Cambodia and Vietnam

This post is a continuation of Tom and Brenda's trip to southeast Asia. See the previous post.

Cambodia is a country that has been devastated by wars. Brenda described it as being like a sick person still recovering but not yet up to full strength. So many of those who would now be considered the older generation were killed leaving few to go back to raising food, teaching, doctoring, and so the younger generation have to figure it out on their own. I've heard similar comments from others who visited that country.

 

An American who was working there as an economic developer and other investors bought an old pepper plantation with the idea that it could be a model for growth to rehabilitate the plantations. He also built a resort and this is where the magnet was left. What's interesting is that the brother of this developer left a magnet there a couple years earlier. Such a small world.

I think she got the magnet. One of them did.

On their first day in Vietnam, Brenda and Tom took a tour of the Mekong River. There they saw a floating market, all in the water. Vendors advertised their wares by hanging samples on poles and the people wore conical hats. They say vendors in Vietnam are very aggressive.

Traffic is very heavy in Saigon and when drivers get frustrated the aren't above going onto the sidewalks. It can be dangerous being a pedestrian. Another site visited was the Presidential Palace where there is on display a helicopter captured when they were landing on the roof, loading up and taking away as many people as possible at the end of the war as Saigon was lost, or gained, depending on viewpoint. In Vietnam they people don't talk about politics. At all. None.

The Imperial Palace

A magnet was left with the manager of the hotel where they stayed in Hue.