We continue our travels with a swing through Cambodia and Vietnam.

We did not give a lot of thought to it when we made our travel plans, but our first morning in Siem Reap was the spring solstice. We had arranged a sunrise excursion to Angkor Wat. Little did we know that we would be joined by literally thousands of others as they all swarmed the archeological park to see the sunrise line up with the ancient temple.

Of course, among the throngs of people were many dogs. The stray dog population is high there as with so many of the other developing nations. One thing I will say about them though, they are a friendly bunch of dogs. Many of the tourists had breakfast or snacks packed for the day and the dogs took full advantage of their puppy-dog eyes to woo a few pieces of toast from their marks. During the tour of the ruins, we did spot a few dogs in the sandstone murals as well.

The following day, we visited a temple (Wat) in town. There, the monks had taken to feeding the stray dogs and cats. So, as we wandered through the displays and statues, we were accompanied by several pups. I even saw one nice looking German Shepherd, although I think it may have been an owned dog just out for a morning stroll.

After Cambodia, we flew to Hanoi. Hanoi was in every way foreign to me. I can’t adequately describe the orchestrated chaos of the place. Traffic seemed never to stop, signals were mere suggestions, and people were everywhere. As were the dogs. I had a challenging time figuring out when I could cross streets or which direction traffic was going, but we watched as several dogs deftly navigated the streets through the throngs of motorscooters and pedicabs.

At one point we were even joined on our walking tour by a little Frenchie who seemed to pop into our group, listen to the guide for a moment and then meander away.

It was a whirlwind trip but one I won’t forget.