Good Morning Vietnam, Good Afternoon Cambodia

Kids at the minority tribe fishing village.
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So today was Day 2 of the Mekong Delta tour finishing in Phnom Penh(Cambodia). After breakfast, we walked to the water and crammed onto a boat for 3 hours, with a visit to a minority tribe's fishing village(get off the boat, walk to the shop where they're selling shawls, back to the boat) and a fish farm(a lot more interesting, and nothing to buy!!). The fish farm was neat to see--there are these fish farms all over the places in Vietnam, so it was neat to go into one and learn a bit about how they work.  From the outside they basically look like floating houses. The crew works and lives on the farm, which is anchored to the bottom of the river. They earn maybe 40US a month, and it's hard work. They make all the food the fish eat, mostly from spinach with some extra stuff for protein, etc. The moving water of the river conveniently washes the waste water downstream. I have a renewed AMAZING appreciation for the cleanliness and clarity of the water in Canada. The water quality here is the pits. It's amazing, really. You see these fish farms all over the place, and houses that hang over the edge of the river. Toilets are planks out over the water with a small box to squat in for privacy. And downstream from them are people washing clothes and bathing.

Can you spot the toilet?
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Up to the Vietnamese border where we had our last meal in Vietnam. Waited there for a while for our new boat that took us further upstream. Got onto the boat, 10 minutes upstream, to the Cambodian checkpoint. Surrendered all our passports to the autorities, and sat back to wait. The crazy boys, equipped with a hacky-sack-like toy decided to play hacky-sack volleyball/tennis with the net there. Not a bad idea, except that it was at least 40 degrees!! I enjoyed the spectacle from the shade!

The fish farm we visited... we passed hundreds(thousands?) more.
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We waited and waited and waited. Then we found out why we were waiting. A girl with our tour had ripped a page out of her passport. Reason? Her stamps were a page apart, so she figured if she ripped out the page, they'd all be together! Guess she missed the small print in the passport that mentions that "passports are the property of your government, and MUST not be altered". The Cambodian authorities were not thrilled with the idea of admitting someone with a page missing(who knows what might have been stamped on there), so they questioned here("Give me a good reason why you ripped out the page." Okay, now give me a better reason"). A higher-up had to be called in Phnom Penh to make the final decision but he was in a meeting. So we were all waiting(30-40 of us). Fortunately, she seemed naive enough to have actually done it naively(and not because she was trying to hide something), and they ended up letting her through, at which point we could leave. Over 2 hours later. Lesson learned, I hope!

Houses along the Mekong River in Vietnam.
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Up the river for another 2 hours(=3). Really neat to see the difference between the Vietnamese side and the Cambodian side. On the Cambodian side things looked a lot more p rimitive--lots of fields, cows, people working really hard. Boats, but hardly any motors(all row-type boats). Not quite as many smiles from the people on the banks, but the kids were happy to wave as we went by... The one good thing about being late was that we were able to see the sunset from the water! We were able to go up onto the roof where we stayed, trying to keep cool. It was really beautiful, and eye-opening at the same time. They lead such hard lives, and we just float on by in what would be luxury for them. Really gives you some perspective on how easy a life so many of us lead. Finally to the dock(=wooden plank from the shore), and more buses. 2 hours later, we arrived. Safely(phew). That road wasn't winning any safety prizes, what with the people, cows, wagons (no reflectors!), and bicycles, motorbikes, cars, trucks and buses(reflectors/lights questionable). Pulled into Phnom Penh around 8pm and tuktuked down to the lake to find a place to stay.

Crazy boys playing kick the ball over the net in what can only be described as 50 degree heat.
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Ended up finding an okay place--the rooms weren't the best(they broke into the room for us, çause they had lost the key to the padlock!!), but when you walked to the front, there was a deck out over the water with hammocks, a free pool table, cheap beer, and great atmosphere. Well worth the $3 a night. That's per room, folks. $1.50 each. We moved down to a better room the next night--there was actually a key for the door(no padlock) and a private bathroom. That set us back $2.50 each. Crazy.

Houses along the Mekong River in Cambodia.
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The next day(March 17th), we toured around Phnom Penh, stopping at the Killing Fields and S21, a museum a high school turned prison/torture place during the Khmer Rouge reign. There's a lot of really sad history in this country. Between 1975-1979, the Khmer Rouge ruled and killed 1-3 million people(different estimates). They were trying to become a 'purer' people. Intellects, monks, educated people, people who spoke more than 1 language, all non-Cambodians, people who wore glasses, etc... were all targeted to be killed. They estimated that 10,000 or more people went through S21 alone, and most ended up at the Killing Fields, where they were executed and buried in mass graves. Many of the graves there have been excavated, and they've displayed many of the skulls in a giant monument-type building they've put up in their memory. It's really crazy walking around that place--there are big holes everywhere that were the graves, there's original clothing from the victims sticking up through the soil, and you can see bone fragments, and teeth in the ground as you're walking. It's really sad and unbelievable the atrocities that happened.

Sunset from the boat in Cambodia.
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It's hard to believe that this history is so recent for the Cambodians. I need to learn more to more fully appreciate it, but it's hard to imagine how far they've come. They people here are really friendly, and so many of them speak English. There are many people begging for money and food. The main streets of Phnom Penh are amazingly developed, with lights, hotels, restaurants, etc... All the glitz and glamour. Away from the main streets it's a different story, with shacks and corrugated metal houses built along rivers, and everywhere they can. A lot of poverty in this country, but they're doing everything they can to try to pull in the tourists to bring money in. Seems to be working too--there are tourists everywhere!