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

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.

A journey unbound for Scotland

Third verse, different from the first. We are not flying to Scotland.

We gave up. Headed home. No Scotland trip this week. There comes a time when you have to say, this trip just isn't meant to be.

Grateful for safety in the air

Second verse, same as the first. I'm heading to Scotland tonight.

Saturday is a cruise on Azamara Journey's voyage of castles, distilleries and pubs, ending in Dublin. Please don't leave without me.

Didn't make it to Scotland last night, as storms from the Ohio Valley to New York delayed my planes and plans, and those of thousands of others, many headed for the 2012 Olympics in London. After about 5 hours at the airport in Cleveland last evening, I headed home, ready to try again the next day.

Tight flights to cruise on new Carnival Breeze

Hello from Marseille, France, where I’m lucky to be sitting aboard the new Carnival Breeze on the first day of a Mediterranean Sea cruise. Lucky, because I broke one of my basic cruise rules on this trip: Never plan to arrive at the port on getaway day, as you might miss the ship.

Carnival Breeze was to begin a 12-night cruise at 5 p.m. on Friday.

Feeling a significant measure of comeuppance, I watched my flight to Europe take off without me on Thursday night. Due to mechanical difficulties, my connecting plane from Cleveland was 90 minutes late arriving in Philadelphia. The Cleveland plane was still sitting on the tarmac of the Philadelphia airport, waiting for a gate, when my scheduled flight to Barcelona taxied out to the runway.

Crabbing and coughs in Southwest Louisiana

After more than two weeks on the road, in the air, and at sea, I have landed in Lake Charles, in Southwest Louisiana, about the only place in the state that isn't worried about flooding. I am burdened with kennel cough and the Mother’s Day card I bought as I left the United States April 29.

Airplanes, full of sneezing, runny nosed bodies caged in the seats closest to me, always seem to leach out a cold or cough  in the air. On this three-week trip I have boarded nine flights, and I have two yet to go before I am home. Who knows what other germs will find me before the trip is done. And how long will this kennel cough hang on?

The Mother’s Day card is my fault. I didn’t want to mail it too soon, as April 29 was more than a week ahead of May 8. Inevitably, I mailed it too late. But I told mom she will get a card later this week that has been in Chicago, Munich, Venice, Barcelona, Philadelphia, Cleveland, New York, Minneapolis, Dallas, and now Lake Charles. That ought to count for something.

I am in Lake Charles not to gamble, which the tourists do here on boats that are permanently moored at lakes’ edges, but to eat Cajun sausage and to hunt for crabs in a tour group led by Captain Sammie, pictured at right. We will be armed with chicken necks and string. I will tell you about that in my next post.

Cruising, a free voyage to the Bahamas

I met an enterprising woman cruising on Azamara Journey, during our November crossing of the Atlantic. She said she had just booked a free four-night cruise.

In this crazy world of travel anomalies and managed discounts, her plan made perfect sense.