Can Tho,
Vietnam
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Our next stops were Can Tho and then Chau Doc, both on the Mekong. It was fascinating to see life along this important river and in the delta. Many people rely almost exclusively on the river - they live on it, fish, move around by boat (typically long-tailed engine boats or the traditional sampans, where they stand and row), grow rice and vegetables, etc. We particularly enjoyed the floating markets, floating villages, and fish farms we visited. In Can Tho the government is moving people from their stilt houses (no sewage system) into apartments and giving them jobs in industrial plants. Our guide indicated that they're looking forward to this, but of course it does represent a huge change in lifestyle. Overall we really enjoyed the Mekong Delta.
We took a speedboat up the mighty Mekong to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. It struck us to be an amazingly huge river. Millions of people's lives and livelihoods depend on it, which makes it very worrisome that China is planning so many massive dams way upstream.
