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The map of Cambodia below shows our trip from Siem Reap to Kampong Cham via motor coach, which took most of the day. Kampong Cham is where we were to first see our boat, the Viking Mekong, and board her for our 7 day cruise on the Mekong. At about the half way point we stopped at Kampong Thom, and I believe that’s where we had lunch. It’s all kind of a blur, and my photos didn’t help much to make it any clearer.

The province of Kampong Thom is one of the largest producers of cashews in the country. It was just last week, when Pete and I were playing cards before dinner, and enjoying our favorite snacks, one of which is cashew nuts, that I asked him if he had ever seen a cashew tree. I only assumed that they grew on trees, as most nuts do, with the exception of peanuts, which grow underground like potatoes. He hadn’t, so I Googled them, and found that they do indeed grow on trees. The really odd thing about them is that the seed (or nut) actually grows outside of the fruit. The green thing below the yellow fruit below is the actual nut.

The process of getting from this stage to what you pop into your mouth consists of four steps. a) cracking the shell and extracting the nut, b) steaming them, c) drying them out, and then removing the skins, much like the skins on peanuts i imagine. Seeing how much work it was to go from tree to table, I now have a much greater respect for the humble cashew, and appreciate it even more.

On our way to Kampong Thom the countryside was a maze of farmlands, very green and productive. I didn’t take the photo of the boy resting on the back of the water buffalo, but I thought it was very appropriate to illustrate now relaxed and peaceful life is in present day Cambodia. We were given the opportunity to make some purchases of gifts for the folks back home, and there were an amazing array of choices. Care for a sling shot anyone?

We had lunch at a great open air restaurant. This was the half way point in our trip. It was really nice to get off the bus and stretch our legs a bit. Plus the food was delicious. The fun things about traveling are the little surprises like this lunch stop.

Of course Pete’s always ready for a selfie of us, to catch us in the location of where we are. Carolyn was the real shutterbug. I never saw any of her photos, but with the great camera she had, I imagine they are probably National Geographic quality. We were given a box lunch for the second half of our trip, and we could keep the woven box it came in.

We stopped at a rubber tree plantation, to see how rubber was harvested. This is the real McCoy, nothing synthetic about it. I remembered that during the Vietnam war, I read that one of the reasons we were in the war (or military action, to be more politically correct) was to protect one of our major sources of rubber. Political hyperbole I believe, in an attempt to justify a questionable political decision.

We arrive at Kampong Cham on the bank of the Mekong River, and as you can see, docking facilities are rather primitive. I was very glad that it was not a rainy day, otherwise getting from the motor coach to the boat would have been much more of a challenge. The first thing we received as we boarded, was a coconut with a straw in it. Actually, coconut milk is rather refreshing, and would have been even much more so with a little rum in it. ;o)

As we waited for the rest of the passengers to come on board, we enjoyed our coconut milk on the sun deck.

Once everyone was on board, the crew cast off, and the captain took us on a little excursion on the river as we waited for dinner.

The Kizuna Bridge was the first bridge in Cambodia to cross the Mekong river. It was opened in 2001. We enjoyed watching the sun go down over the river, the reflections on the water mirroring the sky and the land beautifully. It was so peaceful.

We were greeted by the Hotel Manager, Yan, who had a very pleasant German accent. We received the usual boat drill, which included a demonstration on how to don our life jackets. And from this welcome briefing we were released to enjoy our first dinner on board the Viking Mekong.

Dinners on board are always an enjoyable affair, getting to know our fellow passengers. Everyone was very interesting in various ways, and had interesting stories to tell. It was always open seating, so we were able to find some new faces at each meal.

I thought the food was delicious, and the presentation was always first class. With less than 50 passengers, it was more of a family gathering, than the more chaotic scene on a large cruise ship, which feeds a few thousand people. Pete and I both prefer the more intimate feeling of the smaller ships. We first got used to it on our two trips to Antarctica on Russian ice breakers, which accommodated less than 100 passengers.

The boat returned to the same spot where we boarded her, and we spent the night there. Our room was a far cry from our accommodations at the various Sofitel hotels we had stayed at thus far. But in was also very adequate, and comfortable.

Our suit cases fit comfortably under the beds, giving us lots of room to move around without tripping over them. We were both quite pleased with the room, and would do this trip again without hesitation.

In the morning we went ashore for our first shore excursion from the boat, where we would be visiting the Twin Holy Mountains and the Orphanage. Getting from the boat to where the motor coach was waiting was a bit precarious.

The motor coach, however, was quite nice. Ut was on the mike at the front, keeping us entertained with stories and information about our destination, which I will continue with in the next episode.