Thursday, February 19, 2026
We got an earlier start today to join Barbara and Jeff whom we met on the cruise for a trip to Ha Long Bay, a scenic area northeast of Hanoi. Our tour guide, Sammie, was waiting for us in the lobby of the hotel and directed us to a waiting van. After picking up Barbara and Jeff we began the 2-hour (plus) drive to Ha Long Bay. It was interesting to see a bit of northern Vietnam outside downtown Hanoi. Much of the route was an expressway, reminiscent of such roads in Europe.
We passed through the port city of Haiphong, which we remember from news reports during the Vietnam War. It looked like a typical port, with cranes for unloading containers from freight ships.
On arrival at Ha Long Bay, we passed through a small passenger terminal on the way to our tour boat. The five of us were on a very comfortable boat, probably suitable for about 40 people. We all were asking, “Is this just for us?” As we sailed out of the port area, we saw surrounding condos and hotels, likely vacation or rental homes.
Our first stop was Thien Cung (Heavenly Palace) Cave. While we have been to quite a few caverns in California; in comparison, this was enormous! It’s a dry cavern, nicely lit, with lots of opportunities to imagine different animals in the stalactite formations.
After leaving Thien Cung and the island it is on, we were treated to an elaborate lunch on the boat, probably more than twice what we could eat. It was an opportunity to sample several local specialties, including oysters, stuffed crab, and a whole fish. We felt guilty that we had so much food but were assured that the leftovers would not be wasted.
En route to our next stop, we passed by a famous rock formation known as the “kissing chickens” that appears to be one large rock split in half. We then went to a small port where we transferred to a sampan rowed by a local guide that took us under a natural bridge into a small bay. We were told that local fishermen use the bay to shelter from typhoons that occasionally hit the area.
Returning to the origin port and our van, we began the trip back to Hanoi. Along the way, we stopped at a local pearl farming facility. We were shown the process by which small bits of sand are implanted in oysters that eventually develop into pearls. We also saw the harvesting and grading process for the pearls. Naturally there was a large showroom to allow us to purchase pearl jewelry. We did find a nice necklace for Kenna there.
We had a full day by the time we returned to Hanoi. While in our hotel room, deciding what to do for dinner, we heard a bit of a disturbance (drums, etc.) outside. We decided to go down to check this out and found a couple of costumed lions visiting local businesses to give Tet blessings. We had a good time watching and videoing the festivities for a while. We weren’t sure which of the many crowded streetside restaurants to eat at for dinner and decided we would prefer something quieter. So we returned to the rooftop restaurant at our hotel for dinner and retired for the evening.
This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
After an enjoyable buffet breakfast at our hotel, we set out to explore Hanoi a bit. Hoan Kiem Lake is only a few blocks away and was also a stop for some hop-on hop-off bus tours that we considered. The many scooters and cars made crossing streets a challenge. Just walking down the street was often tricky because of scooters and merchants’ goods parked on the “sidewalk”, making it necessary to frequently divert out to the street.
When we arrived at the lake, we found a large, very popular park area. Since it is the Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday, we were told that Hanoi might be deserted because so many people go to visit their families elsewhere. That was not in evidence here, with many families gathering at the lake to take pictures (apparently a New Year tradition). The park around the lake was also specially decorated for Tet, with many flowers (particularly chrysanthemums) and festive signs wishing us a Happy New Year.
We went to a ticket booth to book a hop-on hop-off bus tour, and the first one available was at 1:15 pm. Since it was only 11 am, we decided to walk around the lake. There were uncluttered sidewalks, although we did have to stop often to stay out of the way of family pictures. Den Ngoc Sun temple, on an island in the lake connected by a bridge, was particularly busy and we didn’t attempt to go there.
By the time we returned to the ticket booth, we were both a little hungry. We decided to avoid the American fast food like KFC and discovered that many of the other places only served coffee and related beverages. Eventually, we bought a couple of barbecued chicken skewers from a street vendor and coffee from one of the shops to go with it.
At the appointed time, we got in line for the tour bus, which started a few minutes later. As we had hoped, the tour took us past quite a few Hanoi landmarks, including Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum, Hoa Lo Prison (the “Hanoi Hilton”), the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, and the Temple of Literature. We didn’t opt to hop off at any of the stops because of the limited time we had available, but we did need to get off a couple of stops before we had completed a full loop. We would have had to change buses here, but instead we just left the tour.
We were interested in going back to see the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, so we walked there and toured it. There was an excellent display of fabrics and clothing from several of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities, in addition to the expected exhibits highlighting women’s contributions to Vietnam’s history. Returning to the hotel, we passed by the Hoa Lo Prison but decided not to visit the prison itself.
Tired at this point, we decided to check out the rooftop restaurant/bar for dinner. It was quite peaceful, a nice counterpoint to the frantic pace of Hanoi. As an added bonus, we had a great view of occasional fireworks celebrating Tet.
This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
While our tour offered an optional pre-trip extension to Hanoi, Hue, and other parts of Vietnam, it didn’t work with our schedule. We decided instead to add our own 3-day extension to Hanoi at the end.
After a little last-minute souvenir shopping in Siem Reap, we spent much of the day at the Raffles Hotel saying good-byes to many of our fellow travelers. Our flight was late in the afternoon, and we were among the last to leave. Two other couples, Jeff and Barbara, and Brit and Jan, were on the same flight to Hanoi. Jeff and Barbara had very similar plans to ours, while Brit and Jan had a much longer itinerary planned.
We had hoped to book a tour guide in Hanoi through the same service that provided the tour’s local guides in Saigon. But they informed me that because many of their guides were taking a vacation during the Tet holiday (coinciding with our visit to Hanoi), they could not provide one. But Jeff and Barbara said they had a guide and would check with her if we could join their tour of Ha Long Bay on Thursday. We later heard that she could accommodate us, which will greatly enhance our visit.
In the afternoon, we set out in one of the small buses with one of our local guides. The new Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport is quite a distance, a little over an hour, out of town. We arrived at the airport’s huge, but mostly deserted, terminal. It was quickly evident that the airport had been financed by the Chinese, from the X-ray machines with side-by-side Cambodian and Chinese flags, the pedestrian barriers bearing the name of the Chinese-owned management company (Yunnan Investment Holdings Limited), and the traditional Chinese clothing worn by the check-in clerks.
We spent most of the time waiting for our flight in the business-class lounge. When using their WiFi, I found that they were trying to substitute their own security certificate for the one my email server uses, indicating that they may be trying to monitor my email. Fortunately, I was able to use the cellular network for email access instead.
We had arranged with our hotel for a transfer from the airport. It was very chaotic in the arrival area when we got out of immigration and customs, so it took a few minutes to find the driver holding a sign with our name. The hour-long ride from the airport gave us our first glimpse of traffic in Hanoi: crazy. As we approached our hotel, we found ourselves on narrower and narrower streets crowded with people, scooters, and cars. Somehow our driver managed to stop and let us out right in front of our hotel.
We stayed in the May de Ville Crown Hotel in the Old Quarter of Hanoi. We were greeted with cups of spiced tea when we arrived, which were very welcome. The hotel was compact but clean and comfortable, although its five-star rating might be a bit of a stretch.
This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Monday, February 16, 2026
Today, our last full day of the tour, began with a morning excursion to Banteay Srei, a temple at the far end of the Angkor complex, that is noted for its pink sandstone. It also has carvings that are more detailed and complex than most we have seen at other temples.
On the way back, we stopped at the Satcha Handicraft Center, a handcraft incubation center in Siem Reap that featured wood and stone carving, painting, and other crafts. We were able to see the artisans at work and the tools with which they did their work. There was a small shop where we could buy some of their items as well. Many handcraft skills were lost as a result of the Khmer Rouge massacre, and centers like this are preserving and encouraging those skills.
Lunch was on our own, so Kenna and I decided to have lunch “by the pool” behind the Raffles. It was a hot, sunny day, so we ended up eating in the shade of a tree a short distance away. Aside from some insects nibbling at Kenna’s feet, we had a pleasant lunch.
In the afternoon, we had a few options, including a visit to the Angkor National Museum or on a photo tour with Cookie. I opted to stay behind and rest; by this point in the tour, I was exhausted and needed to rest my right leg, which was sore from yesterday’s Angkor Wat excursion. Kenna opted for the museum, which she found quite worthwhile.
The evening featured our farewell cocktail reception and dinner, located close to where Kenna and I had lunch. Dinner was in a semi-secluded area nearby, with more luminarias to guide us to the right place and another excellent tasting menu.
This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Sunday, February 15, 2026
Today’s itinerary began with a very early visit to Angkor Wat, the main Angkor temple, to watch the sun rise over the temple. This involved getting up around 4:30 am and leaving for the temple at 5:30 to see the sunrise around 6:30. As usual, our tour leaders had thought of everything and had pastries and beverages available to grab, so nobody was hungry.
When we arrived at Angkor Wat, we were far from alone. The spot that the guide had planned for us to sit and watch the sunrise was already taken, but he had other locations in mind as well. We ended up mostly standing for the sunrise, which wasn’t a problem and allowed us to move around a bit as the sun rose and crowds moved. Following sunrise, he directed us to a reflecting pool for more pictures of the temple.
We then entered the temple itself and explored, noting particularly long, intricately carved walls depicting battles and royal life. Climbing to the second floor, we were then given an opportunity to climb a steep stairway to enter the central tower. The tower was crowded, with a short line to enter and a longer line to exit due to the steepness of the stairs.
On the other side of the temple was another long wall with images of historical events. One of the others on the tour noted an analogy with the Bayeux Tapestry, which had been my thought as well.
Although it felt like a long morning, when we returned to the hotel, it was only about 10 am. Breakfast was waiting for us, but several of us characterized it as “brunch” instead.
We had some time on our own following breakfast/brunch, so Kenna and I walked over to a nearby supermarket to explore and pick up a few items. The supermarket was very large and comprised 2 floors and seemed to cater to tourists like us as well as expats and other visitors. We picked up some sodas ($0.50 each, compared with $6.00 in the hotel) and a small box of palm sugar. There was also a huge selection of flavored potato chips, so we picked up a bag of the honey-mustard flavor, which turned out to be quite good.
In the afternoon, we had an excursion to the Bayon Temple in Angkor Thom and some associated structures nearby.
The evening was an elaborate outdoor dinner at another temple in the complex, Prasat Kravan. Our tour operator, Lindblad, and the Raffles, who catered it, put on an amazing event for us. We took small buses and on arrival were greeted by a short performance by Khmer dancers. We then walked through hundreds (thousands?) of luminarias to an area where we were served wine, beer, and hors d’oeuvres, and later to a third area on the other side of the temple where tables had been set and we were served a tasting-style dinner. Between dinner courses, the dancers performed different traditional dances, each telling a different story. This was an amazing production, even more so because of its remoteness.
This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Saturday, February 14, 2026
Overnight, the Jahan moved to the town of Steung Trang to prepare for our travel to Siem Reap and the Angkor temple complex. As is typical for cruises, we had to get off the ship promptly at 8am to allow the crew to prepare for their next cruise. We bid the crew goodbye and boarded buses for Siem Reap, about a 4 1/2-hour drive. Along the way, our new local guides pointed out some of the agriculture on the route, including cashews (apparently Cambodia’s number one export, to our surprise) and groves of rubber trees. We also stopped at a roadside rest area where we marveled at some of the unusual snack items that they offered, particularly unusual flavors of potato chips.
Eventually, we arrived at Siem Reap, where we are staying at the Raffles Grand Hotel. It is indeed a grand hotel, in an updated classic style. We were a little earlier than check-in time, so we immediately went to the restaurant for a buffet-style lunch. Our rooms were ready after lunch, so we got cleaned up before our late afternoon excursion to Ta Prohm, the first of several temples we would visit in the area. Ta Prohm is notable for being featured in the movie “Tomb Raider”. It is distinguished by several trees that have grown over portions of the temple, with roots descending the sides of the buildings to the ground. We stopped several times for our guide to take pictures of us with these tree roots.
Dinner was on our own this evening, but neither of us was very hungry after the filling buffet lunch. We met Dave and Jan in the hotel’s Elephant Bar, an elegant cocktail lounge featuring an extensive gin selection. I had their featured gin and tonic, while Kenna had a Singapore Sling in recognition of Raffles’ origins in Singapore. We split a club sandwich, which was enough food, and headed for bed early. Tomorrow will be an extra early day!
This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Friday, February 13, 2026
Today is our last full day aboard the Jahan, as we will be disembarking early tomorrow for our overland trip to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.
We began the day with a visit to the small village of Angkor Ban, both to get another look at small-town Cambodian life and to view the architecture of the houses, some of which are over 100 years old. We had an opportunity to visit one of the oldest houses and to meet with its owner, and some of our group got to venture inside.
After our walk, we returned to the Jahan for a traditional Buddhist blessing ceremony that was pleasant and spiritual, even though none of us understood what was being said. Those of us who wished to received cotton wrist bracelets that were tied on by one of the monks. This was followed by another presentation by Doug, our historian.
I used the presentation time to select four of my pictures for the group slideshow. This is a tradition on many of these trips to share the best pictures you took with the group and to see those captured by others. Selecting only three or four from the hundreds I had taken was no easy task, but I came up with a reasonable set. Kenna did so with her pictures as well.
After lunch (and time set aside for packing), we visited the town of Kampong Cham to see the Wat Nokor monastery, which is somewhat in the Angkor style we will be seeing in the next few days.
After returning, we had a special farewell-to-the-ship party followed by an extra-elegant dinner in the Jahan’s dining room. We then retreated to our cabin to finish packing and prepare for tomorrow morning’s departure for Siem Reap.
This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Today began early with a pre-dawn departure to see a rice field close-up. We experienced yet another mode of transportation today: an oxcart. Kenna and I rode in the back of a cart that was pulled by two cattle and driven by a local resident. It was a bumpy ride but an interesting experience. At the rice field, we learned a bit about rice farming: they get 2 or 3 crops per year in each field, and there are several different strategies for planting and managing the crop. We also saw some fields for growing lotus flowers, an important cultural symbol.
A further oxcart ride took us to the Kampong Tralach Green School. This nonprofit was founded in 2016 to teach English and computer skills to students from elementary through high school. We met at a school assembly, where they sang to us and we also sang for them. We then had a few minutes to meet with some of the students in small groups to give them a chance to practice their English.
We returned to the Jahan, where we had a delayed breakfast followed by a fashion show of Khmer dress. Kenna volunteered to be the female model and was dressed in beautiful fabrics in the local style. This was followed by a presentation on the Tonle Sap river system. Soon after, we were back in Phnom Penh at the confluence of the Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers and could see a sharp dividing line between the water from each river.
After lunch, we had a presentation on Cambodia in the 1990s from Doug Crispin, our historian guide, followed by an excursion to a silk-making shop in the town of Prek Bangkong. This was a small, family-run operation covering the entire process from growing the silk worms, harvesting and spinning the silk, and weaving the fabric. Quite a few of the tour members, including us, took advantage of the opportunity to buy some of the fabric.
This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
After yesterday’s intense day of touring (both physically and emotionally), today is a lighter touring day. We began with a sunrise photo expedition in Phnom Penh, led by our photography expert, Chris. We had a chance to take some pictures of a Tai Chi exercise along the river and then traveled through a local market area for more pictures of produce and other wares.
Following our return, the Jahan cruised up the Tonle Sap River. Tonle Sap is a tributary of the Mekong, leading northwest of Phnom Penh toward the Tonle Sap Lake, one of the largest in Southeast Asia. The river has the unique characteristic that during the monsoon season it flows in the opposite direction (northward).
During the morning, a local historian gave an extensive talk on Cambodian history, and we were offered another photography class. We then got off the Jahan at the village of Kampong Laeang, where we had a demonstration of the construction of ceramic pots and of harvesting sap from sugar palm trees, which are widely found in the area.
The Jahan then began its cruise southward on the Tonle Sap River, back toward Phnom Penh.
This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
After a relatively leisurely day yesterday, we were warned that today would be long and intense.
After breakfast, we began with on-ship immigration formalities and a short briefing in the lounge, during which the expedition leader held up my daypack! It turns out that one of the other guests had picked it up for me, and I was much relieved.
We began the day’s touring by boarding “cyclos” for a short tour of Phnom Penh. Cyclos are like the rickshaws we rode yesterday, except that they are a single unit, rather than being towed as we were in the rickshaws. They were also more comfortable, having seats with backs. The ride was very pleasant, being early in the day with very moderate temperatures.
We ended our cyclo ride at the Royal Palace for a tour led by our guides, describing the Cambodian monarchy and various buildings on the site. This was followed by a visit to the National Museum that was led by a museum guide. The Museum contains many ancient sculptures that had been looted and have recently been repatriated from other museums and collections around the world.
For lunch, we stopped at Topaz, an elegant fine dining restaurant. Very much in contrast with this, our next stop was at the S-21 Genocide Museum. S-21 is a former high school that was repurposed by the Khmer Rouge as a prison. Some of the cells (brick subdivisions of classrooms) were on display along with many pictures of people who were imprisoned and tortured there. There were also many skulls on display.
Following the Genocide Museum, we had the option of either going shopping or traveling by bus to the killing field at Choueng Ek. We took the much harsher option. Choueng Ek was one of hundreds of killing fields where the Khmer Rouge killed prisoners in the late 1970s. We walked on a boardwalk through the field, protecting the many areas with buried human remains. Many of the executed prisoners were also tortured before being killed or were killed in particularly brutal ways. The prisoners were transported from the city during the night and were executed during the day. It is hard to overstate what a disturbing place this is.
After returning to the Jahan, we were treated to a BBQ buffet dinner and a performance by Cambodian Apsara dancers, which helped to break the mood from the afternoon.
This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.