Chasing Travel Adventures

Total Solar Eclipse April 8, 2024 Allen, Texas

For us, this was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event. The morning started out cloudy but we held out hope for a little window of opportunity to see even a portion of the eclipse. Lawn chairs set-up in the backyard 12:20pm, wearing our solar glasses, leaned back in our lawn chairs, we waited.

It is hard to imagine the magnitude of this experience: everything aligned properly; the unbelievable speed of the planets; and for just a couple of minutes we experienced such a wondrous phenomenon, TOTAL ECLIPSE. There was about 4 mins of totality from beginning to end. Totality revealed a beautiful ring of light.

As the eclipse moved to totality the temperature dropped, skies darkened, birds stopped chirping, everything quietened. Once total eclipse manifested and started to pass, sunlight returned, temperature rose, a flock of birds started to circle above, song birds began chirping, and we felt the hot sun on our skin again. A short time later we sat, absorbing this spectacular afternoon.

Our excursion this morning was to the island Vinh Hoa via a small boat. We docked at the bank and climbed ashore where our guide led us through a small village. He was familiar with the village residents and gave us insight to their daily life. Their houses are raised on stilts for ventilation during the hot months and as protection during the rainy season when the river will flood most of the island. During the dry season the ground floor is used for storage and during the rainy seasons the storage is moved upstairs. There are a few high spots for the cattle or they have to be moved to family/friend farms on the mainland. The chickens and goats are kept in pens above the water level. Throughout the walk, we were greeted by islanders that were very happy to see us. Younger children came outside or hung out their windows to wave and say hello. Stopping at a farmer’s house, “Uncle Five” (uncle is a term of respect and five is his birth spot in his family; it is disrespectful to use formal names when not familiar with them), age 74, invited us into his house. We were seated on the ground floor under the house where it was very cool and he provided details of his life. He lives with his son and family and they work the family chili farm. He wakes at 5am and heads to the farm at 6am to work until about 10am when it becomes too hot to work and heads home. At 8pm they retire for the night. His current house was built in 1991 to replace his house that was burnt by guerrillas trying to force the residents off the island. We spent about 20 minutes with him before he invited us to see the upstairs of the house. The islanders live in modest simplicity. I didn’t see anything larger than scooters on the island. The island has electric and water. The children must cross over the bridge to the mainland in order to reach the school. Continuing through the village we boarded our little boat and headed to Tan Chau were we stopped at a mat factory where they use old cloth weaving looms that have been converted to use reeds in order to make the mats. They color dye the reeds in hot water as needed for various designs of mats. After the reeds are dyed they have to be rinsed to remove excess dye and dried for 2-3 days so they are color fast. The ladies running the looms are very skilled at keeping track of what color reed to use. Mats have a very large market in Vietnam being used in place of mattresses for coolness, table mats, and floor mats. There is even a special wedding night mat with with a colorful design. Across from the mat factory was a Silk Co-Op where numerous silk related products are sold. The local people provide their items to the Co-Op for sale in a convenient location. We boarded rickshaws and we were taken to a family run silk mill. It has been a family run operation for 4 generations. We were toured through the mill to see the looms in operation and had an opportunity to see the black silk this mill is famous for. Back on rickshaws we were taken back to the dock to meet our small boat for our return to our ship.

Our afternoon program was presented by the ships Chef who provided instructions on how to make Pho (Vietnamese soup) and Spring Rolls followed by a demonstration on decorative vegetable carving. He carved a fantastic fish from a dragon fruit and a very intricate flower from a watermelon.

We travelled up river and crossed into Cambodia. There is no definitive marking to identify the boundaries, but the difference is noticeable. The shoreline in Vietnam is lined with small family farm plots and farm raised fish pens. Also, traffic on the Cambodian side is markedly less than it was in Vietnam. Where Vietnam uses the Mekong River to transport goods, Cambodia uses truck trailers to move products. The most significant indicator of a border change was a text from Smart (T-Mobile partner) that you are now in Cambodia on their network.