I've fallen way behind in posting, time to catch up a bit....
Biking around Muang Khong was delightful. The bikes we rented were too small of course, and we didn't get going until mid-morning when it was already starting to heat up. We began by taking a road across the island to the village of Muang Saen on the other (western) side. We were expecting another very small one, but it turns out this is the main commercial center of the island. The commercial district was about three blocks of stores. There was a very active ferry landing with a steady stream of cargo boats (mostly overgrown canoes, but a couple larger) crossing to Cambodia on the other side of the Mekong. While walking around the ferry landing area taking pics, we were stopped by a man pushing cargo on a hand cart; he was anxious to share his few words of English with us and we were happy to oblige. After a brief chat, we went on our way; when we ran into him again about ten minutes later he was pushing a cargo that included two 5-gallon plastic gas cans filled with lao-lao, which he insisted we join him in sampling. Not even noon, and the first drink of the day. After some more exploring of the town, and a stop for a cool drink, we took the road south to explore more of the island. While exploring a small wat between the road and the river, we discovered a dirt path right along the shoreline. This made for much more pleasant riding than the roadway (cooler by the water and more shaded). We followed paths and roadway to the southern tip of the island, then headed back north along the eastern riverbank until we made it home in mid-afternoon.
While walking around the village taking pics before dinner we ran into Jerry and Sharon, the Australian couple with whom we'd been exploring a few days earlier. They'd just come over to the island that day, and we spent a long time chatting over beers and dinner. We also had a nice chat with an Israeli man, who is traveling with his family in a camper-converted small truck (which he'd brought to the island by ferry) from Thailand to Turkey.
Next morning we took the ferry and minibus back to Pakse. After much discussion, studying our travel books and maps, and worrying over the calendar, we decided to skip Cambodia (primary destination there: Angkor wat) and fly straight to Vietnam. We had a long list of places to visit and things to do there, and the days in Cambodia would have left it too tight. We bought air tickets to Saigon (officially Ho Chi Minh city, but everyone calls it Saigon), visited the consulate in Pakse to get our visas, and that was that. The flights from Pakse are only four times a week, so we had to wait a day to fly on Saturday. Spent the day walking around the city, and also (for Dan) doing a fair bit of work.
Saturday morning we caught the early plane to Saigon, and by late morning we were there (much easier than a 14-16 hour bus ride). We caught a bus into the center, and by lunchtime we had a great hotel in the backpacker district and were out to explore the city.
Saigon is a very busy and noisy place. The streets are filled with motorbikes, and crossing is an adventure. Because one can't simply wait for the light to change and then walk calmly across, the technique is to walk slowly out into the traffic, and then just continue across. The stream of bikes just moves around, like a school of fish moving around an obstacle in the river. It's a leap of faith the first couple of times to step off the curb into this mass of motorized traffic, but that's the way it's done here, and it works.
We walked up to the War Remnants Museum, which has very complete exhibits documenting the history of Vietnam's long struggle for independence (starting with the French and continuing through the US), and lots of (mostly US) armaments, tanks, and aircraft. There's also an exhibit of the tiger cages where political prisoners were kept, and the guillotine the French used on them. There's a large exhibit documenting the tremendous toll caused by Agent Orange, not just on the ecosystem but also on people and the birth defects that continue to this day in the descendants of those exposed. Another large and powerful exhibit area shows the work of the many photojournalists who covered the war, and yet another covers anti-war movements in Europe, the US, and other Asian countries during the 1960s and into the 70s. The whole things is well put together, and extremely sobering. It's difficult to look at the destruction and recognize it was done by one's own nation.
Early the next day (which would be yesterday) we boarded a bus for Dalat, a popular tourist destination for Vietnamese in the mountains north and east of Saigon. Details to follow in the next post.
Photo note: I've started a new Picasa album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/econodan/SoutheastAsiaWinter2011Part3.
It contains pics starting with the 4000 Island area and moving forward from there.
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