Geo: 19.8841, 102.142DAY SEVENTEEN (1/19/13) — Luang Prabang, LaosMONKy See, MONKy DoAirline flight schedules have changed; so have our plans. Our flights are now mid-afternoon so we have an impromptu tour to a small temple.On our drive through the Cambodian countryside, our guide talks about Cambodian culture. There are still many arranged marriages … 50% in the cities, perhaps as many as 80% in the countryside. The man's family pays the dowry; the girl leaves home and lives with the man's family.We pass many thatched homes built on stilts that are without utilities. The homes are built for natural "air conditioning". This is an area where there are still many landmines remaining from the 1970s … a project Princess Diana took on. They believe they have located and deactivated 70+% of 10 million originally buried here. ... read more

Geo: 13.4256, 103.86There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign. – Robert Louis StevensonAfter breakfast, Cheryl Morley, Patrick and I take a tuk-tuk taxi (four-person buggy carriage powered by a motor scooter) to the Phnom Penh Central Market. Vendors in hundreds of open air stalls sell a variety of trinkets and trash. This is where you should buy souvenirs … from tee shirts and Buddhas, to silver and pashminas. I bought a table cloth, cashmere pashminas, a silver elephant ornament for my Christmas tree and a pair of pants with elephants on them. Cheryl bought so much she also had to buy a piece of luggage! We then tuk-tuked home.We grab a small snack on our own and board the Tauck bus to the airport for our transfer to Siem Reap, ... read more

Geo: 11.5588, 104.917DAY THIRTEEN (1/15/13) — Phnom Penh You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. Life is so very different here. It's different from the USA of course. And it's different from Vietnam. Dramatically. After breakfast, our group boards two high speed motor craft and head north to Cambodia. We stop on the Vietnam side of the border and mill around while they review passports. And we stop again at the Cambodia side, but this involves no work on our part … just a look-see from a few officials and we're on our way. The vehicles have roofs and windows but no air conditioning. So between the open windows and the roar of the engines, I dig deep into my brief case for my serious headphones ... read more

Geo: 10.71, 105.11DAY ELEVEN (1/13/13) — Mekong Delta After breakfast and checkout, our bus takes us southwest out of Saigon and into the countryside. There is a major new highway (hooray!) and on both sides there are oodles of rice paddies. Many contain mausoleums right smack dab in the middle of the fields, where families bury their loved ones. Vietnam was the #1 exporter of rice in the world in 2012: 7.5 million tons. Much of the rice is grown in and near the Mekong Delta. A large part of the land is too wet or muddy to operate machinery; so a majority of the farming is still done by hand. Sometimes water buffalo - used in place of machinery - are a part of a bride's dowry because they are so important to the rural ... read more

Geo: 10.7592, 106.662DAY NINE (1/11/13) — Saigon The sun is shining on our gorgeous resort in Nha Trang this morning. But before we leave our room, we cook Patrick's surge protector and my curling iron. (I love the smell of napalm in the morning.) Although new equipment and new outlets in most hotels require either nothing or just an adaptor but not a converter, I forget and plug in my curling iron -- hardly a high tech item – with only an adaptor. When I go to use it, I fry my hair and the melted tip of the iron falls to the floor. Note: I don't need no stinkin' curls. We have breakfast on the outdoor porch, overlooking the ocean, whatever the ocean's name is. We decide to take a walk along the beach and ... read more