It’s a pity there isn’t a loyalty scheme that does Mekong Miles – by now, I would surely have collected enough points to do at least one of the trips still outstanding to make my total Mekong journey by boat complete! Even after today there are a few gaps – but no worries, I will be back to complete them.So today sees me leaving Phnom Penh in Cambodia to take a boat the 142 miles down to Chau Doc in Vietnam, from where, in a couple of days, I plan to make my way to Phu Quoc Island (Vietnamese) for a well deserved two week break at the beach. Well deserved, I hear you cry….. all you have been doing is enjoying yourself for the last two months whilst we have been suffering cold, ice and snow…. But it will be nice to sleep in the same bed for more than a few nights.
This time, unlike the first Mekong river trip, I was in charge of my own destiny, so didn’t miss the boat. A tuk tuk takes me to Sisowath Pier in Phnom Penh. It’s interesting, a year ago when I was here they were developing the quayside and it was covered with corrugated iron fencing – not a lot has changed in a year, the same fencing is still there, but now is gaily decorated with Coca Cola ads. Plus ca change….
I have to admit to being a bit of a wimp on this one. Yesterday as I was looking out for a boat, they all looked a bit suspect, and then I remembered the Victoria Boats, the slightly more luxe (therefore to me safer) option. But it meant that you had to stay at the posher Victoria Hotel in Chau Doc (Carole stayed in the Victoria at Can Tho last year and liked it) rather than rough it in a guest house – there didn’t seem to be anything in between. Hence I am now in a nice room overlooking the Mekong at the Victoria Chau Doc… But I was glad I did – my posh Victoria boat (this time with a nice loo – but sod’s law, the camel impression took over and I didn’t need to use it) had to act as the AA today – one of the ordinary boats doing the same journey was rolling about helpless in the middle of the river, chock full of worried looking passengers, and an even more worried looking sailor shouting into his mobile phone on the front, as it had broken down. Our Good Samaritan captain stopped and passed over what looked like petrol, seems they had run out mid trip!
We left an overcast Phnom Penh with darkly gathering clouds and spits of rain – not a good sign. The rainy season isn’t due to start until May…. But I was sharing my 42 seater boat with just two others, a Swiss German couple from Berne. In his precise Swiss way he informed me that the weather in Phnom Penh was about to deteriorate into really heavy rain, but in Chau Doc the sun would continue to shine. And of course, being a precise and correct Swiss person, he was right.
Safety was paramount on this boat – the two openings where you clamber on and off were closed off by a white suited officer (reminiscent of, but sadly not, Richard Gere in an Officer and a Gentleman!). Guess it was a bit like “doors to automatic” on a plane, but this time it was just two simple white ropes….. As the low rise silhouette of grey Phnom Penh receded quickly, the landscape slowly changed to agriculture, bright green, and the scenery on the builder’s tea coloured Mekong was the odd cargo boat moving slowly along together with various small fishing boats. Some were casting their nets in the way we did (and Ant was more successful than me!) from our small boat last year on our eco fishing trip in Hoi An. The river here is much wider and slower than it was further north in Laos, as it is so wide, it doesn’t have the same extreme high and low water levels. In fact, compared to the Lao section, it wends its way through flood plains, and seems so much more laid back.
Some three hours later we approach the border – another first for me, a crossing at a river border. In a way it was too easy (let’s hope I haven’t spoken too soon…). We have to get off at the Cambodian exit point – a series of shacks with a spirit house in the middle and a rather fine carved wooden dining table under an awning. The boat man takes care of everything. We then get back on the boat and move a couple of hundred metres down the river, where we have to get off again to enter Vietnam. Again, the boatman does everything, but the atmosphere is a little different. Much more official, an air conditioned waiting room with soldiers and their military caps on the table sending the message – don’t mess with us… I wasn’t planning to!
As we climb back on the boat, the famous French saying “The Vietnamese plant the rice, the Cambodians watch it grow and the Lao’s listen to it grow” came to mind, and I reflected how true that was. Suddenly the banks of the river here in Vietnam seemed more populated and busy and organised. There seemed much more of a sense of purpose about it all as we enter the Mekong delta proper with all the tributaries flowing into it. Ferries across the river appeared, as did the practical conical Vietnamese hats, the fields seemed more regimented and even. Thinking of this saying, I was trying to work out which I would rather be, on balance, probably a Laotian, very little work, a peaceful life and the rice grows anyway!
We motor on and all human life is displayed on the river banks. It’s late afternoon so people are washing (themselves, the dishes and their animals), you can smell the cooking fires, the fishermen are out, the small ferries are crossing the river, the river farmers are doing whatever they do to the river weed and the upright girls in their white ao dai’s are cycling serenely along the narrow river banks. From my point of view, a supremely peaceful sight, from their’s, probably a hell of a hard life.
But I arrive safely at the Victoria Chau Doc, a world away from the river bank, although situated on it. It’s in the town of Chau Doc which is at the confluence of the Mekong and the Bassac rivers, and I sit here, having had a great Vietnamese chicken curry and a glass of cold why why, looking out onto the mighty river that’s the Vietnamese version of the M1, M25, M6 and South circular all put together!
Chau Doc’s reason for being seems to be a trading post where the two rivers join. The town itself seems typically small Vietnam, most of which is the ubiquitous market selling all sorts of fresh produce. Well I say fresh, but as usual finding myself in the meat and fish bit, I’m not sure fresh is the word. I reckon I could make a good living as a deep sea pearl diver now, I manage to hold my breath for rather a long time as I try to find my way to a more salubrious smelling area! But the fruit and veg are as colourful as ever, and I still see things that I don’t recognise. One stall holder had obviously taken lessons from M&S and was selling pre prepared veg from her stall, something I haven’t seen here before. There is also the area of the market selling clothes, household items and a huge area selling material by the metre. Apart from the Swiss German couple who I was on the boat with yesterday and I bump into, I see no other Westerners at all.
Out of the market, which takes up most of the town, sees a mix of buildings, but most brightly coloured. Some new three storey narrow buildings and a few very old, very dilapidated ones left over from the French. I find that my vision of a tourist town full of travel agents with excellent English is somewhat misplaced… I have managed to find transport to Rach Gia tomorrow, but trying to book somewhere to sleep still eludes me. I think I may have booked a small hotel, but I haven’t yet heard back…… It may be the Mekong boat all over again!
