Việt Nam

Introduction: depart Laos, and onward to Cambodia. Spectacular sunrise visit to Angkor Wat, and water taxi through the floating villages en route to Battambang. Visit Phnom Penh without getting struck by tuk tuk or scooter, and onward to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Cộng hòa Xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam).

Sometimes feel like the Debbie Downer of world travel. Often told that I do not make foreign travel sound fun; I certainly travel differently than many people. Similar to the Flight Aware Misery Map, perhaps I could create and patent a travel misery index. May I admit that I am not having fun, is that the purpose; too many days I just exist.

SUN 01 FEB: taxing, tedious, tiring day. Nothing goes wrong, but the means of travel often vague and unclear. Twelve hours from Don Det, Laos to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Board narrow skiff at Don Det, so narrow, that it nearly flips over when passengers board. Small outboard engine either has water in fuel line or nearly out of fuel. Wonder if boat will stall in the middle of the Mekong River, an inauspicious start to a long day.

Shuttle van from Nakasong to Nong Nok. Exit Laos customs, and walk across the frontier to Trapang Kreal, Cambodia. Present eVisa and enter the country; despite Reddit and YouTube reports, no drama, no issues. To cross a land border is not significant, but often feels like a small victory, at least until the next border.

Wait nearly two hours at nearby mini market for onward van. Board van, shuttled a short distance, and transfer to a second van. Drive an hour south to Strung Treng, and wait an hour for lunch. Lunch stop likely for shop owner’s benefit, not the passengers.

Landscape reflects rural life in Cambodia. Blackened fields smolder along the side of the road, smoke obfuscates the sky, and masks a blood-red sunset. Arrive in Siem Reap before 8pm, van service apologizes for the delay, and provides tuk tuk to hotel.

Headache before bed, take small dose of medication, else wake up with migraine. Wake up in the morning, brutally exhausted, body hurts, and can barely open my eyes.

Tuesday, wake at 4am for sunrise tour to Angkor Wat, UNESCO World Heritage Site, which celebrates Theravada Buddhism (Zen Buddhism stems from the Mahayana tradition); visit Angkor Temple, Bayon Temple, Ta Prohm Temple (Tomb Raider, 2001), and Banteay Kdei. Dense cloud cover and flat light, but, a good day, best day inside of five weeks. Hostel offers reasonably priced tour ($12 USD), which includes round-trip transportation and guide. Guide is excellent, well-informed and enthusiastic. There is no way that I could have navigated the large park structure independently. Park fee is not inexpensive ($37 USD), but was not disappointed. Park is clean, and it certainly requires a great deal of effort to repair and restore the sandstone architecture. There are fifteen people from the hostel, equally interested, and good company. Tour concludes at mid-day, before the afternoon heat and sun become too intense.

WED 04 FEB: moto taxi picks me up at 6:30am, fifteen minute ride south to Chong Kneas boat pier. There is no one else here, and wonder if I made a grave error. Eventually, ten other tourists show up (safety in numbers), and water taxi departs 8am across Tonlé Sap Lake and Sangker River to Battambang.

Water taxi picks up locals and drops off cargo along the way, and provides a window into everyday life for the Cambodians that live in these floating villages. Sky remains overcast, and sit on top of the boat for a panoramic view. Houses are painted in a rainbow of colors: crimson red, electric green, bright blue, floated on 55-gallon oil drums, with roofs constructed from corrugated steel.

Boat stops for lunch at Phum Bak Prea. There is only one meal choice, it does not look or smell good, there are cookies, crisps, and soda; no thank you. Journey becomes tediously slow after lunch, as the river becomes dramatically narrow, and slow wake zones protect the subsistence fishermen, and narrow skiffs overloaded with cargo.

There is an assortment of lush vegetation along the river banks, and one may see how it would protect low-lying land from storm surge and flooding. Water taxi arrives outside Battambang at 2pm, and share tuk tuk with another passenger to the hostel.

Thursday, there are few tourists in Battambang. Visit the central market, but do not spy anything that I want to eat, often, porridge-based soup dishes. Eventually, I spy a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, not directed at tourists. Owner is pleasant, kind, and helpful. There is no menu, and certainly, nothing in English. She serves a wonderful meal, Mi Kola (Mee Kola), tangy noodle dish, with thin rice noodles, pickled vegetables, boiled eggs, crushed peanuts, and a sweet, savory fish sauce-based dressing. I add some chili paste, and the meal is served with iced tea to mitigate the surging heat in my mouth. Affordable and tasty (5,000 riel = $1.25 USD).

FRI 06 FEB: Larryta van to Phnom Penh (puh-NOM pen or NOM-pen), four-hours, no drama. There is a train, but only operates once a day, during the afternoon. Navigating the city on foot is not enjoyable. Cars park on the sidewalk, forced to walk in the street, and constantly threatened by tuk tuks and scooters.

Kingdom of Cambodia gained its independence from France in 1953. Pol Pot (d. 1998) led the Khmer Rouge to power (1975-1979), and renamed the country, Democratic Kampuchea, funded by communist China and Russia. During this period, two-million Cambodians were killed, 25% of its population, until the country was invaded and occupied by Vietnam (1978). The Kingdom of Cambodia was restored in 1993.

During its purge, Khmer Rouge emptied the capitol city of Phnom Penh. Tuol Svay Prey High School was converted to a security prison (S-21), where citizens were processed and transported to Choeung Ek extermination center, south of the city. 20,000 people passed through S-21, with only twelve known survivors. Combat photographer accidentally discovered S-21 prison in 1979, from the smell of rotting corpses.

Saturday, pre-dawn darkness, walk to the bus stop. City is already alive, as if, it never went to sleep. City bus is bright green, difficult to miss, bus 11B heads south towards Choeung Ek Genocide Museum, known as the killing fields. To save bullets, victims were killed with bayonets, knives, wooden clubs, farming hoes, and curved scythes. Children and infants were killed by smashing their heads against large tree trunks.

Sunday, three-mile barefoot run along the river walk. Smooth tiles, no cratered surfaces, no broken glass, no bottlecaps. Sky is overcast, and the scenic boardwalk is littered with runners, walkers, and people practicing Tai Chi.

MON 09 FEB: enjoyed visiting Angkor Wat and Siem Reap, and enjoyed water taxi to Battambang, among the floating villages. Ready to move on from Phnom Penh; take bus or train to Ho Chi Minh City, or boat to Châu Đốc along the Mekong River.

Phnom Penh boat pier centrally located, just minutes from hostel. Afternoon departure, exit Cambodia at Vinh Xuong; passport retained by Vietnam for an hour until entry, slightly disconcerting, prefer to retain passport custody at all times, Vietnam eVisa on-line ($25). Arrive sunset, check into hostel, and find late dinner. It is a fast-food restaurant, swarming with locals, I am the only tourist, kimchi rice bowl.

TUE 10 FEB: on-line ticket tells me to arrive at bus station one-hour early. Ticket agent looks at me kindly, like I am the village idiot, and asks if I would like to depart on 6am bus. Yes, please, thank you. Tedious, five-hour journey, mix of secondary roads and highway. Traffic lights are optional, air horn is mandatory, my ears are still ringing.

Arrive Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) at mid-day. Western bus station is overwhelming, taxi touts, walk away and find a quiet landmark. Use Grab to grab a moto taxi, no haggling, direct charge to credit card. Driver finds me easily, six-miles ($1.50 USD), lane filter at red lights, much faster than a car in dense traffic.

Welcome to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese in April 1975, and the country reunified in 1976. Travel to 70 of 200 countries, never quite get used to the culture shock when I arrive in a new country.

Explore the city, 25-miles on foot, disappointed to not find any necessary supplies for continued travel. Sidewalks are choked, often parked scooters, or various vendors. Often forced to walk in the street, exhausting. Unsure how I will travel over next nine months without getting hit by car, motorcycle, scooter, tuk tuk, or bicycle; no joke.

Tuesday (17th) marks Tết, Lunar New Year (year of the horse), and Vietnam’s largest city is decked out for the ten-day celebration (14th – 23rd), the country’s most important holiday of the year. There are flowering trees, and elaborate displays of orange and yellow marigolds and mums. Women wear their finest, Ao Dai, form-fitting, long-sleeved silk tunic worn over long trousers, beautiful and elegant.

FRI 13 FEB: early morning train, 6am departure to Nha Trang, train will continue north to Hanoi, the capitol city. Early reservations during the ten-day period are required. Several hostel guests are stranded in Ho Chi Minh City until the holiday is over.

Second class seat, I am the only tourist in the train car, maybe I am the only tourist foolish enough to travel during Tết. Various food carts come down the aisle. One vendor offers hot dog on a stick, it smells as bad is it looks. Some people eat chicken feet, it smells worse than the hot dog, smells worse than day-old cat food. Any passenger would be kicked off of a flight for eating this food. Mother and two children sit across from me, stuffed into two seats. They are not bad kids, just kids being kids (little monsters), but my shins are bruised from endless kicking. Stay at private AirBnB (apartment); privacy reminds me that I am quite fatigued.

Train departs Ho Chi Minh City, look out the window, and watch the changing landscape and terrain. During the Vietnam War, United States dropped 400,000 tons of napalm and 20-million gallons of Agent Orange; both caused tremendous, long-term ecological damage. Terrain reminds me of many Vietnam movies: Deer Hunter (1978), Apocalypse Now (1979), Platoon (1986), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Good Morning Vietnam (1987), and We Were Soldiers (2002). Arrive Nha Trang at 2pm, 250-miles.

Saturday, five-mile beach run, my only priority during the visit to Nha Trang. My intention for the year is to run safely with bare feet, free from traffic, free from injury-inducing potholes. Similar to Phuket (Thailand), it is impossible to spit without hitting a Russian, perhaps, an all too short reprieve from Putin’s Russia. There are direct flights from Moscow to Nha Trang. It was recently reported that Alexei Navalny, the man most-feared by Putin, was killed by Epibatidine, an Ecuadorian dart frog neurotoxin, 200x more potent than morphine, while under Russian prison custody.

SUN 15 FEB: coffee at McDonalds, to justify using WiFi, and wait for overnight train to Da Nang. Tourist from South Korea sits down at my table and insists upon talking. Prefer to keep to myself, but entertain the discussion; maybe he was lonely.

Train departs on-time (6:30pm), pleasant surprise. Share the sleeping compartment with two Russians (on top bunks). Pillow and blanket appear clean, but smell like body odor. First three train carriages are chair cars, and feel sorry for the passengers. There is a western toilet, another surprise. Trains often enter and exit the platform in a straight line, but at Nha Trang, train exits the platform in a teardrop loop, departing in the direction in which it arrived, quite unique.

Rocking motion of the train puts me to sleep, there is a different sound when the train goes over a steel bridge. Sleep most of the night, until the train stops, or until the cabin became too hot. Some passengers smoke cigarettes in the vestibule, the door is open to the train compartment, and smoke wafts into the cabin, and eventually, I get a headache. I take a small dose of medication, it takes four hours to work. Do not take sleeping tablets on overnight plane, train, or bus; the risk is to great to be robbed (body or backpack). Perhaps I did not sleep well, irritable for most of the day.

Arrive Da Nang 5:30am; walk four-miles to hostel, stretch out my body. Viva Da Nang! Viva Da Nang! Da Nang me! Da Nang me! Take a rope and hang me (Robin Williams)!

Tuesday, Tết, Lunar New Year (horse), most everything is closed, no public transportation. Eight-mile beach run, take advantage of safe running location, low-tide, firm and level running surface. Sky is overcast, and reduced risk of getting sunburned. At my age, I may run for distance, or I may run for speed, but I may not do both. Intention is to run injury-free, and pause periodically to (active) stretch.

Wednesday, local bus #2 (20-seat red van) to UNESCO Hội An old town. Pick up bus at Da Nang Cathedral or local bus stop (40 Đ. Lê Văn Hiến). Credit card accepted, for the two-hour round-trip ($3 USD). Journey does not load in Google maps, it is like finding a needle in a haystack, or worse, threading a needle in a haystack. Good luck.

THU 19 FEB: on a long enough timeline, everything goes sideways, even stuff that I may not begin to imagine. Wake early in the morning, not able to sleep, nervous energy. Burn off some of that energy, four-mile walk to train station. Cross Han River, neon-lit buildings light-up the dark sky.

Vietnam trains are tedious, the one advantage of an overnight train is the opportunity to sleep through the experience, as if, it was a bad dream. Sixty mile journey to Hue takes four hours, bicycles are faster.

Friday, visit the UNESCO Imperial City. Purchased on-line ticket (Klook) with credit card, as ticket office only accepts local currency. Enter 7am, before the crowds, and enjoy the empty grounds for nearly two hours before the masses arrive. Palace and emperor’s residence fully restored. Gardens are well-maintained, and other buildings, are unique in their aged patina. Some people explore the expansive grounds on bicycle. I have two good feet, and do not mind walking. My second good day (following Angkor Wat) inside of eight weeks. Technically two half-days (mornings).

SAT 21 FEB: walk to Hue train station, and observe two scooters collide, all four passengers splayed on the ground. No one appears injured, and they drive off.

Sunday, fourteen-hour overnight train arrives in Hanoi, the capitol city. Dodge rain drops, and visit Bún chả Huong Liên, for pork broth and noodles. Anthony Bourdain and Barack Obama dined here in May 2016 ($6 USD), memorialized in CNN Parts Unknown (Hanoi | S08E01). Bourdain, the soul of a tortured poet, is dearly missed. Former President is a reminder of decorum and decency long since past.

Overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa (via Lao Cai). There is a delay in receiving the boarding pass, but, I am informed that the train will not leave without me. Arrive Monday morning, and bee-line to Fansipan Peak, amid a break in the rain. At 10,000 feet (3,143-meters), the peak is hidden and shrouded in fog, cold, and wind. Traveled long enough to know that mountain peaks are shy, and rarely present themselves. Traveled long enough to recognize that I do not control the weather. No big deal.

Tuesday, visit Cat Cat Village, because it does not require a guide or any form of public transport. Weather was dry, but the experience was expectedly underwhelming. I was reluctant to visit Sapa, but often shamed to visit Vietnam and not visit Sapa. Do not enjoy being held captive, weather is cold and damp, and so is the hostel. Upgrade to private room for the second night.

WED 25 FEB: overnight bus from Sapa to Cat Ba Island via Hanoi. Sapa is a small but busy bus station, moving as much cargo as people. Someone unloads burlap sack of durian (fruit), an expensive delicacy, and the bus station quickly smells of rotting garbage or compost. Most hostels prohibit durian fruit for this reason.

Travel is not exactly sequential, and resistance only makes it worse. VIP sleeper bus to Hanoi, and wait for second bus to Hai Phong, which never arrived. Messaged the bus company (WhatsApp), and they promptly pick-me up and get me to the connecting bus … a near miss. Ferry from Hai Phong to Cat Ba Island, and third bus to Cat Ba Town … it all works out … just did not feel like it would work out.

One week in Sapa and Cat Ba were mostly underwhelming. Next time, I will trust my experience and intuition, and try to avoid such destinations. There is little that an independent traveler may explore independently, and so it goes. An odd habit, but a clear habit, arrive in Cat Ba, and immediately confirm onward ticket and departure location; if that is not fear, anxiety, or discomfort, then I do not know or recognize.

I would bet a dollar that the Vietnamese carry more on their scooters compared to what Americans carry in the back of their pick-up trucks. I have seen everything: propane tanks, fruit & vegetables, flowers, shrubs, and trees, a family of four, five-gallon water garrafons, Styrofoam containers of fish, and crazy collection of Mylar balloons for Tết. Some scooters are equipped with makeshift outriggers to carry even more gear. Makes you wonder what a Vietnamese would carry with a Ford Raptor.

Cost: cumulative travel costs, during past 64-days.

Cambodia and Vietnam are cash-based economies (almost no credit card).

Currencies: Philippine Peso (PHP), Myanmar Kyat (MMK), Thailand Baht (THB), Laos Kip (LAK), Cambodia Riel (KHR), Vietnamese Dong (VND).

Conclusion: winter Olympics unfolded in Italy, it is suggested that the Olympics should be apolitical, but the world does not exist in a vacuum. American athletes expressed doubt about representing their country. Feeling is not dissimilar to world travel, often embarrassed to be the ugly American. Will there come a day when Americans reflect on the current administration with grave regret, “The time for honoring yourself, will soon be at an end (Gladiator, 2000).”

At the annual Munich Security Conference, Friedrich Merz, Chancellor of Germany, suggested that the United States claim to global leadership “has been challenged and possibly squandered, and in the era of great power rivalry, even the United States will not be powerful enough to go it alone.”

We live in a time when a person needs to understand the term, sycophant. Attorney General testified to the House Judiciary Committee; her behavior lacked any notion of decorum or accountability, steep price for fealty. FBI director chugged beer with the hockey team, as if, crashing a frat party, behavior that fails to inspire confidence.

I wonder about the (wealthy and powerful) parasites that appear in the redacted Epstein files. I was not born to privilege, and my (limited) intellect does not command privilege. I do not curry power or fame; perhaps I will never understand the clandestine favors sought from Jeffrey Epstein by the wealthy and powerful.

Some days, many days, question the endurance to travel nine months, but maybe, I only require the flexibility, resilience, and resolve to travel just this day, just today.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of wo/men and things may not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.
Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, 1869

March 1, 2026

Travel

Angkor Wat, Battambang, Bún chả Hương Liên, Cambodia, Ho Chi Minh City, Killing Fields, Phnom Penh, Saigon, Siem Reap, Trapang Kreal, Vinh Xuong

Việt Nam

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