Travel Maven Blog ...... David Molyneaux posts from TheTravelMavens.com

Cruising to Saigon, where people still are careful

    Sixth in a series from the ruins and rivers of Southeast Asia

For our last day on the Mekong River, the Avalon Angkor was docked in downtown Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), which was abuzz with people at work, at play and, in between, riding their motorbikes.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Lots of locals still call it Saigon, this city of 10 million people and nearly as many motorbikes, which, said a guide, are primarily from China, because the bikes are cheap, though they have a reputation for a short life span.

What do the Vietnamese do with the Chinese bikes when they wear out in a few years? I asked.

“We try to fix things up and then ship them to another country,” said a local guide. Uh huh, Communism at full glory.

Good Morning, Vietnam, cruising on the mighty Mekong River

Vietnam, along the Mekong River (Photos by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

    Fifth in a series from the ruins and rivers of Southeast Asia

On the edge of the Mekong, Cambodian and Vietnam flags flapped in an early morning wind at the border station. Crew aboard the Avalon Angkor approached soldiers from the station with some trepidation, as border officials here are known to insist on strict compliance with all formalities.

For instance, entrance visas for each passenger -- I bought mine for $167 through VisaCentral in Washington, DC, two months before the trip -- must be written in perfect order. Today, for instance, was March 2, 2013. Woe be it to anyone whose visa began March 1 or March 3.

Cruising Cambodia from rural villages to the gruesome Killing Fields

    Fourth in a series from the ruins and rivers of Southeast Asia

Floating on the Tonle Sap toward Phnom Penh, stopping at ancient sites and visiting riverside villages, passengers on Avalon Angkor begin to get a real picture of life in rural Cambodia.

Wat Hanchey, 8th century temple with bricks held together by sticky rice (Photos by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

“We only got real peace in 1998,” said Wanty, our primary Cambodian guide. “We started from scratch, so it will take us a long time to build a country.”

Our riverboat tied up to a tree so we could walk up the bank to Wat Hanchey, a temple dating back to the 8th century. The temple was built of bricks that were made without fire. Bricks were formed from limestone, termite mound clay, water, palm sugar, and sticky rice (with coconut milk) to hold it all together.

Cruising on Avalon Angkor, a modern riverboat built for the Mekong

    Third in a series from the ruins and rivers of Southeast Asia. This blog includes excerpts from a review for CruiseCritic.com 

After three days of exploring Cambodia’s temples and ruins, and passing by such roadside delicacies as sparrows and rats, grilled crickets, spiders and roaches, all of which were in plentiful supply, we were ready for the cool comforts and stocked kitchen of a fancy riverboat, Avalon Angkor.

Boarding Avalon Angkor at Prek Dam (Photos by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, spiritual ruins and temples that amaze

   Second in a series from the ruins and rivers of Southeast Asia

A trip to Cambodia’s Angkor ruins surely is a bucket list event.

Angkor Wat is the best preserved and most famous of the Angkor temples in Cambodia (Photos by David G. Molyneaux, TheTravelMavens.com)

Angkor was home more than 1,000 years ago to a great Hindu empire that left behind some 19 square miles of stone temples and tombs, now in various states of ruin and restoration. The temples at Angkor, built between the 9th and 13th centuries by the Khmer people as interpretations of Indian religious beliefs, are awesome, inspiring and exciting, and draw travelers from all over the world.

Deep into the 1990s, however, only the brave would travel to this part of Cambodia, because it was the heart, the cold heart, of the regime of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge.

Journey to Cambodia and Vietnam, Woman, would you weep for me?

            First in a series from the ruins and rivers of Southeast Asia

As luck would have it, I didn’t get to Da Nang, Vietnam, in 1968. I arrived 45 years later. In neither case did I have a say about the matter.

In 1968, Vietnam was the last place I wanted to land.

View Vietnam and Cambodia in a larger map

After four years of college at Miami University, I went to work in the summer of 1967 at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland as a newspaper reporter.  Nine months later I was drafted -- these were the days before a national lottery called civilians to battle based on a number associated with their birthdays. On April 4, 1968, after my last night shift as a reporter on the city police beat, I left my newspaper job and joined the Army for what turned out to be two years of active duty.

Active was a bit of a misnomer. I spent most of my time at a cushy desk job, but people were dying all around me.