Travel diary in Cambodia and Vietnam

TRAVEL DIARY BETWEEN CAMBODIA AND VIETNAM

AUGUST 2005

I arrived in Cambodia, after several stopovers, at a destination that isn't very touristy, specifically Siem Reap. The next morning I got the pass, complete with photo, to enter the UNESCO World Heritage archaeological site. I couldn't believe my eyes that such marvels could exist in the world. And yes indeed, they are the temples of Angkor, the largest site in the world, covering an area of 21 km2, which represent the universe. To visit them I took a car, with a driver always available, at a cost of 10 dollars a day. Angkor Wat, the most majestic and, in my opinion, the most fantastic; Angkor Thom and the Bayon, which I visited inside the jungle on elephant-back, a unique experience. Not to mention the temples swallowed by vegetation, where some scenes of the film "Tomb Raider" were shot.

Before leaving for Hanoi, I stopped to visit the Landmine Museum, a terrifying thing; Cambodia is currently the country with the most landmines and it would take another 10 years to clear it. On the streets I noticed many people missing upper and lower limbs and even today it's advisable to walk on beaten paths; about all this, people still ask themselves why. I'll refer to it later, to what I saw and what happened especially in Vietnam. But it makes me think more and more that the real culprits of these wars are the United States of America, so much for "Peace"! The people are fantastic, apart from the children a bit pestering you to leave them a drop of Coca-Cola in the can.

Leaving wild Cambodia I arrive in Hanoi, to stop for 3 days of sightseeing and, in the evening, I take advantage of it, given the heavy traffic, to go and see the water puppet show: very beautiful! After five hours of travel, one morning I find myself immersed in a surprising scenario, and yes indeed, it's Halong Bay: an uncontaminated marvel in the middle of the sea, with more than 3,000 sea stacks and islands. To visit this surprising beauty I took a 3-day tour: the first night I spent on Cat Ba island and the other on a boat, admiring the shades of the sunset and dawn, then taking advantage of it for a nice swim. The next morning I left for Hue and, after 13 hours by coach covering 800 km, I went to visit the old citadel, also a UNESCO World Heritage site, resembling the Forbidden City in Beijing.

In the afternoon I took a small boat and took a cruise on the Perfume River, then visited, in the rain, the various temples that never cease to amaze me. The humidity is always high and around 4 p.m. the rain unfailingly falls for its usual uninterrupted hour. On 12/8 I arrive in Hoi An, a very pretty town that sits in the centre of Vietnam on the coast. To visit the historic part you have to buy tickets, but you have to select what you want to see. Very beautiful is the bridge built by the Japanese and the port. The following day I hire a motorbike and head to the archaeological sites of My Son, about 60 km away.

It must be said that after having seen, in the early days, the fantastic site of Angkor, there's no comparison, but I make up for it with the landscapes and the incidents you can encounter along the way! In the afternoon I pop down to the beach, it's truly worth it, also to taste some of the specialities the sea offers. Overnight I leave for Dalat and 18 hours of bus await me to cover only 900 km...more than anything, every 3 hours, as a rule, the driver stops for half an hour or more for a break. Dalat sits at an altitude of 1,400 metres above sea level; it's a nice little town that will let me shake off the stress and humidity of the past days. I took an afternoon of rest to organise the excursion, the next morning, to the Pangkor waterfalls, which are 70 km away and which, incidentally, I visit accompanied by a driver on a motorbike.

Apart from the 2 hours it took, it was truly worth it...the waterfalls are really very beautiful! On the way back I stop to visit a characteristic village in the countryside, then a monastery on a lake, typically hilly. I end the visit in a slightly strange house, the "Crazy House", built by a rather particular American architect, resembling the house of wonders. And the fateful day has come: we leave for Saigon, or, better said, Ho Chi Minh. To reach it takes 7 hours of travel, including 2 just to enter the immense and chaotic metropolis. I'd never seen such monotonous chaos, not even in New York, an infinity of mopeds... In Ho Chi Minh I try to stay as little as possible, it's too stressful. I take advantage, however, to visit the War Museum or, better said, the horrors the Americans committed with bombs.

Very beautiful, then, and worth visiting, are the various temples and the residential palace. On 16/8 I leave, in the morning, to visit the Cu Chi tunnels, which are 70 km outside Saigon. Once there, a guide takes us into a room where he shows us an original film about the war. Then he goes on to explain, with a scale model, the whole network of tunnels and the layout of the various rooms (kitchen, toilet, dormitories)...a surprising thing considering they stretch over an area of 200 km... The moment I was waiting for has arrived: the guide takes us to the site and we enter these tunnels. To get in and move around I have to crouch on all fours and I asked myself "Were the Vietcong really this small back then, or did they sacrifice themselves???"...

Once out, the guide takes us to the trap area, which the Vietcong set to ambush the Americans...among other things there are unexploded bomb remnants and craters caused by the explosion of other bombs... This whole network of tunnels is due to the ingenuity of the Vietcong to trick and defeat the US army. The following day I leave for an excursion of a full 3 days, booked at an agency, on the Mekong Delta. We are a group of 15 people: me, the only Italian, an Australian couple, three guys from New York, two couples from Paris and five guys from London... We begin the excursion visiting the floating market, very distinctive and characteristic, where you see fruit being tossed from boat to boat, then we go on to explore the real Mekong Delta.

It's beautiful and distinctive, even if not very hygienic, to see these floating houses, that is the boats, and the people who use the river for all the tasks relating to body hygiene, washing dishes and so on...especially given the muddy colour of the river... We enter a house and they offer us fruit to our heart's content, in exchange we'll buy some of their souvenirs. We then enter a crocodile farm, there are all sizes...the smallest is 10 cm long, up to the largest specimen that reaches 6 metres in length...

Once out of the farm, the guide tells us the story of a film and, reaching the plot, I discover that the place we're heading to is precisely where they shot the film Apocalypse Now! Once there, the spectacle is surprising: the boats that serve as homes moving, not to mention the Vietnamese hats the women wear, not to mention the lush vegetation mirrored in the river...truly a spectacle! Giving some figures for this trip, I spent 28 hours on planes, for a total of 25,000 km and 4 stopovers; 2,600 km by coach, equivalent to 60 hours of travel, at an average speed of 43 km per hour; 300 km by moped and 60 hours by boat...all this in just 25 days