VIETNAM - MEKONG DELTA - Chau Doc

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Sunday 6th March

We're off on our Mekong River cruise today and it began by bus south towards Bến Tre which is one of the country's southern provinces situated in the delta of the Mekong River.

The Mekong Delta is where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southeastern Vietnam of 39,000 square kilometres. The Mekong Delta, as a region, lies immediately to the west of Ho Chi Minh City, roughly forming a triangle stretching from Mỹ Tho in the east to Châu Đốc and Hà Tiên in the northwest, down to Cà Mau and the South China Sea at the southernmost tip of Vietnam.
We are heading for Châu Đốc later on today where hopefully another boat will take us across the border into Cambodia in the morning.

We hopped aboard a small boat at Tiền Giang Province and began to sail across the wide Mekong River and head for Phoenix Island. In the distance we can see the impressive Rach Mieu Bridge which was built in 2002.
The water is murky and sandy looking as we cut across to the jetty on Phoenix island up ahead and we soon bounced off onto the makeshift wooden jetty and led into the jungle and into the unknown.
A few minutes later we arrive at a Coconut factory which was basically a large bamboo structure where coconut candy's and products are made. The tour guide explains a little about the process of shredding the coconuts, extracting pulp, squeezing of the pulp, extracting the oils and then finally the cooking process which turns it into a brown gooey toffee like substance.
The smells are lovely due to the coconut oils being boiled up on the stove just yards away from where we stand. We are shown to the production table where a group of ladies have emptied the toffee onto a bench and proceed to cool and cut the toffee into small squares. Younger girls help to wrap the small portions in edible rice paper and then coloured wrappers.
Its pretty a basic production line and we got to sample the different flavours of coconut candy at the end of the demonstration.
Theres peanut, chocholate, lemon and also just plain flavoured sweets for us to taste an I really liked to Peanut whereas Jill preferred the Plain.
Theres also Coconut alcohol for us to try along with coconut biscuits and in the shop nearby theres hand carved coconut shells made into a range of stuff like chopsticks, ashtrays, ornaments and jewelery. Tourist heaven!
Time to leave now we both agree as the place is turning us coco loco so we headed off through the jungle once more in the opposite direction from where we landed.
Another hundred or so yards through the mangroves and thick bushes we arrive at a small road where we jump onto the back of horse drawn carriages which cart us a mile across to the other side of the Island. There another boat was waiting to take us to yet another island further along the River.
The next Island is our Lunch stop which was a sub standard cafe where the food was pretty basic. On offer was rice, chicken and pork which were cooked fine but full of bones but it did however fill us up a little and did the job for now.
We've walked across a wooden Monkey Bridge and past the Crocodile pit. The pit is where you can pay to feed the crocs meat attached to a line on the end of a stick which looks wrong on many levels. The crocs looked pretty evil as people were teasing them with little bits of meat by resting the bait on the crocs nose and lifting it up just as the croc snaps at it.
Along the path from here we're shown into a seating area under some palm trees where we are told to sit down to experience some healthy tea.
Mekong tea consists of honey, lime, tean and bee's pollen and its a murky yellow concoction thats a struggle to lift to your lips but after downing the first glass i guarentee youll be back for more. When mixed the ingredients together ourselves with much ease and we got stuck in to the point we finished off a second pot. The bee's polled is meant to prolong life and give you a sense of wellbeing and to be fair we felt great after a third teapot full!
We're ushered along to the river bank once more, and yes youve guessed it, another boat trip!
We've to jump aboard little tiny little paddle boats with two old ladies paddling at each end who paddle us through the thick mangroves and jungle via the narrow waterways. Its quite nice sitting here with our hats on taking in the scenery of thick jungle and every so often villagers little wooden houses appear out of nowhere as we merrily float by. The two ladies are experts at getting us past other boats coming the other way and they move us swiftly through past under the thick overhanging branches.
At the end of the paddle boat tour we hopped off near a school and get seated inside a large shelter which was busy with school children and tourists. We are treated to some fresh fruit while the teachers sang traditional Vietnamese songs to the children and it was ear burning stuff i can tell you!
All that remains for us to do is get back ashore to the mainland across the other side of the river where we catch our bus to Chau Doc in the North.
We've to change bus at the station and to our horror we've to board a minibus full of locals and children who have left us two small seats up the back.
I point blank refused to get in to begin with as the vehicle looked like a death trap plus theres no seatbelts and we're a couple of people too many. Everyone moved around to try and please us and with much persuasion and reassurances we got more spacious seats at the front. I wouldnt have a made such a fuss but we've paid good money for this bus and its a 6 hour haul up to the Northern part of the Mekong Delta to Chau Doc.
The worst 6 hours of my life followed and being dropped off in Chau Doc felt like a liberation more than anything.
We at last arrive at our skanky little hostel that the tour company has arranged on for us. No windows, no aircon and only slats in the concrete wall for the air to blow through.
I was eaten alive throughout the night and my thoughts are anything but wanting to be home in my own bed albeit just for a few hours. I wish I was as smart as Jill as she slept inside her sleeping bag liner with her clothes. Thanks for the heads up Jill. 😊

Monday 7th March

6am and we're gingerly making our way into the breakfast room for some breakie which turned out to be tea, half a baguette and jam! Christ Almighty!
Don't get me wrong we're doing fine at this point and we keep our spirits up by jokingly making fun of the braille like bite marks on my face, neck and head. What a bloody shape i'm in!
Theres around twelve of us now walking along the road in Chau Doc being followed by a poor local on his bycycle tuk tuk carrying all the bags. Its around half a mile before we reach the Rivers edge where our small boat awaits. We are informed that it will take us six hours o sail tup the Mekong and into Cambodia and arrived at Phnom Penh.
After sailing past many fishing huts and residential floating barges on the way out of Chau Doc, we stop. We've pulled into a large Barge and shown around a typical floating Fish Farm. Theres a large tank with around a hundred thousand fish inside it sitting under the barge and as the guide pours feed into the tank theres pandemonium as the fish all fight for the food. The two old men here are sitting smoking probably wondering what the fuss is all about as every one takes it in turns to feed the thousands of fish. Jill and I play around with the cute little dogs they have here and wonder if the dogs ever gets taken for a walk or do they just sit on the floating barge all day?
From here we sail past residentail boats and onto land where we walk through farmland over Monkey bridges and towards a Mekong village where children are playing and men are building houses. Theres the usual shop selling linen, handcrafts and silks and we stood and listened to the guide tellin us about the different heights of floods they have had through the years here. Theres a marker on the wooden post which was almost three meters off the ground which indicates the high flood mark and the lower mark. No wonder the houses are all built on stilts!
Back on the boat we got comfortable for the long sail ahead and we managed to get some sleep along the way and every so often we'd look up at the surroundings which was pretty in places.
We sail past peoples floating houses where children play in the water along side mothers washing clothes. The scenery comes as goes as we feel hemmed in at parts due to the overgrowth encroaching the river banks.
Sometimes theres a clump of residential shacks by the riverside which have lots of rubbish and plastic lying around nearby as they don't really care much for recycling anywhere in Vietnam.
We left this narrow section of the river and joined a much wider part where the scenery has changed alot and its now mainly fields of farmland and open areas of rolling hillside. The river gets much wider to the point it felt like we were sailing down the middle of a large lake so I got up and sat on the bow of the ship for a hour just to get away from the loud engine which was growling loudly under our seats.
We stopped at the border for visa control and had lunch while we waited for our passports to be returned which took well over hour and half to be processed.
Back on the boat we are now firmly sailing on Cambodian waters and we are constantly being waved at by locals working along the riverbanks. Children with big large welcoming smiles greet us as we get close to the edge and its a chance for the younger ones to show off their diving skills as we sail by. We applaud the divers and wave to the nice Cambodians and already we are beginning to like this country and we're haven't even touched soil yet!
The Boat slows down considerably and we dock into a makeshift pier along side some shanty village where wild dogs and chickens run amok. Shy children are hiding behind trees as the older and more curious ones stand and stare with broad smiles as we, one by one, hope off the boat.
Twelve of us are now rammed into a fourteen seater bus along with our luggage and we endure a topsy turvey minibus ride for a hour into the Capitol of Cambodia, Phenom Penh.
By the time we get into the city its already getting dark and we've paid over the odds for a tuk tuk driver just to take us to our hotel safely on the other side of town.
Our Tuk tuk Driver is a nice chap called Narith who's Cambodian and offers his services for the next two days at a great price which we gladly agreed with as it saves us getting something else organised later.
Our hotel is call the Feeling Well hotel, with a name like that we couldn't go wrong and we weren't disappointed as we checked in as its lovely.
The usual unpacking of bags was followed by dinner downstairs in the restaurant. Delicious Cambodian curry and rice was happily devoured and we are so glad to be at the end of a tough couple of days.
Narith is picking us in the morning and he's taking us around Phenom Penh to look at some of the sights and historic areas such as the Killing Fields and S21 among other stuff.

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Photos

Mekong Delta - Boat to Phoenix Island
Rach Mieu Bridge

Coconut Factory
Nut press!

Comments

[Fred]

Got the T Shirt
Much the same tour and agony as we had, found it a bit of a drag but one simply feels obliged having come so far to leave no stone unturned, by this time we voted that we preferred New York and a whisky sour! Continue to have fun!