If you have "shopping" and "checking out the scene" on your Ho Chi Minh City itinerary, then the Luxe guide should be your first purchase. It is "lean, mean and on the scene" and definitely has the major info you need for a satisfying credit and culinary experience.
You can buy the luxe guide here in the city when you arrive (check the stockists on their website). If you are traveling around all of Southeast asia, then definitely check the stockists for each city on your itinerary, or buy a boxed set in advance.
No, I'm not getting paid to advertise this guide. I just really believe that it is a great resource.
That being said, I have to warn travelers that credit cards are still not popularly accepted in Vietnam--so american dollars are very handy!! This holds true for all of Southeast asia.
I'll do my best to list places the Luxe guide does not cover--more off the beaten path....more "local".
luxe guide-great resource!
Hollywood Road, Hong Kong
We went to one of those little antique and pseudo-antique markets near Hollywood road. There was a little display of the silk shoes for lily feet. I prefer the tibetan and mongolian boots. Notice the Mahjong game pieces at the top. so colorful!
Hollywood Road Ceramics
This store was closed, so I had to settle on window shopping (which was a good thing!) Love the shapes, colors, patterns, textures....
Hollywood Road stuff
75-100 years from now will we be calling these "high-quality reproductions" instead of fake antiques?
Love Birds, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Link
Cambodia weavings
These weavings were on display at the Sofitel hotel in Siem Reap. I tried in vain to find something of similar quality at the market or in one of the higher-end shops, but to no avail. I love the story telling in the weaving, and the colors were so rich. The cheap version of the design on the bottom was available at Psar Chaa market, but was extremely low quality. It is possible to buy some decent textiles at the market, but for really fine quality, it's worthwhile to go to Artisans d'Angkor in the city. They also have stone carvings, bags, and other silks available.
Cambodian ikat
I picked up two pillows while traveling in Siem Reap. These are both silk weavings, ikat style.
Ankgor Wat bas-relief
I'm not going to post a lot photos of Angkor Wat in this blog, because now they are so plentiful on the web, and my little amateur digital camera can't do justice to Son's photos of Cambodia. (Watch for a link for his new website coming soon). Instead, here is a photo of one of the many bas-relief designs carved on the temple.
Beng Melea, 60 km from Siem Reap
This spectacular temple is about 60 km from Siem Reap. I didn't really consider the guide book serious when it described this temple as a real "Indiana Jones Experience" but it turned out to be no exaggeration. We found ourselves on ledges not more than 18" wide, and at least 3 stories high. I think I said "this is crazy!" and "this is amazing!" 50 times during our exploration. Looking back on it, we should have at least had a film crew there to film as actually doing this crazy stunt. No one was going to believe it. We walked through dark chambers and hung onto the jungle vines as we ascended the tumbled rocks one foothold at a time. If we were lucky, we were able to walk a straight line for 3 meters on the top of the wall (the original wood roof has long since rotted away.) While Ta Prohm, "tomb raider temple", will give you a similar feel of a temple swallowed by the jungle, it is much easier to walk around its cleared ground and wooden walkways. Ta Prohm is incredibly popular and therefore extremely crowded, but Beng Melea only had a few people visiting and we were definitely the only adventurous ones climbing the walls and jungle vines. In the photo you can see the common motif of the carved mini-pillars which was popular in many of the Angkor temples. The trees and jungle vine-roots did most of the destruction to this temple over several centuries.
Banteay Srei, Siem Reap, Cambodia
See the door? It was never meant to actually open, or that is what we were told.
You can see different elements from the temples, including this door design, at the Hotel de la Paix. Just a warning, if you are prone to sea-sickness, do not eat lunch while seated on the swinging beds at that hotel's restaurant. The food was delicious and the staff very friendly.
Banteay Srei, Siem Reap, Cambodia
This means "Citadel of the Women" but I couldn't find anyone who could explain why. It is certainly the "prettiest" of all the temples. It is a hindu temple dedicated to Shiva and dates from 967, but scholars are debating this date for the current structure, which is so unlike the other temples in Angkor from the same time period. This temple is a must see on anyone's itinerary since it is full of inspiring bas-relief designs and 3-dimensional sculptures. The combination of yellow and pink stone makes it seem extra feminine. If you go during lunch time you can avoid the huge tour bus crowds.
Banteay Srei, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Banteay Srei is definitely a jewel. The intricate carvings in the pink stone are delicate and intricate. This is my favorite--I love the different interpretations of the trees. Other designers and architects have picked up on it too, because I started to see it around Siem Reap in other forms.
Temple Restoration-Angkor Complex, Siem Reap, Campuchia
The tools they were using to hand carve the missing pieces were extremely simple. They first drew the design in pencil, and then started carving away. This temple is still under restoration, but It is really fascinating to see modern civilization replicate was was created 1000 years ago. A lot of hand work!
abstract beaded bag
There are so many hand embroidered and beaded bags in Vietnam, but I had not seen one done in an abstract pattern quite like this before. The bag had the same design on both sides.
Terracotta Workshop-Large Pots
The glaze has been applied to these large hand-built terracotta pots, and now they are waiting to be fired.
Terracotta workshop
I took an afternoon detour to District 9, which is quite far away from the center of Saigon, to see a ceramics workshop that I saw on one of the Vietnamese language TV channels. On the way there, I passed by many terracotta brick workshops. The rows of bricks laid out to dry striped the landscape. We got a little lost, and had to pull into one of these workshops to ask for directions. We stopped at one of the giant bee-hive kilns that the workers were bricking up. I noticed that next to the stack of fire wood was a pile of neoprene leftovers from the different parts of sport shoe manufacturing. Guess they use that stuff for feeding the kiln too. I tried to figure out what brand of shoe they were from, but we got the directions to our destination and hurried off.
We arrived at the correct workshop and we just walked in and started to wander around. Most everyone was on their lunch break, but a few enterprising souls were still hard at work. Everyone smiled at us and kindly answered our questions as they continued their work. The first man we spoke with was building these really large terracotta pots--they came to my mid-thigh in height. He was the leanest, most muscular, skinniest man I have ever seen. He would grab a hunk of fresh clay, knead it, and then make a base with a short wall. He didn't need to measure anything. He just new the thickness the clay had to be from making many of these already (I wonder how many he has made in his lifetime?). A little more clay, and the walls started to raise. He only had shorts on (dirt floor, no shoes), and he walked around his pedestal--circling and circling. He said he could make 10 of these large pots each day, from start to finish (see the photo of the finished pots) and was paid 10,000 VND for each one he made. That comes to about $6.00 USD a day.
There were families here. As we moved toward the glazing area, I saw a little girl handing pots to a woman seated at a work bench glazing. The little girl couldn't have been more than 4 years old. Around the corner, I saw a canopied bed right there in the glazing area--it was clearly in recent use and clearly someone's living quarters judging by the laundry hanging about and the dirty dishes on the floor.
Vietnam is known for their pottery carving skills. The Vietnamese craftspeople can do the most delicate and intricate ceramic carvings by hand. This was definitely not one of those hi-end type of workshops, but it gives you a glimpse of life in a small ceramic workshop.