Look at what you could have won…

There are a handful of things that still manage to fill me with childlike excitement. Elephants (which we have yet to see on this trip), riding my bicycle and messing about in or on the water. When Gez suggested that we leave Vietnam and enter Cambodia by speed boat, I let out a small squeal of excitement. This was going to be fun!
Before we could board the speedboat we had to get to the dock.

We rode across the Mekong delta for a number of days.  Each day was filled with interesting trails through swamps and jungle, numerous ferry crossings, interesting places to stay, great food, friendly locals, less friendly mosquitoes and of course – 24/7 karaoke.  Life on the Mekong delta is busy, it’s worth sitting still to take it in – the river is bustling with dredgers, barely floating silt barges, physics-defying rice barges, fugly cruise ships, other boats of all shapes and sizes, floating markets and the odd tourist (ok, two odd tourists).  Everywhere you look someone is getting on with life on the river.  It’s a bit like being at home, but it’s warmer and the river is much much bigger. Oh, and the karaoke.

We would have been happy to spend longer here, but we were out of time and down on luck as far as pedalling was concerned. The damage to my wheel rim meant slow cautious riding and we were meeting my father for the Christmas in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Four hours or so on a very bumpy noisy bus and problem solved – hello Chau Doc, tiny speed boat and easy ride into Cambodia.

We’d heard all sorts of horror stories about the border crossing between Vietnam and Cambodia. If you are thinking of doing it, book a boat and pay the extra few dollars for a local to navigate the paper work for you, our crossing was plain sailing and having left Chau Doc at 7am we’d reached Phnom Penh by lunchtime – slightly deaf, wind battered and grinning.

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Rice Barge, Mekong Delta, Vietnam.

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

outboards, eh?!

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, VietnamVietnamese Donalson Brothers.

Mekong Delta, VietnamSilt barge, empty (background) and full (foreground & below). You would’t want to load it up much more..

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

mostly underwater.

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Ferry queue bundle

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Phlottilla.

Mekong Delta, Vietnam

As boats go this is ugly, with a capital GLY.

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speedboat face

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overtaken.  we were doing 32kph.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAPhenom Penh

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAPhenom Penh.  I’m pretty sure the outboard is not supposed to point that way.

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Phenom Penh

 

2 thoughts on “Look at what you could have won…

  1. Hi Kate Great blog – we cannot wait to get there – leaving UK on 28 February. Unlike you we only have 8 days in Vietnam and only a week in Cambodia. However, your blog is very useful for us.
    Brian and Kay

  2. Lovely blog again and I particularly like the carefully loaded silt barge pics and speedboat face pics ?

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