Tuk-tuks in Cambodia

All over the world there are modes of transportation, in New York City, the cheapest way to get around is taxi and subway, in Hong Kong it is the double decker buses, in Vietnam it is the cyclo bikes, and in Cambodia the cheapest way to get around is tuk-tuk. A tuk-tuk comfortably seats four people but you might just see one with six or seven people on one. Sometimes you might see locals riding on one with five bags of sweet potatoes or ten bags of herbs and vegetables. The driver attaches his motorbike to a wagon and its top speed is about 25mph and the tuk-tuk itself is is four feet across.

Tuk-tuks are everywhere in Phnom Penh and when you step out of a restaurant or the Royal Palace or even the market you get swarmed by the drivers talking in a fast thick Khmer accent.  ....................................................................................................................................................................

                                    Driver: Do you need a tuk tuk, i take you anywhere?

                      Customer: No thank you           or                      Yes I do need one.

                        Driver: I take you anywhere.                               Driver: Where do you go?

                     Customer: No thank you.                                        Customer: hotel  

                       Driver: Where do you go?                                       Driver: Ahhh yes I know, I know.

Customer: Oh, we are just walking to the silver pagoda.             Customer: How much?               

             Driver: I take you there faster than you walk                Driver: 5$, okay, okay

Customer: No Thanks! and walks off                                             Customer: No way to much!!

                                                                                                        Customer: Okay that sounds good
                                                                                                                 Driver: Okay, okay, $2, okay, okay
   

If you ever go to Phnom Penh make sure to take a tuk-tuk at least once but be willing to walk away if the prices are to high. Usually tuk-tuks go for around two dollars but some sly driver might sell it to you for five dollars. That might not seem that expensive but 5$ is 20000 Rials and the locals are not going to pay that much money for a five minute ride. So if you are a hard bargainer and have determination you can get a tuk-tuk for less.
Note: be willing to use U.S. dollars because the locals might charge more to use rials.
The exchange rate is 4030 Rials to 1 USD. The "on the street" exchange rate is 4000 Rial to 1 USD.

 

                                                                                                     

Cambodia Day 3

Today the boys finished their school work in record time and since Robert was not quite done with his work the boys and I took a tuk-tuk to the Russian Market. If you are wondering what a tuk-tuk is check out Taylor's post.

The Russian Market is a typical Asian market that I have described in the past. Lots of vendors selling souvenirs, clothing, hardware and food, almost anything you want, need or must have. When the Russians lived in Cambodia this was the place they used at their market. Not the Central Market where the locals shop.

There was nothing at the market that we "had to have" but we did wander the aisles, found the food section and sat down for a drink then got disoriented a few times before finding the rendezvous spot we agreed upon with our tuk-tuk driver.

We met Robert back at the hotel at Noon ready to head out again this time to the Royal Palace.

The Royal Palace was beautiful. Of all the palaces we have visited so far this is the first one in which I could live. The gardens were perfectly manicured and the colors were so vibrant and full of life. Unfortunately we were not allowed to access many buildings, just a few because the King and Queen still reside here.

The most impressive building is known as the Silver Pagoda. The entire floor is made of 5000 silver tiles weighing over 6 tons. We deduced this was to ensure a cool floor in the hot temps not by scientific means but by trial. We stepped off the carpet (most of the floor is covered to protect it I'm sure) to put our tootsie-toes on a roped off section to prove our point.

The Silver Pagoda houses more gold Buddhas that I have ever seen before. There was one solid gold Buddha studded with over 10,000 diamonds. Stunning! (sorry photos not allowed inside)

Leaving the Royal Palace we wandered to Wat Phnom, a famous temple on a hill that is in the center of a huge local park. The temple was cool but even more memorable were the wild monkeys we happened upon exiting the Wat. They were very entertaining and provided us with lots of laughs. One even charged Taylor while he was taking a video. He posted that to his Facebook page.

From there we we stumbled upon the coolest restaurant ever. Picture extra large living room with a large sectional, one giant coffee table and a movie screen and you've got the Cafe Mundo. You pick the movie you want to watch from a decent assortment of DVDs, order dinner and watch and dine. Your own private dinner theatre. We watched Prince of Persia while eating pad thai, fish amok, cheeseburgers and as usual fresh fruit shakes.

Cambodiaaaaa - we made it

Phnom Phen
Day 1 and 2 - December 14 - 15


The view of Phnom Phen coming in from the river was regal. There were flags from almost every nation waving in the breeze on poles that lined the river walk promenade, green grassy park like areas and the Royal Palace, with it's bright yellow buildings, red roof tiles and gilded rooflines. I half expected to hear royal horns announce our arrival.

The Royal Palace in the background

We disembarked, grabbed our luggage, hopped a ride to our hotel to check in then ventured out for a late lunch/early dinner.

December 15
We hung out at the hotel in the morning so the boys could do school work. Looking for a place other than our rooms, we found a cool rooftop lounge that was quiet except the Lady Gaga album playing. This distracted the boys a bit and Cameron insisted on getting up and dancing after each math problem. Their teacher (me) wanted to send him to the principal's office and or serve detention but other creative disicipline had to be employed. Once sufficient work had been done we headed to the National Museum for our history lesson.

We chose to hire a guide to take us around the Museum. He was fascinating and shared he was part of an arcaeological dig in Cambodia a few years back that uncovered many Cambodian artifacts that are on display in the museum.

At one point something clicked for Ryan. He pieced together the history we have learned so far all the way to Cambodia and said "Wow, our history books are really lame." Techers and text book publishers don't get offended by this. What he is really saying is that there's so much history linking the all regions of the world like a giant puzzle and he just figured out he has the pieces to put it all together!

Later we walked to a cute cafe/boutique/spa called Daughters. It's run by an NGO that works on getting young girls out of the sex trade and establishing a life. The girls are trained to work at the cafe, boutique and spa. They also make jewelry and other handicrafts that are sold at the boutique. I fell in love with this place! We hung out for quite a while had lunch, shopped, made small talk with some of the girls and chatted with a woman from Canada who volunteers with the NGO and lives in Cambodia part of the year.

At times I couldn't even look at the girls without tears welling up in my eyes. My tears were full of gladness and sadness at the same time. So glad that they have a new hope in life. Yet, sad they had to enter the "trade" for one reason or another. I felt a passion for these young ladies I have never felt before.

For dinner we connected with a friend who is working for an NGO in Phnom Phen. She met us at our hotel and took us to a really beautiful Khmer restaurant. She is in Cambodia for one year working with children who are rescued from sex trafficing to help them establish a new life. We didn't get to hear too much since the boys were with us and that subject is not something their ears at their age so we used general terms to get the idea. It's hard to acknowledge that this business takes place in our world but it does and not just in Cambodia.

Final Day - Coming into Cambodia

Tuesday, December 14

Since our Mekong Melody only cruises to Chau Doc, Vietnam, the last city before the Cambodian border we had to take a speed boat shuttle that goes to Phnom Phen, Cambodia. We boarded the speed boat as it pulled up next to our boat at 7:30am. Full throttle to Cambodia.

There was nothing too exciting about speeding further up the Mekong to Cambodia for four hours (actual time 6h) in a loud, covered, old, kind of dirty jet boat.

At least the windows opened

Two hours after departing the lovely Melody we pulled off at the Vietnamese border so every passenger could be processed out of the country. After 45 minutes we all got back on the boat and stopped two minutes further up river in Cambodia and filed out of the boat to get our visas for Cambodia.




Leaving Vietnam


We knew ahead of time that the fees for 5 visas would be $50.00USD. Since we have been gone from the U.S. over two months now we didn't have much USD. Thankfully I stashed $50 in my wallet as an emergency fund when we left home and I had USD in birthday cash from Mom and Frank. So we were set. I pulled out my cash and gave it to the agent. He looked at all our passports and documents and then asked me for another $50 bill.

I was confused. Was he asking me for a bribe? He asked again. I was certain he was asking me for a bribe. He asked again using the word "trade". It was then I realized he was not asking for a bribe, he didn't want one of my $50 bills and wanted me to "trade" that one for another but I didn't have another to give. What could be wrong with my $50 bill?
There was a man from Ireland traveling with his daughter that overheard the conversation and offered to front us another bill. We accepted his offer and realized we had the boys Christmas cards from Pop and Grandma that had cash stashed in them so we used that to pay him back once on board.

Still not sure what the bill swap was all about I began inspecting the rejected $50 bill. The more I looked at it the more I became convinced it was a counterfit! Uneven borders, the feel of the paper was different, slightly off color, missing blue and red threads, my guess counterfit. I'm not an expert but it doesn't look good. Robert agreed. No wonder they didn't accept it.

Now I'm left dredging my memory as to where I could have possibly been given a counterfit $50.00 bill. It's not working to well, actually not at all. My counterfit $50 is once again tucked into my wallet where it will remain until we are back in the states. And thanks to Grandma, Pop and a nice Irishman we were able to get into Cambodia.



Access granted into Cambodia. Heading back to the boat.



Vietnamese Wedding - Day 3

Day 3 - Monday, December 13

Our third morning: same, same but different. Coffee 6:30am, breakfast 7:30am, disembark for adventure on bikes at 9:00am. Finishing another peaceful morning breakfast we boarded a "local boat" for a trip through the largest floating market of the Mekong Delta region and it's floating village in Longxuyen.



 Each boat displays what they are selling on a pole high in the air for all to see. We had fun shouting out what various fruits and vegetables we saw hanging from poles. Even though this is a wholesale market and you need to buy large quantities our guide told us we could stop by a boat of our choice to sample some goods. We chose pineapple.

Delish!

Our guide along with our captain pulled up along side a pineapple boat and we were invited to climb aboard. Here we were, sitting on a family's boat buying fresh pineapples to eat on the spot in Vietnam. Surreal! The men selected them from the hull and the ladies cut them open in a very clever way that I want to try. Do I even need to say they were amazingly sweet!

Pineapple on a stem not a stick

The family also shared their freshly baked sweet potatoes with us while our guide interpreted a very elementary conversation between our two families. We learned that the family had been selling at the floating market for 10 years and the two pineapple boats were shared by the two families present who worked together. Next they asked the ages of our boys. They burst out in laughter upon hearing that they are 9, 11, and 13. Why? I think it probably had something to do with the size of our 9, 11 and 13 year old. Sure enough that was it. They told us that their boy was 14 years old and then made him stand next to our boys for a photo. The boy looked embarrassed but his parents insisted. No boy or man, of any nationality, from anywhere in the world, likes to be made to look small, even if he is.




Boys - 14, 13, 11 and 9



We said thank you, cảm ơn, and good bye, tambiet, and boarded our little skiff that took us to Tiger Island. We biked to see the home of Vietnam's first vice-president under President Ho Chi Minh, and then became the second president. At this point our camera battery died. @#$%!@$ is what we were thinking. Later we remembered we could take photos with the iPods and the only one to bring theirs was Cameron. Most of the time I am cursing and exercising parental control over those devices because all the boys want to do is play games, but this time I was thrilled to have it along.




Cameron and his fans


From there our journey took us past houses, shops, school and daily life in this quaint island town. 15 minutes into our ride we rounded a corner just in time to see a newlywed couple emerge from the wedding ceremony. There was such a commotion in the middle of this narrow rural dirt road, we had to stop. We watched the festivities for 30 seconds before we became the center of the festivities. Some men came over to say hello and shake our hands. Others were admiring Cameron, offered their daughters in marriage for Taylor and Ryan and insisted Robert and I drink shots of homemade rice wine. We hung out for about 5 minutes and tried politely departing but they would have nothing of the sorts. They were inviting us to be the "guests of honor" at the wedding reception. They insisted!



Wedding partygoers and me. That is a thin rice paper crisp with black sesame seeds.
It was a perfect party snack.


Robert was escorted to sit a table with 10 to 12 men who all looked like they had been celebrating long before the wedding began. One by one, each man at the table toasted Robert with a shot of homemade rice wine and expected Robert to drink a shot with them. This ritual went all around the table and back again. Now Robert was nearing the same state as the men themselves and it was only 11:30am.




 While Robert was toasting his new friends we were invited to sit down at another table with a group of 20 something's. Hugs all around for Cameron, hand shakes for Taylor and Ryan, more rice wine shots offered to me and tons of food for all of us. The laughter was infecting everyone as we tried to communicate the best we could through our language differences and rice wine.

We stayed for the better part of an hour enjoying the party in our honor compliments of the bride and groom and their families. At one point even Taylor and Ryan were offered shots of homemade rice wine to which they obliged with a sip after asking Mom and Dad if it was ok. "We don't want to be rude to our hosts so go ahead boys." Glad to report they thought it tasted disgusting.




Robert's friend wanted to try on his Ray Ban sunglasses.
He didn't realize that wearing those bionic glasses would actually
impair his vision more than the rice wine. That was good for a laugh.



After spending the better part of an hour as the honored guests, our guide insisted to our generous hosts that we had to leave to catch our boat. It's a good thing too because I don't know how many more toasts Robert or I could have handled. We still had to bike back! I am confident this day will join the ranks as one of the most memorable Sheldon Family Adventures.




The men kept telling me she was to be "my new daughter-in-law
and that I "take her home". Anything for a cute American boy I guess.



Mekong River Cruise Day 2

Day 2, December 12

Coffee and tea were served at 6:30am and breakfast at 7:30am then we disembark for a tour of a brick factory and a bike trip through town. This river is not quiet or calm in the morning because that is when the fishing is best and the river is filled with fishing boats of all sizes motoring up and down the river. Yet there was something peaceful about all the activity.

Sunrise off the stern

The first stop - brick factory. It was was facinating. We watched all the stages of making brick tiles and even jumped in to help a time or two. I don't know what it is about back breaking, sweat producing, physical labor but when I see it happening I want to join in. Weird I know, but I couldn't resist the urge. I offered to haul a cart of bricks over to the area to let them dry in the sun. I was surprised as to how light the cart felt even though it was filled with "a ton of bricks". The engineering on that homemade cart was perfect. Taylor helped load wet bricks onto the conveyer belt cutter and later helped stoke the fire of one of four kilns.


Loading wet bricks onto the trimmer




The brick factory

 





Stoking the fire in the kiln.
Bricks bake for three months.
Round the clock fire tending.
Fire is fed with rice husks.

Ahhh, physical labor.



 

Love bikes.



From there we hopped on our bikes for a trip further through Sa Dec in a different direction than the market we visited last night.Our first stop was to a temple of the Cao Dai religion. Cao Dai is the invention of a civil servant from India that combines "the best attributes" of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Christianity into one religion that worships God's left eye. The French author Victor Hugo was even named as a saint even though he didn't endorse this belief system. Cao Dai is the third largest religion in Vietnam behind Buddhism and Catholicism.

The entire temple was alive in Technicolor enhanced by neon wings around God's left eye and dragons coiling up the eight support pillars. Even though the whole belief system is a little off the decor was bright and beautiful.

Cao Dai Temple

From there we rode our bikes through a "local flower village". Everyone who lives in this village has an incredible green thumb and produces most of the regions flowers, plants and trees both fruit and decorative. The village sits on the banks of river and has gravel road no wider than our bike paths winding through the gardens.

Since New Years is around the corner, both calendar and lunar, and flowers are an integral part of their celebrations, the gardeners were busy transplanting their inventory in hand-made bamboo baskets and loading them on trucks or boats headed for market. It was a busy scene.

Leaving the beautiful, fragrant flower village behind we headed back to the boat for lunch and relaxation. And, were once again greeted with fresh lemonade and a cool wash cloth to wipe away the sweat.

The thing I like best about our outings during the day on this cruise is that we are not sopping at compulsory tourist traps but getting a glimpse into real, local, don't see many Westerners, Vietnamese living.

Sa Dec from our boat.

Mekong Day 1 - Part 2

Day 1, December 11

The name of our boat is the Mekong Melody and is made entirely of Teak. It's beautiful! Our two cabins, kitchen and crew quarters make up the bottom deck with an airy walkway on the port side. The upper deck has an outdoor dining room, captains wheel, two lounge chairs aft and two more on the bow. A bamboo canopy covers the dining area and captains wheel to provide much needed shade. Even I need a reprieve from the sweltering 90 degree, 75% humidity weather.

Playing a board game - Risk!

Captain Sheldon

We pulled anchor at 1:00pm heading for Sa Dec, a lively town in the Dong Thap province of the Mekong Delta region, passing by the famous Cai Be floating wholesale market. Robert and I settled onto the two aft lounge chairs with books in our hand and the sun on our face. It was absolutely fabulous.

Lounging on Deck

It was hard to read when you could watch Vietnamese life going by instead. We were cruising by home after home where little boys and girls would run to the waters edge yelling hello repeatedly at the top of their lungs and waving frenetically. We all giggled and responded in the same way.

House on the Riverbank

We were passing boats heading downstream and boats heading upstream. There were boats everywhere. A river highway. Some boats were water taxis carrying people and their bikes or motorbikes from one side to another. Others were huge barges dredging sand from the riverbed to sell, or carrying logs, bricks or barrels of petrol. There were boats with bags of rice, boats with coconut husks others with rice husks. Small narrow fishing boats with a crew of one. Another boat with two pigs. Boats carrying potted flowers and plants. And the larger variety of boats/barges double their homes. You see people cooking, eating, bathing off the side, doing laundry then hanging it to dry on a clothes line strung port to starboard off the back. All these boats big or small have one thing in common - COMMERCE!

Sand from dredging the riverbed

The Mekong River is a bustling, hard working, product producing region.

Fishing / Houseboat

Once in Sa Dec we disembarked to explore the night market. There was everything under the sun for sale. We tried more unusual, interesting, delicious local fruit, and fresh squeezed sugar cane juice. We also marveled at the variety of seafood and were flabbergasted at the price of prawns the size of sausages.
1kg = $2.00 USD. 1kg = 2.2lbs So $2.00 would buy 15 - 20 huge, beautiful, fresh, scrumptious prawns!


Next, our guide showed us a vendor and asked us to guess what he was selling. There were stacks and stacks of shirt size boxes with a cellophane cover displaying paper doll like outfits, jewelry, accessories, cars, houses and more. My guess - for little girls dress up. Wrong!


The Vietnamese believe, that what ever you burn among the living your dead ancestors receive in their afterlife. So, they throw a huge party on the anniversary of a family member's death, invite all the surviving family members, prepare tons of food, drink even more and burn boxed up cardboard material possessions. The more things they burn, including paper $100 USD bills, the better off your deceased family members will be. Burn baby burn.


This package was my choice. I came with a cardboard Visa card so I figured I could buy anything I wanted in this so called afterlife.



On our way back to the boat we passed a night school in session. Our guide told us that most children not only go to school during the day, which is half day, but again at night. He shared he did the same when he was a student. He figured they were learning English and asked if we wanted to go in to talk to the students, "they love to practice their English with people any chance they get", he said. Sure why not!

There was one classroom filled with about 20 high school boys and girls learning literature in Vietnamese and another with a handful of 10th grade girls studying English with their teacher for an upcoming test. Everyone was giggling, looking and saying who knows what about is in Vietnamese. That's always weird. I decided to said a few Vietnamese phrases I picked up along the way which caused more giggling. The teacher invited us to sit down and let them ask us questions in English. The teacher asked us to correct any pronunciation. Taylor proceeded to show one girl how to diagram a sentence and when he pointed out each part of speech she beat him to the punch. "Verb". "Noun". "Adjective". I think she'll do just fine on the test.



Sa Dec night scene



Mekong Delta River Cruise - Day 1

Our Boat

Day 1, December 11

Motorized transportation can take many forms; car, plane, bus, train, and boat to name a few. And since we are putting this adventure together as we go the decision of what form to use is ours. Our latest decision, how to get from Saigon, Vietnam to Phnom Phen, Cambodia? We could take the plane. Boring. There are no trains between these two countries as Cambodia has no rail at all. Bummer. Taking a bus is somewhat popular but the journey is long. No thanks.

Boat? Let me check. The Mekong River begins in the Tibetan highlands and flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. And, boating is the primary mode of transportation on the Mekong so surely there is a way to get from Vietnam to Cambodia along the river.

Thanks to Google I was provided with several tour companies that specialize in cruising tourists from one country to another along the river. Through a series of emails I booked our family on a 4 day/3 night journey to Cambodia on the river. The itinerary detailed stops to fruit and flower markets, biking through old towns, visiting a crocodile farm, cool refreshments when we board the boat and of course fabulous food. It looked great. The price seemed a little high now that we figured out what we should be paying for things in Vietnam but, a better deal than anything back in the States. So we justified our confirmation by saying to each other the usual; "We may never be back." "Sounds like an awesome journey." "How many people can say they have cruised the Mekong River between two countries?" And so on. You know what I'm talking about.

Our trip began with a 1.5 hour drive from Saigon to the Mekong River Delta area to a small town named Cai Be. We hopped on a "local boat", a sampan, that took us upriver to an old historic home and fruit garden. We sat in the garden and sampled many native fruits and sipped green tea made from tea leaves that were picked from the tree that very day! It doesn't get any fresher than that. In fact the food is so fresh here that Mr. F.G. Meyer's claims of freshness would be a considered a lie.

Sampan Captain

Anyway, from there, our sampan captain took us to our boat. On the way the boys asked 50 million questions. What kind of boat? How many other people were cruising with us? What kind of food? Buffet or not? "I don't know!" I only had internet web photos to go by and we all know that every company advertising on the internet puts their best foot forward.

Sampan cruising and making music with banana leaf horns made by our guide. They sound like party horns you might blow at a New Years celebration.

Our guide pointed to two boats in the distance run by the same cruise company and said ours is the smaller one. Why were we on the... I didn't even have time to finish my thought when he said we were the only family on that boat. A whole boat to ourselves?! That's so cool. The ok deal just became a phenomal deal. Our own private four day Mekong River Cruise all the way to Cambodia.
Cameron said it best, "This is just like those shows on the Travel Channel."

On board outside our cabins on the first deck

Cabin big enough for three boys



All hands on deck.