Through the Delta to Ho Chi Minh City

Early in the morning, I got up to get ready to meet Mai for my short tour of Chau Doc. I headed out to the balcony of the place where I was staying, and had a look out on the street. And you know what? The Vietnamese do wear those hats. It's not just a thing that is done for the tourists.

Mai was there when I headed downstairs and we headed out. We stopped for breakfast, beef noodle soup. Then we headed out of town towards a small hill. On the way, we passed what looked like it was going to be a new subdivision. So far only the streets were completed. But the locals seemed to think they weren't streets, but drying areas for rice.

We reached the base of the hill and headed up to a Buddhist monastery partway up. From there it was easy to see the entire area around Chau Doc. It was also possible to see across the river area. On the other side was Cambodia. There is a bridge in town that crosses over to the Cambodian side. In between the two countries at that point, just as at the Cambodia-Thai border, there is a casino. Mai lamented the number of people who have been hooked on the casino life because of the proximity of it to the city. She also told me that, although there are lots of river police patrolling the area, they can't be everywhere. And just like in North America with our long unguarded borders smuggling of contraband, cigarettes in particular, is rampant.

What happens when Buddhism brings itself into the 21^st century?

Next it was on to see the statue of a woman who had been discovered on the mountain. She apparently just sprung into existence. She needed to be carried down the mountain. Ordinary people couldn't move her. Eventually the found that a group of virginal boys and girls were able to bring her down to a temple where she eventually turned to stone. Now people come to visit her and pray for their family or friends or other people in need.

A large temple area was on the way back to town. It was dedicated to the goddess of the seas. I have seen her in other places, most notably Hong Kong, but she had a different name here. She is the protectress of those who work on the sea.

From that temple we headed across the bridge I had visited the night before with Tsao. This time we went right across to the village of an ethnic minority. Long ago, there was a Muslim empire along the coast of what is now southern Vietnam. They were called the Cham. They controlled varying amounts of the area depending on who had more power at a given time, the Khmer or the Cham. When the Vietnamese pushed their way south, the Cham empire was swept away and now only survives in small communities. Mai told me that in general the people live peacefully with the Vietnamese. We got into their little town, with its 500 or so houses and maybe 2000 inhabitants. She took me into one section of the village, where I saw how high the water of the Mekong is right now. Currently the waters are high and lapping around the area under the houses.

They have to paddle boats up to the doors. In the dry season, the river is half a kilometer or more away.

There is a marker on one of the houses that shows how high the water gets each year. In the year 2000 the water came up over the floors of the houses. That is a huge amount of water. Clearly life in this area is dominated by the whims of the water.

Down the street from there is the community's mosque.

And that was pretty much it for things to experience in Chau Doc, at least according to Mai. After that, she took me for a bit of lunch, pho. Pho is a noodle soup with rice noodles and vegetables and some kind of meat. I was actually told by someone I met that the Vietnamese wouldn't serve me the soup because it's so cheap that it doesn't make them enough money. And here I was eating it. Clearly things have changed.

After lunch, Mai took me to the bus station where I got a seat on a bus for Ho Chi Minh City. Actually it was a bed as, for some reason they put a sleeper bus into service for a daytime trip. I don't really like the sleeper buses. They aren't very comfortable. But I guess there wasn't much choice. The trip took about 6 hours and during the trip, we passed through many of the towns of the Mekong delta. We also passed by, over and along numerous rivers and tributaries and canals along the way. It was quite amazing to watch life in the delta going by outside the bus. It must be an interesting lifestyle, so dependent on the moods of the water.

What struck me the most though was how easy my move from Phnom Penh to Vietnam had been. I had had no hassles. Nobody had been overly pushy to try and get me to buy something. I hadn't felt threatened. And whether I would have faced any kind of stuff snatching, I don't know. It is drilled into travellers in various ways to always protect one's stuff. I had eaten food I wasn't “supposed” to be able to get. Mai had taken me around for a price that she had quoted. She honoured that price and she had even paid for tolls and my lunch. The guesthouse didn't try anything either. I had been reading a bunch of warnings online about guesthouse using bait and switch scams. A visitor is quoted one price at check-in, but then at pay time, they claim the visitor was in a higher priced room and get the extra money. Didn't happen. I'm sure I it does happen. I'm sure all the bad things that I read warnings about do happen. But I also believe that it is possibly all fear-mongering. There is nothing any more or less dangerous about anywhere, and it is always dependent on how vigilant the traveller is. This all sure did ease my mind about travelling in Vietnam, however.

Once I got to Ho Chi Minh City, I walked to a nearby hotel and checked in. It had been a great trip up and I was looking forward to getting to know the city.