People bathing in the Ganges
Cow roaming through the markets in Varanasi
Me, Chris, and some Indian guys at the Taj
Me at the Taj
The internet here is being slow and isn't working well, so I'll just put up more pictures when I'm in Egypt.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
India
After being in Asia for a month, we finally went to the country that was by far the most different of any place I have ever been. India is a lot of things that are pretty bad: dirty, poor, overpopulated, and chaotic, but it’s still a great place and going there was one of the best things I’ve ever experienced.
Before going on SAS, I saw a trip (not offered through SAS) on facebook that looked like way too good a deal to pass up. For $690 (including all hotels, flights, and transportation), someone was putting together a trip that would go to Agra, Varanasi, and Delhi, something SAS offers for $1550. I thought I had to do it, especially for that price. As a result, I didn’t travel with the people I normally travel with (except for one, Chris, who I traveled with in Japan for 2 days), but it was still an absolutely awesome trip.
The trip started out by everyone going to the airport in Chennai for our flight to Delhi. This flight was my only flight in India that wasn’t late. In India, almost every flight is late, and they never give you a warning that the flight is late. Instead, they just tell you when the plane is ready for boarding. Anyway, after we landed in Delhi, we had a bus ride to Agra. We left the airport at 9:30 PM for Agra, and there was still traffic all over Delhi. We ended up not even getting to Agra until 3 AM, making it a 4.5 hour trip late at night (we stopped for food for an hour)…..that drive must really suck during the day when the traffic is even worse.
Agra is known for one thing….the Taj Mahal. There isn’t really anything else there (besides the Agra Fort, which was cool), but Agra was still awesome just because of the Taj. It’s an ugly city, but the Taj was just so great, after I saw it, I was already satisfied with my whole India trip. It was even better than I thought it would be.
To get into the Taj, Indians have to pay 10 rupees but foreigners have to pay 750, which is almost $20 USD. India can get away with that though, so I don’t blame them. We went in around 2 PM, just 3 of us, and it was funny because inside the gates, lots of Indians kept wanting to take pictures with us like we were celebrities or something….that was something that had never happened to me on the trip, the only time I saw something else like that was at the Tsingtao Brewery in Qingdao when random Chinese people kept wanting pictures with the girls we were with (but not the guys). The Taj was packed, but there weren’t lots of foreign tourists there, it was almost all Indians. We entered, saw the Taj from a distance, kept walking towards it, kept stopping for pictures on the way (and took lots of pictures with Indians), then we went inside. You can’t take pictures inside, but all that’s inside are a few rooms and a tomb. The Taj Mahal was built in the 1600s by a king for his wife who died, its her burial site. Also, the south, east, and west sides of the Taj are all really nice and green, but the north side is just a river with some cows roaming around. However, it seems like lots of important sites in India are built on rivers.
Agra was the first place I ever saw cows just roam around the streets. And there were a bunch of monkeys just chillin at the Agra Fort. Things like this are the norm in India, I saw cows roam around every city I was in except Chennai (yes, I even saw a few cows roaming through Delhi.)
After our one day in Agra, we went to the train station for our overnight sleeper train to Varanasi. We had the “first class” accommodation, which doesn’t exactly meet American first class standards but is bearable. Most of the people seemed scared of the train, especially after it rolled by and they saw the other sections of the train (which are just tons of people standing on top of each other) first, but I was excited. Not everyone gets to experience an Indian train, especially an overnight one, so I thought it would be cool.
In our car, everyone was assigned to an area, and not everyone was near each other. The train was just a bunch of “beds” to sleep on, there were 3 levels of them, and everyone got sheets and stuff. The sheets came folded, so it looked like they were washed, but at the end of the ride, they just fold up the sheets you use and put them back, so clearly they aren’t washed (not surprising, since India is incredibly unsanitary.) I was able to sleep on the train though for 6 hours, so that wasn’t that bad. I was surrounded by Indian people too in my area, so that was interesting too. It ended up being a 15 hour train ride to Varanasi, so it was only 3 hours longer than it was supposed to be. And the toilet on the train was the most ghetto thing ever, it was just a hole that went to the bottom of the train tracks and there is a sign saying not to use it unless the train is moving. So great. But the train ride was cool just because it was such a different kind of experience.
Anyway, at noon we got to Varanasi. Varanasi is the oldest city in the world, the dirtiest place I’ve ever been, and it’s the most holy of the Hindu holy sites. We had a bus pick us up and take us to the hotel…during this you could tell how bad the traffic in Varanasi is, the bus could barely move. And the streets there clearly aren’t designed for buses, not shocking since the city has been around for over 2500 years.
We had the whole day to ourselves so me and Chris decided to head down to the River Ganges and check out the area down there. The River Ganges is really important to the people in Varanasi and in the Hindu religion. People bathe in the Ganges to cleanse themselves from sin. Also, there is a part of the Ganges where they burn dead bodies (which I’ll explain later.)
We went out into the hectic streets of Varanasi where every guy was trying to give us a ride on a rickshaw (which is a carriage attached to a bicycle.) However, we wanted a tuk tuk (picture at the end) which is automated (so its faster) and really fun to ride (I had already taken them in Agra and Bangkok) so we got one and went down to the Ganges.
On the way down, we really got to experience Varanasi traffic, with the tons of rickshaws, along with motorbikes, tuk tuks, cows, and the occasional car. Agra and Varanasi both have very few cars, less than any place I‘ve ever been, which is a good indicator of the poverty in those two places. Anyway, we got down near the Ganges and then walked around the markets near the Ganges. In this area, there are lots of military guys with guns, they are all over India, more than I’ve seen in any other country (which surprised me, I would expect it more in places like China or Vietnam.) There were military guys with guns right in front of our boat, walking around the hotel….they were pretty common in certain areas. Anyway, after we walked around the markets (of course, cows can be seen all over these, too, just walking right in front of shops), we walked down to the Ganges. When we approached it, there was a staircase with some goats on it, some monkeys right near it, and some cows at the top. These animals really are all over the place, even in the cities. Anyway, at the bottom of the staircase, there were some kids playing India’s most popular sport, cricket, so we watched them for a little bit until we started walking around the Ganges.
We walked around the Ganges for a little bit, then approached the spot where they burn the bodies. In the Hindu religion, if you can afford to, you are supposed to take the dead to Varanasi, burn their body there, and then take the ashes and dump them in the Ganges. By doing this, you are cleansing the person of the sins they committed in their life. Everyone who dies after the age of 13 has sinned according to Hindu religion and is supposed to be burned when they die. The only exception to this are holy men. Holy men, along with people who die under the age of 13, have not sinned and as a result, are not to be burned and when they die, you are supposed to attach a rock to them and dump their body in the river.
At the place where they burn bodies, what they do is cover the body, then they put it on a pile of logs, then they pile some more logs on top of it, then burn it. It’s a pretty intense site. The guy following us said we could go up to the top of a building to see a great view. We were skeptical at first, but then we saw a bunch of tourists at the top of a terrace so we figured we would hit it up. He took us to some hospice right next to the burning site and we went to the top of that to check out the burning. We were first at the second highest level, but the fumes were so bad we had to go up even more. We went to the way top, and we were right above the burning site. There were around 15 or so fires going on with burning bodies (btw, we heard they don’t burn those with diseases, so that was good, because you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near those fumes) and in one of them, we could see legs sticking out of the fire, it was gross.
After that intense site, we left and walked back to where the kids were playing cricket on the Ganges. Then, we walked down even further in that direction, where there was a sketchy market. Random Indian men kept trying to shake our hands, but they were just doing it because then they would try to start massaging your hands and then try to give you a massage. No thanks, my massage from a male in Thailand was more than enough, I wasn’t looking for that to happen again. Anyway, after the sketchy market, we walked back up to the streets, and they were packed. It was chaotic, and the weirdest site we saw was when we saw some huge crowd marching, chanting, and then they were carrying these weird statues that had covered faces. I was really wondering what that was supposed to be (Crowds chanting, marching and playing instruments were common in Varanasi, although I have no idea what the purpose of any of them were.) Then, we found a rickshaw, went to the hotel, had dinner, watched some cricket on TV because that’s what they do in India (and India beat Australia, which was a big deal), and then went to bed early since I was exhausted.
The next day, we all woke up at 5:30 for a sunrise tour of the Ganges. This was really awesome, one of the best parts of my trip. We got in a little boat, all 25 of us, and just went down the Ganges for an hour and a half. I pretty much saw all of the things I saw the day before….people doing laundry, people bathing in the Ganges, the burning site, but it was just cool to see it while floating on the Ganges. Also, we also heard more of those random crowds going to the Ganges banging loud drums and just marching. Also, one really interesting thing about the Ganges is that one side of it is Varanasi, the oldest city in the world, but the other side is nothing. And the Ganges gets really flooded during the monsoon, so when we were there, the other side of the Ganges was just sand, but during the monsoon, that gets covered up, but its still just forest on the other side after the sand.
In India, one thing that is entrenched in the society is something called the Caste System. The Caste System is this system that has been in place in India for generations that essentially ranks people in society based on their family. The Caste System is used to discriminate against people and in many parts of India, it is very hard or impossible for people to be successful if they are in a lower Caste. One thing Mohatma Gandhi is especially known for (well, besides the whole non-violent resistance/Indian independence thing) is that he was strongly against the Caste System. However, even though Mohatma Gandhi was against the Caste System, it is still in place in India today. The place where I noticed the Caste System most was the Ganges. You would see people doing laundry, and it would be in the area for the “lower Castes.” Also, only people from the Brahmin Caste (the highest Caste) are allowed to be priests, so if you are not born into that Caste, you can’t be a priest in the Hindu religion.
All of the people I talked to at the Ganges about the Caste System (which was only a few, so obviously they don’t speak for everyone) are strongly against it. They see it the same way I do, as institutionalized segregation. However, it still lives on in India, although opinions are mixed over how much of an impact it has on people….apparently the Caste System means more in some parts of India than it does in others, I’ve heard that in many areas, its impossible for anyone to be successful if they are in a lower Caste, but I don’t think that’s true in all areas. I got the vibe that in bigger cities, the Caste System is less important, but to me, I still think it’s a terrible system because it separates people and says that some are above others due to who their parents are.
Anyway, after seeing the amazing site that was the Ganges (all in all, its too hard to describe what going there was like), we went back to the hotel and got some breakfast. Then, I walked around, called home, then we had lunch and went to the airport for our flight to Delhi. In the end, we were only in Varanasi for 24 hours, but the city was awesome, it was really cool experiencing the Hindu holy site and seeing all of the chaos and the random groups chanting in the city. It took an hour to get to the airport, and the airport in Varanasi was by far the most ghetto airport I’ve ever been to, it was great. At the airport, we walked up this one staircase thinking it was the one to go to the restaurant, but after going up 2 flights of stairs, we saw some random Indians down a hallway but no restaurants. They looked at us for like 10 seconds, we thought that was weird, and then they told us that the staircase lead to the air traffic control center and not the restaurant. That’s great, if they weren’t there, we would have ended up at the top of the control tower, great security they have at the Varanasi airport. Also, when our plane was boarding (they have 2 gates, but its people waiting for 10 flights, they just say when they are boarding and then buses come to board the flight), they put the wrong flight number on the board. Classic. We only knew it was our flight because someone asked and they said it was our flight.
When we got to New Delhi, we checked into our hotel, which was the nicest of the trip, then we had dinner and went to the city center. We went around looking for a bar, but almost all of them close at 11. Also, one thing that’s really funny is that at the bars in New Delhi, the menus all say that they won’t serve you unless you are 25, but luckily they will. We walked around, then found one bar that looked nice, but there were only 7 people there. Guess the city center isn’t a good spot for bars, even though there are a bunch of them and our tour guide said it was the best area for it. However, one thing about drinking in India: alcohol is much harder to find there than it is in any of the other countries we went to. In the other countries, alcohol is everywhere, but that’s not the case in India. There aren’t lots of bars, and it seemed like lots of restaurants don’t serve it. It’s available, and not impossible to find, but its not in your face like it is in China or Thailand where beer is everywhere. And Kingfisher is a very good beer, by the way, but only if it’s the lighter version. The dark version is terrible.
The last day, we left the hotel at 7:30 for our flight to Chennai. Our flight left around 11:30, we landed around 2 or so, and we were back on the boat at 3. Then, me and Chris went to check out a little bit of Chennai but we ended up just going to where the mall was and then just walking around that area. Chennai’s pollution was absolutely terrible though, the worst of any city I‘ve ever been to, riding in a tuk tuk around the city, you could taste the air, and it tasted absolutely terrible. After just walking around Chennai, we got back on the boat and that was it for India.
Overall, I loved my time in India. It was definitely an experience going to a country like that since its so different, but it was great. I got to see two awesome sites, the Taj Mahal and the River Ganges in Varanasi, and I just had a great time overall. Some people didn’t like it because it was too dirty and poor (and it most certainly was both of these things, it was the dirtiest country I’ve ever been to by far, and that includes Cambodia), but I thought it was a great and really interesting place to visit and I would definitely go back.
And next up is Egypt. We dock in Alexandria…we are definitely going to check that and Cairo out (along with the Pyramids and Sphinx right near Cairo) and we may also head to Luxor to check out the Valley of the Kings. There is a ton to see in Egypt, most certainly not enough for 5 days, and I’m really excited to check it out (especially since by the time we will get there, I will have been stuck on a boat for 10 days.)
I'm trying to put pictures on right now, but the internet on the boat isn't working well so I don't think they are uploading so I will try again later today.
Before going on SAS, I saw a trip (not offered through SAS) on facebook that looked like way too good a deal to pass up. For $690 (including all hotels, flights, and transportation), someone was putting together a trip that would go to Agra, Varanasi, and Delhi, something SAS offers for $1550. I thought I had to do it, especially for that price. As a result, I didn’t travel with the people I normally travel with (except for one, Chris, who I traveled with in Japan for 2 days), but it was still an absolutely awesome trip.
The trip started out by everyone going to the airport in Chennai for our flight to Delhi. This flight was my only flight in India that wasn’t late. In India, almost every flight is late, and they never give you a warning that the flight is late. Instead, they just tell you when the plane is ready for boarding. Anyway, after we landed in Delhi, we had a bus ride to Agra. We left the airport at 9:30 PM for Agra, and there was still traffic all over Delhi. We ended up not even getting to Agra until 3 AM, making it a 4.5 hour trip late at night (we stopped for food for an hour)…..that drive must really suck during the day when the traffic is even worse.
Agra is known for one thing….the Taj Mahal. There isn’t really anything else there (besides the Agra Fort, which was cool), but Agra was still awesome just because of the Taj. It’s an ugly city, but the Taj was just so great, after I saw it, I was already satisfied with my whole India trip. It was even better than I thought it would be.
To get into the Taj, Indians have to pay 10 rupees but foreigners have to pay 750, which is almost $20 USD. India can get away with that though, so I don’t blame them. We went in around 2 PM, just 3 of us, and it was funny because inside the gates, lots of Indians kept wanting to take pictures with us like we were celebrities or something….that was something that had never happened to me on the trip, the only time I saw something else like that was at the Tsingtao Brewery in Qingdao when random Chinese people kept wanting pictures with the girls we were with (but not the guys). The Taj was packed, but there weren’t lots of foreign tourists there, it was almost all Indians. We entered, saw the Taj from a distance, kept walking towards it, kept stopping for pictures on the way (and took lots of pictures with Indians), then we went inside. You can’t take pictures inside, but all that’s inside are a few rooms and a tomb. The Taj Mahal was built in the 1600s by a king for his wife who died, its her burial site. Also, the south, east, and west sides of the Taj are all really nice and green, but the north side is just a river with some cows roaming around. However, it seems like lots of important sites in India are built on rivers.
Agra was the first place I ever saw cows just roam around the streets. And there were a bunch of monkeys just chillin at the Agra Fort. Things like this are the norm in India, I saw cows roam around every city I was in except Chennai (yes, I even saw a few cows roaming through Delhi.)
After our one day in Agra, we went to the train station for our overnight sleeper train to Varanasi. We had the “first class” accommodation, which doesn’t exactly meet American first class standards but is bearable. Most of the people seemed scared of the train, especially after it rolled by and they saw the other sections of the train (which are just tons of people standing on top of each other) first, but I was excited. Not everyone gets to experience an Indian train, especially an overnight one, so I thought it would be cool.
In our car, everyone was assigned to an area, and not everyone was near each other. The train was just a bunch of “beds” to sleep on, there were 3 levels of them, and everyone got sheets and stuff. The sheets came folded, so it looked like they were washed, but at the end of the ride, they just fold up the sheets you use and put them back, so clearly they aren’t washed (not surprising, since India is incredibly unsanitary.) I was able to sleep on the train though for 6 hours, so that wasn’t that bad. I was surrounded by Indian people too in my area, so that was interesting too. It ended up being a 15 hour train ride to Varanasi, so it was only 3 hours longer than it was supposed to be. And the toilet on the train was the most ghetto thing ever, it was just a hole that went to the bottom of the train tracks and there is a sign saying not to use it unless the train is moving. So great. But the train ride was cool just because it was such a different kind of experience.
Anyway, at noon we got to Varanasi. Varanasi is the oldest city in the world, the dirtiest place I’ve ever been, and it’s the most holy of the Hindu holy sites. We had a bus pick us up and take us to the hotel…during this you could tell how bad the traffic in Varanasi is, the bus could barely move. And the streets there clearly aren’t designed for buses, not shocking since the city has been around for over 2500 years.
We had the whole day to ourselves so me and Chris decided to head down to the River Ganges and check out the area down there. The River Ganges is really important to the people in Varanasi and in the Hindu religion. People bathe in the Ganges to cleanse themselves from sin. Also, there is a part of the Ganges where they burn dead bodies (which I’ll explain later.)
We went out into the hectic streets of Varanasi where every guy was trying to give us a ride on a rickshaw (which is a carriage attached to a bicycle.) However, we wanted a tuk tuk (picture at the end) which is automated (so its faster) and really fun to ride (I had already taken them in Agra and Bangkok) so we got one and went down to the Ganges.
On the way down, we really got to experience Varanasi traffic, with the tons of rickshaws, along with motorbikes, tuk tuks, cows, and the occasional car. Agra and Varanasi both have very few cars, less than any place I‘ve ever been, which is a good indicator of the poverty in those two places. Anyway, we got down near the Ganges and then walked around the markets near the Ganges. In this area, there are lots of military guys with guns, they are all over India, more than I’ve seen in any other country (which surprised me, I would expect it more in places like China or Vietnam.) There were military guys with guns right in front of our boat, walking around the hotel….they were pretty common in certain areas. Anyway, after we walked around the markets (of course, cows can be seen all over these, too, just walking right in front of shops), we walked down to the Ganges. When we approached it, there was a staircase with some goats on it, some monkeys right near it, and some cows at the top. These animals really are all over the place, even in the cities. Anyway, at the bottom of the staircase, there were some kids playing India’s most popular sport, cricket, so we watched them for a little bit until we started walking around the Ganges.
We walked around the Ganges for a little bit, then approached the spot where they burn the bodies. In the Hindu religion, if you can afford to, you are supposed to take the dead to Varanasi, burn their body there, and then take the ashes and dump them in the Ganges. By doing this, you are cleansing the person of the sins they committed in their life. Everyone who dies after the age of 13 has sinned according to Hindu religion and is supposed to be burned when they die. The only exception to this are holy men. Holy men, along with people who die under the age of 13, have not sinned and as a result, are not to be burned and when they die, you are supposed to attach a rock to them and dump their body in the river.
At the place where they burn bodies, what they do is cover the body, then they put it on a pile of logs, then they pile some more logs on top of it, then burn it. It’s a pretty intense site. The guy following us said we could go up to the top of a building to see a great view. We were skeptical at first, but then we saw a bunch of tourists at the top of a terrace so we figured we would hit it up. He took us to some hospice right next to the burning site and we went to the top of that to check out the burning. We were first at the second highest level, but the fumes were so bad we had to go up even more. We went to the way top, and we were right above the burning site. There were around 15 or so fires going on with burning bodies (btw, we heard they don’t burn those with diseases, so that was good, because you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near those fumes) and in one of them, we could see legs sticking out of the fire, it was gross.
After that intense site, we left and walked back to where the kids were playing cricket on the Ganges. Then, we walked down even further in that direction, where there was a sketchy market. Random Indian men kept trying to shake our hands, but they were just doing it because then they would try to start massaging your hands and then try to give you a massage. No thanks, my massage from a male in Thailand was more than enough, I wasn’t looking for that to happen again. Anyway, after the sketchy market, we walked back up to the streets, and they were packed. It was chaotic, and the weirdest site we saw was when we saw some huge crowd marching, chanting, and then they were carrying these weird statues that had covered faces. I was really wondering what that was supposed to be (Crowds chanting, marching and playing instruments were common in Varanasi, although I have no idea what the purpose of any of them were.) Then, we found a rickshaw, went to the hotel, had dinner, watched some cricket on TV because that’s what they do in India (and India beat Australia, which was a big deal), and then went to bed early since I was exhausted.
The next day, we all woke up at 5:30 for a sunrise tour of the Ganges. This was really awesome, one of the best parts of my trip. We got in a little boat, all 25 of us, and just went down the Ganges for an hour and a half. I pretty much saw all of the things I saw the day before….people doing laundry, people bathing in the Ganges, the burning site, but it was just cool to see it while floating on the Ganges. Also, we also heard more of those random crowds going to the Ganges banging loud drums and just marching. Also, one really interesting thing about the Ganges is that one side of it is Varanasi, the oldest city in the world, but the other side is nothing. And the Ganges gets really flooded during the monsoon, so when we were there, the other side of the Ganges was just sand, but during the monsoon, that gets covered up, but its still just forest on the other side after the sand.
In India, one thing that is entrenched in the society is something called the Caste System. The Caste System is this system that has been in place in India for generations that essentially ranks people in society based on their family. The Caste System is used to discriminate against people and in many parts of India, it is very hard or impossible for people to be successful if they are in a lower Caste. One thing Mohatma Gandhi is especially known for (well, besides the whole non-violent resistance/Indian independence thing) is that he was strongly against the Caste System. However, even though Mohatma Gandhi was against the Caste System, it is still in place in India today. The place where I noticed the Caste System most was the Ganges. You would see people doing laundry, and it would be in the area for the “lower Castes.” Also, only people from the Brahmin Caste (the highest Caste) are allowed to be priests, so if you are not born into that Caste, you can’t be a priest in the Hindu religion.
All of the people I talked to at the Ganges about the Caste System (which was only a few, so obviously they don’t speak for everyone) are strongly against it. They see it the same way I do, as institutionalized segregation. However, it still lives on in India, although opinions are mixed over how much of an impact it has on people….apparently the Caste System means more in some parts of India than it does in others, I’ve heard that in many areas, its impossible for anyone to be successful if they are in a lower Caste, but I don’t think that’s true in all areas. I got the vibe that in bigger cities, the Caste System is less important, but to me, I still think it’s a terrible system because it separates people and says that some are above others due to who their parents are.
Anyway, after seeing the amazing site that was the Ganges (all in all, its too hard to describe what going there was like), we went back to the hotel and got some breakfast. Then, I walked around, called home, then we had lunch and went to the airport for our flight to Delhi. In the end, we were only in Varanasi for 24 hours, but the city was awesome, it was really cool experiencing the Hindu holy site and seeing all of the chaos and the random groups chanting in the city. It took an hour to get to the airport, and the airport in Varanasi was by far the most ghetto airport I’ve ever been to, it was great. At the airport, we walked up this one staircase thinking it was the one to go to the restaurant, but after going up 2 flights of stairs, we saw some random Indians down a hallway but no restaurants. They looked at us for like 10 seconds, we thought that was weird, and then they told us that the staircase lead to the air traffic control center and not the restaurant. That’s great, if they weren’t there, we would have ended up at the top of the control tower, great security they have at the Varanasi airport. Also, when our plane was boarding (they have 2 gates, but its people waiting for 10 flights, they just say when they are boarding and then buses come to board the flight), they put the wrong flight number on the board. Classic. We only knew it was our flight because someone asked and they said it was our flight.
When we got to New Delhi, we checked into our hotel, which was the nicest of the trip, then we had dinner and went to the city center. We went around looking for a bar, but almost all of them close at 11. Also, one thing that’s really funny is that at the bars in New Delhi, the menus all say that they won’t serve you unless you are 25, but luckily they will. We walked around, then found one bar that looked nice, but there were only 7 people there. Guess the city center isn’t a good spot for bars, even though there are a bunch of them and our tour guide said it was the best area for it. However, one thing about drinking in India: alcohol is much harder to find there than it is in any of the other countries we went to. In the other countries, alcohol is everywhere, but that’s not the case in India. There aren’t lots of bars, and it seemed like lots of restaurants don’t serve it. It’s available, and not impossible to find, but its not in your face like it is in China or Thailand where beer is everywhere. And Kingfisher is a very good beer, by the way, but only if it’s the lighter version. The dark version is terrible.
The last day, we left the hotel at 7:30 for our flight to Chennai. Our flight left around 11:30, we landed around 2 or so, and we were back on the boat at 3. Then, me and Chris went to check out a little bit of Chennai but we ended up just going to where the mall was and then just walking around that area. Chennai’s pollution was absolutely terrible though, the worst of any city I‘ve ever been to, riding in a tuk tuk around the city, you could taste the air, and it tasted absolutely terrible. After just walking around Chennai, we got back on the boat and that was it for India.
Overall, I loved my time in India. It was definitely an experience going to a country like that since its so different, but it was great. I got to see two awesome sites, the Taj Mahal and the River Ganges in Varanasi, and I just had a great time overall. Some people didn’t like it because it was too dirty and poor (and it most certainly was both of these things, it was the dirtiest country I’ve ever been to by far, and that includes Cambodia), but I thought it was a great and really interesting place to visit and I would definitely go back.
And next up is Egypt. We dock in Alexandria…we are definitely going to check that and Cairo out (along with the Pyramids and Sphinx right near Cairo) and we may also head to Luxor to check out the Valley of the Kings. There is a ton to see in Egypt, most certainly not enough for 5 days, and I’m really excited to check it out (especially since by the time we will get there, I will have been stuck on a boat for 10 days.)
I'm trying to put pictures on right now, but the internet on the boat isn't working well so I don't think they are uploading so I will try again later today.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Vietnam/Thailand pictures
Saigon
Floating Market on the Mekong Delta
Mekong DeltaThailand pics:
Beach on the desolate island that we went to on our four island snorkeling tour
Beach on Ko Chang
Lying Buddha at Wat Pho Temple in Bangkok
Golden Mount in Bangkok
Guy sleeping on a bench in Bangkok
Me at the Grand Palace complex in Bangkok
Our group at the Grand Palace complex
The Grand Palace
Friday, October 12, 2007
Thailand
So I’ve decided that Thailand is almost the perfect country for tourism. It’s a great country that’s easy to get around, is cheap, really nice, has great weather, is safe, has awesome beaches, a ton to see, and has the best food on the planet. Thailand does have its downsides: its sex industry is huge, the country is a military junta for the time being (although apparently democracy is returning soon), and its poor, but it is still a great country to visit (and it was wealthier than Vietnam and Cambodia, at least.) It was probably my favorite country so far…..I just loved everything about it (except the sex trade.)
Some observations:
1. The picture of the king is everywhere. And don’t say anything bad about him, because you will go to jail.
2. I heard that in Thailand, the national anthem is played twice a day and everyone freezes during it and that was something I really wanted to see. However, I didn’t hear it in Pattaya or Ko Chang. I heard it my last day in Bangkok at 8 AM, but I was still in bed so I didn’t get to see everyone freeze.
3. The sex trade there is terrible. There are prostitutes all over the place, and tons of transgenders too. The sex trade is the worst thing about Thailand as a tourist, by far.
4. The country isn’t rich, but they have a really good transportation network. It’s easy to get around. And the really cheap cabs are great (just like the rest of Asia, I‘m talking 1-2 dollars for a 10 minute cab ride, and in our case, always 3-4 people in the cab, so think about how much that costs a person), although in Bangkok they sometimes try not to turn on the meter which is obnoxious, but you just don’t get in if they won’t turn it on.
5. Most expensive Pad Thai was 60 baht. And I ate it at least once a day, if not twice.
6. Chang is a crappy beer. Singha is better.
7. Thai language is tonal, so its very difficult. Took me a while to learn how to pronounce thank you in Thai.
8. Great beaches, but the water in Ko Chang wasn’t as clear as I thought. Now, my trip:
The first day, it took forever to get off the boat because Thai immigration took 5.5 hours to clear the ship. By 2, however, we were off. The ship docked at Laem Chabang, a port city 2 hours away from Bangkok. The night before, me and two other guys came up with the plan to go to an island called Ko Chang which is near Cambodia. We were debating for a while which beach town to go to, but we decided on Ko Chang because it’s a bus ride away (as opposed to a plane), looked really nice, and isn’t as touristy (or trashy) as some of the beach towns near Bangkok.
Since we got off the boat so late and knew we wouldn’t be able to get to Ko Chang that day, we decided to go to the closest city to the dock, Pattaya. We didn’t really want to go there, but we figured it would be the easiest way to get to Ko Chang, and we were only going to go for half a day anyway. Pattaya was absolutely terrible, don’t ever go there. The city is a beach town, which is obviously good, but its way too developed and the whole city is filled with old men and prostitutes. However, when we got there, we were able to get some good food (and the food in Thailand is great, I didn’t have a bad meal till my last day…the food tastes a lot like American thai food but was a little better most of the time) and get a minibus to take us to Ko Chang the next day (there was no public bus from Pattaya to Ko Chang) that would cost only 450 baht a person (which is around 15 bucks) so that wasn’t a bad deal. We got a hotel for 800 baht for the 3 of us and we all went to bed early because we were tired (even though we didn’t really do anything all day) and because we had to be up at 7:30 the next day for our bus.
We got up early for our 3.5 hour bus ride to Laem Ngop, where we would catch the ferry to Ko Chang. Just like in other Asian countries (minus Japan), the driver was absolutely crazy….he would drive in the shoulder, cut off cars going in the other direction…pretty much, he would do anything to get us to Laem Ngop as fast as possible, but that’s the norm in most Asian countries. Also, on the way, I noticed that there are pictures of the King everywhere on the road. I’ve heard that the King is very loved and respected, but the people don’t really have a choice since you go to jail if you say anything bad about him.
Anyway, in Laem Ngop, we caught a ferry for Ko Chang, which took around 30 minutes. Once we were there, we got in the back of a pickup with 10 other thai people (the pickups have umbrellas and two benches on each side, its pretty cool) and went to White Sand Beach. In Ko Chang, the cabs are pickups, and they just drop you off where you want to go…there is only one road and it just goes around the whole island, so the pickups just pick people up on the way and drop people off. It was only 50 baht (like $1.75) for the 10 minute cab ride….not bad at all.
At White Sand Beach, we ate some awesome Thai food and then got a hotel a little further down the island. We then went to the beach for the rest of the day. It was overcast but still awesome, the water was great, the beach was all sand, and there were barely any people on the beach. It was great. We then walked down the beach and checked out this awesome lagoon. After that, we saw some little hut with internet on the beach so we checked it out, it was around 2 minutes from our hotel walking. When we got there, we saw we could book a 4 island snorkeling tour for 500 baht (like 17 bucks), so we all thought we had to do it so we signed up. We then got dinner that night at the hotel right next to our bungalow which was real good (just like the other food.)
After that, we crossed the street and saw this little area with shops, so we checked it out. We saw a place where we could get massages for 350 baht for 90 minutes so me and Swain decided to do it while Eric decided he would rather chill instead. Anyway, the massages for both me and Swain started out with girls doing them, which was good because no one wants a massage from a guy. However, we go to the room after the foot massage and two guys walked in. Not only did it suck that a guy was massaging me, but the guy was terrible too. I was hurting the whole time, it sucked. Worst part of the trip.
Anyway, after that we go outside and see that Eric made friends with a bunch of random Thai guys. One of them spoke a little bit of English, the rest of them none, but of course he was still hanging out with him and they hooked him up with some food. It was classic. Then, it got awkward because one of the guys was having problems with some girl and he became obviously upset, but we hung out with these Thai guys for a while before going to bed.
The next day, we woke up early and a cab picked us up at 8 AM for the snorkeling tour. We went to the bottom tip of the island, then got on this old, sketchy looking boat for the tour. There were around 30-40 people on it, most of them being tourists. They hadn’t run the boat in about two weeks because the seas were too rough (since its rainy season), but that day was really nice so they finally ran it…good timing for us. Anyway, the ride to the islands sucked. It was really rocky, and I got really sea sick (funny, because I never get sea sick on the cruise ship.) I threw up off the side a bunch of times on the way to the islands, but once we got to the first island and we started snorkeling, I felt fine. We went to four different islands, all really close to each other, but they were around an hour south of Ko Chang so they were all really desolate, none of them had any people on them or anything.
The snorkeling was awesome, for each island, the boat would just drop its anchor and we would just drop off the boat and start snorkeling….no docks or anything. The water was slightly murky, but I still saw some really cool coral and lots of fish, it was awesome. Also, one thing that was awesome was that for the fourth island, we could swim or take their little motorboat they had attached to this really small, sandy beach. Of course, we went to it and it was great, just chillin on a beach on an island that no one lives on.
I took a sea sickness pill right before the trip back, so luckily I didn’t vomit on that, although I did still feel sick during most of the ride. When we got back, we went to White Sand Beach, got a hotel in the town (the town is really small, just has a few shops, small hotels, restaurants, bars and internet cafes….there is only one really big resort on the island), and went to dinner with some Australians we met on the snorkeling tour. They then said it would be funny to go to a Lady bar, and since we were in Thailand and didn’t really care, we were down and went. Pretty much, a lady bar is a normal bar, except it is just filled with transgender girls. It’s really weird, but it was kinda funny to go to just to see it. We just had a few drinks there while thinking about how funny it was that we were at a bar with a bunch of transgender girls, and then we left and went to bed.
Next day, we woke up, hit up the internet café, and then got a cab so we could go to Laem Ngop, then take a cab to Trat where we could catch a bus to Bangkok. We were gonna stay the day and then leave at night, but the weather sucked so we figured it would be better to just head to Bangkok and have a full night there. The bus ride from Trat to Bangkok was 6 hours, but the bus only cost 250 baht, or 8 dollars. Again, so cheap. The bus wasn’t bad, it was a bit uncomfortable but not horrible and it looked way nicer than I thought it would. They had a movie showing though, but it was in Thai. Anyway, we got to Bangkok, and then we met up with some guy named Roger from Cameroon who knows Swain’s sister. We then got a hotel room on Khao San Road, which is the big street for backpackers, and the hotel was only 175 baht a person. We then got some food, and then went to some club on Sukhimvit road because it was our friend’s birthday so a bunch of us got together in Bangkok to celebrate that.
On the next and final day, we met up with another one of our friends and the four of us went to check out the temples in Bangkok, which were awesome, I actually thought they were the best temples I’ve seen on this trip. We went to Wat Pho, which has a huge lying Buddha, and then we went to the Golden Mount which you have to climb up and at the top, there is a large golden cap (I probably didn’t use the right word to describe it.) We then got lunch and went to the Grand Palace, which is the home of the king. It was very expensive by Thai standards to get in (250 baht), but it was awesome. It was way better than what I expected, I actually think it was one of the best things I’ve seen on this entire trip. Before you go to the Grand Palace (which you can’t actually go in because the King lives in there), you walk by all of these amazing buildings, it was just such a cool site to see and was a really good way of ending the trip. After that, we got a van with 7 SAS people and made the two hour drive down to Laem Chabang to get back on the boat. But before that, we went into a Mister Donut and started chanting “Mister Donut….Mister Donut” and the girl working there was laughing so hard that she had to go into the back. It was classic.
Now, I'm back on the boat and this 6 day stretch from Thailand to India has been rough in terms of work. I've had two tests, and have one more test tomorrow. Our boat was also stopped near Singapore for almost a day, but it never docked and we were never able to get off the boat to go into Singapore. The boat was going at near full speed (which has never happened, we usually go 14 or 16 knots, we were going 24 most of yesterday) after Singapore because we went through the Straights of Mallaca, which has the most pirate activity of any area in the world (but they have never been able to get onto a cruise ship.) I think we are through it now though, I haven't checked the TV yet today to see our speed.
And I'll put up pictures tomorrow, I haven't even uploaded them yet but I'll definitely get some on here before I get to India (and I'll put some up from Vietnam as well.)
Some observations:
1. The picture of the king is everywhere. And don’t say anything bad about him, because you will go to jail.
2. I heard that in Thailand, the national anthem is played twice a day and everyone freezes during it and that was something I really wanted to see. However, I didn’t hear it in Pattaya or Ko Chang. I heard it my last day in Bangkok at 8 AM, but I was still in bed so I didn’t get to see everyone freeze.
3. The sex trade there is terrible. There are prostitutes all over the place, and tons of transgenders too. The sex trade is the worst thing about Thailand as a tourist, by far.
4. The country isn’t rich, but they have a really good transportation network. It’s easy to get around. And the really cheap cabs are great (just like the rest of Asia, I‘m talking 1-2 dollars for a 10 minute cab ride, and in our case, always 3-4 people in the cab, so think about how much that costs a person), although in Bangkok they sometimes try not to turn on the meter which is obnoxious, but you just don’t get in if they won’t turn it on.
5. Most expensive Pad Thai was 60 baht. And I ate it at least once a day, if not twice.
6. Chang is a crappy beer. Singha is better.
7. Thai language is tonal, so its very difficult. Took me a while to learn how to pronounce thank you in Thai.
8. Great beaches, but the water in Ko Chang wasn’t as clear as I thought. Now, my trip:
The first day, it took forever to get off the boat because Thai immigration took 5.5 hours to clear the ship. By 2, however, we were off. The ship docked at Laem Chabang, a port city 2 hours away from Bangkok. The night before, me and two other guys came up with the plan to go to an island called Ko Chang which is near Cambodia. We were debating for a while which beach town to go to, but we decided on Ko Chang because it’s a bus ride away (as opposed to a plane), looked really nice, and isn’t as touristy (or trashy) as some of the beach towns near Bangkok.
Since we got off the boat so late and knew we wouldn’t be able to get to Ko Chang that day, we decided to go to the closest city to the dock, Pattaya. We didn’t really want to go there, but we figured it would be the easiest way to get to Ko Chang, and we were only going to go for half a day anyway. Pattaya was absolutely terrible, don’t ever go there. The city is a beach town, which is obviously good, but its way too developed and the whole city is filled with old men and prostitutes. However, when we got there, we were able to get some good food (and the food in Thailand is great, I didn’t have a bad meal till my last day…the food tastes a lot like American thai food but was a little better most of the time) and get a minibus to take us to Ko Chang the next day (there was no public bus from Pattaya to Ko Chang) that would cost only 450 baht a person (which is around 15 bucks) so that wasn’t a bad deal. We got a hotel for 800 baht for the 3 of us and we all went to bed early because we were tired (even though we didn’t really do anything all day) and because we had to be up at 7:30 the next day for our bus.
We got up early for our 3.5 hour bus ride to Laem Ngop, where we would catch the ferry to Ko Chang. Just like in other Asian countries (minus Japan), the driver was absolutely crazy….he would drive in the shoulder, cut off cars going in the other direction…pretty much, he would do anything to get us to Laem Ngop as fast as possible, but that’s the norm in most Asian countries. Also, on the way, I noticed that there are pictures of the King everywhere on the road. I’ve heard that the King is very loved and respected, but the people don’t really have a choice since you go to jail if you say anything bad about him.
Anyway, in Laem Ngop, we caught a ferry for Ko Chang, which took around 30 minutes. Once we were there, we got in the back of a pickup with 10 other thai people (the pickups have umbrellas and two benches on each side, its pretty cool) and went to White Sand Beach. In Ko Chang, the cabs are pickups, and they just drop you off where you want to go…there is only one road and it just goes around the whole island, so the pickups just pick people up on the way and drop people off. It was only 50 baht (like $1.75) for the 10 minute cab ride….not bad at all.
At White Sand Beach, we ate some awesome Thai food and then got a hotel a little further down the island. We then went to the beach for the rest of the day. It was overcast but still awesome, the water was great, the beach was all sand, and there were barely any people on the beach. It was great. We then walked down the beach and checked out this awesome lagoon. After that, we saw some little hut with internet on the beach so we checked it out, it was around 2 minutes from our hotel walking. When we got there, we saw we could book a 4 island snorkeling tour for 500 baht (like 17 bucks), so we all thought we had to do it so we signed up. We then got dinner that night at the hotel right next to our bungalow which was real good (just like the other food.)
After that, we crossed the street and saw this little area with shops, so we checked it out. We saw a place where we could get massages for 350 baht for 90 minutes so me and Swain decided to do it while Eric decided he would rather chill instead. Anyway, the massages for both me and Swain started out with girls doing them, which was good because no one wants a massage from a guy. However, we go to the room after the foot massage and two guys walked in. Not only did it suck that a guy was massaging me, but the guy was terrible too. I was hurting the whole time, it sucked. Worst part of the trip.
Anyway, after that we go outside and see that Eric made friends with a bunch of random Thai guys. One of them spoke a little bit of English, the rest of them none, but of course he was still hanging out with him and they hooked him up with some food. It was classic. Then, it got awkward because one of the guys was having problems with some girl and he became obviously upset, but we hung out with these Thai guys for a while before going to bed.
The next day, we woke up early and a cab picked us up at 8 AM for the snorkeling tour. We went to the bottom tip of the island, then got on this old, sketchy looking boat for the tour. There were around 30-40 people on it, most of them being tourists. They hadn’t run the boat in about two weeks because the seas were too rough (since its rainy season), but that day was really nice so they finally ran it…good timing for us. Anyway, the ride to the islands sucked. It was really rocky, and I got really sea sick (funny, because I never get sea sick on the cruise ship.) I threw up off the side a bunch of times on the way to the islands, but once we got to the first island and we started snorkeling, I felt fine. We went to four different islands, all really close to each other, but they were around an hour south of Ko Chang so they were all really desolate, none of them had any people on them or anything.
The snorkeling was awesome, for each island, the boat would just drop its anchor and we would just drop off the boat and start snorkeling….no docks or anything. The water was slightly murky, but I still saw some really cool coral and lots of fish, it was awesome. Also, one thing that was awesome was that for the fourth island, we could swim or take their little motorboat they had attached to this really small, sandy beach. Of course, we went to it and it was great, just chillin on a beach on an island that no one lives on.
I took a sea sickness pill right before the trip back, so luckily I didn’t vomit on that, although I did still feel sick during most of the ride. When we got back, we went to White Sand Beach, got a hotel in the town (the town is really small, just has a few shops, small hotels, restaurants, bars and internet cafes….there is only one really big resort on the island), and went to dinner with some Australians we met on the snorkeling tour. They then said it would be funny to go to a Lady bar, and since we were in Thailand and didn’t really care, we were down and went. Pretty much, a lady bar is a normal bar, except it is just filled with transgender girls. It’s really weird, but it was kinda funny to go to just to see it. We just had a few drinks there while thinking about how funny it was that we were at a bar with a bunch of transgender girls, and then we left and went to bed.
Next day, we woke up, hit up the internet café, and then got a cab so we could go to Laem Ngop, then take a cab to Trat where we could catch a bus to Bangkok. We were gonna stay the day and then leave at night, but the weather sucked so we figured it would be better to just head to Bangkok and have a full night there. The bus ride from Trat to Bangkok was 6 hours, but the bus only cost 250 baht, or 8 dollars. Again, so cheap. The bus wasn’t bad, it was a bit uncomfortable but not horrible and it looked way nicer than I thought it would. They had a movie showing though, but it was in Thai. Anyway, we got to Bangkok, and then we met up with some guy named Roger from Cameroon who knows Swain’s sister. We then got a hotel room on Khao San Road, which is the big street for backpackers, and the hotel was only 175 baht a person. We then got some food, and then went to some club on Sukhimvit road because it was our friend’s birthday so a bunch of us got together in Bangkok to celebrate that.
On the next and final day, we met up with another one of our friends and the four of us went to check out the temples in Bangkok, which were awesome, I actually thought they were the best temples I’ve seen on this trip. We went to Wat Pho, which has a huge lying Buddha, and then we went to the Golden Mount which you have to climb up and at the top, there is a large golden cap (I probably didn’t use the right word to describe it.) We then got lunch and went to the Grand Palace, which is the home of the king. It was very expensive by Thai standards to get in (250 baht), but it was awesome. It was way better than what I expected, I actually think it was one of the best things I’ve seen on this entire trip. Before you go to the Grand Palace (which you can’t actually go in because the King lives in there), you walk by all of these amazing buildings, it was just such a cool site to see and was a really good way of ending the trip. After that, we got a van with 7 SAS people and made the two hour drive down to Laem Chabang to get back on the boat. But before that, we went into a Mister Donut and started chanting “Mister Donut….Mister Donut” and the girl working there was laughing so hard that she had to go into the back. It was classic.
Now, I'm back on the boat and this 6 day stretch from Thailand to India has been rough in terms of work. I've had two tests, and have one more test tomorrow. Our boat was also stopped near Singapore for almost a day, but it never docked and we were never able to get off the boat to go into Singapore. The boat was going at near full speed (which has never happened, we usually go 14 or 16 knots, we were going 24 most of yesterday) after Singapore because we went through the Straights of Mallaca, which has the most pirate activity of any area in the world (but they have never been able to get onto a cruise ship.) I think we are through it now though, I haven't checked the TV yet today to see our speed.
And I'll put up pictures tomorrow, I haven't even uploaded them yet but I'll definitely get some on here before I get to India (and I'll put some up from Vietnam as well.)
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Cambodia/Vietnam
My last port was Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, but I actually got two countries out of it because I first went to Cambodia. Overall, I would say it was the best port so far because I got to see two great countries out of it, and Cambodia was especially awesome.
After signing up for SAS, I saw that SAS offered a Cambodia trip in Vietnam. I didn’t really know much about Cambodia before SAS, but the more I learned about it, the more I wanted to go. I learned it was a very poor country that had a devastating past due to the Khmer Rouge in the 70s, but at the same time I learned it was a very eye opening place to go to that also has one of the world’s greatest historical sites. Knowing this, I decided to sign up for a Cambodia trip (SAS won’t let you go to Cambodia on your own) and see the country since I heard it was a great experience and because I really wanted to go to Angkor Wat after learning about it, it just looked way too awesome.
After I arrived in Vietnam, I had my SAS trip to Cambodia (my last SAS trip), so I didn’t even get to see Vietnam before I went to Cambodia. We went to the airport for our flight to Phnom Penh. The airport in HCMC was really nice, its brand new (as in, the new international terminal opened a month ago), but the plane we got on was sketchy. It was Vietnam Airlines, most of their planes look really new but ours looked old, and it was called a Fokker 70. That sketched me out, because it was called a Fokker 70. However, the flight was pretty smooth and only 30 minutes so that was good.
In Phnom Penh, we landed and got our visas. In Cambodia, you get the visa when you arrive instead of before (which is pretty sketchy) but after giving them $20 and a passport pic, I had my visa two minutes later and was good to go. We then went to the hotel, which was really nice and right across from the US embassy, which was massive. On the way to the hotel, we could see the streets of Phnom Penh, which looked very dirty and poor, but I expected that.
That day, all we did was take a sunset ferry ride up the Mekong River, which was pretty cool. We then ate and then I went to bed because I was real tired.
The next day, we started out by going to the Genocide Museum which was very eye opening. If you don’t know anything about Cambodian history, it is very sad and depressing. In the 70s, the Khmer Rouge were a group of Agrarian Communists that overtook the country and devastated the whole nation. They forced everyone out of the cities and made everyone work on the farms. They killed many people for being from cities, they killed people because they wore glasses, they killed people for being educated….pretty much, they would kill people for any reason they could come up with. During their reign, they killed 3 million people, bringing the population down to 7 million. Sadly, the US (along with China) actually supported the Khmer Rouge because the Khmer Rouge hated Vietnam…..pretty disgusting if you ask me, our country should be ashamed by that. Absolutely terrible. The Genocide Museum was a prison used by the Khmer Rouge to torture people, and in the museum, you saw rooms that the Khmer Rouge used to torture people as well as weapons they used and stories of those tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge.
After the Genocide Museum, which was by far the most depressing thing I’ve seen all trip, we went to another depressing site, the Killing Fields. At the Killing Fields, the Khmer Rouge would take the prisoners, take them there, and kill them. It wasn’t as depressing as the Genocide Museum, but it was still really depressing to walk around the fields where Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge killed many innocent civilians.
After seeing the sites where the Khmer Rouge did their damage, we went to the Russian Market. In Cambodia, the currency is the Riel, but the US Dollar is accepted by all. I think it’s actually sad for them that their economy is in such a bad state that they would prefer US money to their own and that the prices of everything is listed in US Dollars. Anyway, at the Market, I got some good stuff, including this awesome painting of Angkor Wat for only $15 dollars. I also noticed here how nice Cambodian people are. In China, the vendors are very aggressive and not that nice, but in Cambodia, even the vendors are really, really nice. Cambodian people, overall, are incredibly nice, I didn’t encounter a rude person the whole time I was there.
One thing about Cambodia is that everyone rides around on a moped. There are very few cars (but many of those few are Lexuses…talk about a huge gap between the rich and poor) but tons of mopeds, much different from anything I have ever seen.
After that, we ate, then went to the Royal Palace, which was really nice and cool. After that, we caught our flight to Siem Reap, which was sketchy as hell. It was on Siem Reap Airways, which seemed sketchy, but then I found out it was owned by Bangkok Air which made it seem less sketchy. However, we got to the plane and it was a propeller plane. We then took off and we flew through a thunderstorm. One of the bolts hit no less than 10 feet from the plane, it was sketchy as hell. Luckily, the flight was only 30 minutes, and it landed safely, so it was all good in the end.
In Siem Reap, we went to dinner then went to the hotel, which was also REALLY nice. Siem Reap is very touristy and is filled with hotels, not surprising because its so close to Angkor Wat. Siem Reap only has 100,000 people, but has a lot of flights going into it because Angkor Wat is turning into a bigger tourist destination.
Before I left for SAS, I looked up Siem Reap and heard there was a bar there called Angkor What? so I knew I had to go there, so after we checked in me and 3 other people decided to check out this great bar. We got in a tuk tuk, which is a moped with a cart behind it that holds four, and went to Angkor What? Siem Reap only has 100,000 people and is very tourist oriented, so the bars are pretty much all foreigners. We went to the area with bars and went to Angkor What? which was awesome. At this bar, people sign the wall so the walls are just covered with the signatures of people from all over the world that have made the journey to Siem Reap to check out Angkor Wat. This bar was really cool. It was filled with tourists which is usually annoying, but it was cool there for some reason. Also, even though it had tourists there, none of them were Americans (except us.) After the amazing Angkor What? we went to a bar across the street (and of course, in Cambodia, the drinks are CHEAP) and then we took a tuk tuk back to the hotel for the night.
The third (and final) day in Cambodia might have been my best day on the trip because Angkor Archaeological Park was so awesome. We started the day out by checking out Ta Prohm, which is a temple in ruins next to Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is just one of many things in Angkor Archaeological Park, and Ta Prohm was just another awesome thing in the park. After Ta Prohm (its where Tomb Raider was filmed), we went to the thing I’ve been looking forward to most on this whole entire trip, Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat totally lived up to my expectations, it was absolutely incredible. It’s the largest religious building in the world and its absolutely awesome. We went all around the interior of Angkor Wat and it was really cool. We even saw a Monkey in there, way too funny. After exploring the interior of Angkor Wat, we looked at it from the front where the view of it is absolutely awesome. I also saw a horse right in front of the reflection pool at Angkor Wat which was cool too.
After Angkor Wat, we went to the hotel to eat and then we went to Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom is another awesome temple in the Archaeological Park and its known for the faces on top of all of the structures. I loved Angkor Thom, it was even cooler than Angkor Wat which I loved as well. After that, we then caught our flight back to Ho Chi Minh City, which was on a brand new Boeing on Vietnam Airlines, much different than the old planes we flew for the first two flights.
Overall, my Cambodia trip was AWESOME. Even though I prefer traveling on non-SAS trips, I still had an awesome time in Cambodia and would recommend it to anyone. It’s a dirty country, but it’s very eye-opening, interesting, and the temples of Angkor are incredible. The people there are very nice, and I’m happy I went there not only because I learned a lot and saw some awesome things but also because I was able to help their economy which really needs the help.
Vietnam:
After getting to Vietnam, I went to the boat and then a few of us went out to eat. We went to Pho 2000, which my friend who was in Vietnam for 3 days already told me about because Bill Clinton ate there. We ate there, and the place is decorated in pictures of Bill Clinton eating at that restaurant. It was really funny. After that, we went to some club called Volcano where we chilled for a few hours. Sidenote: next to the boat, tons of mopeds try to offer you a ride. I definitely avoided these people and got a real cab instead. I’ll ride a tuk tuk, but I’m not getting on the back of some random moped in a city with crazy traffic. Anyway, after Volcano, we went to another club called Lush. We heard it was good, but we got there and it was around 80% gay so we left and then went back to the boat. I have no problem with gay people, but I have no interest in going to a gay club, and no one else really did either.
The next day, we just walked around Saigon (it’s officially called Ho Chi Minh City, but everyone calls it Saigon.) First of all, Saigon was awesome, I liked it (and Vietnam) much more than I thought I would. Saigon doesn’t have any great tourist attractions (except some pagodas and the Reunification Palace, which I drove by and thought was hideous) but its still a really cool city. US Dollars are accepted everywhere, but they have their own country, which has the greatest name of any currency on the planet, the Dong. You can come up with so many immature jokes with the name of Vietnam’s currency, it’s great.
Also, in Saigon, when you cross the street, you just walk into traffic. The traffic never stops flowing, so you have no choice. The cars and mopeds (more mopeds than cars, just like in Cambodia, but Vietnam has more cars than Cambodia) just stop for you (or in reality, they just swerve around you), so its okay, but it’s a little scary at first. Also, Vietnam is poor, but Cambodia is way worse off. Saigon is not clean, but much cleaner than Phnom Penh.
I also had no idea that they use Roman letters in Vietnam until I got there, but yet they do, which is obviously different from the other Asian countries. Still, Vietnam puts lots of weird accents on top of the letters.
Overall, I really liked Saigon my one full day there. The food was the best food I ate on this trip, the people are nice, and I just like the vibe of the city. It’s a really cool place and I would go back (and back to Vietnam, especially since I really want to go to Hanoi, Halong Bay, and the Cu Chi tunnels near Saigon which I didn’t have time to visit
My second and last day in Vietnam, me and 4 other people got a tour of the Mekong Delta which is 2 hours away from Saigon. For $39 a person, we got a guided tour all day, transportation to and from the Mekong from our boat, and got to take a little boat around the Mekong and see different islands and stuff on it. It was awesome, the Mekong Delta was definitely worth checking out. We got to see how the people down there live, which was really cool, and it was really nice down there too. We also got a tour of some place that makes different foods and a brick factory, which might sound weird but it was actually pretty tight. After the Mekong Delta, we then went back into Saigon, got dinner, then went back to the boat. Next up for us is Thailand, which I can’t wait for. We are waiting till we get there to buy our plane tickets to a beach (most likely Phuket), but if we can’t get anything we will just go to Ko Samet for a few days with Bangkok on the first and last days.
Here are some Cambodia pictures, I'll put up Vietnam pictures later:
Houses on the water in Phnom Penh
Royal Palace in Phnom Penh
Angkor Wat
Me and Eric with the tallest peak of Angkor Wat
Faces of Angkor Thom
Me and Eric with some kids at Angkor Thom
Angkor Thom
After signing up for SAS, I saw that SAS offered a Cambodia trip in Vietnam. I didn’t really know much about Cambodia before SAS, but the more I learned about it, the more I wanted to go. I learned it was a very poor country that had a devastating past due to the Khmer Rouge in the 70s, but at the same time I learned it was a very eye opening place to go to that also has one of the world’s greatest historical sites. Knowing this, I decided to sign up for a Cambodia trip (SAS won’t let you go to Cambodia on your own) and see the country since I heard it was a great experience and because I really wanted to go to Angkor Wat after learning about it, it just looked way too awesome.
After I arrived in Vietnam, I had my SAS trip to Cambodia (my last SAS trip), so I didn’t even get to see Vietnam before I went to Cambodia. We went to the airport for our flight to Phnom Penh. The airport in HCMC was really nice, its brand new (as in, the new international terminal opened a month ago), but the plane we got on was sketchy. It was Vietnam Airlines, most of their planes look really new but ours looked old, and it was called a Fokker 70. That sketched me out, because it was called a Fokker 70. However, the flight was pretty smooth and only 30 minutes so that was good.
In Phnom Penh, we landed and got our visas. In Cambodia, you get the visa when you arrive instead of before (which is pretty sketchy) but after giving them $20 and a passport pic, I had my visa two minutes later and was good to go. We then went to the hotel, which was really nice and right across from the US embassy, which was massive. On the way to the hotel, we could see the streets of Phnom Penh, which looked very dirty and poor, but I expected that.
That day, all we did was take a sunset ferry ride up the Mekong River, which was pretty cool. We then ate and then I went to bed because I was real tired.
The next day, we started out by going to the Genocide Museum which was very eye opening. If you don’t know anything about Cambodian history, it is very sad and depressing. In the 70s, the Khmer Rouge were a group of Agrarian Communists that overtook the country and devastated the whole nation. They forced everyone out of the cities and made everyone work on the farms. They killed many people for being from cities, they killed people because they wore glasses, they killed people for being educated….pretty much, they would kill people for any reason they could come up with. During their reign, they killed 3 million people, bringing the population down to 7 million. Sadly, the US (along with China) actually supported the Khmer Rouge because the Khmer Rouge hated Vietnam…..pretty disgusting if you ask me, our country should be ashamed by that. Absolutely terrible. The Genocide Museum was a prison used by the Khmer Rouge to torture people, and in the museum, you saw rooms that the Khmer Rouge used to torture people as well as weapons they used and stories of those tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge.
After the Genocide Museum, which was by far the most depressing thing I’ve seen all trip, we went to another depressing site, the Killing Fields. At the Killing Fields, the Khmer Rouge would take the prisoners, take them there, and kill them. It wasn’t as depressing as the Genocide Museum, but it was still really depressing to walk around the fields where Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge killed many innocent civilians.
After seeing the sites where the Khmer Rouge did their damage, we went to the Russian Market. In Cambodia, the currency is the Riel, but the US Dollar is accepted by all. I think it’s actually sad for them that their economy is in such a bad state that they would prefer US money to their own and that the prices of everything is listed in US Dollars. Anyway, at the Market, I got some good stuff, including this awesome painting of Angkor Wat for only $15 dollars. I also noticed here how nice Cambodian people are. In China, the vendors are very aggressive and not that nice, but in Cambodia, even the vendors are really, really nice. Cambodian people, overall, are incredibly nice, I didn’t encounter a rude person the whole time I was there.
One thing about Cambodia is that everyone rides around on a moped. There are very few cars (but many of those few are Lexuses…talk about a huge gap between the rich and poor) but tons of mopeds, much different from anything I have ever seen.
After that, we ate, then went to the Royal Palace, which was really nice and cool. After that, we caught our flight to Siem Reap, which was sketchy as hell. It was on Siem Reap Airways, which seemed sketchy, but then I found out it was owned by Bangkok Air which made it seem less sketchy. However, we got to the plane and it was a propeller plane. We then took off and we flew through a thunderstorm. One of the bolts hit no less than 10 feet from the plane, it was sketchy as hell. Luckily, the flight was only 30 minutes, and it landed safely, so it was all good in the end.
In Siem Reap, we went to dinner then went to the hotel, which was also REALLY nice. Siem Reap is very touristy and is filled with hotels, not surprising because its so close to Angkor Wat. Siem Reap only has 100,000 people, but has a lot of flights going into it because Angkor Wat is turning into a bigger tourist destination.
Before I left for SAS, I looked up Siem Reap and heard there was a bar there called Angkor What? so I knew I had to go there, so after we checked in me and 3 other people decided to check out this great bar. We got in a tuk tuk, which is a moped with a cart behind it that holds four, and went to Angkor What? Siem Reap only has 100,000 people and is very tourist oriented, so the bars are pretty much all foreigners. We went to the area with bars and went to Angkor What? which was awesome. At this bar, people sign the wall so the walls are just covered with the signatures of people from all over the world that have made the journey to Siem Reap to check out Angkor Wat. This bar was really cool. It was filled with tourists which is usually annoying, but it was cool there for some reason. Also, even though it had tourists there, none of them were Americans (except us.) After the amazing Angkor What? we went to a bar across the street (and of course, in Cambodia, the drinks are CHEAP) and then we took a tuk tuk back to the hotel for the night.
The third (and final) day in Cambodia might have been my best day on the trip because Angkor Archaeological Park was so awesome. We started the day out by checking out Ta Prohm, which is a temple in ruins next to Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is just one of many things in Angkor Archaeological Park, and Ta Prohm was just another awesome thing in the park. After Ta Prohm (its where Tomb Raider was filmed), we went to the thing I’ve been looking forward to most on this whole entire trip, Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat totally lived up to my expectations, it was absolutely incredible. It’s the largest religious building in the world and its absolutely awesome. We went all around the interior of Angkor Wat and it was really cool. We even saw a Monkey in there, way too funny. After exploring the interior of Angkor Wat, we looked at it from the front where the view of it is absolutely awesome. I also saw a horse right in front of the reflection pool at Angkor Wat which was cool too.
After Angkor Wat, we went to the hotel to eat and then we went to Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom is another awesome temple in the Archaeological Park and its known for the faces on top of all of the structures. I loved Angkor Thom, it was even cooler than Angkor Wat which I loved as well. After that, we then caught our flight back to Ho Chi Minh City, which was on a brand new Boeing on Vietnam Airlines, much different than the old planes we flew for the first two flights.
Overall, my Cambodia trip was AWESOME. Even though I prefer traveling on non-SAS trips, I still had an awesome time in Cambodia and would recommend it to anyone. It’s a dirty country, but it’s very eye-opening, interesting, and the temples of Angkor are incredible. The people there are very nice, and I’m happy I went there not only because I learned a lot and saw some awesome things but also because I was able to help their economy which really needs the help.
Vietnam:
After getting to Vietnam, I went to the boat and then a few of us went out to eat. We went to Pho 2000, which my friend who was in Vietnam for 3 days already told me about because Bill Clinton ate there. We ate there, and the place is decorated in pictures of Bill Clinton eating at that restaurant. It was really funny. After that, we went to some club called Volcano where we chilled for a few hours. Sidenote: next to the boat, tons of mopeds try to offer you a ride. I definitely avoided these people and got a real cab instead. I’ll ride a tuk tuk, but I’m not getting on the back of some random moped in a city with crazy traffic. Anyway, after Volcano, we went to another club called Lush. We heard it was good, but we got there and it was around 80% gay so we left and then went back to the boat. I have no problem with gay people, but I have no interest in going to a gay club, and no one else really did either.
The next day, we just walked around Saigon (it’s officially called Ho Chi Minh City, but everyone calls it Saigon.) First of all, Saigon was awesome, I liked it (and Vietnam) much more than I thought I would. Saigon doesn’t have any great tourist attractions (except some pagodas and the Reunification Palace, which I drove by and thought was hideous) but its still a really cool city. US Dollars are accepted everywhere, but they have their own country, which has the greatest name of any currency on the planet, the Dong. You can come up with so many immature jokes with the name of Vietnam’s currency, it’s great.
Also, in Saigon, when you cross the street, you just walk into traffic. The traffic never stops flowing, so you have no choice. The cars and mopeds (more mopeds than cars, just like in Cambodia, but Vietnam has more cars than Cambodia) just stop for you (or in reality, they just swerve around you), so its okay, but it’s a little scary at first. Also, Vietnam is poor, but Cambodia is way worse off. Saigon is not clean, but much cleaner than Phnom Penh.
I also had no idea that they use Roman letters in Vietnam until I got there, but yet they do, which is obviously different from the other Asian countries. Still, Vietnam puts lots of weird accents on top of the letters.
Overall, I really liked Saigon my one full day there. The food was the best food I ate on this trip, the people are nice, and I just like the vibe of the city. It’s a really cool place and I would go back (and back to Vietnam, especially since I really want to go to Hanoi, Halong Bay, and the Cu Chi tunnels near Saigon which I didn’t have time to visit
My second and last day in Vietnam, me and 4 other people got a tour of the Mekong Delta which is 2 hours away from Saigon. For $39 a person, we got a guided tour all day, transportation to and from the Mekong from our boat, and got to take a little boat around the Mekong and see different islands and stuff on it. It was awesome, the Mekong Delta was definitely worth checking out. We got to see how the people down there live, which was really cool, and it was really nice down there too. We also got a tour of some place that makes different foods and a brick factory, which might sound weird but it was actually pretty tight. After the Mekong Delta, we then went back into Saigon, got dinner, then went back to the boat. Next up for us is Thailand, which I can’t wait for. We are waiting till we get there to buy our plane tickets to a beach (most likely Phuket), but if we can’t get anything we will just go to Ko Samet for a few days with Bangkok on the first and last days.
Here are some Cambodia pictures, I'll put up Vietnam pictures later:
Houses on the water in Phnom Penh
Royal Palace in Phnom Penh
Angkor Wat
Me and Eric with the tallest peak of Angkor Wat
Faces of Angkor Thom
Me and Eric with some kids at Angkor Thom
Angkor Thom
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