Blogs from Chau Doc, An Giang, Mekong River Delta, Vietnam, Asia - page 5

Chau Doc Mittlerweile sind wir im Grenzgebiet zu Kambodscha. Neben Vietnamesen leben hier auch zahlreiche Khmer (Angehörige des Staatsvolks von Kambodscha; bitte nicht mit den Roten Khmer in einen Topf werfen!) und man sieht viele Khmer-Pagoden und Mönche in orangefarben, anstatt in braunen Gewändern. Vom Busbahnhof ins Zentrum von Chau Doc fuhren wir mit Cyclos. Während anderswo diese vietnamesische Version der Fahrradrikscha fast ausschließlich von Touristen zu Sightseeing-Zwecken genutzt wird, scheint sie sich in Chau Doc als reguläres Transportmittel der Einheimischen neben dem Motorradtaxi behauptet zu haben. Die Cyclos in Chau Doc sehen auch ein wenig anders aus, als die, die ich bisher gesehen habe. Normalerweise haben diese nämlich den Sitz vorne als umgebauten Lenker. In Chau Doc hingegen handelt es sich bei den Cyclos ist die Sitzfläche als Anhänger an ein normales ... read more

Leaving the noisy motorbike chaos of Ho Chi Minh behind we boarded a coach to start our three day Mekong Delta trip. After a couple of hours of driving - all past a constant row of houses which lined the road the whole way, we arrived in the large delta town of My Tho. Most of the houses were constructed from which made the trip pretty uninteresting. It was here that we boarded our first boat - a long wooden one with a noisy outboard motor, and headed off to visit two of the islands in the middle of the river. The Mekong has thousands of these islands along it's length, mostly uninhabited, but all the larger ones have settlements on them. The two we visited were called Turtle and Unicorn - both named thus because ... read more

My friend he noticed it too. The dreamy turquiose walls, the small shops and spaces, dirty spaces, that light up with this dreamy turquiose. On the corner of my street, there are mechanical toys from the 1980s ,it is a kind of small amusement park for babies. That has a strangness in itself, but there are two business that operate from this room, also a butchery. Sometimes the meat is inside the room, sometimes she sells meat outside the room. The colours that are in those spaces, the dreamy turquoise walls, the raw red of the meat, and the rainbow colours from the mechanical toys.......... When I ride my motorbike home, this space is my landmark. When I see that dreamy turquoise wall, I can turn, I know I am on my street.... read more

15th April 2009 Today’s journey into Vietnam started with an hour bus journey from Phnom Penh to Kaam Samnor on the banks of the Mekong River where we took a 3hr leisurely boat trip to the Vietnam border crossings at Vinh Xuong and then onto the town of Chau Doc in the Mekong Delta. The trip down the Cambodian part of the river was very boring. I sat on the edge of the boat, poised with a camera to record any wildlife we might encounter, NOTHING! I did, however, lose my hat to the muddy waters, I’d purchased it in Borneo and I was really attached to it, oh well. As we crossed into Vietnam almost instantly I started to see small numbers of birds, mostly Whiskered Tern flying like white, little arrows up and down ... read more

We were up bright and early again this morning. We were down in front of the travel agency by 7:15am. Again this morning there were a bunch of busses lined up outside. Problem was we didn't know which one was ours. We kept getting sent up and down the street. Now it was fifteen minutes past when we were supposed to leave and we still had no idea. Eventually we found our bus. Thank goodness. We would have had a cow if we missed the trip after everything. The bus was even smaller! I had absolutely no leg room. Our tour guide was pretty annoying this time. My trip would have been more enjoyable if it weren't for him. He took us to just certain places and gave us "his" tour of the place and then ... read more