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July 17th, 2008 | Posted by Sharon Joy

My Little Southeast Asia Adventure – Eight Stop: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
June 27 – June 29, 2008

“Ho Chi Minh is not a city that will roll out the red carpet just because you have arrived. On the contrary, it’s proud enough to look you back in the eye and say, “Only for the brave.” “- a writer for an airline magazine

Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) was formerly known as Saigon. I took a 6 hour bus from Phnom Penh to get there.

First thing that I noticed about HCMC: I’ve never seen so many motorbikes! A common joke among visitors here is, “There are more motorbikes than people.”

Highlights of my stay here:

On my first night, my phone (N95) almost got snatched away from me. I took a motorbike going to my host’s house. When I had the driver stop at the street where I was to get off, I stayed on the motorbike while reviewing my host’s address on my phone. Suddenly, another motorbike passed beside us and the girl behind the driver took hold of my phone and tried to grab it away from me. When I realized what was happening, I shouted AAAAAAAAAAH!!! (LOL) Luckily, the phone slid from her hand when the motorbike sped off. I didn’t feel scared after what just happened. All I could think of was, “What the fuck was that?!”

Before coming to HCMC, I contacted My, a Vietnamese couchsurfer girl to host me. She had major exams coming so she couldn’t host me but instead, referred me to Steven who lived with 2 other expats. My hosts were Steven, Charlie and Whitney. Steven is a Canadian who works as an English teacher, Charlie
is from Buffalo, New York and works in the same school as Steven, and Whitney is an American who works for the Marketing department of a hotel there. They were awesome hosts.

The night that I arrived at my hosts’ house, I realized there were EIGHT of us couchsurfers that they are hosting! Diego and Camillo from Colombia, Claudio from Brazil, Kim from Australia, Jonas from Germany, and the 2 Canadian girls whom I didn’t get to know because they weren’t able to join
our little party. That night, we went to apartment’s rooftop where we watched the stars while drinking what may have been Vietnam’s version of lambanog and talking about everything from work to red pill and blue pills. Everyone was so drunk and “rocked”. LOL!

My, (the Vietnamese couchsurfer) took me, Steven, Karen (another CSer from Canada but wasn’t staying with us) and Claudio to a public swimming pool. The Rules of the Pool:

1. Leave all your bags, clothes and everything else in the counters designated for boys and girls – i.e, you should only be in your swim wear with nothing else with you except your goggles if you have them, and your claim tag when you enter the pool area.

2. All boys shall stay on the right side of the pool while all girls stay on the left. A floating marker is in the middle of the pool to implement this, and should not be crossed.

3. You only have 45 minutes to swim in the pool. Every hour, a bell will ring to signal the people to get in the pool. After 45 minutes, another bell will ring and everyone should be out of the pool. The next bell will ring in 15 minutes to let the next set of customers swim in the pool.

4. Once you get out of the pool before the 45 minutes is over, you cannot get back in.

I.KID.YOU.NOT. Those really are the rules of this particular pool. Of course I couldn’t take photos because I couldn’t bring anything! Steven, however, managed to sneak in his underwater camera because he placed it in his swim shorts’ pocket.

I played bowling, pool (me and Steven won against an American and his partner, YAY!) and went drinking with the other couchsurfers. On my way out of the ladies room, a white guy who was standing near the door was looking at my chest and just blurted out “Wow. Nice boobs.” I stood there surprised
for a moment, not sure how to react.

Then I said “Thank you.”

Surprised, he said, “Oh. You understand English?”

“Yes.”

“I meant that as a compliment.”

“I did take it as a compliment.”

Apparently, he must’ve thought I was a local who couldn’t understand English (Most Vietnamese don’t).

I didn’t really get around HCMC because I decided to stay there for only 2 days. I did see some sights around the city though.

Replica of the old Saigon train

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July 16th, 2008 | Posted by Sharon Joy

My Little Southeast Asia Adventure – Seventh Stop: Phnom Penh, Cambodia

“So much for holding on to whatever innocence I had left.” – Me

Because the movie The Killing Fields is one of my all-time favorite movies, I couldn’t afford to skip Phnom penh and actually seeing it for myself. A little bit of story about how I got to see the movie before I share the experience… Although it was an 80’s movie, I only got to see it in 2000 when I was in Indonesia to visit my dad. Remember how VCDs used to be? There usually were 2 discs for one movie right? So I was already crying my eyes out on the first disc when the player requested for the second disc… and it WON’T PLAY. My eyes were red and puffy from crying and I was dying to see how the movie ends and the damned 2nd VCD won’t play! My dad bought these VCDs from Medan, which was 12 hours drive from where we lived. I can’t just drive 12 hours for a VCD. When I got back to the Philippines, and I see a video shop, I always looked for i but since it was a very old movie, it wasn’t easy for me to find them there and (cough) torrent was not yet available then. You know how long it took me to finally see the whole movie? After more than TWO YEARS. But it was worth it.

I can’t watch movies with too much gore because I can’t stand it. But having been to Phnom Penh’s Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng S-21, I realize those were just movies… just products of our imagination… products of how our MINDS can conceive brutal and sickening violence.

But actually having the heart (or the lack of it) to do it, to mass-murder in thousands, to brutally, cruelly, and coldly torture and kill men, women, and children in ways one can not even seem to believe another human being can be capable of, to train adolescents and turn them into monsters who torture and kill even their own parents, relatives or friends is just an entirely different story.

While in Cheung Ek’s Kiling Fields, I still had the tenacity to take pictures of the thousand skulls within the stupa that has been built to commemorate the victims of the Pol Pot regime. Having had taken up Physiotherapy in college, I have opened up dead bodies to study the human anatomy and seen many human bones and skulls (believe it or not, I’ve even fallen asleep with my arms around a real human skull while studying for my Anatomy finals exam back in college) that it doesn’t creep me out anymore.

But the Tuol Sleng’s S-21 (Security Office 21) museum was a different story. The S-21 used to be a secondary school that has been turned into a prison where the victims were imprisoned, questioned, tortured and exterminated. No one was exempted. Men, women, old, young, children, babies. The prison was surrounded with a double wall of corrugated iron and dense barbed wires. According to one of Lonely Planet’s contributors, “This is one museum where silence doesn’t have to be requested – the power of speech is simply lost here.” I knew what he or she meant when I got there. I couldn’t even get myself to take photos. The only photo I’ve taken from Tuol Sleng was the board that contained the description of what the S-21 was about. Seeing all those devices and modes of torture the victims had gone through, seeing the mug shots of these people you know had been mercilessly tortured and killed and knowing that I am standing in the very grounds were these unspeakable and unthinkable horrors have happened, I couldn’t even get myself to complete the museum. I had to get out because I had felt I was going to break out and cry if I stayed any longer.

On my way out of the last building I went to see (it may have been C or D), there was a room at the end that had the letter “V” on top of the entrance. If you’ve seen the movie “V for Vendetta”, you’d understand why this was very interesting and uplifting for me. Not only because the movie is one of my favorites, but also because none could be more appropriate. The “V” may have been added recently and whoever had “V” put there may have been inspired by the movie. Inspiring and well-wishing messages for Cambodia and her people were written on the walls by visitors.

Cambodia seems to have witnessed the extreme ends of what man can do. Ankor clearly shows the greatness humans can accomplish, while the Killing Fields and Tuol Sleng shows the unthinkable horror man can do.

Click image to view album.

The Royal Palace

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July 15th, 2008 | Posted by Sharon Joy

My Little Southeast Asia Adventure – Sixth Stop: Siem Reap, Cambodia

“Angkor is everywhere: on the flag, the national beer, hotel and guesthouse names, cigarettes — it’s anything and everything. A symbol and symbol of fierce pride, it’s a fingers-up to the world, stating no matter how bad things have gotten lately, Cambodians built Angkor and it doesn’t get better than that.” – Lonely Planet’s Southeast Asia on a Shoestring

“My God, I am imagining you at Angkor Wat – the most amazing building in the world!!!” … “I was in a daze for 3 days after seeing this incredible place.” – Evil Ampao Catherine Peard

For me, Siem Reap is a very simple, dusty, laid-back, small town… that happens to hold one of the world’s greatest, most mysterious, and amazing monumental achievements. All I can say is, I am still dazed and amazed by Angkor. I had been so awestruck that I was (literally) brought to tears because it made me think that compared to what the ancient Cambodians had been able to achieve, our generation is a joke. There are just no words. The photos I’ve taken cannot even begin to justify the awesomeness that is Angkor.

I toured Cambodia with Eugenia, a girl from Chile I met on my way to Siem Reap. We became good friends and decided to tour around Cambodia together so we can save on transportation and lodging. We toured the Angkor temples for two days, and that wasn’t even enough to see all the temples.

Though I’ve taken hundreds of photos, I’ll just post some in my album.

Click image to view album.

The four faces of buddha, guarding the temple gate

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