This morning we disembarked from the Viking Saigon and boarded our coach to take us to Siem Reap. Viking provided a brown bag with juice, chips, an apple, and a protein bar as a snack to have for our ride.
As we rode along you could see rice drying out on tarps. They do this near the roads because it usually doesn’t flood there.
Drying rice on blue tarps
Our coach made several “comfort” stops along the way and another stop was for our bus driver could have lunch and have a break.
Have you ever seen furniture moved on a flat bed pulled by a tractor?
A clothing store that travels from village to village selling merchandise!
We made a stop at a rubber tree plantation where we saw resin dropping from the trees.
Young rubber tree- about a year old, takes 7 years to grow for rubber resin to produce.Rubber trees over 10 years oldRubber resin from the tree
These ants would bite so we stayed away from them!
Another stop was to see an elephant! The elephant made a trek into town once a year for its owner to sell his medicine that we were told helped arthritis!
Girl elephant, 2 months away from home, 90 years old, takes this journey once a year, sells medication to help with arthritisHeading out
Before reaching our hotel we made a stop at the entrance of Angkor Wat to get our picture taken for our three day pass.
Angkor Wat Entrance
When we reached our destination we checked into our hotel. We were greeted by some musicians.
The hotel was beautiful! Below are pictures from the lobby and some of the outdoors.
We visited the pool which was refreshing but didn’t cool you off. The water was quite warm from the sun not from any pool heater! At 6:00 AM the water temperature was posted as being 86Ëš F!
Our room had a balcony and a beautiful view of the grounds.
The hotel gifted each of us a Cambodian made scarf when they came to do the evening bed turn down and at dinner we had a Cambodian dance team perform.
When we arrived we got off the riverboat and walked into town. As we walked along the road we passed many stupas. A stupa was a place of burial and there were many of various sizes and colors as we went by.
We also passed by a school and the students were interested in us just as much as we were with what they were doing.
In town we got on a tuk-tuk for a ride that was sometimes bumpy, to the Oknha Tey weaving village and it was also known as Silk Island.
Our tuk-tuk and our adorable driver! She didn’t realize we could hear her singing as she drove along!
We saw the silkworms and the process it took to raise cocoons and make silk by using traditional worms. It was a very interesting process.
The silkworms with mulberry leaves
The silkworms lay their eggs in the mulberry trees. The silkworms lived in man-made habitats.
The worms eat a lot of mulberry leaves for a little over a month.
Minea showing us mulberry leaves and its fruit.
Then they begin making a silk fiber to wrap around themselves making a cocoon.
The workers unwrapped the silk fibers from the cocoons by boiling them to loosen the thread.
Raw silk
The threads were then wrapped onto a large spindle. They used natural dyes for most of their silk threads.
Each family had their own foot pedal loom in their home. These villagers also were farmers and fishermen.
The weavers sat at handmade wooden looms. We watched them weave some intricate patterns.
44 rods, peacock design
Below was a quick video showing the process of weaving.
Also, we had time for shopping to help the local economy! I think our group did a great job helping their finances.
One of the village stores.
Back on the riverboat we watched a local take his horses into the river to cool them off and he also washed himself at the same time!
The road that just stopped!
The road just ends.
Late this afternoon we attended a lecture and the topic was “Life at the Mekong River”.
Mammals in Cambodia
Today wasn’t as busy so we enjoyed some time in the afternoon to sit up on the sky deck and read.
We met our Cambodian guide, Minea. She had a great sense of humor and was very informative.
Tony, our program director, and Minea, our Cambodian guide
When we got off the riverboat we were met by cyclos and their drivers. We each rode in a cyclo through the city where our first stop was the Royal Palace.
The traffic as we traveled on the cyclo was busy and sometimes scary.
Walking up to the Royal Palace
One of the entrance gates to the Royal Palace
The Buddhist monks were walking from their school as we were walking up to the palace entrance.
The monks leaving school.
The Royal Palace was a complex of buildings and many of the buildings did not allow photos inside. One of those buildings was the King’s residence. The flag wasn’t flying so he wasn’t there.
Map of the Royal Palace
Our entry ticket
Strict entrance requirementsThis woman had to purchase these huge drawstring pants because she had on shorts!Wrapping the pants around her.
The Silver Pagoda or Temple of the Emerald Buddha was located in the Royal Palace. In 1962 it was rebuilt out of concrete and Italian marble. It was formerly made from wood. It was one of the few buildings that wasn’t destroyed during the Khmer Rouge regime. The Khmer Rouge regime lasted for four years, 1975-1979 and took the power away from the Cambodian people. We learned more about what happened during that time period this afternoon.
Silver Pagoda
It was called the Silver Pagoda because of its floor which was covered with 5000 tiles but when we went in most were covered for protection. No photos were allowed inside.
Throne Hall, used for official ceremoniesImpressive gardens and palm tree
On the Royal Palace grounds was a mini model of Angkor Wat. We visited it later on in our trip. Our guide told us this was a great model to see the full depth of Angkor Wat.
The funeral stupa of King Suramant was located on the grounds as were other deceased royalty. A stupa was a monument that housed the ashes of the person.
Stupa of King Suramant
Walls around the complex contained a mural that depicted the Indian epic poem called Ramayana, or Reamker in Cambodia. The story was too long to retell here. Feel free to look it up online because it was interesting to read about. The mural was created in 1900 and parts had been restored.
Restored panelRestored panelnot completely restoredNo restoration had begun
Have you ever seen a cannonball tree? We did at the Royal Palace. A cannonball tree’s flowers and fruits grow directly from the tree’s trunk. Their name cannonball came from their brown and round fruits.
Cannonball treeCannonball fruit and flower
Each of our cyclo drivers picked us up and took us to the National Museum which was made out of red sandstone. It was the largest museum of cultural history and the finest collection of Khmer sculptures.
The museum suffered a lot of damage during the Khmer Rouge regime. The Australian government and other patrons helped undertake a major remodeling during the 1990s. The Cambodians want to maintain the exhibits in the museum and one was the largest collections of Khmer artifacts in the world.
Near the Royal Palace was the Wat Ounalom. It was one of five original monastries in Phonm Penh. It was damaged during the Khmer Rouge period but had been restored. It was established in 1443 and consisted of 44 structures.
Wat Ounalom
Our cyclos took us back to the boat around lunch time. We saw some more interesting sights as we headed back.
Markets selling wares/food along the road.His business was located in his wagon and he relaxed in his hammock!The truck bed was also his flower/plant shop!
After lunch we had a somber visit to the Tuol Sleng Detention Center Memorial. In 1975 Tuol Svey Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot’s security forces and it was turned into a prison and was known as S-21 (Security Prison 21). It was the largest center for detention and torture in Cambodia and the most famous.
Pol Pot was the dictator who ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979 and his regime, Khmer Rouge, was responsible for the killing of between 1.5 and 3 million people. They created 189 prisons.
Between 1975 and 1978 over 20,000 people from S-21 were taken to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. The Khmer Rouge kept meticulous records of their torture. Each prisoner was photographed when they arrived to S-21 and sometimes after they were tortured! The museum had these photos displayed.
Only 7 prisoners were alive when Phnom Penh was liberated by the Vietnamese army. Two of those survivors, Chum Mey and Bou Meng were still alive and they were at S-21 promoting their first-hand accounts of their prison time!
Our last stop was to one of the Killing Fields, Choeung Ek Genocidal Center.
It was here that the Khmer Rouge regime killed thousands of people.
The memorial with glass sides houses skulls froj victims.There were 5,000 skulls placed in thes memorial of executed victims.
We purchased a lotus flower to place in the memorial urn.
They saved bullets by doing it in the fields and most were hit in the back of the head or swords were used and the victims were then mass buried in shallow graves. We walked through the memorial.
At least 20,000 Cambodians were killed here! Our guide explained that the tree with all the bracelets was where the Khmer Rouge killed small children by beating them against the tree. She visited here on a school field trip and she was very emotional telling us about what happened at this tree.
It was a somber ride back to our riverboat and everyone needed time to process the atrocities of what we heard and saw this afternoon. We were warned it would be an emotional excursion.
We ended the evening on a high with a performance by Cambodian children of traditional folk dances. The youngest performer was four years old. He was a monkey!
After breakfast we boarded a sampan boat. A sampan was a wooden boat that took us to Cái Bè Village and along the Mekong Delta. Boats were the main form of transportation in this region.
Sampan boatsOur Sampan captain
Looking back at our riverboat.
We visited a local family where we tried various locally grown fruits with some tea. We had rambutan, watermelon, mangos, pomelo and jackfruit.
Our family visit.Our plates of fruit and tea!The fruit inside the rambutan
We also walked around their property.
Jack fruit treePomelo treeRambutan treeThe netting is where they catch and raise their fish.This is their toilet with a tube that leads right into the irrigation stream!
The kitchen. Most homes do not have refrigerators.
Our next stop was to visit a pop rice factory where we saw the production of rice paper, coconut candy and pop rice sweets and savory snacks!
The workers demonstrated for us how whole grains of rice with their husks were put into a large pot that had black sand from the Mekong River. It was poured over the fire. The first video below showed the rice popping!
They sifted out the black sand and a second time to remove the rice husks. Then the crispy rice was put into another wok-shaped pot and mixed with a syrup of sugar and water. This video shows the mixing to make a savory crispy rice treat.
This last video showed adding the popped rice to the mixture.
Then they poured the rice mixture into the frame, press it and let it cool.
We tried the savory crispy rice treat and the sweet rice treat and both were delicious!
Our group did a shot of banana wine. It was strong!
They also had snake wine that you could try. The bottle had dead snakes in it! A few of our group members did try it but none of them liked it.
Snake wine
The Vietnamese coconut candy was very popular in Vietnam. It was the most popular candy.
Cutting the candy.Wrapping the coconut candy.
A worker was making rice papers. She showed us the process and the pictures below illustrate the steps.
Vietnamese village homesWashing dishes in the Makong.Carrying crops down the river.Fish farms and homes on the riverFish farms along the MakongWorking on the river
We also saw Marguerite Duras’ lover’s home, Mr. Huynh Thuy Le. Marguerite, a French writer, wrote an autobiographical novel called The Lover. Only the outside of the home was available because the inside of the home is in disrepair. They had an affair but his family didn’t approve of it and his family forced him to marry a Chinese woman but we were told he never stopped loving Marguerite.
Huynh Thuy Le’s Home
We cruised along the Mekong river. We saw homes along the river and some were pretty modern looking and others were barely standing.
Before dinner Captain Hiep invited all of us to the lounge for a toast to welcome us on board. Besides the captain, the hotel manager, our program directors, the head housekeeper, maĂ®tre d’ and the executive chef were introduced. We found everyone to be so kind and helpful.
This morning we checked out of our hotel and headed to the Cu Chi tunnels. It was about two and a half hours from Ho Chi Minh City.
As we left Saigon we saw bananas, watermelons, and other fruits being sold.
The Cu Chi tunnels were part of a Vietnam War memorial park.
There were military vehicles left from the Vietnam war around the area.
These tunnels were begun by Communist forces in the 1940s during the war to gain their independence from France. The tunnels were often dug by hand. These tunnels were expanded during the war between the North Vietnamese and the non-Communist regime in South Vietnam.
Visitor entrance to the tunnels.
The United States military aided South Vietnam and used a lot of aerial bombing and the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong went underground in these tunnels. Besides offering shelter the tunnels served as a base for the Communist attacks on Saigon.
Look at the two pictures below. Can you find the entrance to one of the tunnels? It’s there!
The video below showed our guide demonstrating how the Viet Cong disappeared!
The United States had to learn to navigate these tunnels and were called “tunnel rats” and they also had to look out for the booby traps. The area was all jungle and so it was extremely difficult to find the tunnels and escape the booby traps everywhere. Below were just a few of the various traps that were set for the S. Vietnamese and U.S. soldiers. They were quite gruesome.
We had the opportunity to go down into one of the tunnels and crawl/stoop through one section. It was dark and humid in the tunnel.
The entrance that was created for visitors.In the tunnelLooking into another tunnel.
Tony took these pictures of us as we came out of the tunnel.
We saw other areas of the tunnels that had been uncovered for visitors to see.
A different tunnel entrance/exit.KitchenA better picture of the kitchen
Tapioca plant
Our guide gave us a bag of tapioca to try. It didn’t have much flavor. It reminded me of a raw potato.
On our way from the tunnels to the port we stopped for lunch at a local restaurant that served traditional food family style.
These were some of the interesting sites we saw as we headed to the port.
Workers in the fieldRice fieldsHarvesting in the fieldFrom the road the land owner has to cross the bridge to their propertyAnother example of a bridge across the river to get home.
Our next stop was the port where we boarded the Viking Saigon, our riverboat for seven days. A staff member showed us to our room and explained where everything was located. Our luggage was already in our room. We unpacked and met our room steward, Patha.
Our cabin and the Mekong River from our French Balcony.
There were 77 passengers on board plus the crew members. The rooms were very spacious! The Viking Saigon had one lounge, one dining room, one skybar, which was on the top deck where the small pool and sun deck was located.
Before dinner there was piano music in the lounge and at 6:00 PM we had a Welcome briefing by one of the program directors and an introduction by the hotel manager.
Enrico our hotel manager
After dinner there was a Vietnamese music show in the lounge.
After the wonderful music and song we were ready to get some sleep. It was a long day and with the heat and humidity it drained our energy!
