The Million Bucks Room

Sun..sand..and a lot of seafood - that pretty much sums up the last three days which we spent on Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam (Picasa link). Usually, Phu Quoc doesn't make a showing on any Vietnamese itinerary, but we'd decided to make a detour and include it as it came highly recommended by Manu, our Phnom Penh host. First though, we had to get there. We'd decided to travel from Siem Reap by bus - which in hindsight might not have been the best idea. We left Siem Reap around 8PM on one of those sleeper buses and made it to Sihanoukville at around 6AM the next morning after a fairly uncomfortable and bumpy journey. The bus station at S-ville was deserted except for the requisite tuk-tuk drivers soliciting business and a pack of stray dogs doing the rounds. The bus station itself was set around a dirty ground with a couple of stalls that were just starting to show signs of life. We spent the next two hours fending off the dogs, a mobile bakery and other inquisitive folks until our minibus arrived to transport us to Ha Tien, Vietnam. The ensuing four hours were spent looking out at the stunning country-side punctuated by a halt for clearing the borders. The Vietnamese health form was a good indicator of what lay ahead. The form listed over 20 diseases and required you to have a medical certificate for each of them. In reality you ticked 'no' for all and paid the man behind the counter a dollar to walk through. Welcome to third world countries. Upon reaching Ha Tien we waited for an hour before a shuttle took us to the ferry terminal where our bags were unceremoniously dumped into a boat and we were shepherded onboard. The boat was full, the seats at water line, and the cabin enclosed - resulting in a fairly claustrophobic ride. Add to that some screaming kids, couple of puking infants, and a kung-fu movie playing at full volume and I seriously considered diving off and swimming to the island. Two miserable hours later we were deposited at the Phu Quoc jetty.

That's our room!

A short cab ride later we arrived at our hotel with a fair amount of apprehension. I had made the booking the previous day over the phone and the English/Vietnamese conversation that had taken place did not quite inspire confidence. By some stroke of luck, they were expecting us and rather than the garden view room that I had booked, they bumped us up to a fabulous room, with an enormous balcony that lay 10 feet from the water. All this for a million bucks only - which equals fifty USD! Thank god for the American dollar. It has actually managed to maintain some semblance of value in certain third world countries - and in some cases even appreciate in the past few years - I have no idea how.

Dinner on the beach

The next few days were bliss - early morning runs followed by a swim in the crystal clear water. Then a hearty breakfast overlooking the sea. On one of the days we rented a bike and tooled around the island. We also visited Bai Sao - a white sand beach on the other side of the island and had one of the best meals of my life in terms of sheer location and ambience. The restaurant had set out their table right at the water's edge so that as you ate, you had the odd wave lapping at your feet. Evenings were spent on the beach awaiting sunset and me attempting to catch the crabs that populate these beaches. Later, after a shower, we'd walk at one of the restaurants who'd setup a barbecue and have dinner on the beach.




All in all one of the best place we've visited so far on our trip. The island is yet to see mass tourism and most of the roads are still dirt tracks. 90% of the hotels/resorts on the island lie within 10 feet of the water's edge and have just a few rooms each. Service is with a smile and the water clear. We did however see the shell of a big resort go up - so consider yourself warned. Get to it before it turns into the next Phuket or Bali!

- Ashish

Angkor Wat!

Tuk-tuk

Right then, having escaped the floods in Bangkok we landed in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Picasa link) on a hot and humid morning. Walking off the plane onto the jet bridge, it felt like we'd hit a wall - wall of heat and humidity. It was 9 AM and the mercury was well north of 30 C. Loading our bags into a tuk-tuk we headed into the city. For those of you who don't know what a tuk-tuk is, allow me to explain. Its basically a carraige on two wheels attached by a pivot to a severely under powered motorcycle (think old school M80 for those from India). In short, a 100cc engine with or without gears pulling a home built carraige into six adults can squeeze themselves into on a good day.





Anyhow, after getting to the city and settling in, we then spent the next four days taking in the various sights that included a museum, the Royal Palace, and a couple of pagodas. The museum, S-21, deserves a special mention. The museum was a prison/interrogation center used by the Pol Pot regime in the late 70s. What makes it so eerie is its location, bang in the middle of a residential neighborhood and its original function, a high school. Still standing on the school grounds are bars and ropes for gymnastics, which the Khmer found more dark uses for. Having visited the Dachau concentration camp in Germany, I thought S-21 wouldn't faze me much. However the location, its original purpose and the fact that it was used as a prison/torture center just 30 years ago was a bit unnerving.

Aerobics!

Before I move on from Phnom Penh though, there's one more issue I'd like to talk about. It deals with exercise, specifically the Khmers and their apparent love for exercise. Just across the road from where we were staying was the one and only stadium in the Phnom Penh. On our first evening as we lounged about on the balcony I happened to look over at the stadium as the sun set behind it. I could see the upper level of the bleachers and around a thousand stick figures moving, not in unison, but close enough to see that it was organized. Awanti and I headed over there to check things out and saw around 10 large groups performing aerobic exercises. Each group had a boombox (along with some big speakers) and a instructor (along with a mike to shout out instructions) at the fore. The age group ranged from kids as young as 10 to grandmas pushing 70. The concept's really simple - you just walk up and join a group and at the end pay a couple of cents to the instructor. There appeared to be no fixed length and you could join or leave as you pleased. What amazed me is that Cambodia is still very much a third world country and yet, a number of its citizens, especially the middle-aged ones, were taking an active interest in their health. India and even the US definitely have a long way to go. This was confirmed the next day as the same scene was repeated while walking along the river-side promenade.

Flood proof

From Phnom Penh we caught the slowest possible bus to Siem Reap - think seven hrs for just over 300 kms. The country-side was beautiful though - the monsoon had just finished and everywhere there were water-logged rice fields and green forests. There's not too much to write home about Siem Reap. Its the sights that lie around seven kms north of the city that draw most tourists to Cambodia - the Temples of Angkor. The Angkorian civilization really came into its own around the 9th century and like all good kingdoms with a point to prove, embarked on a temple building spree that was only rivaled by the Egyptians and possibly the Mayans. For the next 600 years each successive king strove to outdo the king before him resulting in a series of stunning temples. Angkor Wat is undoubtedly the jewel among them and is so big that its said to be the largest religious building in the world. On our first day we hired a tuk-tuk to seek out the far-off temples, but then picked up bikes for the next two days to check out all the main temples at a more leisurely pace. The scale of these temples is truly beyond belief and their setting among the forests gives them a magical quality that is definitely worth checking out. When the temples were built, they were sorrounded by villages and cities - the biggest of which housed over a million people and this was when London could count only a couple of thousand as residents. However, Angkorian culture deemed that stone would only be used for building temples as stone is permanent and so shall be the house of God. All other structured were built of wood of mud that quickly disintegrated once the cities were abandoned in the 15th century. This being the tropical zone, the forests quickly made a come-back resulting in famous photo-ops like the Tomb Raider temple. Most of the temples are sorrounded by moats or reservoirs that in some cases were 7 kms by 3 kms - and these were dug out by hand!

Voila!

Having checked out the temples, we decided to take it easy in the city for a day. Awanti attended a cooking class that included a visit to the market for the ingredients and cooking a 3 course Khmer meal. I joined her for the best part of the course - where you get to eat your preparations - and thoroughly enjoyed it. Vietnam is next on the itenerary, though its been called up for action a bit sooner than planned. Cambodia like Thailand is also facing severe flooding - though without the accompanying publicity. As a result our plan to continue onto the more remote parts of Cambodia was vetoed by the management and we're heading to Vietnam instead. A 20 hr bus/boat journey awaits us..sounds like fun.

- Ashish

Baklava Time

Right then...having spent 3 great weeks with the in-laws it was time to head to Turkey (Picasa link). I, being a history buff had really been looking forward to this leg of the trip. The lady however, had had enough of Kings, Empires, and assassinations over the past 3 months to the point where she protested even looking at another ruined city/fortress/harem. She was however looking forward to their Baklava.

Hagia Sohia at sunset

We flew directly to Istanbul and landed just as the weather was improving. The previous 10 days had been marked by daily showers and cold stiff breezes - both highly unusual for this time of the year I was told. Still, pulling on a layer and we made our way to the Asian side of Istanbul where our host Varol lived. One fact unique to Istanbul (among other things) is that it is the only city to span two continents. Later in our Turkey visit we were to stay on the European side of Istanbul too, thus getting to see both sides of the city. Upon getting to his place and laying down our bags, we marched right out to one of the best fish restaurants in Istanbul. Along with the great fish we also downed cirrihosis causing quantities of Raki. Raki is to Turkey as vodka is to Russia. Its an aniseed flavored grappa liquor that clocks in at a solid 45% proof. Varol decided that we needed a good introduction to Istanbul and a bottle was essential to that plan. After downing two drinks I demurred from taking the third, whereupon he took it upon himself to finish the rest. Credit to him that we didn't need to carry him to the taxi stand. The next day we got a bright and early start and took a ferry across to the European side of Istanbul. This was to become part of our daily routine and we enjoyed our daily hops between the two continents. The next three days we spent visiting the palace, numerous mosques - including the stunning Hagia Sophia (though its technically not a mosque anymore), and consuming prodigous quantities of kebabs, pide (Turkish pizza) and baklava. A good chunk of our daily 'being a good tourist' time was set-apart in hunting down a good baklava store and then enjoying the fruits of our labor.

Ephesus Library

From Istanbul we headed south along the Aegean cost to Selcuk. The original plan was to head to Cappadocia - a magical place in Central Turkey - but seeing that the temperatures were dropping to -6 C at nights, we decided magic would just have to wait. One our primary goals when we planned this trip was to enjoy a year of sunshine and warmth, and we weren't going to let some underground cities and other sights ruin our plans. So to Selcuk it was, specifically Ephesus. Ephesus was a coastal port of major importance in 550BC - even Cleopatra visited it! A majority of the spices and other precious goods making their way to Europe had to pass through it and the citizens helped themselves to a nice cut off the top - which worked really well for them. However, as is with these things, its booty also made it the target of many a neighbouring warlords. Numerous battles were fought and many a lives lost, which resulted in a slow decline of the city. The final insult though, was when an earthquake struck in the 6th century AD, and silting of the river caused the sea-shore to move out by a couple of miles. Suddenly no-one wanted anything to do with the city and even though there were sporadic bursts of activity, it was completely abandoned by the 15th century AD. Through a combination of various factors though, the city managed to avoid being pillaged for its marble and other building materials and what's left is one of the best preserved ancient cities in the world. The amphitheater was magnificent, the library inspiring and we spent a great day walking around the ruins.

Ruins of Kayakoy

From Ephesus we headed to Fethiye, where I promised Awanti - no more ancient ruins. The devil's always in the details though. I did say 'ancient', so I promptly convinced her to hike to Kayakoy - a more recent set of ruins. The hike was a fairly pleasant tramp over the hills behind Fethiye to a town that needs to be seen to be believed. Turkey and Greece had some major issues to sort out post WWII, and one of the sad outcomes was the displacement of large swathes of Turks and Greeks back to their home countries. Kayakoy was one such town - it was occupied primarily by orthodox Greeks who left enmasse when the swap was hammered out by the two sides. In principal, the numbers were supposed to balance out - and all houses and towns on each side were to be occupied by citizens of the other country. In reality a lot more Greeks went to Greece than Turks moved to Turkey - resulting in ghost towns such as Kayakoy. The town climbs its way up a hill-side and it was eerie looking at the empty shell of an entire town from below. From Fethiye it was onto Kas, which is one classy town. In spite of the large number of hotels and pensions that have sprung up in the last decade, the town still manages to retain an extremely refined, but at the same time mellow feel, and we spent two wonderful days walking around town, eating some great food and doing absolutely nothing.

We headed back to Istanbul for our last two days in Turkey and weren't so lucky with the weather this time around. Things were definitely gloomier - though thankfully there was no rain. On both our nights there we headed out to Taksim, specifically Istiklal Ave. Istiklal is approximately a mile long street that is the pulsing heart of Istanbul. Every evening, hundreds of thousands of Istanbulians head to Istiklal to shop, eat good food, indulge in some people watching, and soak in the atmosphere. It felt like a street festival - only one that was held every night. After devouring some more baklava and packing some more for the long flight to SE Asia, we finally took leave of Istanbul and Turkey.

Cambodia's next, specifically Phnom Penh. The original plan called for us to fly to Bangkok, but seeing the floods situation, we decided to keep flying onto Phnom Penh and head to Thailand later. I've heard fried crickets await us...YUM!

- Ashish