Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City.


Vietnam what a country on the move!!! Motorbikes, cars, buses and people constantly working, moving, traveling, honking, and hassling for that extra dong. The economy also seems to be on the move, everywhere there are building sites, shops, factories and houses. The government interest rate of 1.8% probably has something to do with the building boom. Many houses we have seen would not look out of place in some of NZ's plushest suburbs, the colour schemes may have to be toned down a bit though. Pinks, purples, greens, bright blue and sometimes all together on the one house. Elaborate wooden doors and shutters with eagles or doves adorning the high walls above windows complete the picture of opulence. Smaller houses also manage to have a statement of increasing wealth on their 4 metre front walls. In the Mekong delta traditional stilt houses perched over the muddy river have not changed for decades but a street or two inland and these new buildings are making their mark.

While booking our bus ticket to Sihanoukville we spotted a pamphlet about a 3 day tour of the Mekong Delta starting at Phnom Penh and finishing in Saigon. Boat and bus transport, tours, and accommodation all for only $US40 each, going to all the places on the Delta we had planned to visit, but was it too cheap to be good? After a few moments discussion we decided to give it a go. What a great decision! We left Phnom Penh right on morning rush hour, the bus squeezed its way through the swarming motorbikes, crawled over that last bridge and popped out of the last roundabout onto the "open road". The best policy, as a passenger on the "open road" is to watch the scenery not the on coming traffic, especially the ones on our side of the road! There seems to be no road rules, lots of tooting and honking and it all works. Passing on blind corners or using a narrow road as a three or four lane highway is just accepted. The tooting is not in anger, it is to warn those in front to move over, which they may or may not do! An hour and a half later after many "whoa that was close" encounters we arrived at a small dock to start our boat trip down the mighty Mekong.

There were just 4 of us plus our guide on this leg of our Delta experience. We clambered on the smallish river boat and were told where to sit as the boat had to be balanced, the river being only inches away. Of course we tourists have the need to take photos, which means moving about the boat. When the driver turned around and looked at us we knew one of us needed to move to a more "balanced" seat in the boat. The Mekong River was very wide and I was pleased that we mainly traveled quite close to the bank to keep out of the current. Not too far to swim!!! Occasionally on the 2 hour journey the skipper took us out further into the river, he obviously knew the river currents and shallows very well. There was not a lot of river traffic before the Vietnam border just a few sand barges and little fishing boats. At the Cambodian border we clambered up the river bank, cleared customs and were handed over to our Vietnamese guide, San who liked everything done now if not before. She hustled us through the Agriculture department, whisked a few thousand dong off us for their fee then told us we had 15 min for lunch while she took our passports off to Immigration. "They don't need to see us!" we asked her. " No quickly you have lunch and I will be back with stamps ." This was the easiest quickest border crossing yet. True to her word in 15 minutes, just as we ate our last mouthful of rice, San was back passports stamped ready to go. Back down the grassy river bank onto a slightly smaller boat for the 2 hour trip to Chau Doc, our first Delta destination.

As soon as we left the border we turned into a narrow channel and for the next hour or so we traveled through National Geographic scenery. Wallowing water buffalo, fat white ducks scattering into the green river weed as we passed, glimpses of family life in stilt houses, water gushing out pipes to flood the rice paddies, women in conical hats and "pajamas" perched on skinny wooden jetties washing dishes or clothes. The array of river boats was fascinating, little fishing boats, sand carrying barges, boats for living on or ferrying people and goods across the narrow water way. Most of the boats seem to have red and white eyes painted on their bow. For night travel perhaps!! Children rushed down to the bank smiling and waving. San said that not many tourists go through this area so they were pleased to see us, I hope that doesn't change in years to come. We were a little disappointed when we left our rural Delta experience to turn back into a wide river for the last hour to Chau Doc.

We weren't disappointed for long, the scenery and boating activity changed but was just as interesting. The saying in these parts is "Same same but different". More boats, bigger boats, smaller boats, mostly wooden came towards us, passed us and crossed our bow. The river was a bit more bouncy, we got a lot more "looks" from the skipper when the boat became unbalanced. The city of Chau Doc appeared along each side of the river, the skipper took us through a suburb of floating fish farms, washing hanging out and pot plants sitting on the "patio" along with sacks of fish feed. The fish pens under the house must give off an interesting aroma, there again just living on this muddy river families must be continually surrounded in interesting aromatic flavours.

Our river boat took us to a little crowded jetty, we gathered our bags and clambered carefully off the bow of our boat. It was steamy hot but the river below did not look at all inviting. San marched the four of us through the streets to our hotel. Everything was done in a hurry with this girl. The hotel was excellent after paying $US5 extra for air conditioning we settled in, had a long cold shower and observed the comings and goings of our first Vietnamese town from our little balcony. School girls in elegant white flowing trousers and dresses biking home from school, Vietnamese conical hats bobbing along on the street below, street sellers with heavy baskets balanced on bamboo poles and motor bikes tooting their way down the street. As we have now found that is a typical Vietnamese street scene. We still find it fascinating to sit at a street caf� and watch the Vietnamese hustle around us and of course hustle us for the odd dong or five.

"Breakfast at 6.30 and bags in the foyer at 6.30" were the parting words from San. That was to be the program for the next 2 mornings. Sure enough our alarm went off at 5.55am followed by a knock on the door by San just to make sure we were on target for 6.30!! Today was a tour to the fish farm suburb, to visit a fish farm then onto a Cham village, the local muslim people are called Cham. This was the traditional village visit of the trip, there is always one and is mainly a visit to try and persuade the tourists to buy over priced dust gathering "traditionally" made items by children who should be in school. We weren't disappointed! "Our family won't eat if you don't buy". "Well you look pretty healthy" an encounter Alan had with a 12 year old girl trying the sympathy angle. I must say though that that was the only blip on a marvelous 3 day Mekong Delta tour.

The fish farm visit gave us a glimpse into the life of these river dwellers. The fish farm is also their house. The living area was filled with a table, wide screen TV, wall units filled with china and clothes drying on a rack. The wide patio with its pot plants and out door furniture also had a large square opening into fish pen below. The owner poured the fish pellets into the smooth brown water which instantly became a boiling frenzy of feeding fish. The fish are fattened for 6 months and then sold for $US1 a kilo, with most of the 50,000 fish attaining the kilo mark, the 6 monthly pay out is pretty good for these people. We were told the particular type of fish we saw were processed in Vietnam and exported frozen, not sure for what use..... fish fingers??

On to our the next town of Cantho, there was a slight change of plan, San was now not going through to Ho Chi Minh with us, she handed us over to another guide. We had come to like San despite her love of being on time if not before. At Cantho we had an afternoon to wander through the town, watch men in the park playing a very complicated form of checkers in the shadow of a large statue of Uncle Ho and do some shopping.

Day three of our trip started at 6.30am once again, breakfast then on a bus to the river. There was a larger group this time, we were joined by people who had started their trip in Ho Chi Minh city. At the river we walked gingerly down a muddy plank (the tide was out) and on to a narrow passenger boat for our tour of the floating market. The large wooden boats filled with fruit and vegetables sold to the smaller boats who then rowed their floating shop around the river edge stilt houses, shops and floating homes. The small boats here were rowed standing up, giving more leverage against the strong river current. When the tide turned we saw some of these smaller boats hitching a tow behind larger boats. This was a wholesale market not a tourist market and it was fascinating. The large boats each had different produce. On the stern of each boat was a tall bamboo pole with a piece of each fruit or vege, they had on board, tied to it, essentially advertising their wares. Some boats just had pumpkins or cabbages others had a full range and the bamboo pole bent under their weight.

From the floating market we turned into a smaller river, the tide was low and our small boat kicked up the mud with its long tail motor. We got to our little jetty where another narrow plank took us up to a shady river path. A path not a road but motor bikes still beeped their way past us. We had morning tea in the shade of an orchard eating luscious fruit from their trees. Mangos, bananas, jack fruit and pineapple. Next stop was a short walk to a rice noodle factory. Not a factory as we know it, this was essentially a home operation, dirt floors, wicker frames for drying the thin rice cakes in the sun, piles of coffee husks for fueling the cooking fires, large earthenware pots full of liquid rice, using a method that probably hadn't changed in years. The machine for squashing the rice looked modern but the water that was added looked like it still came out of the river!!! Two pigs lived a few metres from the operation, they were fattened on the rice husks. I wasn't sure that I would eat rice noodles again after that visit.

Back down the slippery plank onto the boat for a trip further into the canals around Cantho, past little settlements of houses and shops perched over the brown water. A glimpse into the daily life of some of the Delta dwellers. People washing clothes or dishes, tending ducks, snoozing in hammocks, fishing, the river seems to be the centre of their lives.
The tour returned down the river another quick look at the floating markets then it was back to Cantho for lunch then back on the bus for the trip to Ho Chi Minh City. We had had a great three day tour of the Mekong Delta and now we were looking forward to the Saigon experience.