One Cambodia related item that we forgot to mention from our last journal entry was all of the options open to tourists in Cambodia. Prior to arriving in Cambodia we were trying to decide how to spend our short time in the country and we read the following in our Lonely Planet travel guide under the "Things to do" section:
"Some travellers decide Cambodia is the place to do
the Rambo thing and fire off a few rounds on an AK-47
or aim a rocket launcher at a cardboard cut-out of a
tank. It is about $10 US for an AK clip, $30 US for
100 bullets on an M-60 mounted machine gun and about
$40 US for use of a B-40 grenade launcher. The range
is just beyond the airport, so make sure to aim low.
Try to go as a group so you can negotiate a discount."
Unfortunately time did not allow us to take part in this once in a lifetime activity. We did speak to other fellow travelers who confirmed that they had engaged in the above target practice activities, and we even learned that it is possible to buy a live cow for $200 US in Cambodia and use the animal as the target. How cruel!
When we last left off, we had just escaped our train trip from hell and were obviously in the best of moods when we arrived in Hoi An. Little did we know, Hoi An is best known for its tailors, clothing making shops, and art galleries. Rob and Bill were jokingly discussing the idea of having tuxedos made for a black tie wedding they will be attending in Washington DC in early July. After talking to a couple of the shops, it became clear that it would not be too expensive to have the tuxedos made. The tuxes turned out to be great, and were finished in about 5 hours, including pants, vest, coat, tie and shirt - all for approximately $40 US. Now we know how those tux places in the US malls can afford to stay in business. Not wanting to carry these tuxes around for the next two months in our backpacks, we promptly took them to the post office to have them shipped. After completing at least a half dozen forms, having all of the contents of the boxes inspected and personally reboxing the tuxes to fit the local requirements, we were informed that it would be nearly $85 US to ship them in time for the wedding! We reluctantly realized that we would have to carry the tuxes with us for the rest of the trip - until we met Connie. We met Connie, a fellow traveller from Boston, in Nothern Vietnam and travelled with her for several days. Luckily for us she was finishing up her trip and graciously volunteered to bring the tuxes back to the states for us. Thanks, Connie!!!
During our travels throughout Vietnam and other various third world countries we've noticed that people are very resourceful when it comes to getting their share of tourist dollars. Every corner has a couple of shoeshine boys, several postcard selling boys, and in Vietnam.... boys selling photocopied books. Apparently copyright laws do not exist in Vietnam (as well as most of the rest of Southeast Asia). We were obviously apalled until we saw that we could get the Lonely Planet Vietnam guide book for about $2 US instead of $25, and we quickly embraced the concept. All of the salesmen, whether selling photocopied books or other various items, use one or more of the following tactics:
1) The Inquiring Tactic (Where you from, What's your name, How old are you). The idea here is that if they can get you talking, how could you resist buying something from such a cute and friendly person.
2) The In-Your-Face Method (pretty self explanatory).
3) The Pitiful Look (I am so sad that you have to buy something from me).
We are getting pretty good at dealing with all three of the above sales tactics. Our response to number one is to say we are from somewhere that they have never heard of (Chris prefers Zimbabwe, Rob likes Timbuktu, and Bill likes to say "guess", which will often result in the kid saying "oh...okay" - like there is a place called "Guess" that he just hasn't heard of). Sometimes you can really throw the salesmen off by distracting them. One day in Ho Chi Minh the three of us chipped in and bought a bunch of bananas from a street vendor. It turns out that the banannas were of a really bitter variety, were not very edible and needed to be discarded. For the next half hour, everytime someone tried to sell something to us we would turn around and say to them "Want a bananna?". This would catch them so off guard that they would forget what they were selling us. We would then escape while they were grinning and eating their bananna.
Chris tried to outsmart one of the seven year old kids selling post cards by saying that he did not know how to write. About five minutes later the kid passed by again and saw that Chris had a pen in his hand, and promptly asked if he could have it since "Chris did not know how to write". The look on Chris's face was classic!
Our next, and final, destination on our travels through Vietnam was Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. While in Hanoi we took a two day boat trip out into Halong Bay, a recent addition to the list of World Heritage Sights. During our two days we got to see some spectacular islands and explore a couple of caves (see Vietnam pictures link).
One day in Hanoi we decided to attempt to find the Vietnam Airlines office so that we could confirm our flight to China. Using our Lonely Planet guide book we set out for the office. When we got to the address the book indicated, there was nothing there other than a condemmed building. After standing there for a couple of minutes some locals came up to us with smiles on their faces and said "Vietnam Airlines not here - has moved". They even had the business card in their wallet with the new address. It turns out that these guys were moped taxis, and luckily for us, would take us there for a small fee. Pretty capitalistic for a communist country, huh? A very clever way to make a little extra money. We decided that these taxi drivers had probably taken down the sign that said "Vietnam Airlines: We have moved".
After our 17 days in Vietnam were up we were off to Hong Kong. Hong Kong is one of the largest and busiest cities we have seen during our travels, and also has one of the most spectacular city skylines we have seen (second to New York, of course!) We decided to take a day trip from Hong Kong to a little place called Macau. The city is across the bay from Hong Kong and only about 40 miles away. We went to the ferry office and found out that a ferry to Macau was almost $40 (round trip). Now this was a major decision for us after spending a month or so in Southeast Asia where $40 would buy a family food for a year. The thing that sealed the deal for us was when Rob read in the guide book that Macau was actually a totally separate country. Macau is a Portuguese province and has its own currency and government. We looked at each other and said "40 bucks to add another country and passport stamp to our list seems like a pretty good deal". Macau turned out to be a cool place and it was very strange to see the Chinese characters next to the Portuguese on all the signs. After returning and talking our families, it seems like we may have been the only ones on the planet that did not know that Macau existed. That is exactly why we needed to come on this trip. You guys know this stuff already. For us, everything is new!
Hong Kong is currently hosting an Internation Economic Forum at the convention center down the block from us. Many world leaders are in attendence including Condoleeza Rice (our commencement speaker at our ND graduation) and former president Bill Clinton. We're hoping to run into Bubba at the bars tonight - we'll let you know!
We also have found out from our sources on the mainland China (an ND buddy living in Beijing) that we will once again be censored throughout China so we will probably be unable to access our websight for the next two weeks. Most likely you will here from us again from Kathmandu, Nepal! By then we will have seen the Teracotta Army in Xian and the Great Wall out of Beijing. That's it for now! And Happy Mother's Day, moms!
The Crew
