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 small and not so small fishing boats working up and down the river and the early morning sunrise. The high speed power launch boat ride took us about four very interesting hours up the Mekong
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