Life on the Mekong

Welcome to the Mekong, a river that runs from China, through Laos, cuts into Cambodia before passing through Vietnam where it becomes an enormous delta and eventually empties into the South China Sea. In Laotian Mekong means Mother River, and in Vietnamese it means Nine Dragon River, for the 9 major branches of the Delta.
Here you can see one of the many boats I passed on my 3day tour through the Mekong. The eyes are meant to scare off evil spirits.

Although slightly touristy, we did also take a boat ride with these traditional canoe like boats through some of the smaller streams, passing the homes of many people who live on the banks of the Mekong.

Out all day on the Delta and need a soft drink, beer, coffee or coconut? Just call over one of these little row boats and the lady on board will happily serve you. 

Here I am in front of the Cai Rang Floating Market, which means Alligators Teeth since there used to be and might still be many alligators in the area. Early in the morning before sunrise, large wholesale boats from local farms meet with smaller boats to make sales of produce and other wares, which are then brought to the small islands and sold in shops.

We saw boats loaded with pineapples, watermelon, pumpkins, onions, cabbage and so much more. Many of these midsize boats you see are also home to an entire family. They live and work on the Delta.

My first night there I slept at a local family's house. You can see it off to the left. It was situated directly on this small tributary. I wish I had more pictures to show you, but one of my best experiences was the night spent here. My tour guide was a local Delta man and he invited me to visit his uncle's and cousins' houses after dinner. I of course jumped at the chance and spent the next several hours enjoying shots of rice wine (not as good as it sounds) and a delicious chicken soup with banana tree (who knew you could eat banana tree?!)  that I had watched them prepare (as in saw the whole process for killing a chicken).  I ended up sleeping in a hammock there since my guide decided that driving a motorbike in the dark, through a labyrinth of narrow paths, after so many shots was NOT a good idea. 

                                      

Some shots of life on the Mekong for the normal inhabitant: washing in the river. I know the river looks really muddy-and it is. Historically that meant silt which is good for the crops, but now it also means a lot of garbage and other nasty stuff, so I did keep myself and my clothes out of it for the most part.                                              

The ferry-with 17.3 million inhabitants in the Delta region-either on land or on board- these ferry boats are numerous and packed full.

The river also is a great place to bring the livestock for drinking or cleaning.

We stopped on several out of the 1000s of islands on the delta to see local factories where things such as snacks, coconut candies, honey, rice paper and rice noodles are produced. Here you're seeing a woman lifting a large, nearly transparent circle of rice paper up from where it had just been cooking in a large wok. The sheet of paper will be dried all day, then put through a slicer and made into rice noodles. The fire for cooking the rice paper is fed by the husks of the rice (seen in the pink bowl and the stone structure. Then when it comes out all burnt (seen at the bottom) it is given to farmers to fertilize the fields. 

                                                  

BBQ Delta style! Frogs, rats, quail and not pictured: snakes. I did sample both the rats and frogs-very delicious.

At the end of my 3 day tour that started in HoChiMinh, I said my good byes to Vietnam and crossed over the border to Cambodia (still on the Mekong River). Here was the visa service on the Cambodian side-very professional eh? (I technically was supposed to have deleted this picture but I guess I kind of forgot^^).

                                      

Hello Cambodia!

And hello Phnom Penh (pronounced Nom Pen). 

This is inside the royal palace. I loved the bright colored roofs, the extra high, pointed spires, and the elongated sky tassels (the curvy lines that jut off the peaks) which are meant to ward off unwanted spirits that fall from the sky.

I didn't do much in PP besides visit the Royal Palace one day and then two extremely powerful and saddening sites: the former school turned prison (S-21) and the Killing Fields. They tell the story of the horrible genocide that occurred here in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979 under the Khmer Rouge and Polpot's reign. Once again, I'm not here to horrify or depress, so feel free to do your own homework on this. Here is the memorial stupa located at the Killing Fields. It is a blend of Hindu and Buddhist symbols: supporting the roof are Hindu bird-like figures, which are the transporters of the gods; and above the roof are Nagas, the Buddhist snakes that gave birth to the Khmer (Cambodian) people. They are opposing figures, but when joined together like this they mean peace. It was the one positive sentiment I could take away from here. 

Cambodia doesn't have quite as many motorbikes as Vietnam, so they make up for it with tuk-tuks (previously bicycle powered and now generally motorbike powered, with room for 4 foreigners or 10 Cambodians). I really liked this guy's advertising ;)

I had been fairly lucky so far, traveling Southeast Asia during the rainy season, I'd only experienced short, quick showers here and there.......until PP. This was outside my hostel after several hours of rain. 

                                      

And this was a different day, again, nearly the same view. I had a bus ticket to leave at 8:30a.m. but that became  12:30 because traffic definitely wasn't moving. The water eventually made it's way up to the entrance of the hostel and movie theater where a friend of mine had been working. Every time a car passed more waves of water would come pouring in.