Vietnam

Vietnam and Cambodia are two places I never thought we'd see. Too far, too strange, too expensive, too risky?

In June 2015 I was reading the Calgary Herald, (we were still living in Calgary then) the travel section to be precise, and there was an article about a new ship that was being built in Vietnam. The ship was named the Scenic Spirit. It looked very interesting and the description of the cruise interested me. I investigated on Scenic's website, made a phone call and booked a trip for December 2016 - 18 months in the future. At the same time I booked the Prague to Budapest cruise that we took this past summer. WTF! it's only money! Thanks Tony, thanks Keeto, thanks Ryan!!!

At the time we'd only done a couple European river cruises and one ocean cruise (Caribbean). This trip sounded interesting as it was a land trip, then sea, then land again and then a river cruise and then land again.

Below is a map of the activities:

Two nights in Hanoi
Two nights sailing on the Au Co on Halong Bay
Then a flight from Hanoi to Siem Reap, Cambodia and three nights there.
After Siem Reap a lovely bus ride to Kampong Cham where we started the seven day river cruise.
And finally a bus ride to Saigon for a couple nights there.

The entire trip was organized by Scenic Luxury Tours and Cruises and the whole thing was top-notch. I highly recommend this company. Everything was organized perfectly. There was only one hiccup the entire trip and that was a small one - our bus was late picking us up at the Siem Reap airport - and that was only because it was Christmas Eve and all the local traffic was out looking at all the Christmas decorations and lights put on by the hotels in town. It was truly amazing - Merry Christmas signs everywhere - in a Buddhist country.

NOTE:
All pictures will look a lot better if they are viewed on a desktop or laptop PC. All can be right clicked and opened in a new tab. Much better that way.

The entrance to our hotel in Hanoi.

Getting to Vietnam .........DONE

Hanoi .........DONE

Halong Bay .........DONE

Siem Reap (Angkot Wat) .......DONE

The River Cruise .......DONE

Saigon .......DONE

The people .......DONE

That's it!