Mekong 2025

We flew from Hanoi to Siem Reap, where we stayed in a nice hotel overnight, before boarding the Pandaw boat


So we climb aboard the Mekong Pandaw	Straight away we go to check out the captain. He looked ..	..reasonably competent, but we can never be too sure	The bar staff seemed OK as well

Our first shore excursion was in this contraption.	It took us to a "factory" where they melted down US bombs	..to make saucepans	This is us on a Dragon Boat

Communists here too	Machine making noodles	Somerville supervising weaving	We buy a silk shirt for the padre

We visited a school and all the children respectfully stood up	We then watched martial arts classes, and so impressed them ..	..that they asked us to join their martial arts team	A silver shop- worth a bob or two

A really frightening dragon guarding this temple	..where we went in for a bit of meditation	Buddha everywhere in this sort of temple	That is a crocodile behind us (or perhaps a statue of one)

Another ox cart ride, but less authentic than in India	Small girl goes to the shop to buy bread, and has her sister too	Madre goes ashore for karaoke	At Luang Prabang we had a bicycle rickshaw

The royal palace was suitably regal	The padres pose for posterity	And we pose on a heffalump	We think about joining the anti corruption unit, but no vacancies

I don't like the way that policeman is looking at us	The Cambodians remember the Killing Fields	A scary actor in a show on board ship	They dredged sand everywhere, as if there was no tomorrow

Our passports go ashore for stamping. Will they return?	If you look carefully you will see conical hats everywhere	The Vietnamese can create giant buddha statues anywhere	It was a long walk up these steps, to reach ..

..the temple at the top	They try not to let the lions out of the gate	..but we got in , and introduced ourselves	They were quite tame really

We try our hand at basket weaving	Next excursion sees us on a tuc tuc ..	.. which took us over a river ..	.. to a passable creation of a French chateau

Here we had some tea ..	.. the lady of the house waved us off	We went back on board , and found that ..	..the madre's birthday was being celebrated with balloons ..

..and later a cake ...	..and candles. Lots of excitement there	Back on the river ..	..we had a tour of the Mekong Delta by boat

..then we walked to a toffee factory. The madre did not think ..	..much of these toffees, but we eat anything. Well anything but ....	..snakes. A snake preserved in vodka, for drinking. Madre had a	..glass. Then back into a smaller boat for a small canal

..until we reached the end and returned to the ship	Buddhas on the river bank	Rice husks for burning	The artificial canal where accidents are common

This one very nearly hit us	It was goodbye from the crew ..	and next day we disembarked in central Saigon	The crew lined up to make sure that we left the ship


Scary dragon watching over the pool	We settle in , then they switched out the lights	for an hour after dark "to save the planet"

Whilst the madre was having breakfast, we	..had a play round the hotel	The gong made a lot of noise


A suitably plush hotel for the day in Saigon	Sort of place we feel at home	A pool for the madre	And a comfy bed for us

Our new friend Saigon Bear joined us a we left Vietnam	The Business Class Turkish Airways lounge in Istanbul is one of...	..our favourites. The cakes are endless. We could eat them all day	But we still had room for our dinner before arriving at Valencia

Boyzz on the Mekong 2025