Chau Doc: Part 3 of Following the Mekong through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

Meeting the Cham, Beer Prices and Avoiding Western Food

Vietnam

Arriving in Chau Doc by Sampan

At 6.48 on a clear, fresh Mekong morning we slipped our moorings and headed out into the main western channel of the delta.

Leaving our overnight mooring, Mekong Delta

Our breakfast on the move was much the same as yesterday but included the sweet yellow mango from Sa Dec market. I love mango, but since Lynne claimed Lynne said it tastes like swede – I have to fight that idea before I can pick up my spoon.

The main western channel of the delta

For the first time we saw cultivated fields beside the river; green beans, taro, chillies, sugar cane and aubergines ('egg plants in the US). Tai called them 'eshk plants' the combination of ‘e’ and a hard ‘g’ is problematic for Vietnamese speakers.

Cultivated fields beside the Mekong

After the fields were yet more fish farms and then the city of Chau Doc (more correctly Châu Đốc) came into view. We passed through a floating market....

Floating market, Chau Doc

....and by 10 o’clock were tying up at the jetty of the Victoria Hotel. If our arrival at the boat had involved a little confusion, the Hotel, owned by the same company, had no such problems. We were met with a cup of tea, Cambodian visa application forms and a lunch menu with ‘In Honor of wife and Mr David Roger’ printed on the cover. It was a western menu featuring ‘roasted US beef rib eye with lamb jus sauce’ which seemed a little odd.

We said ‘goodbye’ to Tai and the boat crew who had looked after us so well and settled into our new and very different surroundings.

Waving 'goodbye' to our sampan

Disputing Our Lunch Preference at the Victoria Hotel

We took a walk along Chau Doc prom – which has potential but is currently being dug up – and through the market which was busy and, as always, interesting.

Although it was not obvious to my untrained eye, Chau Doc is one of the most ethnically and religiously diverse cities in Vietnam. 300 years ago the region was part of Cambodia and there is still a Khmer community who following Therevada Buddhism, while the Kinh (Vietnam’s majority community) are largely Mahayana Buddhists. The Cham community are Sunni Muslims while the region is also a stronghold of the Hoa Hao form of Buddhism. Founded locally in 1939 Hoa Hao once had 1.5 million adherents and financed a militia that fought both the French and the communists. It still exists, but is now far less influential.

At 12.30 we turned up for lunch and found a table laid with knives and forks bearing a copy of our ‘special menu’. Another long table had been laid out for a tour group and they had a Vietnamese menu.

We suggested we would prefer the Vietnamese menu, too. This was met with incredulity, our ‘personal’ menu ‘would be better for you’ we were informed. We meet a lot of people who think they know what we like to eat better than we do. After a little gentle persistence we were served banana flower salad, caramelised basa, beef with rice and a palm heart fruit salad. It was all washed down with a small can of the cheapest beer, which set us back 57,000 Dong (£1.80) which sounds modest in western terms, but in Vietnam comes into the ‘you can’t be serious’ category.

Meeting the Cham

A little later a local guide turned up to take us to a Cham village in the Chau Giang district. We made our way down to the jetty to discover that a 35-seater boat had been provided for the two of us.

Two years ago we encountered the Cham in central Vietnam, visiting the ruins of the religious capital at My Son and the museum of Cham artefacts in Da Nang. We did not then realised that their historic territory extended across much of Cambodia and down to the Mekong delta. In the Angkor days they were the main rivals to the Khmer before their defeat in 1181 by King Jayavarman VII (of whom more later) in a naval battle on Tonle Sap Lake. The Cham in Cambodia and the Mekong Delta converted to Islam in the 17th century, but some Cham groups in the Central Highhlands still practice Hinduism like their forebears

A Basa Farm on the Way to the Cham

Fish farms, Chau Doc

On the way we stopped at a fish farm. These typically consist of a floating platform with living quarters, sometimes a hut, sometimes rather more comfortable, while the fish are in an enclosure below. Here they claimed to have some 6000 tonnes of fish beneath their feet, mainly catfish (they are sold the UK as basa - their Vietnamese name - presumably because the British would not buy ‘catfish’).

Feeding equipment and shrine, fish farm, Chau Doc

Government loans are provided to set up fish farms and some are very successful, but it is a risky business. In overcrowded conditions the fish are susceptible to disease, while poor maintenance of the nets can lead to them escaping. In the farm we visited, the tilapia were too small for the wholesalers last year, too big this, but as they cannot be separated from the basa the owners continue to feed them. Despite these problems they are making a satisfactory living by local standards.

The fish beneath our feet, fish farm, Chau Doc

Chau Giang Cham Villiage

Further upstream we moored at a rickety jetty and crossed an even more rickety walkway over marshy ground to reach the outskirts of the village. We were met by a lad of 7 or 8 with his hand outstretched asking for money. He looked well fed and reasonably well dressed.

Our overlarge boat (the one on the left!) at the rickety jetty
Chau Giang

The village consists of several houses on stilts. Beneath, chickens scratch in the dirt and small children run round among the chickens. Slightly larger children descended on us with bags of coconut sweets which they were sure we needed at inflated prices. A girl sat at a loom making silk scarves while older women had stalls selling scarves which may or may not have been silk – one of which we now own. There were no men at home, but all the women wore headscarves so we knew it was a Muslim village even before we heard the call to prayer.

Cham village, Chau Giang, the photo manages to miss all the chickens and most of the children

Our Kinh (Vietnamese) guide clearly had little respect for her Cham neighbours. Some, she told us, have relatives in the US or France who send back money so they have no need to work, others are very poor because they cannot be bothered to work.

The path up to the main road,Cham village, Chau Giang

We climbed the stairs up to house level and then followed the path up to the main road back to Chau Doc. A roadside shop had the name Mubarak Saddam over the door, though whether it was deliberately named after two tyrants or it was just a coincidence I have no idea. Men were making their way towards the mosque wearing skull caps and loose trousers. We followed them as far as the entrance, but as it was prayer time we could not go it.

A worshipper enters the Mubarak mosque, Chau Giang

We returned to the village and then to our overlarge boat.....

Back over the rickety walkway

Other Eating and Drinking Options in Chau Doc

.... which took us back to the hotel where we decided to walk over the road for a coffee. When we reached the coffee shop we looked at the menu and chose to have a beer instead. Leaving the 4-star, foreigner orientated hotel caused the price of a beer (same brand, same size) to drop from 57,000 Dong to 16,000 (50p).

We spotted the tables of a restaurant lining the alley behind the coffee shop, so later in the evening we returned to join a mixed clientele of locals and hotel escapees. The waiting staff consisted of one somewhat disorganised 13 year-old boy who was continually being called over by one party or another to bring items he had forgotten. He brought us menus quickly enough and then a couple of cans of Tiger beer (a refreshing brew at a refreshing 15,000 Dong) but then seemed to forget about us. I was beginning to think we should have gone somewhere else, but eventually we attracted his attention and ordered ‘beef dipped in sweet and sour boiling water’, stewed chicken with garlic and sautéed spinach, also with garlic - it is always good to ensure the vampire problem is solved.

We did not have to wait long before a plate of sliced raw beef arrived. We looked at it for a moment, then it dawned on us that we had ordered a hotpot. Next came a pan of cold water with spices floating in it, followed by some equipment to boil that water and finally the spinach and chicken. Despite my prejudice against going to a restaurant and cooking my own meal, I must admit it was very good. The ‘hot water’ was well flavoured as was the accompanying dipping sauce, the beef was tender, the chicken succulent and spinach garlicky.

Lynne and a hotpot, Chau Doc

Well-fed at very reasonable cost we dropped into the coffee shop again and this time actually had some coffee. Vietnamese coffee is usually served dripping through a metal filter on top of the cup. I like its vicious strength and underlying chocolaty flavour. It may not have been the wisest thing to drink before retiring to bed, but so what.

Following the Mekong through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
 

Part 1: Return to Saigon, Cookery and Music

Part 2: Through the Mekong Delta by Sampan
Part 3: Chau Doc
Part 4: Phnom Penh (1) Royal Palaces and Museums
Part 5: Phnom Penh (2) Killing Fields and Torture Chambers
 Part 6: Across Cambodia to Siem Reap
 Part 7: Siem Reap (1) Angkor Wat
Part 8: Siem Reap (2) Angkor Thom and Other Temples
 Part 9: Siem Reap (3) Tonle Sap Lake
Part 10: Luang Prabang (1) The Old Town
Part 11: Luang Prabang (2) Back on the Mekong
Part 12: Luang Prabang (3) Elephants
 Part 13: Luang Prabang to Phonsavan
Part 14: Phonsavan, the Plain of Jars and UXO
Part 15: Vientiane (1) Wats, Stupas and a Heavy Buddha
Part 16: Vientiane (2) A Buddha Park and a Fond Farewell

A Sampan through the Mekong Delta: Part 2 of Following the Mekong through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

From (Almost) the Sea to Chau Doc on the Cambodian Border (Almost)

13/02/2014

Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City to the Mekong Delta and our Sampan

After an early breakfast we set off down Highway 1 towards the Mekong delta. This is a densely populated part of a densely populated country and for two and a half hours we passed through continuous ribbon development.

Down Highway 1 to the Mekong Delta

Approaching My Tho we turned off the main road, and drove down a lane. Spotting three white coated individuals waiting by the roadside, the driver pulled over. One of them introduced himself as Tai, our new guide, while the other two took charge of our luggage and wheeled it off down one of the concrete motorcycle tracks that criss-cross rural Vietnam.

We followed and soon arrived at the waterside where the sampan that would be our home for the next two days was moored.

After a brief tour of the boat and an introductory coconut we set off for a stroll round Phu An hamlet.

Introductory coconut aboard our sampan, Phu An

Phu An, a Delta Hamlet

It was 11.30 and most local residents had already eaten lunch and were now swinging in their hammocks, dozing through the heat of the day. All was peaceful, except for the crowing of cocks, the creaking of hammocks and the roar of fluttering butterflies.

The houses were well built and tidy, the people relaxed and friendly, those awake shouting greetings as we passed.

Gardens full of banana trees, Phu An

Fruit grows wild here; cultivating it in gardens merely involves managing its location. Huge jackfruit hung from the trees; there were bananas and papayas, mangoes and star apples (new to us, but not for long), pineapples and mangosteens.....

Pineapple, Phu An

....coconuts and water coconuts, (a close relative producing smaller nuts but with the same flavour),...

Water coconut, Phu An

...dragon fruit budding from trailing cacti, guava, durian, pomelo and the strange an phuoc plums which had mystified us on our previous visit. There are salad plants and vegetables, too; sweet potatoes, taro, Indian spinach and lemon grass grow beside the path. The first time we visited the Mekong delta it felt like the Garden of Eden nothing had changed.

The concrete paths through Phu An

Outside her home we found a woman peeling and stoning longans, the flesh destined for drying in a local factory. She worked quickly and deftly, her knife a razor blade mounted on a stick. She told Tai she was paid 5000 Dong (15p) for every kilo of fruit delivered - no wonder she worked quickly. She glanced at this photograph and grinned, her left hand already reaching for the next longan.

Peeling and stoning longans

Children on bicycles yelled ‘hello’ as they rattled past. A child on a verandah shouted ‘Hello Americans’, which we are not, but we smiled and waved anyway. Even his parents would have been born since the war.

A small shrine sits outside most homes and incense sticks are lit every morning to ensure good luck. Some homes have tombs in the garden, the ancestors may be dead but they are not forgotten and remain part of the family.

Household shrine, Phu An

Lunch at Le Longanier, Phu An

At 12.30 – a more appropriate time for lunch in the western mind – we reached Le Longanier (The Longan Grower) a restaurant occupying a colonial mansion on the edge of the village.

Le Longanier, Phu An

The spectacular elephant ear fish was the star of the show as it was last time we lunched by the Mekong, but the ‘exotic fruits’ were modest given the wealth of possibilities just outside the door.

Elephant ear fish, Le Longanier, Phu An

Cruising Upstream to An Huu

We returned to our sampan and set off upstream. Checking our programme with Tai I discovered we had very different ideas about the cruise. I thought we were headed for Chau Doc from where we could cross into Cambodia, Tai thought we finished at Cai Rang, 200km south of the border.

We set off upstream

He phoned head office, and they phoned Phong back in Ho Chi Minh City. I am old enough to still be amazed by what you can do with a mobile phone even in the middle of a river. Calls went backwards and forwards, somebody in the boat company office was delegated to shoulder the blame, and eventually we all agreed on Chau Doc as our destination.

We cruised gently up the Mekong, passing houses and gardens, shacks on stilts, temples and churches. Barges laden with sand and gravel battered their way downriver while patches of water hyacinth drifted gently with the stream. Water hyacinth is sometimes collected and anchored and the prawns, water snails and eels living among the roots are harvested.

Gravel barge, Mekong Delta

At 3.45 Tai brought us a tray of green tea with dragon fruits, rambutans, longans and tiny bananas. I have been unkind about dragonfruit in the past; despite its exotic looks, its flavour, to quote the Rough Guide, is ‘mild, verging on bland.’ I take it all back (well some of it); this fresh and this juicy, dragon fruit too are a delight.

Tea with dragon fruit, rambutan and bananas

An Huu Market

We moored at An Huu and walked up the narrow concrete path through the bustling market.

An Huu

Everybody wanted to say ‘hello’, but nobody was hustling or thrusting goods at us just because we were foreigners and so, presumably, rich. The market was packed with fruit, vegetable and trays of live chicks and ducklings. Tai bought a watermelon and a pineapple (for 10,000 Dong - 30p) and we acquired some incense sticks to take home for Siân.

Rambutans, durians and incense, An Huu market

On to Our Night Mooring and Dinner

Beyond An Huu....

Leaving An Huu

....the river became quieter, the banks wilder and the birdsong louder. The delta has a dense rural population and you cannot avoid people for long and soon we were passing more homes. As dusk fell, swiftly followed by darkness, we pottered between fish farms, or perhaps fish smallholdings, lining both sides of the stream.

The sunsets over the Mekong

Our captain swept the bank with a powerful searchlight, finally selecting what appeared to be a random piece of jungle and after a complicated parking manoeuvre we found ourselves alongside a rough bamboo jetty where a glowing red light indicated the presence of an electricity hook-up.

The boat carried a crew of four. The captain, like Tai was in his early twenties, the other three were teenagers. Mostly they had little to do, but one of them had been busy in the galley. We dined on thick, tasty yam soup, spring rolls with the inevitable fish dipping sauce, tofu with chilli, prawns and mushrooms in a clay pot and finally the watermelon from An Huu. How it was produced under such cramped conditions, I do not know, but it was excellent. I was less enthusiastic about the complimentary half bottle of Da Lat red. Made from cardinal grapes (a variety widely grown in Europe and California, but only for table grapes) eked out with mulberry juice, it is said to be Vietnam’s best red. It is (possibly) the best wine to drink when no others are available

Dinner aboard the sampan

14/02/2014

Dawn on the Mekong

The river is not an easy place to sleep. Boats come past at any time, the sound of their engines bouncing across the still water. Lynne snuffled and suffered with the cold she had picked up on the plane and I fought an endless battle with the mosquito net.

The Mekong at dawn

The morning, though, was serene and peaceful. A large red sun rose over the trees across the river and the water hyacinth floated gently upstream on the tide.

Sunrise over the Mekong delta

In the darkness we seemed to have moored by an electricity hook-up in the jungle, in the morning light it still looked like that. Tai arrived having spent the night in a nearby house, so civilization must have been close by, if hidden from view.

We set off while I was still in the shower. When I had finished we ate breakfast on the rear deck, the captain sitting on the ‘bridge’ above, navigating us upstream. Finding your way up a river sounds easy, but the Mekong delta has two main streams, which are huge, many dozens of smaller branches, which are still substantial, and thousands of backwaters. We were making for Sa Dec, which meant heading diagonally across the delta.

Past fish farms to Sa Dec

The youthful cook had produced a professional looking omelette. There was the usual regrettable sweetish bread, pineapple jam that was more jam than pineapple, yoghurt and, almost unforgivably, synthetic orange juice. All shortcomings were redeemed by the fresh pineapple from An Huu market.

Sa Dec

Marguerite Duras, The Lover and the 'Ancient' Chinese House

We reached Sa Dec at 8.00. French writer Marguerite Duras spent part of her childhood here and in 1929, at the age of 15, embarked on a doomed love affair with the son of a rich Chinese businessman. She tells the story in The Lover a semi-autobiographical novella published in 1984 and filmed, partly on location in Sa Dec, in 1992.

Arriving in Sa Dec

Our first stop, very near the jetty, was at the ‘Ancient Chinese House’ which, being a 19th century construction, was hardly ‘ancient’, but was once the home of Huynh Thuy Le, the real life lover of the teenage Duras. Both Tai and the guide at the house assumed we had seen the film - unlike most Vietnamese (the authorities consider the sex scenes too graphic). Actually neither of us has, but we have read the book (a self-indulgent analysis of a self-obsessed young woman – I hated it, though others clearly disagree as it won the Prix Goncourt).

The 'Ancient' Chinese House, Sa Dec

Market and Temple

It is a pleasant old house, but did not detain us long and we left for a walk through the market, pausing as Tai bought star apples and mangoes. The variety of fruit and vegetables available was, as always, staggering, even aloes can be pressed into culinary service. Morning glory is a popular vegetable and is often sold chopped with banana flowers as a salad. The banana is a versatile plant, not only can the fruit and the flowers be eaten, but the inside of the young shoots is used as a vegetable.

Tai buys star apples, Sa Dec

There was plenty of fish available, but little meat as it was the first full moon after Tet (New Year) which is a time to abstain from meat.

Sa Dec

Leaving the market we turned down the main street, lined with frangipane, and then right again to complete a circuit back to the river. On the way Tai dropped into a temple and made an offering to mark the day, and Lynne followed suit.

The appropriate thing to do on the first full moon after Tet

Back on the boat....

Returning to our boat, Sa Dec

...we continued north through the urban straggle, past a Cao Dai Temple and the ‘flower village’ which supplies the florists of Ho Chi Minh City – though the gardens were out of sight.

Cao Dai temple, Sa Dec

Sa Dec to Chau Moi

Beyond the houses a series of rice processing plants lined the bank. Conveyor belts churned out sack after sack of polished rice or spewed piles of husks onto waiting barges.

Rice polishing factories, Sa Dec

Brickworks

Brick kilns line the next section of river and the husks are used as fuel in their kilns.

Brick kilns, Sa Dec

Brick making is almost a cottage industry. The workers, overwhelmingly women, earn 80,000 Dong (£2.50) for an 8-hour day. I imagined our daughter’s reaction when we were told they have two hours off at lunchtime to ‘go home and cook a meal for their husbands and children.’

Making bricks, Sa Dec

Star Apples

Back on board we had a cup of tea and ate the star apples. With a texture somewhere between pear and mango, they have an intensely sweet, milk-white juice (they are also called ‘milk apples’), but have no pronounced flavour.

Star apples

It took an hour to clear the urban/industrial straggle north of Sa Dec, but eventually we reached a stretch of water bordered by trees. Dwellings lurked among the vegetation, some simple shacks others much grander, though each had its own access to the water.

Each house has its own access to the water

For a kilometre or so every house harboured a squadron of pale coloured ducks who enthusiastically paddled out to meet us.

Greeted by ducks

We reached Chau Moi where one of the crew went ashore in the rowing boat to fetch our lunch - slices of barbecued pork in chilli and lemongrass sauce, fried fish in a rather over-salted batter, pak choi and rice.

Floating market, Chau Moi

From Sa Dec we had been following smaller, though still substantial channels. We now emerged into the main western branch of the Mekong, so immensely wide and deep that ocean going ships can dock here.

Ocean going ships, Chau Moi

The local ferries are bigger too, carrying cars as well as motorcycles, reminiscent of the Washington State Ferries.

Ferry, Chau Moi

Tiger Island

We reached Tiger Island around 4pm. The plan was to row up a side stream, disembark, walk to the museum of Ton Duc Thang, Vietnam’s second president, walk through the village to a house which would provide our dinner, then be rowed back.

Like lunch, dinner would be a takeaway. We could have stayed on the island and dined there, but we were still four hours from our destination and it seemed better to leave at six and end the day’s sailing around 10.

Water Hyacinth

Our plan was thwarted by water hyacinth. The side stream was already densely packed and as we watched, more and more drifted in. After some indecision we climbed into the small boat and set off. One lad stood at the back rowing with two oars in the local scissor-like manner, one sat at the bow clearing the way and a third gave advice. Tai’s job was to translate the advice so Lynne and I could nod sagely.

They made a valiant effort but we did not get far. A small barge carrying concrete slabs tried to go up the channel, but even with a powerful outboard it was beaten back.

If this couldn't get through, we had no chance

We tried to extricate ourselves by going round the edge of a fish farm, but the last three metres was just too tightly wedged. Other possible exits were barred by a fish trap, a sandbank and a banana trunk tethered across the waterway.

Working our way round a fish farm

We eventually squeezed our way free, then successfully fought through a smaller patch to the end of a long jetty. We disembarked right beside Ton Duc Thang’s museum and wondered why we had been bothering with the blocked channel.

Reaching the jetty, Tiger Island

Never had so many people made so much effort to get us to a museum dedicated to somebody we had never heard of. It was closed by the time we arrived, though we were able to visit his shrine and light an incense stick. Ton Duc Thang became president of North Vietnam on the death of Ho Chi Minh in 1969 and then of a united Vietnam from 1976 until his own death, aged 91, in 1980. During his time in office the presidency was largely a ceremonial office and he was never a key policymaker.

Ton Duc Thang's Museum, Tiger Island

Tai’s bowing in front of the great man’s bust inevitably reminded us of North Korea and our being required to bow to the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. The Vietnamese version is much more modest and there was no pressure on us to bow. Afterwards we walked through the village. Unlike North Korea it was not a show village and was full of normal people, many of whom were the keen to say ‘hello’ and offered us big, beaming smiles.

The village, Tiger Island

Having secured the boat the crew caught up with us and we walked along like minor celebrities with a small posse of minders.

The house that was providing our dinner was a solid wooden construction behind a beautiful garden. We sat on the verandah, drank tea and ate sweets while the crew rounded up our food and took it back to the boat.



The house that provided dinner, Tiger Island

In due course we followed them and found the captain had managed to bring the large boat to the jetty. We hopped aboard and set off.

Our Valentine’s Day dinner was eaten at the stern of the boat as we slid up the now dark Mekong under a full moon. Pumpkin soup with pork balls, stewed pork with pineapple, and pork in a clay pot with fish sauce was perhaps an overly piggy feast, but there was also a fish lying on a bed of chopped tomatoes. With papaya to finish there was enough food for four, and we washed it down with a half bottle of Da Lat white, a wine which makes Da Lat red seem classy.

We pottered on for some time in a narrower channel some 50m wide through an urban and then suburban landscape. Karaoke bars are popular throughout Vietnam, and we could hear each one for 200metres either side. The standard of singing plumbed depths even for Karaoke and every time we passed one we hoped the captain would not stop here.

We eventually moored within earshot of, not karaoke, but a live performance of Vietnamese folk music. The music was pleasant, the singing in tune but it finished at 10.30 – early to bed, early to rise is the Vietnamese way.

Following the Mekong through Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
 

Part 1: Return to Saigon, Cookery and Music

Part 2: Through the Mekong Delta by Sampan
Part 3: Chau Doc
Part 4: Phnom Penh (1) Royal Palaces and Museums
Part 5: Phnom Penh (2) Killing Fields and Torture Chambers
 Part 6: Across Cambodia to Siem Reap
 Part 7: Siem Reap (1) Angkor Wat
Part 8: Siem Reap (2) Angkor Thom and Other Temples
 Part 9: Siem Reap (3) Tonle Sap Lake
Part 10: Luang Prabang (1) The Old Town
Part 11: Luang Prabang (2) Back
Part 12: Luang Prabang (3) Elephantson the Mekong
 Part 13: Luang Prabang to Phonsavan
Part 14: Phonsavan, the Plain of Jars and UXO
Part 15: Vientiane (1) Wats, Stupas and a Heavy Buddha
Part 16: Vientiane (2) A Buddha Park and a Fond Farewell