Tour of The Mekong Delta

We decided to do a 3 day tour of the Mekong Delta which is the very lower part of Vietnam. The journey sounded nicer than going by bus to Phnom Penh. We toured for 3 days seeing the way locals live and do business. It sounds lovely - it was actually pretty lame and touristy and we became insanely jealous of people only doing the 2 day tour. We did have fun though and met some lovely people. We got to see coconut being pressed and boiled and turned into delicious candy, we got to see rice noodles being made and dried which was actually fascinating, we got to have some rice wine with hot tea & honey & cumquat which Ben had so much of we had to steal a 2nd bottle from a neighbouring table. We had several near death experiences in our van of which we've become quite used to, and settled to an assigned hotel in a small, but busy city where we tried in vain to find someone who'd sell us some field rat to eat.

1 more floating market

On our 2nd day we were taken through some floating markets which were really cool although we seemed to be the only boat of tourists not stopping to buy the produce available. The markets were quite large and people seemed to live on these boats that they also made their living off. In the evening after going to a minority village and their mosque filled with children, we climbed a small hill (which our guide actually told us was 900 mtrs tall - it was 100 mtrs at most) with lovely views from the temple before being taken to another hotel in a small town. We'd met a great Aussie girl working in Cambodia and a French Canadian who we walked around looking for a bite to eat and a beer with. Soon it was pissing down which is quite normal for this time of year and we were stuck drinking beer till the rain stopped.

2 floating market ladies

On our 3rd & longest day we took a slow boat which promised to get us into Phnom Penh by 3pm in enough time for us to meet our new Aussie friend at the local sports bar to see a tri-nations game. Our guide told us we wouldn't get in until 5 or 6pm and that she'd tried to get the travel agents in Saigon to change their brochures to the right time because so many people got angry. At the Cambodian border Ben found out he didn't have enough pages in his passport for the visa. He was bribed by border officials (which I think is illegal) for $10 US. The boat left 30 mins late because of this and I was worried he'd never come back from wherever he'd been lead. From the boat we were taken an hour or so by mini van to Phonm Penh. Now we would see some truly crazy driving. Our driver was suicidal I swear, but this was nothing. We saw other vans and trucks going by us at break neck speed with people on the roofs and spilling out of the back. What happens if the vehicle stops suddenly???? We ended up getting in to PP at 6.30 and the game was already over. We were dropped outside a hotel nowhere near where we wanted to go, but stayed because we were exhausted. We found out quickly that Cambodia was really expensive compared to the other countries we'd been in, but it wasn't just that way for us. The locals pay more too even though Cambodia is such a poor country. The government is totally corrupt we've been told by locals and the rich just get richer....

Muslim little boys peekin inside the school

old man chillin

Rice noodels drying in the sun

some minority village in the mekong Delta