Two Sunsets in Songkhla | Songkhla, Thailand

I can’t recommend Samila beach! It’s sharp underfoot, crawling with university students and their trash, stray dogs and their shit, and the accompanying flies of course. The far end has no mobile service; you have to walk at least a kilometre to a 7-11 to call a grab. The colors of the sunset were something like a Titian, and it’s still a no from me.

I enjoyed the sunset much more from Café Der See Nakkornnok, my go-to restaurant in the old town. They have a great deck out back and occasional dinnertime live music from a chill guitarist/singer. He sings some unexpected western classics, like Louis Armstrong and Nina Simone, but I really enjoyed when he played a couple songs written by the late king. As for food, I liked the scallops, but their softshell crab is my favorite. They also serve some imported beers, overpriced but welcome in a town where you can’t buy alcohol in the supermarkets or convenience stores.

The City Pillar Shrine | Songkhla, Thailand

The Songkhla City Shrine was built in 1842, during the lifetime of the founder of Songkhla's hereditary ruling family, Phraya Vichian Siri (Tianseng Na Songkhla). Inside, there once was a city pillar made from Javanese cassia wood. Unlike most Thai city pillars, which are large stone or brick and plaster monuments, this city pillar, though no longer wooden, is still small and kept indoors. The first city pillar was given by the Thai King Nangklao in 1842, along with offerings given as alms to Phraya Songkhla (Tianseng) to establish the shrine. 

At that time, the king also selected Phra Udom Pidok as the leader of Buddhist ceremony and Phra Kru Assasachan Phram as the leader of Hindu ceremony, and each was accompanied by eight worshippers in their faith. Phraya Songkhla (Tianseng) built four ceremony halls facing each cardinal direction, and arranged a large parade of Thai and Chinese Buddhists to carry the pillar and the candle to the new shrine. 

At the sacred time (as determined by astrologers), the 10th day of waxing moon in the 4th month, in the year of tiger, 1204th year of Thai minor era at 7.10 a.m. (or 10 March 1842), the Buddhist procession met the awaiting Phraya Songkhla (Tianseng), along with Phra Khru Assadachan and the Hindu priests, who placed the pillar at the center of Songkhla town. After the pillar was erected, a party was held for 5 days and 5 nights. Phraya Songkhla (Tianseng) endowed the temple with 22 monks he personally supported.

At the time, the temple complex included a Khon performing hall, a puppet performing hall, a Chinese opera performing hall, and 4 Norah performing halls.  Later, Phraya Songkhla also built 3 Chinese-style buildings to cover the pillar and a shrine of Chao Sua Muang. 

In 1917, in the era of King Vajiravudh, Prince Yugala Dighambara, the viceroy of southern region, published an announcement that the pillar was rotten by termites. Local people and merchants in Songkhla raised funds to rebuild the pillar out of cement, and consecrated it on 1 March 1917, the 7th day of the waning moon in the 4th month, 22 minutes and 36 seconds before noon. Four astrologers stood at each cardinal direction began by placing soil from the far reaches of the province into the foundation, and workers were done erecting the pillar by 8.41.36 that evening.

Today, the Chinese opera hall is still in use but the others have been turned into school buildings. The temple is at the north end of the main Chinatown strip, so not a bad place to start exploring old town Songkhla (which should only take a day or two max).

An Afternoon in Hat Yai | Hat Yai, Thailand

The closest airport to Songkhla is Hat Yai international, which has a surprising amount of junk food and insufficient places to charge a cell phone. The announcements are truly constant, irrationally repetitive; it’s loud, busy and unbearable. Vietjet wouldn’t let me check my suitcase early, a necessity to get past security and into a business lounge, so instead I paid a nominal amount (I think 30 baht? Maybe 50?) to leave my suitcase in the luggage room and hit Hat Yai town.

Founded in 1928, there’s really nothing of historic importance in Hat Yai. Until perhaps 10 years ago there were only two hotels in town, the cheap Mandarin and the expensive Lee Gardens, which was the site of a car bomb attack in the continuing ant-Thai Muslim terrorism in the area. The town can be seen in an afternoon, so the first place I checked out was the oldest Chinese restaurant in town, Nai Roo, which came highly recommended. I had two of their most famous dishes, black pepper seafood and abalone. Honestly? The black pepper seafood was just OK and the abalone was less than OK. The quality was the same or lower than any cheap Chinese takeout place in New York. I think Hat Yai is small enough that this is the closest thing they have to a foodie/heritage type restaurant, but it’s definitely not worth going out of your way for.

Next, I headed over to picturesque Wat Chue Chang, a very big, very new place. Again, just . . . whatever. It’s fine for a photo I guess, or to get out of the sun. My last couple hours I spent at Lorem Ipsum café, the local LGBT coffee shop. It’s located on one of the two blocks in Hat Yai that actually dates back to the 1930s, so I took some photos of the old fashioned buildings and actually read the entire lorem ipsum passage by Cicero, conveniently printed on the cup. I attempted and failed to engage the staff, who had no idea who Cicero was or what the passage meant or its significnce in graphic design. Exciting times, I tell you!

Hat Yai: not worth visiting but better than sitting in the airport if you can spare the approximately $15 for round trip cab fare (250 baht from the airport to Nai Roo via airport taxi, 160 baht from Lorem Ipsum back to the airport via grab). 

Wat Keseraram | Siem Reap, Cambodia

In Southeast Asia, I’m reminded all the time that dying for politics is dying for nothing. At Wat Keseram (some locals use the extra ‘ra’, others don’t; no one knows what’s right) I’m reminded again.

Built in the early 1970s as a well-equipped modern Buddhist temple and school, it has the largest collection of Buddhist folk paintings, finest woodwork, and loftiest hall among Siem Reap’s modern temples. Almost as soon as it opened, Pol Pot came to power and all religious worship was prohibited, all education banned.

Until 1979, old and senior monks were killed immediately, while young monks were forced into marriage or the military (any who resisted were also killed). Out of approximately 66,000 monks living at 4000 temples before the Khmer Rouge came to power, the regime claimed to have executed 26,000 by 1989, with a further 25,000 dying from starvation, exposure, overwork and illness during forced labor. The killing putatively stopped in 1979, but most monks were unable to return to their monasteries for another decade or more.

When monks returned to the Pagoda of Cornflower Petals, they found something disturbing: their school had been razed and replaced with a torture chamber. Even more disturbing, whenever they broke ground for a new stupa, they found bones of the tortured and executed were already there. For decades, they collected bones in a rough wooden spirit house, but by 2015 they had enough money to build a proud cement stupa.

Today, Wat Keseram is a busy meditation center and very active temple, and uses donations beyond what is necessary to maintain the monks to feed the pets abandoned here by those who can’t afford them.

Shopping in Siem Reap, Part 1: Some Good, but Mostly Bad and Ugly | Siem Reap, Cambodia

In this post, I'm going to deal with the unfortunate reality of shopping in Siem Reap. In my next post, I'll cover shops of excellence, so stay tuned.

First things first, Psaar Chaa, the old French covered market. It’s Chinese trash and tourist tat on one side, a wet market on the other. On the surrounding streets are some little souvenir shops and restaurants, but nothing good or interesting or old.

Before we get to the good stuff, let me warn you about the number one shopping scam in Siem Reap: Indian immigrant boutique owners selling mass-produced Indian junk as Cambodian handiwork and antiques to tourists, at a ridiculous markup to boot. To add insult to injury, they name their stores things like 'Cambodian Cottage Industries'  and 'Asian Arts Emporium' (both real places and perfect examples of this scam) to lure in naïve Westerners. They typically get your business by running a deal with tuk-tuk drivers and hotel owners; if you tell either to direct you to a silk or silver shop, they bring you to these places instead and abandon you there (typically a tuk-tuk will ask to wait for you and get the return fare, not drop and run). They get paid either by the number of tourists dropped off, or on a commission basis if you buy something. The Indian salesmen are smarmy and will tell you any lie you could dream up, 'help' you try on the merchandise, and offer dumb discounts again and again, making it not only very socially awkward but often physically difficult to leave their shops. Not only is factory fresh questionable metal actually “antique pure silver” according to these scammers, but machine embroidered polyester is “hand embroidered silk”, or even “lotus silk”, etc. I've seen scarves selling in these shops for $56 that are sold for $8 before bargaining in Ho Chi Minh City street stalls (or $1.50 each, if you're willing to order 40+ of them from AliExpress yourself). One boutique quoted me $750!! for the same super low grade semiprecious stone and likely-not-silver necklace I was quoted $140 for at the "Afghan" stall in Bangkok's Chatuchak market, and I’m sure I could have actually bought for $70 or less. These guys have the fanciest shops and speak the best English in town, and charge high prices, so perhaps some Westerners believe they have the best quality merchandise as well; they certainly do not. Indian restaurants in Siem Reap? Go for it, 100%. Indian purveyors of Cambodian goods? Run away, literally.

$1256 usd ?!?!?!

Similarly terrible experiences are the two most popular old-school souvenir shops, Sam Orn and SK Hand Made Silver, just a block away from each other on Rue Jean Commile. At least they're Cambodian owned and sell Cambodian goods, but they also have tuk-tuk driver commission deals, and come with a SERIOUS caveat: If you don't want to bargain hard for a long time and/or you won't feel OK walking away at least once, don't bother. If you're not sure you can handle it, check out the google maps reviews for the sordid tales. They survive by scamming tourists, lying about their silver quality, telling you their first outrageous price on silk is already a 40% discount, etc. They are such shameless, consistent scammers that they make themselves extremely difficult to purchase from, actually. I've walked away from fabric I genuinely wanted several times because I simply did not have the time and energy for their shenanigans; if they had been reasonable from go they could have gotten a few hundred bucks off me. You must use common sense, especially with the silverware and jewelry: they tell you the silver is 980/1000 (almost pure silver) or 925/1000 (sterling), when it's just a white base metal with silver alloy plating. The stones are cloudy, heated, and dyed, if they're real at all. The prices are ridiculous; I was quoted $1400 for a pair of "silver" and "ruby" earrings I'd never pay more than $200 for, $150 probably. Negotiate hard or don't buy at all. Same with the silk; it’s already hard to tell what’s Cambodian or just another Indian import, and they start outrageously high ($60 and $70 per meter), and it's up to you to get down to where it should be, $20 or $25 for something with a bit of embroidery, $16 or $18 for plain raw silk.

The next step up is Hup Guan Street. Also called Kandal village (though it's two blocks long if that), it was the tiny little high street in the colonial era. It's still the chicest address in this one-horse town, and boutiques like Louise Loubatières and Garden of Desire sell to trendy tourists hoping to buy nice souvenirs rather than knickknacks. Quality is acceptable (real silk, cotton, raffia, etc.) but the products are mostly Alibaba junk from China and Vietnam marketed and priced as handmade local wares. Two examples I saw at Louise Loubatières were $60 for a Chinese linen button-down shirt that's $11 on the Aliexpress app, and $12 for a Vietnamese lacquered horn bangle that's $2. The shop across the street sells private labeled $7 and $9 Chinese factory-made seagrass purses for $160+, claiming they're using traditional Cambodian basketry materials and techniques in modern designs. I guess if you literally need clothes and $250 is nothing to you, buying from these boutiques is better than supporting H&M or Shein, but it's certainly not what you’d hoped for when you arrived on Hup Guan. Hup Guan’s sole redeeming trait is a Mexican restaurant at the end of the street that sells sufficiently authentic food and great margaritas because the owner lived there awhile.

There are some similar AliExpress travesties at the Made in Cambodia outdoor market, but there are also genuine local products sold here. I feel bad for people selling authentic goods here because it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Even among authentic goods, quality is take-it-or-leave-it. It's a very small market- perhaps 30 stalls, with nothing too exciting- the best of it is little notebooks with covers made of watercolors by local schoolchildren and teachers, jewelry made of nuts and seeds, local liquor and spices, and the typical ten million indigo scarves. Some sellers tag their products, others set their prices according to how rich they think you look, and they all charge in US dollars. I was quoted $60 and $90 respectively for two large necklaces made of seeds (wowzers, I know it takes time to make jewelry but you can rent an apartment within 10 minutes of Siem Reap proper for $150/month), $45 for a large handwoven undyed linen scarf, $25 for a brass nameplate necklace reading 'peace' or some such in Pali? Khmer? (presumably hand-tooled?) etc. The first two vendors when you walk in are landmine victims: a young man missing a leg, and a (supposedly) deaf woman. I think this place is the best option for reasonably priced Cambodian souvenirs, if you have a little luck and judgment. Again, there's no harm in taking a couple of photos, doing a little research on Alibaba, and coming back to purchase later.

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The first place I'd even consider buying something is the Angkor National Museum gift shop. Regrettably, I don’t have pictures; they were following me rather aggressively and I felt awkward snapping without buying. As for merchandise, it’s completely mischosen. Of course there’s the standard 10,000 scarves, as if anyone needs another scarf. And who in the world is carrying home a foot-high bronze from a museum gift shop? Another thing that annoyed me immensely was their clutch bags. I was looking at them closely, hoping to buy because they seemed to be made of locally woven silk, but couldn’t because they were all wrong-sized and shapeless, barely padded envelopes with some awful fabric flower applied. Fashionable tourists don’t carry evening bags that look like lingerie bags or pillowcases with fake flowers attached. I was looking for a laptop case, an ipad case, a tissue case, packing cubes, anything remotely useful . . . nothing. Some of it is also imported nonsense meant to cater to Chinese tourists (jadeite and pearl jewelry?), which is tough because once you introduce foreign junk into the mix, how do I know I can find something locally and ethically sourced? Out of all the Southeast Asian tourist shops I’ve been in, I don’t believe I’ve ever seen evidence the merchandiser ever asked a single tourist what they wanted or needed, instead offering wares that are neither authentic to their culture nor matched to a tourist’s eye, but some terrible unsaleable compromise, and the Cambodian shops are no different. At least some of it seemed locally produced, and funds support the museum and local archaeological efforts, an undeniably good cause. What I would buy there is books! It's the only good bookshop in Siem Reap, with books on Angkor and Cambodia in English and French that just aren't available elsewhere, specialty books that are not on Amazon or in Kinokuniya etc. 

The second place worth a dedicated shopping visit is Artisans Angkor. It's a standard tourist destination if you stay at one of the high-end resorts. I found their finished goods overpriced ($50 for a pair of espadrilles, $170 for a shapeless dress, etc.) but their fabric by the meter is worth looking at. They have their own silk farm; it's white silk made from originally Vietnamese worms and machine woven, so at the cheaper end of local, ethical production. Yet, the colors, weaves and patterns are distinctly Cambodian, different in style from Vietnamese, Thai and Chinese silks. Their prices by the meter are 25-50% cheaper than what you would pay in Europe or the Americas for equivalent quality fabric imported from China. 

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And that's where the middle market begins and ends in Siem Reap. The remaining three places worth buying from are couture fabric shops with prices at or above Hermès, literally. Check out Part 2 for details.

Southern Women's Museum | HCMC, Vietnam

The Southern Women's Museum is a no-go, in my opinion. It's made up of two buildings; as of 2023, the main building has been closed for construction for years and the annex is severely mold damaged and reeks, and I'm not sure if that's being addressed properly. The villa next door is also under very loud construction.

As for the content of the museum, it was incredibly, unexpectedly, one-sided, entirely focused on communist activists operating in Saigon and other Southern cities. It was also totally unconsidered; the tone was very much homage rather than historical examination. The artifacts were sparse.

You can visit in 20 minutes, but in my opinion you should only bother doing so if you happen to be within a 2-block radius; definitely don't make a special trip for this. If you want to visit a women’s museum in Vietnam, make time to see the museum in Hanoi.

Ho Chi Minh Port Museum (Nha Rong Dragon Wharf) | HCMC, Vietnam

Before I say anything about Ho Chi Minh, I'd like to issue a disclaimer: I find him fascinating as a person and possessing of many superior intellectual and moral attributes. I've read Ho Chi Minh Thought and the Revolutionary Path of Viet Nam by General Vo Nguyen Giap. I've been to his mausoleum, childhood home, revolutionary office, and a pile of other sites dedicated to him. That said, perhaps culturally, definitely personally, I can't abide the dear leader mentality, no matter to whom it's applied.

The Ho Chi Minh Port Museum (otherwise known as Nha Rong or the Dragon Wharf), is just another Ho Chi Minh museum, which you can find in any (and every) large or midsize city in Vietnam. It's got a few personal effects, a couple pamphlets, and seems to exist solely to inculcate schoolchildren. to my mind, it's a waste of a good building; on the other hand, at least crowding and overdevelopment has been staved off around it, which is more than can generally be expected in Saigon. the entire Ba Son port area, with umpteen untouched architecturally and historically significant 1880s and earlier French buildings, was sold to a residential property developer in 2015 to build more quote-unquote luxury highrises, so the Ho Chi Minh connection is indeed the sole reason the building survives at all.

The building itself dates from 1860, though the site has operated as a mercantile port since at least the 1610s. 45 nautical miles from the sea, the port was never able to effectively compete with Hong Kong, Singapore, and Jakarta, but was so well-established in terms of infrastructure and renown that the French decided not to bother moving it. From 1861 to 1901 the wharf was operated by Messageries Maritimes, and in June 1911 Ho Chi Minh doubtless processed through the building as a kitchen worker on a steamer destined for Marseille. The area has not been landfilled at all, so the shape of the river here looks the same as it does in photographs from 150 years ago. The view is nice, and the grounds are nice. It is not a must, in my opinion, but it is a quick visit.

Quang Trieu Assembly Hall (Hội Quán Quảng Triệu) | HCMC, Vietnam

Originally built in 1887 by immigrants from Guangzhou and Zhaoqing, this assembly hall was partially destroyed by fire in 1920 but rebuilt totally by 1922. It is particularly notable for the enameled porcelain figurines, made from Cay Mai pottery and products of Thach Loan - My Ngoc glazed ceramics.

Thien Hau Thanh Mau is the central goddess here; on either side are Kim Hoa Niang (Kim Hoa Thanh Mau) and Long Mau Nun. Many other gods are worshipped here, including Bac De (Chon Vo), Van Xuong De Quan , Quan Am Bodhisattva , Ngoc Hoang , Quan Thanh De Quan , Tai Bach Tinh Quan , and Cuu Thien Huyen Nu.

If you wish to witness a religious holiday here, there are ceremonies on January 1st, 9th and the lunar new year; March 23rd, April 17th, May 8th, June 24th and July 22nd.

Saigon Dinner Cruise: The Oriental Pearl | HCMC, Vietnam

I was really excited to try a dinner cruise down the Saigon river. It seemed like an old-fashioned luxury. I saw the Elisa from the balcony of the Ho Chi Minh Port Museum and thought, what an interesting old wooden junk, I’ll try that one! I later found out that the Elisa is too large to sail, so it’s just permanently docked as a restaurant boat. There are many dinner cruises, but I wanted one of the old wooden boats, and the Oriental Pearl was the nicest one running.

It’s not expensive; it seems like locals can get tickets for $16 but any non-Vietnamese gets charged about $10 more. For the money, the food is sufficient, but not good. There’s a Western menu and an Asian menu; I chose the Asian menu, which ended up being two oysters, two fried chicken drums, bland fried rice in a pineapple, a fried crab roll and glass noodles with a couple shrimp. Drinks, including water, are extra. The cocktails are weak, and the boat is extremely hot, even with the fans on, even in December. The views are, frankly, ugly, with mostly 2000s and 2010s poorly lit office buildings all along the shore at first; further out, there’s just no lights, nothing.

If those were all my gripes, it would just be a neutral experience I wouldn’t choose again. However, I couldn’t wait to get off the boat for two other reasons I hate Vietnam for in general: chainsmokers and noise pollution. Everyone is allowed to smoke everywhere on the boat, and they do. I’m allergic to cigarette smoke and people in Vietnam act like it’s 1990 and it’s all in my head, maintaining a disgusting attitude as well as a disgusting vice. Wake up, it’s 2023 and you’re in a public health crisis! The Western world banned this 20 years ago.

As for noise, they have different musical entertainment on each section of the ship- the rear dining room, center dining room, lower dining room, and upper deck. There are no walls between the spaces. So 4 different live bands or sound systems playing at the same time, all night, and you can hear all of them, loud and clear. The level of noise pollution in Vietnam in general is also a serious problem; even local karaoke places think it’s cool to jack the volume up to decibel levels literally considered torture by the CIA, and the strategy on this boat was no different. They actually had a charming traditional music troupe rotating through the spaces, and it makes me genuinely sad to know their talents are wasted here night after night.

Lastly, the crowd was fine in the center dining room, mostly couples on dates and tourists, but a bit trashy elsewhere. The rear dining room was taken up by some sort of corporate party where they were drinking to the point of bad behavior, and the lower dining room was dedicated to the occupants of two giant Chinese tour buses also getting really wild. Fun for them, not so much for the smaller parties onboard.

Well, yolo. It was on my list, I tried it. Traveling isn’t perfect!

FITO Museum of Traditional Vietnamese Medicine | HCMC, Vietnam

The Museum of Traditional Vietnamese Medicine (FITO) in Ho Chi Minh City is a privately owned museum detailing the development of Vietnamese herbal medicine, also known as Southern medicine, as a distinct tradition from Northern, or traditional Chinese, medicine. It also covers related traditional therapies like acupuncture, medicinal wine and footbaths.

Vietnamese traditional medicine differs from Chinese traditional medicine in that it uses far fewer animal products, relatively more fresh than dried herbs, generally less complicated decoctions, and there have been a series of famous Vietnamese doctors over hundreds of years establishing recipes different from those used in China and other neighboring regions. 

That said, Vietnamese traditional medicine originates from southern Chinese practices, and is far closer to Chinese traditional medicine than Indian traditional medicine in every way, unlike neighboring Cambodia and Thailand. Furthermore, Ho Chi Minh City specifically has a distinctly Chinese element to its culture thanks to centuries of Chinese immigration, intermarriage, and economic dominance in Cholon. So, the traditional medicine utilized here today is yet another degree closer to what might be encountered in southern China.

I’ve already covered the topic of TVM in some depth in my post about the traditional medicine museum in Hoi An, so please refer to that post for more information. I would say the subject is explored in greater depth at the FITO museum, but either place has more information than anyone not interested in medical history or personal treatment could ever care to know.

If you can’t tell, I’m not a believer in traditional medicine! However, I still think this museum is a must-see in HCMC- not because of its explanation of TVM, but because it is in fact an art history museum! The building is new construction, but a complex marriage of salvaged antique architectural and ornamental elements and necessarily new elements, handmade in the traditional way with traditional materials. There are countless priceless artworks, antiques, and artifacts, on display throughout, dating as far back as prehistory, and including Chinese, Thai, Korean, Cham and Khmer pieces in addition to the purely Vietnamese. All are arranged with care in as close to the traditional manner as possible; many examples are equal to or better than what they have in Vietnam’s national art museums. This is clearly the lifetime collection of a connoisseur.

My photos simply don’t do the place justice, due mostly to an overabundance of green toned fluorescent tube lights and very warm-toned, high wattage, small spotlights throughout that frustrated the color correction software of my iPhone; the video gives a more realistic impression.

Whoever assembled this place clearly has extensive knowledge of Vietnamese art and architectural history, a refined eye, and no budgetary concerns. Even the elevator is adorned with custom-carved, mother-of-pearl encrusted panels in the style of traditional room screens and cabinets. The collection here has clearly been thoughtfully assembled over decades, and the most I could get out of the guide was that it was ‘a hobby’. He was able to answer questions about specific pieces, but I found myself reading the various labels hoping to learn more about the age and provenance of the object, not what it depicted about traditional medicine. Spoiler: those details were usually not provided. 

I found this place so intriguing I visited twice. I think for decorative arts buffs, this is the most underrated hidden gem in Ho Chi Minh City. Also, while I typically decline the tea/avoid the shop, I tried it here in a moment of literal, physical weakness, and was very pleasantly surprised. The lotus and licorice tea is very sweet and warm and cost only 50,000 dong for a box of 20 teabags, very reasonable for the quality.