Good Morning Vietnam!

Yes, that means you.

Sorry, I couldn't help the title, it was either name it this or H would never forgive me (and yes, H, I have been saying it every day, when I remember, sometimes last thing at night, but I've said it!).

Shon told us that crossing the border on the Mekong River was the only way to leave Cambodia for Vietnam and she was absolutely right. It's a surreal experience and, on the Mekong, an incredibly beautiful one. We left Phnom Penh at Obscene O'Clock in the morning, took a taxi to the bus company, and then, oddly (but South East Asia kind of has you used to 'oddly' quite fast) a taxi to the jetty.

One of the many boats on the Cambodian side of the Mekong crossing

We had no idea what to expect from a Cambodian boat down the river experience, but our rickety blue old wooden boat was somehow perfect for our departure from Cambodia. I think I would have been sadder about leaving Cambodia were it not for the fact that I'm so certain I'll be back, so it was more 'A bientot' than 'Goodbye' to this beautiful country.

Once on the boat, we settled ourselves in along with a dozen other passengers, but after about 20 minutes, we began to wonder what we were waiting for. Then another dozen passengers arrived, and we realized that, true to form, the boat was really going to be full for this trip. We were lucky and snagged ourselves seats on the raised platform at the back, which, because the toilet was up here, no one wanted. No harm, no foul to us, though, because the boat was so crammed that almost no one had the nerve to make the trip to the bathroom during the trip, meaning that the three of us and two adventurous (also hilarious and permanently hungry) Tasmanians were the only ones up here and had room to spread out!

Our boat was just like this - when it rained there were flappy bits that came down the sides...

The journey along the Mekong was absolutely beautiful: blue skies, a low breeze, and the shining waters of the chocolate Mekong (they should film the CocoPops adverts here). The Mekong River has its origins high up in the mountains of Tibet and along its long, long journey across several countries to the sea, it carries a lot of silt, which gives the river its deep brown colour. I used to think brown was ugly, but not any more! Set against the green trees lining the banks, the blue sky, the boats on the river and the simple huts lining the banks in which the people of the Cambodian Mekong make their home, the river is simply stunning.

Logging (yes, I said logging) is big business in Cambodia and Vietnam, with many sawmills along the river

We reached the Cambodian border and clambered out of the boat, to queue in the blazing heat in a bizarre customs office, where officials lounged in hammocks, their guns by their sides, in front of a large Buddhist shrine. One officer on duty lazily stamped our passports while barely glancing at them. Then, back into the boat and off down the river again for twenty minutes down a patch of water that is effectively, a no man's river, as it belongs to no one, before you hit the Vietnam border checkpoint. Here we got off to swap boats and were taken firmly in hand by a wonderful Vietnamese woman called San, who shepherded us into a line, took our passports, waved us through a 'health check' - which looked suspiciously like a metal detector, was totally unsupervised and through which, despite the fact that it seemed to make a different sound for everyone who stepped through it, no one was stopped or examined further, and for which we paid the collective sum of $2 - then dumped us in the restaurant while our passports were being 'processed'. The fact that almost everyone then spent oodles of money there was mere coincidence.

A fishing boat on the Vietnam side of the border. San told us that the eyes on the local boats of the Mekong represent the spirit of the boat and are thought to bring good luck.

When it began to pour with rain, our passports magically reappeared instantly and we were informed it was time to go. San then shepherded us all into two boats and off we went for the rest of journey to the border town of Chau Doc - Welcome to Vietnam! Chau Doc is a great town, and most people don't stick around there to realise it. We were the only ones in a group of about 25 (apart from the Taz's) on our boat who didn't leave the same or the following day, and more fool them. Outside our hotel on our first day in Chau Doc, we met Long, a local moto driver and very sincere and gently Buddhist, who took us under his wing.

Our guide, Long, gazing at the distant mountains from the top of the Tra Su tower - he has the best moto helmet, ever and wears it everywhere. Even walking. Honest.

Moto is the most ubiquitous form of transport in Vietnam, and to see the environs of Chau Doc, it's either moto for about $5 or hire a bus for a lot more, so it was back on the motos the next day! With two of his friends, Long took us to Tra Su bird sanctuary, where we climbed a huge, and I'm not embarrassed to say, slightly frightening tower, though once we got to the top it was well worth it. The moto ride in Vietnam was very different. Although traffic in Siem Reap was crazy, we weren't in urban traffic very long, but in Chau Doc, we were, and it's really a case of 'Accept that you feel like you could die any second and enjoy it!" (Mum, it was perfectly safe, I was wearing the cutest helmet) - and we did! Once you get out into the countryside, it is a lot more relaxing and you can stop holding your breath while your driver decides to play chicken with a bus (Just kidding, Mum, that never happened, ha!ha!).

Quan Am Nbhin Mat Nghin Tay
(or for those of you not yet fluent in Vietnamese, The Buddha with 1000 hands and 1000 eyes)

After Tra Su, Long took us on a tour of local pagodas and temples. We had already had a long chat about Buddhism, which has a big influence on Long's life, and is the reason why he gets so angry about local hotels and tour companies overcharging tourists with what he calls 'commission'.

Lions (yes, I'm sure) outside the Du Hang or Cave Temple

"Bus ticket is $3, they charge you $6. Moto ride is $2, they charge you $4. They do no work for this money. I take commission before, long time ago, when I start working on moto, but it bad luck."

"Bad luck?" I asked him, intrigued, "What do you mean?"

"Every time I take commission, something bad happen on moto. Something break. Flat tyre. I pay the money I make on commission to fix bike! No, I no like commission. Now I no do that. Now I take tourist to bus station, ticket $3, they pay $3. They want to give me money for thank you, up to them, but no commission."

A monk and a bonsai tree at the Du Hang or Cave temple

We visited several temples with Long, including the Lady Temple, Ba Chua Xu Nui Sam, which Long says brings good luck to all who pray there.

"I no married, no wife before," he tells me, "I pray there, now I have wife, have a son. Very lucky there."

View from the top of the breath taking tower in Tra Su

More commonly, the Lady Temple is linked with business and prosperity, so I await the luck of the Ba Chua Xu Temple with interest, but my favourite pagoda that day was The Cave Temple, where we met several boys of various ages who learn from the monks and work around the temple. Although they spoke no English, their friendly, cheeky grins and gentle, affectionate curiosity for us was a real highlight.

After the temples, we took the motos up the Sam Mountain for sunset, where the views were spectacular and the ride up equally breathtaking - every one should climb a mountain on a motorbike and back down again at least once in their lives, if only for the bends......!

View of the floating village

We spent the next morning on a boat tour of the local fish farms, floating village and the Cham village, where Vietnamese who previously lived in Cambodia and were exiled in the seventies now make their home. Although 70% of the Mekong Delta is now in Vietnam, it has not always been so and we could see Cambodia from Sam Mountain. As such, the people of the Mekong Delta are diverse, including various Chinese communities, Cambodians, and Vietnamese on both sides of the border. The fish farms were a real highlight for me. The fish are kept in huge tanks beneath the floor of the floating farms, and go crazy when you feed them - honestly, it's like something from 007.....

Me feeding the fish at the fish farm - look at that tail poking up!

"No, Mr Bond, I expect you to diiiiiiiiiie......"

We spent the afternoon after our tour sitting around in the square drinking coffee and chatting with Long. After a while, I wandered over to a bookshop and got talking to the owner Mr Long, and ended up sitting chatting with him for over an hour, talking about Cambodia, Vietnam, and my ambitions to be a writer. Mr Long used to live in Cambodia and was himself a fisherman on the Tonle Sap lake. He explained to me about how when the dry season comes and the lake shrinks (if you don't know anything about the Tonle Sap River and Lake then look it up, now), he used to catch fish in his bare hands and that there are so many fish, the boats can hardly make it through.

Mr Long - if you visit Chau Doc, be sure to pay him a visit!

"Can you imagine this?" he asks me.

Just about, I tell him, but I'm determined to come back and see it for myself.

"Here on the Mekong, not so easy now, harder for fisherman because of the pollution of the factories along the river. Now, fisherman start to move to the rice fields and to fish there when they flood."

Mr Long is a rich source of information on all things Mekong River, as well as on Cambodia and Vietnam. When the Vietnamese were ordered to leave Cambodia in the seventies, before the Pol Pot Time, Mr Long and his Cambodian wife left for Vietnam and settled in Chau Doc, where they spent many years in the fishing villages we had visited that morning themselves. Mr Long began to have contact with many of the Westerners coming to Vietnam for tourism, and he began to collect books in English, first running a swapping service and finally opening his own bookshop and running tours of the local area himself. When I come back to South Vietnam, I fully intend to take one of his tours!

Up the Noi Sam, or Sam Mountain and a sunset over both Vietnam and Cambodia, showing the flood plains.

Long took us to the bus station the next day and true to his convictions, helped us to avoid the $4 commission charged by our hotel selling the same tickets. He waved us off at the station and I told him I hoped that the Lady continued to bring him luck.

Yesterday, we arrived in Can Tho, a Mekong delta town further South.

This morning we were up at 5am to see the sunrise on the Mekong and spent the next six hours on a river boat with Ko, our lovely, fatherlike guide, who despite having almost no English other than Hallo, somehow managed to communicate with us throughout. He seemed to take quite a shine to us and made us grasshoppers, windmills and flowers out of bamboo leaves (while driving the boat!), picked us fruit and flowers and taught us how to climb across a monkey bridge. These last are famous in the Mekong Delta and basically consist of very thin planks of wood or bamboo poles across the river, usually with one low balustrade on only one side. To be frank, I flat out refused until Ko came back for me and said with more sincerity than I could possibly refuse, "Ok lady, is ok," and then showed me how to do it again.

The view from our six hour boat trip today. This is down one of the quieter canals of the Mekong Delta rather than the river itself. The Mekong River Delta is called Cuu Long in Vietnam, or Nine Dragons, due to the nine 'fingers' or strands of the delta itself.

So I did. My heart was beating like a jackhammer, and I didn't dare allow my brain to think for a second what it was doing, but I did it, and that's what counts! Mum, it was perfectly safe, I promise.

Ko, in the process of making one of his many palm leaf creations - it's a kind of magic.

And the finished version - is this man a genius, or what?

Tomorrow, or maybe the day after, we will be off to Ho Chi Minh City, which will be my last stop in Vietnam and the place from which I'll fly back to KL for my long journey home in a couple of weeks. I'm so looking forward to seeing you all, and so very sad to leave, but I know this will be the start of a whole new journey for me and I can't wait for it to start.

Love to all and good morning Vietnam, wherever you are.......

And here's the fish farm live and unleashed........!