Somewhere up that crazy river

Trip Start Mar 19, 2008

Trip End Jun 05, 2008

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Flag of Vietnam Chau Doc, Chau Doc, Vietnam
Saturday, April 26, 2008

When we left Phu Quoc we figured it might be a bit of a hike to get to Cambodia. Afterall, we couldn't get a flight off the island due to holidays so we'd at least have to get the ferry. That was just the start of an epic, sometimes hellish, sometimes hillarious 2 day hike to Phomn Penh in Cambodia.

Of course the completely calm waters off Phu Quoc decided to go all choppy on just the day we left. We got on the sealed tin of sardines that was our ferry with some 200 other islanders. Well some islanders this bunch were. You could still see the pier and already half of them where hurling left right and centre. Lisa scurried off on deck, a smart move, while I played pass the puke bag with a lot of green looking Vietnamese. At least they had Mr. Bean on the TV. Although, that may have contributed to the general vomitting.

So we got into Rach Gia, the local port, dodged the barf bags littering the floor of the ferry and got assaulted by the local moto (motorbike) drivers all desperate for our business. Welcome back to mainland Vietnam. We opted for a taxi to the bus station on the other side of town, cos he looked sober and competent. Oh well. 10 minutes into the ride and he whacked into motorbike with two on it. They looked a bit ruffled but not hurt and okay, if a bit put out. Up to that point we'd been negotiating with the taxi driver to get him to drive us to the Cambodia border 3 hours away. After that knock, we figured we'd take our chances on the local bus.

So over to the bus stop were we instantly became local celebrities.

A family take a boat ride

I got the feeling that maybe westerners normally went with some other fancy AirCon bus option that we were unaware of as the locals thought it was hillarious that we were getting on one of their clapped out heaps. After discovering that buying a seat ticket for our bags wasn't another crafty Vietnamese rip off but genuine bus policy (someone else had to pay to put a huge boat propellor in the little bus), we set off, cramped, with our legs squashed in by bags of spuds and chicken feed.

It should have been hellish but it was fairly fun. The folks on the bus were all smiles and waves. The road was interesting as we weaved through the little rivers of the Mekong Delta and an old man at the front seemed to never tire of telling me he was 80 (in fairness, he didn't look it).

We arrived in Chau Doc, our last stop in Vietnam, to a powercut. There was nothing for it then but to knock back a few beers and wait until the next morning when we'd be up very early to speed towards the Cambodian border up the Mekong river.

Not very refreshed or enthusiastic, we piled onto our little speed boat the following morning. Lisa managed to hold down her breakfast - unlike so many "islanders" we'd seen the day before. In fact, we enjoyed the trip upstream. Little fishing boats and farms dotted the river banks and as we went further north it got sparser and more wild.

After the necessary border crossing formalities (stamp, wait, pet cute puppy dogs, watch police sit around and stratch themselves, get harrassed by kids selling everything, wait, stamp) we were in Cambodia! Okay, a few more hours and we'd be in Phomn Penh.