Going home

Caught an Air Asia flight to Bangkok and have had brunch with a friend based here and a fantastic dinner with someone I know through Rexam. Had lobster, crab and grilled fish, definately a notch above my usual fare. I was thinking I have probably eaten 90% of my meals out of doors but don't expect that to continue once I get home.

I will try and sum up my experience tomorrow while I am waiting for my flight. One thing that strikes me though, is how advanced Bangkok seems after some of the places I have been. It is like the story about the Frenchman who sets off on a train to Moscow and a Russian on another train to Paris, they get to Warsaw and both think they have arrived.

Saigon was only a generation ago a city that went by bicycle. Now, it is reputed to have 6 million motorbikes (that's right, 6 million). On the 1/2 hour taxi ride into town from the airport here in Bangkok I saw 3! That is progress, Thailand is so much more advanced, the car rules, the streets are all but impassable and the rest of SE Asia will no doubt follow suit.

Could not get my camera fixed here where I bought it so, without a viewfinder it is a bit point and hope but thought these images would be of interest.

This is how you move building materials in Phnom Penh. (On one small motorbike a saw the rider with a full size double bed, mattress, divan, headboard, the lot).



This was the free dessert offered after my last meal in Cambodia...diet has definitely improved while I have been away. Those small brown fruits are delicious, I have no idea what they are called.



And this is a road junction in Bangkok with the sky train flying overhead, could be
any major city anywhere in the world, apart from the Buddah and elephants I suppose.

The Royal Palace

Later in the day I went to some of the more uplifting sites. A shrine where an eyebrow of the Buddha is kept, the Royal Palace and the Silver Pagoda.

No pictures inside but this is the Palace...



The Silver Pagoda has a floor laid with 5,000 silver tiles weighing 1kg each.



And this is me in the grounds but I apologise, the American guy who took this said he had cut off my knees...it was a disappointment to me as well.



While I was having lunch an example of the local fauna just walked past, it is a bit different here!



35 deg C here at the moment so I have retired to aircon until the evening. By the way, thanks for the comments I have received, it is nice to know people are finding this interesting.

Man's inhumanity to man....

....makes countless thousands mourn. It is a long time since Robbie Burns wrote those words but unfortunately nothing changes. This morning I went to Prison S 21 (Tuol Seng) where political prisoners were tortured and murdered by the Pol Pot regime. 14,000 went in and 12 came out alive. The crimes were documented and photographed and the victim pictures on display are a chilling reminder of what happened here while the world stood by and watched.

These are some of the "political" children who went through Tuol Seng....



And, some miles outside Phnom Penh, the Choeng Ek memorial at the Killing Fields, is where they came. 17,000 people were murdered here, often bludgeoned to death to save ammunition, and were buried in 129 mass graves. The excavation of the site and the erection of this memorial containing the skulls of 6,000 victims is a permanent reminder of what we allowed to happen.



And now, with the only sound the birdsong around the graves, this is the scene.



I was struck by one visitor's comment written on the wall at the prison, S 21, "we do not learn anything from history, I can say this, Jan, a German". Amen to that.

This is Saturday, it must be Cambodia

Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote. First, picture problems continue, Panasonic had run out of stock of LCD screens so the camera is point and hope at the moment, then the cafe here has no card reader. I will add pics later.

Spent thursday pm on the Saigon river, took a boat for myself for $10 and toured the river and the streams around the city. Just amazing how friendly the children are. I did not go past a single house on the river where children were playing who did not smile, wave and shout "hello".

Thursday evening spent in the park watching the local game, Da Cau, like badminton, a weighted feathered shuttlecock, which is kicked between the palyers keeping it airborne. Rallys are up to 12-15 shots for the best players who allow the shuttle to pass behind their backs before kicking it back with the sole of the foot, the heel or instep. Quite amazing, I will add a video and have bought one of the shuttles for practise at home.

Some young Vietnamese people came up and started to talk, just to practise their English but by the end of the evening they had taken me to their local bar, bought me all sorts of local treats to eat, and Trung, in the centre of the picture below, had become my son-in-law! (He had seen pictures of my girls and is in love with one of them. He has no idea how expensive Jo is to run)!



2 day tour of the Mekong delta was something special also. Just come up to Phnom Penh on a slow boat, 6 hours, but the scenery always changing and the river is just awesome. Between 2 and 3 km wide at the points we were travelling it is hard to make out details on either bank when travelling in mid stream. I wondered if this was the same water I was travelling on 2 weeks before in Laos? Perhaps someone could work that out.

This was a floating village on the river, 4 generations can live in these houses where they farm fish.



Home to a poor Vietnamese family whose lives are bound to the river.



I was not prepared for Phnom Penh. I thought it was a quiet backwater but it has more neon than Vegas. Will explore tomorrow as I think I have screwed up my timings and will not have time to get to the world's 8th wonder at Angkor, and will instead spend a day here before going to Bangkok for the flight home. Every step now brings me closer to home and while part of me is loving every experience here a large part of me now wants to be at home with my family, the English weather, (I wish it would rain) and wholemeal bread, toasted with marmalade!

This is the riverfront in Phnom Penh where the Tonle Sap joins the Mekong. The Tonle Sap river creates a lake in land, the largest freshwater lake in Asia, which fills from the flooding Mekong in the wet season to a size of 16,000 sq km, 9m deep and then drains during the dry season shrinking to 1 m deep and only 2,700 sq km. A natural wonder of the world and I can see it as I write this from the i cafe.

Transport in HCMC

I went to the Reunification Palace today,(used to be the Presidential Palace until 30th April 1975 when the tanks of the North crashed through the gates and forced the surrender and end of the war. Not very impressive from the outside, the building was remodelled in 1965 and looks it, but inside, left exactly as it was, the ornaments, carpets decorations and works of art are beautiful. A really interesting collection of photographs and stories from the time too. Looking at tank 390, first through the gates in 1975 and which must be the ultimate mode of transport here, I took some pictures on my phone (camera ready later) to show some of the other diverse forms of transport in HCMC. Tank 390 The bus, although this one aint gouing anywhere soon. The cyclo, this one is chrome, very swish. Or more relaxing, the restaurant boats on the Saigon river. But ultimately it comes down to the motorbike and this little video was shot at the junction near my hotel and is typical of how it works here.


Can't see the video on my preview, hope it's there.

Booked a 2 day tour to the Mekong delta leaving tomorrow and finishing with a boat ride to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, so may be out of contact for a while.