Today we drove about 30miles to My Son, the ancient temple site of the Chams which was occupied from the 4th the 13th century and remained virtually intact until 1969. At that time the Viet Cong used it for a camp and the Americans bombed about 75% of it. We were saying how awful and our guide said, " It was a war and its in the past, nothing can be done about it!" That is the attitude here about the "American War". All of the people we have met were born after the war was over, or after independence as they say.

The countryside here is absolutely beautiful, hilly and lush and green with lovely green rice fields. The population here is so much less than in the Delta and around Saigon, so there is much less noise and chaos and the roads are not very crowded. We are also enjoying the cool weather, all the Vietnamese are wearing their winter coats and freezing to death as it is about 60 degrees today.

We had a great lunch which included Mango Beef Salad, soooooo good. We went shopping this afternoon and I got a silk jacket made. Two little women that hardly reached my shoulder were doing the measurements, one was measuring calling out to the other with a lot of chatter in between. They were probably saying, "Can you believe this, the biggest one today!"

We then just wandered around in the town, and ended up in the local market. They really give you the hard sell, except in the vegetable selling part.

Tomorrow we have a free rest day, will spend it at the pool if it warms up or else go shopping.

We are in Hoi An tonight at the Hoi An Pacific hotel. Our flight from Nha Trang to Danang was smooth and we were picked up by our guide for the next three days Ahn. He seems like a pleasant guy. The driver who brought us here from the airport was the scariest driver in the world, I can't believe he didn't kill 50 bike riders on the way. We got a different one this afternoon for the next two days and he was fine.

Hoi An is a cute town that appears to be quite prosperous and with well preserved old buildings. It is also swarming with tourists. We went to a silk factory and just walked around looking at tailor shops to get an idea what to order tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was one of the best Vietnamese style meals we have had so far.

I am writing news for several days. We spent Feb 24th and 25th in Siem Reap and the Angkor Wat temples. Our tour guide was a nervous fellow Chenla who spoke barely comprehensible English with the theory that if he said it 10 times loud something would stick. Our driver was a young funny guy with "cheeky street kid written all over him. He loved to make jokes and spoke fairly good English.

Angkor Wat is a bunch of temple complexes all in the same general area, but too far from each other to walk. The first morning we visited Bayon, which is the one with the famous carved faces and the bas relief walls. You can climb all over the temples, on fairly precarious steps. In the afternoon we went to Angkor Wat the big complex with the five spires.

That evening we climbed up a big hill and to the top of a temple and watched a beautiful sunset, along with several thousand other tourists. After that we went to a open air buffet resturant and watched a dancing show. The show was good, and the food was Cambodian Kings table..

The next morning we got up at 5am to watch the sunrise, but it was cloudy so we could have slept in. On the way that morning about 530 we went past the Angkor childrens hospital and there were parents with sick children lined up for a least a block to see the doctor. We complain about 30 min in an AC waiting room...

The area around Siem Reap is extremely dry with this being the third month of the dry season and no rain. The people in the country side live in extreme poverty in thatched shacks.

The second day we went to several smaller temples and the big one that was used to film "tomb raiders" with Angelina Jolie. It is big news there and they are proud that their temple is in an international film. That afternoon we went to a cultural village and watched a bunch of differnent dances which was fun.

We flew back to Saigon on the eve of the 25th and then on to Nha Trang on the morning of the 26th they use the old Cam Rahn airbase from the was as their airport. Our guide here is "Bill" the bullshitter, he said my
Vietnamese name is too hard to remember so you can call me Bill, like Bill Gates and Bill Clinton. We got in the car and he started singing "O Carol" the song from the 60's. He is 24 yrs old. Our driver has a brand new Mitsubish and thinks he is an Indy driver. Today was very stormy and cloudy but we went on our island trip anyhow since it isn't cold, at least not to us. The sea was very rough but I had taken my Dramamine so all was well.Too bad they don't make a dramamine for fear!!!! I counted the life jackets and there were 20 with only 5 on the boat, us and two drivers so I figured we each could stay afloat with 4.

We went out to some islands in the South China Sea to an aquarium, fed some turtles and then went on to another island and went swimming. The water was crystal clear in the bay. Then we went to a fishing village for lunch where we chose our own fish from a net. They took it to the resturant to cook it for us. The cook said "What should I do with the head? I wanted to say "the garbage" when he suggested fish head soup... It was acturally very good.. Len even ate two bowls.. They cooked our fish in foil and it was the best meal we have had since getting here.

This afternoon we walked down to the central market, a large area of stalls where the locals shop for everything from food to shoes.

We fly to Hoi An tomorrow..

Just a short posting to let you all know we are okay and at the Yasaka Hotel in Nha Trang which is a beautiful beach area north of Saigon 1 hr by plane. There is no place to sit and write and no WiFi so will write about our trip to Angkor Wat later.

We are at the Borei Ankor hotel in Siem Reap and is it ever plush, teak everywhere you can look. We took a Bangkok air flight from PhnomPhen and got here late so am posting for yesterday. They fly the same little airplanes the Horizon flies to Montana. Driving from the airport we were getting a little worried going through bad neighbor hoods, but the hotel is great.



The night we spent in Phnom Phen we swam and relaxed by the pool and then took a TukTuk (a motor scooter drawn buggy the only means of public transportation) down to the riverfront and found a great restaurant called Frizz. It is run by a Dutch expat and serves authentic Cambodian food. We had green chili curry that was better than Mali thai. After dinner we were going to walk a bit but the beggars got to us so we retreated to the hotel. In some ways Cambodia seems less poor the Vietnam because it is less crowded but there are far more people who have been injured by landmines and the war and children begging on the streets. We were talking to an English couple at the airport who travel in Asia a lot, and they said, "Give what you can but remember they were here before you came and will be here when you leave, you can't fix the problem." The hotel has a brochure about all of the programs the Cambodians have set up to get their people back on their feet which would be a better way to donate.



We started our tour yesterday visiting the grounds of the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. It is a large park like area where the king's lives and the public can visit parts of it. Lucky for us it was overcast as we spent a lot of time outdoors, and buckets of sweat were pouring off us. The present king was crowned in 2004 and the country is governed by a prime minister and Parliament. This is an election year for them. The present form of government was set up by the UN in 1990. The dollar is the preferred form of currency here, at least equal to the Cambodian real. Our guide said it was because their money was worthless after the revolution. Her parents had worked hard and saved and it was worth zero, so when democracy was restored people only trusted US dollars.



From there we went to the National Museum with many artifacts from Angkor Wat and other sites.



Lunch was at a very busy Chinese restaurant. I found something new coconut jelly is really good. After lunch we visited the "lady pagoda" which sits on a man made hill and is the oldest structure in the city. The steps and grounds were packed with beggars. Before we started Talee said not to give money until we were leaving and she changed our dollars into Cambodian real (4000/dollar) so that we had could give to more people. It was really awful seeing all of those suffering people.



Our next stop was two markets, the first especially for tourists and very expensive and the second the "Russian Market" for local people. Hot, crowded, interesting with great prices on the same stuff that was in the first market.



Out guide for the day was a 37 yr old lady named Talee who was very interesting. Her parents were teachers and she was 5 years old when PolPot's Khmer Rouge revolution took place. Her family was relocated far into the country and forced to do field labor. After 1979 when the Russians and Vietnamese threw the Khmer Rouge out they stayed in the village and taught at the schools there. She is the oldest of 8 children and attended school off and on, being taught at home part of the time. As a teenager she passed the entrance exams and was allowed to to to University in Phnom Phen. She asked how old we were and was astonished that we are older than her parents who she says are "very Old". An easy American life with good dental and health care really makes a difference in how people age.



Our last stop was the killing fields memorial Choung Ek, where they found thousands of bodies from victims of the genocide. There is a large building in the center serving as a grave for the skulls from the graves they exhumed. Many were left undisturbed.

"I might have ridden a motor scooter, but I will never ride a cyclo" (rickshaw behind a bicycle)... As we came out of our hotel this morning at 0630 Phi was standing there with three grinning cyclo drivers. "We will be taking this conveyance to the boat dock." Len got on the first one and I was following, as we came to the only red light in 50 miles and his driver flew right through with mine after him. We were both looking at the grill of a Hyundai truck.. it was quite a thrill but sort of fun once we didn't die on the truck bumper.

We left Phi there, he will return to Saigon by express bus and got on a "Blue Cruise" fast boat to Phnom Phen, by way of the Mekong River. It is a huge river nearly a mile wide in places and moves fast. Our first stop was the Vietnamese border where they unloaded all the baggage, made the porters carry it up a steep rickety staircase and load it in a cart which they wheeled to the custom house, waited 1 minute and turned around and carried it back to the boat. The boat company picked up all the passports at 5am from the hotels. We were with a group from Holland and everyone was getting nervous about getting our passports back. About a mile up river we stopped at the Cambodian border for a real "Chinese fire drill". It took over an hour and there was no organization and no one spoke English. No lines, just sort of milling around and calling out names. Things finally sorted out and we were on our way. Our boat company must not pay big enough bribes, because other companies came in after us and were long gone.

Our tour guide met us at the dock, a cute 21 year old named Nim. We went to a great Cambodian resturant for lunch. Len is feeling much better and enjoyed the food. Our next stop was the genocide museum with memorials from the killing of the Pol Pot regime. It was very sad but interesting.

We are staying at the Phnom Phen Hotel, which is very nice, we plan to hit the pool later. There is not WiFi, so will have to save up photos for later.

We are in ChauDoc and the hotel doesnt have WiFi, so no photos today. This morning we took a boat ride, just us & our guide in a small boat, and went to the floating market. Small farmers bring their produce to the larger boats who wholesale it. It was really interesting, seems like anything that floats is a boat. Each large boat had a pole with the produce they were selling tied to it as an advertisement. I got some really good photos.

From there we took a long ride through the smaller branches of the Mekong and saw how people live along the river. They cook, drink , bathe and wash dishes and clothes in it.

Then we went to a family run rice noodle factory, where they boil rice into a batter and spread it on a steamer for about 1 minute then dry in the sun and finally cut into noodles. Very primitive working area, and not very sanitary, the pig pen was right next to the work area. There was a lady that wanted to talk to us, she asked me how old I was, she is 74. I took a photo with her. On the way back to the car we stopped at another floating fruit market and tried a coconut milk drink with a straw in the coconut. It was quite good.

From there we drove to ChauDoc and stopped along the way to see a bird santuary where beautiful white herons nest in the tree tops. The river was too low to take the boat so the owners took us on the back of their motor scooters. I wouldn't have done it if there had been time to think ahead, but it was a lot of fun. Len had to ride behine the teenage boy, I chose the old Dad.

Here in Chau Doc there is a sacred mountain with many temples and pilgrims. We went to one temple that was a climb lots of stairs, with a beautiful view into Cambodia from the terrace. I'll add photos tomorrow from Phnom Phen if there is access.

More Soc Trang photos

Soc Trang photos

Soc Trang - Providence Orphanage

We found the Providence orphanage in
Soc Trang, after a lot of stopping for directions, and as luck would have it there was an older nun there who spoke English and remembered Rosemary Taylor, Sr Susan and Mary Nelle from tjhe days when they made the trip to Soc Trang to take babies back to their nurseries in Saigon. She said that Do is one of the most common last names in that part of Vietnam, in fact it was her family name. She told us that there were no records kept in that time, because of the war and confusion. The compound is no longer an orphange, but a day care center. They use only a small part of the original area, as the government confiscated the hospital and several of their buildings in 1975 after the was ended.

The people of the Soc Trang area belong to the Khmer ethnic group which is the second largest minority in Vietnam, Chinese being the largest. The city and surrounding area are about 1 million people, and they are traditionally rice farmers, but the Tiawainese are building many factories there now. The top photos are of the old orphanage. The people are very dark skinned, some much darker than you Chris.

We visited a pagoda, and every kid we saw wanted to practice their English on us. "Hello what is your name?" They are so cute, and all of the people are friendly.

After looking over the breakfast buffet, I told Len, "You aren't in Kansas anymore Dorothy". It is difficult to be brave about food at 7am when your stomach is a little queasy. We both have had a touch of tourista.

Yesterday we drove through an area south of Saigon where the main industry is making rice wine which is 40% alcohol. they sell is in big gallon plastic jugs all along the roadside. Phi says it is the cause of Vietnams overpopulation problems.

I can finally upload photos, but can't get the labels right with them. From the top, Len & Phi at the Mekong boat dock., the kind of boat we took across the river and around the islands with coconut and fruit plantations. Houses along the Mekong, they deliver goods by river to the back of the house and the front on street level has a shop. Motorscooters with the VN version of 5point restraints for children. A typical roadside scene, and a picture of a new house.

We are in CanTho at a very nice hotel. Our room has a living room, bedroom and two bathrooms.. a bit of overkill but very nice. I now realize that I couldn't travel in a third world country without an airconditioned hotel at the end of the day.

We drove south from Saigon, the area just outside of the city is being developed into a new urban center, with lots of construction of high rise apts and homes. It is planned by the government, so they must have moved everyone out. As you drive past the area being developed everyone lives just by the road with open farm land further back. There are new houses here and there built right next to the worst looking tarp and sheet metal shack.

We took a small boat up the river from MyTho and then visited a fruit and coconut plantation. The cool breeze on the river made it very pleasant.

Today we drove about 60km west of Saigon, driving or riding in a car here is not for the feint of heart. The roads are mostly narrow with very few traffic lights, and are full of scooters, bikes, cars, trucks, ox drawn wagons and any other form of conveyance they can come up with. There don't seem to be any rules of the road. Phi (our guide) said, "Red light, okay, red light + police = stop". Our driver is very careful tho.

First we stopped at a laquer ware factory that hires handicapped people. It is a very labor intensive process and we walked through and watched them working. Their products are really beautiful.

Then we drove to the CaoDai temple area. The temple is very ornate and colorful. they seem to be the Vietnamese cult of 100 years ago. There was a service at noon which the allow visitors to watch from the balcony., lots of chanting and sitting cross legged on the floor.

After a great lunch we went to CuChi to see the area where the Viet Cong had the largest network of underground living areas. Len went down into a section of the tunnel and said it was interesting.. I stayed above ground thinking of spiders.

There will be pictures tomorrow, I bought a new media card tonight and it works. Don't know what the problem is with the old one.

I think we are finally caught up on sleep. After or tours yesterday we came home at 3pm for a short nap before dinner and just now woke up at 4am, so I am writing this while we wait for breakfast to open at 6am.

I am having problems getting the photos to download to the computer. I insert the disk into the computer, and the box that asks to download doesn't come up. When I go into Digital image and try to do it manaully it says disc isn't formatted and if I click to format it can't.

Yesterday we saw the Presidential palace, War Museum, Notre Dame Cathedral, Post office 3 pagodas and two markets.

Saigon is unbelievable, District I is the old French Quarter with all of the tourist hotels, resturants, government buildings & international chain stores. There are wide streets with parks, trees and flowers.

Outside of District I, live 10 million people in the most crowded conditions imaginable. At street level every kind of shop spills onto the sidewalk and mixs with plastic chairs & braziers the outdoor space of the people living in the tenements above. Children play in the midst of it all. The street is full of motorbikes and the noise level intense. Mix in the heat and humidity and it is exhausting. They seem to have no personal space. We visited the wholesale market in Chinatown where all of the products come and go on the backs of motorbikes or bicycles.

We asked our guide about cost of apartments, and he shares one with 5 other guys. He feels fortunate to have a good job.

A little cooler and overcast today. We are going to see the tourist spots today with our guide.

Communism must have been a hard sell to this city, the streets are full of people selling things, from taxis, cyclos, to food and every thing else you can imagine for sale from little spots 3 feet wide between store fronts. Len said that the paper money must be worth less than the cost to print it, although no worse than our copper pennies. We bought two bottles of ice water from a street vendor and she said 10. Len gave here a 2000 note which is the smallest he had thinking how would she make change, and she shook her head and showed us a 10,000 note.. which is about .65 . The exchange is 16,000 to 1$.

We're here, Rex Hotel Saigon. What a trip 27 hours door to door. Waiting for our luggage we talked to the ugly Ameraican. He informed us to take our time in Angor Wat because, "You can't see that sum bitch in 3 days", and then proceeded to give us his view on why womens lib has ruined airline service in the US. I was too tired and time was too short to take him on..

Our guide was waiting outside the terminal, he is a really cute twenty year old from Dalat named Phee (not sure of spelling). Today we had no plans, just slept late and had breakfast here at the hotel. The buffet was up in the rooftop resturant, which is part of the Rex rooftop garden bar. The food was great, every kind of Vietnamese, European and American breakfast you could want. The hotel is full of tourists, mostly Europeans.

On our walk this morning we did okay crosssing the small streets, but to get to the Saigon river you need to cross a 6 lane boulevard with no stop lights. As we stood on the side looking two cyclo drivers came and stopped traffic for us.. and then we couldn't get rid of them. We were standing by the river watching the barges and one driver told us, " I love USA, especially California, then he told about the news he had heard of a mass murder/suicide in Colorado. You could see that he thought USA was a dangerous place. We finally had to slip into the lobby of the Grand Hotel and wait until they gave up and left, "NO" wasn't an option in their book.

Slept all afternoon, had dinner at Augustin a French resturant near the hotel that Gavin Young mentioned in his book as his favorite resturand from the 50's. We had a great dinner, soup salad, entree, beer, wine, dessert & coffee for $43.00 which included the tip.

Crossing the street in the dark was interesting, we walked behind a mother with three kids, and when she yelled "Hold Hands", it was understandable in any language.

There is a beautiful plaza in front of our hotel, lots of trees and flowers where everyone is sitting tonight watching the people go by. There are families with a blanket and picnic...Some of the motor scooters have 4 people on them, 2 adults with helmets and 2 kids hanging on.

Hi from an internet cafe in Seoul airport. We have a 2 1/2 hour layover here. The flight on Asiana was great, the last time I remember that kind of service was when Theresa & I flew Lufthansa to Germany in 1966. I had my first food adventure 5 min off the plane. The food court had HagenDaz and what looked like mint was green tea!!!! I never thought to find Ice cream I couldn't eat. Will post more from Saigon.

Wow, this is really happening, we leave in 3 days. I read in interesting book this weekend "A Wavering Grace" by Gavin Young about his experiences in Vietnam as a war correspondent and follows the lives of a family from Hue that he knew in the 60's up through his last visit in 1996. I bought a dictionary last week and now can't find it, so that is my last errand, getting a new one.