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.

Welcome to Vietnam, may I take your money?

We just finished our first day in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC - formerly Saigon). It's a nice enough city, fairly typical of other large cities in developing countries. A few interesting facts about HCMC:

• It's hot! Let me repeat that. HCMC is HOT! We went through our water very quickly. We each drank a coconut and probably a few liters of water each throughout the day. We sweat most of that out. By 2:00, we were exhausted and overheated, so we came back to the hotel for a shower and nap.
• Moving from one place to another can be hazardous to your health. Take, for example, walking around the city. Sidewalks are for pedestrians. They are also for street-restaurants with plastic chairs and tables. Also for various street vendors. They are also a great place to park your motorcycle. Turns out, they are also a great place to drive your motorcycle, especially when you want to go the wrong way on a one-way street. Trying to cross the street is even worse. There are crosswalks and stoplights, but we haven't figured out what they're for yet. The only way to cross the street is to just go for it, and hope the motorcycles avoid you. If you're lucky, they'll honk before they cut you off.
• People want your money. That's true everywhere in the world, but here, they are not afraid to ask for it. I suspect it's a factor of being in tourist areas and being obviously a tourist. We received several offers to polish our tennis shoes. We were offered lots of cheap trinkets and maps. We could have ridden in any number of cycle-rickshaws or on the back of motorcycles. We did not choose any of these.
• The people want to keep the city clean. Despite what you might expect from a large city like this, the streets were actually relatively clean. There were workers cleaning up in lots of places. There were gardeners in all the parks. Some of these were sweeping the lawn with long brushes of some sort. Never figured out why they were sweeping the lawn.
• The food is delicious, but often intimidating. It can be hard to find a place to eat, because many of the restaurants are a bit intimidating. Either they don't do menus or the building doesn't look like a place you want to eat. The smells make you hungry, and eventually you cave. We had a really good bowl of pho today. The fruits are exotic and delicious as well.

Pho. yum!

Today, we went to independence palace. It was  built in the 60s as the presidential residence for the recently formed Republic of Vietnam (south Vietnam). After the war, it was basically turned into a museum, and is occasionally used for state functions still. Much of it is still decorated in the original 60's modern style. There's a bomb shelter in the basement with a lot of the old equipment that was there during the war.

The cabinet room

Not sure what the official purpose of this room was. The guide called it "the most beautiful room." 

Gambling room. Pretty sure there isn't one of these in the White House.

Radio room.

Well, time to go to sleep now. 

We're in Vietnam!

We arrived in Vietnam safely last night after about 27 hours of travel time, 20 hours on airplanes. We got to our hotel at 11:30 pm local time, but I have no idea what time it is body time. We woke up before 5 am today. Hope we adjust soon.

More from Ho Chi Minh City later, after we've had some time to explore.