Into the future

Suddenly last week all the markets are filled with Mandarin oranges, in clusters attached to short cuts of branches with leaves. Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

I haven’t updated the blog since before our visit to Seim Reap and the temples of Angkor. Partly because of travels (we were in Singapore last weekend and our friend Ashwin, who we were visiting there, has been here for the past few days), partly because I’ve been marking my second set of essays, and partly because I’ve been overwhelmed with the 800 pictures I took on our trip to Angkor.

Tomorrow we start our travels within our travels. We leave in the morning for Ho Chi Minh City is Vietnam. This is a six-hour bus trip, including the stop at the border. We already have our visa permits so this should be painless. As we leave at 8am and buses never leave on time we will get into HCMC mid-afternoon. This will give us time to find our way around a bit, get a room, and book a train ticket for the next day. We plan to keep stays in the biggest cities to a minimum.

We are traveling by train for a couple of reasons. Buses and trains move at extremely slow paces by our standards. Buses average about 60k/h and don’t travel after day (too many bikes and pedestrians wondering aimless about on the highways—which are also people’s front yards). Our destination by train will be Danang which is just sound of the skinniest part of Vietnam (the former north south divide) and will take about 30 hours, though its only a little over 1000 km distance. The train travels at night, is more comfortable, and unlike the buses won’t involve the driver blowing the horn non-stop at other traffic. They start blowing the horn when the traffic is spotted on the horizon and keep blowing it for a few seconds after we have passed them just for good measure. Traffic in this case ranges from cars and trucks to sleeping dogs, grazing cows, and wandering children. The train also travels up the coast that will give us an additional choice of scenery. If we are lucky (booking one day ahead may be too late) we will get a berth, otherwise just a standard reclining seat.

From Danang we will retrace our steps a bit, heading south again for an hour by bus to Hoi An. During what is called here the American War, Hoi An was an R+R spot for GIs. It is a beach resort famous for, among other things (like sand), small wooden fishing boats shaped like bowls. Expect pictures later. We plan to spend a few days lolling on the beaches.

From Hoi An its back to Danang and then north to Hanoi. We weren’t going to travel the length of Vietnam, planning to cut into Laos just north of Danang, but several people have told us about a wonderful spot north of Hanoi so off we go. In the mountains between Hanoi and the Chinese border is Sapa with vistas over mist covered mountains and valleys. One guide book notes that all the guest rooms have fireplaces. Finally, those long sleeved shirts I brought will get used.

From Sapa we return to Hanoi and fly to Luang Prabong in Laos. The flight will save us many hours of bus time, including having to retracing the journey north from Danang. There are a few border crossings from the north into Laos but all the guide books advise avoiding them as they are hard to get to, inefficient, sometimes closed when they should be open, etc. Luang Prabong is invariably describe as one of the most beautiful cities in SE Asia. It is the former capital of country of (I think) the same name, is small for a city in this part of the world, located in a beautiful setting with colonial architecture and has a few exotic day trips around it. Just north of it, up the Mekong river, is a cave that seems to have used as a burial ground for decommissioned statues of the Buddha.

From LP we head south to the capital of Laos, Vientiene, from there to Bangkok (for as short a time as possible given the current situation there) and further south to spend as long as possible on an island that our friend Sandra spent time on before she arrived in Phnom Penh. She will be there for her Christmas break so we will get to connect up with her again.

From there its back to Phnom Penh by boat via Sihanoukville, which is a beach resort on the Sea of Thailand. Early in our adventures we spent a weekend at Kep, which is south of Sihanouville. Finally, its New Years Eve in Phnom Penh, back to Seoul for a day and then home to the snow.

During December  I’m not sure how often I will get on the internet, so updates for the blog will probably be even more spotty than usual.