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Dear Family and Friends,
Greetings yet again from
the South China Sea! Both Vietnam and Cambodia have gone
through tremendous hardships in recent history and I feel like
I left a part of myself in both of them. Even though it
was a whirlwind visit of five days, I feel as though I've aged
five years. The things I've seen and heard have undoubtedly
altered the rest of my life. This may sound a little extreme
but I speak the truth.
The S.S. Universe Explorer sailed
into Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) on the wrong foot. HCMC lies
along the Saigon River a few miles upstream from the coast,
therefore, large vessels can only sail up or down it during
high tide for fear of scraping the bottom. We reached
the mouth of the river at 8 AM on Monday, April 26th and didn't
get into port until 2 PM that afternoon. As we sailed
up the Saigon River I remember the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam
saying, during our diplomatic briefing, "I've never traveled
this fast up the river before." These words were a sign
of things to come because, when we got into the port area, we
were travelling too fast and disaster was knocking on our doorstep.
The S.S. Universe Explorer proceeded to hit an Australian Navy
Ship, ricocheted off of it badly denting it's side, and then
whacked into a Vietnamese houseboat. The houseboat then
sailed out to the middle of the river where it proceeded to
sink, in a manner right out of one of the scenes from Titanic
(the back end came right out of the water and dove straight
down)! It was so sad to see these Vietnamese people unloading
all of their meager possessions as fast as they could aboard
their sinking home. It wasn't our captains fault because
a local person always takes the wheel when sailing into a foreign
port, therefore, we didn't get blamed for the whole ordeal.
Anyways, after that fiasco, we were allowed to leave the ship
and my friend Kira and I hit the town.
Vietnam is a country and not just
a war. I think a lot of people forget that. The
Vietnamese don't even mention the American involvement when
recounting their history because our involvement played such
a small part in their struggle for independence. As we
walked around the streets it was obvious that the Vietnamese
were genuinely happy to have us in their city. I've never
been stared at so much in my life as well, not in a bad way,
but with curiosity in my fair skin and hair. We walked
through side streets, main boulevards, marketplaces, ritzy hotels,
and shops simply absorbing all that the country has to offer.
We met numerous people in our travels and had many delightful
conversations with them. They kept insisting that Kira
and I had to be married because we were about that age and Vietnamese
people get married much younger than Americans. We were
amazed at the price of goods in the city, HCMC is like the world's
largest dollar store! You can buy almost anything for
a dollar, and I mean "anything" if you catch my drift!
We then had dinner at a vegetarian restaurant, took a cyclo
for a nighttime ride around the town and made it back to the
ship. While in Vietnam, we had a curfew to be back on
the ship by 11:00 PM because there were problems on past voyages
of drunken Semester at Sea students doing absurd things in HCMC
like hanging off of balconies and jumping from bridges.
Such a shame that people don't know how to be respectful while
in another country. Once on the ship I packed and went
to bed because I was leaving for Cambodia in the morning.
Our flight was a bit delayed but
soon enough we were in the air and headed towards Phnom Pehn,
the capital of Cambodia. The day before, I bought the
"Cambodia" Lonely Planet book and another book on Phnom Pehn
off the streets of HCMC. Books are much cheaper on the
streets because they're photocopies of the real thing, totally
illegal but a great deal all the same! Both books made
good reading material for the flight. We touched down,
got cleared through customs and headed for the National Museum
of Cambodia. The elegant curves of the National Museum
make a perfect home for Cambodian free tail bats. This
museum has the largest bat population of any artificial structure
in the world! I believe it too because all you here when
you enter it's immense doors is the high pitched squeaking of
the bats. Of course the main reason to see the museum
is not for the bats, unless you're a bat expert, it's for the
Khmer sculptures and pottery which were breathtaking.
After the museum, we traveled to the Mekong River for a sunset
cruise. Although the city of Phnom Pehn is not all that
spectacular in and of itself, the river is beautiful, especially
at sunset. There were many boats along the river and the
people rowing them were silhouetted nicely against the red sky.
We passed by numerous fishing villages with loads of kids who
screamed with joy at the sight of us. It was a very uplifting
experience. We then ate a fabulous meal of local cuisine
and headed to our hotel for a quick dip in the pool and a good
night's sleep. Before I hit the hay I watched a really
bad Ricki Lake movie on HBO. Again, I hope Cambodian people
don't think that Ricki Lake is a huge American movie star!
The next morning we arose before the sunrise
and took an early flight to Siem Reap. Siem Reap lies
just a few kilometers away from Angkor, one of the architectural
wonders of the world. We checked into our hotel room,
which smelled like dirty diapers because of the drowned rat
I found in the toilet, and were off to see the sights of Angkor.
The first place we stopped was the South Gate of Angkor Thom.
This was a majestic bridge which spanned a large moat that had
huge statues on either side, 54 gods to the left and 54 demons
to the right. After an impressive stroll amongst the deities
we headed to the Bayon, a large temple inside Angkor Thom.
I already had the Lonely Planet guide to guide me around the
ruins, however I found it hard to resist having an unofficial
"tour guide". Around many of the major of temples of Angkor
there are lots of little children (ages of four and five are
not uncommon) which fan you with paper fans, I felt like a king,
and want to show you around. At first, I shrugged most
of them off, but one boy stayed with me. On the walls
surrounding the Bayon there is a huge bas reliefs (stone carved
walls) which depict a story. The Lonely Planet said "look
for a man picking lice from a woman's hair," and "women selling
fish in the market," however, I had a hard time finding these
because the carved wall was so immense. I asked the little
boy where they were and he pointed them out immediately.
I let him explain things to me and he gave me tremendous insight
to things I never would have noticed if I only had the Lonely
Planet. The Bayon has 54 gothic towers which each have
four smiling faces on the top which point in the four cardinal
directions. On the first level they're towering above
you, however, it's possible to climb up to the third level where
they are virtually staring at you eye to eye. It's impossible
to describe this temple in words, it's simply something which
has to be experienced for yourself. My advice to you,
hop on the next flight to Cambodia! After the Bayon we
went to Ta Prohm. This was another temple, but unlike
many of the others at Angkor which were rediscovered, this one
was left to the ravages of the jungle. Ta Prohm was absolutely
breathtaking because the huge trees which tower above your heads
also have enormous roots which sprawl along the rubble.
I've seen so many beautiful things on this trip but Ta Prohm
is definitely one of the top three. I had a fantastic
time bounding over the crumbling rocks and I felt like an archeologist
who was discovering Ta Prohm for the first time in the 1800's!
After our romp through Ta Prohm, we went back to the hotel for
lunch and a little break. After lunch, while most of the
other students were napping, I went exploring. I walked
down the main road and came across a school. Immediately
at least 30 kids came flocking over to me. None of them
spoke any English but I had a great time teaching them how to
make critters out of their hands and they had a great time showing
me how to make slingshots to shoot termites out of the trees!
What a fun time we had! Time wore on and I had to say
bye to my new friends so I walked back to the hotel to rejoin
my group. Next we traveled to the main attraction of Angkor,
Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is the most stunning of all the
temples of Angkor and is absolutely breathtaking to behold.
Again, words, and unfortunately probably not my photographs,
won't give Angkor Wat justice, it has to be seen with your own
eyes to truly be appreciated. We spent the next hour and
a half at Angkor Wat and then traveled into the town of Siem
Reap for another authentic, and delicious, Cambodian dinner.
We then went to bed early because we got up the next morning
at 5:30 to see sunrise at Angkor Wat. The sunrise was
a surreal experience because it was so quiet and peaceful.
I felt as though I was back in ancient times. We then
left Angkor Wat for our flight back to Phnom Penh.
To be honest, it's late now and I don't
have the strength to write about Pol Pot's rein of terror throughout
Cambodia nor the horrors of the Vietnam War. I truly want
to tell you these things because they are a major part of my
trip, however, now is not the time. I promise to include
them in my next email which will hopefully be from Japan (we
only have two ship days in between Shanghai and Osaka).
About the only noteworthy thing which
happened on board en route from HCMC to Hong Kong was that we
were narrowly skirted by Typhoon Leo on the second night after
HCMC. We knew we were in for some rough seas because barf
bags lined the walls. I took this prime opportunity to
sleep out on deck and had a great time bobbing up and down with
the ship. If you remember, the higher up on the ship you
are, the more motion of the ocean you feel. We didn't
get any of the rains but we got a lot of wind and high seas.
The lightning was pretty cool as well. Tomorrow I'll be
in Hong Kong and the next day I'll be flying to Guilin and later
to Shanghai. It'll be hard to say goodbye to the ship
for an extended length of time but I'm sure I'll get by, I always
do. Hope all is well and see you soon!
Your friend,
-Pat
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