Chau Doc was a quaint border town a bustling downtown center. Our hotel was the best deal yet, $13 a night for an air conditioned room overlooking the busy market. The friendliest staff ever which really helped. They organized a private boat ride for us to the floating markets as well as to a floating fishing village nearby. All so fascinating, so many impressions of these people making their living off the river. They row standing in little dug out wooden boats, lots of them full of veggies and fruit. The river is like their street, lots of traffic, but all going smoothly. You never hear shouting or angry voices. So the next day we were off on a boat up the Mekong across the border into Cambodia. We got our visa river side at the customs, then it was a 6 hr. boat ride to Phnom Penh. Interesting scenery along the way, mostly agriculture (rice). We got a Tuck Tuck (taxi) ride to our little guesthouse, which we like alot, especially since it comes with a pool. It's in the 90's, very hot and humid. We met up with Stephen (our former s0n-in-law) who moved to Phnom Penh a couple of month ago with his wife Rachel, who works here as a lawyer. He is showing us around, which is wonderful, to get an inside scoop on the town. The people here are mostly Khmer and there is a lot of history, and mostly not good (Khmer Rouge) Almost the whole population was killed or driven out of the city during their regime and lots of the beautiful French colonial buildings were destroyed. Their are beautiful temples though, and the Royal Palace where the new King lives. We will go see some of that today. The food here is a bit different from Vietnam, but also very delicious. Lots of poverty in Cambodia, more so then Vietnam, but here in the city things are booming. Lots of construction and jobs available for professional people.
Got to go, computer time is up.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
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