The Hang Chau motorboat from Chau Doc, Vietnam to Phnom Penh, Cambodia–our means of crossing the border– sat about fifty people airplane style with a middle aisle and I knew instantly that I would stay up on the roofed deck. I could feel a breeze, move around and see so much more of the water and the land.
The first people I met were two women from eastern Europe, one from Bulgaria. I asked her if she agreed with Katerina from an earlier blog entry that the places to visit in Bulgaria were those in nature. She essentially did. Next I spoke to a young Dad with two sons from Hamburg, Germany and I had to tell him that I’d never been to his city but my great great grandfather had been a tanner there and emigrated to Venezuela in the mid 1800’s. I learned later that their sons, Josef 37 months old and Aaron 15 months old were 22 months apart in age. I did not feel nostalgic about traveling with our sons, Aaron and David, at those ages. I was witnessing how much work it was and these Hamburg parents took it in stride. I admired them. The mom Stefanie was nursing Aaron and it greatly helped calm him.
Next I talked to Aleksi from Cologne, Germany who was moving to Trier, Germany to be with his girlfriend who worked for her family’s lumber business. Their relationship had been a long distance one long enough and after working as an engineering consultant for the automotive industry for five years, this twenty something was ready for a change. At the moment he was taking advantage of the transition with some solo travel in Asia.
I told Aleksi that my sons had graduated from New Trier H S and that the early settlers in our former Chicago suburb of Wilmette had come from his girlfriend ‘s town. I learned that Trier was an ancient town from the Roman Empire period, more than two thousand years old. His description made me want to visit the town and possibly learn a bit of German.
I hadn’t taken photos of toddlers Josef and Aaron on the boat to Cambodia. We were delighted to see them at Angkor Wat 5 days later when I took the photos below.
