2012 travels in review - Part 1

By Mark Bowyer / Last updated 02 Jan 2013

Introduction

A review of 2012 in travel through Vietnam and Cambodia. This is the first of 2 galleries.

The Saigon skyline continued to evolve in 2012 - with some regrettable casualties. The long awaited Times Square building (right side), after 16 years, stumbled closer to completion.
A stalling economy slowed the demolitions but many of the city's heritage buildings remain under threat. A handful of landmark buildings like this one - now the Ho Chi Minh City Museum, are safe. The museum was once the French Governor's mansion and was the final residence of Ngo Dinh Diem before he was killed in a 1963 coup.
I couldn't get a clear answer as to whether this favourite art deco building on central Dong Khoi St is to be renovated or demolished.
Rooftop bars are the place to get a view of the city and the best of them is Chill Sky Bar.
The Saigon River from the Grand Hotel rooftop.
A unique view of the former Presidential Palace in Saigon, now known as the Reunification Palace, from the roof of the curiously named 1960 Presidential Club. While city planners demolish many of its heritage buildings, the Saigonese are showing a growing nostalgia for their city's past.
Saigon's most famous rooftop. The apartment complex just off Dong Khoi St that featured in Hu Van Es's April 29 1975 shot of the city's evacuation. The photo was often incorrectly captioned as the US Embassy rooftop.
Saigon's Chu Bar, right by the evacuation rooftop was until recently a favourite watering hole for a group of former South Vietnamese pilots who had fled to the US after the war but then returned to Saigon in the early 1990s. Age may be slowing them down now, they don't come to the bar any more - but this ageing harmonica player is still belting out tunes.
Had a great lunch with old mate and former US war correspondent Carl Robinson and his wife Kim. They married in the Mekong Delta in the early 1960s.
Saigon's finest mullet hair cut. This Saigon motorcycle taxi (xe om) driver takes great pride in his unique hair style.
Le Van Tam Park in Saigon was once the burial ground for some of the most important figures in pre-Communist Vietnam - both French and Vietnamese. They were unceremoniously disinterred in the harsh days of the 1980s and the cemetery became a park.
I met this Hanoian gent, 102 years old, in Le Van Tam Park. He spent 3 decades in France, including World War II, returning to Hanoi in 1963. He now lives in Saigon.
These two students gave me a rousing rendition of "Saigon Dep Lam", a pre 1975 song that translates as "Saigon's very beautiful" - in Le Van Tam Park.
After an absence of several months due to poor health, it was great to see Mr Thai back on Dong Khoi St. He's been selling at various points on the historic street since the 1950s.
From Saigon I headed north to Quy Nhon - a beach destination on Vietnam's central coast that hasn't yet seen a rush of travellers.
Quy Nhon
The area around Quy Nhon was the centre of the Cham civilisation that dominated central and southern Vietnam until southward movement of the Viet people gathered steam in the 15th century.
The Cham remains throughout the south of Vietnam are usually in the form of these towers that can be found from My Son outside Hoi An down to Phan Rang. They are some of the oldest monuments in Vietnam but there is no meaningful information provided for curious travellers.
The only memorial to a US soldier I have ever seen in Vietnam - at a leper colony outside of Quy Nhon.
Former residence of Vietnamese romantic poet, Han Mac Tu. He was a leper who died in the colony south of Quy Nhon in 1940.
Locals at work in the fields, Quy Nhon.
Highway 1 continues to be a deadly stretch of road. We passed this accident travelling between Quy Nhon and Quang Ngai and saw plenty of near misses.
The My Lai Massacre site outside of Quang Ngai. In March 1968, US soldiers slaughtered hundreds of Vietnamese villagers here.
Always nice to get back to Hoi An. The summer sunsets are breathtaking!
Stumbled across Mr Tan, an avid bonsai grower and builder of models in the back lanes of Hoi An. Check out the video in the video section of Rusty Compass.
One of the best Hoi An meals was had at Ms Tuyet's on An Bang beach.
The focus of my Phnom Penh travels this year was architecture - of both the colonial and post colonial kind. This is the French era library - still in use.
Librarian, Phnom Penh
Post-colonial Cambodia saw a flourishing of a modern architectural style pioneered by French trained Khmer, Vann Mollyvann. This is some of his work at Phnom Penh University.
Vann Mollyvann's stadium complex. These buildings give a sense of the optimism of Cambodia in the late 1950s and early 1960s - before war consumed the nation with terrible consequences still felt decades later.
Phnom Penh Streets
Had a long overdue dinner at Van's Restaurant in Phnom Penh. It's in the former Indochina Bank building.
The old vaults at Van's are now offices. The food is French. It's one of Phnom Penh's more expensive restaurants and but worth it for a special night out.
Sunset from Van's rooftop has views across the post office and Wat Phnom. There was nobody else there when we visited.
Phnom Penh is also home to some of Asia's nicest boutique hotels. This is La Maison De Ambre - one of the most ambitious from a design perspective.
La Maison D'Ambre's enormous suites are all themed.
From Phnom Penh I boarded the Jahan for a couple of days. It's one of the most luxurious river boats travelling the Mekong between Vietnam and Cambodia.
Luxurious Indian styled room aboard the Jahan.
The disconcerting thing about luxury river cruising is the shift between the comforts of the cabin and the harsh rural lives of the locals you visit.
Kompong Chhnang, Cambodia - visited on an excursion from the Jahan.
Axel Madsen's Silk Roads was an interesting companion for my Cambodia travels. It's the true story of Andre Malraux - temple thief turned novelist and French Minister of Culture.
The Perfume River Hue. The focus of this latest visit to Hue was the city's less visited and largely unmarked historical sites.
Tu Cung residence was the home of Vietnam's Queen Mother Tu Cung. She was the wife of Khai Dinh and mother of Bao Dai - Vietnam's last king. While most royals fled the war or the communists for France, Tu Cung stayed here till her death in the 1980s.
Emperor Khai Dinh's city residence in Hue. This was also the last Hue residence of the last King Bao Dai. It's almost 70 years since Bao Dai stepped down but Vietnam seems unable to produce a comfortable account of its dynastic history for travellers. The sites tend to be run down and devoid of information. Travellers leave places like Hue with only the barest sketch of the city's incredible history.
A 1901 mango tree at Hue's National School. Leaders from both sides of the Vietnam War studied here including Ho Chi Minh, Vo Nguyen Giap and Ngo Dinh Diem.
Taking a bicycle ride into the Hue countryside is a must.
Making conical hats at a small village outside Hue.
I revisited the DMZ for the first time since the 1990s. It's the old border between North and South Vietnam. This is the Long Hung Church - the scene of terrible fighting in 1972.
Along highway 9 to Khe Sanh.
Khe Sanh - there's nothing much here but memories of the contours of these mountains would be etched deeply in the minds of the Vietnamese and Americans that served in what was one of the biggest battles of the Vietnam War.
Monument on the southern side of the old border depicts a mother and child awaiting the return from the north of a husband and father who has left to join Ho Chi Minh's forces.
Truong Son cemetery on the old Ho Chi Minh trail spells out the staggering scale of the losses suffered in the war. And these are only the graves of Ho Chi Minh's men.
My guide in the DMZ, Mr Tam, was a gem. He was born here and has vivid memories of life growing up in one of the most contested strips of land on earth. He sits with a US military map from the war, given to him by a US veteran.
A little further north along the Ho Chi Minh trail are the stunning caves of Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park.
Phong Nha Cave.
The awesome Paradise Cave is the highlight of the cave complex. The caves here are World Heritage listed.

Quicklink - Introduction - Vietnam

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