The Roluos Group of temples: Preah Ko, Bakong, and Lolei. Some of the earliest of the Angkorian temples, they’re also rather wonderfully free of tourist crowds.
The temple of Banteay Srei and its delicately carved decorations.
As you can see from the boarding pass, Siem Reap is up next. Those of our readers with an aversion to gratuitous temple photos are advised to avoid the blog for a little while, as a stupid number of such posts are pending.
Flight seven. Excited to see some serious temples.
We took a trip up to the Cu Chi tunnels, north of Saigon. Built over the course of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, what started as small shelters under villagers’ huts was gradually developed by the Viet Cong into a remarkable multi-storey, twisting 250 km web that went right into the suburbs of Saigon itself. The system was so complex that, during the war, the Americans found whole hospital facilities, complete with operating rooms for surgery, tanks and artillery pieces, and even theatres, all deep underground. The guerrillas who fought down there did so for years and years, living off the odd
Cycling north of HCMC through open fields, suburban villages, and rubber plantations. So sweaty.
Saigon has loads of tennis courts scattered around the centre of town — far more than any other city I’ve visited. And all were busy, throughout the day.
The War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City was formerly called the The House for Displaying War Crimes of American Imperialism and the Puppet Government. The name has changed but the tenor remains the same. Broadly speaking, the first floor commemorates all of the people who protested the US presence in Vietnam, with special emphasis on acts of self-immolation, and some remarkable notes of apology from American servicemen. The second floor is dedicated to American atrocities generally, with a whole gallery focusing on Agent Orange effects, and another section on My Lai. The third floor is more about the
Ok, so. You’re in Vietnam, you’ve got to have a banh mi sandwich, no question. But it’s also 32 degrees from dawn until dusk, and those street carts do *not* look like they have any kind of refrigeration. And while I like to fancy myself an adventurous eater, I restrict myself to the tofu banh mi in Chinatown in Toronto (air conditioned, health inspected, etc.) out of concern for the provenance of the meat. Am I really going to eat one where the meat has been sitting out in the streets of Saigon all day? Well, I had to work
Reunification Palace in HCMC.