Life on the Mekong

It's only about a 7 hour bus ride to get from Saigon to Phnom Penh Cambodia, but to tell you the truth I was sick of bus rides. You either travel at night and can't see anything, or you travel by day passing beautiful places, that you can't really appreciate since you're driving by so quickly. With that in mind I decided to do a three day boat tour of the Mekong Delta. It was great. The fist boat kind of sucked, but the people were nice, and the views were great. We also got to stop in villages along the way, and see various stages of rice production. From harevesting, to the making of rice paper, and Vietnamese Rice Krispies treats. It was insanely touristy, but there were always free samples, so I wasn't about to complain.

Once again, just like the Halong Bay tour, there were quite a mix of people, but most were great. There were a few overbearing tourists, but they were easy enough to avoid. The group shrank after the night in Can Tho, as the three dayers went on to Chau Duc, and the two dayers went back to Saigon, so that was kind of a bit better. We then went to a floating market which was cool, and all the boats, have tied to their masts, what it is they're selling, so you kind of cruise along till you find what you like, or they find you. We got found by a pineapple boat, and I think we made their day. We all must have bought 20 pineapples (all cut the way I described in the Hoi An post). After the floating market we headed back to Can Tho to change boats.

This gave us some time to tour the city a bit, and I found this guy selling the most amazing sandwiches on the street. It was a bagette spread with an herbal pesto (maybe cilantro based), and then he put in a few skewers of Vietnamese sausages. This was then topped with sauted onions, and picked carrots and cabbage. Hot sauce and fish sauce were then added, and all this for 3000 dong (about $.20). Why I didn't buy 10 is beyond me. I did have an ice cream cone though, and that was pretty great as well. Then it was on to the new boat. This, was the best boat ever! It had a roof top deck, and beer, what more could you ask for. The boat trip was a few hours and we got to see the sun set on the Mekong. Boats really are such a nice way to travel. So much better then the bumpy potholed roads of south-east asia.

We spent the night in Chau Duc, and the bugs were insane. The mosquitos weren't that bad, but the Gnats or whatever were everywhere. The next day we were off to the Cambodian border, and dispite the fact that I had forgotten another passport photo. We all got through without a hassle, and unfortuneatly we got on a crap boat that took us to Phnom Penh, because the fast boat had been impounded by the police!

Over all the trip was great, and I met some amazing people. I even met a girl who had graduated from Queen's a few years ago (although we figured out that I hadn't TA'ed her), so we passed the time talking aobut Kingston, and the south-east asian food there. I alos met an English couple (Katherine and Miles) who were on their honeymoon, and a German guy (Thomas). We all got along pretty well, and ended up hanging out in Phnom Penh, and then Siem Reap. The best part of the trip though was definietly the view, I also kept getting this Apocalypse Now vibe while tooling up the Mekong, which was also pretty fun.