Crossing to Vietnam by the Mekong
Trip Start
Jul 25, 2006
1
150
165
Trip End
Ongoing
Chau Doc,
Vietnam
Friday, August 29, 2008
The boat was small, with just room for one seat on either side of an aisle, but the ride was pleasant and uneventful. There is something wonderful about river transport. In a small boat, you sit just above the waterline, and you see local life in ways not possible from a bus window. In the Delta, much as Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, people live on, in, and with the river in a myriad of ways. As you glide along, you see fishermen standing waist deep in the water with 4-5 metres poles with fishing nets attached casting for today's catch. Children jump off banks and back porches, somersaulting into the water and laughing as they surface
On the way to Vietnam
. Women and children alike wash dishes, clean clothes, or gather water for the home. Nearly everyone smiles, and nearly everyone waves.Customs felt almost criminally easy after the Poipet debacle in Cambodia. The boat pulled up to a bucolic outpost on the river. A climb out, a walk over to a few small buildings, a smile, a stamp, and we were in Vietnam.
After a number of hours we arrived in ChauDoc, the first town of any size you come to when entering Vietnam on the Mekong. It was a small, but pleasant enough town. ChauDoc has a floating market that operates everyday where larger boats gather together in the middle of the river while smaller boats taxi buyers and sellers around between them. You can tell what a boat has to sell by looking at the mast. If the vendors are selling mangos or pineapples, these fruits will be hanging from the mast clearly visible from a distance. People live on their boats, and it is fascinating to watch life unwinding as it has for no doubt many years.
ChauDoc also has a sizable population of Cham people. These are a minority people of Vietnam, who are Muslim, and for a time were a powerful group within Vietnam
Water Buffalo
. Today they generally live quiet lives, centred on the river, and their religion. Danayi and I arranged for a boat tour that took in the floating market and visited one of these villages. Many of the homes were on the river. The people who live in these houses on water have perfected an amazing system of fish farming. The entire undersides of their homes are caged in, with trapdoors allowing access to different points. Under the house, they raise fish to be sold when grown to the right size. They grind and make their own paste which is formed into fish food. When the pellets are thrown into the water, a frenzy erupts as fish fight over the food. In this way food and money are guaranteed to the smart home owner.As we would find out, the pace of life in the Mekong Delta is very different from the rest of Vietnam. Life is slower here, smiles are quicker, and you do not feel as much of a target as the rest of Vietnam. After a few quiet days, we moved on to our next destination of CanTho.
