The Mekong Delta is a world in of itself. It is the area at the south of Vietnam at the mouth of the Mekong River that has been disputed for years by Vietnam and Cambodia. Vietnam currently has claim (and probably will for a while) but the Cambodians still call it "lower Cambodia"at times. There are not only floating markets but floating houses, schools, gas stations, and everything you could imagine..all on really gross and dirty water.
We booked a 3 day 2 night tour here. Navigating the waterways on one's own seemed a bit too much for the relaxation we were looking for. 3 days of pre-planned river fun was just the ticket! We asked ahead of time about the number of luggage transfers we'd be making since we had so many bags (thanks to Hoi An and the amazing tailors there....). We were told that we've have one boat for the whole trip. Perfect!
We began in Saigon at our hotel where we picked up by bus to get to the Saigon River. We hop on board for a 3 hour ride. It then starts to pour outside, yuck! We were sitting outside with water splashing in every few seconds. 1) the Saigon river is DIRTY!!!! and 2) it was cool out so being wet was not so welcome. We then get to an island for lunch. All pre-planned, nothing gourmet but we were hungry. Our bags then find us at our next boat. We go through a series of tasting candies, see small factories that make the candies and do fun things with rice. it was all great fun. Except that in that first day we totalled 2 boat moves, not fun.
We get to our homestay destination on the small island in the Vihn Long region of the Mekong for the homestay. Debra elaborated greatly on this:-)
Day 2: More boats, more candy. We are awake at 6:30 am and on a boat by 7:30. We proceed to do the same things as the day before...boo, and change boats a whopping 5 times!!! The highlight of the day was the early evening when we had an hour to spare in the little Mekong town of Sadec. It was exactly what we'd hoped the 3 days had been. Crazy markets, people who think we being westerners are the tourist attraction, trying to communicate with hard motions and thumbs up. It was a blast. We bought great fruit and lots of snacks from the local market for our 12 hour overnight boat ride. The night boat was lots of fun. All of the beds were bunk style in one room, it was like camp! Both Debra and I miss camp like you wouldn't believe so this was just great. We had met some wonderful people on the trip as well and after 2 long days together we were all excited to sit around and relax.
Day 3: The boat woke us at 6am (Debra at 5:15 she'll reinforce) for the floating market at Chau Doc, the last major town before the Cambodian border. It was interesting to see but we were sad not to participate in the fun of buying from the locals. We then went for a short time to teh Cham village, a small ethnic minority that is exploited almost as much as our native poeple in the U.S. very sad. However this is the place we'd want to spend money. We only had a few minutes before the transfer for the boat to Cambodia but we did find amazing silk scarves:-) Okay, we're now up to boat count of 9 for the 3 days. That's also 9 luggage tranfers, ugh.
The border: We get to the border after a 4 hour boat ride in small hard wooden seats. We welcome the crappy restaurant as we wait for our papers and visas to go through. We board (trumpets please) boat number 10! But only after walking, yes walking, across the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. This boat takes us two hours and then right before a storm hits we get into mini-vans and we are on the way to Phenom Pehn.
We've made it. 10 boats, 7 tour guides, 4 suitcases (moved frequently, one needed tape which be bought in Sadec, fun story on that one. How do you say "tape"in Vietnamese?) and our third day of adventures in the Mekong comes to a close as we arrive in Phenom Pehn.
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