Looking into the heart of darkness

N 10 46.041 E 106 41.461 3m - Saigon - 13 December 2008

In Saigon. Waiting for another mission. It can drive a man mad. Yeah ok, maybe trying to book a cruise up the Mekong can do that too. Saigon is ok and all, big cities kind of feel the same after a while and traffic is maddening and I've seen most of the sights I felt I needed to see. I'm still confused about the US Embassy. We go past it a few times. I have in my head that iconic photograph, the fall of Saigon in 1975 and everybody trying to get to the helicopters, as well as the pictures of rocket damage during Tet 1968 attacks and I can't find that building. There were models of it in the city museum too, that concrete building with the concrete lattice work on the sides. There appears to be one like it next door to the embassy, maybe that's it. Being somewhere that History has happened, I like the connections it creates, but sometimes it is hard to figure out where they actually are.

But tours, our next stop is Cambodia and the Vietnam visa runs out in a few days. There are buses to Phnom Penh, but that seems a bit dull. For just a little bit more, there are 2 and 3 day tours that cruise up the Mekong, cross the border, then take the slow boat to Phnom Penh. Or so it seems. There are about a million travel agencies in Saigon and every hotel and restaurant has one too. They all have Mekong cruises, but with slightly different options (although I think there are only about 2 companies who actually give the tours, each of the others resells that with a similar writeup in their brochure) that don't really tell you much about what you will do and how. One sounds pretty cool, lots of hands on stuff, staying with families, hiking, biking, all that, but it is $140/person. Wow. The rest are like $40-60, seemingly dependent on how much you are actually on a boat.

You get them to describe the tour and you have to be very specific, ok, we go to the rice paper factory on a boat and around these islands then we get on a bus to go to the other town? Even then, they are not entirely correct (lying?), our boat that was definitely going all the way from the Cambodian border up the Mekong would take us all the way to Phnom Penh and drop us off at the waterfront. Somewhat true in reality, however a bus took dropped us off at the waterfront (or at a office a few blocks inland, with tuk tuk drivers surrounding the bus, clawing at the door to get at us as we stopped) from where it picked us up at Neak Loung, 50 km downstream. And other things on our itinerary seemed to have been dropped too. Maybe they hadn't paid off the tour company that month and were being shut out.

So, our first package tour on the trip, a bit scary that the next three days will be completely managed (except for the short periods of free time we will be alloted) but it will also be nice traveling with a group again. Some fellow travelers who we can commiserate with about things and have longer relationships with than just passing conversations in restaurants. But it wasn't much more expensive than traveling the distance on our own and it is three days we don't have to decide what to do.

First day then, up early, too early since the bus is late. It is a Sunday and traffic is horrible and we might have been the last stop to get picked up. Our first bit of excitement is a guy in the aisle across from us ended up on the wrong bus. A bit stupid but I can also see how it happens. When the bus pulls up, they point and say, there's your bus, over there, and point at three buses across the street. He was supposed to be on the one day city tour of Saigon, his dad booked the tour and he wasn't paying much attention. They make lots of phone calls, lots of discussion of extra money, trying to find him a way back to town. It also seems that he is supposed to sit on the bus from like 10 to 3 while we are off doing things. They relent on that at the last minute however. I guess he comes up with the extra $12 somehow.

Dong, our tour guide, is sort of chatty but doesn't give us much actual information about things. When we go through Districts 7 and 11 on the way out of Saigon, he mostly goes on about all the new apartment complexes going up and how they are just for rich people, $300k USD for a 1000 m2 apartment, blah blah. We finally get on boats at My Tho, transfer to a smaller boat to head down the canals to our first sight, a coconut candy factory. Surprisingly, there are opportunities to shop here, not just the candy which we see made but other things. Who would have thought. We have to linger here for a while, I think our group was being punished because we never really bought much of the merchandise on display, we are not leaving until at least X number of things are bought, I suppose. The factory is mildly interesting but I like the boat ride on the canals.

Lunch is another boat over to Tortoise Island. Somehow, during the day, the number of islands we visit is mysteriously shorter than on the brochure, as well as the sights. Maybe just going past them, silently, counts as a visit. They tease us with our one free included lunch of the trip. Dong parades around an amazing looking fish, huge, on a wooden rack, and says we can have that for only an extra 150k (about $8 USD) or we can have the crappy noodles and vegetables. We have the crappy noodles and are still hungry afterwards. We make a note to have backup food supplies after this. On the way back, we take tiny little 4 person canoes. Ours has to go super fast because a few of us got lost after lunch. Dong disappeared and we thought we went back the way we came. He tracks us down and we get our first demerit of the trip. They are rowed by two persons, one front and one on the back. They are pretty cool and sleek boats. Every boat that comes back the other way, empty except for the two rowers, every one of them waves and says hello and "please give money". Huh? Isn't it all inclusive? Must be their not so subtle way of generating extra tips at the end.

Out of the water, done with boats for the day. The group splits, the one day group heads back to Saigon and the 2 and 3 dayers get on a smaller, less pretty bus to go to Can Tho. Every time we got on a new bus after this, it got smaller and crappier. Our 2 hour ride to Can Tho was more like 3 hours and we are a bit grumpy when we get there. The hotel is a bit squalid, but I guess with constant inflow of tour groups, they don't have to care much.

N 10 01.757 E 105 47.215 39m - Can Tho - 14 December 2008

We are up in the morning (aack, 3 days in a row of 6 am wake up for a 6.30 breakfast and 7 am leaving), but Dong still knocks on everybody's door to make sure. Bus to the market and past the stalls on the way to the boat. Lots of pretty vegetable displays and a few not so pretty ones of fish, older ladies chopping up still moving fish. We crowd onto a boat and head out a short distance to the Cai Rang market, a floating market. It is pretty cool and seems like a good idea. Farmers bring their stuff on boats, sell it to stationary boats who then sell it on to boats coming out from the market to take to shore. Each of the boats generally sells just a few things with a bamboo pole on the back of their boat displaying what they are, pineapples or sweet potatoes, or whatever.

We head down a canal and stop at a place that makes rice paper, or rice noodles, or I'm not exactly sure. It is a sort of interesting technique, rice starch and tapioca mixed together to make a sort of paste which is spread in a circle and steamed and then put on racks to dry. Maybe they are cut up later into noodles or are rice paper and are shipped down to the people wrapping up coconut candy, or I don't know. I mostly wanted lunch by now.

But we make a mistake, getting back onto the boat, we get on first and are stuck in the back of the boat with the noisy engine for the next 2 hours. We head up to see the Phong Dien floating market, which we got there too late and is a bit boring. There are only like a dozen boats there, not much to see. A few boats come along side, grappling hooks, or nearly, trying to see drinks. We head up a tributary of the Han River and it is hot out by now (not a covered boat) and the engine is loud and it is a little miserable. The river back there is ok but a bit dull after a while.

Hurray, back to the main river and it can't be long until the bus and lunch. We are switched to a smaller bus, with no A/C on this one, or it doesn't actually work, and are ferried back to the hotel, lunch at the hotel. Must have been some kickbacks paid to the tour company there. Ok, the meal wasn't unreasonably priced and was sort of ok, but still.

We are supposed to have a few hours then on the bus to Chau Doc. We stop at a crocodile farm after 2 hours. It is sort of interesting but also rather depressing. It is sort of a factory farm for skins and meat. There are signs all over saying not to torment the crocodiles but a group of local youths gets great pleasure out of throwing rocks at them and just laugh when we scold them. They also balance on the walls and I'm slightly ashamed to say that I thought maybe it wouldn't be bad if they fell in. The crocodiles seemed pretty dopey but I imagine they could move pretty fast if they wanted to.

Another 2 hours then to Chau Doc and a stop at Sam Mountain. We climb up some steps to the Cave Pagoda. Dong the tour guide didn't seem so great most of the tour but here he actually gave us a pretty good lesson about Buddhism and the different versions in Vietnam and Cambodia and other places. The temple was only sort of interesting and the cave seemed a bit silly, snakes with light bulb eyes. There is some legend about snakes being converted and blah blah blah. The terrace was quite cool and probably the highlight of the day. It looked out over the rice paddies and Cambodia off into the distance. There were nice birds circling (ok, swifts were everywhere but there were a few that looked like birds of prey that we couldn't quite identify) but we were rushed a little bit to go see the silly cave.

The Chau Doc hotel was a little nicer. The city wasn't so exciting. We eat in some random restaurant we run across wandering around, pork ribs were nice, the sour fish soup was sort of good but a little strange, and fried morning glory is always nice.

N 10 42.556 E 105 07.163 11m - Chau Doc - 15 December 2008

Another early morning. These 7 am starts are really early. And there is a loud gecko (barking like sounds) in the room as well as annoying barking dogs outside the window. It will be nice to sleep in again someday. We are scheduled to visit a fish farm and a minority village today as well as take the boat to Cambodia. Apparently it is all on the way so there is no way of skipping them and just sleeping in late. Dong disappears back to Saigon and we are handed off to a new guide. I never get her name but she is nice and enthusiastic.

We make our way down to the water and load our bags and stuff into the boat. This one should take us to the border. On the way, we stop at a floating house. There are loads of these around, each of them has a netted in area underneath where they raise fish. Apparently these farms account for a huge percentage of the fish production in Vietnam. It is surprisingly interesting there. The front porch area has a hole in the middle and our tour guide takes great joy in throwing in handfuls of fish food and watching them go nuts, splashing and going crazy trying to get it. It is funny too, there is nothing to buy at this place, I wonder how they make their money back from the tour group?

The Cham minority village is just further up the river. They live on land but the shore is covered with racks of drying fish. Their houses are also stilt houses. The one we go to has markings on the front showing the water levels during the wet seasons. Generally it was 1/2 to 3/4 the way up the bottom floor but in 2000 and 2002 it went up over the 2nd floor and they must have had to live in a foot or two of water for a few months those years. They do weaving there and have plenty of things on display for purchase. Local kids hang around and all have plastic wrapped cakes they try to sell for a dollar or two. A sign is posted outside the house warning not to buy from them since they sell old expired goods and you might get colic (ok, just saying what the sign said). Not that I would be tempted, they looked pretty nasty. The constant children selling is pretty depressing all through Vietnam and Cambodia. If they are out selling things to tourists then they are not in school and will probably need to continue to sell to tourists when they have grown up.

Back on the boat, we settle down for a long ride. We have a few hours until the border. It is quite nice, just sitting and watching the land roll by. The fields are still quite flooded and parts of it look like gigantic lakes. The landscape will probably be drastically different in a few weeks. We see a few exciting birds, mostly terns and other things.

Then we arrive at the border station, a floating building on the side of the river. Cambodia is just slightly further down the river. We pay our visa fees (I have to pay an extra dollar, a fine for not having a photograph. It seems that the photograph isn't important, just not having one since they don't bother taking one of me) and have an hour or two to wait until those are sorted out and the boat arrives to meet us on the Cambodia side. The food is super expensive (ok, $3 for a bowl of cup of noodle soup) but where else can you go eat?

We load our backpacks back on and walk up the dirt path over into Cambodia and our tour guide shows us some fruit from the trees, sweet but a bit sour, and gives us some to suck on and try. She was pretty enthusiastic about lots of things. Then we are handed off to the boat crew and settle in for a few more hours on the boat heading to Phnom Penh. Again, this ride is also pretty pleasant and relaxing, like 4 hours slowly cruising up the river, looking at the new pointy style of temples on this side of the border, the small subtle changes in housing or fishing boats, and occasionally some nice birds.

Despite what the tour company told us, we don't arrive in Phnom Penh but are dropped off in Neak Puong (maybe better known as the village that was accidentally bombed during the secret bombings and that set off the action in the Killing Fields) and have 90 minutes more on a bus to get there before we have to face the gauntlet of tuk tuk drivers and touts. They were actually clawing at the bus doors when we arrived trying to get it open. We find a guest house, $8 for a double room, seems fine.

N 11 33 397 E 104 54.988 21m - Phnom Penh, Cambodia - 16 December 2008

Our first real package tour (well, maybe Mongolia was one of those too) of the trip. It had a lot of tacky "sights" and the tour company totally lied about a lot of what it would involve, but you know, for like $40, three days of entertainment and transportation to where we intended to go anyways, it seems like it was good. It wasn't exactly a cruise up the Mekong like the companies promised but it was a nice look at some of the Mekong and they way it works and the way people live and work on it in Vietnam.

Next up, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap and temples by the thousands and bleak bits about recent Cambodian history.