It was time for me to cross into Cambodia, but rather than take the seven-hour direct bus to Phnom Penh, I thought it would be more fun to go there by boat, along the mighty Mekong River. To do this I had to first head to Chau Doc, a small town on the river close to the Vietnam-Cambodia border (and six hours away by bus... I never said this was a time-saving move!).
Rather than cross the border straight away, I decided to spend a night in Chau Doc and take a look around the local area. This started with an early morning boat trip on the Mekong the next day. My guide was the young and bubbly Diem, daughter of the hotel owner. We started by visiting a floating market nearby. At 4am every day these vendors sail up to the much bigger and more famous Cai Rang floating market, over 100km away, and buy fruit and vegetables to re-sell back in Chau Doc. Each boat tends to sell one specific product only (pineapples, bananas etc) and an example product is tied to the end of a long pole, which extends from the bow, so that the customers can quickly see who is selling what!
We then visited a floating village. There are as many as 2000 floating houses in this town alone - they don't have to pay the same taxes as those living on land. Many of the houses are fish farms: they have a huge net attached to the bottom of the house where they raise and breed fish! We visited one of these, where 15,000 fish were living under the house! These are sold to the local hotels and restaurants.
Our final stop was a minority village, home to Khmer minority people originally from Cambodia. It was interesting to see how most of the houses are raised on huge stilts, evidence of how much the Mekong can rise during the summer monsoon!
I ended my time in Vietnam quite fittingly, with an afternoon motorbike tour of the local area. We visited two pagodas and a temple before heading up to the top of Sam Mountain, where you can look out over Cambodia.
This marked the end of a wonderful four weeks in beautiful Vietnam. Next stop, Cambodia!
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| Stilted houses on the river in Chau Doc |
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| A boat in the floating market |
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| On the river... |
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| Floating houses in Chau Doc |
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| A marker in the Khmer village records the water level every year during monsoon |
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| Pagoda |
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| Sam Mountain |
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