For many years I've wanted to visit Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Some of this has been driven by the Vietnamese friends I made whilst living in California as much as the fact that I studied the Vietnam war and the French colonial wars that preceded it for history at school. All those far off, strange sounding places held an allure that even a major war couldn't detract my imagination from what they would be like in quieter times.
Later I discovered that Ho Chi Minh had worked in the kitchens at a hotel very close to where my sister lives in London, the Drayton Court Hotel. It serves a good pint of Fullers. There's an unsubstantiated rumour that Ho Chi Minh was the first UK indoor bowls champion as the Drayton Court had one of the first courts before 1914, when he worked there. This was discussed at length on a radio chat show I used to listen to on my way to work. The conclusion was, that if he was, then the records where probably destroyed during the bombing of London during the Second World War. An intriguing thought and a bit like Hollywood, way let the truth get in the way of a good story?
Cambodia will be interesting as it will good to see how, after one of the worst examples of man's inhumanity to man, a country can recover. And, of course, there's Angkor Wat.
Tamsin's View:
I've also been wanting to visit Indo China for a very long time. This was driven primarily by my father who loved that part of the world. He visited Angkor Wat a very long time ago and I remember him saying that it was one of the most interesting places he'd ever visited - and that's saying something as he was a very experienced traveller, and his job took him all over the world. I saw his slides and was hooked. Many years later, some Californian friends of ours gave us a rubbing of a figure from Angkor Wat and that currently hangs in our bedroom as a reminder that we still need to visit there.
I've only ever seen Laos across the Mekong river from northern Thailand, and it held a sense of mystery for me even then, so am delighted to finally be going there.
I'm not sure what to expect from Vietnam - of course, growing up, we constantly heard about it on the news with the Americans fighting there. It's never had much of an allure for me, so I'm hoping to be very pleasantly surprised. Having seen Sue Perkin's programme about the Mekong, I know a little of what to expect and am excited about seeing it for myself.
Tamsin's View:
I've also been wanting to visit Indo China for a very long time. This was driven primarily by my father who loved that part of the world. He visited Angkor Wat a very long time ago and I remember him saying that it was one of the most interesting places he'd ever visited - and that's saying something as he was a very experienced traveller, and his job took him all over the world. I saw his slides and was hooked. Many years later, some Californian friends of ours gave us a rubbing of a figure from Angkor Wat and that currently hangs in our bedroom as a reminder that we still need to visit there.
I've only ever seen Laos across the Mekong river from northern Thailand, and it held a sense of mystery for me even then, so am delighted to finally be going there.
I'm not sure what to expect from Vietnam - of course, growing up, we constantly heard about it on the news with the Americans fighting there. It's never had much of an allure for me, so I'm hoping to be very pleasantly surprised. Having seen Sue Perkin's programme about the Mekong, I know a little of what to expect and am excited about seeing it for myself.
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