Cruising the Mekong Delta to Cambodia

Day 1 - 28/1/2005

The Mekong Delta is the most southern area of Vietnam, a land full of lush farms, rice fields, and tributaries from the main Mekong River. The Mekong River starts in Tibet, goes through 6 countries, and ends here at the South China Sea. There are 18 million people living here, making a living from farming fruit, rice and produce, and from fishing. They produce enough rice here to feed the entire country (over 80 million people) plus have some to export.

Our bus left Saigon for the Mekong Delta at about 8am. We drove for about 2 hours to the river and then boarded a small tourist boat down river. Our first stop was a small town called My Tho. We really just walked through the markets that were on the banks of the river. Nothing too special as we had seen planty of them before. The highlight was a bit of a sparring match between 2 cocks (chickens that is). The markets were quite busy as everyone is preparing for the Tet festival (Vietnam New Year), their largest holiday of the year. Lunch was on Tortoise Island, a smallish island somewhere on the Mekong. We sat onder grass huts and had a nutritious meal of instant noodles and veggies. It is surrounded by a variety of fruit trees: pomolos, jackfruit, dragonfruit, lychees, pineapples, water-apples, and more. We cruised along some other smaller canals and stopped at a Coconut Candy factory/hut. The coconut flesh is shredded then put into a press and the juice is extracted. The juice is then put in a big-ass wok and boiled. Other ingredients are added, like peanuts, chocolate, or banana and some other green leaf that we don't know the name of. They try to add as little sugar as possible to make use of the sweetness of the coconut itself. The finished product is like taffy and is rolled, stretched and then cut into small pieces. It is then wrapped in rice paper and then wrapped in paper. All of this is done by hand by about 5 people. Oh yeah it tastes damn good. They also make banana wine here from the banana seeds. It is pretty much like whisky.

At the next home we stopped for some honey tea and more local candy. The tea was made with a little bit of honey, juice from a tiny green orange, tea granules, and hot water. It tasted like a hot lemon drink Mum makes me when I have a sore throat (thanks Marie). These people had a pet python to hold, so I overcame my fear of snakes for 30 seconds and had it placed on my neck. It was damn heavy, the skin was soft and it was so strong. Its tail coiled around my wrist and watch. It wasn't fully constricting but I could feel the strength in it, and I was still attached when it was passed to the next person. Kel held it too but really didn't like it on her neck but once she was holding it she was OK.

Later in the day we boarded smaller boats rowed by 2 women, one upfront and one at the back. We navigated through even smaller tributaries. We saw lots of tourists on other small boats, and also some pretty butterflies, lizards and lots of dragonflies. We even saw a gorgeous kingfisher, with an ochre/orange chest bright blue head, back and tail, and some white stripes along its cheeks. We then went back to board the bus and drive to Can Tho city to head out to our home-stay for the night. From Can Tho we boarded our moto-cyclo to board another boat. This was a long wooden boat with people seated single file all the way along. It was a long tail style which has a big diesel engine mounted on a moveable shaft with the prop at the end. It was already dark for the 20 minute ride, and we enjoyed looking up at the stars and seeing the fireflies in the trees.

Our 'home' stay was more of a 'Mekong Mansion' stay. The family was a wealthy family with a large house of about 5 large rooms, with a kitchen out the back. It certainly wasn't the corrugated iron and bamboo shacks the majority of the Mekong residents live in. They cooked us a great dinner of Elephant Ear fish, green beans, fried spring rolls and roll-your-own spring rolls. It was pretty much the best Vietnamese meal we have had. Oh yeah the beer and banana wine was good too. We were a bit dissapointed that the family didn't sit and interact with us at all. But we enjoyed the company of 2 American guys (from Tahoe), a Canadian, and 3 Poms. After a great meal, a couple of beers midnight crept up on us and the 6 o'clock start in the morning was looking pretty scary. Our bed was a normal looking double bed with a very thin foam mattress on a raised tiled base with a mosquito net. We fell asleep to the Geckos having turf wars above us. Kel needed to go to the loo in the middle of the night as usual, but found that we were locked in the house (The dunny was outback Aussie style). She woke me up from my deep sleep to tell me we 'Nige, I can't get out and I really have to pee.' I said 'just go out the back door' but she had already tried and then she managed to unlock the front door and escape. Armed with tiny LED torch she tried to get around the back but was trapped by sand on one side and the other was blocked. An ant free area near a tree was found and quickly utilised.

Day 2 - 29/1/2005

We had a very early start this morning, waking around 6:00 to enjoy a breakfast of rice porridge, strong brewed coffee with 'sweet milk' (sweetened condensed milk, sooo good!) and tea, freshly cooked by the house staff. We sat out on their front patio along the river and watched the morning 'traffic' of people walking and boating by. We boarded our boat at the house, and headed to the Cai Rang floating markets. This is the biggest floating market on the Mekong Delta, and is more like the warehouse of products, as smaller boats come here to fill up and boat elsewhere to sell. Most of the boats were huge, and they all had a bamboo pole erected at the front with the item(s) for sale tied to the top. Most boats only sell one item, such as pineapples, flowers, oranges, and tons of other things. We even saw a boat loaded down with rutabegas (that's for you Schaefer girls). It was exciting to see such bustling activity, and know that this market goes on every morning. We especially enjoyed waving to all of the small children on some of the boats.

We then stopped at another family home on the Mekong, and our guide spoke to us about Vietnamese culture and typical lifestyles. It was nice to have a guide who was excited about sharing his culture with tourists. Our lazy homestay guy napped in a hammock the whole time, snoring through the talk. We boated around more smaller canals and then headed for our bus for the 3 hour drive to Chau Doc, a town just near the Cambodian border. Halfway there we stopped at a crocodile farm. There are several of these around the Mekong, as the meat is sold to China and the skin is used to make shoes and wallets. It is a profitable business for Vietnamese. They had over 10,000 crocodiles here, mostly between 1 and 3 years old (best time for the meat).

We arrived in Chau Doc and headed to Sam Mountain for a hike up to watch the sun set over green rice paddies stretching all the way to Cambodia and beyond. Our 'guide' was a boy of about 10 years old. He didn't speak any English except to point to a bunch of guys playing in a field and said 'soccer!' It was a very hot and humid walk up, but worth it for the views. We returned to our hotel and struggled to find a decent restaurant for dinner. We ended up eating at our hotel, which was good. Chau Doc isn't the most inviting town in the Mekong. Again we were entertained by geckos, and also a small girl of about 2 years old. She was running around being silly, and pick-pocketing grandma (she ended up getting a few hundred dong from her). She and grandpa looked to be best buddies. We have enjoyed seeing all of the grandparents with their small grandchildren around Vietnam. It seems that they spend a lot of time with them, taking care of smaller ones during the day and helping to transport older ones to/from school. We headed to bed after dinner to escape the attack of mosquitos.

Day 3 - 30/01/2005

We started early again this morning and had a 3 hour boat ride from Chau Doc to the Cambodian border crossing. We stopped at one of the many fish farms/hatcheries in the Mekong Delta. The farm is really a shed built on a floating pontoon with a huge underwater net to enclose the fish. They are all a type of catfish, fed some outrageously huge amount of food every day. They have over 100,000 fish at this farm, and they were all swarming and jumping over each other to get to the food our guide threw onto the surface of the water. There was a cute little 3 year old boy there (he probably lived there) eating his bowl of rice (with full-sized chopsticks) for breakfast. He had about a 10m square area to ride his bike with training wheels. He played the drums for us with his chopsticks, and I gave him a few pieces of coconut candy, which he immediately stored in his bicycle basket for later consumption. We next stopped at yet another minority village, this one a Cham village on the river. They make their living from hand weaving fabric items and selling things to tourists. The kids were adorable, and loved seeing themselves on our digital camera after we took a photo.

Our last stop in the Mekong Delta was at the Cambodian border. Of our time here, we mostly enjoyed watching the people along the river, going about their daily lives: fishing, farming, washing their hair or dishes, bathing, fixing boats, trading and selling, or just relaxing in a hammock on the shore. At the border, we were told to wait at a cafe (grass hut) with a few hundred other foreigners and our guide went off to check us out of Vietnam and get our Cambodian visas. There were plenty of touts to keep us busy. It was nice sitting at the cafe, drinking an iced coffee and waiting for our passports while someone else did the work for us (much nicer than the fiasco of entering Vietnam, but still hectic and lots of waiting around, not knowing what was going on--this seems to be the Vietnamese way). After about an hour and a half, we got our passports back, collected our bags and walked about 100 metres into the limbo zone, the area that is not Vietnam any more, but not Cambodia yet. We boarded our 'fast boat' and sat in the oven-like metal boat for at least an hour while some people tried to fix the boat. It wasn't the nicest way to begin our trip to Cambodia, but we did have some great entertainment. All of the children trying to sell stuff to us followed us here, and began playing on the boat and in the water. Once they got past trying to sell stuff to us, they were great fun to laugh and joke with, and maybe the happiest children we had seen in all of Vietnam. One girl in particular was sitting outside our window. She had been trying to sell us mangoes for about 2 hours, but we just spoke to her about other things. When asked what happens with the money she makes from her sales, she replied 'Mum. I give it to my mum, so she can pay for my school. Also, so we don't go hungry.' But she was still all smiles. Kel gave her US$1 (more than her parents make in a day probably) and made her promise she'd use it to buy herself an icecream (it was so hot out!) and anything else she needed for school. Her eyes lit up as she took the dollar and blew us kisses as our boat finally left. All of the children jumped and waved along the shore, giving as a great last memory of Vietnam.

About 10 minutes down the river, we pulled to shore and all got off at the Cambodian immigration offices. The differences between here and the Vietnamese side were incredible. Here, there were not touts or stalls or motorbikes. There is grass instead of dirt. The buildings are painted bright white and have footpaths between them. We waited in an actual line while we took turns getting stamped into Cambodia by 2 very friendly and efficient border police guys. The guy who stamped Kel in was quite interested in her American passport but Australian resident status (just curious, not suspicious). While we waited for others to get stamped in (and a few losers who didn't have Cambodian visas yet and held us up for an hour while they got them), we sat in a gazebo under some shady palm trees at a picnic table and chatted to about 10 kids who were selling cold drinks. Nige enjoyed his first Cambodian beer. The kids here were also beautiful, and look different from the Vietnamese kids just up the river. Only one of them (the oldest, said he was 24 but looked 16) spoke English. All the others were from about 5 years to 12 years old. The youngest had the sweetest dimples and a really bright smile.

Our boat ride on our 'fast boat' from the border lasted about 3 hours. The boat was cooking inside, and it was actually cooler out in the hot sun on deck, where most of us crowded. There wasn't such a dramatic change from Vietnam to Cambodia as far as the scenery goes, but there are definitely less people and homes along the river, and the people do look different. They are much darker than most Vietnamese (except for the Mekong Delta people). We were supposed to go by boat all the way to Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia, but the boat stopped after about 3 hours, and we all were made to get on a bus for a 2 hour bus ride. We were a bit angry about this, but there was nothing the Cambodian dude could do, as we had booked our boat ticket in Saigon. We arrived in Phnom Penh, got a moto-cyclo to a hotel, then headed out for some dinner, absolutely famished. We ended up eating at the first place we saw, a cafe right on the river, offering a huge variety of food for around $2-$4 US. We had a feast for less than $8, including beer (we conveniently made it in time for happy hour, buy 1 $1 beer, get one free). Kel treated herself to a salad and Nige had veal cordon bleu. Both delicious. We had ordered a plate of chips, mistakenly thinking our meals would be small for such cheap prices. I don't think we ate more than 5 or 6, so we got them wrapped up to take away, and gave them to a hungry kid on the street. Sadly, there are a lot of begging children in Phnom Penh, and it's extremely difficult to turn your head to them. But we've been advised that it is not good to give them money, as most likely it just gets taken away by a parent lurking nearby, or goes to their glue-sniffing habits. So we've been giving them food and cold drinks instead, which they seem pretty happy about so far. By this time we were pretty tired from such a hot day, so we relaxed in our air-conditioned room and went to bed.