The pearl of the orient

We've spent the last 2 days in Hong Kong. What a great city! I've included a lids below of some of the things we've learned so far:

Skyline:
The Hong Kong skyline is truly stunning, by day or by night. At night, the buildings light up with dazzling displays. Every night, the buildings display a synchronized light show, visible from across the harbor. Right now, many of the buildings are decorated with Christmas or New Year displays.

Mobile phones:
Everybody has them and never stops looking at them. On the train, it's typical to see every single passenger looking at a phone. Today, one guy on the train was looking at a small smart phone. He finished, put it away, then pulled a large smart phone out of his pocket and continued working on that one.

Food:

The food is really good here. Our first meal in town, we wandered into a food court above a local market. The area was packed with people. We were the only non-Asian faces in the crowd, and all the menus were in Chinese. We were lucky to be greeted by a friendly English-speaking waiter who helped us figure it all out. We were thankful, because it was one of our best meals of the trip. For dinner, we went for dim sum. We had various steamed buns and dumplings. Yum!


Language:
Thankfully, many of the locals are bilingual. Most signs are in Chinese and English. So getting around and getting help has not been am issue. Actually, this had been a theme everywhere on the trip. It is very easy to travel as am English speaker.

Prices:

Hong Kong costs about the same as home for most things. This is fine, but a huge contrast with the other places we've been. Our hotel is reasonably priced, but our room is about 10 ft x 15 ft. That includes the bathroom. Space is at a premium here.

Shopping:
Basically, the whole city is a shopping mall. There are all sorts of multi-story shopping centers filled with designer shops and good restaurants. We also noticed that every mall has elaborate Christmas displays.

Transit:
It's really easy getting around here. The metro is excellent and fast. Very essay to use.

Parks:
There are a few very nice parks. We visited Hong Kong Park with a great aviary and conservatory. Another had botanical gardens and a zoo. All this makes for great free entertainment. Today, we even got to see baby orangutans and acrobatic gibbons.

Kung fu:
Today, we watched a free Kung Fu show in the park. It was really fun. Quite elaborate for a show put on by a local club of amateurs.

Tomorrow is new years eve. We will ring in the new year on the harbor front, where there will be a big fireworks display on the outside side of the harbor.

Encore Angkor

We spent the last two days traveling around the ancient city of Angkor. It has been incredible. Most people know of Angkor Wat, but there are actually over 1000 temples throughout the area around Siem Reap. We saw only a small number of these, but we saw some of the best.

First, some background. Between the 9th and 13th centuries, the Khmer empire ruled much of what is now Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. The capital of this empire was Angkor, near present-day Siem Reap. The city had urban sprawl reaching miles in every direction, covering nearly 400 square miles. Each king marked his reign by building bigger and more elaborate temples. Many of these temples have been destroyed by weather, the jungle, or human destruction. Some have fared better, still displaying much of their former splendor.

All of the temples were built from stone blocks or bricks. They all were decorated floor to ceiling with elaborate carvings or plaster castings. The remains of the temples show varied levels of decay. Some have art that is easily seen, others have eroded into rough piles of stone. Most were originally Hindu temples, later converted to Buddhist.

 Angkor Wat is the best preserved, having never been abandoned to the elements and jungle. It is not the oldest, nor the newest, but it has been in use as a temple since it was built in the 12th century in honor of Vishnu. It now houses Buddha statues, but much of the Hindu imagery remains. It's impossible to exaggerate when talking about Angkor Wat. It is huge. It is beautiful. It is impressive. It is probably the most awe inspiring thing I've ever seen that human hands have built.  The immense grounds are surrounded by a wide moat. You walk through an outer wall into the grounds. The temple itself has a beautiful kilometer-long stone carving depicting history and mythology. There are five towers in the center, decorated elaborately. You can climb near the top of the center tower to get a view of the surrounding area.

The other temples were impressive, though none could live up to the size and preservation of Angkor Wat. Preah Khan was our next favorite. It was more ruined, but was an intricate system of halls and labyrinths. It was a good view of what a larger temple looks like when abandoned and allowed to deteriorate.

 Ta Prohm was also impressive. This was built around the same time as Angkor Wat. It did not have the help of people keeping the jungle at bay. Massive trees have taken over the temple. Roots cling to the stones, strangling and logging the stone structures. It felt like we were in an Indiana Jones movie as we explored this amazing site.

We visited Angkor Thom this morning. It was once the capital city of the empire. There are a number of temples within a short walk. Bayon was the largest, with 200+ stone faces looking down on you from every angle. Baphuon had been destroyed, then rebuilt, then dismantled, then rebuilt again. It is known as the world's largest jigsaw puzzle.



Other temples we visited were Neak Poan, Ta Som, Bakong, East Mebon, preah palilay, and others in passing.

Around each temple, there were shops and refreshment stands. When you walk out of a temple gate, you are surrounded by women shouting at you to buy their wares. "Sir, you want cold drink. Ok, you want coconut. Lady, You buy cold water, one dollar." It was worse at the smaller, out of the way temples. At times, it was hard to enjoy the site because a woman was standing in front of you with elephant print pants. The worst was when a small child tried to sell you a bracelet or origami bird. It was very hard to ignore a 4 year-old boy walking next to you for minutes repeating the same mumbled line. "lady buy bracelet, three for a dollar. Ok, you buy." Over and over. Wee weren't sir whether to be sad or annoyed.

On the whole, the temples were a lot of fun, but very exhausting. We are ready to be moving on to Hong Kong tomorrow.

Christmas, Khmer Style

Our Christmas Day turned out to be a lot of fun. We successfully found the pastor's house (although out tuk tuk driver didn't quite believe us when we were trying to direct him there. I guess it wasn't really a tourist area. The breakfast was very good - hot oatmeal! - and we met some interesting people from around the world. We sang some carols including Jingle Bells which is funny because I can't imagine too many people in Cambodia actually know what a sleigh is.

Singing Christmas Carols

Pastor Ivor & Carol's house

It was around 90 yesterday. In the afternoon we took an English speaking Khmer cooking class. We picked which dishes we wanted to make from the restaurant's menu, went to the market to pick out the ingredients, and prepared the food back in the kitchen. It was a fun experience and I think Adam successfully learned how to make fresh spring rolls, something we had not had luck with before. We were quite stuffed when we left so we totally caved for dinner and ordered a grilled ham and cheese at our hotel for dinner.

The Market

Delicious fruits and vegetables

Ready to go!

Rolling Spring Rolls

Making the Sticky Rice

Green Mango Salad

 

Spring Rolls

Merry Christmas from Cambodia!

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

Merry Christmas! We are now in Siem Reap Cambodia, near the ancient ruins of Angkor. It's Christmas morning here, so we hope you have a good one, whenever it comes in your time zone. This morning, we will be going to a local pastor's home to have breakfast with other Christians from Siem Reap. Spending Christmas morning without celebrating Christ's birth with other Christians just wouldn't be the same.

It's been too easy to forget about the season in the warm weather and tropical surroundings, but we've been making a deliberate effort to be thankful for Jesus and what he accomplished during his time on Earth. This morning, we remember his birth, when God became man in order to suffer as a man and die for all the sins of mankind. What a joy to know that we serve a God that knows how it feels to be human!

Here in Asia, they celebrate Christmas as well, though we're not sure they do it for the same reason. Nevertheless, you see Christmas decorations everywhere and hear Christmas music in all the restaurants. One person in Ho Chi Minh City told us that there are services where you can hire a Santa Claus to deliver gifts by motorbike for you. Sadly, we weren't in town to witness that. Either way, it seems that most people know the holiday, but sadly, it's lost its meaning.

Still, we can celebrate today along with our friends and family back home. It's Christmas! Here's a picture of the closest thing we have to snow:

Would You Like to Go on a Snorkeling Tour?

The View From Phu Quoc

Delicious Fruit Smoothies

We arrived on Phu Quoc Island on Thursday. This Vietnamese island is in the Gulf of Thailand, off the coast of Cambodia. I wasn't quite prepared for how hot it was going to be. It is probably in the 90s with what feels like high humidity and a burning sun since we are at 10 degrees latitude. Our hotel has a really nice beach and the water is calm for swimming. Yesterday we walked the mile into into town, declining all the offers of motorbike rides, and checked out the fishermen and boats.

Fishermen at work

This island is only recently a tourist hotspot (their billion dollar new airport opened three weeks ago) - it is a big squid fishing community and also produces fish sauce and black pepper. Each day while we sit on the beach we are handed many fliers advertising snorkeling and fishing trips. After reading tripadvisor reviews we decided to just do our own thing. There is something to be said for relaxing without a set agenda.

Coconut Pies. Yum

We do, however, buy yummy coconut pies from the lady who comes by every afternoon. There is also a fresh fruit lady. The quantity and quality of fruit in Vietnam is the best I have ever had by far. We have been eating fresh seafood at every meal, to the point that we almost ordered pizza last night. But the seafood is so amazing that it seems wrong to eat anything else. A few nights ago we walked down the beach to a BBQ restaurant where you choose from a table full of fresh fish, squid, prawns, and mixed skewers and they throw it on the grill for you. Yum!

Long Beach - the site of our hotel

A few rocks interrupt the beach.

Boats in the harbor, ready for night squid fishing

Mackerel is very popular here

Sunsets are beautiful too

So Long... and Thanks For All the Pho

We left Saigon on Thursday and made our way to Phu Quoc Island. We wanted to give you a taste of the food we ate in Saigon.

Somehow, this guy got Adam to hold his coconuts, then made the hard sell. 

Pho

More pho. This it's lunch, but they usually east it for Breakfast. 

These were the most delicious bananas ever. 

Sour soup. 

We wandered into this restaurant randomly. It was full of lunching workers. It ended up being one of the best meals in Saigon. We were the only tourists in the restaurant. 

Ice cream comes for 3000 dong each. That's about 15 cents. 

Watermelon, dragon fruit, tangerine and mangosteen. 

Inside the dragon fruit. Tasted a bit like kiwi. 

Mind the Crocodiles

Yesterday, we embarked on a tour of the Mekong River Delta. We decided to go with a slightly more expensive company that promised to take us places where other tourists don't normally go. The guide picked us up at our hotel, took us to a waiting van, and we were off to the dock (via crazy HCMC traffic).

Crocodile's Eye View

Houses on stilts.

We started southwest down the river and had second breakfast on the boat. It consisted of ham croissants and tropical fruits (delicious bananas and mangosteens). As we journeyed down the river, we saw houses built on shaky stick foundations over the river. Land is expensive in HCMC, so they build these during the night over the river, which nobody owns. With our boat leaving a significant wake, we thought it was possible that any one of them might collapse into the river at any moment. We also passed many fishing boats, tug boats and barges. Most of these had eyes painted on the bow that were intended to ward off the crocodiles. Crocodiles are no longer in the river, since they've all been eaten, but now they say that they still ward off their spirits.

Breakfast on the boat

Tiny, delicious banana

First, we stopped at a local Buddhist pagoda. It was a very new pagoda, built in recent years. The monks that live at this pagoda are vegetarians. They spend their time praying and meditating. They also buy live fish from local markets and release them back into the river.

Pagoda

Good thing meat doesn't require refrigeration

Our next stop was a market in a small village. We saw all kinds of interesting animal pieces for sale. The old women couldn't stop touching the cute, blonde 6-year-old Australian boy on the tour with us. Apparently, white children are lucky, so they like to touch them. The boy was not amused. They also commented to our guide that I am a very beautiful woman. I suspect that they just thought I was very tall, and were too polite to tell me that my hair was frizzy. (editorial note from Adam, who is transcribing Emily's spoken instructions: It had nothing to do with her height or frizzy-ness)

Local watering hole.

Next up was a tour of a village along an offshoot of the river. We saw a house that held 10 people, including 4 generations (ages 9mo to 90 years). While it had only dirt floors, it had a very new, flat-panel TV. We also saw a rice field, sugar cane field, tapioca field, chickens, ducks, turkeys, fish, coconut and banana trees. We stopped at the local bar for a quick drink. It was a shot of Mekong whiskey.

before

We loaded back into the boat and headed to our lunch stop, a Vietnamese orphanage. The staff there prepared a 5 course lunch for us. It included spring rolls, sweet & sour soup, stir fried chicken and beef, a deep fried whole elephant ear fish, and tropical fruit for dessert (pineapple and star apple). After lunch, we visited a local Cao Dai temple. This religion seems to combine the major religions of the world in a very confusing way. They have pictures of Confucius, Buddha, and Jesus in the temple, among others (including, improbably, Victor Hugo).

After

All in all, it was a great trip. We feel like we got a great taste of Vietnamese culture. It was well worth what we spent.