Drive to Vang Vieng

A famous and beautiful scenic route that lasted 6 hours, but my stomach was not as excited about the drive as my eyes. I moved to the passenger seat which felt better for both stomach and eyes. Unbelievable the number of turns! The day is clear, sunny and perfect to get the full experience.
We stopped on the top of the mountain in this little restaurant with an amazing view of valley, river and this amazing mountains.
The waitresses were letting the washed bowls and plates drying in the sun.
We got to Vang Vieng and decide to have a very easy day just looking at the river running litterally under our balcony.
Vang Vieng is very small and very laid back town, it is a backpacker's mecca but we are in the low season so you don't see any craziness just re-runs of Friends or Family guys in this little restaurant/bar/whatever.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a little historical town built on a peninsula between the  Mekong and Namkhan rivers. It is very well kept and the houses have a southern french architectures. If it were not for the many temples and the people who would not guess you were in Laos. Luang Prabang is still a backpakers city, but for the ones that have been out of college for a while but don't have a life insurance yet! 
We visited the royal palace that is now a museum, built by the French for a king who seems pretty sold to the foreign power and paid high price for it (probably dying with his all family in a cave). 
The temples are very different from the ones we have seen up to now, and one of the few that was not destroyed by pirates has still beautiful painting on wood from top to bottom

The Wild

We are 30 min. driving from Luang Prabang really in the wild, the Namkhan river is flowing and joing the mekong in this little peninsula. The frogs are very noisy at night, and whatever birds very loud in the morning, oh life! (sometimes can seem so hard).
we spend the first afternoon walking into a muddy path to see the village. 45 min. Walking with our guide that was as tall as the kids and Oscar kept on looking at him and said: "excuse me Sir you look like a litle kid to me", good thing for language barrier, the guide was very nice and was holding Oscar's hand. The kids were complaing about the wild until we did not see an elephant just by himself having its dinner....and than a group of buffalos our directions.

We spent the all day with elephants. The kids became junior mahout (elephant guide), then we had the ride around the forest deep in the mud. In the afternoon we went to bath on this beautiful waterfall, and there were elephants again. Best spent 20$ ever, M & O rode the elephant in the water, bath him and had the time of their lives. 
I am always wondering about this working animals, the ones we rode in the morning apparently were rescued from the lumbering industry. in Laos they are deforesting the country and use cheap manpower (or elephant power) in the process. Even if by looking at the veranda of our bungalow it seems pretty impossible considering the thick vegetation around.

Siem Reap

We came here to see beauty of the temples of Angkor! However we did not expect an indiana jones and lara croft mix experience. Clearly the less accessible temples were the more fun (according to the kids). Trees growing out of temples and magnificent carving, Angkor lives up to his reputation, you try to see Angkor before you die. So we dedicated our morning to temples visit and our afternoon to relax at the pool of Villa Kiara, a nice boutique hotel that would have been perfect for a halfway acceptable group of French families.
One day we went outside the city and besides the untouched temple we explore up to the sacred mountain, it was only 1500 meters but we really sweated al the way up. On the river bed there are some incredible carving but what really put me back to life was the fresh waterfall.

Different centuries are cohexisting in this country. It is still very rural country but it is very rare to see a tractor, animals and men do the all work. house are more like cabana on stilt where the only difference comparing to a 1000 years ago is probably the tv antenna. Then once in a while you see a house built in bricks and you wonder how this family was able to have more money. It is still very misterious.

Siem Reap seems a typical town developed around tourism with good restaurant a good shopping clearly not representative of the rest.

Today we went to see a floating fishing village and the houses were really floating including the schools: one built by vietnamese and one by some church (!!!!). The fishing village has a majority of vietnamese probably cambodian of vietnamese descends, I can not imagine in the past 30 years any vietnamese wanted to migrate to Cambodia!

Reading this book about the khmer rouge years was really is a good key of understanding Cambodia today. A country wiped out of its intelligentia that suffer persecution from its own people. Somehow more difficult to reconcile the past when the abuser was not a foreign power, even if we can argue that the movement was a response to a western presence in the region and the political allignment left or right.


Today I finally understood how they really produce fine silk which give me on all new appreciation for the fabric for the patience it requires. This worker was putting one thread at the time and it takes one day to make 50 cm of this patterned scarf. The sad part is that I did not like the pattern....she would have probably not appreciate my criticism.
We are leaving tomorrow to Laos and as always I have the feeling to have gotten an appetizer of the country which leave me still wanting more.
Little notes
-Do you know how Cambodian moms solve the laundry, diaper problem of their kids? They leave them naked, one bucket of water is good enough for the all cleaning. Probably it also take care of the anti-body and building a strong immune system. (I don't ask about infant mortality but there seems to be no malnutrition)
Notes from Matthias and Oscar
In China we were photographed, in Thailand ignored, in Vietnam touched and in Cambodia commented upon, let's see what happen in Laos!

Welcome to Cambodia

We cross the border by bus, Oscar had to ask a very stern vietnamese custom officer his name.
Phnom Penh is nothing like I had imagined after the commotion of Saigon it feels like a provincial city with its slower pace. The board walk is very pleasant and it is all re-done, the number of scooters is under control and at the market noone is ready to kidnap you to sell you something. 
Our boutique hotel is a real oasis and we can time to relax by the very pleasant pool.
We hire a tuk-tuk that end up taking us from market to royal palace to the killing fields. This is turning up been a real anti-war trip! You realize the immense waste of human lives but it is true it is possible to emerge from ashes. This recent terrible history seems so far when you look at the people and the city. It is really freaky that all this was happening in my lifetime, the rest of the world was looking!
In the afternoon, the kids were able to catch an elephant ride around a pagoda! Oh yes...that is always such a big experience.     

Saigon or HCMC?

Everybody refers to Ho Chi Minh city as Saigon, already right here there is a problem. I understand that the French always nostalgic of their colony call it still Saigon but what is the vietnamese excuse? There must have been something magical about Saigon however today is just another busy south east asian city invaded by scooters and honking noise.

We spent the day on the mekong delta that retains its beauty and charm. The river has still its own pulse: floating market, women washing rice, fishing village, men taking sand from the river bed. This river is not for tourist, there is real life.

The next day we went to visit the tunnels, it will be the most impressive part of Vietnam in terms of understanding the endurance and intelligence of this people. You clearly understand why Americans had no chance to win, probably the simplest reason is there were too big to fit in the tunnels but also because they could never believe anyone would survive by living like rats.

The other very intersting part was our guide, a vietnamese that fought on the side of the loosers and pay a high price for it. He says not to write anything about him, but in reality his story is common here both for the winners and looser. Story of pride and regret, of wasted opportunity and the feeling of being trapped by history, paying with their blood and their dreams the price for living in a rich and strategically important country. Our very knowledgeable guide will be our best insight of Vietnam.