January 24 Our tour guide picked us up early this morning for our trip back to Phnom Penh from Sihanoukville with a few stops of interest along the way. It was very interesting to talk with our guide as he was very knowledgeable about History, Politics, Culture and Local customs, etc. As this was a private tour we had him to ourselves and he was very open about talking about the problems as well as the many positive things happening in Cambodia. It is very obvious that the country is not very well off financially but things are improving as industry [View Full Entry]

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January 22, 23 This morning we had an early morning drive for 3 1/2 hours to Kampong Som ( Sihanoukville ), Cambodia. This is a beach resort area on the Gulf of Thailand. We were very pleasantly surprised by the resort(s) and beaches that are in this part of the world. Not a secret to Europeans or Asian tourists but we had never heard of this place before. The Sohka Beach Resort and the beaches at Sihanukville are second to none in the world. The main beach area is very well developed and a lot of new construction is underway with [View Full Entry]

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January 21 We were up very early this morning to take our trip, on a covered power launch, up the Mekong River from Chau Doc, Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. We enjoyed a very nice breakfast on the hotel patio overlooking the hustle and bustle of the early morning on the Mekong river and the wonderful smell of the local cooking fuel, coconut shells and rice husks, coming from the riverside homes and houseboats. This is a bit of a sensory overload with the smells of the cooking smoke, the local food, the "put put" and "chug chug" sounds of the [View Full Entry]

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January 19th and 20th. We went from Saigon by SUV and boat to visit the Mekong Delta region of Southern Vietnam and visited Can Tho and Chau Doc as well as many small villages and towns on the very busy waterway. Part of this trip was driving through the small villages and countryside by SUV and part was by small river boat. This is a very important region for Vietnam as it is a big food producing area. We visited several floating markets including the largest in the region in Cai Rang, a short boat ride from our hotel in Can [View Full Entry]

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Japan We arrived on a very nice ( but long) flight from LAX to Narita Airport near Tokyo and took the very good commuter train from the airport terminal to the Shiniagawa rail station. We were met my my brother and his wife who are stationed in Japan for his work for 1 year. In our short stay ( 3 nights ) in Tokyo we enjoyed visit to some of the more famous shopping districts, a typical Shrine, the worlds largest fish market and some very good restaurants. If you are ever near Shinigawa area of Tokyo you must try the [View Full Entry]

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