Jen and Jerry's Excellent Adventure

First, a bit of history: Bangkok dates at least to the 15 th Century and nobody can pinpoint the meaning of the word, although historians love to guess. Located at the mouth of a strategic river, the city thrived. You may already know that Thailand was once called Siam. The country and its capital, Bangkok, have bounced from various occupations, but has a fairly consistent reign of many kings dating to the 1700S with those in late 1800s allowing international trade and the introduction of the industrial revolution. There was some bombing of Thailand in WW2 because they allied with Japan, but because the US sent aid post-war, the attitude toward Americans seems to be quite amiable. We had visited Bangkok 30 years ago; it was our first of 3 destinations as we left China and took three months to work our way emotionally and economically back to the West. This HUGE city can be traversed by boat (rivers and canals provide a stable means of transport for people and goods), an underground Met

This was our first time into Cambodia and the ship was docked here only from 6 am to 4 pm. We were assigned to the second departure for our tour, it didn’t leave until 12:45, so we made it good for us by taking the free shuttle bus into town. Early. To see the market which had awakened--as all do—before 6 am. The disparity between rich and poor was glaringly evident in this huge market with glass cases of god jewelry adjacent to a stall with a whirring old-time sewing machine making clothing. Sihanoukville (see HA nook vil) is a harbor city built in 1955 by King Sihanouk who wanted a large seaport. Currently, the city is planning to build a deeper port to allow bigger cruise ships to land in its port. Our ship is smaller than many and can utilize more shallow ports. “Can you understand me?” our guide, Serey asked in his broken English, “You need to understand me because we’ll be walking in the forest today.” We have had a wide range of English skills displayed by guides on our various

 Good Morning Vietnam!  This was the title for today’s tour and it was apt in any number of ways. We watched the movie with the same title in its entirety for the first time several days ago in preparation. Our tour left early, at 7:15 necessitating a 5:00 alarm for meds for a 6:00 breakfast to arrive in the lounge to pick up our bus number at 7. We left about 7:30 and drove around downtown a bit seeing some of the sites we stopped at yesterday. This guide proved to be the polar opposite of yesterday’s guide. He was very pro-government and government policies. Homeless and beggars put in asylums. Capital punishment for drug dealers. No fireworks allowed. No prostitution allowed. No guns allowed for citizens, just for police and army. No gambling allowed (except they have lottery tickets). Yes, another repressive communist government exerting control over its citizens. We arrive at our first stop which was the War Remnants Museum. The North knows the Vietnam War as the “War against the