Author: admin (Page 35 of 35)

On to Ho Chi Minh City

7 January 2015 / admin

Day 18 Friday 2 January 2015

Leaving at Cai Be at 9 was relatively simple – during check in the previous day we saw one couple unable to settle the bill as the credit card machine was not working and having to go into town and use an ATM to get cash – the wife is prepared with cash!

With guide and driver we head for the former capital of the south – then Saigon and now Ho Chi Minh City – and on the way get to travel on one of the two toll roads in the country. Apart from the toll road most of our way appears to be built up – at least in a ribbon strip alongside the road with a continually changing variety of little outlets – food, cafe, wood store, cafe, engineers, food, clothes, bridal wear shops – seemingly without break. A lot of the time one can just see that there is countryside behind the shops with no doubt farming of rice and other items, but the roadside is developed most of the way.

The other notable element throughout this journey, particularly visible on the toll road section is the graves and / or monuments to deceased family members in the centre of the field, or at one side. These typically are elegant structures which look as if they are made of marble and are well maintained. Obviously there is huge respect for the older generations.

They have not quite got to motorway service stations but we do stop at a busy service area where we get coffee and a toilet break and the place is busy with foreigners on a variety of journeys. The crossroads of the Mekong I rather think.

HCM City has grown. It is now larger than Hanoi and has a population of over 9m. Our guide later explains that following unification the people of the south were given land dependent on the number of family members and in consequence there was for a long time pressure to have much larger families to ensure the maximum area of land was received.

I cannot admit to a great sense of direction but I feel we looped around the city to provide access to the Chinese market and to gain some idea of the size and infuence of the Chinese population. This is perhaps even more cramped than the other markets we visited and is an absolute riot of colour (as usual there are photos). Very bright and very busy. As we found in Hanoi Chinese involvement in Vietnam was important in the first millenium of the Christian era (approx) and Saigon was always an important port on the route to and from the Far East from western Europe so the strength of the Chinese community is hardly a surprise.

Originally there was a separate town here – Cholon – but as they grew the two towns became linked and eventually merged, with Saigon becoming the dominant name after independence from the French. Photographs: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk6HPqic

Near to the market is the Thien Hau Pagoda which is a buddhist temple. Much of the buddhist related temples we have seen so far have been derived from the Indian heritage with which much of the area is linked. The chinese heritage however brings different facets to buddhism. Within the pagoda they especially venerate the Lady of the Sea (Thien Hau) again reflecting the links to the seafaring Chinese. The photographs again show the roof detail which mirrors that on the Chinese house is Sa Dec. Internally there is much burning of incense.

Dinner this evening was at the recommendation of our guide – a BBQ outlet. Careful (mis)ordering means that one of the dishes (wild boar) requires cooking at the table and after we have consumed much of the other food they turn on the hidden burner in the centre of the table and pour some oil on the steadily getting hotter metal plate. Luckily my wife is travelling with me and so after nearly three weeks without having cooked my dinner she is poking and prodding and turning to ensure that the boar is good enough to eat. It mainly tastes like fatty bacon!

However we are out of doors, it is a warm evening and the food was certainly freshly cooked. The rest of the meal was also pretty good. It has become clear that few restaurants in this part of the world have any concept of “courses” even if they have sections labelled as “starters” and “mains” as the food inevitably seems to arrive all at the same time. It was all tasty and it was only walking distance back to The Grand Hotel where we are staying but we pass en route, outlets for Versace (turn right), Louis Vuitton and Christian Louboutin, amongst many other major brands. This City may be in a communist country but there are obviously people capable of paying the prices these concerns demand.

My Tho and Cai Be

5 January 2015 / admin

Day 17 Thursday 1 January 2015

An early morning as we al have to disembark by 8:15am. As last night we are still tied up to the pier at My Tho – but opening the curtains brings a huge shock and final proof and a realisation that we are on a tidal river. Last night we could have stepped from our balcony onto the dockside; this morning we are staring at a wall which reaches up to eye level. During the night the tide went out and the boat is now lower and egress from the ship to the quay is at second floor level. At least no-one can see us getting dressed.

Bags outside our doors at 7 and we head upstairs for breakfast and coffee. During the latter I note that the bags are being steadily offloaded and as we are not travelling with the main group to Saigon I go into mad “bag monitor” mode annd head outside collecting our two and two other fellow traveller bags into a separate and forlorn looking group.

We slowly watch our fellow passengers leave in various coaches for the next part of their adventure and we wave them all off; eventually there are just the four of us.

Suddenly a mini-bus arrives and we are back with Asian trails. Our hotel booking for tonight is an eco-friendly hotel which is back at Cai Be. Our friendly guide welcomes us (and with all bags loaded) we head off and she outlines are programme for the morning – which is to revisit the places we had seen in Cai Be the previous day (not overly surprising). As we had “been there and done that” we advise her that we would be more than happy simply to go to the hotel and make use of the pool for the day – after all we need to go home a little browner than when we set out – it is supposed to be a holiday. She seems surprised but accepts our decision and we are not surprised when the hotel says the rooms will not be ready until later.

We check in, passports copied and luggage labelled for room 106 and we head to the pool. Sunlounger and towels acquired we stretch out and seek to get a little colour. Around 1 it is getting hot and I suggest repairing to reception and seeing if by any chance our room was available. Sadly not and so we sit on the hard wooden furniture (which could have come from that shop up the road) and I am glad we have not bought any. I get an internet connection on the phone and can catch up with the world but none of the Apple appliances will connect.

Soon after 1:30 we are told our room is ready and we go there to find the maids just finishing. I cannot get an internet connection now but the wife finds she has had an email from the National Lottery – she has won. But we cannot get a connection to the NL website to find out how much. Given my success earlier I return to reception and spend nearly an hour – but fail to find out anything useful. When I return to our room the wife has found out the magic numbers from the Hull Post and she has won £25. And I was hoping for the big money!

Then the afternoon descends into complete farce. We get a phone call wanting to know if we have checked in. [Needless to say we have]. Then when wife has rolled over to try an afternoon snooze the phone goes again – can they see the passports. Not trusting anyone I remind her that I saw them take copies that morning and they already have them. Having had her snooze destroyed the wife is not happy. It gets worse five minutes late when a front of house manager arrives at the door and asks to see the passports. I can only assume the change of shift from morning to afternoon has led to this complete catalogue of errors.

Our fellow travellers were allocated room 105 but on arrival there they had only been briefly in residence when management arrived and moved them to room 101. 105 was equipped with a double bed and two extra beds (for a family of four) and so was inappropriate.

Throughout this time our wifi was intermittent at best and so we went for a wander around the complex (beautiful gardens, nice pool, games area, beach area, bikes and boats for local outings, sign saying “keep out of deep water” on the same lake as canoes for use by residents, toothbrush in a plastic wrapper encased in a nice looking paper outer to maintain the eco-facade) and decide to settle in the restaurant area and have a drink. Now all of a sudden we had rock solid wifi for as many bits of kit as we carry (at least four). We can get our photos on line for the first time in days. Getting a table was more complex. We arrived at the same time as another couple and they wanted us all to sit at the same table. We just sat at another one.

And had a drink, and then had another. Service was not notable and nor was the quality of the cooking. It was also entertaining watching as they tried to seat (or not) other people coming into the restaurant – which we were told variously was open all day and opened at seven in the evening – although we were served dinner (probably because we were there) at about 6. At least we just had to consider it funny.

Returning to the room I use the toilet and think I see something running down the wall. My fears are confirmed when my wife uses the shower and decides there are a couple of geckos in the bathroom – something which she has not encountered since our honeymoon in St Lucia where the score was only one. Later I up the count to three on the glass wall of the shower which faces out to the river but do not tell her. All seem to have gone by morning.

I am sure if they addressed a few of these issues (a lot of staff training would be good, along with some consistent processes) plus upping the catering aspect then this would actually be a very nice place to stay. However we decided to name it “Fawlty Eco-Towers” in recognition of our experiences. PS to the above, most of those staying appeared to speak English so it would be good if some more of the staff had a better comprehension of English as well, although I understand that it does have to be local recruitment to hold costs.

Tomorrow – Ho Chi Minh City.

Sa Dec and Cai Be

5 January 2015 / admin

Day 16 Wednesday 31 December 2014

We have been away from home over two weeks – this is probably the longest holiday ever, but as I no longer go to work it is perhaps more appropriate to say that this is the way we live now!

Sa Dec has a large retail market which we walk through. The photos cannot really do it justice as it would be boring if I posted a picture or each vegetable stall or each fish stall which replicate along the length of the market. However merely one example of each hardly gives a fair representation either. Also dashing around but not recorded are people delivering meals (usually some soup) plus the inevitable scooters weaving in and around the market. https://flic.kr/s/aHsk7iyAjJ for the photographs.

At the far end of the retail market is a wholesale market and of course supplies come here in bulk before being broken down. I suppose that Covent Garden was once like this. I believe now that there is little direct trading at Nine Elms or at the other large markets in London, all of which have declined as the supermarkets have gained dominance.

Marguerite Duras lived part of her early life in Sa Dec and her most famous book concerned a relationship with a wealthy chinese man she met on the way to Saigon. We had been shown the film the previous evening, but frankly I saw no merit in the story and gave up about halfway through! The wife persisted to the end but no good came of it. A few years ago it was realised that the house of the chinese man’s father remained in Sa Dec and it has been restored and can now be visited by passing travellers such as ourselves. An interesting foot note but little substantial meaning.

We rejoin the local junk used for the journey from our cruiser to the town to travel a little further to see a church of a local important religion – Cao Daisim (or Dao Daisim). Whilst relatively recent, being less than a hundred years old the religion beings together the teachings associated with Ying and Yang from China, the later developments of Confucius, Buddhism and Christianity, noting the significant overlaps and common teachings across these separate religions. The religion has its home north of Saigon (see Sunday 4 January) and has a large number of adherents across the southern areas of Vietnam. It was originally supported by the government and was not permitted after 1975 but has in more recent years become far more substantial.

In the afternoon we visit Cai Be. The catherdral of St Joseph marks the continuing strength of the Catholic religion in the region and the area outside has various additional statues and has bought neighbouring land to permit expansion. This has been achieved by money sent from church members now living abroad who are able to send money back to the church to provide the additional memorials.

It is noticeable this afternoon that a number of the group is smaller than usual with others choosing (as we did earlier on ) to stay aboard the mother ship. Before we left home one of my wife’s main concerns was the transfers to and from our cruise vessel to land as this nearly always requires the use of a smaller motor vessel, capable of seating about 30 and for which we are required to wear life jackets (so we won’t drown – merely die of the pollution in the river) but each transit is between two vessels both bobbing around. Pleasingly all of the transitions are made without a problem – except to my head. Once again it is proven that I am significantly oversized as I clobber my head (despite the regular warnings given by all of the crew providing assistance) on the roof beam of the junk. This time quite hard. I cannot say I wasn’t warned. They are of course built for people who generally are probably six or more inches shorter than I am. This size problem will arise again.

Wandering in the group along Cai Be street enabled at last the picture of a small outlet selling wooden furniture. Compared with some of the other larger scale enterprises we have seen this is modest and I am only glad that we do not have time to stop and buy (also I am not so sure how comfortable the chairs would be). A separate album for Cai Be: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk7iyxU3

At the end of our walk is a factory producing variously popcorn, rice wine and fine rice paper. The production processes are explained to us. The rice wine here is not so near fire water compared with the Laos sample but on the whole I think I prefer a small cup of sake. We wander around the processes and Jackie observes that the girls pressing the toffee are doing so with bare hands whilst the sweet popcorn is being packed by girls sitting on the tables. I am sure they all wash regularly.

Jackie is particularly taken by the production of rice paper, wanting some authentic paper for a dinner party when we return but oddly it does not seem to be on sale here! There is a shop but nothing catches our fancy.

After dinner it is time for “Mekong Prestige has got Talent” where normally the crew entertain the passengers. But we have a surprise. Among the Japanese contingent there is a trained dancer who has offered to perform and we have already see her twice during the day practicing. She performs well and it is extremely brave of her to do so.

The crew have various party pieces – “YMCA” from one section, a great singing voice from the ship’s purser and the chief engineer is also a master magician with pieces of rope joining and splitting magically. We are promised a disco and entertainment until the new year but all this fresh air and travelling means we go to bed.

In our cabin we note we are tied up alongside a form of pier and that on the quayside there are numerous containers. If this is a passenger terminal then it is being seriously under-invested and gives a little weight to the comment made by the tour guide (Matthias who did a grand job over the entire week with three distinct groups speaking English, German and Japanese) that the facilities along the river are being stretched by the 16 cruise vessels now being operated along the Mekong. When we went to the Nile some 20 years ago the numbers operating were much higher and there were facilities everywhere to tie up rather than using transfers.

Tan Chau

4 January 2015 / admin

Day 15 Tuesday 30 December 2014

We are now firmly back in Vietnam but this is still part of the Mekong and the Mekong delta and is in many ways different to Hanoi.

Historically this area did not become part of Vietnam until the French colonial period when the borders were redrawn (again). Hanoi and the surrounding area has long been Vietnam. The marriages between Vietnamese kings and Cambodian princesses led to gifts of land in the centre of the country being dowries and therefore becoing part of a larger Vietnam. Cambodia was a strong and huge country at the time of the Angkor constructions but subsequently weaker. The name Siem Reap actually reflects the town being conquered by Siam (Thailand).

Our visit this morning is to Tan Chau to see a floating fishing farm. These have become incredibly important in feeding the Vietnamese in recent years and we are shown the way in which the families live on a floating “raft” with the fish farm suspended below, with cage with wire netting on three sides but the fourth side closed with wood to prevent the full force of the river flowing through the farm. The farm we saw was responsible for some thousands of tilapia fish which were about half grown and will eventually reach close to 1kg each in weight over a nine month period.

Photographs can be found at: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk3Mcbh2

Special boats have been developed to move the young into these individual farms and for the grown fish to be taken away, still alive, so that the quality of the fish is maintained until the last possible moment.

Leaving the fish farm we return to solid land for a while and we walk between houses and gardens inspecting the growing peppers and a variety of other plants and fruits plus a lot of ducklings before embarking on a rickshaw ride. As elsewhere the presence of satellite dishes means that battery powered tvs means these people do know what is going on in the world. I suspect the bicycle powered rickshaws are retained solely for the tourists and we progress to two further visits. A basket weaving factory where the noise must drive everyone deaf very quickly.

The individual parts often have to be dyed red (the colour of the day) or green and are then fed into the weaving machines by hand, Hugely labour intensive and the potential for error high so the operators have to keep a close eye on the feeds and we see the machines being stopped and errant colours being removed to ensure the patterns are right.

These rickshaws are not designed for big fat western bums like mine. To mount them we stand on a beer crate (upside down) and then insert our bums on the back seat. We then lift our feet up to rest on the seat facing the other way (we are so big it is a single seater). Now I cannot tuck my legs up like that because of my size so it is a question of finding a comfortable position with one leg tucked under the other. And there is nothing to hang on to apart from the seat. After a few minutes my nerves subside and I do manage to capture a couple of pictures of people passing us by and of another rickshaw rider. I need a smaller bum and more flexible legs!

The second visit is a silk weaving factory where our new most excellent guide explains at length that this factory is particularly good at weaving black silk. However production today is at a standstill due to a power failure – which is probably just as well as the noise would probably be impossible.

The machines are Jacquard and the design is driven from a continuous loop of what looks like punched cards which ensures that the design and pattern repeat regularly throughout the cloth without the careful attention of an individual machine minder – we are told one minder can look after two machines! There are 70 machines on site. A long step from the silk weaving capabilities seen in Laos earlier in the holiday.

Another afternoon cruising down the river.

Navigation Day

4 January 2015 / admin

Day 14 Monday 29 December 2014

We spend the day steadily heading along the river towards Vietnam. During the day we cross the border and our passports (which were collected at the start of our journey in Siem Reap) have to be put through passport control.

One of our number (the aforementioned Brazilian) has apparently suffered a leak in her Manhattan apartment which has been discovered and requires urgent attention so she disembarks in Pnhom Penh before we sail and heads for the airport and a local flight to Saigon and then back to NY. Some of us suspect there may be more to this than meets the eye as she gives my wife a “Ciao” as she departs hardly having spoken to her since we boarded.

My day is however improved by a trip around the lower deck containing key matters to making it a successful journey and also to the bridge – so there are photos over at Flickr. https://flic.kr/s/aHsk7k1Tqc

This is the newest cruiser in the fleet having been delivered on 31 December 2013 and entering service on 6 January 2014 so it has improvements over the earlier vessels. In particular the crew now have small shared cabins under the kitchen (so on level 1 – the same as our cabin) and do not sleep in the level 0 under our cabin. They have external access to fresh air which must be far more preferable to the original arrangements.

Food stocks are largely refreshed at the southern end of the journey as the boat is Vietnamese owned (and laoding at the north end difficult as it does not reach Siem Reap at the momen) but fresh vegetables are bought at most stops and some fish I think.

Being a floating hotel the water supplies are important. Cooking itself uses bottled water. Water supply for the cabins is taken from the river and double cleaned by various methods before use. A partial supply is then treated a third time before being used for cleaning of kitchen surfaces and so on. The waste water is collected and the solid waste is pumped out at the southern end of the journey, whilst the liquid waste is treated and is returned to the river cleaner than the water brought on board. Hot water for the cabins is achieved by using power from solar panels.

There are two large diesels running when we are under way and there are also two power generators but only one is used at a time but both are used regularly. Fuel consumption rates are not small either.

Moving to the bridge the controls are fairly simple. There are only two screw propellors – no side propellors – and sideways movement or turning the boat is achieved by using them in different directions. Our speed is faster downstream at about 17 km/h – this reduces to about 12 when against the current, so time spent navigating is therefore greater when travelling in the other direction.

There is a wheel but most of the activity is controlled by a small joystick being pushed either left or right as this gives a finer degree of control. The crewmember responsible largely navigates by sight in the daytime but there are radar scanners and other equipment to hand – although it all seems remarkable bare in the bridge.

There are three staff on duty normally – an engineer in the bay next to the engines (he ought to wear ear protectors as he will end up deaf!) and two on the bridge. Actual shift lengths vary slightly as it depends on the length of each period of navigation but are typically not more than 3 hours at a time.

Crew wages are considered good for Vietnam – but the vessel only operates for part of the year. However there is turn around at both ends and so the ship is effectively in non-stop operation during the summer. It seems however that a lot of the team (particularly in the kitchen) are return members from last year as they are given the first choice for the next season.

The front of the boat also seems to have a small herb garden – just like a Vietnamese house.

We carry on sailing.

Phnom Penh

3 January 2015 / admin

Day 13 Sunday 28 December 2014

This time we have not moved overnight and we are still resting at the pier side – underneath which we can see immense amounts of rubbish – somewhat typical of this untidy city which we are formally touring this morning as we are with the main party.

We are taken first to the Royal Palace where the current elected King lives. It takes some understanding but the king is elected by a Royal Council and it is not a hereditary position as in the UK. Although apparently there are two important families which are considered. The current king is 61 and lives a life much like a Buddhist monk – simply and maintaining the ten key buddhist attributes. He has no children and is not married.

Today’s photographs can be found at https://flic.kr/s/aHsk7cjEek

He lives to one side of the Palace area but we are shown to the Throne Room where the gold throne is occupied only once during each reign when the King is crowned. The Room is also used for official receptions and for greeting foreign dignitaries and in front of the Throne is an ordinary chair used for non-crowning events. It is a magnificent room but we are not permitted any internal photos; there are some external pictures on the Flickr page.

We wander through the rest of the palace site seeing some of the remaining assets, including some paintings in a gallery which were partly damaged during the period of Khmer Rouge control in the late seventies. During much of this time Phnom Penh was an abandoned city – indeed all the cities were emptied and under Pol Pot no-one was allowed to do anything other than live and work on the land.

On the other side of the grounds is the Silver Pagoda which has a solid silver floor. Most of the floor is covered by carpets and internally we see a gold buddha with (I think) 246 jewels mounted on it. Also within the Pagoda are numerous gold buddhas which have been given to the Kings – an amazing collection. There are also other precious items. External photos only again.

The trip heads to the Museum of Fine Art – which we enter but decide to rest rather than study. We gather there are some exceptional items of Khmer Art within, but the weather has turned warm (well for us – about 30 deg C – which means it is winter here!), so need a small break and would have liked a cup of coffee but could not find a coffee shop at all.

Our final calling place this morning is the Central Market; the building is of French construction a little over 100 years old and is stuffed to the gills with traders. In the central domed area jewellers, watch and sunglass sellers. The most amazing selection of Rolex, Patek Phillipe and Breitling I think I have evere seen. No Jaeger Le Coultre so the wife did not get the Reverso she wants.

Elsewhere in the emporium are just about anything you could want. We both look at handbags and I am tempted by a Mont Blanc bag. We also wander through the food area and the clothing but give the electronics a miss. There is a picture of one of the many flower stalls. Beautiful.

The morning completed we return to the cruise vessel.

After lunch we have a second more chilling excursion this time to S-21 which was once a school but in the time of Pol Pot became a detention and torture centre and from here many were despatched to Choeung Ek (see previous post).

There remain two of the famed seven who were initially believed to have survived the camp, subequent research later put the total at over 100, although an absolute number will never be established. The belief of the regime and its troops is that they never arrested an innocent individual and therefore if they were there, then the individual must be guilty.

Again I felt that recording the cells and means of confinement (which were brutal and inevitably painful) photographically would show a lack of respect – but I did take one picture of the way the interrogators addressed the victims as recorded by a large board at the site. I do not believe the terror or pain can even be imagined by those of us who have never experienced it.

In the evening we have a wonderful presentation by Mr Jean-Michel Philippi who by day is currently Professor of Linguistics and the Royal University of Phnom Penh but is a very engaging speaker on Cambodian history from 1953 to 1993, although the time he has does not allow much of the latter part of that period to be covered in great detail. Should I manage it some observations on this talk will appear in my “Musings” elsewhere. He does however have his blog at kampot.wordpress.com and if this matches the quality of his talk it would be worth reading.

He had two brief films showing Phnom Penh during the Pol Pot era. As the vehicles drive through the streets, they are eerily empty and a huge contrast to the sites seen earlier in the day. A quite unbelievable demonstration that the cities had been emptied.

Thinking back to my own University days I can only wish that all lecturers were so engaging.

Tonle Sap and Phnom Penh

3 January 2015 / admin

Day 12 Saturday 27 December 2014

There was a programmed visit this morning but this included a school visit and silk weaving. We had seen silk weaving earlier on our travels and I felt it unlikely that a planned school visit would be particularly educational. My wife agreed with me and so we remained on board and I spent the time on some earlier days of this blog.

Link to photographs: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk75PokW

Rivages du Monde who operate the river cruisers jointly with a Vietnamese company have dropped the Killing Fields visit from their own itinerary as it was felt that combined with the S-21 the impact was overpowering. Our booking with VJV did include it in the itinerary at the time of booking (this may well have changed). Our itinerary was honoured – so whilst the other passengers went to visit Wat Phnom in the afternoon we were off to the site of one of the Killing Fields – Choeung Ek – which lies on the edge of the City and is also close to the river’s edge.

There are no pictures of our visit. All of the buildings at the time of the deaths have been removed and the mass grave areas, not all of which ahave been excavated, are marked. They have audio guides and marked locations around the (to me) surprisingly small area of land. The audio guides have been well produced and relate the stories of events in the period of the Pol Pot regime and the terrible deaths inflicted on this site.

There is a peaceful area where one can sit alongside a small canal to listen to some of te stories of those who managed to avoid death during this period of dispossession and in one case escape to USA and return as part of the team overseeing the first elections.

Centrally on the site is a building which houses human bones – skulls are visible through the glass doors – of some of those who died. We do not feel we can enter as it somehow would further disturb those no longer with us. Whilst we have not visited the scenes of mass murder arising during the Second World War, the events in Cambodia, as retold seem removed as there is no underlying schism of religion, race or politics which drove the happenings of which this is the result.

Around the site even now bones and rags of the departed rise to the surface and are collected by the staff. Perhaps the most horrendous and chilling area surrounds a tree against which babies were thrown in view of their mothers.

It is as if all sense of reason and logic had left the Khmer Rouge army and the people. There is more on this aspect tomorrow.

The day ends with another Khmer Apsara dance troupe – this time of children and once again the coconut and other dances are portrayed – remarkably well. This tradition is obviously set to continue in Cambodia for a long time.Ap

Tonle Sap River

2 January 2015 / admin

Day 11 Friday 26 December 2014

This morning we have moved along the Tonle Sap river to see Kampong Chhang (and convincing a spell checker of the need for the second h is difficult). When the Pol Pot takeover happened one of the key instructions was to remove all Vietnamese into Vietnam – Cambodia for Cambodians (which sounds a touch too like Nigel Farage for my liking – but somehow I cannot see Pol Pot having a pint down the pub) and they were driven across the border.

Accompanying photographs: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk7bqFsv

When the Cambodians returned to the towns from the country they were allowed to occupy and become owners of property so the Vietnamese were dispossessed of their property. However they have subsequently returned to Cambodia as migrants and so have created floating villages in Cambodia as they cannot return to the land. Kampong Chhang has one of the largest floating villages with omething like 900 families living in poor conditions on the river. I am not sure how but the community exists and finds ways of ensuring the somewhat ricketty floating rafts remain afloat. Toilet facilities are limited – straight into the river and of course this does not aid pollution levels. We were told that the Government is seeking to find them land within Cambodia and to resettle them – but this will prove difficult as they seem to have a natural affinity for the water. Everyone has a little boat with (sometimes very) noisy motors to power their progress around the harbour area.

Then we land to visit the market in the village itself. Our guide, who is moonlighting this week – he is normally a civil servant, seems keen to make us believe that some of what we are seeing are Cambodian delicacies – but I am not so sure. The food seems plentiful, even bountiful, and whilst we accept that less pleasant items were consumed during the diffiult periods it is hard to credit all he says. He eventually manages to identify a snake on a skewer but none of the travellers try it – the wife warns me off from going anywhere near it.

Against this he claims that the homeless Vietnamese on the river all have smartphones – maybe not iPhone originals but cheap Chinese copies and there is evidence of suppliers everywhere. The other aspect is that of relatively small children around who are not immediately attached to a parent or adult – riding bikes, watching the tourists (not detectives) and even testing some english – usually just hello! – but friendly and smiling. Such visits are no doubt regular events but there seem to be less parental worries about child safety (see the recent Paddington film for mention of “stranger danger”).

Along the main drag the buildings have a real sense of faded grandeur – decay and decline in places alongside others which have been improved and are being looked after and extended. On the other hand we see at least three statues along the way that have received no care and attention at all.

We pass along more of the floating village before returning to our cruiser. Amongst other things we see a hall decked for a wedding and water side suppliers.

Having moved a little down river we go ashore for a trip on a cart pulled by ox. Perhaps the traditional mode of transport in the countryside it is now I suspect largely used for tourists. We journey from the riverside a good mile or so at a decent walking pace with children walking behind us. We sit facing backwards with my wife between my legs. The lack of suspension soon tells on the backbone. The cute little girl walking with us is rewarded by a dollar from my wife. We eventually turn into a temple, one of the few not completely destroyed by the communist regime, although it was vandalised and saw other use during the period.

For the next stage of our journey we transfer to rather more comfortable coches and we head across the countryside to Oudong where there is a very impresive buddhist temple (where we are all duly blessed. This is the Vihara of the Wat Kampong Leu Pagoda which retained some very beautiful wall paintings.

However disaster struck outside the temple as my wife’s new camera had decided to malfunction – and it was her Christmas present. She had been snapping away madly since arrival in Hanoi and is regularly uploading her output to facebook as a record of events. However the iris which covers the lens refuses to open. Possibly some dust has got into the mechanism as it is very dusty.

I do however manage to get some photographs – there are some wonderful statues in the grounds of the temple and in the surrounding area.

The area does have the benefit of some major employment in at least one (and possibly more) garment factory. This does however require workers and they have a form of co-operative transport – not a bus, simply a trailer loaded with people all going back to a single village. We pass a small number of these and we are told that they are not insured but are needed as the only way to get from a remote village back to the factory and back.

There should be an Oudong album on Flickr which covers the second visit mentioned. https://flic.kr/s/aHsk6HzCL4