Cambodia and Vietnam

It’s our first night in Hong Kong. We’ve finally booked the last trans-oceanic flight of our sabbatical—the one that will take us back to Chicago for Pam’s wedding at the end of next week—and for the first time, know where we’ll be sleeping each night until mid-March. We had considered possibilities for the next week as remote as learning to free-dive in Hawaii and skiing in Hokkaido, but the two most likely options were always to stay in Vietnam or come to Hong Kong. Alice felt like we hadn’t gotten much out of Hanoi and seemed to really want to give Vietnam a second shot in Danang, but from everything I was seeing, I thought there’d be almost no chance she would have a better time there. After less than twelve hours in Hong Kong, Grace told us that Alice’s sense of relief of not being in Vietnam anymore was palpable.

My guess is we’ll look back on our time in Cambodia and Vietnam, and Southeast Asia more broadly, with mixed feelings. Alice suffered more than I did, seemingly fighting some combination of stomach discomfort and a cold semi-continuously since we got to Thailand, at the same time that our destinations were less awe-inspiring than the ones from the first half of our trip, and our time away from home, friends, and family began to feel meaningfully long. We slowed down our pace a lot in our last few days in Hanoi, not entirely out of choice. Choosing to spend the next week here in Hong Kong—a comfortable, familiar-feeling place, where we won’t be expecting anything more once-in-a-lifetime than some great beef chow fun—feels more like an intentional move, and one that I think will help us get the most out of the remaining time we have on this trip.

Early mornings

We’ve probably woken up before 4:30am more times in the last five months than we have in the rest of our lives combined. Getting to Angkor Wat for the sunrise was one of these times. We were a bit skeptical of just how amazing the experience would be as we waited in the dark with hordes of other tourists. It turns out the amazing thing, at least to me, wasn’t the sunrise itself, but rather the resulting resolution of the details of temple complex from a dark silhouette, and with it, the slow realization of just how enormous Angkor Wat really was.

Forest temple

I hadn’t appreciated the extent to which the ruins around Angkor had shaped our ideas of ancient temples and mysterious tombs. The look of Temple Run, the scenes in Tomb Raider, and the forest temples from the Legend of Zelda are facsimiles of Ta Prohm and Preah Khan, and the smiling stone faces at the Bayon and intricate carvings at Banteay Srei feel familiar in a way that only comes from seeing their influence over and over again.

Poolside

Amansara was originally built in the 1960s, a few kilometers from Angkor Wat, by the King of Cambodia as a residence for his guests. Before arriving, we had wondered what could be so special about an Aman. Beds could only be so comfy, a pool was a pool. I think the answer, as with many things, came from the people. The attention to detail and thoughtfulness in every aspect of how we were treated was on a different level from any other hotel we’ve stayed at. Alice was genuinely sad when we packed up our bags to go.

Street food by Champey

I spent an evening wandering around Siem Reap on my own while Alice enjoyed her last night at Amansara. I was continuing my search for my ideal street food—fresh out of a wok, slightly charred, lots of oil but not oily—after failing to find it in Bangkok. To my slight surprise, it arrived in a plate of beef lok lak at this string of food stalls along the Siem Reap river. I thought about using a photo of the stall for the blog, but sometimes, it’s better not to look too closely at where your street food is prepared.

Ha Long Bay

Our first introduction to karsts was driving through rural Yunnan to my dad’s hometown, and we had another sight of these landscapes as we sailed through Raja Ampat. But the karsts in Ha Long Bay are among the world’s most famous for good reason. The bay was heavily overcast when we set sail in the early afternoon, but as we approached evening, the clouds parted a little. We were treated to a spectacular sunset and even saw some stars at night. By the next morning, the haze had already rolled back in.

Taking a breather

Alice was in a persistent state of stomach discomfort for roughly our entire time in Hanoi. I held up better but didn’t come out of our time in Vietnam unscathed either. Between figuring out what we were going to do for the next two weeks, tummy issues, and not feeling hugely excited about the attractions in town, we spent almost two full days in our hotel room. We did manage to get out together on our last day in Hanoi, and lifted our spirits by trying something other than street food and touring Hoa Lo Prison.

The old quarter

Notwithstanding the mild food poisoning we got from eating there, Hanoi’s Old Quarter was my favorite part of the Southeast Asian cities we visited. Dense rows of parked motorbikes on the sidewalks squeezed impatient mopeds, bikes, cars, and pedestrian tourists all onto narrow streets. Colonial French-style architecture was mixed up with massage parlors and tiny plastic stools that family restaurants put out for seating. With or without Alice, I walked around the Old Quarter every night but one that we were in Hanoi.