The Mekong River

The big day arrived for our trip on the Mekong River, the world’s 10^th longest river. Tours of the Mekong include visits to the floating markets and you could either stay overnight on a boat or in a floating hotel (whatever that was). Prices ranged significantly depending on which company you booked with. Ian and I decided to splurge and go all out so we booked an overnight on the Dragon Eyes through Mekong Eyes Cruises.

Dragon Eyes was the smaller boat with only two cabins whereas the other boat had, I believe, 15 cabins. Going on the Dragon Eyes meant we’d only be with two other passengers. The two cabins were above water on the main level and had a/c, king size bed, shower with hot water, Western toilet, and windows. Above the rooms was a sun deck and area to eat. Meals would be included in the price as well as an English speaking guide. It was super expensive but it was our Christmas present to ourselves.

We checked out of the hotel but left a bag with them since we’d be back for one more night. The receptionist placed the bag to one side of the lobby and assured us it would be locked away. I was sceptical – and for good reason, because when we returned the next day, it was exactly where he had left it!!! At least nothing was missing.

An a/c van picked us up at 9:15am and some guests were already aboard. I tried to guess which ones might be joining us on our boat. We stopped at the requisite lacquer souvenir painting shop for a toilet break and made our way to our starting point of Cai Be.

The towns we drove through were dirty and grubby lined with squat dull buildings with colourful laundry hanging from balconies. Piles of garbage would suddenly appear, lying uncollected, but the flat expansive rice paddies were wonderful. Unlike any other country we’ve been to, these were dotted with family cemeteries very temple-like in their appearance, with raised cement coffins, fences, and sometimes a roof.

The roads were smooth, paved, and four lanes. Traffic was light with drivers mostly obeying the rules of the road. We made good time and were soon at the river. We unloaded from the van and waited in a covered area for our boat. Another couple was already there so again, I wondered if they would be joining us. We filled out a bit of paperwork and an English speaking guide introduced himself as Luan and informed us that we’d be the only ones on the boat! Ian and I were thrilled – not that we’re anti-social - but to have a luxury boat all to ourselves was quite thrilling.

Luan showed us onto a smaller taxi boat and away we went to Dragon Eyes anchored out on the river.  We followed him into the air conditioned front room, called the bar, for a welcome drink and Luan went over the itinerary with us. We were travelling 100 km in 7 hours before anchoring for the night.

Our room was next to the front room and was quite nice. We unpacked and settled upstairs to watch the mighty Mekong go by. I was impressed with the enormity of the river, how wide and very busy it was.

Huge barges rumbled by full of sand alongside tiny wooden sampans with fishermen and medium sized cargo boats loaded with everything from rice to coconuts to wood.

Lunch was soon served and it was a 5 course meal – the food kept coming. Prawns steamed in coconut, tofu, fried catfish, rice, and salad with tomatoes, red onions and lettuce….all very yummy and very filling. While we ate, people waved at us from their boats and Ian and I joked that Mekong Cruise must have paid them to do so. We couldn’t believe how friendly people were. If we weren’t looking, we’d hear a “hello” and find children and adults waving as they went by.

The poverty of the people who live here became more obvious the further we went along the river.  Many families live in their boats or in flimsy wooden shacks that look like a good strong wave could bring them crashing down.

Along the way I noted several red kilns and our guide explained that this was a brick making factory.

The boat turned down a smaller manmade channel crowded with barges.

We made our way to Xuan Hiep Village where we would take a stroll. The captain dropped anchor and one of the crew informed me that we would need our life jackets from the closet in our room. I laughed because I thought he was joking but it turned out, we had to don them for our journey in the small sampon. This was our sampon and driver (you can see our discarded life jackets) and the smaller tributary that we were on:

Our stroll started down a narrow cement path that wove through a variety of trees including palm and coconut, papaya, pomelo, and jackfruit. Jackfruit is unbelievably huge.

We went along the path through rice fields and once in awhile came across a home or a motorbike. So many people smiled and called out hello. The path made its way to a home where we would stop for a break of fruit and coconut juice.

Papaya, pomelo, dried cherries and sugared coconut waited for us. There was also a mix of salt and pepper that you dipped the pomelo in – such a brilliant idea.

A little girl took our photo and Ian asked if it would be appropriate to leave some money – the people here are so incredibly poor and this particular family made perhaps 50 dollars a month from selling homemade square baskets made of hyacinth. Hyacinth grows on the water and the leaves are harvested as food in salads and soups and the stems for basket weaving. Luan said it would be better to present the money as a gift to the little girl so as not to insult the couple so that’s what we did.

Time was up and we made our way to the village where again, many village people made a point to say hello. We had an absolutely delightful time and settled into our lounge chairs to a wait dinner. While waiting we received yet more food – a small snack that Ian and I left untouched. We were still full from the fruit. At this point, our guide informed us that we would have to check out of our room by 8:30am the next day so they could clean the room for the next guests. Needless to say I was taken aback by this. There wasn’t a public washroom on board so you had to use the one in your room so that was a problem to say the least. Then the guide realized that the next guests were boarding at 1pm so he suggested we leave the room at 10am. I asked about the bathroom and he said we could use the washroom in our room.

Dinner was as good as lunch – and too much food. The night descended around us and it was cloudy so we missed out on the sunset and the stars. Ian and I sat on two chairs in front of where the captain steered the boat. It was peaceful and very dark. Boats continued to make their way along the river and our captain would occasionally turn on a powerful light to see what was coming.  One of the crew joined us and asked if we knew the story of the ‘eyes.’ Since we didn’t, he proceeded to tell us this tale (this is not verbatim):

A long time ago, the Mekong was overrun by crocodiles and many women were made early widows when their husbands met with an untimely death. A poor man decided to leave his village and try his luck at fishing the Mekong River. His family begged him not to go and villagers warned him of the vicious Mekong crocodiles but he was not afraid. He took his fishing nets and down the river he went. He didn’t go far when the river grew thick with the fierce crocodiles, their eyes looming just above the water’s surface. He quickly turned around out of harm’s way.

Each time he travelled the river the same thing happened and the man grew frustrated. He knew the river was rich with fish and he just had to figure out a way to thwart the crocodiles. After some time, an idea came to him: what if he dressed up his boat as a crocodile? After all, the crocodiles didn’t seem to attack one another.

On the front of his boat he painted eyes like the crocodiles and headed back out on the river. Low and behold, the crocodiles took one look and swam away leaving him to fish as much as he wanted. Eventually, other fishing boats took on this same disguise and after awhile, the crocodiles left the river, afraid of these large beasts that had invaded the waters. Now all the boats have eyes painted on them for good luck.

Eventually we made our way close to shore and dropped anchor. Ian and I couldn’t help but notice that we were quite close to the Mekong Eyes. This was a bit disappointing. I figured for the money we were paying, we’d actually be doing a somewhat different trip.  After awhile, Ian and I headed to our room as we had an early start in the morning. Our night was pleasant and very quiet.

The boat started moving at 6am which woke us up. It was very dull and cloudy out so I didn’t bother going upstairs to see the sunrise. The shower was nice and hot and breakfast was served at 7am.  There was plenty of fruit and toast so neither of us felt the need for eggs.  After breakfast, we paid the bill and filled out the comment card. By 8:30am, we were docked alongside the Mekong Eyes and 45 minutes later, we loaded into a taxi boat for our trip to the floating market.

It was disheartening that we had to wait so long to go the market. We boarded a boat larger than a sampon so this left me wondering how we’d ever be able to weave among the market boats.  6 guests from the Mekong Eyes joined us. We travelled down the river for about 10 minutes before even coming close to the market. I was expecting some narration from Luan but he said very little and what he did say, you couldn’t hear him over the motor of the boat. We literally whipped along in a straight line – so fast that I had a difficult time getting any decent photos. Not that this matter much; the market business was clearly over, we had missed it.

There were hardly any small boats and those that were still there, were packing up. The larger boats were also done for the day and were either leaving or looking after stacking and storing their goods or were going about their daily routines – laundry or sleeping in a hammock.

Vendors display their produce by tying it to the ends of bamboo poles -

Vendors who sell from shore, hang their produce from string -

Laundry is an interesting business here in Asian. Most laundry is done by hand in basins or in rivers and canals.

Since it’s so hot here, it takes no time at all to dry in the sun. Clothes can be seen hanging everywhere – off balconies, along fences, laid out on the grass or on bushes, draped over rope from ends of boats or over the water. Clothes are everywhere. Apartment buildings or homes are sometimes built with cages on their roof tops or over their balconies to keep birds away from the clothes and I suppose, to keep the clothes from blowing away should there be a strong enough wind.

Ian and I have rarely had a problem finding laundry services – typically they charge a dollar or 2 per kilo so we might end up paying 4 or 5 dollars. Hotels can be the worst, charging exorbitant prices per item. We never use laundries that dry their clothes on the side of the road –too much road dust around.  

After going through a closing market far too quickly, we pulled over to a small covered area on the side of the river where fruit and pho was sold. I really didn’t get the point of stopping here and was somewhat annoyed – not to mention, it absolutely reeked of Durian – a smell I cannot stand. Luan pointed out different fruit to the Mekong Eyes guests and I stood off the side attempting to breath anything but Durian. Eventually we boarded again and returned to the boat.

I won’t lie, I was most disappointed. I had high expectations of this floating market – supposedly the biggest one in Vietnam. I had imagined a river crowded with small boats loaded with colourful produce. We returned to the boat to pack up our gear and leave the room. At this point, Luan explained that we would have ‘brunch’ at 1030am, this was the lunch that was included in our price. Neither of us was even hungry but we took our seats and received a stir-fry with rice that we poked at. Although satisfactory, it was certainly less in quantity and quality than our previous meals had been.

On top of this, we learned that that was it for our day – we’d be docked alongside the Mekong Eyes for the entire morning. Ian and I could hardly believe it. We had spent a fortune for what was really a floating hotel – stuck in one spot for 4 hours with a rather pathetic visit to the market.  Day one had been so great but day 2 was a huge disappointment. There was nothing to see – one side was a boat, the other an uninteresting view of the river – and on top of that, we didn’t even have a room. We were not impressed.

We were to leave by van at 1130 but by 1215, we were still waiting. Apparently the driver had come, picked up two guests from the Mekong Eyes and left. Luan was furious and told him to come back to pick us up. Who knows how far he had gone –but we left around 1230pm. Ian and I couldn’t help but feel we were ripped off by this trip – but we tried hard to focus on day one which had turned out so well. Needless to say, I wrote a strong disgruntled review on tripadvisor and turns out, I wasn’t the only one. Since I’ve written mine, a few more bad reviews have gone up. I just wish I had read them before we had booked.

Oh well, lesson learned…and really, over the last 4.5 months, this was minor.

PS Been having loads of issues with poor internet connections - sometimes we get email but i am unable to do the blog because of weak connections. I am quite behind on posting my blog but am almost caught up! We've already been to Phu Quoc diving again and are now off to Dalat for a motorcycle adventure. I will continue to post when I can so expect a few close together...