Week of Antiquity (Part 2)

After Hue we went to Siem Reap, Cambodia, which is where Angkor Wat and a lot of the other ancient temples of the Angkor people are. The first day we went to 4 different temples which were in varying conditions today, some were in pristine condition and others in almost total ruin, overtaken by trees and plants. A lot of the temples had these intricite carvings on them, sometimes along a whole wall in sort of a mosaic that told a Hindu epic story. My favorite story was about some woman god who was angry and stole all the treasure of the people and hid it at the bottom of a sea of milk. So the gods and demons tug on opposite ends of a huge snake to churn the sea of milk for 1000 years trying to get the treasure. Then after 1000 years (after all that tugging) the snake vomits poison all over the sea. Then Shiva, the God of Destruction, drinks the milky poison so that they can get back their treasure and all these dancing ladies popped out of the sea. Seriously??

This is me kissing a God.

We went to another temple which the guide was super excited to tell us was the temple that was used in the film Tomb Raider with Anjelina Jolie. He probably told us about her 10 or 12 times. He pointed out the exact tree that is in the movie and told us all about how she and Brad Pitt adopted a Cambodian orphan. I never saw the movie but the site was certainly film-worthy.

The last day we went on a boat ride on the Tonle Sap lake. The lake is enormous, and from one side you can't see the other. Apparently though, during the dry season the lake is only a quarter of the size it is now. It creates this unique environment where there are underwater forests. During the dry season the trees and plants are in the earth, above water, and in the wet season they are completely underwater. We were there in the middle, so we saw half-trees exposed. On the lake we went birdwatching and went to a floating village. There is no land near the village so everything has its own boat: houses, gardens, community centers, schools, shops. To get from one place to another you have to row yourself there. Everyone who lived there seemed to have incredible balance.

I would say one of my favorite parts about Cambodia is the Khmer food. It's way spicier and more flavorful than Vietnamese food, which is a lot of rice or noodles with garlicky green vegetables (for a vegetarian at least). For breakfast I tried a Khmer rice porridge which is basically rice soup: rice in broth with onions and scallions and chilles andother veggies. Meals in general are heavy on curries with rice: lemongrass, pineapple, sweet basil, chiles, green mangos, papaya and peanuts are all big ingredients. Yum.

photos!

All my pictures are now online. You can see them at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jsargrad

But to be fair, all the pictures of me (which is what you really wanna see) are on Scott's photo website, January 1st onwards: http://picasaweb.google.com/scott.sargrad

This is my personal favorite. The Japanese boys at a pagoda in Hue who asked their mother to take a picture of me.

For other awesome blogging about Vietnam you can check out Scott and Alison's blog: http://www.hanoiorbust.blogspot.com/

Xe om

Xe om are motorbike taxis that are all over Hanoi. On every street corner, alleyway and even inside people's homes, there are guys that have motorbikes and you sit on the back of them and they take you to your destination (or somewhere nearby) for a small fee. These guys I have found are amazing on the streets of Hanoi. They cut in front of way more cars and across way more lanes of oncoming traffic than Scott normally does, and so far, I am unharmed. Today on my way to yoga class though was definitely a first. Since Tet (solar new year) is coming up, traffic has grown to be ridiculously heavy. So when we got to a street of stopped traffic he drove in the other lane. No big deal. But then he cuts to the sidewalk and says "hello," which is code for me to hop off the motorbike so that he can drive it up onto the sidewalk. I hop back on again, we drive for a little while on the sidewalk until the traffic clears up and then (no warning this time) he drives right back off the curb onto the street. Needlesstosay being a pedestrian in this city is pretty unfortunate.

Week of Antiquity (Part 1)

This week was family vacation week. We travelled to central Vietnam to Hue, the imperial capital, and to Siem Reap, the center of the Khmer empire in Cambodia. The Sargrads just can't seem to get enough ancient ruins...

Hue was the capital of Vietnam during the Nguyễn Dynasty, from 1802 to 1945. The line of 13 kings seemed to start off strong, but by the end of their rule, they were basically puppet kings, since the French had colonized Vietnam and had control over the government. Regardless they built some pretty sweet walled cities and tombs for themselves. The first place we visited was the imperial walled city, inside of which was a second walled city reserved only for the king and his family. And his thousands of servants. And hundreds of concubines (who are picked out by his mother). And his herd of elephants that carried him everywhere (the king doesn't walk). A lot of the royal grounds were actually destroyed during the Vietnam war, becuase it is located near the border between north and south Vietnam. The best part were the tombs of the kings. The first one we visited seemed like the king's vacation home. It was on a really pretty lake (a manmade lake the king had built for himself), away from town, with a reading dock, a private theater and georgeous grounds. The tomb itself though was just a sandstone box. Inside a wall, which was inside another wall. Here are the grounds.

The other tomb we visited was crazy ornate. It was on a mountain top, so you had to climb hundreds of steps to even get there. It was the next to last king's tomb so there was huge French influence and you could definitely tell. Once you finally got to the top of the mountain, there was a building that housed his tomb. Every inch of the interior walls was covered in a ceramic and glass mosaic: some mythical creatures, flowers and plants, birds, and just awesome designs. When you looked closer you could tell what the ceramic bits actually were, there were some soup spoons, beer bottles, plates etc. In the middle of the room was a lifesized gold statue of the king himself. This guy had some insecurities.

Highlights

Here is a quick update on the last week in Vietnam:

Motorbike tour of Hanoi...Seeing as Scott was my tour guide/driver I can't say much about Hanoi because I was terrified to look beyond the back of his helmet. EEK! Just kidding. eek. He actually holds his own in traffic, which is basically non stop. The thing about motorbikes is that they just drive in any space possible to get towards their destination, the scariest of which was driving in the opposite lane towards oncoming traffic. But I survived one trip so why not try another? The city is extremely fast paced with people (mostly women) carrying a ridiculous amount of stuff on the back of their bikes/motorbikes. I've seen motorbikes carrying a 2 pigs, a water buffalo, a mini fridge, a 6 foot long piece of plexsiglass, and a markets worth of fruits and veggies. Scott says he saw one carrying a full sized refrigerator but I'm not sure I believe him. You always think they're going to tip over (and sometimes they do).

New Years Eve Hanoi...Actually much more anticlimactic than I would have assumed. Everyone gathered in the central area around Hoan Kiem lake to await the arrival of the new year. But when it comes, if it hadn't of been for the drunk Australian man yelling and waving around a bottle of champagne I don't think anyone would have counted down or really done anything except for go home again. Tết is the Vietnamese New Year (they use the Lunar calendar) in January or February and I think it goes on for several days. They don't utilize the concept of one moment culminating the celebration, and they just thought the Western man was crazy. Which may or may not have actually been the case.

Best (worst) circus ever...Animal rights have not quite extended to this part of the world. That being said, and keeping my horror in check, I saw the best circus in the history of circuses. The Hanoi zoo is larger than I expected, monkeys of every sort, tigers, birds, goats (?), an elephant. And the cages are within arms length from the visitors with fences around them that are left open. We saw people feeding shrimp chips to the monkeys, and once we saw the monkeys reject their lunch of cucumbers and carrots, it seemed like the monkeys were used to this. On our way out, me Scott and Alison saw a sign of animals (not all circus animals) doing absurd things on bicycles and stilts and wearing tutus. After we got a good laugh thinking the poses had been photoshopped, we walked into a circus tent during a practice run through, and no...they were most certainly authentic. The only ones there were the trainers and their friends but they welcomed us to watch. And omg we could not stop watching. First we saw a small bear (a sun bear) walking on his hind legs, doing handstands on his front legs, standing on his hind legs on a plank of wood balanced on a cylindrical block of wood (a see-saw if you will), riding a bicycle, jumping off the bicycle and walking it back to the trainer, all while waving his paw at the crowd. And this was just the start. Next came the monkeys, who also rode bicycles, did acrobatics, spun on rings, and balanced on the see-saw, while the trainer tossed him a ring to put around his neck and a top hat he put on his head. After that they brought out a menagerie of assorted circus (and non-circus animals) for the grand finale. In total, there was a bear, 3 monkeys, 2 huskys, 1 puppy, a kitten and a goat. The majority of them walked a plank, walked on a series of raised stilt sort of things and jumped hurdles. The goat also walked on his elbows (I don't understand either) and one of the huskys pushed a hamster wheel while the other ran back and forth through the middle. I don't think words can adequately describe.

Perfume Pagoda...After an hour long car ride southbound from Hanoi, you get on a metal row boat, which is powered by one individual woman (ranging from 18 to 30 in age it seemed), who rows you an hour down a river to a huge complex of temples that's only accessible by boat. The men sat in a ticket booth wearing suits and smoking cigarettes, while the women were doing extreme physical labor. Imagine rowing a boat of 4-5 people for an hour. The girls were ridiculously strong and apparently they start rowing at age 6. Welcome to gender equality, ladies! After getting to the island, you get off and walk (climb) an hour up a series of mountains to get to the big one at the top, which is inside a huge cave. The cave was thought to look like the mouth of a dragon, and dragons being sacred animals in Vietnamese culture, the temple was built inside. My photos certainly do not do it justice.

Ha Long Bay...This bay is east of Hanoi, and one of the UNESCO world heritage sites. I'm not 100% sure what that means but regardless it was totally rad. It's basically 2000 islands that are made from limestone and super jagged and go on for miles and miles. The legend is something else about dragons but in reality the water level has been decreasing over millions of years and these crags are what remain. (don't quote me on this ... my facts are a little sketchy). Anyways there's a lot of uninhabited sharp pointy islands. We took an overnight ride on a junk (traditional-type ship) to a few of the islands where we walked through a cave (even bigger than the last!) that was discovered by a monkey (Vietnamese lore is somewhat odd) and went kayaking through an opening in the rock into a hidden lagoon. Sooo beautiful. There are also floating villages in Ha Long Bay, that collect rainwater and fish for food. Very few boats have engines, so people make do with manpower. One man was paddling himself along on a chunk of styrofoam using a shovel as a paddle. Ingenuity. Here's a picture of Scotty kayaking.