Farewell to the Sampan at Chau Doc

On Wednesday we began our boat journey at 6.00 am, and we had a myriad of viewing opportunities of the local people going about their daily activities.  There were countless fishermen and fish farms.  Last night when travelling in the dark until 11.00pm there were still a multitude of boats travelling in both directions on the Mekong.  We reached our mooring and fell into bed.  The crew slept on the floor of the rear deck as always and seemed well rested this morning.  We got some sleep and then a noisy boat would pass within a few metres. Their motors have no mufflers and kept going most of the night.  At 2.00am we dropped asleep with exhaustion and woke again at 4.30 am to the noise of the working Vietnamese going about their daily boating business.  They certainly are a hard working race of people.

We arrived at Chau Doc (which is close to the Cambodian border) in time for lunch, and later visited a very large food market with our guide who showed us an amazing array of stomach-churning meats, fish, and some unfamiliar vegetables and fruits.  We are relatively adventurous eaters, but draw the line at eggs containing baby birds, pigs' brains, pigs' intestines, pigs' ears, rats, snake, and meat covered in flies.  Frogs, chicken feet, and gasping fish we can manage!

As usual, crossing the road and walking through the market was very dangerous because of the speeding motorbikes in quite tight spaces.

The Sampan crew arriving to pick us up in the Gondola. 

A flame tree over a recently constructed watercourse (view from our small gondola)

Uncle Tun (President of all Vietnam until 1988) owned this Peugeot. Nobody knows why it is a French car, as he was well known for disliking the French when they occupied North Vietnam.

Fish farms.  There are many of these homes floating near the shore catching fish 24/7

Some of the ("Hello What your name?") children !

Another delicious Sampan breakfast on the rear deck.

Off to see the locals on one of the many walks through villages.

Living high above the river with small children.

Most of the crew and guide with us at the end of the trip up the Mekong delta

These guys hitched a ride for a couple of kms, to get upstream to their homes after fishing all night.

Fishermen spend a long time like this trying to net a catch to sell.

Frogs for sale at the market.

Another frog, looking better than the rats that I could not photograph !