As you could probably gather from the tone of the previous post, going "off the beaten" path in Northern Vietnam beat us up. I love Toyota Land Cruisers, but 5 days of 20mph (30kmph) travel on roads that were former mountain goat paths, food filled with MSG, power outages and passing dog meat stores can really wear you down (so much for culture!!!) So, rather than traveling directly from Vietnam to Cambodia, we modified our plans slightly and went to Singapore for a little western style R&R.
If any westerner ever wanted to travel to Asia, Singapore is the ideal first stop. Our friend Mike refers to it as "America in 4 languages", which is a pretty accurate description. Smooth, modern roads and highways; every type of store (from Fendi to Orange Julius); shopping malls everywhere; movie theaters with the latest releases; beautiful marinas; major international companies; the nicest zoos/aquariums; they're all here. And its SUPER clean.
Many of you may remember the hype surrounding Michael Fay, the American who was caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism. No doubt much of the country's prosperity and improvements are a result of extremely harsh legal system. After seeing how clean this place is, and how much progress they've made, to quote Chris Rock, I don't approve of their methods, but I understand. The country has made some large strides trying to remove their stodgy image; they now allow bungee jumping and chewing gum!!!!
In any case, we stayed at the Pan Pacific and Hilton hotels (thank you agoda.com and Hilton points). After 3 days of high-speed internet, walking around malls, stocking up on books and magazines at Borders (very few bookstores in Laos or Vietnam), eating sushi off a conveyor belt and California Pizza Kitchen, we got our "western culture" fill, and are ready to continue onto Siep Reap, Cambodia.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment