The first time I was in Bangkok I thought it was the worst city I have ever been to. I only spent one night there so i was probably a bit harsh but i just thought that it was really crap and incredibly dirty. This time I went back for 4 nights and loved the place. I guess I had more time to experience the finer parts, like Siam, but I actually did nothing in Bangkok. Knowing that it was the last stop before heading home, all i wanted to do was relax and take it easy. I went to the Paragon in Siam, Central World and to some electronics outlet that was just amazing. But that was about it. I did go to see Get Smart in one of the cinemas which was quite entertaining. The weird thing was that they play some tribute to the king before the start of every movie and every ones has to stand up as if its the national anthem. Very annoying as I spilt half of my popcorn standing up. I stayed at the Lub D Hostel in Silom which was very similar to the WakeUp in Sydney and just as nice. An excellent place to stay in Bangkok and twice as good as some of the fancy hotels in the area.
Siem Reap
Siem Reap is a small town about 6 hours north of Phnom Penh. It’s famous as its the closest town to the Angkor temples and also because it’s a pretty nice place in its own right. It’s very tourist friendly which I found to be a good thing, all the shops, bars and cafes were conveniently placed right beside each other so you don’t have to look very hard to get some good food. The Angkor temples located outside of the town are just stunning. I would put them as probably the best thing I’ve seen since I’ve started travelling – along with the Golden Gate Bridge, the Great Barrier Reef and the temples of Kyoto. We spent 3 nights in Siem Reap and only got to see a few of the temples, you could easily spend a month here if you wanted to explore the entire area.
We got the bus from Phnom Penh which was terrible. The seats were tiny and I always get stuck behind some old guy who insists on pushing his seat back as far as possible so I end up with absolutely no leg room at all. I hate the bus!!!! We arrived in Siem Reap pretty late on a monday night and the scenes at the bus station were incredible. Outside the gates there were about 40 or 50 tuk-tuk drivers shouting and pushing each other just to grab our attention. Security guards were preventing them from getting up close to us. All this for a dollar – crazy. We stayed at the Siem Reap hostel which is a great place to stay in by the way, it’s more like a hotel than a hostel and very enjoyable. The next day we went to Ta Prohm and Angkor Thom. You can get a 3 day pass into the parks for $40 which is expensive for the area but excellent value for what you get to see. Ta Prohm was nice but the temple has been destroyed over the years so you can only see the ruins and the giant trees growing out of them. Still worth a visit though. Angkor Thom is definitely better. It contains the Bayon, which is an amzing piece of architecture as well as the Terrace of Elephants and the Terrace of The Leper King. I was able to buy a historical book from one of the touts around the parks for $10 which was a great bargain (he was asking for $25). The book was better than a guide really.
We spent the entire second day at the main attraction of the area – Angkor Wat. This place is spectacular. The entire temple area is built as a microcosm of the Hindu universe, the moat around the outside signifies the earths oceans while the temple and towers represent the earth and the mountains. Over the years the city has been inhabited by hindus and buddhists and so has combinations of both their cultures. It’s possible to spend weeks studying this place, the bas-relief sections around the perimiter of the second layer are amazing and tell different stories from each period. The innermost layer was closed for repair work on the day that we were there so we weren’t able to climb to the top of the main tower, which was a pity. We seem to be having some bad luck with these kinds of things.
The next day we got the 6 hour bus back to Phnom Penh for our flight to Bangkok. This bus had no air-con and again I was stuck behind some old guy who wanted to push his seat back as far as possible. Nightmare.
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia and probably the beginning of the end of this trip. We took the bus from Saigon, which took about 6 hours. You kind of have to take the bus as you need to get your visa at the border, which was really badly handled by our bus company but we got in there anyways. It’s not a great city, Cambodia itself is very poor and Phnom Penh isn’t very different. There are hundreds of temples around the city but we saved ourselves for the Angkor temples further north at Siem Reap. Because of this, we only spent one night here in Phnom Penh. One thing I did notice about Phnom Penh is that the people here are nicer than the people in Vietnam. In the morning I went to the Tuol Sleng genocide museum which was right across the street from our hostel. Cambodia has an incredible history and the period in the seventies under the Khmer Rouge regime is particularly horrific. This era is highlighted in the Tuol Sleng museum. Originally a high school, it served as the Security Prison 21 (S-21) under Pol Pots reign. Around 20,000 people were imprisoned here in brutal conditions. Most were tortured, killed and then sent to the Killing Fields outside of the city. Most of the people imprisoned were cambodians but it also included thais, vietnamese, americans, british, new zealanders and australians. The prisoners were men, women and children.
The museum still contains the tourture chambers and photographs depicting prisoners after the treatment. It also contains photographs of the majority of the prisoners as they were being admitted, as they were being beaten and as they lay there starving to death. It’s a brutal insight into the countries recent past. Human skulls brought back from the killing fields are on display as are stories of some of the survivors of Pol Pots reign.
After seeing this I was determined to go see the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek, around 15km to the south west of the city – $5 return on a tuk-tuk. This is where the majority of prisoners from Tuol Sleng were brought. Some were already dead and thrown into mass grave sites out here, some were beheaded and some were just buried alive, with chemicals thrown on them to quicken their deaths. It’s a grissly story that seems out of place with the pleasant countryside that lies there now. The large white tower near the entrance, a buddhist stupa, contains more than 5000 human skulls, unearthed from the graves.
1.5 million Cambodians died under Pol Pots ‘social engineering’ – an extreme communist idea for an agrarian utopia where cities were abolished and everyone lived and worked in the countryside. Those who opposed were killed and his slogan to the city people was ‘to keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss’. Eventually he was removed from power in 1979 after an invasion by the vietnamese. He died in 1998 and was never put on trial for his crimes.
Ho Chi Minh City
I’m not too sure what to make of Ho Chi Minh City. I heard that it was crazy and action packed but I didn’t find it too different from Hanoi. The city was originally called Saigon but was renamed Ho Chi Minh City when the North vietnamese soldiers took over the south after the american war. It’s still called Saigon by the majority of the people in the country so I’m going to call it Saigon too – it’s easier to spell. Ho Chi Minh was the founder of communism in vietnam, he was educated in France and later came back to vietnam to free the colony from french rule and so the people see him as the father of the country. While in Saigon, we stayed in the Pham Ngu Lao area of District 1 which is backpacker central. We had accomodation at this little guest house which turned out to be great. Very clean, comfortable and the staff were excellent. All for $10 a night.
The city is definitely lively – there are bars, cafes and restaraunts everywhere and of course motorbikes. On the Friday we went to see the Reunification Palace which is where the northern vietnamese soldiers went to seize the south. However, we weeren’t allowed in there. We had no idea why until the next day when someone said that an ex-prime minister had died and his funeral was being held in the palace later on that day. That was probably the reason why the war museum was also closed. A bad day for sightseeing.
We booked a day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels ouside of the city. These tunnels were built by the vietnamese to initially help in fighting against the french and were then expanded during the american war. They are absolutely amazing to see. The village of Cu Chi is only about 2 hours outside of Saigon, the main base for american soldiers during the war, so having these tunnels to bring weapons and supplies to the vilagers and the viet cong was vital in helping the north win the war. We were quitelucky in that our tour guide for the day actually fought in the war, with the americans agains the communist north. He explained the tunnel system excellently and what it was like for the south vietnamese soldiers finding out that the people that they were trying to protect were actually helping the north.
He explained that the south vietnamese government only controlled the cities and the main towns in south vietnam (the educated people) whereas the people in the countryside were easily manipulated by the propoganda of the north. As a result they often declined to feed and help the souths soldiers, forcing the soldiers to take food and aid with the use of force. This news would filter through to other villages causing a lot of resentment towards the south. It seemed to be very difficult for them even in areas that were supposed to have total control.
The tunnels themselves are crazy. They’re brilliantly designed and almost impossible to spot from the ground level. I tried to fit down one and couldn’t, they’re tiny. Some of the tunnels in the area have been expanded or increased to double the size just for tourists like myself. Great idea as you can travel up to 100 metres through one section and even at double the size of the tunnels during the war, they are still pretty tight. Claustophobia would be a major concern.
After the tunnels we were taken to the Cao Dai temple, home of the eccentric Cao Daism religion. Cao Daism combines pretty much every religion into one – Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, Buddha, Confucius are all considered prophets of Cao Daism. Sure, why not?
Hoi An
Hoi An was out intermediate stop on the way from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh. I’ve no idea why i picked Hoi An but the guide book said it was a nice place to visit. The trip there was an ordeal. The vietnamese trains are awful, the exact opposite of the shinkansen – they are slow, dirty and uncomfortable. Our train left Hanoi at around 7pm and was due to get to Danang at around midday of the next day. Overnight trains are generally not very comfortable and we weren’t expecting any better from this one. Our beds were in a 6-bed berth which also had an australian couple (on their way to the Isle Of Man!!!) and a bunch of vietnamese randoms. The vietnamese seem to book one bed for the entire family which is crazy. The trains are so loud that it was impossible to get sleep. At around 8am the inspector came into our berth and told us to get off the train. We assumed the next stop was Danang. It wasn’t. He had told us to get off in Hue which is 3 hours north of Danang. Bastard!! We were pissed as we had to wait 3 hours in Hue to get the next train and pay extra for the ticket. When we finally got to Danang the bus we booked wasn’t there so we had to pay extra to get a taxi to Hoi An. Very stressful stuff. But Hoi An itself turned out to be great.
Its much smaller than Hanoi so you dont get hassled every couple of metres. There’s a much more relaxed vibe about the place and its very tourist friendly. Our accomodation was also top notch. We only stayed here for a night but could have stayed for a lot longer. It’s a really nice part of vietnam to see. The area around Danang is also pretty nice and it contains the famous China Beach where the US soldiers used to hang out during the war – i vaguely remember the tv show of the same name. We rented some bikes to get a bit of exercise and head to the nearby Cua Dai beach which is about 5km away. We went the wrong way for about 10km so we ended up getting more exercise that we anticipated. I was knackered after it.
We decided to fly to Ho Chi Minh from Danang. It only costs $55 and takes an hour compared to $45 on the train and 22 hours. Easiest decision ever.
Halong Bay
Halong Bay is one of the main tourist attractions in Vietnam – it’s the image of the country that you see in the Jetstar ads. Its famous as it’s world heritage listed for the 2000 or so islands that surround the bay. We booked our tour in Hanoi with Handspan travel and left the city at around 8am. It’s a 3hour drive to the bay so you need to make sure you book a tour with a company that has decent transport – especially air-con. Along the way you get to see some of the amazing vietnamese countryside – the paddy fields, the small villages and of course thousands of motorbikes. As it was the weekend Halong Bat was packed with tourists, mainly americans. The harbour contained about 25 to 30 boats and everyone of them was sailing that day. If you prefer the quiet, then a weekday trip would probably be better. We had only booked a day trip as we were short on time but the best thing is to probably book a trip where you spend a night or two on the boat.
Our itinerary was pretty brief, just about 4 to 5 hours sailing and then back to Hanoi. First off, we were taken out to this floating village between a number of islands. It’s a really amazing place with about 100 people living there. They get their food and supplies pretty easily from the mainland so they’re quite happy. We stopped here for lunch and then set out a quick trip around a number of the other islands. As there are around 2000 of them in the area you’re not going to see all of them even in a week so we just did the main ones. We got to stop off at one of the islands and visit one of the caves. You basically go in on one side of the island, spend 30 minutes in the cave and then exit on the other side of the island where your boat is waiting to pick you up. Neat!!
Halong Bay is a beautiful place and it is definitely worth a visit from Hanoi. The day trip is a decent option if you’re stuck on time but you’re probably better off to at least spend one night out on a boat.
Hanoi
Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, is absolutely chaotic. A great introduction back into south-east asia but it did test my stress levels. We flew from Tokyo to Seoul and then got a connecting flight to Hanoi. First off, this was a terrible flight. The korean airlines plane was tiny, there was no leg room and the food was shockingly bad. We got into Hanoi at around 10:30 pm and got our visas at immigration. We had accommodation booked in the Bodega Hotel in the Old Quarter and they had emailed me to say that they were sending a driver to pick us up at the airport for free. This would help us to avoid all the touts and scams at the airport that try and lure you into another hotel. I wasn’t anticipating any issues with this arrangement but i was wrong.
The taxi driver was an asshole, there’s just no other way to describe him. Even though he worked for the Bodega hotel he still tried to take us to a rival hotel and no matter how much i roared at him to take us to the Bodega he still tried everything to get us to another place. Eventually he gave in and drove us around the city for about 45 minutes trying to raise the cost of the taxi trip. When we got to the hotel, I had to threaten him again just to get our luggage from the boot of the car and then he asked for $30 for the taxi trip. What an asshole. I didnt pay him a penny. When we got into the hotel we found out that they had screwed up our reservation. Instead of getting 2 single rooms for 2 nights they had reserved 1 single room for 4 nights. This meant that I spent the first night in a dorm room with 2 other guys and a bunch of cockroaches. I was fuming. A terrible introduction to Vietnam.
Thankfully, things improved a lot on the next day. I was given my single room and it was much better, no cockroaches either. I’m realising that the day staff in these hotels are much better and more courteous than the night staff. The weather in vietnam is incredibly hot and humid. It’s tough to even walk a couple of km’s in this heat but we spent the day walking around Hanoi. The streets of Hanoi are cray, all you see are motorbikes everywhere. They don’t seem to follow any rules and just crossing the street is an adventure. A minor miracle that neither of us got knocked down in our few days here but it was enough to get us to go back to the hotel and book some travel insurance asap.
There’s not a lot to see and do in Hanoi. The main attraction in the area is in Halong Bay, 3 1/2 hours east of the city or Sapa in the north. We booked our trip on the Saturday with Handspan travel. We also booked our seat on the train from Hanoi to Hoi An and we got to see Ireland lose to the All Blacks, again, in an Aussie bar. One of the highlights of Hanoi is the cheap beer. ‘Bia Hanoi’ only costs about $1 in the majority of places and you can draught beer for cheaper in some pubs. The food here is excellent as well. The traditional dish is Pho, basically noodles with broth and either chicked beef or pork. You can get a bowl for about $2. Great value. It’s so great to go out on a saturday night, get good food and have 5 or 6 beers and pay only around $10.
Walking down the street, we were approached by local vietnamese people about every 10 seconds. Everyone of them says ‘Hey, guy, motobike’ or “you want book” and then they come up close to you and ask if you want marijuana, heroin or opium. It’s hilarious. Hanoi is just crazy and apparently Saigon is crazier so that should be fun.
Tokyo
Tokyo is crazy. It’s such an amzing place to visit. First off, it’s gigantic. One of the biggest, if not the biggest cities in the world. The Tokyo Metropolis area contains around 13 million people and it is definitely the busiest city that I have ever been to. Every district that we went to was crammed full of peolpe, the subway was full all the time, shops were packed out to the door and nobody even cared. We spent 5 nights here and I would have loved to have spent another 5. It’s that good.
We arrived in Tokyo via the shinkansen train from Kyoto – I love the shinkansen. We spent the first 2 nights at the Sakura Hotel in Ikebukuro on the nort-western side of the city. Not the fanciest district in Tokyo but we’re finding that accommodation in japan is very scarce if you dont book well in advance. Our policy of “winging it” definitely wont suffice for much longer in Asia. This hotel had managed to lose our reservation but as they admitted to the error we ended up getting 2 single rooms for the price of the twin that we had booked. An excellent start already. The weather here wasn’t the best. Cloudy, overcast and rainy pretty much all the time so we were limited in what we could do and see. We spent the first few days walking around the city, exploring the Shinjuku, Ebisu and Ginza areas. Nothing spectacular in these areas at first glance. We did go the Sony building in Ginza which displays all their latest products before they hit the market. Some cool gadgets on display like new vaios, bravias and cameras but i was expecting to see a playstation 10 or something. On the Monday night we went to a strange mexican sports bar to see Japan beat Oman 3-0 in a world cup qualifier. A poor game that Japan controlled throughout but if Japan qualify from their group then they will meet Australia in the next group stage. Interesting!!
We wanted to stay in a capsule hotel for a night just for the experience so we decided to leave Ikebukuro and head to the Akasaka district in the south. This is a much nicer area and a better place to base yourself while in Tokyo as it’s near all the main subway lines. We heard of a decent capsule hotel here that had beds for about YEN3000 and decent common areas. It’s worth noting that it was absolutely pouring rain on this day, non-stop, for about 9 hours. We spent around 3 hours out in this rain looking, in-vain, for this god damn capsule hotel. We went down every single side street and alley way in the area before giving up at around 7pm. A disastrous day. I’m still convinced that hotel is there somewhere. We ended up going back to Ikebukuo and staying another 2 nights in Sakura. Not the worst thing to ever happen but I would have liked to have experienced another district for a while.
The weather over the next few days was slightly better. Still cloudy but at least it wasn’t raining. The next morning we went to Tokyo Tower, an uglier taller rip-off of the Eiffel Tower. It looks like a giant communications tower as its got satellites coming out of it everywhere, plus its painted orange and white!! Apparently thats an international standard for something. You can take an elevator trip to a point about half-ways up the tower and get a great panoramic view of the city. From here, even on a cloudy day, you will grasp just how big this city is. It’s like 10 cities rolled into one. On a clear day you can even see Mt Fuji. Next stop was Roppongi Hills, a shopping and entertainment area in the South-West. It’s reminiscent of a slightly larger World Square. It’s got cinemas, shops, restaraunts and art galleries on the lower levels of each building but the higher levels are made up of offices and apartments. It’s also got this statue of a giant spider out in front of it!! It’s weird. I really don’t get art.
That night we went to Shibuya. This is the part of the city that you will usually see in films and tv shows. The giant tv screens, neon signs, the massive clothes stores complete with happy smiling shoppers, and the very fashionable young japanese people hanging out at every starbucks, street corner and shop entrance. Shibuya at night time is a must see. In fact, everything in Tokyo is better at night time. When the lights come on, it just seems to be a better place. And Shibuya has lots of lights. As soon as you step out of the train station, you’ll be amazed. The main area, Shibuya crossing, will be directly in front of you and you should spend 10 minutes here just watching all the people cross the streets. There are about 7 or 8 pedestrian crossings that are simultaneoulsy linked, when one goes green they all go green and thousands of people just swarm the streets. It’s amazing. Shibuya is my favourite part of Tokyo and I spent a lot of time here, just walking around and doing some shopping – Soccer shop Kamo is 4 levels of soccer goods, one of the best stores i have ever been in.
The next day was our last full day in Japan. I went back to Shibuya and bought myself a few souvenirs – A sweet FC Tokyo jersey. Not the nicer Kyoto Sanga one that I was looking for but it’ll do. I could easily spend $5000 in Shibuya and half of it in Soccer Shop Kamo. The fact that they kept showing united beating chelsea was also very appealing to me. We decided to have one last look for a capsule hotle before leaving Tokyo. We knew of another one in Asakusa in the north east of the city that was quite cheap and good value. This one was right outside the train station so it was much easier to find. I recommend that anyone visiting japan should spend a night in a capsule hotel. Note – women are not allowed in a lot of them so choose carefully. They are definitely an experience. “Space-Age Coffins” is what the guide book calls them. They’re quite comfortable and more spacious than I thought and each capsule comes with an alarm clock, tv and radio. If you’re stuck for a place to stay or just want to cheap it, then a capsule hotel is a good choice. You do meet some weird old japanese people in the common areas but overall i was very happy with the place. We were put in the same floor as some english guys and a few scandinavians so i reckon they herd all the gaijin into the same floor, which is fine by me. Security is definitely an issue in these places so you dont want to have anything too valuable with you. It was an interesting way to spend my last night in Japan.
Another option for a cheap nights accommodation in Tokyo is an internet cafe. We went to one in Shinjuku on Thursday night to print off some vietnam visa stuff. It’s possible to rent a cubicle at one of these places for about $20 a night and you get free internet, free dvds, free magazines, free dinks and a ps2 in the cubicle. Excellent value if you’re stuck!! And if you dont have a lot of baggage.
I could easily spend a month in Japan. Kansai is excllent and Tokyo is excellent so i’m delighted with this trip. Communication can be difficult at times but you will get your message across and we were never left cursing anything. The people are incredibly friendly and polite, more-so outside of Tokyo but thats to be expected. The food is amazing, you’re not limited to sushi/sashimi, you can get steak and its not that expensive. The beer is good and the sake is strong. An excellent place for a holiday mainly because its so different than what i’ve become used to.
Nara
Nara was one of the first capitals of Japan so needless to say, the main attractions here are……… temples. The place is full of them. But they’re good. Nara is less than an hour from Kyoto and about 20 minutes from Osaka so it’s worth coming here for a day or two.
The best thing about Nara was the accommodation. We stayed at Oji, another 10 minutes on from Nara, at a traditional japanese style inn called the Yougendo Guesthouse. Even though, its traditional japanese its run by an english guy. Which is kind of strange. But the place is excellent and you get free breakfast. It was probably the best place that i stayed in on this trip. And theres a donut shop like 2 minutes away!! Sweet!!
Next Stop Tokyo.
Kyoto
Kyoto is one of the most popular cities in Japan, in fact most people will say it’s the most beautiful city in Japan. Some guide books will even say that it ranks with London, Paris and New York as a city that everyone should see at least once in their lifetime. To come to this opinion, i think that you will have to spend a good amount of time here. It’s certainly got it’s charms but you will have to do some searching to see its beauty. On first impressions, central Kyoto will struggle to distance itself from any other city. But if you venture to the eastern or western parts of the city then you will find the beauty that all the guides talk about.
Kyoto is steeped in history and tradition and contains some of the best temples that Japan has to offer. We did our first trek around the Southern Higashiyama area, taking in a 5km walk around some amazing gardens and temples. It’s peak tourist season in Japan at the moment and everywhere is really busy. The majority of the temples are just packed with school tours. This walk around Higashiyama is particulary interesting as on a good day you might spot some geishas walking around the narrow side streets. We were definitely in luck as we were able to spot quite a few. The temples themselves are also worth a look of course. There’s at least 10 or 12 on this trek alone so make sure you’re wearing comfortable shoes if you plan on doing it.
Our next trek was to the western part of the city, to an area called Arashiyama. It’s not as spectacular as Higashiyama but it’s worth a trip out here all the same. It’s not as touristy either and even though it’s only about 15 minutes train ride from Central Kyoto, you do feel like you are out in the coutryside. The temples here are smaller and mainly surrounded by the bamboo grooves that cover the western side of Kyoto.
One thing i’ve noticed about Japan is how quickly the weather can change. One day it’s a beautiful 25degrees and the next it’s cloudy,overcast and even pouring down rain. We got both kinds in our 4 days in Kyoto.
We also went from one of the nicest hostels (K’s House) i’ve ever been in to one of the worst hostels i’ve ever been in. In fact, that kind of sums up Kyoto for me. At first glance it was an average city but then after seeing all the temples and the geishas it became a beautiful city. The weather started good but then became terrible and our accomodation went from excellent to ridiculous. A city of contradictions. That’s my impression of Kyoto. But definitely worth a look. It’s also got amazing food!!
The whole area of Kansai is spectacular and one could easily spend 2-3 weeks in this part of Japan without going near Tokyo.