AMA Waterways - Cruising From Siem Reap, Cambodia to Ho Chin Minh City, Vietnam

Cruising the Tonie and Mekong Rivers

A cruise is a great way to travel.  You only have to unpack once and you get to see a variety of villages and towns along the river. AMA does a wonderful job  of  meeting travelers needs providing a great selection of tours and sight while traveling from Seam Reap to Ho Chin Ming City (Saigon). What did surprise me was that we did not always travel on the Mekong and that there was a fair amount of land travel by bus to get to the ship on Tonie River.

Kampong Chhnang Floating Village

The floating village allows people to own a house and not pay taxes.  It is the land that people have to pay taxes.

 Life on the river.

Fishing

Fish Farm

Koh Chen

Copper Stamping that will become silver plate.

This is a small village that produces copper and silver objects.

This lady stamps patterns on to a large copper vessel.

Silver Plate

Once the embellishing is complete the copper vessels are dipped into a chemical to produce the silver plate.

Ondong - Vipassana Dhura (Buddhist Monastery)

Nuns preparing to give the monks offer

Kampong Tralach

Ox Cart Ride

Ox  Carts were the traditional form of transportation and are still used by farmers.  We had the opportunity to travel by cart for 25 minutes through the country side.

Oxen

Royal Palace

Phnom Penh

Is the capital of Cambodia since 1866.We had  a tour of the Royal Palace.  Phnom Penh is located on the banks of the Mekong, Tonie Sap and Bassac River.

Memorial in the Killing Fields

Killing Fields - Burial Pits not Excavated

Former School used by the  Khmer Rouge as a detention center. 

S-21 detention center - Tuol Sleng Museum of Genocide. The Khmer Rouge with Pol Pot regime from 1975 to 1979.

Leaving Phnom Penh

Boarder and Immigration Stop

Here is were we waited to

Boarder Crossing

cross the boarder from Cambodia to Vietnam on the Mekong River.

The whole process is very slow as each passenger and staffs passports have to be checked for VISA's.

Tan Chau

Tan Chau is a small Mekong Delta town untouched by tourism.  We traveled through the streets on a Xe Loi (bicycle rickshaw). to a silk and rattan mat workshop.

Rickshaw Ride 

Rattan Mat Weaving

Silk Factory - Jacquard Loom

Sa Dec

Market

Here we had the opportunity to visit a farmers market where you could purchase produce, a variety of fish and meat as well as rice and other foods.

Market

Market

Australian Bridge

This bridge was a gift to Vietnam to help rebuild the country after the American War as the Vietnamese refer to the war.

Sunset on the Mekong