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February 27th 2006

Published: March 6th 2006

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LeighSwenson

Market Lady

Friendly market lady.

So crossing the border from Cambodia to Vietnam via Tinh Bien proved to be a slight challenge but we made it. First thing to understand is that this border crossing is the newest and apparently was only recently opened to foreigners due to the fact that the area is not the most secure, in that the road cuts through rice paddies where on one side it is Cambodia and on the other Vietnam. For a time they had problems with people sneaking over. Or so the story goes. Still these days very few westerners go this way, we certainly saw none while we were there, nor in the small border town of Tihn Bien.

CROSSING FROM CAMBODIA TO VIETNAM VIA TINH BIEN

Even though it's open to foreigners now, most take the other crossing, leaving from Phnom Penh. Not wanting to back track or risk becoming waylaid due to the lure of happy pizza again we cut straight from Kampot in a share taxi with 2 english girls we met on the Bokor Hill Station tour. We left early and the road was really good... for about half the journey. It was probably the most scenic and

Ho Chi Minh

Like a giant tin man, Ho Chi Minh smiles down upon you.

interesting drive we have undertook in Asia so far, there was so much to see.

It was a market day. We past through many villages where folks were driving ancient machines that miraculously run or carts pulled by ox (or occassionally ponies)which were heavily laden with fresh produce. There were a few men on motorbikes with 2 dead pigs each lashed belly up on the seat behind them, heads bobbing and legs straight up to the sky(hopefully they were good little piggies and reside happily now in pig heaven where everyday promises a fantastic mud bath and tonnes of tasty slop).

There were villagers who waved and smiled and shouted as we past, a wedding going on, and daily life in rural Cambodia: plowing with oxen, digging with the hoe, nude kids running all over playing and animals wandering everywhere, including all over the road. It was interesting to see the different dwelling styles as we went along as well as changing natural scenery when the flat plains we'd seen all over Cambodia gradually gave way to the odd mountain or 2.

We hit a dirt road which lead us the next 1 and a half hours

Giant beers in Cantho

Half a litre in one! Good times, good times...

to the border. It was red dirt with several inches of fine powder on top, that was thrown up in massive clouds from even a simply bicycle or local on foot. The trees and grass along the road looked dead, but on closer inspection they were very much alive, only completely covered under a thick layer of red dust (as we were too, by now). The thickness of the red dirt receded gradually, evenly and in proportion to the flora's distance away from the roadside. This effect reminded me of kindergarden art where children glue pieces of pasta on paper plates then spray them with gold, bronze or silver paint occassionally missing the edges. With no air con and all windows down it was, as you can imagine, quite a dirty trip, we were caked (and baked) in a red crust and it was the only time I've wished I had bought one of those traditional red and white checkered scarves that vendors try to flog you on the beach.

Other than that our only other noteable encounter was when we came across a heavily loaded cart bogged in the middle of the road and everyone got out to

Shipping grain

Looks like hard work on the Mekong

help push. Except me, that is. Thanks to my dodgy back I had a valid reason to stand and video the whole thing. The vehicle was eventually cleared and we could continue, leaving behind a large group of youths that had gathered to gawk at us and examine my video.

The actual border crossing was easy as, we had ourselves on Vietnamese soil within about 15 minutes. That's when the real fun began. Our welcoming party consisted of a small horde of about 8 moto drivers quite set on taking us to Chau Doc - the town from where you branch out on your travels - for the "cheap, cheap" price of $US8 each. It was a 30 minute journey and considering we'd just paid $22 for 4 to travel 3hours by car we politely but firmly told them to jam it. They persisted, of course, and our comments that we'd take a bus or taxi were met with a unanimous "No can do."

Still we were determined and decided to walk to Tinh Bien - it didn't look that far - and find a better option. After 30 minutes walking in blistering heat at midday carry backpacks

After the trip to the border

A little out of focus but I included it to show you the grotty cloths and to see how happy we look about it.

we realised distances can be deceptive and we reached the edge of town reduced to little more than 4 oily lumps. We still had an entourage of moto drivers that had followed us all the way and this made me feel uneasy. Why were they so sure we'd cave? They looked so confident. Why hadn't they given up?

Because we had no other option of course. Not being a popular spot there were no taxi's and apparently the only bus departs at 9:30am. There was nowhere to stay but to be honest you wouldn't want to anyway. All we wanted was a cold drink. Then came a God send, a man named Moi. He was keen to assist us and we eyed him suspiciously. He reassured us that he wanted no money and would not receive commission. He turned out to be the owner of a company handling bus travel around Vietnam. All he wanted in exchange for his help was for us to take his business card and check out his service leaving from Chau Doc*.

We accepted and the place he took us on foot had cold drinks and they gave us wetwipes that had been

The Cambodian/Vietnamese border at Tinh Bien

frozen to help clean away the dirt and cool down. I doubt I've ever been so grateful in my life!

We discovered Moi lived in Chau Doc and would be returning there shortly, whereupon we asked (begged more like) for him to take us and we'd pay. He replied that he'd be more than happy to, however if he did he would have 'big trouble' from the moto drivers in town. I will here on in refer to them as the Moto Mafia...

Moi went out on our behalf and bargained the Moto Mafia - still waiting outside - down to 5 bucks. We left, made it to Chau Doc, found a room, marvelled at how cheap the internet was and got a tasty dinner for the both of us - street meat - for way less than 2 bucks. Pleased, we retired early-ish and got up the next day ready to travel onwards to Cantho on the Mekong Delta.

THE MEKONG DELTA

It's lush and a great way to see it is by a little wooden boat that carries 2. More on that shortly. When we first arrived we got our bearings, booked

View from our room in Chau Doc

Not the prettiest city, I'll admit. They do love their antenna's, don't they?

in to Hien Guesthouse II (can recommend it) and scouted about on foot. We decided to have a western night asian style. We found somewhere to snack and ordered half a litre mug of beer each and french fries. They served the fries with a little bowl of sugar and a stick of butter on the side and chopsticks.

Always keen to try something new I must say eating fries with chopsticks, butter and sugar was novel and I liked the taste even if it did seem a little odd. It crossed my mind whether they actually eat fries that way here or if they serve them like that for tourists just to see the response...

After that we had pizza and then we went ten pin bowling. Now, there will be people out there that say " I didn't come to South-east Asia to do the same stuff I could do at home." but I would venture to say that doing ordinary, normal stuff you'd do at home while oversea is, perhaps surprisingly, very interesting. Bowling was hilarious! We were the only westerners there, including in the arcade games section and we had some funny interactions with

Round about fountain

They certainly go to a lot of trouble with their traffic circles here...

the locals.

Next day we did a full day from 5:30 - 3:30pm on the Mekong on a little boat. The guy at our guesthouse, upon my enquiries, had drawn a picture of the type of boat we'd be taking, including our stick-figure driver complete with conical hat and 2 of us in the boat with smiley faces. We couldn't even think of refusing. I was a little worried that there would be a million little boats, drivers in conical hats and westerners like us all over the place but all day we only saw 3 or 4 sets which was nice. It was an awesome day. Sunrise was a colourful yet short lived display and we cruised the river feeling somewhat voyeuristic as we snuck a peek into the daily morning chores and rituals of those living on the river. There were people taking a bath, washing there dishes or their clothes, brushing their teeth, hanging out the washing, feeding the chickens. We took a small canal - or rather a maze of small canals - from the main section of the Mekong and joined up with it later and arrived at the first floating markets where we

Crash Helmet

Might be hard to see here but many moto riders use construction hard hats instead of proper helmets. Wouldn't do much if you stacked it but is good for a giggle...

tethered our boat to the drink boat and had a coffee while watching the 'hustle and bustle' of the markets. We cruised along and came to the second markets - know as the farmers market - which seemed better than the first, maybe because there weren't modern buildings lining the shores. Coutless small boats like ours and large boats carried all manner of produce and were either lashed together or floating seperate. Deals were being made, carrots weighted, goods transferred from one boat to another. It was all rather busy and colourful with lots of noisy chatter and plenty to catch your eye. We boarded a boat where we bought and ate fresh pineapple and coconut milk drank straight from the friut. We sampled a couple of foul tasting bits and pieces and had a lengthy vietnamese language lesson from our fantastic guide Lam. Lam has painstakingly written words and phrases in english,(phonetically as well which was kind of funny as it was phonetically how asians pronounce english words so it was tricky for me) and the vietnamese translation. I hate to say it, but I've hardly mastered the language yet although I enjoy trying. I returned the favour by

More Giant beers in Cantho

Like i said, Good times, good times...

helping him with words he had difficulty with and we laughed and joked for ages, as well as providing entertainment for locals who laughed at us fumbling with the words.

We stopped to see a rice paddy up close and also at fruit island where we ate lunch, relaxed in a hammock and had an up close intro to some locals such as the snake in the photo. We headed back via some small canals and passed a similar boat to ours with 2 conical hatted woman and a boat load of piglets speeding in the opposite direction. We speculated as to whether the ladies had had a case of the mondays and were zooming off late to take the little piggies to market or if they were simply in a hurry to transfer them to their new home before they crapped in the boat. I suspect the latter is more likely.

We got back to shore and ran into the girls we'd caught the cab across the border with, joked about them stalking us, ate and went to bed ready for an early start to bus to Ho Chi Minh city. I'll leave my story there for

Ten pin bowling

It's fun sometimes to do things you'd do at home and see the differences. It was hilarious!

now, hope you are still with me! Take care til next time.

* we took one of his miny buses from Chau Doc to Cantho, by the way, and it was comfortable and reasonably priced. The name of the company is To Chau.

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