The Big Swing

Could not resist this one. You can see in proportion to the buildings just how high this is. The actual swing is no longer attached. It was formerly a sport at which many people actually lost their lives, and was therefore banned in 1930. You can only imagine how high they flew!,

Jim Thompson House

Just as the Second World War was winding down, Jim Thompson, an American architect, came to Thailand to work in the OSS - now the CIA - and fell in love with the country. After leaving the service he became passionate about reviving the silk industry, and his shop is still the premier place to buy silk goods.

His house comprises of 6 teak buildings which were dismantled and brought to the site, which happens to be right around the corner from my hotel, and on the bank of the previously mentioned canal. It is absolutely stunning, made of 200 year old teak and with beautiful landscaping. It houses his collection of antiques collected over the years he lived here.

In March of 1967 he went with a friend to visit the highlands of Malaysia and disappeared. There have never been any clues as to what happened to him. The house and business remain as a foundation.

This may be my last blog, as I fly out of Bangkok tomorrow night. Hope you have all enjoyed reading about my adventure, and I will be seeing some of you fairly soon.

Talk about wake!

This morning I was about to leave and take a tuk tuk to the Golden Mount when the receptionist told me about a canal round the corner which cost 30 cents and would take me there. Always game to try something new, I walked alongside the canal until I found a boarding point. Hoping I was headed in the right direction, I paid my money to one of the guys in blue who hang on the side, and off we went.

They speed down the canal creating a 2 to 3 foot high wake, and the plastic curtains are to prevent you getting wet. It was quite an experience as getting on and off was quite difficult and it seemed to be every man for himself. Safely ashore I noticed a young man who turned out to be Pakistani looking at a map, and asked if he new which direction for the Mount. He did not, but made the comment that maybe I was a little old to be traveling alone. I said that would depend on how old he thought I was. After looking me up and down he said 55, and was shocked when I said 66. At that point I think he really thought I should not be alone!

Solid gold Buddha

Yes, this one is not gold leaf, it is solid gold. Have no idea how much it is worth!

Floating market

Although it has become very touristy, you can still find little old ladies selling produce or cooking food on their boat. This woman is making small crepes on her griddle, which she then fills with rice and vegetables.

Sometimes the women smear a grey, ash-like substance on their faces to protect against the sun, and most of them wear a large hat.

Making coconut syrup

The coconut milk bubbles all the way up to the top of the basket, and the syrup seeps out through the cracks over and over until it has the right consistency. They use every piece of the coconut for something.

Ads

Here, every inch of the trains are used for advertising - they are spectacular. You can actually see out through the windows.

Traffic

All the cabs here are neon colors. I think I am missing an orange one in this photo. To the left is the amazing overhead transit system, which is at least 4 and sometimes 5 stories above the street. It is clean, efficient, easy to use, and cheap. There is also a special line all the way to the airport, and I will be using it when I start my journey home at midnight on Wednesday.

Have actually had quite a lot of rain since arriving in Bangkok, and am hoping for some sun tomorrow when I take a tour of the Floating Market.

No explanation for the black one!

Feet

See how small the people are at the far end!

Reclining Buddah

Not sure if I spelled Buddah correctly! Anyway here is her head and it is gigantic. Next I'll send her body and feet so you can really get a feel for just how long she is.

Wat Pho

Just one of the many temples within Wat Pho, where the centerpiece is the Reclining Buddah. The gilding and tile-work sparkle even on a cloudy day, and it only got worse as it ended with an enormous rain storm, plus some spectacular thunder and lightning. Luckily a little group of us were safe and sound in a cafe by the river watching the show.

The Gang

Here are what is left of the group after 3 Canadians left us before we crossed into Thailand. This is our last day together and it has been a great ride. Tomorrow we all go our different ways with lots of fun memories, including the painful ones, and their have been a fair number of those. Wearing two pairs of padded bike pants was my invention!

We are staying at a relaxed beach resort on the Gulf of Thailand, about 3 hours from Bangkok. After a short ride to visit a mangrove preserve which is sponsored by the king in an effort to help clean up the water quality, we have had time to swim in the gulf and relax in the hammocks. Also visiting the mangroves were scores of school children on organized outings, with leaders who had microphones set to maximum sound, and therefore could be heard throughout the whole area. Really peaceful!!

Just for you Floridians, the mangroves were of a different type, much bigger leaves and way taller than ours, as you can see in the picture. They also used to have manatees, but they have been extinct here for 30 years. We don't realize how lucky we are to have our inter-coastal waterway with all its wild life.

The longest day

Yesterday was a combination of a bus ride, a boat ride, time lounging by the pool, and a bike ride if you wished. I chose not to as I was really concerned about today's ride which was to be 60 miles! That is more than I have ever done.

We started riding at 7:30am and the temperature here is 90 degrees and humid. It was open road with no shade whatsoever and I was still hanging with the pack when we stopped for lunch after 46 miles. At that point the guide, who knows I am way older than anyone else, came and very nicely informed me that we would be entering the hills and maybe I would like to take the bus, at the same time telling me I had done really well. I decided to follow his advice and took the air-conditioned bus.

Our hotel tonight is the Bamboo Lodge which comprises of a number of cute cottages, we were just safely ensconced when down came the rain, and it feels good to be inside with my IPad and the TV.

Musicians

While visiting a temple I discovered this group of musicians, all who have been maimed in some way by a landmine. I do not know if the landmines are still a problem today.

Today was a rough day starting at 7:30am with a 35 mile bike ride to our lunch destination, followed by a 3 mile hike uphill over some of the roughest terrain I have seen so that we could see a waterfall. After hiking back down, which was actually more treacherous than going up, there was another 6 mile bike ride in the hot sun to the beautiful Lady Temple. Thankfully we then got to ride on our air-conditioned bus all the way back to our hotel. I was wiped out!

Most everywhere in Cambodia the dirt is red, and sometimes we are on dirt roads when it starts to rain which makes the red mud spatter all over us. Not fun!

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat is the largest religious Hindu edifice in the world. This Vishnuite temple is the kings funerary temple which is the reason it is oriented to the west. Built during the early 12th century, it's inside walls are covered with carvings and bas-reliefs depicting mythology and all the wars Suryavarman II fought during his reign. It is the centerpiece of a huge area containing a number of other temples such as Ta Prohm which was made famous by the film Tomb Raider.

They are now having to make the choice between killing the trees whose roots entwine the buildings, and thus saving the temples, or losing the temples to the trees. Any restoration which has been done with great care is really amazing.

Lunch anyone?

At a local rest stop market some of the choices were krispy fried Tarantulas, small crickets, large crickets, and small songbirds. Needless to say there were no takers in our group, but a few people let a live Tarantula sit on their arm. I was not one of them.

Our team in Cambodia is not quite as we'll oiled as the one in Vietnam, but now we are installed for 3 nights in Siam Reap which is the gateway to the temples of Angkor Wat. The food in Cambodia is fragrant with spices but not hot ones, unlike Vietnam, and we have had some wonderful meals. Phnom Penh is a very nice city, wide streets, nice restaurants and shops. There were way more cars than in Vietnam due to the fact that they are allowed to have a secondary market. You see huge SUVs mostly from the USA and when they arrive they still have their American plates.

Temple detail

Another cutie!

She is 1 year old

Children

Can only send 1 photo per post so here are some children

Oudong Mountain

The view from the magnificent temple at the top of Oudong mountain. There was a 509 step climb to the top, which we did accompanied by small children fanning us. Each child focused on one person in the hope of receiving a little money, and they had no problem with the climb. My little buddy looked about 5 or 6 years old, but was actually 10!

Oudong is part of Phnom Prah Reach which was a former capital of Cambodia.

Pol Pot in Cambodia

In Cambodia, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge murdered 2 million of their own people. This former high school was turned into their interrogation and torture center, where people could be held for 3 to 6 weeks until they just died or were sent to the killing fields for execution.

The school was chosen to set the communist example that everyone is equal and education does not count for anything. When Pol Pot entered Phnom Penh the first people rounded up were, lawyers, doctors, teachers, artists, and anyone representing government. Then they gathered their families as they did not want to leave the children to exact revenge for the parents deaths.

The hundreds of portrait photos they took of their victims, are a haunting memory of men, women and children who simply disappeared. When their power was over, the remaining Khmer Rouge, many of whom were recruited as children, simply fled to the country, hiding their identity and trying to forget the horrible things they had done.

Pol Pot died in 1998 of a heart attack.

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge

This photo is from the Vietnam killing fields, and the stain high on the tree is the blood of small children and infants who were slammed into the tree in this particular village. I remember the Pol Pot regime but did not remember it affecting Vietnam. However, over 2 thousand people were murdered there.

Desert in Cambodia

We took a sad farewell of our Vietnam support group and took a four and a half hour speedboat ride up the Mekong river to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. After a couple of hours it was time to get our visas and cross the border, then continue up the river. Due to a storm in China, it was raining lightly when we arrived in Cambodia's capital city just in time for lunch. So far, we have had wonderful food on our trip, but this lunch was really exceptional. It must be the strong French influence!!

From the little I have seen so far, Phnom Penh appears to be an attractive city with some lovely buildings. They are presently building and planning for a public cremation of the former king who died fairly recently, and for the visit of heads of state for the summit which President Obama is attending. Unfortunately, we will have left the city before both these events take place.

Floating market

The floating market outside Saigon takes place every day. This is where locals and small businesses come to purchase fruits and vegetables from the large and small boats plying the waterway. Each boat has a pole where they hoist the produce they have for sale, and the purchaser moves in close to the boat while the transaction, small or large, takes place.

My team

These are the guys who make it all come together, at least for the Vietnam portion of the trip. Thai, second from the left is our guide, a 27 year old with a bubbly personality, a wife and a 2 week old baby girl. The other three drive the vehicles which support us along the way - the bus on which you can hitch a ride at certain points if you need a break, the truck which carries our bikes if they need to be repositioned, and the bus which carries our luggage. When we arrive at a break point, these three have everything set up with snacks and drinks or lunch as the case may be.

We have now bicycled for three days usually starting at 7am and the days miles are broken into pieces which can vary in length. We ride on concrete paths, usually about 3 to 4 feet wide and the traffic goes in both directions. We yell bike if a moped is coming toward us, an also if one is approaching from behind. Then we have the bridges!! They can be steep and have no side rails and they scare me to death. Otherwise, they can be made of broken and bumpy planks or sometimes metal slats. Through the rice paddies the paths were comprised of 1 foot grass, 1 foot gravel, and 1 foot grass raised about 2 feet above the water. I was certain that was the day I was going to fall in, but that privilege was left to Monica from NYC.

Sometimes we travel on small roads when I really appreciate the lack of cars and trucks, but I am hanging in there and have only taken two short rides on the bus.

Three old ladies in Vietnam

Thought I would let you see a photo of me so you know I really am here. The three old ladies are aged 72, 70, and 66, and I am not saying who is who! People are enormously friendly here, even in North Vietnam where I had heard they don't like Americans. The kids are adorable, and as we pedal through the tiny communities they shout hello, hello and we shout hello back. They love it!

Many children can't go to school because their parents do not have the money to send them, and especially in the countryside there is a lot of poverty. If you see a nice house, it was usually built with money sent them from relatives in another country. Even in the cities, owning a home is for most people just a dream, especially as there are practically no mortgages - it is a cash society. The same goes for cars, which because of taxes, cost three times what they do in the USA. When you see a BMW or Mercedes, you know the owner is hugely wealthy.

Today we are heading towards the Cambodian border. My bicycle seat is not shaped like mine, and believe me I have a sore butt, but there is no turning back!!

One dollar per day

These women manually twist the hairy fibers from coconuts into rope. They do not have work every day, and when they do they only make $1 per day! It really makes you appreciate what you have.

Work on a coconut plantation

It is very hot and humid despite the palm fronds protecting from the suns rays. This man slams each coconut down on the erect, sharp, blade 4 times, creating a discarded husk which looks rather like a flower. He can complete 1200 coconuts per day, and you have to wonder how many injuries he incurs even though he seems very focused as he brings down each nut.

Met the group

This is the friendly pharmacist who gave me pills to help with my cold. Her daughter was afraid when I took out my camera and still looks a little skeptical.

Met the group and it is a real mixture. There are 15 of us, 3 USA, 2 Swedes, 3 Belgians, 3 Aussies, 4 Canadians, and there are 8 women and 7 men. Five of us are close in age and the rest range from 25 and up. It is a real mixture! We have a 5 man support team with us and everything seems very well organized.

I will feel better when I get the first bike day under my belt, at the moment I am a little nervous.

My Friendly pedicab driver

It is very hot and humid today, so when faced with a long walk to my next destination I decided on this elderly driver instead. At first I was a little nervous being swallowed into the stream of traffic - which you don't see in this photo - but he deftly handled his cab and put me at ease. I hired him for 1 hour and he took me to a couple of places which I had not planned on, one being a lacquerware factory where I saw the complete process from start to finish, including the use of finely chopped duck egg shells in some designs.
He was the second person to warn me of the Saigon Mafia and tell me never to hang anything on one shoulder - which I never do - as they ride by and simply grab it.

Saigon Wedding

You don't know how long I waited for them to arrange this wedding photo, especially the arm positions!

Getting a shave Saigon Style

One of the many things you can take care of right there on the sidewalk!

Transportation Saigon Style

Isn't he adorable! Mom was also on the back, but got off before I took the picture. I have actually seen 2 adults and 4 small children on one bike, and it is interesting that all the adults wear helmets but you never see children wear them. The traffic in Hanoi is unbelievable. Twenty million people live here and most of them ride a moped or scooter, which makes crossing streets a challenge to say the least. Somehow the cars and bikes seem to bob and weave without accident - it is amazing.

Oldest And Strangest Pagoda

First, sorry for the trial posts. My posting was not working but at the time I did not know that somewhere in Vietnam experienced a huge storm which played havoc with all the Internet connections. Anyway as you can see, I am up and running again. This very strange little pagoda is from the Ly dynasty and I thought it was just too cute.

Halong Bay

The last two days I was on a cruise among the limestone cliffs of Halong Bay. It is a gorgeous area with over a thousand limestone towers soaring out of the water. This is one of the floating villages, where local fisherman and their families live in simple shacks built on a floating frame which is linked to their neighbor. They are helped by the government who also provide teachers for their children. Very few can afford a generator so they have no power, and live a simple life at the foot of these gigantic limestone mountains. They also row their boats facing the direction they are going - it looks very strange. Tomorrow I fly to Saigon on Vietnam Air.

Ho Chi Minh's Stilt house

Probably the loveliest house I have seen so far in Vietnam. No Chi Minh lived here from 1958 to 1969 and it symbolizes his modesty and gentle dedication for his nation. The wooden house is simple, airy and filled with light.
The pollution level is very high in Hanoi, and it is really bothering me as I have a terrible cold. I am staying in the old quarter and cars and motor-scooters are everywhere. As they park them in tight rows along the narrow sidewalks you have to walk in the street and take your chance. If there is a little strip of sidewalk remaining, it is generally occupied by families and businesses cooking and eating there meals.

This is a trial

Only text, no photo

Sent from my iPad

Test case

Trial

I made it!

After more than 24hrs since I left my house, and after one 15 Hour leg between Atlanta and Soeul South Korea with another 5hr flight to Hanoi after that, I arrived at my Hanoi hotel at 11pm last night. It was a loooong day with just a couple of catnaps, I was exhausted. However my little hotel in the old quarter is lovely, a gorgeous modern bathroom, my own personal laptop, wi-fi in my room, rose petals floating in my sink and also forming small flowers which dot the snowy white duvet - it was a good choice. Will spend Tuesday sightseeing before I leave on Wednesday for my cruise to Halong Bay.