Nov 9, 2012 - The killing fields, Sihanoukville and crossing the border to Vietnam

Choeung Ek, S-21 and Sihoukville Hello, I was a little behind sending out my last blog as I didn't have the wifi to send it. On Tuesday we went to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre or the killing fields as they are also known as. This site is where over 8,000 people lost their lives between 1975 & 1979 under the orders of Pol Pot a dictator and leader of the democratic Kampuchea. It was hard to believe that such a beautiful and peaceful place was the site of such brutal violence and mass murder. They have constructed a very impressive...

Aug 19, 2012 - Phnom Penh to Chau Doc

At 7.00am we learnt that the builders across from us also work on Sundays! After breakfast we were transferred to the boat pier for the boat to Chau Doc Vietnam. Our boat was over an hour late and it was very hot waiting at the wharf. After another delay in departing I asked for some compensation, maybe a cold beer. Some spanish backpackers liked the idea of a cold one as well. So after a phone call to head office the boat company representative disappeared. He came back with some shopping bags and handed out cans of icy cold coke. Not...

Jun 13, 2012 - Hello Vietnam

On June 13th I boarded a passenger boat in Phnom Penh that would carry me 4-1/2 hours down the Mekong River to the Vietnamese border town of Chau Doc. I had to laugh at my hand written ticket which read "slow boat to Vietnam." The boat wasn't particularly slow but I've often heard the expression "slow boat to China" so I found the description amusing. The scenery along the way isn't particularly beautiful (just routine tropical trees and foliage) and the water is a muddy brown--but, despite it's appearance, the Mekong is the life blood of...

Mar 29, 2012 - Una vita galleggiante

Sinceramente mi sarei aspettata un po' di più dal Delta del Mekong, ma in realtà ero stata avvertita. In molte parti è diventato davvero turistico e per esplorarlo bene bisogna necessariamente recarvisi da soli, all'avventura. Come praticamente tutti, mi sono però fatta convincere a partecipare a un tour organizzato, in modo da riuscire a vedere più cose, oltre ad avere incluso il trasferimento in barca in Cambogia, a Phnom Penh. La prima tappa era al mercato galleggiante di Can Bai. Qui accorrono da provincie anche lontane, che possono...

Mar 10, 2012 - Chau Doc - goodbye Vietnam, hello Cambodia and the Lower Mekong (again thís magnificent river!)

A lively border town on the Mekong River north of the Delta - and our jumping off point to get on the River back to Cambodia. We arrived by a very efficient, and inexpensive Vietnamese bus trip. Included in the fare of $8 for the 6 hour trip is a mini van pickup in Saigon and delivery at the Chau Doc end. Amazing. Halfway, there was a private bus station for this company, a massive plane hangar building with vendors and a small market for their commuting customers. Very well planned and organized - and busy! We also jumped off the...

Mar 4, 2012 - Mekong Delta Tour

Today was full of buses, boats, and the unexpected (in that we joined a tour but the itinerary was unclear). Of the important facts we were certain-- the tour was to leave Saigon this morning and is a 2 day, 1 night excursion through the Mekong Delta, exiting Vietnam and ending in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. At $35 per person, that's not too terrible a deal. We had an AMAZING breakfast this morning before leaving Saigon, repeating Bahn Xeo and Bahn Khot from the same vendor as yesterday. The woman seemed extremely pleased that we returned, and we...

Feb 25, 2012 - Chau Doc to Ho Chi Minh

I woke up at 6:00 am to take a shower and we headed down to get breakfast at 6:30 before getting the boat. Took our breakfast to go and got on the boat a little after 7 am. We thought were heading to the floating market first because it is better to go early in the morning when it is busy. I heard that even 8 am is too late. Turns out we weren't really heading to the floating market- he decided to first take us on a tour of the stilted houses along the Mekong. It was interesting to see, but the whole point of waking up so early and getting...

Feb 24, 2012 - Bus to Vietnam

I got picked up at Mushroom Point at 6:45 am on a moto and was taken to the place where the van to Vietnam would pick me up. I had some time to order breakfast at one of the hostels in the area before the van came. We drove through Kampot, Kep, and then stopped somewhere to switch into a bigger bus. I got onto the other bus and we drove straight to the Ha Tien border crossing. We each paid $1 for the border crossing entrance fee, and another dollar after we filled out a paper that said we don't have any contagious diseases (we even got our...

Feb 18, 2012 - Mekong delta

Vietnam today! Crossed the boarder by bus an arrived in our town. Quite small and quiet- its only really a stopover place as its too far to travel much further into Vietnam in one go. In the evening we rented motorbikes (don't stress, we had drivers) and somehow managed to struggle up a mountain on machines that seem to have the engine of an electric toothbrush- good job I had a small lunch. We had a beer at the top of the mountain and watched the sunset in hammocks. Lovely views but it was pretty hazy which was a shame. On the way back it...

Feb 12, 2012 - Le Mekong - Version 2

Au nord du Laos, nous avons eu un premier aperçu du Mekong, un Mekong tout naturel avec des beaux paysages, peu de polution et quelques petits villages isolés. Nous venons de passer les 2 derniers jours dans le delta du Mekong (au sud du Vietnam, juste avant que le fleuve se jette dans la mer de Chine) et avons vu une toute autre image de ce dernier. Le Mekong, c'est le moteur économique du Vietnam, avec ses 20 millions d'habitants, les terres les plus fertiles et les plus productives du pays, une industrie de la pêche en pleine...

Feb 4, 2012 - The end of a wonderful river cruise

Well Folks - no messing around at the Cambodian/Vietnam Border. 2 1/2 hours to clear RV Mekong Pandaw. Downstream to Chau Doc a border town of 100,000 and bam - back to the amazing beat of modern Asia. Day and night between the two countries and it was immediately obvious of the huge Chinese influence in Vietnam. My Brother Neil had forwarded to us a very negative article about the "Panga" fish now being sold as filets in our supermarkets. The gist of the article was that it is a 'cheap' Asian fish cultivated on the Mekong River in big fish...

Dec 18, 2011 - Floating to Vietnam

We wanted to get to Vietnam by sailing down the Mekong River. There were a couple tour companies operating two day excursions to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) by way of boat partway on the Mekong. Another option was to find a private operator to get us there but that seemed like too much work. We had our hotel book the excursion for us while went traipsing around Phnom Penh. At 7:45 in the morning we were picked up and a new adventure unfolded for us. The van that picked us up was a small Toyota that sat about eight people. Over the next few...