Life on the Mekong Delta

Having seen the Mekong River in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia it felt fitting that our final stop in Indochina should be spent exploring the delta region of one of the world’s great rivers.   Unfortunately the easiest way to do this was through an organised tour so it was with slight reservations that we set off with our guide, Tin Tin, on a three day tour of the region.  Sounding like he was straight from South Park he insisted on shouting for the first 40 minutes of our journey south but mercifully this proved to be the exception rather than the norm.  The Vietnamese had clearly been taking lessons from the Chinese on tourism and our attempt on the first day to see life on the river was restricted to playing dodgems on a traditional rowing boat with the packed crowds, fending off hawkers selling local products and a crocodile farm. Thankfully a lovely couple, Emir and Agne from Bosnia and Lithuania cushioned a difficult day with a few beers and helped us to keep our sanity!

A boat full of Pineapples

Over the three days we spent in the delta we caught fleeting glimpses of local life in between the shops that had been set up for the tour boats. Despite the drawbacks of the commercialised tour the people of Vietnam were incredibly warm and welcoming and it was interesting to see life pass us by on the river. In the town of Can Tho we spent time exploring the daily floating markets.  Decaying wooden boats were full to bursting of local products as wholesale buyers drew alongside the boats in their own vessels to begin intense negotiations. The boats where full of exotic fruits as locally grown dragon fruits, pineapples and durians spilled from the holds. Heading north we stopped in the less developed Chau Doc, a small town situated on the Cambodian border.  We spent most of our time sitting in the pool of an expensive riverside hotel watching as boats piled with building materials navigated the river alongside fisherman in small canoes.  The river here was lined with floating houses (houses on stilts set in the river) and we saw one house being tugged along the river to a new site as the owner sat out on his porch.

Moving house Vietnamese style

Each town had a huge fish market with piles of dried fish set out on wooden stalls alongside tanks full of crabs and cat fish.  The smell was often nauseating, as were some of the conditions for the animals as most of the fish were often alive on metal trays and the crabs were tied up by elastic bands and piled on top of each in small containers.  Searching for something other than fish for dinner we found a restaurant set up by a random Englishman in Ha Tien.  Despite his best efforts the Full English looked close enough to the real thing to remind me of what I was missing back home without quite achieving the standards set by the £3.25 Weatherspoon’s breakfast.  We were at least treated to one of the worlds worst musical performances along the water front on the way home!

Over 70 million people’s survival is intimately linked with the Mekong and it is now managed by the Mekong River Commission.  We have seen first-hand the huge construction projects in every country where governments are hoping hydroelectric dams will solve the regions energy shortage and rising CO2 emissions. We have also seen the impact this has had on ecosystems, the fisherman and rice paddy fields as it is estimated the average flow of the river has been reduced 10% over the past 30 years.  Seeing how important the river is to each nation’s industry, agriculture and tourism it is difficult to see how conflict between the nations can be avoided with the huge changes that are happening along the Mekong River.

From Ha Tien we caught the phallic shaped ‘Super Dong’ fast boat to the Island of Phu Quoc for a final few days of rest with Hannah’s mum before the end of her holiday.  We enjoyed lounging around by our beautiful pool , drinking bottles of rum for $2 and attempting to play scrabble, although the words became slightly dubious as the rum took hold.  After realising my plane home was on a propeller plane (how are these still used in the 21^st Century??!!) I decided to forgo the 45 minute flight for a painful 12 hour boat and bus ride back to Ho Chi Minh to catch our flight south to Singapore.