Mighty Mekong

Floating houses in Vietnam - they float on barrels, and cultivate fish underneath.
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We decided that instead of taking another boring bus trip, we would ride the Mekong river into Vietnam instead. The boat takes 7 hours to get to a little town in the Mekong Delta called Chau Doc, not including the 2 hours on the bus beforehand, so quite a mission to get there when getting from Phnom Penh all the way to Saigon on a bus only takes 6 hours.

The view along the river while in Cambodia was not very interesting, it is a very wide river without much happening on the banks, so we amused ourselves by chatting to our fellow travellers. The change once we crossed into Vietnam was immediate - much more activity on the water and off it. We soon headed down some smaller side rivers which were interesting as you can really see how central the river is to these peoples lives - they bathe and wash clothes in it, drink out of it, live on it and earn their living from it. We had many moments of tourist cringe along the way as some of the people in the boat seemed to think that taking pictures of people bathing was not totally inappropriate - sorry no quaint shots of this type from me.

.... you can really see how central the river is to these peoples lives ....

Floating markets just outside of Cantho
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We stayed in Chau Doc for our first night in Vietnam. In the morning we hopped on two motorbike taxis to a nearby hill called Sam Mountain to see some religious sites. Being lazy our motorbikes dropped us off at the top of the mountain which has a great view over the rice fields and Cambodia. There is also a military watchpost from the time when the Khmer Rouge would invade Vietnamese villages and commit terrible attrocities, like murdering entire communities.

It was an easy walk down the hill, passing through continous cafes with hammocks and passing many small shrines. We didnt find all the sites we were after, but it was a pleasant enough walk anyway.

House and boat along the canals
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That night we stayed in another delta town 3 hours bus ride away (or just over 2 hours in the "mini bus of death") called Cantho. We got up at 5.30 in the morning to catch our small boat to see the floating markets which the area is famous for. The markets are for fresh produce, not the tourist kitsch I was half expecting, with many large and small boats selling and buying on the water all sorts of produce grown in the delta. We also toured some of the small canals used as transport, very scenic with beautiful brightly painted houses amongst the fruit orchards.

Rice noodle making along the canals outside of Cantho
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While the tour was very interesting, I have to admit we got totally ripped off by organising it through our guesthouse, instead of doing it ourself at the riverside.  We have learnt that in Vietnam you have to be much more on your game when dealing with people than in Cambodia and Thailand!