Traveling around Southeast Asia

Cambodian Stop Sign

Our Vietnam visas were valid for 30 days, so when they were getting close to expiring, we took a weekend trip to Cambodia. This enabled us to reapply for an additional 30-day Vietnam visa. Once we had our Cambodian visas in hand, we hopped on the quick flight from HCMC to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The countryside is similar to Vietnam, but Phnom Penh is smaller than Ho Chi Minh City, so less people = less traffic (a lot less scooters!) = less noise = less pollution. The food was delicious, we tried onion pancakes (similar to a quesadilla), and a traditional Cambodian breakfast of grilled pork and rice, served with an egg and pickled veggies. The beer was cold, and the coffee was strong and sweet.

We stayed in a hotel within walking distance of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, also known as S-21. This complex was formerly a secondary school, located right in the middle of the city. When the Khmer Rouge defeated the Cambodian army in April of 1975, they marched into Phnom Penh, which was already full of refugees from the war. The people were forced out of the city into the countryside, where they were subjected to forced labor, torture, starvation, sickness, and execution. The S-21 location was used as a prison run by the Khmer Rouge under the leadership of Pol Pot from 1976 until Vietnamese forces invaded and discovered the prison in 1979.

As Randy and I walked through the buildings in the compound, it was hard to believe that so many innocent people had suffered in this place.

The next day, we rode in a 'tuk-tuk' about 17 kilometers south of Phnom Penh to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, also known as the 'Killing Fields'. We took an audio tour, and spent several hours walking around the area. It was very moving to see the mass graves, and to hear the stories of the people who were brought here for execution - many from the S-21 prison above.

If you have access to Netflix, I recommend that you check out 'The Mekong River with Sue Perkins'. Its a great program that gives you a glimpse of life in this area of the world. In the first episode, Sue visits both the S-21 and Killing Fields areas.

Back in Vietnam, we were trying to get ourselves ready for our first sailing journey to Thailand. Terry, who is a boat builder and co-owner of Max Cruise Marine, is friends with a sailing couple from Australia, and he asked if they would be interested in helping us sail our new boat to Pattaya. Thank goodness Cal and Di agreed. We met them at Terry and Nanci's, and knew straight away that they would be perfect for the job. Much more to come about these wonderful people in future posts 😊.

We decided to take a break from the busy city and spend Thanksgiving at the beach. We caught the ferry from Ho Chi Minh City down the river to the beautiful port city of Vung Tau, located in southern Vietnam.

We hiked from our small condo up Mount Nho to the Jesus Christ Statue, a 32-meter statue of Christ which you can climb up into. It was breathtaking!

The inner staircase up to Jesus' shoulders is beautiful white stone.

The next day we borrowed a scooter and made our way up the steep road to the Vung Tau Lighthouse, which was built by the French around 1910. The view of Vung Tau is spectacular.

We also walked across the rocks to Mieu Hon Ba, which is a rocky island just off the coast. At high tide it looks inaccessible, but at low tide you can carefully make your way across. There are several temples located on the small island.

Vung Tau is a beautiful place, and we enjoyed our time there. The food was excellent, the Tiger Crystal was icy (once we added the ice), and just look at the motley crew we ran into!

And those sunsets were gorgeous. In my opinion, you can never take too many sunset photos!

Back in Ho Chi Minh City, we were waiting for the boat to be completed, and for our U.S. boat registration application to go through (which of course seemed to take forever, thanks to the holiday).

These pics were taken at the boatyard on November 30th - Sunspot Baby is getting closer to completion!!

We were nearing the end of our Vietnam visa term once again, so decided to visit Bangkok, Thailand for a quick weekend.

We sampled some Thai street food (similar to Iowa State Fair food, everything you can imagine on a stick!), ate lots of delicious spicy fried rice, and drank a bit of cold Thai beer.

As we explored the city we encountered large displays of Thai royalty, many temples, and Buddha's.

The Golden Mount Temple was beautiful too, with cool shady gardens and shrines tucked into the hillside everywhere.

Here are a few more photos of the sights. The Sky Train and the subway were both clean, quick, and made it very easy to get around this beautiful modern city.

As we traveled back to Ho Chi Minh City, we discovered a very important detail about visas. Somehow my new Vietnam visa had me marked as a male, so I was denied entrance into Vietnam at the airport. Thankfully, they just happen to have a company right at the visa counter that can help with an emergency visa, for a 'fixing fee' (Randy's term) of $175 USD. So our little trip to Bangkok ended up costing a bit more than we had planned....

Legally back in HCMC again, we began our final preparations for departing on our new boat.