Asia – January 11th, 2016
Our last excursion in Vietnam and David’s Birthday
Today we experienced the local transportation method of “cycle-car”‘ very versatile form of transportation due to its design – from people mover to furniture. Typically 3 to 4 Vietnamese can ride one, but when it comes to foreigners is a ride for 2.
So off we took at full speed ride to the market n a roundabout way lots of hellos and big smiles from everyone I came in contact with – David’s driver was a speedy Gonzalez and quickly left the pack – my driver ran a red light and had to come to an almost complete stop since we were cut off by a truck driver’ which I really wanted to give him the finger, but did not want to cause an international incident, but I’m sure my driver’s mumbling was a curse.
We ended at the local city market divided into sections – carnivore with some of the selection will alive, fish in tanks, pantry items like 15 types of rice, candy this country has a sweet tooth, and the produce section in vivid color of beautifully arranged – mangos, tamarind, rambutan, tomatoes, watermelons, dragon fruit, cucumbers, and the list goes on – like Ecuador, I think they grow everything in Vietnam.
Before returning to the ship we had one more stop to make a fish house along the river – very interesting the cages go as deep as 7 meters on which a house is built on top, people live and work on their same space – a tank can hold about 120,00o fish depending on their size, they raise Tilapia and Basa for both local and export market – the fish is feed twice a day, we watched a demonstration and it was a feeding frenzy it reminded me of a national geography episode of piranhas in the Amazon – the tank water is constantly changing due to the flow of the river.
Who knew that a 2 hours excursion can be so tiring – back to the ship for a day of relaxation.
11:21 we crossed into Cambodia as we cruise leisurely into Phnom Penh the capital of The Kingdom of Cambodia we will be docked there for two nights.
We have now been sharing our meals with a couple from England (Terry and Liz)and Australia (Dominica and Adrian) and having a lovely time.
David thought he was safe not much fanfare for his birthday, I had approached our crew director to have a cake delivered to our room – he informed me that they already had it on the list of special occasions.
So right before dessert was to be served, the dining room went dark and a cake lit with birthdays candles started parading around the room with the dining room staff following and singing happy birthday – of course, everybody was wondering who for / David knew that he was in trouble as a very pink 6-inch cake stopped at our table, and placed in front of him delivered with the biggest of smiles.
A bit of a dramatic entrance but I think we both cherish the moment- we shared the small cake with our dinner companions – did I forgot to mention that the cake was hot pink.
For someone who wanted to have a quiet birthday, it sure was loud.
Tonight’s movie The Killing Field a sad and tragic period of Cambodia history.
Tomorrow a full day of touring including lunch at a local restaurant.
