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.
Monday, February 9, 2026
We woke up early today and decided to explore outside our cabin while the Jahan navigated down the narrow Tan Chau canal. It was a beautiful morning, and I found our photography expert, Chris, and one of the other photographer guests on the bow of the ship. I returned with my camera and got some instruction and practice taking pictures of the birds flying alongside.
After breakfast, we were taken, again by sampan, into the town of Chau Doc. We started with a bicycle rickshaw ride through town, each of us getting our own rickshaw and driver. We arrived amid a bustling wet market, where it seemed that every kind of meat and fish imaginable was available for sale. As we walked, this transitioned into a dry market featuring many kinds of vegetables and fruit. We were then guided across a busy street to a Chinese temple, where we observed a wide range of activities from worship to Instagram photo sessions. There were many kids present, who were as cute as usual.
After returning to the Jahan, we were treated to a tour of the crew areas, including the (loud) engine room, galley, laundry, and crew bunk areas. I have often been fascinated by imagining these areas that are usually off-limits to guests. As expected, they were very spartan and somewhat small, but the tour gave me more appreciation for the people serving us on the cruise.
Paddy, one of the naturalists on the tour, gave a presentation on the hydrology of the Mekong River after lunch. This was followed by a cooking class (with accompanying cookbook) that Kenna took, but I decided to rest instead. Meanwhile, we passed from Vietnam into Cambodia.
As usual, the day finished with a cocktail hour, end-of-day briefing, and dinner in the dining room.
As I was getting ready for bed, I realized that I didn’t have my day pack and realized that I probably left it on the rickshaw. I did a bit of analysis and realized that this wasn’t a catastrophic loss, the most significant item being my sunglasses. Still, I was disappointed that I hadn’t kept better track of my things.
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 8, 2026
Today we are visiting two islands in the Mekong River, Cai Be and Binh Thanh. After breakfast, we boarded sampans for Cai Be, where we observed the construction of baskets and similar articles using dried water hyacinths that grow extensively on the Mekong. We then toured a fruit farm and had an opportunity to sample several native fruits, ranging from the familiar (pineapple) to the exotic (durian).
From there, we went to a facility making a variety of items from rice: rice paper, distilled rice wine, and puffed rice.
After lunch, we had a short talk on iPhone photography by Chris “Cookie” Cook, the photo instructor on the ship. We then departed for Binh Thanh Island, a community that focuses on weaving mats for a variety of uses, primarily flooring. Along the way, our sampan took a route through many fish farms on a canal paralleling the Mekong, where our guide explained the fish farming industry and its economics. This was followed by a meeting with several village elders who described the town’s history and issues.
Upon returning to the ship, we had the usual cocktail hour and dinner. Since Kenna and I were both tired, we opted not to attend the evening movie, “The Quiet American”. We will likely watch it when we return home.
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 7, 2026
Day 3 began early. We packed, ate breakfast, checked out of our hotel, and then took buses to the Saigon River (just a few blocks). There we boarded speedboats to take us up the river to Cu Cha, a journey of a little under two hours. Cu Cha is the site of many tunnels used by the Viet Cong during the war, where the tunnels and related facilities can be visited by the public.
The tour began with a small, leaf-covered tunnel opening that one of our fellow travelers climbed into, showing the ease with which the tunnel openings could be concealed. As we walked around, we were shown some of the scary booby-traps used against our soldiers, and facilities like ordnance-making factories, classrooms, kitchens, and medical facilities, all of which were well concealed. We were also given the opportunity to crawl through one of the tunnels, which was definitely not for large or claustrophobic people.
We then returned to Saigon by speedboat and had lunch at a restaurant close to our hotel. We then reboarded the buses for our journey to My Tho to board our home for the next several days, The Jahan. Traffic was, as usual, terrible. We had planned to stop at a temple before boarding the ship, but that was canceled due to schedule (another temple visit will be added later).
Upon reaching the Jahan, we were quickly welcomed and shown to our cabins. The ship is beautifully decorated in a classic style, reminiscent of the 1930s, with rich dark woodwork throughout the ship. Our room is comfortable, although there is less storage space for clothes than we are accustomed to from previous Lindblad ships.
After a short safety and orientation briefing, we moved to the upper deck for drinks and snacks and to watch our first sunset from the ship. This was followed by a buffet dinner and a short documentary, “Vietnam’s Enigma: Ho Chi Minh”, shown in the ship’s lounge.
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 6, 2026
After a wonderful buffet breakfast this morning, we started with a welcome and a briefing about Vietnam from Mike Tatarski, an ex-pat journalist who has lived in Vietnam for 15 years, giving us a top-level overview of Vietnam’s industry and economy and answering our questions, particularly about how Vietnam’s seemingly capitalist economy fits with its official Communist political system.
We then boarded buses to visit several local landmarks, including the Reunification Palace, Central Post Office, and Bitexco Tower. The Reunification Palace, formerly the Presidential Palace during the Vietnam War, was the site of the fall of Saigon in 1975. Its decor is a fine example of mid-century modern architecture and furnishings, as it was rebuilt in the 1960s following a bombing attack.
The Central Post Office looks like a train station with a large clock on the front. In addition to the usual postal counters, much of the inside contained various souvenir vendors for the large tourist trade (including ourselves). Kenna and I managed to pick up a few of the items we try to pick up when visiting a new place: A pin for Kenna’s hat, a flag for Jim, and a postcard for our daughter, Celeste.
We took the bus to the Bitexco Tower to see Saigon from its observation deck. The deck is approximately two-thirds of the way to the top, so it wasn’t absolutely the highest vantage point, but it was plenty high enough to get an excellent view of the city. One of the unique aspects of Bitexco Tower is the helipad that extends from the side of the tower just above the observation level. With wind currents and such, it seems like it would take extra skill for a helicopter pilot to land there.
Afterwards, we returned to the hotel for a break and joined Dave and Jan for lunch at a nearby place serving banh mi sandwiches. The sandwiches were quite enjoyable, especially once Kenna and I removed the coriander (cilantro) from ours.
In the afternoon, we took the bus to the War Remnants Museum. This museum shows the Vietnam War (what they call the American War) from the Vietnamese point of view. The museum was quite crowded, making it difficult to see much during the limited time we had there, and many of the pictures shown were quite graphic. Fortunately, Kenna and I prepared for the trip by watching Ken Burns’ Vietnam documentary series, so we knew what to expect. We had seen much of this before so were able to speed through many of the rooms.
Later on, we were taken to a water puppet show. Water puppet shows are a Vietnamese tradition, depicting traditional cultural scenes. The stage for the show is a pool of milky white water, with the puppets appearing either from behind a curtain or sometimes popping out of the water. The many puppets are controlled by puppeteers behind the curtain who manipulate the puppets via long poles. The skill required to manipulate the puppets to tell a story and keep them from tangling with each other was remarkable.
In the evening, we had a group dinner at Xu, a nearby restaurant. The dinner was a tasting menu of several small dishes, which was a good introduction to Vietnamese cuisine. However, service was a little slow with our large group.
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 5, 2026
After passing through customs, we were met by Jayden, a representative from Lindblad Expeditions. He coordinated with a driver to take us to our hotel, the Park Hyatt Saigon. Along the way, he gave us some orientation to the city and practiced his English along the way. He also told us that he had written a summary of the Vietnam (American) war from the Vietnamese point of view, which he sent me on WhatsApp to review.
The Park Hyatt is a gorgeous hotel, situated amid an interesting shopping district and across the street from the Opera House. We arrived about 11 am, got settled, and reviewed the itinerary that had been left for us. Later, we went to the lobby bar for a small lunch, then visited the Lindblad desk in the hotel to say “hi” and see if there was anything else we needed to do right away (there wasn’t).
Lindblad offered an excursion to Ben Thanh, a local market, for those of us who arrived early. The market was like others we had visited in other countries: crowded, with a wide variety of items we really weren’t interested in. Nevertheless, it was a good opportunity to explore, catch something to drink, and perhaps meet some of our fellow travelers.
Traffic in Saigon is insane, discouraging us from walking around as usual. Nevertheless, we wanted to be outside to help recover from jet lag. Fortunately, Kenna noticed a Muji store and a Uniqlo on the same block as the hotel, so we were able to visit those without crossing any streets.
Dave and Jan, who had taken a pre-trip excursion to Hanoi and other places in Vietnam, had a delayed flight from Hue and were further delayed by Saigon traffic. After they arrived and settled, we had a very pleasant Italian dinner with them at the Refinery Restaurant across the street from the hotel.
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/Wednesday, February 3/4, 2026
As I have done several times in the past, I am again blogging a summary of our recent vacation trip. I will post daily installments offset by five weeks to allow time for editing and review after we return home.
Our next adventure is a trip to Vietnam and Cambodia that we planned during last year’s Adriatic trip. Our friends Jan and Dave will be joining us for this trip as well. The tour begins in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), following which we board a small ship to travel up the Mekong River into Cambodia. After several days, we disembark and travel to Siem Reap, near the famed Angkor Wat temple. After the organized part of the tour, Kenna and I will fly to Hanoi for three days to explore northern Vietnam.
Our flight itinerary takes us to Taipei, Taiwan, for a short layover before continuing to Ho Chi Minh City. Our departing flight from San Francisco leaves late in the evening (11:20 pm), so we will arrive in Taipei two days later due to crossing the International Date Line. Our 14-hour United Airlines flight to Taipei was pleasant and uneventful, and we got a few hours of sleep. We then had a good chance to stretch our legs in Taipei as we moved from our arrival gate to the departure area, stopping at a transit counter to get checked in again and passing through security. We settled into an EVA Air lounge for our short wait until departure. The onward flight on EVA Air was about 3 hours long and gave us opportunities to doze a bit more.
Saturday, June 28, 2025
We had to be up early this morning, since our transfer to the airport left at 8 am. We set out our bags to be transferred, had a quick breakfast, and said our goodbyes and thanks to the crew. What little we saw of Split seemed to be a typical city. The bus ride to the airport was relatively slow due to construction on the route, but we had plenty of time before our flight. We flew Croatia Airlines to Rome, with a connection on United to San Francisco. We passed the time before our flight in a lounge at Split Airport, along with a few other cruise guests and two of the photographic experts who accompanied us.
The flight to Rome was short, about 50 minutes, and fairly basic. Once in Rome, we had a considerable amount of walking to do to pass from our arrival gate in the Schengen zone of the terminal through immigration to the international zone. At our departure gate, there was unfortunately little in the way of shops, lounges, or other services.
Unfortunately, Croatia Airlines was unable to issue our onward boarding passes for San Francisco when we were in Split. When our gate opened for the flight, we stood in a short but slow-moving line to receive our boarding passes from the United agent. After identifying ourselves once at the head of the line, the agent said, “We’ve been looking for you.” Nevertheless, it took a considerable time to receive our boarding passes as the agent took phone calls and tended to other duties before completing our transaction.
Once on the plane, we had a typical long-haul flight to SFO, and then home to sleep in our own bed and recover from jet lag.
This is the last article in a series about our recent trip to Italy, Greece, Albania, and Croatia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Friday, June 27, 2025
The last full day of our tour brought us to two islands off the coast of Croatia, Vis and Bisevo. The Orion anchored just off the coast of the town of Komiza on Vis. Although there were several activity options for the day, most of us took the option of a tour to Bisevo island. The tour began with an exciting speedboat ride to the island, complete with rock music soundtrack, which we enjoyed greatly but some on our tour felt was excessive. Upon arriving at Bisevo, we navigated into a small sea cave, then to the island’s harbor. From there, we took a ride into the hills to a local winery where we were treated to a wine tasting and accompanying snacks. There was also a small ancient church nearby that we were able to explore.
Returning to the Orion by speedboat and zodiac, we had lunch, followed by some free time allowing us to explore the village of Komiza. There were a few small beaches and a church referred to as Our Lady of the Pirates (which was not open, unfortunately). We took a short stroll around the town before returning to the Orion. The cocktail hour featured pictures contributed by many of the other travelers on the cruise, which we were able to obtain a souvenir copy of. This was followed by the Captain’s Farewell Dinner, the last dinner of the cruise, and then packing for tomorrow morning’s departure.
This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Italy, Greece, Albania, and Croatia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.
Thursday, June 26, 2025
Today we arrived at Dubrovnik, our first stop in Croatia. Dubrovnik is an old and picturesque city that was heavily damaged in the Balkan wars of the early 1990s. Fortunately, Dubrovnik has been reconstructed, preserving much of the city’s previous character.
There were several activity options for today, including a cooking class, a hike into the hills above the city, and a coastal tour that included sampling oysters. We opted to take a walking tour of the Old Town and city walls. The tour introduced us to some of Dubrovnik’s history, and then we climbed up to the top of the city wall, one of the few intact city walls in Europe. It was a hot and sunny day, and we sought out shade in the few places it was available. Unfortunately, a few of the tour members had mobility difficulties, and it took some time to make it all the way around, especially since there were over 1000 steps on the route. Our local guide gave us quite a bit of information about the city on the way, and after we were finished, took us into a Franciscan monastery, which was one of the very early pharmacies in Europe.
We returned to the Orion for lunch, and then took advantage of some of our free time to head back into Dubrovnik for some exploration on our own and for dinner. We went to find the Jesuit Steps that were featured in “Game of Thrones,” but they weren’t all that significant to us since we haven’t watched that show. We found a small sidewalk cafe for dinner, which was reminiscent of dinners I had enjoyed when traveling to Belgrade a few decades ago.
This article is part of a series about our recent trip to Italy, Greece, Albania, and Croatia. To see the introductory article in the series, click here.