Bakong

This one was a bit bigger. And it had elephant statues! And a moat!

It occurred to me I should probably include a map so you can see where all these wats are located. This and last one are part of the Roluos Group in the Southeast corner.

Prasat Olok

Cambodia's taxi crew reigns supreme. Once our driver from the airport to the hotel had arrived at our destination (a new and unknown villa to which we had to guide him via iPhone), he inquired as to whether he should show us around. We agreed--to a two-day venture in which he would take us to some of Angkor's outliers on day one, and his brother would take us to the main attractions on day two. Total cost? $75.

I really liked how this was set up. We saw some smaller wats in the Roluos Group that afternoon, including one--my favoite--40 km north of the city, and everything built to the climax of the major structures. These photos are of the first, a small wat southeast of the city called Prasat Olok.







Most door frames include intricately carved stelae in Khmer. I've no idea how they did this.

Siem Reap / Angkor Wat

This place is far too big--and we took far too many pictures--to do it justice in one post. Thus, some shots of Siem Reap here and separate posts for each of the wats to come. Hopefully that'll satisfy your Kienzle + Moon jones for the next week.

I do love these regional jets--so Indiana Jones. Angkor Air has been banned in the UK for what it's worth; I doubt they've ever flown there.

Siem Reap is half frontier outpost, half tourist mecca. Hot and dusty when we were there, the barely paved downtown feels practically deserted after the chaos of Saigon. Tuk-tuk drivers lounge on the corners, the agent at DOA Travel languishes in her un-air-conditioned office, and Happy Herb's Pizza gently beckons a certain class of adventurer.

But there's a couple of food alleys that satisfy the craving for Khmer cuisine. We've posted about it before--milder than Thai, more curry-based than Vietnamese, and ridiculously cheap.

And this was just kind of weird. Though in dusty, hot Siem Reap, strangely inviting.

Markets persist everywhere, of course. Siem Reap's was remarkable for it's ability to instantly gross out Karen.

And we hadn't even gotten to the food she doesn't eat.

Back at the hotel, 'twas the night before nuptials, and everyone was stirring, prepping hundreds if not thousands of gift baskets and warming up the amplifiers for their 5 am serenade (actually, they played really good Cambodian trance music for the first two hours, so I got up at seven feeling fresh as a lotus flower in a baray).

Oh--and did we mention we were there on xmas? The tuk-tuk drivers totally got in on the act.

Cool town--if you can avoid the tourist resorts and time shares springing up on the north side--but the weird manifestations of Westernism persist. And not just Statler and Waldorf and the use of the papyrus font--this bar had a cocktail dedicated to Angelina Jolie and her role in Tomb Raider (it was filmed at one of the wats).

Saigon

Saigon is big and hot and filled with all sorts of things. Like the central market. Do not stop in the central market if you do not wish to make a purchase.

But the central part of the city is quite walkable, and past the Revolutionary Palace...
...is the War Remnants Museum.

The artifacts on the lawn--a couple of tanks, two planes, a huey and a good deal of artillery--have become a gathering place for both visitors and Vietnamese affected by the war or its fallout. I talked with one man who'd lost both his arms and one of his legs sitting on a landmine in 1977--two years after the war was over. He seemed to have gotten a job with the division of the tourism ministry responsible for selling books and war postcards, of which I now own several.


Inside, the museum features the usual uniforms and light weapons, but it's the pictures that really tell the story. I don't know how they got ahold of such a vast collection, but it covers everything from My Lai to Agent Orange birth defects to waterboarding prisoners (shown below). On the second floor there's a memorial to all the photographers killed making sure we don't forget about these things.
Back out in the sun, and after lunch, we headed for Notre Dame...

...where the pre-wedding photography session was taking place. Many couples in these parts get all dolled up months before the wedding for portrait day, ensuring all their guests receive their photos on the big day itself (rather than waiting around for three months after the fact).

Traffic is, of course, the same as everywhere else.

Then there's the museum of I-don't-know-what. Ancient stone carvings, naval instrumentation, a weddings-by-ethnicity pavilion, and less-than-stunning taxidermy.


Opera house...

Central square...

Off-limits palace...

And Xmas! In Saigon! Where it's 80 degrees outside!

The sidewalks all contain displays like these. Reminiscent of the kinds of decor you find in American malls, there's always something that tips you off to the fact that you're not in Kansas anymore. And it's not even the giant mushrooms. Check out Snow White in the background.

As usual, nights are best spent on a rooftop bar, watching traffic, drinking Long Ireland Iced Teas and photographing the more-or-less amusing menus.

Hue

Pronounced hway, Hue was Vietnam's old capital. Not much going on there now, and what's worth seeing can be seen in a day. Much of it was bombed heavily during the war, and while reconstruction efforts are underway, most of what's left consists of the old palace and a pagoda up river.



Drills are still carried out inside the first wall, where the bureaucracy was located.

Inside the second wall lies the yellow zone, or royal palace.


And inside the third, or purple zone, well, that's where the emperor kept his statuary and his harem. It's good to be the king.

Up river is a pagoda/monastery that's been around since before any monks came to the new world. Visitors are kicked out at 11:00 so the monks can get down to business.






This is what gardening at Home Depot can look like if you do it right.




I try and dress for the occasion.

And then it was dawn of the lizards. They're cute. They're everywhere. Get used to it.