The tour to Laos/Vietnam/Cambodia was promoted as a scouting trip by Mehmet. However he scoped out many of the places in advance to ensure that our small group would be comfortable. As always, no one ever goes hungry on these trips. Food in SE Asia is amazingly affordable, made with fresh ingredients, and delicious. The group spent a lot of time laughing together, sharing stories, and everyone got along. The camera salesman in the group wasn’t able to close a sale, Mehmet got hooked on Burt’s Red Bull, and we’re still waiting for Heidi’s edits from her 2015 photo tour. There were lots of sleepless nights, as Mehmet runs a tight schedule with both sunrise and sunset photo trips. Not a minute is available for shopping nor enough time to enjoy spending time at some of our luxury hotels.
Overall the trip was good, as we got to revisit Cambodia, which had been totally flooded the last time we visited in 2011, and this time the light for sunsets and sunrises was amazing. The highlight of our tour in Laos was the Fire Boat Festival, which was not part of the itinerary, but we got lucky when we arrived early and our guide, Vahn, told us about the festival that night. The sunrise at Halong Bay was a winner, despite there being a lot of uncertainty. We stayed at two beautiful resorts, but we got in so late and left so early the following morning, that we never had a chance to enjoy it. The schedule was so tight with so much packed in, that it seemed we spent a lot of time driving, and less time to photograph the people in the market places that we love. For the most part, the food was awesome, our traveling buddies were fun. Because we are traveling during the transitional period, the weather was not favorable for many colorful sunsets and sunrises. However, there was a good balance of landscape, architecture, people.
We traveled to Vietnam and Cambodia in 2011, more than 12 years ago, and a LOT has changed. There are SO many more people, and the traffic is now over the top filled with motorbikes. We had to hold hands just to cross the street safely. You can get run over by motorbikes even in the open air markets, which used to be pedestrians only. The infrastructure has been built up, and there are so many more luxury hotels (undoubtedly funded by the Chinese.) Fortunately, the air quality was still clean. We were disappointed that Hoi An has turned into such a touristy, commercialized shopping mecca, overloaded with tourists. We still prefer going to the places that are less traveled and are off-the-beaten path.
Below are photos of our traveling buddies on this tour.
We are a group of Travelers, who are passionate about traveling to exotic destinations and photography. Because this was a scouting trip, there were only 6 of us. Sherrine (top-center) and Heidi (lower-right) have traveled with us before to the Balkans. Heidi also accompanied us to Georgia and Armenia, whereas Mark and Peggy had hired Mehmet on a private tour of Turkey. Heidi also spent several long nights on her job in the Bahamas working remotely, then was exhausted during the day. Her cake decorating skills are over-the-top wonderful.
The photo block above shows our group: Evelyn at the front side of Angkor Wat (top left). Mehmet photographing Sy’s mom in her home cooking a meal (Right bottom), Sherrine giving English lessons(top middle), Mark enroute to the rice fields on the back of a motorbike(middle), Peggy holding baby duck at local market, Burt on the back of motorbike going up to rice terraces feeling out of control, as he’s used to being in the front driving (top right), Heidi going by boat to the caves. A memorable trip with wonderful friends.
Top photos shows Burt and Evelyn at Angkor Wat as shot by Mehmet(middle); Bottom Photo was shot by the entrepreneurial Lady Boat Captain who had Vietnamese hats for her clients to wear enroute to the caves (bottom).