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