trees are fully woven into the architecture of the temple itself. Here a bunch of aunties suddenly caught hold of us and took a photo of us with their group. It was like they were fascinated seeing Indians. We next went to Pre Roup for the sunset. The only other spot apart from Bayon temple to see a good sunset here, and our driver avoided Bayon as the traffic was thick. This turned out a good choice coz we went to Bayon after the sunset and the temple was really beautifully lit up. There was also an exhibition set up where we got to see a neat Apsara dance (Apsara’s are supposed to wives of Gandharvas in Indra’s court, and part of both the Hindu and Buddhist mythology) along with some other performances.
After a dose of Cambodian culture that concluded a day of visiting all of their temples, we went to Neary Khmer restaurant for dinner, where we sat under a perfect moonlight and enjoyed prom fish (minced fish and pork in omelets), and fried fish in Khmer sauce and Cambodian fried rice. All the dishes were amazing, and Khmer sauce is really flavorful. We were really thankful to our driver for the awesome day and choice of hotel, that I tipped him 10k Riel over the 60k we were to pay him.
Sure was a wonderful start to our SEA trip.

April 15

We originally planned to visit the temples again today, but after spending 20 USD per person the previous day to visit them, and having gone through pretty much all of them, we didn’t want to spend that much again. So we decided to chill and go for a Khmer Massage, at a Japanese Massage Centre that our Tuk Tuk driver from the previous day suggested. Unfortunately, the same Tuk Tuk driver was busy with other passengers, but he directed the Tuk Tuk guy who was taking us on the place to go. It was a small, close to shady looking place, where you had to go into a room inside a building that looked like a house for the massage. There were 4 beds laid down in the room, with 4 pairs of clothing placed on them that we had to change into for the massage. It was quite unlike the open air experience of Krabi, and so was the massage that followed for an hour after that. So it was dry, just like the Thai massage, and felt more rigorous, as every muscle seemed to get attention, but somehow wasn’t as invigorating as the Thai one. Strangely didn’t feel as relaxed after the massage as we felt in Krabi last year. It might have to do with the setting too, but anyway, was worth an experience at least.

We asked our Tuk Tuk guy to take us to a nice restaurant for lunch, and he went to Neary Khmer again. Although we liked our dinner the previous day, we wanted to try out another place. So he then took us to a restaurant called Borey Savann, which had an entrance that was almost hidden from the main road – looked like a place that you would never visit on your own. We were thinking to ourselves that this might be an authentic Khmer place, and it turned out to be the restaurant where I had my first ever frog legs! It was frog legs in Khmer sauce, and tasted scrumptious. I was not chewing off the bones coz it did feel weird eating it, but I pretty much did wipe the plate clean.

After lunch, we headed to a lake in Siem Reap called Tonle Sap, which was supposed to have something called the Floating Village there. It was a decent half hour ride on an empty rickety road on the even more rickety Tuk Tuk, and throughout the journey, we could see houses on stilts, which are pretty much what the Floating Village was all about, and some of them had hammocks where firangs sat and drank their Angkor Beer. It seemed quite a sad thing to do, and we just hoped Tonle Sap would turn out better. Sadly it didn’t. There were boats taking visitors on rides, but they were charging a phenomenal amount, so we just sad by the pier and watched the sun go down from there. Took some more videos that were to be part of our musical video on the trip, and then turned back to Siem Reap town, and hit Pub Street this time.

Now this place was the Khao San of Siem Reap, and we were wondering why we didn’t stay here from the start. Unfortunately nobody told me of a place called Pub Street, and Trip Advisor also didn’t seem to have too many mentions. But this was street was a complete live wire – concerts, Apsara dancers, even commercial promotions by auto manufacturers – they were all there on the street. Staying here would have been an altogether different experience.

Anyway, we hit a pub called Angkor What? Something I read about online and really wanted to visit. They charged fairly steep prices for beers, but it was a nice looking place nevertheless. Then had dinner at one of the streets restaurants, where I got to try out another Khmer dish that I was wanting to – Amok Fish, and as always, tasted simply brilliant – it was a sort of fish gravy, served inside a leaf, to be had with rice.

April 16

It was our last day in Siem Reap, and we once again woke up late. We initially planned to go on a Balloon Ride, however, the people at the resort advised us against it. So with that out, getting some more rest seemed to be the logical thing to do. So after getting ready by noon, we checked out, and headed to the city to get passport photographs for Geet as that was required for the Vietnam visa we were to get at Hanoi later on in the day. We also paid another visit to Pub Street, which was quiet dead after the party last night. But there were some massage parlours open, and I got myself some fish therapy, while Geet got a foot massage.

We then reached the tiny Siem Reap airport, where our flight was delayed by nearly 2 hours, and we spent all that time sitting idle in the airport, where one Cambodian guy seemed very interested in the fact that we were Indians, and began showing us pictures of Sandalwood trees and things from India. Cambodians altogether seem to really love Indians.

On that note, we bid adieu to Siem Reap, Cambodia, and made our way to Hanoi, Vietnam. We landed at the Hanoi airport by 9pm and were glad that we had booked a cab from the Hotel to take us there, as it was quite late in a strange city. The journey took more than an hour, and we reached a place called Old Quarter, the Khao San of Hanoi this time, and checked in to a Hotel called Oriental Central, rated No. 1 on Trip Advisor in Hanoi. It really was a fascinating Hotel. The staff was incredibly friendly and the room was really cozy. They even had rose petals on the bed which was a nice touch. The restaurants in Hanoi were all closed by this time though, and so we just ate some crackers that were kept in the room, and called it a night.

April 17

We had to wake up early this time to have breakfast in time and head to Halong Bay in a tempo that was to pick us up from the Hotel and take us on a 4 hour journey to the coastline. We just about managed to catch breakfast – which was basic sausage, bacon, omelets and fruits – but somehow all of them tasted really amazing. The fruits in fact, were the freshest I have ever had. So after gorging on breakfast, we began our long, but reasonably comfortable journey. There was a family with a little kid, a young Israeli couple, and 3 Australian guys in the tempo who were going to give us company on the cruise as well, and it seemed like the perfect bunch of people you would travel with – one group that is a sedate family, one group that is a young couple with a loud mouth lady, and one group that is a bunch of young funny guys.

We reached the coast by 12:30 and took a ferry to our cruise ship – the Paloma Cruise. At the ship, we were taken straight for lunch, where a guy called Lui introduced us to the cruise. They had taken peoples food requests before hand, and was really incredible the way they served lunch for everyone. Geet for example said she would only have chicken in non-veg, and they ensured that she was served only vegetarian or chicken dishes. The Israeli couple had an even more stringent request like no nuts and stuff, and given they weren’t complaining, guess even they were served the right food. So that was how lunch was served for us – a 5 course menu, coming to all of us one by one, with everyone’s requests being met. After eating to our stomach’s content, we were then shown to our rooms – a beautiful little room with a window to an ever changing view, as the ship keeps moving. The sight outside was ocean, with floating mountains, and it was an incredible sight.

After a short nap, we went kayaking, which was surprisingly easy given Geet and I were doing it for the first time, and kayaked to an oyster farm where we were shown how pearls are naturally created. People were basically tricking oysters to create pearls by inserting a calcium tablet into the oyster shell - it was an incredible process to witness. 
Once we got back, we changed and headed to the deck for a party organized by the cruise where free Sangria was being served. We socialized with people on the deck, which included more Australians, and then headed down for a cooking class, where we were taught to make Vietnamese Spring Rolls. This was something that completely fascinated me. I Googled later and learnt that although Spring Rolls come from China, where it was made during their New Years which fell on Spring, and hence the name, it is currently most popular in Vietnam, given the way it is prepared there. They have pre-made thin rice papers, on which you put your ingredients, and then roll it and either steam to make “Fresh Spring Rolls” or fry to make “Fried Spring Rolls”. We made Fried Spring Rolls during this cooking class, and even here, Geet and one other guy who wanted only Chicken were allowed to prepare Chicken Spring Rolls, while the rest of us prepared the typical Vietnamese Spring Rolls, which were made out of Pork.

All of us were asked to make our Spring Rolls based on the instructions by the chef, and we were judged on how well we had rolled the roll. There were 3 winners, which even included a kid, and they got free drinks as gifts. The rest of us submitted our rolls for frying, and when it came through, I took a bite of Geets Chicken Spring Roll, and thought it tasted better than the Pork ones. But all in all, I am now a complete Vietnamese Spring Roll fan.

We later sat on our usual dining tables, with the same bunch of Australian guys who were on the tempo and also with us over lunch, giving us company for dinner this time, and we were having a nice chat about Cricket, Australia, India, food, and lots of other things. All of this while we were once again served a delicious 5 course meal. One of them was called Prawn on Rocks, and this was prepared in front of us. The way it was done was; there were pre-heated rocks kept on a table. Fresh prawns were doused with vinegar and lit up, and these were poured over the rocks and sealed. The incredibly high temperature in the sealed vessel cooked the prawns in a matter of seconds. The prawns were then removed and served directly on our plates, and it was just incredibly tasty. I was slowly becoming a big fan of the Vietnamese cuisine – so many different dishes, all of them so tasty, it was really a feast for the foodie in me.

After dinner, we headed to the deck to do some Squid fishing, and saw 2 guys catch squid which get attracted to the blue light that is directed towards the water surface. When we realized we weren’t gonna find much luck with the squid, we hit the bed.

April 18

Woke up early once again to go to the deck and take some photographs and enjoy the view from there. It was completely worth the effort, as there was nobody on the deck apart from one guy cleaning the mess created by some of the late night party animals.

We then had a nice heavy breakfast – this time I tried something called Crab Soup with Fish Cakes. Had them along with the usual bacon, eggs and fruit. After breakfast, we were taken to an island where we went cave exploring. There was a huge crowd at the entrance, and we came across so many people that we met during our flight here, and it seemed that all of them had pretty much the same itinerary – coming to Halong Bay for the cruise, and all cruises having the same itinerary of brining everyone to this island for the cave trek.

The cave trek was anyway quite interesting, and after a long walk inside with lots of photos and interesting tit bits about the cave, we came back out and waited for our ferry to take us back to the cruise ship. We were taken in 2 batches, first the people who were staying another night left, as they were to head to a beach for a barbeque lunch, and then we left to the cruise to have lunch there and then check out. It was quite early for lunch after the extremely heavy breakfast we had, but we gorged on it anyways, and eventually paid our drinks bill (everything else was pre-paid) and checked out and headed back to Hanoi in the same tempo that got us there. We just slept our way through during this journey, and the 4 hours passed fast.

On reaching Hanoi, we checked in to another Hotel, called City Palace, since Oriental was not available on this day, and the difference between the Hotels was clearly visible. However, it was a comfortable stay nevertheless, and the good part was that it was located right on a road called Hong Bac Road, which was the shopping centre of the Old Quarter.

We stepped out in the evening to do some shopping and watch a Water Puppet show that is quite popular in Hanoi. After the show, we went to a restaurant called Elegance, which was rated No. 1 Restaurant on Trip Advisor, and supposed to have an awesome view of the city and the lake from there. Not only was the view awesome, the waiters were so friendly and the food so awesome, that we completely loved the dinner.

We ate something called Cha Ca, which was a dish that comes with small pieces of fried fish, paper rolls, salad dressing, nuts and fried onions. The waitress showed us how to prepare the dish, which was basically like making your own Paan, out of paper rolls though, and the ensemble tasted really great together. The waiters were so nice to us, that they even gave us a corner table as there was a cancellation, so that we could enjoy the view from there. I was seriously impressed with the people of Vietnam. I always believed that South East Asians were friendly, but Vietnam takes it to a whole new level.

Anyway, after the lovely dinner, we walked back to our hotel room and called it a night. It was Hanoi sight-seeing the next day.

April 19

We began the day with a walk to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. It was a good half hour walk, and through the way, we noticed a lot of coffee shops. Coffee drinking is a big culture in Vietnam, and the previous day we actually had some coffee on the pit stop we took in the tempo ride from Halong Bay to Hanoi. The coffee was very different from what we have in India, but extremely tasty nevertheless. Even Europe had so much of a coffee culture, but it just never tasted this good.

There were a lot of people at the mausoleum – once again we ran into the crown from the airline, and inside the mausoleum was actually an embalmed Ho Chi Minh in a tomb surrounded by 4 serious looking guards. I didn’t actually expect to see this, but apparently many people in Vietnam visit this place to pay respects to this man.

After the mausoleum, we headed back to the lake where we did some more last minute shopping, and then headed back to the Hotel to check out and move to the airport, for our flight back to Bangkok.

The plan was to spend one more night at Bangkok and leave the next day afternoon. However, I was wondering why I hadn’t planned in a way that we left directly from the Bangkok airport to Bombay, coz just the one extra night in Bangkok was costing us visa charges of 2k each, hotel fees, shopping.. We spent so much just for this Bangkok last leg, but almost seemed worth it, coz we stayed at the Bangkok Marriott.

It was one of the best rooms I have stayed in after the Hilton Cavelieri in Rome. Room on the 30^th floor, overlooking Bangkok, with a bath tub in the bathroom that had the same view of the city as well. Seriously awesome. And just like Lebua, here also there was a pub on the top floor, which we visited after the super fast shopping that Geet completed at MBK. It almost felt like the next most frequented mall for us after Oberoi mall, given how easily we were navigating through it. The final drinks and dinner at the 50^th floor pub at Marriott was truly spell binding, and a great way to end this fabulous trip.