In the lands of Cham & Khmer — Part 3 (The conclusion)

The final leg of our trip was to the place that beholds Angkor Wat, Siem Reap. Siem Reap is a small city in the North Western part of Cambodia. It owes its popularity as one of the most popular destinations in the world to Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat and many of the allied temple structures are very much ingrained in the cultural milieu of Cambodia — one of the examples of that would be the fact that it is adorned on the flag of Cambodia.

We came to Siem Reap from Hanoi in VietJet airways. It was a small journey of within 2 hours. The airport of Siem Reap is very small - it should be counted as the smallest airport I've ever been to. Cambodia gives two options for the tourist visa - On arrival and e-visa. We had opted for e-visa. This saved our time at the airport a lot. 

Cambodians are very gentle people. In all our six-day stay, we did not come across a single incident of rudeness or anything of that sort. Perhaps the relatively soft nature of Cambodians has been taken for granted that all three of its neighboring countries — Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos — have tried to invade it at one point or the other. As per our guide for Angkor Wat the next day, Cambodia has a very restricted coastal line because some parts of Cambodia was occupied by Thailand. I'm not sure on the veracity of the claim as when I searched to know the details, google didn't yield any result on the same. 

Almost all the Cambodians I met speak English in Siem Reap. All the stores, hotels and even the small shops accept the US dollar. This was told to me by the Indian-origin Kenyan man I had met in Hanoi. So, I never bothered to exchange the currency to Cambodian Riel. I have to mention the omnipresent Tuk-Tuk. Tuk-Tuk in Cambodia is Indian equivalent of rickshaw but it is pulled by a motorcycle. They are cheap, comfortable and readily available in all of Siem Reap. 

Our tour guide gave many interesting trivia and snippets about Angkor Wat in particular and Cambodia in general. He said Khmer language and Kannada have many words in common. this was a shocker for me. I always knew Cambodia has some Tamil influence as I knew Tamil kings have traveled, ruled and built some of the monuments in this part of the world. But, I never knew this bit about Kannada. He said a few words like Ratri, Rajah, etc are common to both the languages. He said this is because Kannada traders, not kings traveled to Cambodia may be around 14th or 15th century and many of them married the locals and started living there. 

Siem Reap is filled with a lot of tourists. Tourism is one of the major sources of income to Cambodia. From the past many years, the number of tourists has been over a million. I learned that the Angkor Wat temple was abandoned,  attained the state of obscurity 15th century onwards after being the center of the capital of Cambodia from the 9th to 15th century. No one knew of the structures until a Frenchman discovered it in the later parts of the 20th century. It's only in the 90's tourists started pouring in. 

Touted as the world's largest temple, Angkor Wat is truly magnificent. the structure of the main temple is modeled on Mount Meru, the celestial mountain with 5 peaks which is significant to Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists. The temple structure is enclosed by a wide moat which is representative of the cosmic ocean. 

The main temple structure

Apsara Dancer

Carving depicting Mahabharata war

In front of the temple

Behind us is the Adi-Shesha, six-headed serpent structure which is found in many places in Siem Reap town

Once you enter the temple, you can witness the towering structures - some of them intricately carved to depict the scenes of Mahabharata, Apsara dancers, other epics - the detailing and the delicacy employed gives away the fact that it is indeed a work of a lot of skilled artists spanning over several years of time. 

There are other temples around Angkor Wat - Angkor Thom, Bayon, and Ta Prohm. The last one, Ta Prohm was featured in Angelina Julie's movie Tomb Raider. Bayon temple has a lot of Brahma-like big face carvings. (Cambodians say it's King Suryavarman) In Ta Prohm, giant roots have embraced the entire structure. It has been left as it is, uncut. Archaeological Survey of India is involved in restoration work.  

That's a huge root 

Near Bayon temple

The Bayon temple

Our group for the day consisted of us, an English lady, a German mother-daughter duo, the entertaining and informative local guide Phearom, and the rest Malaysians. It was a quite friendly and fun group.

On the way to Angor Thom 

Our group for the day 

The next day, we visited Tonlé Sap lake, perhaps the biggest lake in Cambodia. It is famous for two things - the floating village and the mangrove forest. It was a thrilling experience for me as I had neither seen mangrove forest nor floating village anywhere. I had heard there is a floating market near Saigon. I missed visiting that. This was a kind of compensation. 

Houses elevated to a certain height in the floating village

The Mangrove Forest - reminded of the sets of "Anaconda"

In conclusion: Vietnam is beautiful. When people asked me why 8 days, I had no answer. Now, I can say there is a lot to see in Vietnam & it's still not that popular with Indians say like Thailand or Bali. But it has all the reasons to be. It has something for everyone - the nature lovers, adventure seekers, history buffs, lovers etc.

Angkor Wat stands as testimony to the fact that what a dedicated, patient, creative, skilled above all devoted populace can do. Of course, with exemplary patronage which sustains all, which doesn't think of just immediate survival and sundry but a longlasting legacy of finer achievements for the future generations. If there are seven wonders of the world, this surely needs to be one among them.

In the lands of Cham & Khmer — Part 2

After a couple of action-packed days in Saigon, we headed to Da Nang. As I mentioned in my previous post, the only reason to include Da Nang in our itinerary was that of its proximity to My Son. But we were surprised that Da Nang had more to offer than what we expected of it.

After seeing the hustle-bustle of Saigon, it was so refreshing to see Da Nang. We reached Da Nang at night, delayed by a couple of hours because of supremely inefficient Jet Star Pacific airlines. Da Nang was dazzling, full of bright colors and sparsely populated hence less traffic as compared to Saigon. We passed by a couple of colorful bridges, whilst on our way to the lodging. The dragon bridge stood out.

The My Khe beach was within half a kilometer from the place where we stayed. We had the best of view from the hotel & it was spectacular. The next morning, we finished the usual buffet breakfast and waited for our tour guide to visit My Son sanctuary. A point to mention about the food - If you are from India, there are high chances that you won't like the food here which is so bland and mostly boiled. Even if you are a non-vegetarian, you may not like the food which is completely deprived of any spices which we Indians are so fond of. That's one compromise which you have to make.

A storm is in the offing

My Khe in the early morning

Our group for the day consisted of mainly Australians and a New Zealand couple. We befriended an old Queensland lady Mary Margaret, who was a great company for us throughout the end of the tour. I had heard, Aussies deride many things. That seemed true when I conversed with her more. Our common despisement of the Chinese endeared her to me more. She talked about various things from politics to policy to investment to culture. Her son is currently in the US and her late husband was working in Sheraton Hotels. She is well read and well traveled (had toured the length and breadth of India and had stayed for 5 months!). She also mentioned she had witnessed the infamous Tienman Square massacre.

Mary and us

My Son has a very long history. Perhaps one of the longest I've ever known - this dates back to 4th century. I learned that Balamon Cham, the indigenous Hindu population (now just a few thousands in number) is one of a very few groups of people outside India that are still surviving and with a culture dating back thousands of years. The other most prominent group is Hindus of Bali. We were fortunate to witness some of the Balamon Cham people and their performance live.

Entrance to My Son

Balamon Cham troupe

The main temple

The desecrated Shiva Linga

In front of the temple

But sadly to my despair, My Son now looks nowhere magnificent or grand, as most of the temple structure is either abandoned or destroyed by the carpet bombing by the US during its war on Vietnam. It's aptly called now, unfortunately - My Son ruins. Indian government - perhaps in a limited capacity - is involved in its reconstruction & also has donated an amount for the same.

For lunch, we wanted to have Indian food. Fortunately, it was easily available. We went to Maharaja restaurant, run by a Bangalorean man (originally from Delhi). The food was authentic Indian, really yummy and totally worth it. He studied engineering in Bangalore but decided to involve in the hotel business and he said he is doing pretty well. His father is running a restaurant in Tokyo from the last 25 years he said. His father is a Punjabi & mother a Mangalorean. He suggested we visit the cable car of Ba Na Hills. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to complete it. We bid adieu and wished him the best.

Maharaja Restaurant, Da Nang

In my many conversations, what I have observed is the two main groups of people that have gone outside India and doing well are Punjabis and Gujaratis. These are the two groups that have the killer instinct and entrepreneurial spirit. It feels great when you meet your fellow countrymen outside the country and have a conversation with them and listen to their story. 

The next morning, we visited My Khe beach, which was once voted by Forbes as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. My Khe was beautiful, peaceful & less crowded. We couldn't spend more time because there was a storm coming from South China and it started raining non-stop in Da Nang. We left for Hanoi in the noon. 

Hanoi is one of the oldest cities in this part of the world and also one of the densely populated one. Our hotel was in Hàng Bạc area. I felt the locality was kind of similar to old Delhi - small lanes, narrow roads, old buildings, and too many people. Food tours are very famous in Hanoi. Vietnam in general, Hanoi, in particular, has too many eateries - you can find them in every nook and corner. 

The next day we covered too many places of interest - Ho Chi Minh museum, the museum of ethnology, the west lake, Trấn Quốc Pagoda, Confucius temple and many more. We did meet two people of Indian origin in the tour - one lady from Malaysia and one man from Kenya (both are third gen migrants from India). We became friends with a middle-aged sister duo from South Africa - one of them lives in Canada and the other in Botswana. We hit off a good conversation with them as they grew up with Indian families in South Africa and the Indians in South Africa or Botswana are really doing well. 

The West Lake

Temple of Literature

Oldest Pagoda of Hanoi

Lacquer painting

We kept two complete days for Hanoi. The second day was completely dedicated to Halong Bay, which is around 180 km from Hanoi. We had booked for the cruise and lunch. This is the first time we ever went for lunch over the cruise. It was a thrilling experience. The very sight of Halong Bay floors you. It is so beautiful, picturesque. We went in a small boat for some distance after some time. It felt like a Lords of the rings set to me. It was surreal. Halong Bay is worth every penny. 

The Picturesque Halong Bay

One more capture

Inside the cruise

While coming back from Halong Bay to Hanoi, our tour guide talked many interesting points. I'll present it to you as he said - Hanoi is one of the oldest cities which has a history of over 1000 years. the population of Vietnam is about 90 million. Vietnam basically is made of 54 different ethnic groups. Viet is one of the main ethnic group - hence the name Vietnam. China has invaded Vietnam many times & has the border dispute with it (with which of its neighboring country, it doesn't have?!) 

Vietnamese eat almost everything. Some special delicacies would be prepared using - grasshopper, silkworm, rat, dog, cat & snake. The reason for this, he said that there was a severe dearth of food at one point in time. So, Vietnamese for the sake of survival started eating almost everything. Of course, dog meat or cat meat are special and are not available in all restaurants and they are expensive. He narrated an interesting story of an Indonesian man who wanted to try snake meat and he ate the live heart of the snake which was still beating. He turned sick the same night but recovered early morning. When our guide went to bid adieu to him to airport thinking he'll never again visit Vietnam or try such food, he whispered in his ears - "Next time, it's a cat". Our guide was mightily impressed.

In the next concluding post, we'll see Siem Reap and the one & only - Angkor Wat!

In the lands of Cham & Khmer — Part 1

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” This is what Mark Twain had to say about traveling. No, I didn't travel to acquire charitable view nor I did out of any other noble intention. I just wanted to travel for the sake of it.

One of my primary intentions was to go out of India during my first wedding anniversary in August. I had so many places in my mind. But I was so sure that I wanted to see the Angor Wat temple structures the day I came to know about it. So, considering multiple options, it finally came down to either Australia-New Zealand or Vietnam-Cambodia. I had a budget of two lakhs as the upper limit, and I also wanted the tour to be a little longer and to be adventurous. Vietnam-Cambodia perfectly fitted the bill.

Although our tour was supposed to happen in August, I started planning slowly from February. The only place I knew something about was Angkor Wat of Siem Reap in Cambodia. Thanks to Twitter, I got to know about My Son sanctuary in Vietnam & the Indian connection it has. One of my ambitions has been to visit all the places in the world which are connected to India in one way or the other. So, Angkor Wat and My Son were my foundations in this trip. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (Old name - Saigon) are the two most visited places in Vietnam. I added Da Nang to the list because of its proximity to My Son. Initially I was skeptical, but Da Nang proved to be a magnificent place. I'm glad we visited it. It was four places in total: Saigon, Da Nang, Hanoi & Siem Reap. 

The advantage with this trip (nowadays with all the trips perhaps) was that - all the stages of planning - from flights to hotels to places of visit - can be done online. I did not have to call anyone, nor did I have to take anyone's help. I'm not going to bore you with all the details. But I can tell you one thing. This was my first ever long trip, which I planned completely on my own. I found the process of planning itself so joyful I started enjoying it! You miss this joy and thrill when you go with the travel agent. Yes, some of the places require the help of professionals but some could be done on your own. From my reading and from my limited experience, I think the Asia Pacific can be traveled without any professional guidance

Vietnam

Our first leg of the trip was Vietnam. Most people cover Hanoi, the capital first and then visit Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). But we did the opposite. It shouldn't matter, really. Hanoi is in North Vietnam and HCMC is in the South. The layover was in Malaysia. I've seen at least 7-8 international airports till now - I think the WiFi of Kaula Lumpur (KL) airport is the best (It helped me kill 4.5 hours so easily). When we boarded the flight from KL, there were almost no Indians in it. HCMC or Vietnam, in general, is not so popular with Indians, yet. But it should be, I'll share the reasons later.

HCMC - The only two things I knew before of the city were - the name Ho Chi Minh, which we all studied in our history books and the equally arresting & disturbing story and the photo alike of Thích Quảng Đức, also known as the burning monk. When we went in the cab and had the first look at the city, it was like any other Indian city with a little more order it seemed. From a Western European or from an American perspective, even this might look chaotic. But for an Indian, nothing will seem chaotic. We might seem a little uncomfortable if there is too much order. After all, India is majestic chaos! Vietnamese use English script for their language as they don't have a script of their own. So, you can read all the boards but can't understand it of course. We took rest the day we reached. We had quite a few places to cover the next and the only complete day we would get in Saigon.

Independence Palace - Saigon

Notre Dame Cathedral

Next day was dedicated to the city tour and the famous Cu Chi tunnels. The city tour mainly consisted of visiting the independence palace, war remnants museum, and the cathedral. A visit to the war remnants museum might make you cringe, might make you an anti-war pacifist - it consists of motley pictures from the US war on Vietnam. Your opinion on the US might undergo a change when you hear specifically on its use of Agent Orange. There are still people who are suffering its devastating effects. We were glad to find an Indian couple (from Gujarat) in the group. They said they have traveled over 40 countries till date!

The Indian couples from Surat, Gujarat

Saigon Post Office

War Remnants Museum

Inside War Remnants Museum

Indian Support to Vietnamese War captured

People affected by Agent Orange

The highlight of the day should be our visit to Cu Chi tunnels. I think it's one of its kind in the world in terms of uniqueness, the difficulty of operation, size and various other factors. These were the tunnels built by Vietcong soldiers during American aggression during the war and were used as a hideout.

One of the staffs demonstrating the hideouts

This is one of the traps 

Inside the bomb-making factory

Entering the tunnel

Snake wine, Scorpion wine...

Our guide for this tour was a young Vietnamese lady who explained us beautifully on all the guerilla warfare techniques used by Vietcong soldiers to dupe and harass the Americans. The tenacity and the never-say-die spirit that they have displayed should be a lesson in patriotism. We too should take a figleaf from their pages of history. 

In the next posts, I will tell you about Da Nang, My Son, Hanoi & Siem Reap.

....to be continued