2010 Thailand and 2011 Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand: Ho Chi Minh to Chau Doc, Cambodian Border, by boat on the Mekong Delta and bus

Mekong Delta Floating Market

WEDNESDAY 3 AUGUST 2011

I was told to be ready at 7.00 for my pick up to go to the Mekong Delta, but the bus didn’t arrive until 8.00 a.m. An English couple I had met yesterday were also booked on the journey on the Mekong Delta, that would end in Phnom Penh in Cambodia – one of the easiest ways of crossing the Vietnamese/Cambodian border.

We drove to Cai Be where we were transferred to a boat to visit the floating markets. From the small masts various items were hung, such as pumpkins, which indicated that boat was selling pumpkins. Another boat was showing a small piece of palm, which meant the boat itself was for sale – palm is used to cover roofs of houses, so it was a symbol of a house.

We visited a house where we saw rice paper and rice wine being made and also snake wine!

We then went up the river to a small restaurant for lunch – not the best meal I’ve had in Vietnam! The journey back on the boat was through some narrow waterways where there was a traffic jam as we tried to pass another boat. We drove for a long time in the bus, and then had to wait about an hour to catch a ferry across the Mekong. It’s a holiday, so there were a lot more people about. We started seeing more people with limbs missing and other injuries, presumably from land mines, and some very badly deformed people which were the effects of Agent Orange.

We didn’t arrive at our hotel, the Delta Floating Hotel in Chau Doc, until 7.30 p.m. Chau Doc is on the border with Vietnam and Cambodia. I shared a room with a Japanese girl, Masako. The hotel had stunning views as it was on the river, but they need to upgrade their services! The air-conditioner in our room was broken, there was no toilet paper. I had dinner with Masako, Scott from Adelaide, and the English couple I had met yesterday. I asked for a ‘gin sling’ from their drinks menu and was told ‘don’t have’, so I asked for a tequila sunrise. After some discussion, my drink came which consisted of tequila and grenadine in a small cocktail glass. It took a lot of discussion to explain that an important ingredient, orange juice, was missing. Eventually they brought me a very small orange juice in a separate glass!