It is much cooler today – the temperature and humidity seem to be dropping as we get closer to Cambodia. Another early start sees us leaving at 7am to catch the boat that will take us up the Mekong to the Cambodian border. The Mekong is one of the world’s longest rivers and flows through three countries – Vietnam Cambodia and Thailand – all of which use the same name for this giant of rivers. On the way we visit a floating fish farm and a village of the minority Cham people. When we get to the border there is time for a quick lunch before walking our luggage through the Vietnamese and Cambodian checkpoints. Our border crossing takes about 10 minutes mainly because we completed all the paperwork on the boat earlier and our guide came ahead by motor bike to sort out our visas. So by the time we arrive, everything is arranged.
Once in Cambodia we pick up another small covered boat no more than four seats wide, but at least the seats are fixed and side awnings provide some protection from the wind and spray. This boat will take us on the 3-hour journey up-river from where we will pick up another mini bus for the final one-and-an-half hours to Phnom Penh. This little boat hugs the side of the river bank as the wind whips up a slight swell. The river here is immensely wide and quite choppy. All along the riverbank are village houses and people going about their daily lives, fishing, cooking, eating, washing clothes, and themselves. in the river. Smiling children and adults wave and shout hello as we chug by.
The fish farm is a floating single story wooden house with a large verandah. The fish are kept in nets under the house and we are entertained to a feeding frenzy when the guide invites us to throw fish food through trap doors in the verandah floor. The fish go wild, splashing and jumping, some right out onto the verandah – it’s a sea of swishing tails and open mouths. Fish farming is clearly a lucrative business – the houses may be basic wooden structures but they all have fancy glass windows – not a common sight in countryside villages.
The Cham minority village where the houses, like most in the delta, are built on stilts to keep them above the flood level – although not always. In 2002 the Mekong rose to the level of the verandahs and it was possible to set out of boats directly into the houses. The family we visit are running a cottage industry weaving cloth for scarves, bags, sarong and table clothes. Of course, there is the inevitable opportunity to spend money and to have photographs taken in the local garb. This wood framed house with palm thatched roof is much less basic than it’s modest exterior suggest. There is little in the way of furniture, but there are tiled floors, western-style toilets and a TV aerial. Apparently the government subsidises the cost of television equipment for the minority people as it has proved effective in reducing their spectacularly high birth rate – 10 or more children not being uncommon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mekong
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cham_people