Chau Doc, Vietnam

Traveling from Vinh Xuong Cambodia to Kaam Samnor, Vietnam is my first border crossing by boat. This particular crossing is in the southernmost region of mainland Vietnam--the Mekong Delta. After an hour or so in a van, I walk down to the Mekong river, cross a flimsy plank of wood, and onto a small blue ferry. The first thing I notice is the toliet area, which has no roof and offers the best view on the vessel. There are 8 other passengers. We motor past small villages, wooden boats, and the occassional buddhist temple.

A charismatic woman named San explains the Vietnam entry process. "Visa take 20 minutes. You relax, lunch, toliet." She leads us past a security camera which will apparently gauge our level of health and urges us to smile. We pass a quarantine area with a few people laying on cots. It doesn't seem like a place I want to spend time. After a lunch of rice and vegetables, she returns clasping the stack of passports. "Remember, keep departure card otherwise you need to marry a Vietmanese" she jokes.

San accompanies us on the remaining 3 hour journey to Chau Doc. The river narrows, providing a better view of life along the Mekong Delta. A young boy waves at me while his mother lifts laundry into the river. Two older children bath their cows and themselves in the muddy Mekong. Wearing the signature conical Vietmanese hats, workers toil in rice paddies. San directs our attention to "monkey bridge," an unbelievably slight wooden construction. As we pass underneath it, I'm convinced it would collapse under the weight of a typical American.

The moment we enter Chau Doc, we are admist a bustling market filled with baskets of rice, frying meat, and some kind of unidentifiable chunky yellow concoction in a vat. We settle on a guesthouse and Tobias and Katia, a German couple from the boat ride, decide to stay at the same one. We spend the rest of evening dining and swapping travel stories.

It is amazing how well rested I am after a night of air conditioning! Nearing April, southeast Asia continues to become more sweltering by the day. Laura and I began our journey committed to staying in the cheapest accomodation but now we realize how paying a few extra dollars for the occassional amenity can really boost morale! The moment I step outside my cool oasis, I'm struck by the heat and the buzzing world outside. A female vendor wearing a surgeon's mask holds the strings of a mass of brightly colored balloons, hoping for a sale. She is one small part of the enormous market sprawling outside the guesthouse. Foreign markets facinate me and Chau Doc does not disappoint. The fresh fruits, vegetables, and spices are a joy to walk through. The lovely smell of cilantro enters my nostrils. But the meat area is another story! I watch as a woman expertly guts, cleans, and bags the fish for a customer in under a minute. Everything is out in the open air to be smelled, inspected, haggled over. The smell of hot meat makes me queasy. A pig's head sits atop a wooden table surrounded by pig ears and innards. Chickens and ducks squirm and squak from pens. A girl places a live chicken in a tote bag with the nonchalance an american might toss plastic wrapped Tyson chicken breasts into a grocery cart. Women chop hunks of beef with cleavers, swatting flies of the merchandise. The lanes are impossibly narrow yet somehow people, motorcyles, bicycles, carts, and trays dance through. Yes, the markets can be delightful and appalling but never, ever boring.

Interesting Vietnam factoid of the day:
-Vietnam blocks the use of social networking sites such as Facebook. Researching this a bit, I discovered this occured because people were using it for political dissent. I have also had some difficulty signing into my blog at times and strange experiences with Skype interrupting my calls with a shrill noise and hanging up or even signing out completely. Not sure what to think about that.

Note: Computer speed has been extremely slow here. It is unlikely I will be able to post new pictures for awhile!