Month: March 2014
Luang Prabang
I am spending the last two days of this adventure in the city of Lunag Prabang in northern Laos. It was the capital of the country until the king moved it to Vientiane in the 1600’s. A world heritage town, it teems with temples, charming streets and interesting markets. I am staying in a little […]
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Back in Paxse
It was rather easy to see my day yesterday as being a flirtation with transport of many kinds. It was extremely hot (well into the high 30’s C) and my favourite form was easily the air conditioned car in which I travelled for most of the day. The first part of my day was in […]
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Paxse
It’s about 5.30 am and there is the first glimmer of light in the sky. I would have liked to have slept for a little longer but there is a rooster outside welcoming the new day and I am wide awake. I have stayed overnight on Khong Island which is the biggest island on the […]
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Vientiane
I arrived in Vientiane, in Laos, at about 7:00 pm after a two-hour flight from Saigon which included a brief stop in Phnom Penh. I had just about enough time to quench my theist with a beer before heading off to bed for a sleep. It is the hot season here and the temperature in […]
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Saigon
I have to say that I am quite surprised at the economic progress that has taken place in Saigon in the seven years since I was last here. There has been a great deal of development with new high rise buildings, cleaner streets, and less beggars on the the corners. The infrastructure has been improved […]
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Sa Dec to Saigon
Our river boat tour has continued down the middle parts of the Mekong delta and concluded this morning at the town of My Tho. At a little town called Sa Dec we went ashore to visit a few places of interest. Our first stop was at a brickworks where clay is manhandled ashore and shaped […]
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Industry in Tan Chau
Having anchored in mid-stream overnight, it was time yesterday morning to go ashore in the border town of Tan Chau.There is very little to really interest the tourist here, but I think that because we had spent most of our time on the river during the day before, the company decided that we needed to […]
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To the Vietnam Border
On Saturday, we slipped away from Phnom Penh at around 9:00 am and headed south down the Mekong towards Vietnam. We had 100 kms to travel before reaching the border. That took a few hours at our cruising speed of 12 knots. We had a very easy day, just relaxing and watching the world go […]
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A Day of Culture in Phnom Penh
(I know that my website has been making it impossible to post comments but this is now fixed) Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia and sits at the confluence of the Mekong and Tonie Sap Rivers. In the 1920’s it ws regarded as one of the loveliest french colonial cities in Indo China.It […]
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Blessings and Silk
We had an easier day today with a couple of short excursions and a longer period of travelling down the Mekong until we reached Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia. Our first excursion was to a little village and a Buddhist Monastery. At the monastery, we all sat in a row while two monks […]
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Kampong Cham
Yesterday, we climbed up a series of steps cut into the river bank from our overnight mooring to visit the little village below the temple of Wat Hanchey. Yes, another temple! This one was a little different in that a modern temple was constructed around the site of an ancient relic and it also included […]
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Down to the Mighty Mekong
We were up early this morning to check out of our hotel and be ready to board a bus to the little town of Kampong Cham at 8.30 am. This is the dry season and the rice in the countryside has all been harvested, the stubble has been burnt to fertilise the next crop and […]
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