Motorcycle diaries - Happy New Year from Hanoi!

Happy New Year dear family and friends!

May this year be full of interesting events and exciting encounters! It may be easy or difficult, but much depends on how we assess it and master the challenge - and who's beside us and with us - our family, friends, all people who we know, love, appreciate and learn from...

Our adventures continue... Today we came to Vietnam's capital Hanoi from Da Nang with an overnight train, which was not as bad as expected (at least not for someone who grew up in former Soviet Union :) Our bike will come with the same train tomorrow, and then we'll head off to the scenic Halong Bay. The weather here is very autumn-like, especially after nice day on the beach we spent yesterday in Hoi An by +30C...

Now off to celebrate New Year 2010! Cheers!

Motorcycle diaries - Vietnam East coast continued: Hoi An

Today we came to a famous silk city of Hoi An (not that I knew about its existence before our journey). It's lovely - many restaurants on the river, dark streets lighted just with Chinese paper lanterns, where local people play mah-jong and some instruments I couldn't identify... There're silk cloth and fabric shops everywhere, since it's an old silk trading city. Very nice. Lots of tourists as well (probably this place is indicated in the Loney Planet travel guide :)

We let the candles float on the river, and it looked so romantic - dark river full of shimmering candle lights in the colourful paper flowers. We also took a short ride on the old wooden boat, and city looked beautiful in the darkness, under the almost full moon, and with all those shimmering lights around...

To say the truth, we were really happy to come here, and finally get our pizzas and glass of Bordeaux wine! In the last 2 days the only food available were the variations of noodle soup. Funny, but we're truly children of civilization. Not that we didn't like it, being in all those local places, being the only Western people and trying out only local things. We did enjoy it! But then, when you want to have your pizza or burger, and it's just not there, you appreciate it so much more, when you finally get it :) Our first stop in Hanoi will be in McDonalds or Burger King, I assume :)

Hoi An

Motorcycle diaries - Vietnam East coast

We left Saigon and continued towards Hanoi along the coast line on the road AH1. Landscapes at the beginning were quite boring, and traffic was really mad. I think we survive only due to excellent driving skills and reactions of Ilkka. Why so many Finns are such good drivers? :)

We reached city of Phan Rang by night, and the last 2 hours of our ride were really scarry. Ilkka got a wound on his finger responsible for pressing the break. And our bike got a wound on a place responsible for a clutch :)

In Phan Rang we got a room in the city's only hotel, and went to eat in a local street food court. People were very friendly, but we anyway felt ourselvs like two aliens :)

Today we drove until small coast city of Quy Nhon. Landscapes have changed, and now they are incredibly beautiful. Azure blue sea, colourful fishermen's boats, mountains in all shades of grey and brown and endless rice fields... Scenery changes after every turn of the curly mountain road. It's wonderful!

 

 

 

Motorcycle diaries - Good morning Vietnam! - Saigon

"There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing"... And there is at least 1 million motorbikes in Saigon!

Now, we are in Vietnam. While crossing the border, officials told us that we can't enter and drive in Vietnam with Thai motorbike: Vietnam has transport agreement only with Cambodia and Laos. They suggested us to leave bike and get to Hanoi to arrange necessary papers. We were quite a bit embarrased. We sat down and thought in silence for a while. Both of us went through possible options. And then... then we took a bike and just walked through the border. Next second we hopped on the bike and drove away. We didn't look back. No one stopped us. Crazy feeling! Our first illegal border crossing! :) 

Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City

Amazing city. It's alive: it's moving all the time, it seems to be a living organism! All those bikes move around nonstop. Local people use their motobikes as we use cars: often you can see the whole family on a small Vespa, dressed nicely and driving to eat in a restaurant. Many bikes are also pimped up: they have Burberry or Gucci seat covers and nice tapes all over them :)

Streets of Saigon are full of people: young and old, locals and foreigners, many couples, many with little kids. People smile and laugh, talk, joke around. They look happy.

Funny, many local women wear pyjamas on the streets, it seems to be their normal daily outfits. They also wear those cute looking rice field hats and drive their old bicycles, selling lottery tickets.

There are not so many sightseeings in Saigon, but there are many nice small trade corners, and streets with colourful funky looking houses. And it's great just to walk, look around, smile to locals, have a small talk, sit down for a break and have an incredibly tasty and strong ice coffee... Just enjoy time in this city!

Food here is amazing, especially from those street stalls where most of local people dine. You just sit down at one of those small baby-kind-of chairs, point at the meals that others around you are having, and after some minutes you get your dinner - I don't know how all those dishes are called, but they taste delicious!

We both enjoyed this city, and it definitely has a soul. Air is charges with electricity of emotions - good emotions: love, joy, happiness. It's full of life! And I wish to come back here!

Tomorrow we're heading off to the North Vietnam (Hanoi) through beautiful and scenic coastline road.

Night traffic

 

Mini Notre-Dame in Saigon

 

Selling rice in a rice hat

Motorcycle diaries - Cambodia: Killing fields

Last day in Phnom Penh (December 24th) we visited one of the Cambodia's Killing fields, were people were killed and buried in the mass graves by Khmer Rouge regime between 1975 and 1979. The one we visited, Choeung Ek, is located 15 km away from Phnom Penh. Over 20 000 people were killed and buried there.

It is very hard to grasp what happened in this country during that time. We, in Europe, study those events in our history classes, but it seems to be so abstract - something that happened in this small country somewhere far away in South East Asia. We seem to be more concerned and touched with World War II events, and it's understandable in a way - this war had such an impact on almost every family, at least in my home country.

However, the scale of crime of Khmer Rouge in Cambodia is horrifying: out of 7,7 Mio. population in the 1970-ies, 3 Mio. were killed as enemies of regime during just few years, or died from tortures, starvation and deseases...

Meanwhile we also watched 2 movies about those times. One is called "Killing fields", it's a movie based on true story about American journalist, who worked for NY times, and his friend and colleague from Cambodia, who happened to be in the middle of the bloody events of the 70-ies in Cambodia.
Another movie is a documentary "S21", about those people who worked in the prison and execution site Choeung Ek. Many of them, who worked for Khmer Rouge that times, are now in their 40-ies or 50-ies. They were just young boys or teenagers, when all this was happening, and they were a part of the regime...

We also went to eat with family of our new local friend, who helped us a lot with our motorbike papers. We went to some restaurant outside the city, and our friend told us, that only rich people come to eat there. We paid 17 USD for 4 people's delicious lunch. Our friend works in the boat ticketing office, and earns 150 USD per month. He pays 80 USD for his apartment, and 50 USD for English school for his kid Pet. The rest is left for living.

No further comments.

Little Pet

Motorcycle diaries - Cambodia: Siem Reap, Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh

After it took us some time to cross the border, we finally entered Cambodia. What struck me here was poverty and spirit of sadness I could sense in people. All the way to Siem Reap on both sides of the road we saw empty unharvested fields, shelters and slums, and few local people moving along the road either on foot, or by bicycle, or on horse carriages, or - very few - on small scooters...

And than, all of a sudden, in the middle of nowhere arises Siem Reap, a strange city full of hotels, hostels, restaurants and shops. Everything here is devoted to tourism and tourists. But locals don’t seem to be happy. Sad faces and forced smiles are all around… 

Temples of Angkor

My first blurry memories about temples of Angkor are connected to the movie ”Lara Croft – Tomb Rider”. Then, my dear friend Darya told me about those incredible temples back in 2006 in Germany. I remember how excited she was telling me about Angkor Wat. I got interested, but not excited. Today, when I stood overwhelmed in front of those temples, I was thinking of her. I know she will make this journey to Angkor one day very soon…

Smiling Buddha at Angkor Thom

Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom and other temples indeed overwhelm with their anciety and majesty. Surrounded by water and jungle forrest, they melt in the sun and loud jungle sounds. Remnants of  extinct Khmer empire…They are definitely worth visiting at least once in life!

Watching sunset at Angkor Wat

Road to Phnom Penh

Both road and area from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh seem to be more developed that the one from Thai border to Siem Reap: green fields, decent houses, more happy looking people, more traffic on the roads, more cars and motorbikes…

But it seemed to me, that local people struggle... struggle to find their own cultural identity. Is it because of their recent history, and all those terrible crimes that were commited towards own people in the 70-80–ies? Pol Pot Khmer Rouge regime has thrown the country to the worst agrarian state, and country's intellectual elite was literally extinguished… Poor people… It is really heartbreaking what happened here…

All in all, Cambodia leaves quite daunting impression… The news headlines in the local newspapers report only bad or terrible news, business part of the newspapers doesn’t mention Cambodia at all, only other countries of the region… All this adds on to this spirit I could sense here: hopelessness and despair…

What would this country need to establish itself and to help those people to raise their heads? A long-term program of development, stretched for at least 50 years, or 2 next generations, to give people example, and hope, and make them believe in themselves and their future… There must be potential in this country, as in any other one, it just needs to be discovered and developed...

Update: Now leaving Cambodia to Vietnam with very mixed feelings...

Another update: Spent some time in Phnom Penh today. Here people are a bit more cheerful. Maybe because capital is somehow developing, and there is a hope? Who knows...

And yet another update: Spent some more time in Phnom Penh. And no, they are not more cheerful, at least the vast majority. They have desperate look of trapped animals in their eyes, those poor people. And all those huge golden temples and enormous official buildings which look like palaces... Those remind me on Soviet Union and all its monumental constructions... And those corrupt officials driving Lexus all as one... I didn't feel myself comfortable at all here. Just wanted to write it all down, before I slide to political correctness.

 

Little kids from Cambodian border

Motorcycle diaries - Bangkok

Now, I am again on the move - this time on a new Honda Phantom fire edition motorbike, together with hubby Ilkka. This over-a-month-journey through South East Asia, that started here in Thailand, will bring us through Cambodia, Vietnam and Southern China to Hong Kong.

I arrived to Bangkok December 9th from Singapore - both excited about the upcoming adventure and sad after all those farewells we have to say to people who become close to us... Anyways, next days I decided to be a real brave tourist and explore Bangkok with a map in one hand and camera in the other.

What is Bangkok? It is definitely a total mess. In a positive sense of the word. All those tuk-tuks, taxi-meters, smily locals in pink shirts because of their King's birthday celebrated for over a week, food stalls and mobile kitchens, tourists in their "want-to-be-a-hippie" cloth from the next street bazaar and incredible amount of golden temples, buddhas and images of the King and royal family -  all this is Bangkok. It's very energizing and tiring at the same time. A great place to get pumped up with energy, especially during those winter days (was just thinking of Helsinki and it's minus 20C)!

But this is not all... Bangkok has many faces - its also young, fashionable and very friendly local people, lots of business travellers and expats, tailors, furniture and design shops, bars and restaurants, ultra-modern office buildings and residential estates, wide and bright roads, parks and green sites... Amazing city...

During those few days we stayed in two areas: Banglumpu (Chanasongkram) and Sukhumvit. The first one is filled with young tourists and vibrant with energy: street food stalls, bars, locals trying to sell anything you might not need, guest houses and nice tiny hotels... I think it's a very authentic old kind of Bangkok. Impressive Grand Palace and Wat Poh are located very near to this area. Sukhumvit is more of a trendy modern Bangkok, it's close to the other fashionable business area - Silom, with glass-and steel skyscrapers and fancy shops and restaurants...

We also drove throught crazy Bangkok traffic on our chopper and took a river boat, to watch modern hotel buildings neighboring slums... I wonder how this city will look like in some years, cause it seems to be very actively reorganizing and reshaping itself nowadays.

Ilkka is helping to park the boat :)

Oh yes, and we went to chill in Pattaya for couple of days. It reminded me very much on Phuket and somewhat on Kuta in Bali. Anyways, we managed to find a nice corner - Pattaya Jomtien Beach - where we spent couple of nights in very cozy bungalows.

Now, having spent in Bangkok a little less than a week, I can't claim to have understood its nature, or its culture. But I am sure I had enough time to catch some of its spirit...

Update: Tomorrow we're off to Cambodia and mystical and majestic Angkor Wat!