Tan Chau & the border to Cambodia

Our river boat has around 60 passengers, which is a nice number. We are 70% German, 25% English speaking and 5% French. There are no Americans on board. The wi-fi only operates in the lounge area of the boat and only when the boat is moored, but it has been working well so far. When we awoke this morning, we discovered that we were at Tan Chau, a remote town on the Mekong. After breakfast we took small boats to the town and hopped on rickshaws to a silk factory.

The silk factory was using circa 1900 machinery and the noise in the factory was deafening.

Back on rickshaws we passed a lot of children because it was Saturday.

The rattan mat factory was equally noisy and antiquated.

The houses in this area are on stilts due to seasonal flooding.

Our last visit in Vietnam was to a fish farm. These floating farms double as homes as do most of the boats on the river. The farm we visited was raising snapper. Once again, I would question how safe it would be to consume fish growing in these polluted waters. I guess their metabolisms get used to it.

There are still a lot of fisherman in their dugouts taking fish directly out of the river.

On our walk back to the tender, we passed lotus growing wild.

The shorelines of the Mekong are sadly heavily littered with trash. It would appear that they make no effort to clean this up.

On our ride back to the boat we encountered our first water buffalo.

By noon hour, we had once again dropped anchor as we arrived at the Cambodian border. We were told that the visa process here could take up to four hours, depending on how corrupt the officials were. I’ve been remiss to have not talked a lot about the food, especially on the boat. The food onboard is excellent, with lots of variety and inviting presentation.

While we were hanging about the border, we took a tour to the engine room and to the bridge. We learned about the joys of bringing healthy water aboard and navigating a river whose profile and depths constantly change.

When we set out again, the change in the landscape and the shoreline was startling. All of a sudden the scenery was very rural with farms , corn, plantations and cows. The photo ops were fabulous and I’ll let my photos tell the rest of today’s story.