April - July 1997. Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
Millions of „Hondas" bringing about total chaos in Ho Chi Minh City, Hmong hill tribes who practise a „love market" every Saturday night, a timeles journey through Laos on Mekong cargo boats or Chinese airplanes with clouds inside, crazy Cambodia, where soldiers hand in their weapons before they enter the disco: Those are just examples of what made my 1997 trip through the former Indochina unforgettable.
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The route: Ho Chi Minh City - Dalat - Nha Trang - Hue - Hanoi - Sapa - Vientiane - Luang Prabang - Pakbeng - Luang Nam Tha - Muang Sing - Huay Sai - Vientiane - Pakse - Phnom Penh - Siem Reap/Angkor - Phnom Penh - Ho Chi Minh City.
Visitors to this page:
90 Days in Cambodia (1998) |
 Vietnam Flash |
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Mekong Delta, Vietnam.
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Mekong Delta. |
| "After decapting some guerillas, a GI enjoyed being photographed with their heads in his hands." That comment below this picture displayed in the „War Remnants Museum" in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, reflects the Vietnamese point of view - of course. But does it really matter? |  |
 The Cao Dai religion which has ist centre near the
Vietnamese-Cambodian border brings together Buddha, Mohammad, the Roman Catholic Church,
Victor Hugo and others. The Cao Dai temple is breathtaking. |
 Breathtaking as well are the reminders of the Vietnam war, like this entry into one of the Vietcong tunnels in Southern Vietnam. |
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a chicken was responsible for the foundation of „Chicken Village" in the
mountains of the Central highlands near Dalat. Unfortunately, I forgot the story (it was a
love story...) |
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I will never forget the names of these two girls in Sapa: „Me" and „I" Sapa is definately the most beautiful spot in Vietnam. It's like a piece of the French alps that was taken to the highlands of Northern Vietnam. Due to the altitude, it's quite cool, but you do get hot (and dehydrated in my case) when you go hiking around Hmong villages. It's here where there is a weekly „love market" - it used to be to find partners for marriage, and rumor says other things as well... |
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This airplane of Lao aviation was my first contact with Laos. I don't know what exactly the „dry ice effect" is, but basically, it looks as if you have the clouds inside the cabin. While some people thought something was burning, I was quite relaxed because I had read about it. When the dry ice effect was over, the inflight personnel served Beer Lao. To the left, a smaller Y-12 Chinese aircraft where every piece of space is used for cargo. |
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I
thought I had seen my share of waterfalls - I didn't go to Kuang Si Falls
outside Luang Prabang for days, even though everybody recommended it. Then,
I gave in, hired a moto, drove through villages and - to my own surprise -
found Kuang Si (the friendly Lao made up for my lacking sense of
orientation). It immediately became my favourite place on the planet. At
about 3 p.m., the few travellers that were there had left. I wrote in my
diary: „I arrived in paradise". Then I took off my clothes and took
a bath in one of the three pools. Then I changed my plans and did the same
thing again. If I found paradise, why move on, I thought. I had very
interesting conversations with the Buddhist monks (below) who invited me
to bath with them that day. |
A woman I met on the way to Kuang Si. Note how the child is watching me. |
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There is only one
bridge over the Mekong so far - it's a beautiful, mystic river, and still an
important mean of transport. On this cargo boat, I wanted to go from Luang
Prabang to Huay Sai. Minutes after this photograph was taken, the thunderstorm
that was developping in the background took off. Trying to climb down, I slipped
and fell into the brown, warm Mekong. My boots were ideal for swimming, and the
passport as well as 1'100 US $ around my belly helped a lot. The river took me
downstream, while the boat went on upriver. I didn't know whether anybody saw me
falling down. I swallowed a lot of water. It rained like under the waterfall. I
could barely see the boat. Should I try to get rid of my boots (for this I would
have to let my money belt fall down) and try to swim to the shore, where there
was nothing except tropical forest? In this almost unreal situation, I decided
to wait a few minutes, maybe the boat would turn around. And if I survive, it's
better to also preserve the identity. Finally, the boat turned, safety came a
few very long minutes later with a big bamboo stick. Back into the boat, I had
to dry three years Lao salary worth of travellers checks.
Due to the heavy rain, we had to spend the night in a remote village (a few
bamboo hats) where nothing reminded me of the 20th century. When you sit on the
„toilet" two metres above the ground, the pigs are already waiting
downstairs, and it's a matter of seconds until your biological garbage is
re-integrated into nature. The next day we arrived at Pakbeng, where there were
even generators running from 7 - 10 p.m. Later in Vientiane, a local travel
agent was shocked to hear my story and confirmed: „You could have died!"
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in Muang Sing, near the Chinese border, cold beer is only available during
generator times from 7 to 10.30 p.m. But beers are not why you go to Muang
Sing. You go there to visit the early morning market where numerous hill
tribes come down to sell their products - legs of cows and turtles, for
example. Some people come here to smoke opium - welcome to the Golden
Triangle. |
Quite a few travellers stay for several weeks. While you could make a point that there is nothing „to see" that makes a stay of more than two days necessary, that's not what Laos is about. Go to Thailand. |
This is at the other end of Laos - near Pakse, where I went to the Khmer ruins of Wat Phu - by boat again, a passenger boat this time. In Southern Laos, I had the strange feeling that I was not so welcome like in the rest of the country. Somebody told me it's because of the strong Vietnamese presence - but maybe this is only a prejudice. The Lao are amongst the friendliest folk on the planet. If you go there, do remember to smile and keep saying „Sabaii Dee".
| If you are superstitious, you should not fly to Phnom Penh on Friday, 13th. |  |
And if you
believe what's in the paper, you should not go to Phnom Penh at all.
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 Landmines
are not a problem when you visit Cambodia as a tourist - but they are a
major problem for millions of Cambodians. Travel on the first car
trains is free, because it's the first to blow up when a mine was laid.It's all a legacy of Cambodia's horrifying recent past, when app. 1.7 million people died during the four years Pol Pot completely transformed Cambodia into an agricultural society with no money, no intelligentia and no cities. Phnom Penh was evacuated within 24 hours. |
The „Tuol Sleng Holocaust Museum", located in a former torture prison, is a place every young man and woman whould go to at least once in his or her life. It's the definate proof that man is capable of doing anything. The whole museum is full of faces - like the Nazis, the Communists documented their genocide with cruel precision. Thousands of faces - faces which say more than a thousand words - almost hunt you in this museum. Some of their spirits are in the last room, where a map of Cambodia is made out of skulls and bones...
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The
thousands of skulls found in the mass graves of „Choeng Ek" outside
Phnom Penh are looking at me from the glass tower they're in. There can be
no more powerful reminder of Khmer Rouge rule in Cambodia than this. The
spirits of the tortured, the spirits of the killed, seem to be present,
looking at me and reading every thought in my mind.
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A general showing journalists where the fighting took place. While I couldn't understand most of what he said during the improvised press conference, mostly in Khmer, I did realize that this guy was angry - really angry. When generals start to shout, they are normally not in charge anymore. |
Contrast: A reminder that Cambodia has seen better times and is home of an incredibly rich culture. The ruins of Angkor Wat. Around the year 1'000, Angkor was the biggest city on the planet.
| Below, one of the highlights of this trip. Nature and
culture can be opposites in today's world. The ruins of Ta Promh show what
happens when culture is left over to nature. There seems to be a kind of a
symbiosis now - but there is no doubt in my mind that - in this case - the
jungle will eventually be stronger. |
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The
tourists came to see temples - now he's showing them his missing legs, taken away
by one of Cambodia's seven millions of landmines. The melody he's playing
on this traditional instrument is a sad one. So is the expression in his face - if you look closely. Joan Baez: „Is there no tomorrow, no tomorrow in Cambodia? People of Kampuchea, Kampuchea, Cambodia....." |
Well worth a visit are the floating villages on lake Tonle Sap - here near
Siem Reap. To visit your neighbour, you take the boat. Sometimes you see two
boats next to each other with people just chatting - or drinking. Floating
hospitals, floating police stations and a floating pub - „Video Karaoke
Bar".
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The woman below went to the floating market. Note how her little daughter is visibly enjoying the breeze. It's hot in June in Cambodia. If there is any hope for Cambodia, it lies in her generation.
Text and pictures by Marcel Stoessel.
