After another buffet
breakfast downstairs we packed up and checked out, leaving the hotel
at about 8.20am and beginning the long trudge to the 'port' area of
the waterfront. Thankfully the day was a bit cooler than it has been
lately – cloudier and with a bit of a breeze blowing. When we got
there, we saw two big, blue cargo boats tied up, one of which was in
the process of being loaded with an intriguing variety of goods. Kate
had read that it was the blue boats on which you could travel, so she
enquired about passage using a series of hand signals and a bit of
notebook action. Our passage was soon arranged and a price agreed and
we all climbed aboard. A young guy – the boat's 'first mate' -
directed us to a little cabin up top and went inside and set about
stringing up a couple of hammocks and laying down some mats on the
floor for us. He even put out a couple of plastic chairs on on the
deck, tying them to the side with a rope.
We set off at about
9.30am, heading downriver. After we had been travelling for a short
while, the 'mate' came over to me holding an exercise book, which he
opened, pointing to a line of neatly handwritten text on one of the
pages. It read: 'Please go inside in order to avoid the transport
police.' So we all piled into our cabin, closed the door and windows,
and settled in to wait. After about ten minutes or so we were given
the all-clear and were able to emerge back onto our deck. The mate
invited Zoe to join him in the wheelhouse, which had a little fish
tank with some guppies in it.
And so, we settled
back to watch life on and along the Mekong pass by. This part of the
delta is all about coconuts and we saw pretty much all of the
different stages of their growth and processing, from nurseries for
the palms through transport and de-husking to the turning of the
husks into coir – the tough fibre used in floor mats, doormats,
brushes, mattresses and the like. Most of the boats we saw were
carrying something coconut-related, but we also occasionally passed
fishing boats of varying sizes, the most common being mid-sized boats
carrying a husband-and-wife team.
By now the sun had
emerged and it was pretty brutal out on the deck, so Kate and the
girls escaped into the cabin, where they swung in the hammocks and
read their Kindles/book, and I sat on one of the chairs in the tiny
bit of shade at the edge of the cabin. As we travelled, we dined on
lychees, crisps and Oreos.
At times, the
channels we passed through were so wide that it felt as if we were
reaching the sea. Travelling through one of these wide open areas was
passed under a huge new bridge. In this big bridge you could see the
end coming for the cargo boat on which we were travelling. For
centuries, trade in the delta has been almost exclusively
water-borne, but as more and more bridges are built between the
numerous islands, that trade will increasingly shift to the roads and
these boats will slowly get phased out.
Eventually, after
about five hours on the water, we entered a relatively narrow channel
lined with relatively nice buildings and street lamps. Not long
after, we arrived at our destination – Tra Vinh - stopping at a
rather moth-eaten pier with great gaping holes in the concrete. We
unloaded our bags and asked the mate if he knew where our hotel was.
He pulled out a map showed us the route we had to take, which was,
thankfully, pretty straightforward, so we shouldered our packs and
set off in 35C heat for the ten-minute walk, arriving at the
reception desk flushed and dripping. Our room was rather nice –
large and clean with two double beds, a high ceiling and a couch (and
an unusual, sit-down shower/bath).
Back outside, we
found a big collection of chairs and tables set up beside the road
opposite the hotel – an outdoor, roadside cafe. We stopped there
for some ice coffees then went back across the road and explored the
local market. Finding somewhere appealing to eat dinner proved a
little tricky once again. This time we stumbled across a place where
they were deep-frying whole chickens and stir-frying vegetables and
meat. Unfortunately, the meat included liver, but we found a young
woman who worked there who spoke English and we ordered some chicken,
which came with rice, and some veges without the meat. The first part
worked fine but the second wasn't as successful, so we spent some
time picking the liver out of the vege dish, washing the whole lot
down with some ice-cube-cooled beers. As we were leaving, I asked the
girl if the restaurant had a name so we could put it in Wikitravel
and TripAdvisor, but apparently it didn't. On the way back to the
hotel, we stopped in at a clothes shop and I tried on a bunch of
shirts (apparently I'm huge here, as I really struggled to find
anything large enough to fit me) and stopped for one last iced coffee
at the little roadside cafe.
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