Carrizo Plain - February 2012

In mid-February we made a Land Cruiser trip to a part of California I had never visited before.   To a part of California I hadn't even heard of before.   That was the Carrizo Plain - it's a National Monument area to the west of Bakersfield, North of Santa Barbara and East of San Luis Obispo.

From Sacramento we made an evening dash down I-5 dining at The Harris Ranch and staying overnight in a rather sleazy motel in Buttonwillow, my old stomping ground from the late 70's field testing with Exlog.  The next morning we made the trek west over the hills from McKittrick into the Carrizo Plain valley. 

As usual people were arriving from different parts of the State at different times - Alvaro, Aerial, John and I from Sacramento, Andre from work in Cupertino via Los Angeles (to pick up Christine), Sam from Sonoma, and Rohitash from the Bay Area.  We all arranged to meet at the Selby campground in the Carrizo Plain valley and, surprise, surprise, we all arrived without too much confusion or misunderstanding.

Andre, Christine, Rohitash, Aerial, Alvaro, Sam at Camp

The Carrizo Plain is a valley between two mountain ranges.  In the middle of the valley is a large salt lake that is surrounded by grasslands - apparently the largest remaining area of untouched grasslands in California.  At some point in the 50's I think, they tried to develop the land with housing, but it is a little too remote and while there are signs of layouts for streets there are very few houses there.  The latest encroachment is an array of solar panels on the outskirts of the National Monument.  All very nice and green, but what a blot on the landscape.  On the one side (the Bakersfield side) you have old oil fields and on the west side you have this new solar panel array.   In many ways the oil field is more interesting and visually nicer to look at than the solar panels - but then I might be biased.

The Salt Lake at Carrizo Plain

The San Andreas Fault also runs down the eastern side of the Carrizo Plain and it there are some pretty good surface indications of the fault - like truncated valleys, displaced streams, etc.  The best examples are found at Wallace Creek where the creek itself is displaced at a right angle for about 150 ft.

Stream Displaced by San Andreas Fault

There are indications of early Native American activity in the area too.  At Painted Rock, a sandstone outcrop on the west side of the valley there are rock paintings that have been dated as some 3,000 to 4,000 years old.   They aren't the most spectacular thing, but worth the hike out to the rock.

Rock Paintings

The real draw of the Carrizo Plain is the display of wildflowers in the springtime.  For a brief period it is quite spectacular.   While we were there in the early spring, this last winter has been so dry that there was nothing at all blooming.  It would be worth coming back after a nice wet winter - if we ever get one.

We camped the two nights (Friday and Saturday) at the Selby Campground and then on the Sunday morning we exited over to the west towards San Luis Obispo.  We took the scenic route over the hill tops to the small settlement of Pozo and on the way got the chance to exercise the 4-wheel drive a little bit.   Lots of fun.

Aerial, Alvaro, Andre, Christine, John

 There are a few other photos up on the SmugMug site here.

IndoChina - Laos and Thailand - January 2012

We left Hanoi on a Thursday afternoon (26 January) on a flight to Vientiane (26 January).  Quite uneventful except for the quite shocking green leather upholstery in the Lao AIrlines Airbus A320 - that was really awful.  Upon arrival in Vientiane everything was much less frenetic than Vietnam - an efficient visa on arrival arrangement, regulated taxis to various hotels with fixed pricing, US Dollars equally acceptable for payment, traffic that obeys road signs and traffic lights - the traffic even stays on the right side of the road - how civilized.

In the evening we wandered down to the Mekong river where all the restaurant action seemed to be focused.  It was indeed such a contrast to the hustle and bustle of Vietnam and Cambodia.  We found a nice Indian restaurant where we dined for next to nothing, even the Lao beer was ridiculously cheap and good.  This was Thursday evening and there was an extensive market on the promenade adjacent to the river - primarily for the local people, as tourists here are not so prolific.

Monks at the Temple

The next day, Friday, we rented bicycles as that seemed the easiest way to get around town.  Funky old bicycles with little baskets on the front and again quite cheap.  We cycled on the banks of the Mekong.  The river bed here is wide and obviously at times there must be a lot of water coming down the channel, but at this time of year the water was a long way away and barely visible in the distance.

Buddhist Temple in Vientiane

Buddha Statues

We rode around town and took in three of the more interesting temples and the Laotian equivalent of the Arc de Triomphe, called the Patuxai. Vientiane is not a big city and by lunchtime we had perhaps seen a good part of it by bicycle - we had seen enough temples anyway.  

Patuxai, Vientiane

Thanks to the French influence there were a lot of fine bakeries with great French bread, croissants and the like.  For lunch we had another fine meal in one of these establishments and relaxed for the remainder of the day.

We had an evening train for Bangkok leaving from what I thought was Vientiane but what turned out leaving from Thanaleng some 30km away (can you say Thanaleng station and make it snappy in Laotian?).   The train into Thailand was kind of interesting - 2 or 3 carriages that  crosses the Friendship Bridge over the Mekong to Nong Khai in Thailand where the overnight train awaited to take us to Bangkok - no more than a 15 minute trip, and the train was mainly full of  backpackers.
We had a sleeper on the Bangkok train and this was much better than the one in Vietnam.  There was no restaurant car on the train so we bought one or two of everything edible from the station shop just to keep us sustained through the night.   In comparison to the Vietnamese train this was the ultimate in luxury.   There was even a nice little man that came along to make our beds.

Train Food Supplies

After a very pleasant and comfortable journey we arrived in Bangkok station just before 8:00 am.  As we were finding our bearings in the station, 8:00 came and an announcement was made and the Thai National Anthem was played.  Everyone stopped, stood up (me included) and stood to attention during the Anthem.  Very strange to see a bustling station come to a standstill and then immediately resume the chaos afterwards.  The Thai people appear to hold their king in high esteem - his picture is everywhere, including a nice big one in the station.   I have heard that disrespecting the King does not go down well in Thailand.

Respect for the King at Bangkok Station

We were staying at the Royal Orchid but failed to make it clear that it was the Sheraton Royal Orchid and there are other Royal Orchids.  Consequently we had a nice scenic tour of the city in the back of a tuk-tuk only to return to the station 10 minutes later and head off in the right direction to the ‘Sheraton’ Royal Orchid.  After checking in a getting cleaned up we headed off to the Chatuchak Weekend Market.  This was an impressive market with over 5,000 stalls selling an impressive array of handicrafts, clothing, foods and live animals.   The live animals area was the most interesting - you name it they probably had it there - cats, dogs, birds (some quite exotic like the Toucan), fish (little ones up to big Koi Carp), lizards, squirrels, ….  Quite disturbing in some ways too, as the animals were perhaps not kept in the best of conditions.

Bags of Fish at Chatuchak Market

Squirrels at Chatuchak Market

Squid on a stick

Then it was off to the Jim Thompson house - not exactly my cup of tea, but it turned out to be a quite interesting place.   Jim Thompson apparently pioneered the export of Thai silk to the US in the 50s and 60s.  He was an architect and his home in Bangkok is quite splendid.  He mysteriously disappeared without a trace in Malaysia in 1967 - his body was never found.

During our visit the Jim Thompson’s house it rained, it really rained, the heavens opened and it just poured down.  That increased the humidity and for the rest of the day I wandered around like a drowned rat.  I am amazed that I can be absolutely dripping with sweat just standing there and there will be some Thai person dressed in not particularly cool clothing and they look as cool as could be - how do they do that?
We experimented with riding on the river taxis in an attempt to get back to the hotel.  These are a great way to get around if you know which way to go (I didn’t) but it’s cheap and fun but you have to be a bit bold in the jumping on and jumping off, they don’t exactly wait around and they don’t exactly tie up close to the docks either.  The ticket collection seems a bit random too - if they get to you then you pay, if they are so busy taking money elsewhere then you have a free ride.

Canal Boats Bangkok

More street walking in the afternoon and then we caught a boat down the Chao Phraya (the main river in Bangkok) to our hotel.

That night we dined at the Oriental (the first hotel to be built in Bangkok).  A nice meal in the open air by the river and a very nice end to our Asian travels.
Early the next morning (5:00 am) we were off to the airport for the return trip back to the real world.   That was a shame as I was just getting used to the traveling thing.

As usual there are more photographs on SmugMug - the best ones are here, and all of the photos from Laos are here, and from Thailand are here.

IndoChina - Vietnam - January 2012

This is a continuation of our IndoChina trip and follows on from the Cambodia notes.  We reached the border crossing between Cambodia and Vietnam at the town of Bavet. The crossing into Vietnam was pretty uneventful.  We already had visas so it was just a case of walking from the Cambodian side to the Vietnamese side, getting a stamp in the passport, getting the bags x-rayed and then getting back on the bus.  

We continued on towards Saigon or rather Ho Chi Minh City as the Vietnamese government like you to call it now.  To the locals it is still Saigon.  

We seemed to be going through the built up outskirts of Saigon for a long time - it is certainly a very large city (some 9 million people).  We eventually made it to the bus station where a taxi driver tried to take advantage of our lack of familiarity with the Vietnamese Dong on the ride to the hotel.  Fortunately we got away without being fleeced too much. Tourists are always easy marks and I am always suspicious of those taxi drivers lurking at bus and train stations as we naive and innocent travelers seek help.

Hotel continental, Saigon

We were staying at The Continental which is one of the older hotels in the middle of town.  If anyone read The Quiet American by Graham Greene (or saw the film with Michael Caine), then The Continental is where a lot of the activity took place.  I have had a desire to stay there since seeing the film, and I finally made it.  Alas the hotel is getting a little long in the tooth now, and while not as old as the Raffles in Phnom Penh it hasn’t been kept up quite as well.   Nevertheless a nice hotel in a great part of the city. 

The first thing that is noticed in Saigon is the traffic, some cars, but lots and lots and lots of motorbikes and scooters.  The whole population seems to be on a motorbike, and just like Cambodia not just one or two passengers per bike, the whole family is on there 3,4,5 even 6 people.  And all this traffic just flows along arbitrarily following some kind of traffic rules - more suggestions than rules.   But it all seems to work, when you cross the street you get used to just launching yourself into traffic and walking across and magically the traffic parts and swims around you.   The only rule is - don’t back up or make rapid course changes - the flow of traffic doesn’t expect that and can’t accommodate it.

Saigon Street - Motor Scooters

It was a couple of days before Tet so Saigon was decked out in all its New Year’s splendour.  Lots of flowers, balloons, lights everywhere and signs wishing us Happy New Year - or Chuc Nam Mong Noi as we say in Vietnam.  After dark, the downtown streets were just spectacular - decorated with lights and thronged with people and of course the roads were just overflowing with motor scooters.  The thing to do apparently was to pile the whole family on your motor scooter and then drive laps around the city center - a lot of fun.

Saigon - Tet Decorations

Saigon at night before Tet

We finished the evening off with a drink on the rooftop of the Majestic Hotel - one of the finer older hotels with a great view over the Mekong River.

The next day (Saturday) I set off to see the sites of the city. Nancy had already seen the city so she did the shopping thing - surprisingly there are some very fine shops in this very capitalist looking city in this now not so communist country.  Within the city, there are a few things to see - the Cathedral, the old Post Office, the Government Palace, the War Museum, etc.   I did them all.  The Palace was the site of the capitulation of the South Vietnamese government to the victorious Viet Cong back in 1972.  A tank broke through the fences of the palace, the Vietnamese flag was planted and the rest was history - Vietnam was unified as a Communist State. There were quite a few instructional exhibits that while a bit propagandist in their approach were nevertheless quite helpful in understanding what the Vietnamese have been through (and what those poor young American soldiers of my age/generation must have gone through too).

That night we did more people watching as we walked around.  The venue for drinks was the Rex - a fine modern hotel right in the center of town.

Monks in Saigon City Center

On Sunday, the 22nd January, it was New Year’s Eve, so things were getting ready to be shut down for a while.   Tet can be up to a week’s holiday in some parts and it is the time that most Vietnamese go home to their villages and families.  The morning started for me with a trip out to the Cu Chi tunnels (again Nancy had already done this).   This is a village some 30 km from Saigon where they have preserved some of the tunnel network that the Viet Cong used in their war against the South and the Americans.  

Cu Chi tunnels

During the war there was a very extensive network of tunnels (100’s of miles of tunnels across the entire area outside Saigon).   The VC lived down there and came out to wreak havoc on the enemy.  Now there is a small section where the tunnels have been preserved and it has become a tourist destination.  There are displays of how the VC lived, fought, and how they were victorious against the US with their very simple low tech devices (various man traps with nasty bamboo spikes).  Just to make the trip worthwhile they add in a shooting range where you can sign up to shoot all manner of weaponry - I didn’t do that bit.

I returned to Saigon for our last afternoon in the city before boarding the train for Hanoi.  We wandered around taking in all the flower arrangements for Tet along the main street.  We also took a trip up to the observation deck of the Bitexco Financial Tower. This is a truly impressive building - one that would be appropriate in any modern western city not to mention a ‘Communist’ country like Vietnam.   The views from the top (47th floor out of a total 67 floors) were impressive indeed.

Saigon - Bitexco Financial Tower

That evening we had tickets for the train to Hanoi - for me one of the high points of the trip.  Not so for Nancy who was not impressed by the thoughts of a 32 hour train journey.  We had First Class Soft Sleeper seats - the best you can get - but to be honest it was a bit of a let down - not quite as clean and not quite as soft as we would have liked - actually quite primitive.   They certainly found some very old and well used rolling stock for this trip.   

We had to displace a family who were squatting in our compartment, and then I had to restrain Nancy who was ready to leave and take a flight.  We were joined in our compartment by a nice family traveling home for Tet (they had the top bunks we had the bottom ones) and as night fell we rolled out of Saigon and were on our way north.  At midnight the peace was shattered as they decided to announce the New Year with some extremely loud music over the carriage speaker system.  It went on for ages and ages and ages - repeating the same song interspersed with meaningless (to me) speeches.   I was ready to do some vandalism to the speaker when it finally ceased.

Saigon to Hanoi Train

In the morning our compartment friends left and we had the compartment to ourselves for the rest of the day.   The weather had changed overnight and it was grey and cloudy outside with occasional rain.   Not that inviting and we didn’t get to see a whole lot through the mists.  What we did see looked like it would be quite nice on a good day - lots of hills, lots of rice paddies, all very rural.   We passed through Nha Trang, Qui Nhon, Da Nang, Vinh - all the major towns up the coast, but alas we didn’t see much - just the landscape passing by through our somewhat dirty carriage windows.

Just before dawn of the next day we rolled into Hanoi and the end of our trip.  That was a 36 hour trip - a long time to be on a train.  While I kind of liked it, Nancy was not so enthusiastic.   Next time I might plan a stop in the middle somewhere.

At the station in Hanoi, it was still dark and raining.  We had another experience of a taxi driver trying to take advantage of us on our way to our hotel, The Metropole.  It’s hard to strike a good cheap deal when you are wanting a ride to one of the best hotels in town so I have some sympathies for the taxi driver.

The Metropole was another wonderful old hotel (Charlie Chaplin and Paulette Goddard stayed there on their honeymoon) and even though we were arriving at 6:00 in the morning, they were nice enough to give us a room.  It was great to clean up after the train trip and experience the wonders of the breakfast buffet - the breakfast buffet is one of my favorite things to do in a nice hotel.

Hanoi - Bridge on Hoan Kiem Lake

Later in the day I took in the sites of the city.   There aren’t so many, but I did visit the Lake in the center of town, the Hanoi Hilton Prison, the Cathedral, Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (alas closed on New  Year’s Day) and I wandered around a lot.  It was nice just to walk around the old parts of town and check out the life on the street.  Since it was New Year’s Day, things were a little quiet.   In Hanoi there did not seem to be so much hustle as in Saigon, and there was more evidence here that the country is a Communist country - things were just that little drabber, less prosperous and more disheveled than Saigon - of course the weather being cooler and greyer didn’t help.

Hanoi Hilton Prison

The next day Ho Chi Minh was open for viewing so we did the mausoleum tour.  Just like Lenin and Mao, poor old Ho is embalmed and exposed for the world to see in his mausoleum.  It was very busy (it’s the thing for all Vietnamese to do) yet quite reverent, the Army guards keep everyone in line and moving around the coffin.  He looked just like his photos but it could have been a wax dummy for all I could tell.  After the mausoleum, we paid a visit to his house and office complex.   He apparently remained a simple man living and working in a modest wooden house by a lake near where his mausoleum is now located.

Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum

I didn’t bother visiting the lake where John McCain parachuted into during the war, but I did see his flight suit which is on display in the Hanoi Hilton prison.  For the remainder of the day we wandered around the streets of the old town. It is quite a nice walking city and there is an interesting mix from people cooking/selling/eating food on the street to chic shops that would not have been out of place in any city in the US.

Hanoi - Street Vendor by Hoan Kiem Lake

On our final day in Hanoi (Thursday), we had pretty much seen all there was to see, so we just did more walking around. We got to know certain bits of the city quite well.   Nancy bought a bootleg North Face back pack - the exact same design as you would get in the USA but with lower quality material and zips, etc.  For about $10 you can’t complain, unless you are North Face.  They even had the North Face label on the product - quite blatant copying.

North Face back packs - very well priced

In the late afternoon we made our way to the airport for the last leg of our trip the flight to Vientiane Laos.

There are more photographs up on Smugmug - the best ones are here and all the photos fit to print are here.

IndoChina - Cambodia - January 2012

In January 2012 I made a trip to IndoChina to explore a little in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.  The plan was to take a relatively short trip (2 weeks) to Vietnam with side trips to Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Vientiane in Laos.  My friend Nancy was in Vietnam during early January and we planned to meet in Angkor Wat and then travel back to Vietnam and continue over to Laos.

I made hotel reservations and bought train tickets before departure so most of the itinerary was in place before I left. There was a little uncertainty owing to the fact that it was going to be Tet, the Vietnamese New Year, and indications were that travel around Tet was particularly difficult.  In the end everything worked out fine - Tet wasn’t such an obstacle at all.

The flight from the US is long and with the beginnings of a cold made it even more tiring than usual.  I arrived rather bedraggled and tired in Bangkok’s new and very splendid airport (where in the US do we have such a fine and modern terminal, nowhere that I can think of).  After an overnight in Bangkok it was the early morning flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.  Siem Reap is the supporting town for the Angkor Wat temple complex - lots of hotels, restaurants and of course lots of tourists.  

The main entrance to Angkor Wat

The hotel in Siem Reap was nice - more than nice actually - quite luxurious - a Sofitel.  There was lots of greeting and bowing and door opening.  All a bit over the top, but I can’t say I objected too much - I am getting spoiled in my older years.  I met up with Nancy who had been there for a couple of days with her daughter, Arden - they were already seasoned Angkor Wat visitors.

Angkor Wat

I did the usual tourist thing in Siem Reap - a trip to the Angkor Museum to get the background on the Khmer culture then a trip out to the temple complex to see the sites.  Angkor Wat itself was most impressive - an immense moated complex of temples.   Quite awe inspiring when  you imagine what it must have been like in the 12 Century when it was built.  Of course along with this awesome and remarkable complex comes the other side of the coin - people like me, the tourists.  You really couldn’t get away and be by yourself and just about every picture you took had some westerner ambling through the middle of it.

Monks at Angkor Wat

The next day, Tuesday, it was off to see some of the other temples in the area.  While Angkor Wat is the main temple that has been extensively renovated and is the one that most would recognize, there are a myriad of temples and structures in the surrounding area.  Many of these are not so renovated and restored and they have a more dilapidated look to them.   I found these more interesting and much more enjoyable but no less populated with tourists.   Angkor Thom in particular had some amazing examples of the power of the jungle with trees and their roots intertwined with the temple structures so that you couldn’t imagine one without the other.

Angkor Thom

Angkor Thom

After two days of intense temple touring I was ready to move on and on the Wednesday we left for Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital. (Arden left us here and flew back to the USA.) Between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh is a large inland lake (the largest in S.E. Asia) and a river system that flows into the Mekong River at Phnom Penh.   This unusual thing about this lake and river system, the Tonle Sap, is that it flows in different directions depending on the season.   In the rainy season the Mekong flow is so strong it pushes water up into the Tonle Sap and swells the size of the lake, in the drier season, the water flows out of Tonle Sap into the Mekong.

There is a daily boat leaving from Chong Kneas, just outside Siem Reap, for the 6 hour trip to Phnom Penh.  The boat was a long thin vessel with aircraft style seats below deck and luggage storage on top of the deck. Since the top deck was so much nicer than the stuffy and clammy interior cabin, we climbed out onto the deck and spent 6 hours in the sun as the boat roared its way down to Phnom Penh.  The first mile or so of the trip was in a small river channel where we got to see the how the locals lived in their floating homes.   Since the water level changes the houses have to be moveable so they can stay close to land and yet be close to the water for the transport and sustenance that it provides.

Floating Church Tonle Sap

We reached Phnom Penh by mid afternoon and made our way to our hotel - the Raffles Hotel (did I mention we stayed in some nice hotels?).  The hotel was just beautiful - one of the old colonial hotels from the 19th Century.  It is the place to stay when in Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh was a pleasant city.   Nothing too spectacular as far as sights to see, but interesting enough.  We wandered around town visiting the Royal Palace/Temple complex and a few other sites on the tourist agenda.  We then spent a while walking around a food market with a wonderful array of foodstuffs - from beautiful displays of exotic fruits and vegetables to somewhat stomach churning selections of meats and fishes that in the open air with all the heat, humidity and flies tested our resolve.

Market in Phnom Penh

One of the things on the tourist agenda in Phnom Penh is to visit the so-called Killing Fields.  A complex outside of the city memorializing the awful things that went on during the Pol Pot regime.  It is somewhat strange to visit a memorial to such a horrible period of Cambodia’s history, and fairly recent history at that.  While the area looked like a relatively innocuous park, the story told by the audio tour guide told a quite different story. Some quite horrible things happened in that little piece of land.   The shrine which is the focal point of the area is basically a pagoda full of shelves of human skulls.  

All very disturbing but then you come outside to the current day and a throng of vendors selling food and drinks and tourist bric a brac - very strange.

Traveling by Tuk-Tuk out and back to the Killing Fields gave us the chance to experience how the Cambodians get around - usually by small motorcycle or scooter, usually with their entire family on the same vehicle.   It was not unusual to see 5 people on a very small motorcycle.

Taking the children to school

The next morning we left by bus for Vietnam.  All was going well until the bus stopped on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.   Everyone got out and waited on the side of the road while the driver and his assistant tinkered with the bus.   Apparently the air conditioning was not working.  So we waited and waited for an hour or so by the side of the road for a replacement bus.  Finally we were off in air conditioned splendor towards the border and Saigon.

Waiting for the replacement bus

There are some more photos on my Smugmug site - the best photos are here and if you are really interested all the photographs from Cambodia are the entire Cambodia set are here.