Can Tho, Mekong Delta

We picked Can Tho, Vietnam as a base to explore the Mekong Delta.  Instead of (my imagined) pastoral labyrinth of canals and rice paddies, the city itself was large and quite bustling. We encountered the first skyscrapers again since Bangkok and the traffic was intense.  Motorbikes are king of Vietnamese roads and traffic signals are not always present.

Babçia and Papa sending their prayers up in smoke on the giant cone incense of Ong Temple.

Maya's request.  What was more out of character for us: that we picked non-local food, or that we picked a sushi restaurant in a mall?

A morning boat tour of the floating market.  
Even though we began at 5:30am, the markets seemed a little quiet by the time we got there.  When we stopped to see a small rice noodle making operation, Maya got to play catcher for the fresh cut noodle strips.  The boatwoman split her time between steering and weaving intricate palm leaf creatures and gifts for the girls.  Jeff learned all about the annoyances of government intrusion in business and personal affairs from our guide.

Although this was a daytime, 4-hour ride, we got a double-decker sleeper-bus to Ho Chi Minh City.  This configuration differed from the Cambodian Night Bus, as the seats were adjustable, but didn't really fit any adults.

Kampot

The Kampot province was a delightful stopover after the first 2 busy weeks of the trip.  It is a quiet town with a laid back vibe. Not overtly touristy.

Two Moons Guesthouse in Kampot.
Up to now we had a pool at each place we stayed.  It really helps with the kids' morale! 

We tried some good new foods and some bad. These large, street-cart snails had a smokey barnyard flavor.
On the other hand, we did have one of the best BBQ pork banh mi sandwiches of the trip at Kampot's night market.

Genna had saved her money to try rock climbing.  We had a great half-day outing with Climbodia trying their via ferrata, abseiling, climbing a few routes, and exploring a cave. Genna was a literal ROCK star.  She had far more energy to tackle more walls than any of the adults.
Maya and Babçia went kayaking while we were out.  After getting a little lost, they were rescued by some good British samaritans with a GPS.

One night we were solicited by a Tuk Tuk driver, Ren, to take a day trip with him through Kampot and Kep.  Along with another driver we took 2 tuk tuks to a sea salt production field (not in season), a rural village cafe and family farm, La Plantation pepper farm, another "Elephant Cave" temple, and through the town of Kep.  He was an enthusiastic guide and told us a lot about Kep's French Colonialism which was destroyed by the Khmer Rouge and how the city is coming back.  Our biggest disappointment was going to his preferred Kep Crab Restaurant (where he got a free meal) instead of letting us eat at the fish market.

Jeff can't pass up a straight razor shave, even if it is in a random rural village where we just stoped for drinks.

Learning how the famous Kampot black pepper is grown at La Plantation. 

This rural family showed us their piglets and then the cooler full of dog meat in the outdoor kitchen.  We saw very few horses on the entire trip (maybe 3 over the thousands of miles of countryside we passed).  Since oxen are the main beasts of burden and recreational pets are frivolous, the primary reason for caring for extra livestock is to put on the menu.

This monk insisted on a selfie with Grandpa, then Papa... but none with the ladies.
As we left, he was working through his pack of smokes..... OH, so that's what the alms are for!  Poor Genna did not fully consider this everytime she put money in a box to make an incense offering.  Not all monks are burning up the coffers with bad habits, but how do Buddhists reconcile the blinging of the temples with the Middle Path? (Obviously they are not the only religion that suffers from this hypocrisy)

Many cities had a bank of exercise equipment in their parks. The girls enjoyed this one along the Kampong River.

Cambodian Beaches

We decided to bypass the capital, Phnom Penh, and go straight to the beaches of Cambodia.

File this under: "Unexpected mode of transportation"

 The NIGHT BUS from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville was bunk-bed style. The bottom bunk was literally the floor of the bus and the "bed" was a doubles mat on one side of the aisle, that the girls shared, and singles (for the dads) on the other side.  I actually got more sleep than I would have imagined.

Before we made it to an island, we decided to give the coast a try.  Imagining Sihanoukville as an ugly port town, we went south to Otres Beach which is billed as a quiet alternative.  

Notes on Otres:

• We arrived to find our booking overbooked, so we had to scramble for a more expensive alternative.
• The "mainstreet" was a muddy potholed affair and many businesses were not operating this time of year (low season).  Thus it was difficult to find many food options, no walkable market, few restaurants.
• The water was quite WARM, really warm, but the beach was kind of trashy and the bracelet touts are persistent.
• We have recommended people skip the coast and head directly to one of the islands.
• This region is full of Chinese developers, which are shutting locals out of property and employment opportunities.

We booked a 3 island tour off Otres that included snorkeling and lunch on a long boat.  It turned out to be only 2 stops with a non-English speaking boatman.  He did collect these specimens for us to see... or for his dinner (not sure which, but they sat out in the sun for hours and died).   The visibility was not far beyond your toes, so snorkeling the shallow reef was creepy.

Our next stop was taking the speed ferry from Sihanoukville to Koh Rong Sanloem Island. We booked rooms at the swanky "The One" resort.  This was our most expensive lodging of the trip, but only $80 to compare with Western standards.  The Carrolls had a 2-room suite in a fairly new building. The Boyans' building next door was so new, it did not have hot water yet.

Pick your pleasure: room-adjacent pool or beach-front pool.

There was not a lot to do on the island (low season) so we spent our days lazing around, swimming in the warm, calm Saracen Bay, walking, or hopping from pool to pool.

Maya used YouTube to find portrait tutorials and spent lots of her free time practicing drawing. She really developed some amazing skills!

Angkor Wat

Two toodling towards temples in Tuk Tuks

Siem Reap was our base for touring the Temples of Angkor.  We secured 2 Tuk Tuks for the 6 of us to travel north of town for 2 days in a row to see various temple complexes.  

The first stop was the main temple of Angkor Wat. I wrote in my notes that none of the locations were TOO crowded, but there is plenty of crowd.  The girls wondered why so many (mostly young ladies) are dressed so fancy.  
HELLO!  INSTAGRAM PHOTOSHOOTS!
We used to refer to this phenomenon as "senior portraits"... where you would dress up and go somewhere scenic to have unnaturally lux photos taken of yourself.

Temple exploration was not a highlight for the girls.  They took offense to wearing pants in the heat and were uninterested in the history and archaeology.  While the area's claim to fame is "scene of Tomb Raider" it is far from a jungle playground of ruins that the kids can climb and explore freely.

Grandpa and Babçia helped to buffer the girls disgust with our itinerary.

We visited 3 temple complexes on Day 1.  Angkor Wat, Ta Prom, and Bayon.  

Ta Prom (Tomb Raider)

Most of us agreed that Bayon was our favorite temple. The large faces are everywhere you look!

Our first rainy spell - downpour at Bayon.  We knew most of our trip spanned the rainy season, but we hardly had any wet weather.... the first half of the trip.

On the second day, our hired Tuk Tuks took us farther (50 jarring kilometers of dirt road) to the intricately carved sandstone temples of Bantaey Srey. Then on to 1,000 Lingas waterfall where some local boys pointed out the green snake (pictured below).  The falls were just trickling now so we could still see the carved riverbed.

Siem Reap

We took a Giant Ibis bus from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia.  It took 8.5 hours and the border crossing was fairly straightforward and laid back (see below).

Welcome to Cambodian Customs and Immigration!

     We stayed at the European Guesthouse (Sweet Dreams), hosted by Mr. Nini.  This was the least expensive place we stayed, at $12/night. We thoroughly enjoyed the hospitality and the refreshing pool.  It is outside the hustle of Pub Street downtown yet within walking distance.  This was our base to explore the Temples of Angkor and surrounding countryside.

     Here we discovered that while US Dollars are accepted along with the local currency (Riel) they will only take bills in good shape.  No rips or old, dirty dollars! The banks will give them less than face value for damaged bills.

One of the first things we did was visit a silkworm farm.  It was very interesting and educational.  Plus, there were tiny kittens.

Returning from a temple outing one day, we split up.  The girls and I went to the Banteay Srei Butterfly Center, while the rest went to the Cambodian Landmine Museum.  

One night at dinner we were entertained by 5 year old "Maya".  She shared her milk-tabs (vitamins?) with us , sang the ABCs, and yelled at us for taking her picture.

2 for the price of 3 Fish Pedicures!  (Genna would not dip her toes.  I don't blame her!)

Genna preferred the luxury of having her hair shampooed for $2.  Each city we went then on, she sought out shampoos and planned her swimming schedule around it.

If you go to the market with (baby) Genna, you might get a few extra pieces of fruit or something new to try.  Everyone liked the BABIES!

     We did the 12-week, 2004 trip entirely on Lonely Planet books with no phone or internet.  Only a few hotels were pre-arranged.  We would arrive at a new town and go to the address of a guesthouse in the book where we hoped they had a room.  This time we had a reservation for every night, even if it was just booked 1 day ahead of time, and sometimes that didn't get through to the proprietor, but at least we had key information.  More of our booking choices were dictated by Bookings.com than Lonely Planet. In 2004 we only e-mailed our families from occasional stops at internet cafes.  Now we roll into a country, get a SIM card, and we are connected constantly. Hotels and transportation can be booked online. A large portion of our pre-trip planning was done on YouTube so there are fewer surprises since we saw exactly what to expect in videos.

Setting Off: "SE Asia 2018" in BKK

When Jeff stopped working 9 to 5 last summer, we knew this summer would be ideal for a big trip.  Asia with the kids had always been on the list. When Babçia and Grandpa jumped on the bandwagon we began fine tuning an itinerary that would work for all parties.  Lonely Planets were bought, borrowed, and gifted and Jeff and Mom took on the majority of research.  We consulted YouTube to find out what street food got Mark Weins to make the best faces and how to spend $20 a day in any given city. The girls planned their budget for souvenirs, activities, and ice cream.  

We had been to Thailand and India (pre-children) in autumn 2004 and thought some familiarity would give us a modicum of comfort arriving in a foreign land.  Jeff and Mom sketched an itinerary that included starting in Bangkok and the beaches of Koh Chang; two places we'd been before.  The rest of the route was a flexible arc across Cambodia, Angkor Wat, diving locations, the Mekong Delta and some Vietnamese beaches.  We would part with the Boyans after 4 weeks and continue up to Hanoi and back or circle around through Laos back to BKK.  Even though we loosely followed a pre-imagined itinerary, most lodging and transportation was booked a week or less ahead of time.

We are travelling light, just one (large, school backpack size) bag for each of us and 1 extra daypack.  It worked out perfectly and we never felt deprived of wardrobe or accessories. In 2004, we carried towering frame packs.  This time we scoff at travellers we see in that position. We're kind of over buying tons of souvenirs, so as long as you manage your laundry schedule, a small bag is the way to go.  

STEP 1: Get to the other side of the world.

@ Chicago Ohare, 2nd of 4 airports encountered en route to Bangkok.  Our "cheap flight" took us on Qatar Air, which traversed the long way around the globe with a stop in Doha.

The girls on the 13-hour transatlantic leg:

Hour 00:00 - "OMG, this is the coolest plane ever!"

(complimentary swag bag, personal TVs, video games, and food service)

Hour 01:30 - "OMG - so much food we cant even finish!"

Hour 03:00 (midnight our home time) - Maya is able to conk out. Genna is in tears, how will she survive this flight length?

Hour 04:00 - Genna's asleep

Hour 06:00 - Maya discovers the Trip-route feature of the TV, "We're only halfway!!!!!????"

Hour 10:00 - Genna woke up to discover she missed ice-cream service

We have the good fortune to be traveling with the Boyan Grandparents for the first 4 weeks of the journey. We met up in Chicago to embark together. Our first perk of family travel is they sat with the girls on the 2nd flight (7 hours) so Jeff and I actually got some sleep.

We arrived in Bangkok at 7:00am, 2 days later, having lost a day to time zones. An early arrival means that we have an ENTIRE busy day ahead of us before bedtime.

Khao San Road

We pre-booked a hotel (with airport pick up) near the famous traveller's hub of Khao San Road.  (Rambuttri Village Inn on a quieter side street).  Yes, the discerning traveller may poo-poo this backpacker mecca, but it fits the bill for being close to major attractions (walk to Grand Palace and Wat Pho).  Plus, you can conveniently arrange onward travel and tours from here (our top priority in the 1st few days).   I do admit we started our pilgrimage with some generic pad thai on the street the first day.  The rest of the day, the girls enjoyed the roof-top pool and explored shopping opportunities.

It was also decided that we would skip Koh Chang and find some Cambodian Beaches further down the line.  Summer is not the best time for diving near Koh Chang, so we hoped that it was a legitimate reason to skip it.  The direct route from Bangkok to Siem Reap makes more sense than going down to the islands and then back up.  This would mean that the Boyans missed out on having much Thai-time. 

Day 2
Stop #1: the Grand Palace
FYI - this place does enforce the strictest dress code we encountered.  Pants must be long.  Capris are not pants!  Leggings are not pants! (unless you're a "baby" ~ Genna).
It was vastly more crowded than we recall from 14 years ago.

Stop #2: Wat Pho
The Buddha is still reclining.

While waiting for Grandpa, Babcia, and Papa to have massages at the Wat Pho school, Genna contemplates yoga.

Practicing temple etiquette.

Find shade!  June is VERY HOT!