yesterday was the most gorgeous day, we woke up in our villa in the sun, had breakfast buffet on the terrace, but not as fancy as the b'fast in Siem Reap at their Victoria hotel, then we went for a walk on the beach. Yesterday, Norman had touched some rocks and cut a thin layer of skin in his foot so I wanted to find a spot to swim in without any rocks and sure enough, after about 200 meters, we found a beautiful protected beach at the next door resort " The Amaryllis hotel" and we had the best time in the warm, transparent, clean sea , us and about half a dozen of russian ladies on a vacation. Conversation was fun, we exchanged first names and the few worlds we knew in russian like : tovaritch, samovar, vodka and doz vidanya......
After the sea, we went to the pool where the water was even warmer...it felt like a bathtub, and we were the only one there, amazing feeling of being able to swim alone, just the 2 of us. Then we had to pack and send luggage to front desk, have a small lunch and get ready for our one hour massage for 39$ at the hotel's Spa, with its beautiful setting, flower arrangments and gorgeous ladies in turquoise outfits.

tonight is sadly the last night of the trip. We are in Phan Thiet, at the lovely Victoria Hotel, and I know in my mind I have to prepare to say good bye to this trip, to this country and this continent, but in my heart I am not ready at all. I fell in love with vietnam, with cruise on river, with pampering the asian way, the kindness of its people, their shining beauty, the grace of their soul! What a new and wonderful experience, and i never even had a chance to talk about Angkor Wat and how amazing it was! It was so stimulating and exhausting with the heat, the excitement, we would just collapse into bed at night and start over the next day. I was not able to keep the blog , lack of stamina and no free time in a full schedule. But in all, a much rewarding experience with a new look into this fascinating continent.
I miss my kids, my Mabel, my Cookie, we bought loads of presents, it was fun and rather affordable . We made friends with all the people on the boat , even some of the japanese ones who smiled back, in a totally unorthodoxe way.
We rode on all sorts of mode of transortations, our beautiful cruise ship Jayaravama, Sanpan boats, touktouk (rickshaws) motorbikes, private cars, vans, elephants, hot-air balloon on a stick etc.....
We shopped in local markets, streets sidewalks, hotels boutiques, post offices, museums, we ate incredible food, I made crepe for the entire ship one morning, that was a lot of fun! We took 2 cooking classes, one on the boat for cambodian food and one yesterday in Saigon for vietnamese food, after shopping a the local market for all the ingredients (great pictures to follow)
it's late now, we had the Thai dinner on the beach and we have to go to bed after the horrendous ride this morning to get here : 4 and half hours of incredible traffic, motorbikes with 3 or 4 people generally on it, riding in the middle of the road, trucks, buses riding mad and fast, and no highway, just a regular 2 lanes poorly paved road where you have to fend for yourself, a jungle of a traffic....., I will elaborate more on this topic, but it's time to go to bed under our ceiling mosquito net...... tomorrow we have time for a few hour of suntan on the beach or the 2 pools and a massage before we go back to Saigon to the airport, our flight is at midnight. bonsoir tout le monde

Today is Feb 16th, we woke up in Phnom Penh this morning. The boat is an amazing way to bridge distances, I love the convenience. It makes life so easy but a bit confusing because the days follow one after the other, you change location, you tour a town, or a village, a fish farm, a brick factory, but at the end of the week it is hard (at least for me) to remember the order it took place.....But today stands out with the visit of the royal palace of Phnom Penh (the spelling keeps on changing on signs I saw in town..)and the incredible lecture we had from the PHD lady professor who lived thrue 4 different regimes since her childhood and was deplaced, suffered from the kmehr Rouge regime lived in Paris, San Francisco , Maine and has now returned to Cambodia to find her roots....and some identity. I could have talked to her all day but we had to go on with our visit schedule and the Palace was waiting for us, with its beautiful asian roofs arching graciously to the sky with buddahs and cobras and monkeys and elephants statues and a garden adorned with fountains with fragile and beautiful lotus floating langorously at the surface. The walls of the coronation room were oozing with gold and precious stones, a big green buddha statue called the emerald buddah but in fact made out of almost translucide jade like I never saw that color of green before, was standing on top of a gold altar, it was gaudy, too much for my taste and Norodom Sihanuk has never been my cup of tea as far as i can remember, he was some kind of puppet king, I think that's what my father used to say when I was a child at that time! When you remember what the people of this country went thrue for the last 60 years, you cannot look at that gold and feel good about it, too much suffering, to much blood shed....we could not bear going to the War Museum this afternoon and the Killing Fields either, to heavy for us, we went shopping instead, but because of the New year, the Russian market was closed and we ended up at the Central Market, 2nd best in choices. One vendor had attractive goods for us and then we went back to the ship in a rickshaw for 2 dollars! The weather is incredible, today 34 degres celtius, and some humidity. We walked to the National Museum and it was HOT...I found lovely watercolors to send as notecards for the family.

today is saturday the 13 th down here on the Mekong.....I hope, I am not sure anymore but Normee seems to think so.

We had a great sleep, or at least I did because of the lovely sleeping pill I took...sweet dreams and all. We had a Brkfast at the hotel, nice, and a walk finally around the block to look at the celebration of the, New Year or Tet festival, which is in conjunction with the Chinese New year and they had Tigers everywhere and entire streets decorated with flowers and altars, and families in their best attires strolling around, taking pictures.

The representatives of the cruise came to meet us on the 5 th floor where a mini-receptions with food and drinks was set for us and we met the other passengers, a mix of nationalities, some from Switzerland, some germans and Dutch, and americans from Carlifornia or Florida. it seems i am ze only french one, and everybody is very respectuful and calling Madame.

We boarded the bus and rode for on hour or so to My Tho, we passed a couple of crappy neighborhoods, but then in the country side the rice paddies shined of the brightest green, and rural landscaped replace urban chaos.

The boat stand white and blue trim, and we were escorted to the bar for a welcome coktail and introduction, and then they guided us to our cabins and brought our luggage. We love our large quarters and balcony, I took pictures of everything, and while everyone was getting settle I booked my first asian massage and it was wonderful. Right on the boat is a Spa, and for a third of what it costs in Mo'town, I had a one hour massage worth remembering.

Tomorrow, we start early to jump on a Sanpan to visit little villages. We are exhausted, but Normee is watching "Good Morning Viet Nam in the Bar with 5 other passengers.

good night everyone,

Talking about a difference in weather, since last night we are in the midst of the biggest snow storm of the year so far and the stress is rising at the same time as the snow level. Today Newark airport cancelled all its flights, and Norman and I are nervous about tomorrow's outcome. Are we going to be able to leave on schedule to Narita, Japan in order to catch our next flight to Saigon on Vietnam Airlines still ran by Continental, so that at the end of the 14 + 3 layover + 6 hours to Vietnam we would arrived on time to sleep the night ( or day?) at the Hotel booked for us because the next morning we have to be picked up at 12:00pm to go on the Boat and start the cruise? So many factors involved to reach that goal!!! and what a long sentence this was sorry friendly readers :-)

My new, amazing camera was already packed away but I wenet to get it to take the first picture of the trip,

a couple of other reason to choose this type of river cruising is that it's comfortable without beeing stuffy, no needs to dress up for diner, no captain table, no casino and shows with half naked girls with feathers...but everyone gets a cabin with a balcony, 27 cabins in all, it's intimate, and from what I can imagine it's for people with a good amount of common sense who know how to prioritize, or rather they prioritize in a way that I will relate to. So, no big ship for us, but I am really happy about it. When I went to Peru and stayed in 2 stars little inns, with my backpack on the shoulders I was also traveling according to my heart, and with this cruise I don't feel I sold my soul to the devil, I still believe in the same principle, I respect the people of the countries I visit, I dont' think my culture is better than theirs, we are just different, and VIVE LA DIFFERENCE.

Wouah, If you had told me that I would create a blog to record my traveling adventures at this time in my life I would not have believed it. But than again, Sherrye called this afternoon and told me how easy it would be, so here I am, trying not to do typos and exposing my thougths and anticipations about our Vietnam trip, the boat on the Mekong River, the floating markets I envision, the insane traffic with mopeds loaded with 20 chicken cages and baskets etc...the busy people of Saigon (Ho Chi Min City, but apparently no one uses the long name) the street vendors, the temples, the smells, the FOOD!!! Anthony Bourdain swears that vietnamese food is his favorite, I know I will not be as adventurous as he is with calf eyes and frogs tongues, and pork knuckels ( sorry for spelling....) but still, it sounds enchanting, very exotic , tempting, in one word it is my dream trip.

I have never been to Asia, I don't know what to expect, is my anticipation to high? am I beeing realistic? But than again, I never before have traveled in such lovely, pampered conditons.

I just turned 60 in June, and I have never been on a cruise by pure fear of crowds of old people on boats lining up to eat at gargantuesque buffet in a frenzie.

This is my stereotype of what some cruises are, so when we decided to go on this trip, we looked carefully at options, and I gave my green light for this particular one for a couple of reasons that seemed good at that time. They customized the trip for us, somebody will come pick us up at the airport, drive us to the hotel, next day pick up and drive us to the boat etc....

They made arrangments for us to take a vietnames cooking class ( I can't wait)

Since I am brand new at this I don't know if I am doing it right but I will try to write about the trip every day or whenever possible to share my traveling impressions, and my loved ones will be able to read and comment on it if they wish......