We arrived in Hanoi after 24 hours in airplanes. Miraculously our luggage arrived with us. We went to our hotel, the Sofitel Legend Metropole Hotel. This Hanoi's most prestigious hotel.. Notable guests include Somerset Maugham, Charlie Chaplin, Graham Greene, Noel Coward, Michael Cain and Vladimir Putin. Definitely a five star hotel. Slept well.
Had a lovely buffet breakfast and then had a briefing with our tour guides, Ut and Smiley. There are 51 of us. We will be divided into two groups. We are in the group with Ut.
Got on our bus and headed for the Museum of Ethno!ogy. The museum has information on the 54 cultures that make up the culture of Vietnam. 86% of the population is of the Kihn or ethnic Viet of southern China. Some of the other cultures are the Hmong, Muong, Cham, Bru, Khmer, Bahnar and Red Dao. We saw a water puppet show. It was staged in a large water filled tank. Puppeteers hide behind a screen and stand waist deep i. water. They manipulate the puppets with long poles. Music is
provided by a traditional orchestra. The picture below is a carving at the museum.
From the museum we went to Hoa Lo Prison, better known as the Hanoi Hilton. The prison is where during the Vietnam War captured US pilots were held, including Senator John Mc Cain.
The prison was built by the French administration in 1896. Originally built to house 450 prisoners, by 1930 the number of detainees had grown to almost 2,000. The displays in the prison included shackles, whips and other instruments of torture as well as tiny solitary cells. Also on display is part of the old narrow sewer system through which more than 100 prisoners escaped in August 1945.
After lunch at our hotel we went to the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. It is a heavy gray structure built of stone from Marble Mountain near Danang.
An unassuming man who prided himself on an austere, almost ascetic public image, he had allegedly requested that he be cremated and his ashes scattered in Northern, Central ans Southern Vietnam symbolizing the national unity to which he had devoted his life. However, after his death in 1969 the leaders of the Vietnamese politburo reportedly altered his final testament by deleting his request to be cremated instead, with the help of Soviet specialists , the leader was embalmed and installed at the Mausoleum in 1975. He is so revered that the wait in line to view his body can be three hours.
From the Mausoleum we went to the Temple of Literature, the oldest and possibly the finest architectural complex in Hanoi. It was built in 1070 during the Ly Dynasty. Founded in honor of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, it served as a center for higher learning, educating future mandarins for more than seven centuries. We saw the tortoise stele. These are stone tablets mkunted on giant carved tortoise pedestals inscribed with names and brief personal details of scolars who passed Van Mieu's examinations.
We also visited the One Pillar Pagoda. It was built by Emperor Ly Thai Tong in 1049 AD. It celebrates the bjrth of his son. It represents a water lily on a single stem.
Day 3 December 25
After breakfast we took a Tuk Tuk ride through the Old Qharter of Hanoi. It is very interesting to be in a Buddhist country on Christmas day. it is not a national holiday so all of the shops snd budinesses are open. There are Christmas decorations everywhere some witb very elaborate light displays. There was an audio guide playing in the Tuk Tuk but there was so much noise in the street we could not hear it. millions of motor bikes in the streets many with whole families on them or loaded with goods. The Tuk Tuk was pulled by a motor bike. In Vietnam land in the city is at a premium so the houses are very small but three stories tall. They are called ribbon houses. Many generations live together in one house.
We checked out of our hotel and went to the airport for a two hour flight to Cambodia.
Our hotel in Siem Reap was even more luxurious than the one in Vietnam. It was also a Sofitel. Our room had a covered patio. Everytime you approached a door a hotel staff member was there to open it for you. Women staff members wore traditional dress consisting of pants with a long tunic top with slits down the sides.
We had a lovely buffet dinned in the hotel dining room and afterwards were entertained with a traditional Aspera dance performance. The costumes were beautiful.
Day 4 December 26
Today we went to Angkor Wat. This was a breathtaking sight. Angkor was the ancient capital of the Kmer Empire. It js one of the most magnificent wonders of the world and a site of immense archeological signifcance.
Ancient Cambodia was highly influenced by South Asia and Hindu gods like Vishna and Shiva were revered. From tbe 10th century AD onward, Buddhism gradually began to spread throughout the Khmer Empire, receiving a significant boost during the reign of Angkor monarch Jayavarman VII (1181-1281). As the two re!igions flourished Angkorian architecture incorporated elements of both Hinduism and Buddhism or the way of the elders emerged as the predominant school and replaced Hinduism as the national religion.
I thought that Ephesus was tbe most awesome archeological wonder that I had ever seen but Angkor Wat is Ephesus on steroids. It is massive and has beautiful stone carvings.
The layout is based on a mandala or sacred design of the Hindu cosmos. They are familiar now as there are adult co!oring books of mandala designs. A five towered temple shaped like a lotus bud and representing Mount Meru, the mythical abode of the gods and the center of the universe, stands in the middle of the complex. The outer walls represent the edge of the world and the moat is the cosmic ocean. Especially outstanding are the inticate carvings that adorn the walls, including a 1,970 ft panel of bas reliefs and around 2,000 engravings of apsaras or celestial dancing girls with enigmatic smiles.
After lunch we went to Banteay Srey temples which are known as the Citadel of Women. The temple is known for its pink sandstone carvinvs.
We had dinner at the Sokkhak Restaurant.
Day 5 December 27
After breakfast on the ship went to Ta Prohm. Mark was in too much pain to go with me. The hotel arfsngec for a doctor to come to hotel to see Mark.. He disgnosec his problem as sciatica and gave him some anti-inflammatory and pain medications.
The name means Ancestor of Brahma and it was originally a monastery. At it's peak it owned over 3,000 villages and was maintained by 80,000 attendants, including 18 high priests and 600 temple dancers. included in tbe wealth of the temp!e and its founder Jayavaraman VII are more than 35 diamknds and 40,000 pearls. The French started thei archeological restoration duri g the colonial pt and a deliberate attempt was made to preserve Ta Prohm in its existing condition, limiting restoration and cutting down as little of tbe dense jungle as possible. As a result the temple buildings remain smothered with the roots of giant banyan frees, preserving the atmosphere that 19th century explorers must hsve experienc
We traveled next to the ancient city of Angkor Thom to see the smiling buddahs. The name of the city means Great City in Khmer and it was founded by King Jayavarman VII in the late 17th century. The largest city in the Khmer Empire at one time, it is protected by a 26 ft high wall about 8 miles long and surrounded by a wide moat. The temple's central towers are decorated with four smiling faces gazing out in all four directions.
In the afternoon the group went to a Viking sponsored school where we were expected to make a donation. Mark and I did not go.
We had an early dinner at Malis Restaurant.
After dinner we went to an acrobatic show in a tent. The acrobats were all young people from poor homes who were earning mkney doing this. Theg were very good altbough at times the show depictex violence and cruelty. Mark did not go to the show becsuse he was in alot of pain and didn't think he could sit in the backless bleachers.
Day 6 December 28
We had the morning free and at 11:30 we boarded our bus for a five hour ride to Kampong Cham where we would meet our ship. Before each of us travelers left home we were supposed to get a multi entry visa into Vietnam. As we left Vietnam for Cambodia it was discovered that one of us, an older man from Holland had only a single visa. After a few tense hours he was able to produce a letter that our guides thought would solve the problem. More on this later.
The story of Cambodia started in 4000 BC with the first settlements. By the 13th century, it grw into a major power as the Khmer kingdom with territory in today's Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and the Malay Peninsula. Of course, the 12th century Angkor Wat, built in the then capital of Angkor, stands as the most impressive remnant of Khmer might.
We arrived at our ship and settled in. This ship is very different from any we have been on before. There are only 30 cabins on two decks. The ship is all built out of teak. Even the shower foor is teak. Every cabin is exterior with a narrow walkway between the cabin and edge of the ship. There is no elevator just several steep stairways. There is no swimming pool or casino. Because there are only 51 passengers there is one dining room and one seating. There are no phones or television in the cabins. The ship reminds me of the ship in the Katherine Hepburn movie African Queen.
Day 7 December 29
After breakfast we boarded our bus for a trip to the Twin Holy Mountains of Phnom Pros (man hill) and Phnom Srey (woman hill). Many cultures have myths about a sacred world mountain, where the peaks (often twin peaks) reach to the heavens. The Twin Holy Mountains of Kampong Cham are no different.
In ancient times, there was a queen named Srei Ayuthiya. Since no man could propose to such a beautiful, noble woman, she decided to choose the man who would be her husband. After that, it was the custom for a woman to propose to a man. Now some women were very unhappy with this arrangement and wanted to change the custom. So one day, all the women gathered snd came up with a strategy to make the men propose.
They dared them to a contest where one team of women and one of men would work through the night to see who could build a mountain before daybreak. If the men won the competition, the women would have to continue asking the men, and if the women won, the men would have to ask. Work would continue until the morning star rose, and then everyone could stop.
The men believed that it would be easy to win this contest because they were stronger and could carry more earth, so they accepted the challenge. Both started working hard, digging the earth to build the mountain, and rhe men were clearly winning. By the middle of the night, they were so far ahead that they decided to take a rest, at which point the women hung a lantern way up in a tall tree. The men, seeing the light of the lantern, thought that it was the morning star and went to sleep, convinced they had won. Meanwhile the women continued building. When the daylight arrived, their mountain was higher than the men's. They woke up the men and showed them the morning star. That is why Phnom Srey is taller than Phnom Pros. To this day Cambodia is matriarch society.
Our next stop was a visit to an orphanage. The children sang a song for us and then each child took one of us to see their rooms and some crafts for sale. The crafts were clearly not made by the children but we bought a few things to support the orphanage. Some of the people o. our bus had brought pencils, crayons and candies for the children.
We went back to the ship for lunch and the ship set sail for Chong Koh. Thw ship's crew gave us a fashion show of traditional Cambodian dress.
After the ship docked we took a walk through the village of Chong Koh and watched silk weaving. The villsge was very primitive and dirty. I did buy a couple of silk scarves.
After our return to the ship we departed for Kampong Trolach.
After dinner we watched the movie, The Killing Fields.
