Goosebumps Cambodia: Kampot

After a few days by the beach in Sihanoukville (more about this in an upcoming post), we decided to leave town for an excursion to Kampot and Bokor Hill Station. Perhaps the town had once been beautiful, but the buildings were now crumbling and there were bizarre sculptures, like the one above, in all of the traffic circles. From the very beginning it seemed like we'd entered a David Lynch movie, and it was only to become eerier.

In order to get to Bokor Hill Station, an abandoned French resort villa, built in the early 1920s, we needed to go on a bit of a hike. We took a jeep halfway up the mountain in Preah Monivong National Park, and then set off with a guide, a ranger, and a few other intrepid adventurers. We conquered leeches, scrapes and scratches, only to emerge from the trees into a thick cloud of fog. You could barely see ten feet in front of you, but once we reached the main palace and casino, we were greeted by the following sign:
Our guide assured us we would be completely safe, and sent us off to wander around the spooky grounds for two hours. These buildings have been left completely in tact, and a thick orange moss has covered much of their exteriors.
The guide encouraged us to look for a cathedral and post office, so we set off on a path that would past the concrete space mushroom.
We arrived first at a square, squat hotel which was surrounded by tropical flowers (they looked like hibiscus) and wine berries. We pushed through the tall grass and entered...
The upstairs was a maze of rooms, covered in the moss, where many of the walls had collapsed. It was really fun to wander around and hide; can you find Morgan in the picture above?
Most of the front of the building had fallen away, and as the mist momentarily cleared, we were greeted by a large lake.
We left the hotel, continuing our search for the church and post office, but instead came across this building (which we think were apartments)
and this enormous skeleton of shops.
We only had forty-five minutes left, so we set back to our starting point of the main palace/casino. The building is four stories tall and has sweeping staircases in both wings.
The first room you encounter, on the ground floor, is a ballroom with soaring ceilings and beautiful archways. It was easy to imagine ghosts of galas past waltzing across the floor, or gambling their fortunes away.
Throughout the building there were several tiny balconies off the windows that were covered in ivy and moss.
I took this my 9 billionth self-portrait in one of the demolished rooms on the third floor.
This girl, along with tons of graffiti could be found lurking in the stairwells of nearly every building in the complex.
We were waved goodbye by the mess of hand prints above, as we headed out to meet up with our group and hike back down the mountain. If you have the chance to visit, do it quickly! Bokor Hill Station is slated to be torn down over the course of the next few years, as a shmancy resort is being built nearby.

Cambodian Menagerie: Monkeys

If nothing else, this trip has taught me two things: I feel most relaxed when I'm on the beach and I LOVE MONKEYS. I'd always though they were cute, funny, little guys, but seriously, I think they may be my favorite animal of the entire kingdom. Thus, nothing could be more exciting than to motoscoot through Sinhoukville and find a colony of monkeys, conveniently located across from a small soda/snack stand on the side of the road.
We initially pulled over to buy a Coke and maybe take a picture or two, but were thrilled when the mom/snack stand owner offered us peanuts, and told us to feed the monkeys and "take lots of photos."
Her daughter, the sweet two year old above, graciously supplied us with peanuts and salt, while the baby monkeys would run up to us and eat out of our hands.
We weren't allowed to feed the adults, as they were much to aggressive, but that was fine by me.
Their teeny paws would grip the peanuts and quickly shovel them into their mouths, before any of the other monkeys could greedily snatch them away.
This one in particular took so many, that he started storing them in a pouch off to the side of his mouth, to eat later.
While we fed the baby monkeys, the road-side snack owner defended her shack from big guys like the ones above. They would swoop down and try and steal the bananas, but she would scare them by thrashing at the tarp with a large stick. The final score: 0 monkeys harmed, 1 banana absconded.

Saigon Stories

As much fun as traveling can be, it gets tiring moving around all the time. It's exhilarating to see new places, but sometimes you just want to sleep in the same bed for more than two or three nights. Bearing this in mind, we decided to slow down our pace and stay in Saigon for a little over a week. We figured we'd really be able to explore the city, and with so many food and sightseeing options, we were sure to stay occupied.

We split up our time visiting some of the more classic sights like the Reunification Palace, which has been left in the same condition, since 1975. My favorite rooms were the shooting gallery

and the eerily empty type writer room.

We made sure to set aside some time to tour the beautiful temples in Chinatown, filled with pink slips for good luck
and huge cones of incense hanging from the rafters.

Having had a lot of fun at previous zoos, we were excited to check out the HCMC zoo. Unfortunately, it turned out to be pitiful, as it was filled tiny, unclean cages and with animals that were hotter than we were.

We spent an afternoon at the ridiculously kitschy Dansen park, whereMorgan posed with the stone sculptures,

I barely survived a dinosaur attack (seriously the ride was TERRIFYING)

and we chanelled cool thoughts at the ice sculpture park.

We visited Cholon, the Chinatown section of town, where every section of the market was jam packed with specific goods. Witness the shoe/flip flop section,

the wok section,
and the rope section.

We attempted a multi-day motorcycle Mekong delta trip, but it was foiled due to passport issues. Note to future travelers: make sure you ALWAYS have your passport if you want to stay in a hotel in Vietnam, they're real sticklers about it. We got as far south as Ben Tre, and made sure to pick up some famous coconut candy while we were there, but unfortunately had to turn back around and head home the same evening.

Lastly, the best part about being someplace for a while, is starting to feel familiar with the streets and restaurants. Since we can't cook for ourselves, we're always looking for meals that are so good we can't wait to go back.
The slam dunk of Saigon was Nhu Lan, which we found through the amazing blog eatingAsia. We quickly became addicted to the yummy spring rolls and

some of the best doner (it tasted a lot like NYC pastrami) I've ever had.

We ended our time in Saigon, having dinner with a fellow couchsurfer, who is a food scientist for Nestle. He took us to a delicious banh xeo restaurant and we followed it up with milk tea near the park by our hostel. We had a wonderful time in Vietnam, despite the incessant heat and humidity. We've got one more country to explore, Cambodia, before we head home in June, so stay tuned...

Nha Trang Deliciousness

I generally don't like cooking my own food in a restaurant. This trip has changed that. First with hot pot in Chengdu, and now with Lac Cahn in Nha Trang. We arrived there on a Tuesday evening following a ten minute cab ride from the tourist ghetto. The place was filled with Vietnamese families, and on each table was a terracotta brazier filled with red hot charcoals. On top of this is placed a grate, and on top of that you cook your food.

We ordered three proteins. Each came slathered in a fiery marinade.

Eel. Skin on, bone in. All they do is gut it for you:

Beef. Nice tender chunks, really flavorful:

The pork, which we neglected to get a picture of, was (unsurprisingly) the star of the show. Unbelievably tasty. The pieces were quite fatty, which crisped up nicely on the grill.

Cold beer and sauteed morning glory rounded out our meal:

This happened every time we added something to the grill:

Here's the end result. Delicious meat, happy eaters:

Unfortunately, I don't think that this will ever make it to the US. Filling every table in a restaurant with glorified campfires is a law suit waiting to happen. Until some clever restauranter figures out how to make this concept a reality, it's just one more reason to visit Vietnam.

Fun Day in Mui Ne

We were sad to leave the beautiful beaches of Nha Trang and Hoi An, but eager to continue traveling south to visit "the Sahara of Vietnam" (at least, according to Lonely Planet). We took our penultimate bus ride to the home of fish sauce, Mui Ne, and cozied up at a guesthouse a few feet from the beach.

After settling into our new accommodations, we rented a motorbike and hit the open road. We passed by little fish drying in the sun and dozens of fishing boats, as we headed out to the red sand dunes.


We knew we had arrived, when we were greeted by a large group of kids jumping up and down and waving blue plastic sleds at us. We ditched the bike and were joined by an old Vietnamese woman, who helped us up the burning sands of the dunes. We never learned her name, but she was THE sweetest in the whole world.
She went back to help Morgan up the dunes and lent him her very small sandals,

coated our sleds to make them slide faster, before pushing us down the dunes,



and was eager to take lots of scenic photos of us.

Drenched in sweat and with red hot feet, we got back on the bike and went for a long loop around town. We stopped a few times along the way, once to check out this gem (which is straight out of roadside America)
and to drink our new favorite thirst quencher-- sugar cane juice.

Slightly citrusy and sweet, it tastes like un-carbonated Joy Juice or Mello Yellow, and is delightfully refreshing.
We only spent a few days in Mui Ne, as we were eager to get to Saigon, for the last leg of our Vietnamese adventures.