Lightning is flickering across the horizon, thunder rumbling ominously. Towering black clouds are piled up in every direction. I’m on the deck of the riverboat Indochine II, taking it all in, high on ozone and excitement. The humidity is like a warm bath, the scent of the tropics on the breeze: damp earth and wood smoke.
I’ve joined a cruise along the Mekong river that forms the central part of a 10-night journey across Cambodia and Vietnam. My journey, with French-owned cruise line CroisiEurope, starts in Siem Reap, gateway to the magnificent Angkor temples, and ends in frenetic Ho Chi Minh City. In the middle is Phnom Penh, the riverside Cambodian
