The Mekong Delta Boat Trip
Friday, July 21st, 2006Against my better judgement, I decided to take a 2 day journey up the Mekong Delta on a boat up to Phenom Phen. I had pictures of Apocolypse Now running thru my head and the Rolling Stones playing in my ears. “I can’t get no.. satisfaction” Unfortunately, there wasn’t a .50 caliber mounted to the front of our boat. But like in the movie, you should “never get off the boat”. Not because of the FN tigers MAN, but because of the horribly touristy villages that they take you to. What really is the point of going to visit local minority villages in their “natural” habitat when you are on an organized tour of the Mekong Delta?????? Ummm…. if you’re looking for anything authentic, that’s not where you’re gonna find it! The best part of the trip was stopping at the coconut candy factory. They were good candies unless you have a loose tooth. Man were they chewy. They also had a 4 foot boa constrictor that I got to hold and take a picture with (Insert Pic Here).
The rest of the trip was pretty much hell! We stopped for lunch on the first day and it just pissed down rain for about 2 hours (IPH). By the time we got to the point to catch a bus further up river, we apparently missed our bus or they over booked and I got put on a local bus with about 8 others. This minibus had more seats on it than I’ve ever seen before (IPH). I think I counted 21 seats with no room between rows nor an aisle. There also wasn’t any room for our bags and we had to sit with them for about 6 hours to a crappy hotel on the border of Cambodia. The hotel had no mosquito nets, but plenty of mosquitos. I felt like a bloody pincushion. The next day we hop back on a boat to the border and cruise thru immigration and another 4 hours on a boat to Phenom Phen. You’d probably have thought that there would have been some incredible scenery up the river, but after about 4 hours of nothing, but floating crap boxes and grass along side the river, u get a little bored. All I have to say is, DON’T TAKE THE MEKONG DELTA TRIP UP OR DOWN THE RIVER FROM Phenom Phen to Saigon. Take the 5 hour bus trip instead.
Kane