The Mighty Mekong
Trip Start
Jan 17, 2006
1
9
12
Trip End
Feb 10, 2006
Mekong Delta / Chau Doc, Vietnam
Friday, February 3, 2006
It was quite a lengthy journey, with two full days spent swapping between bus and boat travel. The hum of our motor often attracted excited children with huge smiles to the banks of the river, where they would jump around in the water, waving madly at us as we cruised by. That was a definite highlight. Another great thing was stopping along the way to visit some factories set on the river, staffed by locals, many of whom live in floating villages.
For some silly reason, when we had imagined the factories, we had images of a small, industrial park, housing shed-like buildings, filled with stainless steel, automatic machines. When we docked to find an open bamboo hut with a grass roof, we realised that we were a little off the mark. It was great to see how so many of the things that we take for granted are made. We witnessed ladies sweating over boiling hot pots to make rice paper, and watched the making process for rice cakes and coconut candy, as well as some peanut and honey products. We had a fabulous little tasting session, where we were given samples of all the products, which we washed down with jasmine tea, honey and lime. YUM! It was fascinating to watch the ladies sitting around a table, wrapping each little lolly by hand. They were working so fast, they looked like machines!
After swapping between bus and boat a number of times, we arrived at the hotel with our tour group for a bit of a surprise. Even though we're 'backpacking', we've been staying at some very nice places here in Asia, knowing that it will be a different story when we arrive in Europe. When we saw that the hotel was called 'Delta Adventure Resort'in the tour brochure, we thought it sounded okay. We felt pretty comfortable when the guys at the travel agent assured us that it was a decent 'resort', but we did acknowledge that the tour came at a very reasonable price! The reasons for this became evident upon our arrival. Hanging from the walls were loose wires, indicating where the air conditioner and hot water system once were. Upon the beds were two tiny cushions, that we guessed were to be used as pillows on the beds without linen. It smelt a little damp, but appeared fairly clean, so we rolled up a couple of acrylic blankets which substituted nicely as pillows, and had a wonderful sleep in some silk sleeping bag liners which we'd bought when we arrived in Vietnam. We can only guess that the 'adventure' comes into the title because it's a bit of an adventure finding something to use as a pillow and a sheet, and 'resort' represents the things you resort to using. It was a fun little 'camping like' experience, and the cold showers were really quite exhilarating - just what the doctor ordered after a day packed with road and river travel. We did, however, choose not to continue with the tour the next day, and decided to make our way into the closest town (Chau Doc)to find a 'fast boat'to deliver us to Phnom Penh. We paid an extra $15, which we thought was well worth it, considering that it would cut down our travelling time by a few hours and buy us an extra half a day in Cambodia.
Vietnam is such a unique place. It is a developing nation where things don't always run as smoothly as they do at home. Many people look for clever ways to make extra money and every now and then you experience a bit of a 'moment' which confirms that you're in Vietnam. This trip was no different. We'd travelled for about 10 minutes before our guide realised that he'd sent someone off the boat to collect their passport and we'd left without them. The same thing happened a couple of hours later when we left the border crossing... only this time, we left without seven of our passengers! You just can't let these things get to you, because they could really tarnish your experience, so we tend to have a bit of a chuckle about them.
We managed to avoid a bit of a scam too. We were a bit concerned about the border crossing between Vietnam and Cambodia. We'd done loads of research on it, and had read about so many different scams that had been happening recently. The tour guide on our 'fast' boat put our minds at rest immediately, as he handed out the little cards for Customs and collected all our passports for processing. It was comforting to know that we had someone experienced looking after the process for us.It wasn't until he asked us for the $25 Visa fee that we realised something was not right. We knew that the Cambodian Tourist Visa cost only $20, so we knew he was taking us for a bit of a ride. After a little questioning on our behalf and a few creative stories on his, he advised us that if we wanted to pay only $20, we'd have to deal directly with Cambodian Immigration ourselves. This we did. It was a totally painless process, over in under five minutes. The other twenty five or so tourists on the boat appeared not to know the correct cost of the visa and consequently, our guide pocketed around $100 USD that trip - a nice little sum when we're told that the average wave is about $3 to $4 per day for a tour guide! Full marks to him!
We believe that the little scams and 'Vietnam moments' helped to enrich our Mekong Delta experience. It was a great way to end our trip in a country that we've grown to love. We leave with fond memories and a true appreciation for the beauty of the place and it's people, who have sadly endured an extremely difficult past.
