Mekong delta
Trip Start
Sep 26, 2007
1
11
Trip End
Oct 25, 2007
Chau Doc, Vietnam
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
We spent a night in the city of Chau Doc. It was really bizarre but the guide wouldn't let us go to our hotel when we were meant to! There was obviously some kind of mistake (perhaps at the guesthouse?) and they were stalling us for ages - after a reeeeally long day of travel we were meant to arrive at about say 6:00pm but instead of that happening and explaining there was a problem, the guide would say "Okay! Let's go see "blah blah" local buddhist shrine!" and so even though everyone had had enough and didn't want to, we got out of the bus and went to a shrine late in the evening...it happend a couple of times and each time we would think okay now can we just go eat.... We were getting pissed off but didn't say anything - we didn't really have to anyway because a fair portion of the other passengers were complaining! It is funny to look back on it but at the time we were all soooooo tired and just wondered why we couldn't get off the bus!
We finally got to the guesthouse and then went to find a place to have our last vietnamese dinner...
The next day as part of the trip, local women were assigned two of us to row down the river for about 20 mins. The rower stood up and used her whole body to move the oars back and forth... We both felt sooooooo bad! It was bloody hard work and our lady wasn't so young and was pretty skinny! We both asked if we could take turns helping to row - to which she said NO! Towards the end I really thought she might collapse and was feeling more and more uncomfortable about the situation! She was really sweet and although we didn't share a language she pointed out various sights along the way. We were told by the guide that the rowers had already been paid as part of our overall ticket but we could tip if we wanted... well of course we tipped! and because we were crossing over the border and had a Vietnamese phonecard (not usable outside the country) Simon also gave it to her - she seemed kind of excited by it - it wasn't until later when one of her friends asked what it was that I think she understood what it was for and we're not sure if it would have been to use to her personally but I hope so - it wasn't of use to us!
We caught a larger (but not more stable) boat to Cambodia along the Mekong, and it was interesting to see how different it was to the time we travelled down it from Thailand to Laos - the first time it was relatively narrow and the banks were clearly visible steepish mountains with forests or cleared farmland. This time the river had widened so much that much of the time we could barely see the banks - and considering the condition of the boat it was a bit of a disconcerting feeling ;-)
The river and it's various environments allowed us to take some photos of rather cool subjects and textures etc... Unfortunately towards the end of the trip, I turned on the camera to the dreaded screen of "Memory card error" ARRRGH! So sad, but at least we have the memories... the handful of pics here are the only ones taken at the very end of our day.
- Annette
Was interesting to get to see some more of the Vietnamese road rage incidents - basically 'up yours' is lifting up your hand and shaking it vigourously...
--- Si
