1st day in Siem Reap

Siem Reap is much quieter than the frantic capital city of Phnom Penh.  Less traffic, fewer motor bikes and a large town geared for tourism.

It was a short plane flight - just took off and the captain asked us to all be seated and prepare for landing!

Accommodation again very good.  It is a bungalow (suite) this time about 3 times larger than required, with an outdoor shower and small garden. 

A Tuk Tuk ride to the old market ($2) and some heavy bargaining resulted in a fun afternoon.  

Tuk Tuk ride to the Old Market

Friendly lady at the market who helped us find this VIetnamese sun/rain hat

Motor bikes lined up outside the Old Market

This is quite a glitzy tuk tuk 

After shopping - this is the salt water pool at our accommodation at Heritage Suites

Entrance to our suite (named the Jasmine Suite)

A day in Phnom Penh

It is a hot day again in Phnom Penh and we did the tourist thing from 8.30am to 5.30pm out in the heat.  

It was interesting to see the different forms of transport.  Thousands of motor bikes of course but the Tuk Tuks here were different from those we have previously seen in Thailand.  Two types here - small and long.  Small ones hold up to 4 passengers in reasonable comfort, and the long ones with 7 planks across hold 35 plus and move many people in peak hours.  Both types are propelled by a motor bike with driver.  There are also shuttle buses holding about 20 inside, but many ride on the roof and receive a 50% discount or 80% if it is raining.  Now there is a bargain !

Although there are only 2 million in Phnom Penh city (about 14 million in Cambodia), the roads are dreadful and the drivers drive anywhere.  On the footpath if there is one, both sides of the road, make as many lanes as possible, toot as much as possible (the more toots the safer driver you are as you are warning others of your presence!!!)

After seeing temples, Buddhas and large stupas by climbing many stairs to the top of a ridge we visited a small village where silver ornaments and jewellery are made.

Then a tour of the Kings Palace.  The grounds are very beautiful, and buildings with Buddhas and statues therein were lavishly filled with gold, silver, and precious stones.  Gold was everywhere, and the complete floor of the Silver Palace was made of pure silver tiles.

The present king is aged 61 years, is not married, and has no children.  Cambodians are strong monarchists, so a new king will need to be chosen when he dies.

A most graphic and unsettling visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S21) was the final stop for the day.  This was a detention and torture centre in an ex school building where prisoners were held between 1974 and 1979 before being sent to the "Killing Fields".  The photographs and paintings, chains, torture tools, and human bones on display were a graphic reminder of the unbelievable cruelty and atrocities committed by Pol Pot and the  Khmer Rouge during that time.  We met one of the lucky inmates who had survived.  He now works outside the museum telling his story and selling books which have been written by authors around the world.

This was a very sobering experience, and a gruesome reminder of the cruelty of which man can be capable.

A typical fuel station selling petrol in plastic soft drink bottles.  The owner had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth !! (Not shown here)

This is a long Tuk Tuk which holds 35 passengers, all seated on planks and happy with the situation.

Young women putting detail on a silver container in the form of a pumpkin.

Gold everywhere.

These were the rules of the security prison.

This is the way the prisoners were made to sleep, 20 per room and all locked together.

Remains of some of the executed prisoners.

One of the few survivors who escaped Pol Pot.

Chau Doc to Phnom Penh

Final day in Vietnam, up at 5.30am and then on the fast boat to Phnom Penh.  Trip took 5 hours with 1 hour waiting around at both the Vietnam and Cambodia Immigration Centres when we were crossing into Cambodia.

Weather extremely hot and steamy again.  The humidity is close to 100% with misty rain off and on throughout the day.  The Sofitel Hotel is pleasantly air-conditioned, so we have decided to stay indoors this afternoon and prepare for a long and hot touring day tomorrow.

Our experience of Cambodians to date is that they are very attractive, polite, helpful, friendly, and have a ready smile (except for the uniformed officials at the border!!).

Boarding the boat at Chau Doc for the 5 hour trip to Phnom Penh

More homes on sticks along the Mekong. Most are fishing families.

This is a typical ferry taking the locals with their bikes and motor bikes across the Mekong.  

Many of the ferries are operated by women which is good to see.

The immigration centre at the Cambodian border.  The group behind Judy had a few beers while waiting for the officials to do their thing.  Time 8.45am !  They slept the rest of the way.

Arriving at Phnom Penh which is much nicer than this photo depicts. 

Will add more descriptive photos tomorrow.

Farewell to the Sampan at Chau Doc

On Wednesday we began our boat journey at 6.00 am, and we had a myriad of viewing opportunities of the local people going about their daily activities.  There were countless fishermen and fish farms.  Last night when travelling in the dark until 11.00pm there were still a multitude of boats travelling in both directions on the Mekong.  We reached our mooring and fell into bed.  The crew slept on the floor of the rear deck as always and seemed well rested this morning.  We got some sleep and then a noisy boat would pass within a few metres. Their motors have no mufflers and kept going most of the night.  At 2.00am we dropped asleep with exhaustion and woke again at 4.30 am to the noise of the working Vietnamese going about their daily boating business.  They certainly are a hard working race of people.

We arrived at Chau Doc (which is close to the Cambodian border) in time for lunch, and later visited a very large food market with our guide who showed us an amazing array of stomach-churning meats, fish, and some unfamiliar vegetables and fruits.  We are relatively adventurous eaters, but draw the line at eggs containing baby birds, pigs' brains, pigs' intestines, pigs' ears, rats, snake, and meat covered in flies.  Frogs, chicken feet, and gasping fish we can manage!

As usual, crossing the road and walking through the market was very dangerous because of the speeding motorbikes in quite tight spaces.

The Sampan crew arriving to pick us up in the Gondola. 

A flame tree over a recently constructed watercourse (view from our small gondola)

Uncle Tun (President of all Vietnam until 1988) owned this Peugeot. Nobody knows why it is a French car, as he was well known for disliking the French when they occupied North Vietnam.

Fish farms.  There are many of these homes floating near the shore catching fish 24/7

Some of the ("Hello What your name?") children !

Another delicious Sampan breakfast on the rear deck.

Off to see the locals on one of the many walks through villages.

Living high above the river with small children.

Most of the crew and guide with us at the end of the trip up the Mekong delta

These guys hitched a ride for a couple of kms, to get upstream to their homes after fishing all night.

Fishermen spend a long time like this trying to net a catch to sell.

Frogs for sale at the market.

Another frog, looking better than the rats that I could not photograph !

Mekong Delta

Travelled 1.5 hours by car from Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) to board our little Sampan for 3 days and 2 nights.  This is very luxurious by Vietnam standards - we have a lounge room, en suite bathroom with toilet, bedroom complete with mosquito net, and three staff plus a local guide who was a translator during the American War.

We are travelling along various waterways of the Mekong Delta, which are congested with water traffic of all sizes and shapes.  Boats carry cargo of sand, rice husks, rice, fish, vegetables and fruits, bricks, etc, and usually have a wife and perhaps children aboard (school holidays at present).  The noise from some of the motors is extremely loud.

On either side of the canals are houses and other buildings on stilts, and vegetation right up to the banks.  This is the real Vietnam!  We stopped to visit our guide's (tiny) home to meet his wife and daughter, visit a large pagoda, a coconut sweet factory, a brick factory, a floating market, and a temple.  Rice husks are used to fire the bricks, and after burning, the ashes are returned to the farmers to use for fertiliser.  Nothing is wasted in Vietnam!

It is unbelievably hot here (38 degrees today and 95% humidity) broken only by the occasional breeze as we cruise along, and an afternoon shower of rain.

Vietnamese food is extremely fresh, tasty and varied, even on the sampan.  Some meals are brought aboard from shore, some cooked on board, and two dinners will be at restaurants onshore to which we are taken in a small boat.

  

Mr tea and coffee at breakfast in the Majestic Hotel in Saigon

Relaxing in the lounge of our sampan

Our bedroom on sampan with Judy melted by the heat

After lunch onshore with beautiful young Vietnamese girl

Breakfast on board very early in the morning

Our guide LAN and wife and daughter outside his home (read "shack")

Typical busy street scene

Unloading rice husks by hand at the brick factory

Traffic jam on the water

Larger 6 berth version of our sampan

Boats lined up at the largest floating market in Vietnam

A day in Ho Chi Minh

An overnight stop in Ho Chi Minh before we start the trip up the Mekong in a Sam Pan to Phnom Penh.

We are at the Majestic Hotel near the Grand where we stayed nearly 10 years ago on a tour of Vietnam.  Ross and Beatrice will recall the trip to Hanoi, some old memories flooding back.

Last night in Singapore we went back to the night food stalls at Marina Bay and met up with the same guy at one of the stalls who says after you place your order.........10 Dolla, 7 Minnus, go way.  Now this may sound rather odd but what he was trying to say was....That will be S$10 for that plate and it will take 7 minutes to cook and if you would like to come back then it will all be ready.  All the customers thought he was a scream !!!

So we left Singapore at 2 pm today and when we reached Saigon and were leaving the plane, a young woman from the rear of the plane pushed past Judy and she thought she was rude and unreasonable (which she was).  Then when at the X-ray machine, Judy put her hand luggage through and from behind this same woman pushed in front and grabbed her bag pushing Judy out of the way.

In the 50 plus years I have known Judy I have never seen her so wild.  She followed the woman and gave her case the biggest kick of all time.  ( case almost turned over). The woman turned around and then realised that she had upset Judy and was unsure what to do.... Luckily she looked repentant.  I grabbed Judy and lead her away but could not stop laughing as this was so out of character for her.  Beware a woman scorned...  A whisky and soda and she was fine - another memory for travellers!

The traffic here is just as hectic as ever.  If you want to cross the road, do not hesitate nor change direction.  To do so would be at your own peril.

We are travelling in a sampan upstream on the Mekong river tomorrow morning and will not have power, wifi or much at all, so we think the blog report will probably not reappear for at least 3 days.

Traffic still noisy but for a Sunday it is quiet.

Front of hotel is clean and inviting.  Divide the prices by 20,000 to get the cost in US$ !!!

Rain storm approaching as we overlook the Saigon river.

This party boat holds 700 plus - puts the barby boats on the Yarra to shame.

Last day on Nikoi and back to Singapore

Last day on the beautiful island of Nikoi.

Although it was hard to leave today, as soon as the family left yesterday we knew it was time to move on.  They were the catalyst for the continuous fun and laughter, without them all there with us, the enjoyment level dropped and we were ready to pack up and leave.

Now back in Singapore and fly to Ho Chi Minh tomorrow.  

The track to the pool and bar.

The area under our beach hut.

Our beach hut and balcony.

On the jetty about to board the boat to Bintan Island.

Leaving Nikoi.

Passing by the water activities on the way out.

Nikoi is small but it left a deep impression on us.

And now back in Singapore.