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Published: March 5th 2018
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Mekong Eyes, home for 3 days After the mayhem and tight schedules of the previous ten days or so on the Explore schlep across Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam we were ready for a more peaceful period of calm r and r. Before we set off on this trip Paul had prebooked us a 3 day/2 night cruise on a wooden boat along the Mekong Delta.
After an early pickup and a comfort break at a service stop that makes Gloucester Services on the M5 seem downmarket we arrived on the banks of the Mekong.
The boat was moored in the river and looked everything we were hoping for, wooden & traditional. A short small boat transfer took us aboard to our home for the next two nights. A lovely cabin with en-suite, 2 upper decks for relaxing and watching the world go by, reception area, bar and dining room.
As you would expect, the Mekong is a major traffic hub for all sorts of craft and cargo. Barges of rice (of course) loose and in sacks; house boats; dredged sand barges so low in the water you wonder what is keeping them afloat; craft being unloaded of their bamboo poles, destined for the stilts
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Cabin view of over-water houses; we even saw what appeared to be some religious ceremony, complete with orange-robed monk. It is also full of rafts of water hyacinth, which act as resting places for egrets to eat fish on.
During the trip we had a couple of village walks with various tropical fruits being pointed out to us and tea and fruit with a local family. There is always one universal word that gets shouted out, especially from children .... 'Hello!'.
We saw some home based industries on the walks too. Rice paper making (which we had seen earlier in the trip) but the dried circles were then cut to form dry rice noodles.
And coconut candies, made from fresh coconut. We bought a few packs, thought they'd be useful or our jungle treks in Sumatra.
Food on board was excellent, 4 courses of Vietnamese at lunch and dinner, plus cooked and toast/fruit/yoghurt options at breakfast. It convinced us that, as we've always believed, we are not cut out for the eating and drinking associated with cruises. We practically went on a 24 hour fast when the cruise was over!
On the first morning we had a
small boat trip around a floating market. Not quite what we were expecting as this was a wholesale boat market, minimum purchase 10kgs. Have you ever seen so many watermelon in one place before? But there were also some local women in small sampans plying noodles from boat to boat, a floating cafe - with WiFi - even floating petrol stations.
We also got to step off at a local market, very much a local market. Lots of varieties of fish, alive then freshly stunned - as in hit on the head with a mallet - and gutted to order. We even spied a toad, tied around its waist, for sale, presumably for eating. The fruit and veg, and especially the herbs were a wonderful sight, enlivened by the colourful clothes of the women selling them.
There were 14 of us on board when we first got on, but after the first overnight stop 10 of those left the boat. The 4 of us remaining, us and a couple of Americans, Don and Renelle, hoped we were getting the boat to ourselves but a new group of 20 came on board. We friended up with D and R,
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Loose rice on its way to milling swapping travel stories. We hope they weren't too offended when we compared our 2 bags of 7kgs with their 2 bags of nearly 30kgs each plus various backpacks, handbags and souvenirs. We think they took it in good spirit!
On the final morning most of us took a 30 minute cycle ride around a village, which was fun, except that Pip had the team wobbler in front of her which impeded her progress somewhat. As before 'Hello's everywhere. We also passed a village wedding reception, bride and groom on their way to the wedding on a bike.
But this was r and r we could really get used to - lazing on the upper deck, cold drink in hand watching the sun set over the Mekong's flood plain.
Then it was all over and back to the chaos of Ho Chi Minh city.
That evening Paul had his first beard trim of the trip, at a salon down a back alley. Having electric shaved the beard the lady asked if Paul wanted the edges tidied up/close shaved. He said yes.
Imagine his surprise when she lathered up those areas and pulled out a cut throat razor.
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Cross river ferry, many of these Paul has never had / done a wet shave in his life, let alone a cut throat. So our conversation went something like,
Pip to Paul - You OK with it?
Paul - ?
Pip - If she cuts it off it will grow back.
Paul - Not my head it won't!!
Final day in HCM and we went to the Reunification Palace.
It's not usual on travels, we think, that you get the opportunity to look around such a grand piece of 1960s architecture. And at that level the building is quite magnificent. And wonderfully kept in good condition.
But the history is also fascinating, particularly the role it played in the Vietnam/American War. Again, as expected, it tells the story through Vietnamese eyes, but is mostly about the building, past and present, rather than the war.
The original palace was built in 1868 by the French. After that palace was bombed, by two rebel Vietnamese pilots, and burnt out in 1963 this current building was built to replace it, and opened in 1966.
At 10:45 am on April 30th, 1975, soldiers of the Liberation Forces came through the gates in tanks, as seen on
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Straw of some type TV. It was then the site where the Reunification of North and South Vietnam was ratified.
You get to see up close most of main rooms and living quarters, designed for a President of course. The current government have even left a framed photo of JFK on display in the President's office. And there is a bunker/war room with the war maps and telephones still on show.
That pretty much brings us up to date.
We are currently in Medan, Indonesia for the night before moving tomorrow to Bukit Lawang, somewhere in the jungle, so we can go on search of the 'the old man of the jungle'.
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