Asia Steps

View of Japan Airlines Planes from Cafe Avion

We’re sitting at the beautiful “Avion Café & Bar” at Narita Airport in Tokyo. We arrived early this morning and have over 4 hours before our next flight leaves for New York. We walked around for a bit and looked at all the goodies and yummy confections, we even passed a “Yahoo Cafe” where people can use the Internet for free. The “Avion” has huge windows overlooking the tarmac area where large airplanes are parked waiting to take off.

We ate a light breakfast on board at 3 a.m. (!) and were hungry again by 9a.m. We got gyoza dumpling and shrimp tempura udon to share, both were great! It’s so exciting to have Japanese food in Japan!

One of Laos’s treasures which for the moment seems to be off the beaten path for large masses of tourists is Si Phan Don near the country’s southern border with Cambodia. We made the journey to Si Phan Don from Luang Prabang in the North by flying to Vientiane in the evening, staying overnight and flying from there to Pakse early the next morning. We then continued by bus to the main island of Don Khong. Our next destination was Siem Reap, Cambodia and, since I personally dislike backtracking while traveling, we wanted to find a way to cross the border and continue on by land or by river without taking the bus back to Pakse for the direct flight to Siem Reap.

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Vietnamese Side of the Cambodian-Vietnamese Border Near Chau Doc, Vietnam

After a quick breakfast we went directly to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum where we received an emotion-filled education on the brutality used by the Khmer Rouge at this prison camp, located in the middle of Phnom Penh. It was a more powerful experience than our visit to the Killing Fields the day before and we’ve become inspired to learn more about this terrible period in Cambodia’s history.

At noon we boarded a high speed boat from Phnom Penh to Chau Doc, Vietnam. It was a beautiful ride down the Mekong River, passing fishing villages and other craft of varying sizes. After passing through both the Cambodian check point and the Vietnamese border control, we were officially in Vietnam once again!

Our evening in Chau Doc was relaxing and we took a cyclo to a floating restaurant on the other side of town. The mosquitoes are fierce in this town and after a long day of journeying we retreated into the air-conditioned hotel room for the night.

To continue the discussion about riding motorcycles in Vietnam, our recent daytrip outside of Hanoi and last week’s visit to Luang Prabang, here is a NY Times article about motorcycles in Laos which talks about the influx of Chinese motorcycles, toys and technology into this and other SE Asian countries.

Route Map for Our Day Trip Outside Hanoi

Hanoi feels like combination of several different cities all rolled into one: The Old Quarter and the Hoan Kiem Lake, the business district with its new high-rises, the beautifully scenic and residential West Lake area as well as several major avenues and circles with major landmarks, for example, Hanoi’s opera house or the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.

Many tourists who visit Hanoi don’t realize how drastically everything changes as soon as one ventures just outside of Hanoi. Our friend, Aryeh, took me out on an informal bike tour (motorbike) during my brief visit to Hanoi last year. I enjoyed it so much that I really wanted to do it again but this time with Tamar. Aryeh was kind enough to hook us up with his friend Marc, who lives in Hanoi. Marc is an avid mountain biker who’s been living in Hanoi for 4 years and is very familiar with all of the trails surrounding the city. He also thought it would be fun to take a trip, with a motorbike for a change, to see a site or two that he’d wanted to check out for some time.
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Kevin and Tamar Riding in the Countryside (with helmets)

If watching a typical rush hour scene in a major Vietnamese city such as Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City is like looking over a sea of motorbikes then it can now be described as a sea of helmets as well. As of just last week on December 15^th a new national law went into effect whereby it is now mandatory for all people riding a motorbike to wear a helmet!
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