Indochina 2019: Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos Travelogue

Mark · 2019-12-11T07:56:19Z

Mark's Indochina 2019 travelogue explores Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos, capturing traditional Asia before modernization. Essential reading for travel enthusiasts.

INDOCHINA
For a number of years now I have gone to Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam for work, specifically to Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City.

These are wonderful cities to jump in for a few days, connect with the work and people, and explore with the tiny slices of available time in between.

These cities are easy to function in; however something gets lost in all that replacement and development.

They have seemingly become indistinguishable from one another with glass and steel skyscrapers adorning the landscape.

For example, some places in Ho Chi Minh City look like a part of a Chinese or South Korean city. Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok are what you would expect from modern Asian cities.

There were three other countries in Indochina: Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. At least in my head, they represent the last bastion of what an idealised traditional version of Asia could be.

I had a sense of urgency to see Cambodia while the centuries-old architecture was crumbling, before things were too patched up and restored. I yearned to experience a sense of timelessness there.

With Myanmar, it was about seeing everything before the skyscrapers take over. I had this idea in my head that it would feel like the Asia I spent time in during the 80s & 90s.

And with Laos it was to float down the milk-tea Mekong river under the setting sun. I wanted to see if it matched with the river my mind had pictured in the Geography classes of my youth.

So I booked some time at the end of 2019 to visit these three places. I went to Siem Reap, then Yangon and Luang Prabang, all returning to Singapore in between.

I took the opportunity for each of these three trips to really consider my packing, to bring my best gear and use them in these different environments. I had to consider a range of management of risks like the tropical heat, dengue, malaria, zika, Japanese Encephalitis, typhoid, cholera and rabies. I was also wary of tourist-focused crime.

The idiosyncratic relationship these countries had with the pristine condition of the US dollar bills that they would accept as legal tender was also something I had not previously needed to think about.

SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA
I flew into sunny and dusty Siem Reap. The roads seemed like a mix of Vietnam, Thailand and Penang all at once. The Khmer script on the signs was nothing like what I have seen.

I managed to get the services of a driver for the next few days who would take me out to the temple sites twice a day for two and a half days. His breadth of knowledge regarding the different temples provided enough context for all the wandering around.

But first, I had to get a three-day pass. This pass would get checked at each site.

I had the intention of being as far from the madding crowd as possible. The driver knew exactly the places and the best times, and I followed his lead.

I didn't mind the presence of other people, as it did give the idea of what an inhabited ancient city felt like.

In a quiet corner of a fairly popular temple site, everyone was taking photos of the trees and buttress roots, but nobody noticed this.

There is a mystery surrounding what animal this carving represented in the thirteenth century.

In the midst of the remnants of an empire that had a rhinoceros army, I had a Stegosaurus on my mind.

The driver then did a series of dropping me off at each location and picking me up, and I started to realise the scale of the Angkor Archeological Park.

The blistering sun and humidity were critical to deal with; bringing sufficient cold potable water as well as insect repellent were priorities in the tropical jungle.

The climbing of the steep stairs was another consideration I did not anticipate. Desert boots and boot socks were a good choice; as was linen.

These places are popular for a reason: they look different but feel familiar. I had never seen architecture like this before, but I felt the achievements of the past in these unique structures. They tap into an eternal consciousness that I connected with.

This was a temple that was halfway built until lightning struck the highest tower. The king took it as a sign that the Gods had made clear their disapproval, and he decreed all work to be discontinued.

People in the late 12th century walked across tightropes to move from tower to tower for the purpose of either performance entertainment or dispute resolution. The images in my mind of what these people were doing eight hundred years ago were undeniably charming.

If I ever got my hands on a time machine, before I went back in time to see dinosaurs or forward to ride spaceships, I would make a stop at the Angkor sites.

The scale of which art and design were communicated across centuries left an indelible impression on me.

I flew back to Singapore for work, but I never stopped dreaming of the hand-chiselled motifs I saw in the temples in the red clay sand.

YANGON, MYANMAR
I flew into this city that just felt like a completely different animal right from the planning stage, with the odd time difference between here and Singapore, together with just about everything else.

The buildings, roads and places evoked different countries and times in my distant and moderately recent past. There were echoes of the streets of Hong Kong or Taiwan; lanes of Australia and Malaysia; buildings of Singapore, and even of Japan or Korea. I spent the first day unable to reconcile all of it.

I wanted to see the Singu Min Bell in Shwedagon Pagoda where it was a story about the triumph of will of the locals in the recovery of the bell pillaged and lost in the river by British soldiers in the 19th century.

The pagoda was stunning in its magnitude and magnificence. I spent an hour watching it as the light turned from the late afternoon to the early evening. The ringing bells at the top were a constant reminder that despite whatever human drama was going down below, they would ring through time.

The next day saw my attention turned towards a house across the lake.

I was glad to get the sense of this area after having this place in my mind for the past thirty years.

I appreciate the defiance. I could have done with more of that myself back in 1989. I also think that part of the appeal of Yangon for me was that it still felt like ‘89 in quite a number of spots.

The Yangon Central railway station was a favourite bombing target by the Japanese in the Second World War. Then the British destroyed it while retreating to India.

These urns right at the station are filled with water every day, and are for people to scoop their metal cup into and drink or wash from.

The train would only arrive in an hour, and the whole station was like life from the early eighties. While I waited, my mind inevitably remembered fragments of life from that time.

Taking the previously circular line journey around the city meant I had to dial into the cadence of the old train system with rickety tracks.

As the train stopped at each station, I wondered about the daily rhythm of the lives of the people hopping onboard and off. I could only guess by looking at what they carried.

I still don’t know how that one wiry man with the cap brought up those two huge sacks.

I was also somewhat bemused by the tiny mice scavenging on the floor between seats.

This city was full of surprises: things from long ago that I had forgotten about and moments that were new all danced together on its own offbeat meter.

I was glad to see all of this, as many portions of the city were under development. This place would shift several decades in the next few years, and I wonder what would happen to these incredible buildings downtown.

It was also my last chance to bid farewell to a time I had lived thirty years ago, and call it a day.

And I will always remember which house by the lake the sun was setting on, as the cool breeze was blowing.

LUANG PRABANG, LAOS
This was a journey to experience the natural waters in Laos: the Kuang Si Falls and the sunsets on the Mekong.

I arrived in a little rural touristy town by the mountains and river. It had influences from Thailand in style right from the start, with the exception of people wearing scarves and jackets due to the colder climate.

I knew it would be colder though I was surprised that first night was 8°C. Linen clothes was not the right call here.

The Mekong was definitely the main draw of this place. The tourism industry set up around the river is understandable though I don’t understand why things are designed to recreate home comforts.

Perhaps pizza and fries are like death metal music: you can find them no matter in which far flung corner of the world you go to.

I headed out to the nearby Kuang Si Falls. I was amazed with the pictures of this place and wanted to see it for myself. I got a driver to drive me for nearly an hour into the hills.

The place was quiet as it was still early. I was alone and had the chance to see these pale azure waters that were so clear.

It was 9 °C in those hills that morning, and the water was frigid. I put on my water shoes and went up to my knees to at least wade around and experience these waters.

I finally understood how a body of water that was not an ocean could have so much appeal. For a landlocked country, Laos had the most beautiful waterfalls I had ever seen.

For both days that I was there, I made sure to get a boat out onto the Mekong to see the sun setting.

From seeing the fishermen draw in their nets, to the people and their wood fires by the river, everything about it felt just right. I just really like boats.

The boatman dropped anchor so that starboard was facing the sun. When I was there, sunset was from 5:05pm to 5:25pm.

I could not think of any other place I wanted to be at that moment in time other than to feel sunshine on my face while bobbing around in a boat.

As the sun set, it dawned on me that this was a perfect way to close up these trips for the past three weeks.

At every step of the way, it was worth seeing a little further and going the distance.