We did upgrade our lodging in Siem Reap since we added another extra night there to relax.   Boy am I glad we did!  The Koulen Hotel,  very near the Royal palace.   We will explore more in the daylight tomorrow.

I’m going to enjoy this stay! 

Tomorrow morning we start early,  8:30.  if we were diehard adventurers,  we’d be up before dawn tomorrow and at Angkor Wat at sunrise.   It is the equinox and a special time there as the sun rises…. or so I’m told!  It will be a crowded day there.

After checking in we caught out first tuktuk ride and went to the walking area called Pub Street,  where the night life is happening!  There are many restaurants to choose from too. 

We are a wonderful Kymer dinner.   They export cashews, so I had a cashew and chicken stir fry.  Emmett had a fish soup and a chicken coconut dish.   The passion fruit smoothies were refreshing and delicious!   We got our steps in,  despite the long bus ride,  by walking the 10 minutes back to our beautiful hotel. 

Everyone was delicious! 

our afternoon was all on the road,  a 6 hour trip via a very comfortable bus,  north to Siem Reap where we will spend the whole day tomorrow at Angkor Wat!  The style of houses along the road was interesting,  raise to allow cool air flow,  often painted with signs.

there were also several of these “temple gates”, I believe these show there is a wat or temple compounds for the village off the main road

We stopped for a 30 minutes break for some lunch at this rest stop.   Our was equipped with some”swing type shakes,  some hammocks,  game boards,  and covered lunch places.

Our very comfortable coach was equipped with AC, WIFI, and reclining seats, a pretty comfortable ride for 314 km to Siem Reap, the ancient capital and location of Angkor Wat.

We passed large rice fields,  small farm gardens and small businesses, and irrigation projects

It was a pleasant enough ride!  more comfortable seats,  and with AC, electric plugs to recharge phones!  But our 2nd travel day on a row!  We arrived after dark but glad to sleep 3 nights in a row in the same hotel!

Our early morning your of the city was very interesting,  as I knew very little about the Kingdom of Cambodia.   We visited first their monument of independence, celebrating their independence from France.   They celebrate for 3 days,  Nov 9-12

It is on the center of a round about at the head of the large plaza with statue of the first king

The largest part of our route was on 1 of the 3 compounds on the Royal palace,  where the king is crowned,  meets dignitaries,  and performs ceremonial duties.   Their king is elected,  by the way,  not an inherited title but comes from 1 of 2 families.

No pictures were allowed inside the throne room but we did get to enter

some of the Royal garments and parts of the longest painted mural in Cambodia depicting a story of the early king

We visited the National Museum of Cambodia next.

The word Phnom means Hill and the word Penh is a lady’s name who helped the local peasants establish the city.   We visited the pagoda to her,  and the city

People were paying her as we entered.   The lady in Red was chatting with a statue of Penh, explaining something on her phone!  quite a sight!  We walked down the other side of the hill and around the bar to our driver.  

We ended the morning with lunch at a nice restaurant near the bus station,  and found out was directly above the dock where we arrived yesterday via boat from Viet Nam.

our lunch was delicious,  Fish in Lemongrass and duck with vegetables in lemongrass.

We started very early this nothing on the Hau River,  a tributary of the Mekong at Chau Doc,  our port town to board our speedboat to Cambodia.   

The day starts early do that you can get through the immigration process on the river at the Vietnam Cambodian border.  Before our stop at the Vietnam border,  our passports were collected by the agent. plus our Vietnam paper visa and $37 USD. At the border we exited the boat while immigration processed us out of Vietnam. 

When everyone’s paperwork was in order,  we reboarded our boat for the 5-10 minutes trip to the Cambodian border .  Our passport had remained with our agent on land,  taken physically to the next station where the officials began processing them.  

We disembarked while that process was going on,  about an hour or so.  Each of us received our “Vietnam outbound” processed passports and presented them personally to an agent. were photographed,  along with our passport and visits.   That agent then took the passport,  stamped it a few more times and the visa sticker was  pasted in, plus an in immigration card stuck in which we turn on exciting the country.  It was a cumbersome (on purpose) process….  probably to justify the cost!  when we received our finally processed passport back,  they were reviewed one more time by another agent before we reboarded for another 4 hours on the river to Phnom Penh.

A Few sights along the way,  the river widened but still much like the Vietnam section,  with rice barges being loaded. small fishing villages along the share and small boats fishing.  At last,  Phnom Penh

We will have a tour tomorrow so just a few views from our hotel.   We look down on the Royal Palace!

our Okay Boutique Hotel

Emmett took an after dinner walk to see the night market!  it is about a mile long! 

Early pick up tomorrow for a half day tour in the city and then we have a 6 hour bus ride to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.  What an adventure!

There are native crocs in Vietnam, and there are 3 farms where crocodiles are bred and raised,  for meat and leather.   Our lunch stop today was at Crocodile land to visit the animals,  and have some croc for lunch!  We saw some of the beautiful leather products too, … cheaper than Gucci, but more expensive than I want to spend.

Our lunch,  Catfish with orange sauce,  spinach soup,  stir fry veggies,  noodles and crocodile curry hot pot.

Probably since we started late,  8AM, the floating market was quiet….  very few small boats shopping or selling.  There are only 3 such markets still existing in the delta,  but this 1 in particular exists mainly for visiting foreigners,  not for locals.   Traditionally,  they open 3 AM to 7 AM for trading so farmers can get back to work on the gardens and fields early.   These give us an idea of what it was like to shop on the water.

One boat only approached our boat,  called by our guide to make him a fresh squeezed orange juice.  Many sellers live on these boats and go into the gardens to collect their produce to sell.  on top of the flag poles they tie some produce to show what they are selling.

Our guide, Heip, picked us up at 8 to start our drive towards the River.   it was about 3 hours before we reached a place on a tributary where there is a local market and access to our river boat

We moored along the tributary to a larger branch of the Mekong,  and into the larger main channel.  We stopped at a coconut candy making place where we saw them popping rice!  it was just like puffed rice cereal we used to get at home.   The rice grains were roasted in a large wok which contained a local black sand heated to 200° C and it popped,  just like popcorn.   it was then shifted to remove the sand and chaff

We passed under the bridge into the wider Mekong

We stopped next to board a row boat into a smaller tributary

Our lunch on a riverside restaurant was included today,  and quite good.   Soup,  river fish wrapped in rice paper and deep fried, fresh spring rolls, and deep fried spring rolls,  minced pork in Betel leaves,  and prawns and Vietnamese pancake. After she fileted the fish you could see through it

We left the river about 2 and still had an hour and half ride on to our evening stop at Can Tho.  We got our walk in,  along the river… not exactly like the Balboa river walk tho!  Then back to our hotel for dinner on the 10th floor over looking the river.

From 10th of the Iris Hotel

Early tomorrow we leave for the Floating markets.   Thanks for staying tuned!

We had only an overnight stay in Ho Chi Min City, Saigon,  and since there is really not an old town or many ancient temples there. we just walked the km our ship to see the cathedral and Independently Palace.   On my first visit,  28 years ago,  it was called Reunification Palace,  commemorating the joining of North and South Viet Nam after the war.

Off course,  if you know Emmett,  you know he found a “Street Food” place.   It was actually a good court welt lots of food choices in small food stands.   They all took credit cards,  so not QUITE street food like place,  but good.   We found some good BBQ and even had some coconut ice cream!

Our morning start is early.   Off to the Mekong Delta tour

We had added another night in HoiAn since Emmett has enjoyed it so much on his first visit to Vietnam.  Adding an afternoon drive into the nearby villages was a perfect way to see more of the culture. their handicrafts and learn about their lives.

We visited the workshop of a man hand making rice paper for over 40 years.   I expected writing paper in the end!  What do I know?  It is an ancient way of making a sheet of rice,  essentially, used in cooking  to wrap vegetables,  meat,  shrimp,  etc, like spring rolls. Our evening dinner included the modern version,  very thin, see-through, pliable, and a useful wrap for our and Vietnamese pancake

We saw craftsmen and women,  making incense, sleeping mats, 

Inlaid mother of pearl is often found on Asian furniture.   We watched a master,  cut,  shape,  and smooth pieces of abalone or oyster shell for beautiful inlaid wooden pieces.

Traveling along village road, seeing fishing boats,   between rice paddies, peanut fields, small farm gardens. seeing cattle, even a water buffalo named Se! Quite a slice of everyday peasant life in rural Vietnam

We visited a garden where farmers share the land in small strips, growing vegetables for their own use and for market.

Coffee is part of the culture and we visited a coffee shop where you can see the beans roasting and packaging

For fun,  we went on a small basket boat ride.   These “boats” were created when the government had mandated taxes on the fisherman’s boats, so they decided to fish from baskets instead!  Today,  they are a reminder of all governments over reach and how every culture tried to find a way around taxes!  and they are fun!

Emmett found a lovely rooftop restaurant on the river for our dinner and we enjoyed another night along the lantern lighted streets of old HoiAn

There are day markets and nights markets!   We walked thru the large local market on our tour today and the night market after dinner

We had dinner by the river at a nice restaurant!  I’m sticking still to mild food,  great chicken soup,  but I had a couple of the fried spring rolls and a couple pieces of Emmett’s Red Snapper

Look how they fileted the fish,  then deep fried both the pieces es and the whole carcus

We walked along the river and watched the boats with lanterns,  the small floating lanterns, and all the lights on the bridges and the riverside restaurants

There is night markets set up all along the waterfront and along a couple streets

All kind of things for sale!  Revenge the regular shops are open and lite!  Some vendors take advantage of the closed temples to use their space.  Lanterns light everywhere!

Day and night,  HoiAn is pleasant!