After overnight on board La Marguertie and a wonderful farewell feast from our chefs and crew, we packed our things, sang a little karaoke one more time, and headed off to bed knowing we would be up early for our disembarkation. We docked at My Tho Port, a tie up alongside the river really, about 1-1/2 hours from downtown Saigon (only the North Vietnamese call it Ho Chi Minh City). Here the Mekong is a true working river, like the Mississippi in the U.S., with rice barges, tankers and fully laden barges jockeying for space along it's throughways and shorelines. The drive into the city was interesting. There are, like in Mumbai or Nairobi, millions living in abject poverty, next door to beautiful new glass cities. The government here refuses to acknowledge these squatters, who live ... read more

Today we took a small local boat through narrow channels to several scenic locations, including a small village known as “Evergreen Island," where we walked around the island and met many of the island's inhabitants, who were very happy to show us around. One woman let us into her home to see how they live so simply, MY kids would die. They would move to the city and never come back. That is for sure! Tan Chau known for it's ancient silk factory. Since most of the silk production has moved north into China for many reasons, this is one of the few working factories left in Vietnam. Saturday, the workers were off today, but we walked through the factory and learned that each person (mostly women) runs several machines at once, only needing to touch ... read more

This morning we took a tour of the Presidential palace and grounds. It is a gorgeous place in the center of Phnom Penh. The president was in residence, so his residence was off limits, but the rest of the buildings, formal meeting places, temples, burial spaces, opulent and gilded were gorgeous. We went back to the ship with a short stop at Artisans d'Angkor, and VERY HIGH QUALITY silk and art store, here and in Siem Reap, which I somehow missed there. The prices reflect the exceptional quality of their items, but it was the best shopping of all the places in both Cambodia and Vietnam that we visited. I have bought a couple of things online since I returned and they have arrived with no delay and in perfect condition. I walked back to the ... read more

Our itinerary was tweaked a bit because of the extremely high level of the Tonle Sap lake. It was amazing how the homes just floated on the lake, and our guide told us the villages move from place to place depending on the season. There were lotus plants floating in the river everywhere, making one wonder how they kept from clogging the propellers, but it never happened that we knew of, during our trip. We first took launches from La Marguerite to the shore at a village whose name I do not remember. I do remember the dichotomy of the riches of the temples there, and the poor of the surrounding village. We returned to the ship for lunch and air conditioned rest, and in the afternoon again by launch to Kampong Cham where we went ... read more

Today was a long day on the bus, but for me more interesting than Angkor Way. First we went to Angkor Thom, much smaller in stature, but each tower has smiling faces of the gods. The adornments and grounds were fascinating to me, and the people riding elephants around the grounds made this an other-worldly place. After seeing elephants in the wild in Africa, I would never opt for a ride, but those who were riding seemed to be enjoying themselves, though the elephants eyes looked very distant. We went out to Baphoun Temple, still being excavated by archaeologists. We stopped at the Terrace of the Elephants and that of the Leper king, which were once used as stages for lavish performances and religious ceremonies. This afternoon we had a long drive into a rural area ... read more