A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
As a consequence of the rushed, semi-conscious packing, I have spent much of the last two days thinking of things I believe I have either lost, accidentally packed in the suitcase left behind in Saigon, or left in the room. For perhaps the first time, I neglected to look under the bed and in all the cupboards before I departed, hence my continuing low-level anxiety about my belongings. At least I have the basics -- money, passport, and the camera held together with electrical tape.

So I have begun the travelling portion of my Asia experience in a rather haphazard way, but at least I have made it to Cambodia, my first new country. I decided that since I had been in Saigon 5 months without visiting the Mekong Delta, a short trip most tourists accomplish if they're in the city more than 3 days, I should kill two birds and take the combination Mekong Delta/Exit to Phnom Penh trip offered at travel agencies around town. The first day of the tour was mostly on land, with a 5 hour boat trip bringing us to Chau Doc, a town not far from the border. The second day was to be a bit of touring followed by a long boat trip upriver into Cambodia.

Apart from the boat ride, the first day of the Mekong tour was something of a bust. We spent all morning on a hot minibus on what passes for a highway in Vietnam. Since I'm pretty familiar with the housing styles of the Vietnamese countryside, and the scenery wasn't too engaging, it was a pretty tedious drive. And remarkably, although the delta is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world, we saw virtually no rice paddies the whole day.

The Mekong Delta is flat. Very flat. No, flatter than you're thinking. Pancakes are the Alps compared to this. In fact, I have my doubts as to whether the curvature of the earth is in effect in the delta. And since I have the innate prejudice of a born mountain-dweller against level terrain, I wasn't too enamored of the region. And did I mention that it was hotter than Satan's armpit down there? Well, it was.

The tour company inflicted further torture upon us by taking us to a Crocodile Farm in Long Xuyen, another little episode I could have given a miss. Imagine walking slowly with 25 other people in 100 degree heat past enclosure after enclosure of lethargic crocodiles doomed to become dinner in China or handbags in Italy. This delight was followed by what was billed in the brochure as "fastinating (sic) trekking through one of the most peaceful villages of Mekong". In reality, it was a 10 minute walk from the Crocodile Farm to the boat, carrying all of our luggage.

Just as I had convinced myself that I had subjected myself to a full day of hell for very little return, things started to improve -- we got on the boat. I have a newly developed love of boat travel, which directly and inversely corresponds to my loathing of buses. Boats can be slow, but there are no bumps, the air circulates, the seats are wider, and you can get up and walk around. I think I may be seeing a lot of the Mekong from water level thanks to this newfound travel preference. The river we traveled on got narrower and more scenic, with houses on either side made from the usual combination of thatch, old planks, and corrugated metal. The river is highly populated -- kids are everywhere, swimming, cleaning and fishing and young and old would wave and yell hello. You'd think that would get old for them, but I guess they only get one or two tour boats a day up that river, and there can't be that much excitement in those villages.

This is getting long and, I suspect, boring, so I'll continue this later.

© 2003 Katy Warren



posted by Katy at 6:08 AM