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January 3, 2015 – Mekong Delta Debbi: We got up at 5:30 (no wake-up call…again) for a “half day” tour, which is supposed to start at 6:30, but of course we didn’t get picked up for another 1/2 hour. It’s a long drive of 120 km to where we are to begin. Halfway there, we […]

December 31, 2014 – Phu Quoc Motorcycle Tour – Day Two We started this morning by driving south down the west side of the island, past miles and miles and miles of beautiful beach, which I’m sure will all be developed in ten years, but for now it’s just empty with the occasional very rudimentary

December 30, 2014 – Phu Quoc Motorcycle Tour – Day One Christmas is over, and it’s time to see a bit more of the island.  Deb was talking to a gentleman of our age who works some evenings at our restaurant, and he turns out to be an English teacher to locals entering the workforce,

December 25, 2014 – Phu Quoc Around The Town Well, here we are on Phu Quoc Island.  It’s a pretty big sucker out in the Gulf of Thailand, only three or four kilometres from Cambodia, but a 1.5-hour fast-ferry ride from Vietnam.  Sensible people, including the Cambodians, would deduce that it should belong to Cambodia. 

December 20, 2014 – Phnom Penh Cambodia to Phu Quoc Vietnam Well, it’s time to say goodbye to The Wats and Siem Reap and head on over to Vietnam.  We’ve decided that since we came up here on the bus, we should head back by boat via Tonle Sap.  It sounds like an interesting way

December 12, 2014 – Phnom Penh Well, here we are.  Still.  More on that later. China Southern, our airline for this sojourn, turned out to be excellent.  We rode in a Dreamliner over to Guangzhou, and then a new 737 to Phnom Penh.  Good food, excellent seat-back screens with tons of entertainment.  We were still

December 15, 2014 – Siem Reap Well, here we are in beautiful downtown Siem Reap.  Every day is an adventure around here.We decided to take the bus up here from Phnom Penh and to return on the boat, that way we’ll be sure not to miss anything.  The locals in PP all told us that

December 16, 2014 – Angkor Wat This is our one day to see Angkor Wat (and a few associated sites), so we are determined to do it right. That means a professional guide plus a tuk-tuk for a full day, and it’s a 7 am start. That’s going to cost just over $100 for the

June 4 – the Enamel Factory and The Wall It would be too much to ask, of course, that we could just go to the Wall in the morning when it was NOT 35C. Charley maintains that it’s too crowded in the morning and that if we go in the afternoon, we’ll have the place

June 3 – the Temple of Heaven and Tiananmen Square Beijing is turning out to be much more demanding than the river cruise. Our day starts with the mandatory wake-up call at 06:30, quickly followed by Death By Buffet at 07:00. Then it’s on board the bus at 08:00, and we won’t be back until