Trip Recap
My cousin Wendy sent me a PM on Facebook asking about the trip, and I thought the questions she asked were a good starting point for telling people about it. So here are my answers to her questions, plus a few more personal observations.
1. How long you were there for?
We spent about a week, total, out of the country. We arrived in Vietnam early Sunday morning and left about the same time the following Sunday (it should have been earlier but the flight was delayed). The Vietnam airport is very nice, new and high-tech just like the one in Bangkok. If you can't appreciate the vintage architecture of the NAIA 1 in Manila, the Vietnam airport definitely puts ours in the shade.
The longest we stayed in any one place was about two days (Friday and Saturday) in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Our first time in HCMC lasted only about a day, and we spent about a day also in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia. Since we had only one week to go to the places we wanted to go, the travel schedule was pretty tight and we spent a fair amount of time on buses (cheaper than flying). Katrina said it was like being on the Amazing Race!
2. How was the food?
The food was all right. We had pho and spring rolls a few times in Vietnam, but ate a couple of times in their version of McDonald's, too, LOL. (It was called Lotteria and we initially thought it was a place to buy lotto tickets!) The food at the pho restaurant and in Lotteria were more or less the same price, about US$3 for a substantial main dish/burger-and-fries combo - the bowls of pho were huge - and a drink. Katrina and Aileen's friend Erika, who is now based in HCMC, took us out on our last night there so we got to visit a couple of the funkier places in our area.
We had our taste of more traditional Cambodian food in Siem Reap (we stayed near the backpackers' area in Phnom Penh and the restaurants there served mostly western-type dishes). Our lunch on "Angkor Wat Day" were rice-and-viand meals like in the Philippines and those were good; the meat was very flavorful. I also tried what was supposedly a traditional Khmer noodle dish that night and while it was edible, I think Philippine pancit is better.
On our first night in Siem Reap we splurged and had dinner at the Blue Pumpkin, a fusion restaurant in the tourist area. The food as well as the ambience was nice. Cambodian menus list prices in US dollars, and vendors accept US currency too (though they will give you your change in Cambodian riels) so I didn't have to exchange any money. I can't remember much about the food prices in Siem Reap because I was half-asleep practically whenever we were eating! (Unlike Katrina and Aileen, who are doctors and I guess used to functioning on whatever sleep they can get, sometimes our grueling schedule caught up with me.)
3. What was your favourite part of the trip?
Despite dragging my weary carcass out of bed at 4 AM after arriving in Siem Reap late the night before - and the baking heat that came later - I think visiting the temples of Angkor was the highlight of the trip. It felt really special to make the effort to see the sunrise there, as well as to be in such a historically and artistically significant place!
(If you are going, though, I think it would be a good idea to read up on the temples first so you know which ones you want to visit, and what special things to look for there. It might also be better to devote a couple of days to visiting the temples if there's a lot you want to see and you have the time to enjoy an extended stay in Siem Reap. I enjoyed the temples a lot even though we had to take a condensed tour, but I didn't study beforehand so I didn't know who the Leper King was or what interesting carvings to try and look for in Angkor Wat.)
Coming in a close second to the temples was the shopping! Western labels like Abercrombie & Fitch and H&M have factories in Vietnam and Cambodia so you can find export overruns in the markets besides the handicrafts (which are lovely, too). We agreed that it was a blessing in disguise that everything was closed in Phnom Penh when we got there (because of the Khmer New Year), or else we might never have made it to Angkor Wat and stayed instead in the markets to shop, LOL!
4. Other notes (stuff I haven't told Wendy yet)
~ HCMC looks a lot like Manila, only with a bazillion more motorcycles that made it stressful to cross the street. On the other hand, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap seem like smaller towns, but that could be because a lot of establishments were closed so we didn't see these places as they usually are.
~ We took a city tour on our last day in HCMC, and learned a bit more about Vietnam's history by visiting the War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace (which does not look like a fancy storybook palace, but a big fifties-style office building because it was rebuilt by the Americans sometime in the 20th century). It was very saddening to see the mementoes of the Vietnam War and observe how people could hurt each other so badly.
~ If we had had the time, we might have gone to visit the Killing Fields or other historical monuments in Cambodia, too. I must say I'm glad we didn't because it would have been very sad to go there.
~ I hope my American friends will pardon me for saying so, but I also have to say that I was kind of amused by the video presentation at the Reunification Palace, which referred to the Vietnam War as Vietnam's glorious victory over American imperialism. I come from a country that considers herself a longtime ally of the United States (the museum pointed out that the Philippines sent engineer and security troops to Vietnam to join the US forces), so it was interesting to hear that kind of thing.
~ Yes, I am a bad haggler. When God handed out haggling skills (and boyfriends), my mom and Tita Jeannie cut in line ahead of me and used up my allocation. As much as I would like to try and drive the prices down, I'm also still concerned that the seller should make a profit, and besides I don't buy much of any item so I don't have much negotiating leverage to begin with. FWIW, I tried never to pay the first price quoted and, most important of all, got some pretty good stuff that's either really expensive here not locally available at all - like my wooden jar shaped like a mangosteen and woven pineapple-shaped box, both from the Night Market in Cambodia, and the export overrruns that managed to fit me. I'm happy with them and the prices I paid for them.
In other news, I FedExed my admissions documents to Brandeis this morning (at least the ones I can't accomplish online). Yes, I took care to address the envelope to the Graduate Admissions Office in an attempt to ensure that it won't take any detours.
My mom told me yesterday that even though she was probably in pain or woozy from painkillers, Lola Z was happy to hear that I had been accepted. Lola Z said that if Tita Marie were here, she'd probably be going nuts with joy.
I don't really know about the going nuts part, but I do believe that Tita Marie is happy for me and lending me a hand from wherever she is.
I honestly don't think I would have accomplished this much without my family, and I hope I don't let them down when I do make it to Brandeis!
1. How long you were there for?
We spent about a week, total, out of the country. We arrived in Vietnam early Sunday morning and left about the same time the following Sunday (it should have been earlier but the flight was delayed). The Vietnam airport is very nice, new and high-tech just like the one in Bangkok. If you can't appreciate the vintage architecture of the NAIA 1 in Manila, the Vietnam airport definitely puts ours in the shade.
The longest we stayed in any one place was about two days (Friday and Saturday) in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). Our first time in HCMC lasted only about a day, and we spent about a day also in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap in Cambodia. Since we had only one week to go to the places we wanted to go, the travel schedule was pretty tight and we spent a fair amount of time on buses (cheaper than flying). Katrina said it was like being on the Amazing Race!
2. How was the food?
The food was all right. We had pho and spring rolls a few times in Vietnam, but ate a couple of times in their version of McDonald's, too, LOL. (It was called Lotteria and we initially thought it was a place to buy lotto tickets!) The food at the pho restaurant and in Lotteria were more or less the same price, about US$3 for a substantial main dish/burger-and-fries combo - the bowls of pho were huge - and a drink. Katrina and Aileen's friend Erika, who is now based in HCMC, took us out on our last night there so we got to visit a couple of the funkier places in our area.
We had our taste of more traditional Cambodian food in Siem Reap (we stayed near the backpackers' area in Phnom Penh and the restaurants there served mostly western-type dishes). Our lunch on "Angkor Wat Day" were rice-and-viand meals like in the Philippines and those were good; the meat was very flavorful. I also tried what was supposedly a traditional Khmer noodle dish that night and while it was edible, I think Philippine pancit is better.
On our first night in Siem Reap we splurged and had dinner at the Blue Pumpkin, a fusion restaurant in the tourist area. The food as well as the ambience was nice. Cambodian menus list prices in US dollars, and vendors accept US currency too (though they will give you your change in Cambodian riels) so I didn't have to exchange any money. I can't remember much about the food prices in Siem Reap because I was half-asleep practically whenever we were eating! (Unlike Katrina and Aileen, who are doctors and I guess used to functioning on whatever sleep they can get, sometimes our grueling schedule caught up with me.)
3. What was your favourite part of the trip?
Despite dragging my weary carcass out of bed at 4 AM after arriving in Siem Reap late the night before - and the baking heat that came later - I think visiting the temples of Angkor was the highlight of the trip. It felt really special to make the effort to see the sunrise there, as well as to be in such a historically and artistically significant place!
(If you are going, though, I think it would be a good idea to read up on the temples first so you know which ones you want to visit, and what special things to look for there. It might also be better to devote a couple of days to visiting the temples if there's a lot you want to see and you have the time to enjoy an extended stay in Siem Reap. I enjoyed the temples a lot even though we had to take a condensed tour, but I didn't study beforehand so I didn't know who the Leper King was or what interesting carvings to try and look for in Angkor Wat.)
Coming in a close second to the temples was the shopping! Western labels like Abercrombie & Fitch and H&M have factories in Vietnam and Cambodia so you can find export overruns in the markets besides the handicrafts (which are lovely, too). We agreed that it was a blessing in disguise that everything was closed in Phnom Penh when we got there (because of the Khmer New Year), or else we might never have made it to Angkor Wat and stayed instead in the markets to shop, LOL!
4. Other notes (stuff I haven't told Wendy yet)
~ HCMC looks a lot like Manila, only with a bazillion more motorcycles that made it stressful to cross the street. On the other hand, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap seem like smaller towns, but that could be because a lot of establishments were closed so we didn't see these places as they usually are.
~ We took a city tour on our last day in HCMC, and learned a bit more about Vietnam's history by visiting the War Remnants Museum and the Reunification Palace (which does not look like a fancy storybook palace, but a big fifties-style office building because it was rebuilt by the Americans sometime in the 20th century). It was very saddening to see the mementoes of the Vietnam War and observe how people could hurt each other so badly.
~ If we had had the time, we might have gone to visit the Killing Fields or other historical monuments in Cambodia, too. I must say I'm glad we didn't because it would have been very sad to go there.
~ I hope my American friends will pardon me for saying so, but I also have to say that I was kind of amused by the video presentation at the Reunification Palace, which referred to the Vietnam War as Vietnam's glorious victory over American imperialism. I come from a country that considers herself a longtime ally of the United States (the museum pointed out that the Philippines sent engineer and security troops to Vietnam to join the US forces), so it was interesting to hear that kind of thing.
~ Yes, I am a bad haggler. When God handed out haggling skills (and boyfriends), my mom and Tita Jeannie cut in line ahead of me and used up my allocation. As much as I would like to try and drive the prices down, I'm also still concerned that the seller should make a profit, and besides I don't buy much of any item so I don't have much negotiating leverage to begin with. FWIW, I tried never to pay the first price quoted and, most important of all, got some pretty good stuff that's either really expensive here not locally available at all - like my wooden jar shaped like a mangosteen and woven pineapple-shaped box, both from the Night Market in Cambodia, and the export overrruns that managed to fit me. I'm happy with them and the prices I paid for them.
In other news, I FedExed my admissions documents to Brandeis this morning (at least the ones I can't accomplish online). Yes, I took care to address the envelope to the Graduate Admissions Office in an attempt to ensure that it won't take any detours.
My mom told me yesterday that even though she was probably in pain or woozy from painkillers, Lola Z was happy to hear that I had been accepted. Lola Z said that if Tita Marie were here, she'd probably be going nuts with joy.
I don't really know about the going nuts part, but I do believe that Tita Marie is happy for me and lending me a hand from wherever she is.
I honestly don't think I would have accomplished this much without my family, and I hope I don't let them down when I do make it to Brandeis!