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S.E. Asian Expedition 2008...Cambodia/Vietnam...

mitsu1

Lifetime Member
ICMag Donor
Bump! Hope everything is going well..Did you guys take that dude from the James Bond movie with you? You know the security dude from the dam..mitsu
 

OG bub

~Cannabis-Resinous~
ICMag Donor
Veteran
awesome thread! thanks for sharing it with all of us, and I hope to see more soon.

Peace, bub.
 

Gypsy Nirvana

Recalcitrant Reprobate -
Administrator
Veteran
Into Charlie's secret garden......

Into Charlie's secret garden......

Yeah.....Charlie's place was a big old French Colonial house that had been added too and partly destroyed then repaired over the years......a bit of a ram-shackle abode some might think, but to him it was home with an enormous walled garden and lands beyond where he grew mainly rice....

In recent years I myself had retired to what most would consider a very remote location since the hub-bub of noise and close proximity to massive populations in mostly European cities firstly began to irritate me then annoy me tremendously....Charlie had felt this way back in the late 1970's and then had decided to move to S.E.Asia from his original homeland of the U.S.A after getting a taste of the many delights in and around these countries during his stint in the military.....

Innitially Charlie had found a home in Thailand, then had moved on to The Philippines for a few years and left during the peoples revolution when Ferdinand Marcos was deposed for Laos where he lived outside of Vientianne untill the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot had been removed as dictator of Cambodia and he decided to settle somewhere north-east of Phnom Penh in this house.....He had most all amenities that would be required to make most people more than comfortable bar a good internet connection....but that did'nt seem to bother him much since he was not too internet savvy....

After disembarking from the vehicle Charlie led us across the large drive to his front door which was opened by a small wirey older Cambodian man he introduced to us as 'Boon-Song' who was his caretaker....

The house was festooned with many beautifully intricate pieces of sculpture and Khmer/Thai artwork....The furniture was mainly made of rare hardwoods that had been carved meticulously over many months by local Asian craftsmen and the general decor was typically S.E.Asian..(Khmer/Thai/ Laoatian) and very ornate with many silk wall hangings that had been embroided depicting much of the ancient history of this area.....

Charlie showed us both out to the georgeous verandah railed with wrought iron in the French style and dissapeared for a while whilst Boon-Song served us with chilled guava juice as we sat in some fine old rattan chairs...still quite high on the fine sativa that Charlie had shared with us earlier during the journey here....viewing the walled garden and wondering what might be growing there in areas that were not quite visible from where we sat....

After a few minutes of savouring the colours and scents of the garden combined with the sweet taste of the chilled guava juice Charlie re-appeared with a collection of small wooden boxes and glass jars on a tray, he sat close to me on a small rattan chaise-lounge and proceeded to open the boxes and jars one by one presenting them to me for my inspection as he did so....

''This one is from the Elephant Mountains'' he said as he passed me a jar laden with fat buds that looked and smelt like they could be of an almost Indica variety of cannabis, then added...''75% of the Cambodian land-mass is below 100 meters above sea level except an area called the Cardamom Mountains, and the Elephant Mountains are part of them''....Charlie mentioned and then he started to break a bud up to roll into a spiff papered by Zig-Zag.....

I had never really travelled extensively throughout Cambodia and thought that most all of it was fairly flat agricultural land dedicated to growing rice......so I made a note to travel into this mountainous area one day to see what could be found.....

Over the next hour or so as the sun set Charlie produced many varieties from his collection of boxes and jars for us to look at and examine....He showed us a few from Cambodia and many others from Loas, Thailand, the Philippines, Burma and Vietnam the seeds that he had come by on his travels and grown out in his garden....He was definately what I would call a dedicated cannabis grower and enthusiast......and this became evident once we stepped down from his verandah to view what he was growing, armed with L.E.D flashlights.....

Oh Boy!.......do I wish that I would have been allowed to take photo's at this juncture.....I thought about it briefly but remembered that my camera was back in the hotel in Phnom Penh and Charlie had said that he did'nt want any pics taken before.....but oh!.....I still had my cell-phone and that could take a decent pic so I joked with Charlie about it hoping that he would at least let me take a photo or two with it, just of his plants........but laughingly in a serious sort of way so as not to be rude he said.......''No photography please''.....so I sheepishly left the device on the table......and followed him into the garden.......

Thinking about it retrospectively......what if the Cambodian coppers wanted to examine my phone, camera or lap-top on leaving the country?....I am sure that they might have had some interesting questions to ask me about any bud or even perhaps seed shots......so for the sake of security it was just best not to have any digital images of anything cannabis related.....
 

OG bub

~Cannabis-Resinous~
ICMag Donor
Veteran
you could write a book about this Gypsy.. seriously.. you and DG have a verry detailed and clear way of describing things and making it all quite interesting!

how does the hot sauces measure up over there.. anything real unique?

peace, bub.
 

Capt. Crip

Strain Seeker/Mirage Reading Master
Veteran
Thanks for the update Gypsy....You 2 stay safe over there....
Talk soon................................CC
 
G

grapepunched

Great update, I'm still riding along with ya... Wonderful details... what was your most favorite / flavorful herb there?

-gp
 

Gypsy Nirvana

Recalcitrant Reprobate -
Administrator
Veteran
Twilight....

Twilight....

The sun goes down fast in the tropics.......and as we stepped into the garden the sky was starting to get a little darker and thru the clouds quite colourfull as I looked west...Hues of bright orange, red and pink interspersed with magenta were orchestrating the light show that would give way to the suns exit for the day into the darkness of night.....

Charlie beckoned for us to follow him along a winding path that past by many mature travellers palms that rustled slightly in the breeze.....around the base of these palms there were many other smaller birds nest ferns and a multitude of various tropical flowers....The garden looked very mature and well laid out as we made our way to one of the far corners of it where a wall had been built to conceal the area where Charlie was growing the plants that interested him the most.....

From his pocket Charlie produced a rather large old key and put it into the lock of a big solid wooden door, turned the key and pushed the door inwards. The frangrance that met our noses as we entered was devine and definately cannabis and there before us was about 50 square meters of very healthy looking cannabis plants all staked out and labelled in rows at various stages of growth growing in an organic medium of earth, compost and rice husks.......many were in flower and glistened with resin as we shone the flashlights upon them......

''Right now I am experimenting with making some crosses of the best that I have found over the years'" said Charlie......''So as you see I have all female plants here before your eyes and the males I keep at the other end of the garden in a shed under compact flourecent light and harvest pollen from them to dust some of the females here that I want to make seeds from''......''I have had a little success in getting some of the older varieties in seed form I have collected to germinate, just enough to keep that strain alive and maybe use it to cross to another''.....

I happily wandered around and examined many of the plants and looked at the labels that had been written on to identify them....some labels said C-1....and C-2......others T-1 and T-2.....and others L-1, L-2 and L-3......Charlie said that the C=Cambodian, the T=Thailand and the L=Laos.....so the were all labelled as to the country of origin and were different looking varieties for sure.....

' I have only been making seeds for less than a year now" Charlie said...." My first crop was all Khmer Gold, since that has always been my favourite variety, and that is what I called you about, since I have about a kilo of these seeds that you can purchase if you so wish"......

I had smoked some of the Khmer Gold earlier in the day in Charlies truck and found the high very long-lasting and appealing......also the taste was excellent for the buds that we had toked on had been cured properly producing a nicely finished product.....

''Yes I am most certainly interested in aquiring these Khmer Gold seeds Charlie".....I said with much enthusiasm...." Do you have any of these Khmer Gold plants growing here at this time" I asked....."Yes I do" Charlie replied....." It's what is labelled as C-1'....

Shining the flashlight on an area of the garden Charlie indicated where the C-1 was and we all moved over that way to see what the Khmer Gold looked like in flower and its was quite beautifull.....the bud structure was not so dense but had a high calyx to leaf ratio and was growing fairly tall at around 6ft.....It looked like many other sativas that would grow well in a tropical location without moulding due to the looser bud structure......All of the C-1 labelled plants looked similar, uniform in size and structure and I did'nt spot any hermaphroditism.....all looked distinctly female.....and I decided that I would be happy to aquire seeds of this variety from Charlie.....

After spending another half hour or so looking around the garden and after checking out Charlies male plants in the shed at the other end we all retired to the lounge in the house for a fine dinner and more erb'........We spoke at length about many things that night, agreed on a price for the seeds which he showed me which all looked healthy, well sorted and mature and then I retired to sleep the night in one of the houses many bedrooms. We had to get back to Phnom Penh early the next morning because we had an early afternoon flight to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam that we did'nt want to miss......

As my conciousness gave way to slumber upon the grand four-poster bed ensconed as I was in the fine white linnen sheet sorounded by a large mosquito net that night I looked back on what had been an almost mystical day peppered with many highs for the senses.......and slept a very peacefull sleep......
 

Babbabud

Bodhisattva of the Earth
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Great read Gypsy!! Thanks so much for sharing your adventures with us.
 

Gypsy Nirvana

Recalcitrant Reprobate -
Administrator
Veteran
Cambodian Mission Complete....

Cambodian Mission Complete....

The following morning, because we were in such a rush the offer for breakfast was declined and Charlie got us back to the hotel in Phnom Penh with enough time to pack and take a breakfast there of omelete with baguets with plenty of freshly brewed black coffee for me and Earl Grey Tea for D.G....oh and a nice plate of ripe papaya....

The kilo of Khmer Gold seeds were quickly packed in a parcel of other souvenirs bound for the U.K.and sent by sea freight to arrive hopefully within 4 to 6 weeks of sending unless of course they managed to get confiscated upon their way....(fingers crossed)....Just before I packed them I took a picture of the seeds in the hotel hoping that this was not going to be the last time I would ever see them.....and sent the picture to an e-mail box of mine before deleting the pic from my camera and laptop.......

After paying not so much for the reasonable accomodation and food at the hotel we made haste in a taxi to get to the airport for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).....

 

Dutchgrown

----
Veteran
Saigon.......Saigon....here we come!

Saigon.......Saigon....here we come!

With the Cambodian seed procurement behind us, it was time to venture into Vietnam...oh, I was not sure about going there, contemplating the thought of not finding food that I could eat (without fish or fish by-products such as fish oils and pastes), wondering if I'd be able to get by on fruit alone, hmmm...oh well, I'd come this far, but with hopes of getting seeds from there was enough to heighten my excitement.

Saigon (HCMC) has much history, and one place I wanted to see while there was the US Embassy...just to stand outside the gates and envision how it was when the helicopters landed there to take the last Americans away on April 30, 1975.

So with now great anticipation of all the sights, and going to a country I thought I'd never visit, we sat back on our Vietnam Airlines flight (the only game in town by the way....lol) and read the magazine which had been placed in our seat. We both joked about what exactly was in the pipe of the old woman on the front cover, she sure looked happy!




I thumbed through the inflight magazine while Gypsy caught up on the news. It always seems to be his favorite pass-time during flights...lol.


It would be a short flight, a hop skip and a jump across the border to Saigon with the flight only lasting about 45 mins. The map below which I took a pic of from the inflight magazine puts it all into perspective.


We soon starting descending and I could see Saigon coming into view from the window seat I was seated in on the plane.

WOW...this is a very big city...and not looking from the air at all what I had mental images of. The Saigon River was looking very full since Vietnam had been experiencing heavy flooding in quite a few areas. The river meandered like a snake all over the place!





We soon landed and were guided inside the airport terminal...one would definitely know they were in the process of entering a socialist country. EVERYWHERE there were uniformed personnel, both police and military, sporting tan khaki colored shirts and pants adorned with red insignias, and yes, toting semi-automatic rifles and all looking rather serious in facial expression.

We had already obtained our entrance visa (something which must be done prior to entering the country) and had our passports in hand ready to hand over to the immigration officers. As I stood in line, looking extremely N. American (lol)....and them eyeballing me up and down with a slight frown, I tried to lower my pounding heart rate by telling myself all would be over soon and they'd be sending us on our way. After standing in front of this very intimidating looking fellow he finally stamped our passports and we were off to collect our luggage.
 
F

Foxy Trees

Hey DG, and thanks for your answer first ..

Lovely plants you got, indeed!


Nice birds of paradise, glad you managed them into bloom.

Thanks to both of you for all those updates!! Did you ever thought about writing a book? Nice writing skills you have.

Kind Regards :joint:
 
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Gypsy Nirvana

Recalcitrant Reprobate -
Administrator
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2 nights in Ho Chi Minh City....(Saigon)...

2 nights in Ho Chi Minh City....(Saigon)...

Saigon......

Yeah....it was a short hop from Cambodia to Vietnam.....but the two countries are definately 2 worlds apart...In comparison Cambodia paled next to Vietnam in the development area.....

It had been about 8 years since I had visited Vietnam and on the ride from the airport to the Caravelle Hotel I could see great change. There were many more new buildings and businesses, newly paved roads and some sort of more ordered traffic management to be seen, although now the traffic moved much more slowly since there was so much more of it...

The last time I was in Saigon 90+ percent of all traffic was small motorcycles and now 8 years later I could see many more cars, trucks, vans and busses showing me that the average Vietnamese citizen had become more than a tad more affluent over this time and many had upgraded from the motorcycle to the car.......the greater volume of traffic showed in the time it took to get to the hotel.....it seemed like ages......before we arrived at The Caravelle.....one of the oldest and most respected 5 star's in the city.....Sometimes its nice to pamper yourself and get billeted in a fancy place for a couple of nights....budget permitting....When I was here before the filming of 'The Quiet American' was taking place outside the hotel next to the opera house where they had created a scene that looked like it did during the Vietnam conflict.....now it just looked like a modern city-scape....

I was here to find something Vietnamese in seed form and like in Cambodia I had just one lead that might be able to help out in that regard.....The contact was in Da-Nang.....so our stay in Saigon would be a short but hopefully sweet one......
 

vodoochild

Active member
Wow! Amazing. Such a scary part of the world. Glad you got those seeds off, hope they make it safely :) Cant wait for the next updates!
 

Grizz

Active member
Veteran
Gypsy you really do need to write a book of your life and travels, it would be a great read and would sell well, thanks for sharing with us.
 
C

Chamba

DG....if you haven't already, it might be a good idea to have several cards written or printed in the local language with a short explanation about your serious intolerance/allergy to seaford that you could show to waitresses and cooks at each restaurant or hotel you visit.
 
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