Vietnam, Cambodia and Langkawi

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The first day of the Asian experience was a shock to the system, after so much cold weather, to hit that tropical HOT of Saigon was a little daunting. It was a novelty to be picked up by a guide before we went through customs; it made the process quicker! After settling in to my room, I found out that there were only 18 passengers on the ship and the only other single was a gentleman of 84! The room overlooked the Opera house, and was in the busiest part of town. After welcome drinks, it as time to explore to find some dinner – found a little restaurant, had some Vietnamese food and off to bed! An early rise saw us on a bus tour of the city, to the Post Office, Cathedral and Market before heading to the palace of reunification and the war museum. I chose not to go in to the museum having been there with my cousin Sue and found it very graphic and unpleasant. I decided to walk in a local park instead. Then we had lunch at a lovely restaurant and had some free time to explore and shop (of course I found a DVD shop!) I was happy to just veg out by the pool for the rest of the day. The next day was torrential rain as we travelled to the ship, which took about an hour.



Once we arrived and had lunch, we had the normal drill etc and had a performance from folk dances and musicians from the Mekong Delta around Cai Be. First we went to Sa Dec where the French writer Marguerite Duras lived and had an affair with a wealthy Chinese man, the basis for her novel “The Lovers”. The following day we took a junk to see floating markets, cathedrals etc and went to a local village to see them making rice paper and candy from coconut – and “Mekong whiskey (made with cobra soaked in rice liquor).



The following day we arrived at Tan Chau, taking a rickshaw ride to see silk weaving, the most expensive a black silk, then a mat-making factory and on to a fish farm, then we crossed the border into Cambodia.

Phnom Penh, and the killing fields – we learned the history of the Khmer Rouge, and Pol Pot – visiting the killing fields and the S21 detention centre – again, I did not want to go inside the detention centre. We toured the royal palace and the central market and later walked to Penh’s hill and the park around it.

On arrival at Chong Koh Village, we walked through the village, looked at how they worked at home and then we moved on after being accosted by lots of kids trying to flog scarves. The next day we arrived at Peam Chhykang for a blessing by the monks. The last day on board was spent on a tortuous climb up a mountain to Wat Hanchey a pagoda on top of the mountain and down around 380 steps on the way down. Later in the day we went to another Wat, then on to an Orphanage, where we met with the children, spent time with the kids and we had all brought lots of gifts for the kids, from books and pencils to shoes.

After landing and disembarking in Siem Reap We toured Angkor Wat, the world’s largest temple, then off to Raffles Grand Hotel D’Ankor for a BIG swim in the pool, followed by dinner and a show (not the best food in town)

On Wednesday visited the Angkor Thom, the last capital of the Khmers with the Elephant Terrace, Terrace of the Leper King and Bayon Temple. After Lunch it was off to do some shopping and last night spent with some of the group in the hotel.

Left the following morning, off to Malaysia via Singapore. Spent the night in a seedy hotel then flew to Langkawi – spending days by the pool and reading books and watching Dvd’s – not a bad life!

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