The Mekong Delta, floating filling stations, and thieving monkeys.

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On 20th December we left Phnom Penh in Cambodia and travelled by boat down the mighty Mekong to cross the border into Vietnam. We decided to book a 3 day tour into the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam. The border crossing was a gentle, orderly and attractive introduction to Vietnam, contrary to most overland border crossings which usually stress and confuse. Our first meal was noodles and vegetables in a hut next to the Immigration Office with some overly-excitable children trying to flog us packets of crisps. There was an amazing array of herbs thrown in with the veg.

The Mekong Delta is where the river fans out, eventually to meet the sea having travelled like a modern-day tourist through Tibet, China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. It gives life to so many people and is the food basket for Vietnam which is the 13th most populous country in the world.

Our first port of call was Chau Doc,where we stayed for a night on Sam's Mountain in a guesthouse. The boat trip in to the town is a fascinating snapshot of life on the river, with houses built on stilts at the water's edge and people industriously going about their business (mostly fishing).

Next day we were taken to a fish farm and a Cham ethnic minority village which was pretty underwhelming, then on to Can Tho, where we stayed the night. The next day we visited the floating markets on the river. Hundreds of little boats start congregating at about 5.30am to sell their wares, mostly fruit and vegetables. Each boat specialises in different varieties. There's even a floating petrol station!

All in all a great 3 days and nice to have someone guiding us around. The tour ended with us being dropped in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), following a brief stop at an incense stick making place and a bonsai garden with no bonsai trees that we could see, but it did have a monkey which grabbed Denise's bun (that's the second time she's been mugged by a monkey).

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Photos

Floating Market, Can Tho
Each boat displays what it is selling on a pole on the boat!

TV arials
Like a flock of pink flamingoes standing on one leg, TV arials inhabit the roof tops.

Mosque
A man sweeps outside a mosque in a Cham village (Cham being muslims)near Can Tho.

Cham Village
A typical house.

Fish farms
The big chimney thing is for boiling up the food for the fish.

Rice paper drying in a cemetry.
This place next to the river makes noodles and rice paper.

Pig
Denise took this one, she has a fondness for pigs, I have a fondness for bacon sannies!