A Tale of Two Cities

I started my day meeting up with Tek at 5:30 to go to Angkor Wat for sunrise, joined by a few hundred of our favorite tourist friends. Unfortunately it was a little bit overcast, so the colors weren't as vibrant as they are in the photos I have seen, but the light was beautiful and it was a great way to spend my last morning in Cambodia. Returned to the hotel for breakfast and then drove out of town about 30 miles to visit a few more wats ... on the way passed miles and miles of small villages, rice paddies and really beautiful vistas. Some of my favorite experiences on this trip have been driving to and from the main event, seeing how the local people live and marveling at the expansive land that people live on, which seems particularly amazing given my Manhattan existence.

Aside from Angkor, went to a few more wats today, including another in a forest further from the city built by the same king who built the Tomb Raider wat described a few days ago. That wat was built for the king's mother, this one was for his father, but it was enormous, mostly in ruins, and had the same mystical quality due to the trees and the light. Those two were definitely my favorite wats of the Angkor "complex".

Late afternoon I boarded the Vietnam Airways flight from Siem Reap to HCM City (Saigon), where I met up with Alex who came from Bangkok where it sounds like he got to see a little of the city before heading back onto the plane. Saigon is a much larger city than I was expecting ... it is buzzing with traffic, and the ride from the airport reminded me more of Mumbai than any other city. Our guide told us that there are 10 million people in Saigon, and 5 million motorbikes, and I think we saw at least 3 million of them on our drive to the hotel! Most motorbikes had 2 - 3 passengers, and almost everyone was wearing a facemask to protect their lungs from the smog and general pollution. The city is completely buzzing with excitement and people everywhere ... it is almost impossible to cross the street. So very different from anywhere I have been so far on the trip.

We are staying at the Park Hyatt (http://www.saigon.park.hyatt.com) which is a really nice hotel with a colonial feel, centrally located across from the Opera House and near some great shopping and restaurants. We can walk out the door and be right in the thick of the action, which is great as we are only in Saigon for two nights and it would be difficult to get much a feel for the place otherwise.

We just went out for a quick meal recommended by Thong (our guide), ingeniusly called "Vietnam House", but the food was quite good and I am already confident that it will be at least one step up from the food in Cambodia, which was pretty greasy even at the nicer places.

Tomorrow morning we have an early start to drive about 50 miles to the Cu Chi tunnels and start to deepen our understanding of this fascinating country and its history.

More to come!