Where in the World Are We?

We are traveling through Southeast Asia at a speedy clip. It is almost 7:30 AM on March 27 and we are heading down the winding Saigon River toward the South China Sea. We have been in Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City for 5 days. Actually the ship has been docked there, but we flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia and spent 2 days there. Before Vietnam we were in Thailand. And the day after tomorrow we will be in Hong Kong which will be closely followed by Japan. All of this is to say that I doubt that I will catch up on the blog until the Pacific crossing.

We have found delicious food everywhere. The level of commerce is quite remarkable, particularly in Vietnam which is a communist country with a free market system. Saigon is booming and very friendly. There have been many opportunities to revisit the war at the War Remnants Museum and the Cu Chi Tunnels. It is really quite stunning to visit this country that was so prominently in the news and in our living rooms almost 40 years ago. I did not realize how much it is embedded in our national psyche. Yesterday I went on a trip to the Mekong Delta while Reggie and Jackson explored the Cu Chi Tunnels. In the Delta, we toured along narrow jungle creeks in a small san pan, paddled by a woman on the bow and a man at the stern. I could almost picture US Marines patrolling these creeks with all of their battle gear, just as we saw on the news so long ago.

Thailand is a jewel of a country. ….beautiful gold leaf temples and tropical beaches. I had a massage under the palm trees at a beach one day. It was heavenly.

Cambodia is truly amazing especially considering the deadly Pol Pot regime which was so recently in power. They call it their civil war and during that time, 3 million Cambodians were exterminated. The country is so small and the population is very young now. We did not visit the killing fields in Phnom Penh, but we did go to the fabulous ancient temples of Angkor Wat and to Tonle Sap Lake where we toured among the floating villages.

Stay tuned.....