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Follow my Indochina blog

Tommye FlemingTommye Fleming
in Indochina: Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos
We are in Southeast Asia with Tauck right now (January 2013). Follow my blog if you're interested:
http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/spoonball/5/tpod.html

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    Tommye FlemingTommye Fleming
    We just completed the Indochina trip. It was marvelous and so was Larry Abbott, our Tauck tour guide. We saw a lot, learned a lot and enjoyed ourselves. HOWEVER, this is not for anyone but the seasoned traveler.

    Some commentary about traveling here:
    1. Manage your expectations about luxury travel with Tauck here. They do the best they can but some things are just beyond their control … like flight schedules and public bathrooms. Hotels are lovely, meals are mostly very good but these countries are poor and underdeveloped (esp. Vietnam). Roads, pollution, sanitation and other issues abound.
    2. Bring tons of medicines to handle digestive infections (Cipro, for instance); cold and allergy medications, etc. Hardly a person on the tour went unscathed. Pollution (esp. in Vietnam) showed up as sinus infection, upper respiratory issues, disguised as colds. And traveling in underdeveloped countries brings a risk of dysentery, of course. These issues were still catching up with our comrades as they were departing for their homelands.
    3. You can’t have too much or too many tissues, wet wipes or hand sanitizer. Ship a crate ahead of time. ;-)

    Check out my blog if you'd like details:
    http://blog.travelpod.com/travelblog/spoonball/5/tpod.html
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    Leo MLeo M
    Hello Tommye...I just read the blog on your Tauck trip to Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos. It was - as usual - fantastic! I'm a huge fan of your blog style. I love your honesty. In fact, before we took our Tauck Tanzania / Kenya safari in January 2012, I read your African blog several times. We followed tens of suggestions you made about items to take with us; how to shop; and what to see. I told my wife back then that my goal was to write blogs as informative and detail oriented as you do. I'm still trying!

    I'm not sure if we will go to SE Asia or not. Right now, we are still very deeply involved in our love affair with Africa. However, if we do consider such a trip, I will go back and reread your blog first. Thank you for providing such wonderful adventure stories for us...Leo M.
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    nwrossnwross
    My husband and I loved your blog......thanks for providing so much information!!! Did most of the people touring with you have typhoid vacinations and take precautions for malaria? We are taking the Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand tour in March.
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    rogfamrogfam
    We are on the March 15th trip (Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand) and are meeting with the travel doctor this week. Went to Africa two years ago so have had most shots. Will let you know what she says.
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    nwrossnwross
    thank you!!!!
    Look forward to hearing from you about precautions suggested by your travel doctor.
    We are also on the March 15th tour.
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    traveler29601traveler29601
    I'm leaving for Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand trip on March 1st, and my only question would be about communicating with home while I'm gone. :-)
    After reading your blog, I was wondering if anyone on your trip had an Iphone and if they were able to connect to wi-fi in the hotels. I am traveling by myself and am definitely challenged by all the phone/internet jargon. My son-in-law says it will work with global service added to send and receive texts, but I sure would feel better if I heard from someone first hand!!!
    Thanks to anybody that might know for sure.
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