Mekong Mix

I type this entry from the back of a speedboat, overlooking the Mekong River as we blaze across the Cambodian border: Vietnam is just a blur behind me now. The lifeblood of South East flows through these rich veins: a wider river never before have I seen. I feel shudders and my hairs stand on end – maybe because the cool wet air is whipped up all around me – or maybe because I can’t help but think back to the magical cinematography of apocalypse now. Perhaps my demons wait beyond the Cambodian border; hopefully I’ll meet the deranged colonel - as I go on my own mission to seek and destroy my current experiences and replace them with new ones.
The banks of the Mekong don’t hold vicious foes and jungle any more, development has taken hold and now rural dwellings (on stilts) house old ladies and young children, while the mother washes laundry with a brush, along the fertile banks. The life on the river is a quiet one, and a beautiful one to observe, as fisherman and traders live out their purpose on the water. A life so simple may well be the envy of all western travellers: so far removed from the frantic struggle of work and the city.
The Mekong tour.
We opt for a $37 package including 1 day on a floating hotel and boat into Cambodia the next day, we later get blagged into upgrading ($5) our ticket to the fast boat (which may well be for the best as the boats are noisy and uncomfortable). The first day involves a lot of bus rides and coach travel, but we do get a stop off at the floating markets where we see local traders exchanging goods at wholesale on the water. We also witness the manufacture of rice paper and candy using traditional techniques – best of all we buy some tasty sweets and munch them later. The same place has a massive snake in a cage which they use to make belts and creams and various other weird things.
We enjoy a tour in the sunshine to an island in the delta observing many rickety bridges and dodgey structures. We stop here for lunch and the restaurant is a nice 10 minute cycle from the road on a rusty old beat up piece of junk, comically everyone wobbles around and struggles with their poor construction. At the restaurant the food is mediocre but we get chatting to some people off the tour, an interesting Canadian couple originally from Hungary and laid back dude from Spain who doesn’t speak much English but still has a good laugh and contributes to the conversation – we soon gel and enjoy each other’s company for the remainder of the trip.
After lunch we see people getting pictures with a monstrous beast of a python and go over to take some pictures. Crazily the bloke who unleashed the beast wanders off and tells me and Domingo that we have to put it back in the cage. We wrestle and shove the massive snake back into its cage – albeit with some pretty grimaced faces (i.e we shat ourselves) but in the end we managed it. It was one of those classic, one off, random moments that you can’t really orchestrate.
Later that evening we reach our hotel, which is mediocre, but sufficient – and we enjoy a lunch which is mediocre, westernised, but again sufficient. The company makes up for the lack of spice in the food and we all get along well. Tomorrow we have an early start at 6.30 so we don’t get too lary.
The next day we visit some local places in the morning, including a mosque and pagoda. The sights aren’t anything special but the locals invite us for tea and sweets for new years – and an 82 year old sage sits and chats to us for ages, even though we can’t understand a word, his hospitality is appreciated.
Next stop Cambodia