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Published: October 17th 2022
Breakfast was available between 7.00-9.00am this morning. Bernie felt recovered enough to venture down with me at about 8.30-ish for a glass of orange juice and a slice of toast. Even though we felt we left it quite late to make our way down for breakfast we were certainly not the last to arrive in the dining room this morning.
After breakfast we headed upstairs to the sun deck. The wi-fi signal is strongest on the sun deck so I was finally able to bring the travel blog up-to-date. I don’t like to get too far behind because then the whole travel diary ritual might fall by the wayside entirely! Fortunately, I did most of the writing last night, so it was only copying the words from Word and pasting them into the blog website that we use before publishing the blogs for our subscribers to see.
Following this bit of admin there was still plenty of time to gain an insight into life on the vast waterway that is the Mekong River. We sailed past simple fishing villages and vast industrialised zones often existing straight across the river from each other. So many people enjoy a simple way
of life on the river raising a few fish in the netted areas attached to their small holding on the river whilst on the other side there are huge factories that are set up to deal with manufacturing and processing of agricultural crops. Vietnam exports a considerable amount of rice, much of which is grown and processed near the Mekong River.
We also saw river traffic in all different shapes and sizes, from the smallest of boats to huge dredging vessels and everything in between. In a number of places there were vehicular ferries crossing the river to provide crossings in betweeen the many bridges that arch their way from bank to bank.
Our relaxing morning was bookended with another meal. An amazing three course luncheon. We started with cold meats and salads (safe on the boat we have been assured) that we served ourselves from the buffet. We ordered our main course for lunch during breakfast and our delicious lemongrass chicken skewers with a side of rice were delivered to us at our table. I finally had enough of an appetite back to appreciate this meal. Bernie, not so much. He skipped entrée and managed a bit
of chicken and rice before retiring back to our stateroom while Cathy, Steve and I stayed in the dining room to enjoy our mango cake for dessert.
Bernie had taken it easy all morning hoping that he would feel up to this afternoon’s excursion. As our departure time approached though, he decided that he should give today’s outing a miss. About 2.00pm a sampan arrived to transfer us to the riverbank where we were loaded into minibuses. We enjoyed a 45-minute drive through rice paddies to Gao Giong, a ‘green oasis’ comprised of a 1,000-acre eucalypt forest.
A short walk from the entrance to the park we were able to climb an observation tower for a view out over the forest. Hmmn, our guide was telling us only three people at a time on the top of the tower, but this instruction was not heard by most of the group! Cathy and Steve found themselves on the very dodgy observation deck with about ten people. I hung back and managed to abide by the three person rule. Even so, I stuck to walking on the joists where I hoped there would be a bit more support rather than
walking on the mostly rotted planks!!! In Australia this observation tower would be closed for repairs for sure.
Another day, another jaunt in a rowboat this time across the Duong Tharp Muoi or ‘Plain of Reeds’. It seemed to take quite a while to find our group enough rowboats. We learnt later that this was because another group arrived ahead of us and ‘stole’ our boats. There were people scurrying about trying to find extra boats and extra planks to put in the base of them for us to sit on … and young ladies to paddle/steer the boats.
It was quite worrying when a boat pulled up to the bank and its ‘paddler’ was bailing water out of the bottom! Everyone still waiting held back saying you go next, oh no, we’re in no rush, YOU go next. Guess which threesome ended up in the leaky boat? Yup, that would be Cathy, Steve and me. We managed to make it into the boat without capsizing so that was challenge number one met.
So, off we paddled into the forest which was very atmospheric. And we paddled and we paddled and our bums started to go numb
and still we hadn’t seen any of the birds that this park is supposed to be famous for. We could hear them, but we didn’t see a single feather for a-g-e-s. Finally … finally, we turned into another channel and we entered the zone where a diverse selection of water birds and egrets gather in their tens of thousands. Soon we reached the viewing area for the principal nesting site in the park where we saw mature birds, nests and juveniles aplenty. Gosh it was a challenge though, trying to take photos from our position low down on the water, in a boat barely keeping itself above the water! I had my camera set on fast continuous shooting in the hope that if I took enough photos Bernie would be able to find a few amongst them that are halfway decent. Fingers crossed!
I kept thinking that surely we would turn around soon and head back so that there might be some chance that I could still get myself out of the boat without being completely seized up after sitting so low down, for so long. With my anxiety level increasing – fear of sinking, fear of capsizing, fear
of having water splashed on my face, fear of the mosquitoes that were buzzing all around us despite the considerable amount of 40% DEET Bushman’s Insect Repellant we were covered in – it eventually dawned on me that we must be paddling around in a circle. Thank goodness!!
I have never been so glad to get back to where I started from as I was today when our boat slid back into the bank. The Vietnamese people are so beautiful and kind. We were offered strong arms to help haul us upright and we weren’t rushed to disembark. Just stand first, we were told, get some feeling back in your legs before you attempt to step out. It was actually much less traumatic getting out of the boat than I had imagined it would be. Tcht! All that stress for nothing.
After the opportunity to use the Happy Room and drink cups of lotus tea it was back onto the minibuses for a 25-minute drive to meet the sampan that whisked us back to the Bassac Pandaw just in time for Cocktail Hour. Tonight’s offering a Green De Light. Bernie even declared himself sufficiently recovered for a beer.
Paddling through the forest
Photo credit: Catherine GattHe wasn’t brave enough to sample the cocktail though.
During cocktail hour we were briefed on our programme for tomorrow. A morning excursion and then much of the afternoon will be tied up with border formalities as we cross from Vietnam into Cambodia. And then back to the dining room for a four course meal – entrée, soup, main AND dessert. So much food and so little activity!
Steps for the day: 4,542 (3.03km)
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