It was not during the voyage to Singapore, but a year later, that the temples of Angkor in Cambodia should have been visited, that miracle of South East Asia, a fascinating dream since boyhood...


Notre Dame Cathedral


"Vina Express 8", in the background "Silver Shadow" and "Columbus 2"

"Petro Express 02"

Sai Gon

First stop in that March 2013 is at Saigon and from there a short trip to the coast was on our own program, not mentioned in the usual travelers' guides, but referred to in Cook's Overseas Timetable. The ten-million megalopolis, renamed Ho Xi Minh, is dominated by new skyscrapers, but maintained also French tradition with the Notre Dame cathedral, the opera house and the post office, a work assisted by Eiffel. In that city, crowded with millions of scooters and motor-bikes, it is not easy to cross the jammed road to get to the ferry terminal. There the "Petro Express 02" is awaiting us, a tiny hydrofoil of the well-known Russian-built type, the staff friendly, the stewardesses beautifully dressed in red. The trip goes downstream, past the Sai Gon Port, and indeed two cruise ships are moored there, the "Silver Shadow" of Silversea Cruises and the "Columbus 2" of Hapag-Lloyd. The brown river is dominated by an immense suspension bridge, built by the Japanese. We are passing innumerable freighters, anchoring there, and then the industrial area is left behind. Tropical forests, mixed with palm trees, are surrounding the winding river. The speed is slowed down when another Russian-type hydrofoil, a "Vina Express", is met and then once again the "Petro Express 02" is storming towards the coast. After an hour we have reached the open sea, a mountain to the left, a town beneath green hills, and the boat approaches Vung Tau, a nice city, prospering from the oil industry. A futuristic sparkling building is the terminus - and a nearby Buddhist temple spreads piece and quietness in that country recovered from a sad past.

Vung Tau ferry terminal

Mekong delta

On the return, now on the hydrofoil "Vina Express 3", the cruise ship "Silver Shadow" is approaching, slowly, steering towards the open sea, the South China Sea. The next day a tourist bus carries us to My Tho on the shore of an even larger river, the Mekong. Also there a big suspension bridge is visible, but we take a small motor-boat to cross the river, to see the forests, and finally only a rowing boat is able to enter the dense mangrove thickets.

"Tara", Tonle Sap

A school afloat

Days later, after having flown to Siem Reap, the touristic center of Cambodia, a 'tuck-tuck' provides a ride through villages with stilted houses in swamps to a river, where open motor-boats are waiting for the trip to Cambodia's great lake Tonle Sap, to see the floating houses, the floating markets and even a floating school for orphans... Everything is so interesting, but nothing stands comparison to the temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Tom. These sanctuaries of the Hindu epoch, its foundations embraced by tropical vegetation, its stony tops dominating the endless forests, are among the wonders of this world - and Buddhist monks are praying there with devotion...

Angkor Tom



Angkor Wat