Travels with Pat

For our afternoon bus trip I decided to try walking up the steep embankment with Kathy’s help; however, 2 crew members rushed to assist my endeavor.  Neville had a chair for me to go back to the boat.      When Pauli, our guide, said that we were visiting the twin holy “mountains” of Phnom Prod and Phnom Srey (man and woman), I thought “big”; however, they were simply small hills.  I stayed on the bus while the others went into the monastery, saw various replicas of Buddha, watched monkeys playing outside and walked down many steps to the bus.                                                                                                                                      On our way to the ecotourism RURAL village of Choeungkok, supported by a French NGO, we saw a farmer with his water buffaloes cooling off in a pond.  One of our group said that she was “villaged out.”  The community was celebrating a festival and the children sang the ABC song.  Rice is grown in the wet season and the houses are built on stilts.                                                                                                                          Our evening entertainment began with a presentation of the whole crew  who performed several musical numbers and ended with the crew and passengers doing the twist, the Macarena and others.  Kathy was in her element – one of the captains put his hat on her head when they danced together.

We cast off before breakfast for Kampong Cham and the Khmer river community of Preak Bankang which is famous for its weaving production.  The majority of boats on the river are fishing; however, there are some cargo and dredge vessels.  My morning lecture notes state that fish is the main staple – smoked, fried, baked, fermented, dried, in a paste and other fish products.  In the dry season, fishermen turn to farming the rice fields which transforms into noodles, steamed, popped, sticky and paper to wrap wontons.  The Mekong is the 12th longest in the world and Tonle Sap Lake only ranks 2nd to the Amazon River for its bio diversity.

Today I waved goodbye to the group who was going to visit the Kampong Tralach Pagoda; however, Neville, our Tour Director, arranged for 4 crew members to carry me up the very steep bank with tiny toe hold in a deck chair.  Before I knew it, I was sitting in an ox cart with a crew member.  The local population stopped what they were doing and watched our parade as we passed along the bumpy roads, past rice fields and small villages on our way to the pagoda.  Back on the boat (after the crew members transported me down the bank), we cast off for the floating village of Kampong Chhnang on the shore of Tonle Lake, the largest freshwater lalke in southeast Asia.  It supplies fesh fish for 1/2 of the Cambodian population.

Our group took a tri-shaw ride(passenger sits in front of the cyclist) for a city tour of Phnom Penh , Cambodia, including the Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda(with dragon tails on roof corners to protect against evil and guarantee Prosperity) and National Museum which includes the world’s largest collection of classical Angkor Period.
After lunch some passengers went to the “Killing Fields” memorial. Before dinner, a group of young orphan girls presented a Cambodian Folkloric Dance on the Sun Deck where they gracefully moved their hands and struck statuesque poses.

We began this morning by going to the sun Deck to watch a colorful Vietnamese Lion Dance. Kathy joined the other passengerss in the excursion to Chau Doc where they visited a floating fish farm and a Cham tribal village. They learned that the Cham people are a matriarchal society, visited a home, participated in a tea ceremony, watched a young woman weaving on a loom and saw a monkey bridge(a low wooden bridge over a swampy area before returning to the ship and crossing into Cambodia.

In the morning our group visited a colorful floating market in the Mekong delta and observed the production of popped rice, rice paper, rice noodles and Vietnamese traditional sticky rice cakes wrapped in palm fronds.
In the afternoon we went to a Cao Dai temple which included elements of Catholicism, Hinduism and Buddhism with a giant eye located over the altar. Then we walked through a marketplace, through a blooming cactus garden and arrived at a brick factory which used 9 year old boys to push carts of the heavy baked bricks.

We went by bus from Ho Chi Minh City to My Tho, Vietnam where we embarked on the Pandaw River Cruiser. Our cabin was on the same deck as the restaurant and when we went to our first meal on board, I asked if there were any dining room chairs with arms (to give me a fighting chance of getting up). From that point on, everywhere I sat in the dining room, MY chair was brought to the table. That night we saw “The Lover” based on s book by a French author about her 32 year old Chinese lover when she was only 15. Later in the trip we visited his home.

From simple fishing villages to the mighty temples of
Angkor Wat, my Mekong River Expedition with my daughter, Kathy, proved to be very enlightening.
When our 18 hour flights landed us in Ho
Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), there were 8 million people creating a HUGE traffic jam watching the fireworks over the Saigon River in honor of the Tet New Year.
Our Vietnamese breakfast of soup and noodles preceded the city tour which included the Cu Chi Tunnels, the Ho Chi Minh trail with booby traps, the King’s palace, St. Mary’s Cathedral and a modern high vaulted Post Office.

Our last night was spent at Ashford Castle (1228 AD) in Cong on a 350 acre estate completely renovated with heated towel racks, luxourishly furnished rooms and a sumptuous four course meal in the Georgian dining room.
Kathy and I chose a boat ride through Lough (Lock) Corrib, the largest lake in Ireland with 365 wooded islands. We visited Inchagoill with monastic ruins from St Patrick’s sojourn when he was banished there.
A sing-along in the castle’s Dungeon Bar completed our Irish journey.

A double rainbow started our day’s excursion of the Connemara area featuring a land of mountains, brooks and rivers where Gaellic is definitely spoken.
During a marble factory tour we learned about different kinds of marble: while, at Kylemore Abbey, a neo- Gothic mansion with magnificent floral gardens, was our afternoon’s destination.