After entering Cambodia (where it was HOT) we stopped by Tonlé Sap Lake to visit the floating Village of Kampong Luong. Unique and picturesque, this village of 1000 homes moves in it’s entirety to other parts of the lake 3 times a year depending on the water level. The people subsist by fishing. There are floating stores that sell supplies but, of course, there is constant boat traffic carrying the villagers to the near by town. There is no electricity but some people have solar panels, or batteries or generators. All drinking water is bottled and there is a water boat that goes makes the rounds. 
As you can see, Blue is a very popular color for the boat people, a color that signifies good luck in Cambodia. 

 
 
 

Intrepid Travel (our tour company) likes to give guests a wide range of experiences. Most of the time we traveled in small, private, air-conditioned tourist buses. But during the tour we also experienced several boats, an overnight train, motor scooters, bicycles, tuk tuks, and one airplane.  Intrepid is very socially and environmentally responsible and all guides are local. They also use the services of local families, and support local businesses and non-profits. They specialize in small groups (ours was 14) and we would highly recommend Intrepid Travel. 
Our tour group consisted of 8 Australians, 4 British, and 2 Americans (us). It was a great group of people. Everyone was game and fun, no one complained, everyone was helpful and positive. We felt very lucky and, although we were the oldest in the group, we had no trouble keeping up with younger Aussies and Brits. We just went to bed earlier, but they were always chipper and ready to go in the morning. 
Unfortunately, in the town of Hue, one of the British couples was put into quarantine because they had been on a flight from London with a rich jet-setting young Vietnamese woman who had Covid-19. She had neglected to mention to authorities that she had been to Italy. Although she was in first class, the Vietnamese government tracked down everyone on the plane and quarantined them. Our British friends spent 14 days in the hotel room in Hue before being sent home. Our tour leader “Pinky”was also quarantined because she had slept in the overnight train carriage with the British couple. They all tested negatively and none of them got the virus although there were many people on the flight (mostly first class) who did get it.
We hated losing Pinky because she was is a fun guide and we already felt very close to her but our replacement “V”was also excellent. 
 

​Hanoi is a city of over 8 million people with over 5 million motor scooters Sidewalks are for parking motor scooters, which means pedestrians walk in the street. Once you learn how to navigate the streets, it works very well: more like a dance than walking. Making eye contact, moving slowly and gracefully. No abrupt movements, show no fear and they just swerve around you.  Hanoi street life is colorful, noisy, and fascinating. Exercise and Tai Chi classes take place in the parks. Thousands of people sit on tiny little chairs drinking excellent Vietnamese coffee and chatting at all hours of the day and night. 
Everywhere we went on the trip there were many less tourist than usual. The is because Vietnam gets millions of tourist every year from China and Korea and flights from those 2 countries had already been suspended due to Covid-19.  Very lucky for us in that respect. I will speak more about Covid-19 impact on our trip in a later blog.